Made of Everything You're Not

It's a strange day when an opinion piece condemning a device for not a few inadequacies actually sells someone else on the supposedly flawed device; but that's exactly what happened while reading Omar Shahine's recent rant against the iPhone. In a nutshell, he's been using the iPhone for the last couple years and, while he initially loved the iPhone, he's grown tired of all the problems he has (which are mostly due to his work situation because of Windows tech).

However, I have grown tired of you. As an enterprise device, you have completely failed. Each update of iOS brings more problems with Exchange support. You fundamentally don't understand what it means to talk to an Exchange server since your programmers don't use Exchange for their jobs. I put up with months of email hangs, years of poorly formated emails, calendar appointments went missing from my calendar, and you still don't understand that it's important when you look someone up in the corporate directory that you show their office location. After 2 years of this, I'm convinced you'll never figure this out. I put up with it though because you were the best lifestyle phone around.

All good points and the above is almost picture perfect for why I've been sticking with the Blackberry for the last 4 years. I always looked at the iPhone (and I hate to say it but pretty much anything Apple) as just a toy used by amateurs. Yeah, I'm a snob about computers (Surprise!). But it was true; once upon a time Blackberry had the better reputation for email and, with email being as important to me as it is, Blackberry wins. It was really that simple.

Blackberry really took care of me and most of my needs for a LONG time. I've used the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), IMAP and POP with the Blackberry for email and it's always been pretty cool (POP less so but what do you expect from POP?). There's a pretty nice App ecosystem too, not as good as the iPhone (obviously), but I never really felt like I was missing anything. I had Google Maps, a great RSS reader with Viigo, a couple cool games, an SSH client and a pretty nice phone to boot. Along with the email, which, seriously, I thought couldn't be beat, I was a pretty happy man.

And then, about a year and a half ago things started to get a little... crappy with the Blackberry. I've been using a Blackberry Bold, once a really good device, but there was a constant issue with the trackball not working. For days at a time I couldn't scroll down. That probably doesn't sound so bad at first glance but when you consider that the Blackberry doesn't have keyboard shortcuts for navigation and moving the trackball to the extreme of any direction doesn't loop to the opposite side the device in the interface this made my Blackberry pretty much useless for anything except email (painful, but usable anyway) because of a keyboard shortcut for opening that application.

I couldn't use Google Maps and I couldn't read any articles. I couldn't use the web browser (unless I clicked a link in an email). Hell, a couple times I couldn't even turn the ringer back on once I'd turned it off. Oddly though, the trackball would miraculously start working after about a week though I could never figure out what happened.

And that's where I found myself last week as I was reading Omar's post; I'd been ham fisting my way through using my Blackberry for basic, email only, stuff and I was fucking sick of it. Hearing all of Omar's reasons for dropping the iPhone were reasons that don't apply to me anymore. I don't work in a corporate job so no more Exchange or IT policies to comply with that aren't of my making. This was a revelation; I don't need a Blackberry just a good smart phone that does email alright. Enter the iPhone.

So I took the plunge. I dropped a couple hundred, signed a 2 year contract with AT&T (sigh...) and after playing with the iPhone for the last 24 hours I really think I made the right choice. The whole tapping thing is pretty nice though typing is challenging right now (makes me feel like I have fat fingers...) but I'm told it gets easier.

The weird thing is just how much I love the email management. It. Is. Slick!! The iPhone really makes the Blackberry look like shit; it's like comparing Windows 3 to Windows 7. It's that good. Animations, smooth interface, decent search and really thorough Google Apps integration; wow was I impressed. It's that good.

Still, the juries out on whether or not this is a good move; it's entirely possible I'm going to regret moving to the iPhone but for now at least everything's nice. I still have my old Blackberry Bold, ready to use at a moments notice (sans trackball moving down of course), so I should be cool but as of right now I'm happy.

After my little foray into unlocking my old Blackberry Curve I started to think that there were probably other special codes to play around with. I've done a little bit of research and it turns out, yup, there are quite a few special codes to do some random things.

Decibel meter

Normally, the signal strength meter is a series of bars like the below image. Hold "Alt" and press "N", "M", "L", "L". To undo just redo

View Source Code

This one every web developer should know. In the Browser, hold "Alt" and press "R", "B", "V", "S"

Help Me! menu

If you ever call up for support chances are you've been told to enter this one. It shows a bunch of info in one place but most of it will be greek to most people.  Hold "Alt" and (left) "shift", then press "H".

Display IMEI Code

As far as I know this is really only useful for unlocking a device. Type "*", "#", "0", "6", "#" on the Home screen.

Event Log

The Event Log is probably only going to be useful if you're a developer or similar. It displays all the last Java goodies that have happened since starting the device. Hold "Alt" and press "L", "G", "L", "G".

Show SIM Information

This code will display the details about a SIM card. You have to enter this code from the SIM Options page and press "M", "E", "P", "D"

View Refld and ServiceUserId

From inside a message hold "Alt" and press "V", "I", "E", "W"

View Data Usage & Voice Usage

This one is really only good if you have a new, unused, Blackberry. It maxes out at the below but if you buy a "new" Blackberry enter this code and verify it. From Status Options page press "B", "U", "Y", "R"

Hard Reset

Doing a Hard Reset is like taking the battery out and inserting it again. Handy if you're not in the mood to fuddle with the case. Hold ALT + Right Shift + Del

Validate Contact List

I'm honestly not really sure what these last two do but I'm listing them anyway for completeness. Hold "Alt" and press "V", "A", "L", "D" in address book list

Rebuild Contact List

Hold "Alt" and press "V", "A", "L", "D" in address book list.

These are all the "secret codes" I could find but that doesn't mean there aren't any more. Also, these codes were only verified on the Blackberry Bold 9000 so they may not work with all devices. If anyone has any new ones please leave a comment and I'll update a list.

My business partner recently had her phone literally break apart in her hands. Since communication between us is pretty crucial I decided to give her a backup Blackberry Curve I had as a replacement for my Blackberry Bold. Problem was that the Curve was bought through AT&T and she uses T-mobile. The phone would have to be unlocked.

Initially, I was a little nervous about the process of  unlocking the Blackberry. I'd never personally tried anything like this and my direct experience with the process was that a 3rd party company would have to be brought into the mix. I didn't relish the idea of paying someone to handle what seemed to be a simple exercise when I'm capable of pushing buttons on a freaking phone.

Turns out it's actually extremely easy to handle this yourself though it does require a phone call to AT&T support. Simply call them up and they'll ask you for your IMEI code; it's under the battery on the serial number label. They'll send you an email, like the below, that'll walk you through the process.

Your device unlock request was received and processed, see below for details:

IMEI: YOUR_IMEI_NUMBER

Unlock Code: YOUR_UNLOCK_CODE

Caution: If this process is unsuccessful ten times in a row, the phone will be permanently locked to the at&t network. Do not attempt to enter the code more than one (1) time total.  Instructions below will assist you in unlocking your device, if these steps are unsuccessful please contact us at 1-800-331-0500 or (916) 843-4685 from overseas.

Blackberry 8310

Follow these steps to unlock device:

1. Turn off the radio! VERY IMPORTANT

2. Go to "Options"

3. Scroll to and select "Advanced Options"

4. Click on "SIM Card"

5. Type “MEPD” (You will not see on display what is being typed. To obtain a "P" double tap "OP" key)

6. Type “MEP2” (To obtain a "P" double tap "OP" key. Press “ALT "key to obtain a "2")

7. Enter the unlock code

8. Press enter

9. Reboot device. Device is now unlocked.

Note: To verify the IMEI, dial *#06# on device’s keypad, 15 digit # IMEI will display on the screen.  If this sequence does not work, pull the back/battery off the phone and the IMEI will be listed on the back of the phone.

All told the total time invested was only about 5 minutes. Seriously, 5 minutes. So why would I want to pay someone for this again?

It's crazy to me how important email is; it's almost 2010 and I'm still, still, relying on email for communication more than anything else. Considering just how broken email is this, along with how I know it's broken, this isn't a little surprising. Managing the shear amount of email I get used to be pretty easy but now... it's a little more painful but still manageable.

When I had the day job I had access to a nice little network with Exchange 2003 and the latest Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES). It never really occurred to me how spoiled this would make me but, now that it's gone, it's pretty obvious how much I relied on it for my email management.

Why? Syncing. Loved the whole syncing aspect; open an email on your Blackberry and the email was marked as open in Exchange. Send an email from your Blackberry and it appeared in your sent folder in Outlook. Even better if you sent an email in Outlook, through Exchange, it was put in your sent folder on your Blackberry. Simple. This was great for things like filing and responding to emails. Put simply, using the Exchange/BES combo allowed you to keep all your communication in sync.

Then I get unplugged from the BES and have to setup a new solution. First, I went to POP3 (as I was most familiar with the protocol) but this was a cluster fuck of a bad idea. Yes, email was put on the Blackberry but it's a one way method and nothing was kept in sync. I'd do something on the device and when I would go to Gmail nothing would be there; this couldn't do.

I also tried the native Gmail Blackberry app but this too wasn't ideal; I hated how it wasn't truly a "native" app in that other apps would still open the default Blackberry message program to do anything email related. For example, if I clicked on an email on a web page while on the Blackberry it wouldn't open the Gmail app but the native messaging one instead. I was surprised how much this happened and how much it bothered me but it did.

Then I learned that Gmail has IMAP support and have been using it ever since. So far, IMAP is the closest approximation of the BES experience I've found. It's not without it's issues or anything, and technically it's not supported by Google, but it's the best solution I've found.

Probably the biggest issue I have with the IMAP integration is that mail manipulated on the Gmail site doesn't get synced to my Blackberry. This isn't too bad since I usually only use the Gmail site for sending but if I want to keep things in sync I have to treat the Blackberry as the master.

To keep the calendar and contacts in sync requires the use of another Blackberry app called Google Sync. Google Sync it's keeps your contacts and calendar synced up between Google Calendar and Gmail contacts and your Blackberry.

While it's not a perfect solution I've been mostly happy with IMAP and Gmail on the Blackberry. It's way, way, better than paying money for an outsourced BES / Exchange account.

The other day I read an article on Sitepoint called iPhone Development: 12 Tips To Get You Started that I thought was going to go into the details of iPhone App development. Instead it's an article about how to make your website render properly on an iPhone. Not what I was expecting but since I am a web developer it was still worth while.

I don't have an iPhone so I couldn't get too excited about the content though. After reading the article I started thinking about how to get web sites to render nicely on the Blackberry.

RIM (the makers of the Blackberry) provides some extensive documentation on how best to develop web sites for the Blackberry. The topics include:

1. BlackBerry Browser - Fundamentals Guide
2. CSS for the BlackBerry Browser - Reference Guide
3. HTML for the BlackBerry Browser - Reference Guide
4. BlackBerry Browser - JavaScript Reference

One of the easiest thing you can do to play nice with the Blackberry browser is to use the Viewport and / or HandheldFriendly meta values.

The HandheldFriendly meta value tells the Blackberry browser the website is exactly what the name implies: handheld friendly. This allows the browser to make some assumptions about layout and structure.

<meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="True" />

The viewport meta value works similarly to the HandheldFriendly meta value but provides for some basic customization of the default view settings.

<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0" />
<meta name="viewport" content="user-scalable=false" />

It's important to recognize the screen resolution of the Blackberry model you're aiming for. Like regular web development hand held devices operate at different screen resolutions and with different color counts. For example the Blackberry Bold has a resolution screen size of 480 x 320 with 65,000 colors. Take heed on this if you want your sites to look good.

For the ecommerce sites out there, especially Blackberry application / theme / game sites, there's documentation on how to integrate Blackberry Wallet into your website payment processing routine. I wasn't too familiar with this but according to RIM:

The BlackBerry® Wallet is a BlackBerry device application that is designed to securely store information such as a BlackBerry device user's name, shipping and billing addresses, credit card information, and login credentials for web sites and other BlackBerry device applications. After a user saves information in the BlackBerry Wallet, the BlackBerry Wallet can populate web forms and fields in applications to reduce the effort required by the user to complete data entry tasks.

So it essentially allows Blackberry users to shop online with their Blackberry but saves them the pain of entering credit card information over and over again. Nice idea.

Unfortunately, to utilize the Blackberry Wallet takes a lot of work; you have to edit all your forms to allow Blackberry Wallet to manipulate them. Kind of a crappy integration strategy...

So far that's all I've been able to discover but I'm sure I'll post more soon.

I've been using a Blackberry for a few years now; ever since I started working at StreetWise again. We use the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) to help keep everyone in touch; anyone in the company can use it if they own a Blackberry. Since I had to administer the BES it became pretty clear I needed to get on the bus and start using one.

Four hundred dollars later and I had my first Blackberry; a silver Curve 8300. It. Was. Awesome. I've since had another Curve and am now using the Bold.

I'd never had a "real" smart phone before and instantly became addicted to real time connectivity. I know a lot of developers resent this kind of availability but I love being able to respond immediately when needed. The way I see it I can, and do, respond on my terms so there's no real issue with it.

The killer feature initially was email but is openness to 3rd party developers. There's a crapload of stuff out there already but the fact that I can write my own programs is really nice. Unfortunately, Blackberry apps are written in Java.

I've never done any actual Java development, but I have done some basic debugging on some smaller applets, so I get the basic idea of Java. Java's not too tough as a language but it kind of sucks setting up a development environment to work in (especially if you've never done it before). It's definitely worth while to have some programming experience with another language before tackling Java. Either way, there's a great tutorial on getting started with Java at SitePoint.

With the basics of Java out of the way it's important to know what goes into a Blackberry application. Research In Motion (RIM) has a very extensive developer center that include quite a few tutorials that should help start the process.

Toni Westbrook has a detailed tutorial on how to create a Blackberry game and The Code Project has a tutorial series on how to create a Blackberry application

There's a lot of information out there on how to develop for blackberries. Expect more about this topic in the future.