Blackberry Pearl Pocket Guide

The BlackBerry Pearl PocketGuide Bart G. Farkas

All the Secrets of the BlackBerry Pearl, Pocket Sized.

The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Bart G. Farkas Peachpit Press 1249 Eighth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 510/524-2178 800/283-9444 510/524-2221 (fax) Find us on the Web at: www.peachpit.com To report errors, please send a note to [email protected] Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education Copyright © 2007 by Bart G. Farkas Editors: Clifford Colby and Kathy Simpson Production editor: David Van Ness Compositor: Jerry Ballew Indexer: Rebecca Plunkett Cover design: Aren Howell Cover photography: Peachpit Press Interior design: Kim Scott, with Maureen Forys Notice of Rights All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact [email protected]. Notice of Liability The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it. Trademarks BlackBerry, BlackBerry Pearl, Inter@ctive Pager, Research In Motion, RIM, and SureType are trademarks of Research In Motion, Ltd. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book. ISBN 0-321-49699-X 987654321 Printed and bound in the United States of America

Dedication For Cori, with whom my sun rises and sets each day.

Acknowledgments I need to start by thanking Tuncer Deniz for his help early on in this book. Without him, it just doesn’t happen. I owe him a debt of gratitude. I’d like to thank the folks at Research In Motion for making such a great product. I also want to thank T-Mobile and Rogers Communications for their networks, which I used when writing this book. As usual, thanks to Cliff Colby and Kathy Simpson, both of whom know how to coddle me when the time is right, and also a huge thanks to Rebecca Ross for putting up with the rants. On the family side, I need to thank my wife and children, especially Adam, who missed some key time with Dad during the writing process.

About the Author Bart G. Farkas is the author of more than 90 books, most of which are strategy guides for computer and video games, but he has produced a reasonable catalog of technology books as well. A former registered nurse, pilot, musician, and petroleum transfer technician, he spends his time writing fiction and nonfiction books in the idyllic climes of Cochrane, Alberta, in the company of his wife, three children, and two cats.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Chapter 1: Say Hello to Mr. Pearl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The BlackBerry: A Brief History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 What Is the BlackBerry Pearl?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Email access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 World Wide Web access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Cellular telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Text messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Organizer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Built-in camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 BlackBerry Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Out of the Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Controls and Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Trackball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Escape key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Speakerphone key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Convenience keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 SureType keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 2: Pearl Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Dealing with Power Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Charging your Pearl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Estimating battery life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Understanding power drains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Maximizing power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Limit backlighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Limit feature use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Limit online time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

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Connecting to Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Application Loader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Backup and Restore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Media Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Switch Device Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Synchronize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Using Pearl Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 3: Email. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 How It Works (Push Me, Pull You) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Setting up Your Email Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Setting up for the Pearl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Ensuring that email isn’t lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Receiving email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Viewing email. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Sending email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Sending attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Receiving and viewing attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Managing email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 4: Pearl and the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Getting Connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Text messaging (SMS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Multimedia messaging (MMS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Instant messaging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 AOL Instant Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 ICQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 MSN Messenger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Yahoo Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Tweaking the IM experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Web Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Chapter 5: Pearl As a Phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Making Calls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Keypad dialing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Speed dialing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Creating a speed-dial vi number. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 Dialing a speed-dial number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Voice dialing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Keeping Track of Numbers with the Address Book. . . . . . . . 77 Personalizing Numbers and Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Setting Ringtones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Using the Call Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Chapter 6: Pearl Outside the Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Extra Handy Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Alarm! Alarm! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Memos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Map from Address Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Go To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Email Location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 GPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

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Chapter 7: Taking the Pearl to Market . . . . . . . . . . .99 Headsets: Free Hands for Everyone! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Wired headsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Bluetooth headsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 Bluetooth explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Setting up a Bluetooth headset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Comfort Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Power Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Chapter 8: The Picture-Perfect Pearl. . . . . . . . . . . . 109 The Built-In Camera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110 Setting camera options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Taking pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 What now? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Self-portraits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Managing pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Video on the Pearl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116 Watching movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Converting video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

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Introduction When I was asked whether I’d be interested in writing a book about the new BlackBerry Pearl, I jumped at the chance. Although I wasn’t an active user, I knew a lot about BlackBerries (having used them in the past), and I’d heard that the Pearl was going to be a special device. I have to admit that although I expected the Pearl to be great, it absolutely blew me away as I became familiar with the raw power and ease of use of this fantastic device. I, for one, am a converted Pearl customer, and I’ve just placed the order for mine (a Canadian Pearl rather than the U.S. model I used to

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide write this book). Now I see why they call these devices “CrackBerries” in some circles. Research In Motion has really outdone itself with this product. The only way to describe the power of the BlackBerry Pearl accurately is to call it a home computer in your hand. Indeed, the Pearl is essentially just that, but its interface and software are so simple and intuitive to use that mastering the basic controls takes vi only a few moments, and with the help of this book, you can squeeze every last bit of functionality out of this awesome product (Figure i.1).

Figure i.1 The BlackBerry Pearl is as sleek on the outside as it is slick on the inside.

Speaking of this book, I tried to approach it in a way that gives you the information that’s not supplied when you purchase the Pearl. Chapters 1 and 2 cover the history of the BlackBerry line of devices and examine the basics of the Pearl and what it can do,

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from the feature list to the interface. Chapter 3 details the email functions of the Pearl (arguably, what most people come to the BlackBerry for in the first place), and Chapter 4 covers the Pearl’s ability to access the Internet. Chapter 5 goes over the Pearl’s functionality as a cellular telephone, from voice dialing to attaching pictures to phone numbers as a form of Caller ID. Chapters 6 and 7 detail the nonessential but extremely useful functions of the Pearl, such as MemoPad and the new (and powerful) BlackBerry Maps feature, as well as Bluetooth and wired headsets and accessories. Finally, Chapter 8 talks about the Pearl’s built-in camera and the Media Player that’s part of the Pearl’s heart and soul. note

I wrote this book in Canada, using my Pearl on the Rogers Communications wireless network, and some of the Pearl images in this book reflect that fact. If you are using your Pearl in another location with another carrier—in the United States with T-Mobile, for example—one or two of the icons you see on my home screen may be different (or in different places) from what you see on your home screen. Beyond those few cosmetic differences, the Pearl works the same way wherever you are, and the instructions in this book work the same way too.

I sincerely hope that this book is a help to you. I expect that you are going to enjoy your Pearl as much as I enjoy mine!

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1 Say Hello to Mr. Pearl It’s safe to say that the BlackBerry is now firmly entrenched in modern culture. BlackBerries are so popular that they have even been dubbed “CrackBerries.” This comparison to a highly addictive drug is meant both affectionately and disparagingly, but few dispute the raw power and functionality that these devices give the modern worker and, indeed, the average individual. After all, the uses of the BlackBerry are not limited to business endeavors, and as these devices evolve, they include more abilities that anyone can harness to reach farther into the ether of the Internet— and the world around us.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide The BlackBerry isn’t just one device but a series of devices, each with various features. This book focuses on the latest and greatest model: the BlackBerry 8100, dubbed the Pearl. Although all BlackBerries are portable email stations, phones, and text-messaging conduits, the Pearl is special in that it is more like a handheld personal computer than a simple email or telephone appliance. This chapter introduces the history of the BlackBerry and the power, flexibility, and huge feature list of the new Pearl—a gorgeous jewel that developed from the grain of sand that was the first BlackBerry.

CrackBerry: Term of Endearment? Although “CrackBerry” may seem to be a cruel metaphor for a handheld device, it’s really a term of endearment for a powerful technology that many people find easy to embrace and incorporate into many aspects of their lives. Increasingly, we rely on the vast expanses of the World Wide Web for information, communication, and commerce, and the BlackBerry provides a way for us to access that treasure trove of information from nearly anywhere. Certainly, the term “CrackBerry” shows that this is a product with real power—and with the potential to alter our culture by expanding the boundaries of information and communication. When people say that someone “likes his CrackBerry,” perhaps they are just a smidgen jealous that they are not as connected to the world around them as the person they’re mocking (in good fun).

Chapter 1: Say Hello to Mr. Pearl

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The BlackBerry: A Brief History Introduced in 1999 by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry has an astonishing list of features, some of which have been incorporated in the years since the BlackBerry’s introduction. RIM has been around since 1984, when it was founded by a group of students from Waterloo University in Ontario, Canada. But it wasn’t until the company released its Inter@ctive Pager, which eventually became the BlackBerry, that RIM really hit the big time. The original BlackBerry boasted a monochrome display and had relatively few features, including email access. The early models didn’t have telephone capability, and when that feature was incorporated, it required a separate headset. Eventually, however, RIM added more features to its products, so today’s models have daunting feature lists: email access, cellular telephone service, Web access, games, a built-in camera, instant messaging, mapping, and organizer services (including an address book and lists). In 2005, there was a huge intellectual-property lawsuit between RIM and NTP over the BlackBerry. NTP sued RIM for patent infringement, and there was some very real hand-wringing over the possibility that BlackBerries all over North America might get shut down forever. But RIM settled the suit with a reported payment of $450 million to NTP for the right to sublicense the patents used in its BlackBerries.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Today, RIM is moving forward full steam ahead with the release of new products such as the BlackBerry 8100 Pearl—arguably the smallest, best-looking, and most functional BlackBerry ever made.

What Is the BlackBerry Pearl? Quite simply, the BlackBerry Pearl is the latest and greatest in RIM’s line of BlackBerry products. The most striking aspects of the Pearl are its size and shape. It’s the same size as most cellular telephones, but when you consider the features and technology packed into it, its size is nothing short of amazing (Figure 1.1). Figure 1.1 The BlackBerry Pearl is a stunning combination of elegance and function in an unbelievably small package.

The Pearl comes with a large feature set, but because it contains a powerful computing brain, it is fully capable of expanding beyond its current set of capabilities, described in the following sections.

Chapter 1: Say Hello to Mr. Pearl

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Email access The Pearl can handle up to 10 email accounts, giving you access to your work and personal email without hassle. Messages show up on the Pearl as soon as they arrive on your mail server, allowing you to access them immediately from wherever you are (Figure 1.2). Figure 1.2 Email is one of the options in the main Pearl screen.

Perhaps most impressive, the Pearl can open attachments in most formats. When I started using my Pearl, I received an email with a PDF attachment; to my surprise, the file opened immediately and displayed on my Pearl’s screen.

World Wide Web access The Pearl contains a browser that allows you to open virtually any Web-based location that you can open in a standard browser on your computer. Much of the Web content is integrated to work seamlessly with the Pearl’s features. If you’re looking at a Web site for a particular furniture store, for example, and you want to call to see whether the store has an item in stock, you need only click the phone number listed on the Web site; the Pearl automatically dials that number for you.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide

Cellular telephone The Pearl is, of course, a smartphone (Figure 1.3) that works like most cellular telephones, capable of storing speed-dial numbers and dialing via VAD (Voice Activated Dialing). Because the Pearl has a built-in speakerphone and a headset jack as well as Bluetooth headset connectivity, you don’t even need to have the Pearl up to your face when you make a call. Figure 1.3 The cellularphone aspect of the Pearl.

The cellular-phone feature also allows you to attach different ringtones and even pictures to particular callers, so that you can quite literally see who’s calling by glancing at the screen. You could use the 1.3-megapixel camera to take a picture of your boyfriend and then attach the picture to his phone number; after that, whenever he calls you, his picture shows up on your screen.

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VAD for Safety Because talking on cellular phones while driving is a touchy subject, the inclusion of VAD can help make dialing in a car much safer than if you had to punch in a phone number manually. With just a few minutes of setup, you can program many phone numbers with voice dialing, so that all you have to do is say a person’s name to have the Pearl dial the number.

Text messaging Text messaging is the wave of the future. In many ways, it has replaced talking on the phone (or even in person), as those folks who are trapped in front of a computer screen choose to communicate with their friends and co-workers via instant-messaging clients, such as AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and ICQ. All these services are available to the Pearl owner, and getting going with instant messaging is quick and painless.

Games The Pearl comes with BrickBreaker and Sudoku, two decent games that take advantage of the gorgeous color screen. Many more games are available through the BlackBerry Web site—some free and quite a few available at a nominal cost. The powerful processor, sizable memory, and color screen make the Pearl a great platform for certain types of games. There is certainly plenty of fun to be had with this gadget!

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide

Organizer The Pearl contains many features that fit into the “organizer” category. These features include the Address Book, which can contain all kinds of information— email addresses, phone numbers, text-messaging accounts, and more—so that you can contact exactly who you want, how you want, in a jiffy. The built-in Calendar ties in with the Tasks list and can be viewed in weekly or monthly format (Figure 1.4). The Pearl also contains a MemoPad feature that allows you to jot down notes to yourself whenever you want. Figure 1.4 The Calendar feature in monthly format.

Built-in camera If you didn’t think this little gem had enough features, how about a 1.3-megapixel digital camera? If that’s not enough, the Pearl also sports a built-in flash for low-light pictures. And because everything is integrated, it takes only a few movements of the trackball to send your freshly captured picture to a friend via email or text messaging.

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Media Player This part of the Pearl operates largely in the background, but the Media Player inside allows you to view and listen to just about any content that’s streaming off the Web. It doesn’t matter whether you’re listening to a WMP file or an MP3; the Pearl can handle it (and video files, too, including MPEG-4 and H.263).

BlackBerry Maps The BlackBerry Maps feature allows you to pull up a map of the area you are in within a few seconds. You can access maps by typing or pasting an address, or by clicking an address on a Web page or in your Address Book. Amazingly, this feature doesn’t require a Global Positioning System (GPS) add-on, but just think what you can do with GPS if the Pearl can do this much without it.

Music By adding a microSD memory card, you can store even more on your Pearl, including music and visual media to enjoy during your commute or show to your boss in an impromptu meeting. Getting music onto your Pearl is a snap with the USB connection cable, which allows you to connect to a PC using the BlackBerry connection software.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide

Out of the Box Just bought yourself a BlackBerry 8100? Several doohickies and whatchamacallits are included with the device, so let’s have a look at just what you can expect to find in the box. I’ll also discuss exactly what each item is for so that you can get started right away. BlackBerry Pearl. This is the item you wanted in the first place. Very likely, the SIM card was inserted when the phone was activated by T-Mobile (United States) or Rogers (Canada). Power cord. This cord allows you to recharge the Pearl from a wall outlet. USB cable. This cable connects your Pearl to your computer. Notice that the connection point is the same as the power-cord connection point. This should give you a clue that the Pearl can be recharged from both a wall outlet and a computer. BlackBerry User Tools CD-ROM. The key software is located on this disc. Pop it into your PC, and install the software. Documentation. Finally, you’ll find basic documentation for the Pearl, as well as a small “Tips & Tricks” card containing short how-to information—handy to carry around for the first few days while you learn the features of the Pearl.

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Controls and Interface The instructions that come with the Pearl contain a very comprehensive breakdown of what each button does, but I’ve included a button-by-button blow-byblow in Figure 1.5 for your convenience. It’s worth taking the time to review this information so that you are sure of what every button on the Pearl does. Figure 1.5 Knowing how the Pearl interface works can not only speed your learning of the basic functions, but also let you take advantage of more features sooner.

Headset jack

USB port

Menu key

Send key

Left convenience key

Trackball

Alt key

Symbol key

Mute key

Volume keys

Escape key

End/Power key

Right convenience key

Speakerphone key

Backspace/Delete key Enter key

Shift key

The Pearl’s interface and button setup are both intuitive and complete, allowing you to discover and become comfortable with the keys and buttons in a very short period. Several key input features are worth mentioning here, because they are the ones that you are likely to use over and over.

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Trackball The Pearl’s trackball is truly amazing technology. The trackball, which sits just below the center of the view screen, is a miniature trackball that moves just like its larger cousins, but the size and feel of the ball make it seem that it isn’t even moving when you touch it. This input device is so ingenious that I had to view it under a bright light and a magnifying glass to ascertain that the ball actually moved. Along with rolling, the ball serves as a “click” button that allows you to select whatever you have moused over with the trackball. Take some time to get the hang of this ingenious device, and using the Pearl is going to be a deliciously simple experience.

Escape key The importance of the Escape key—located to the right of the trackball and marked with a looped-arrow symbol—cannot be overstated. The Escape key is important because it allows you to “escape” from whatever screen you are on and go back one level. In other words, if you find yourself buried in six levels of menus, you can always press Escape a few times to get back “on top,” where the basic BlackBerry main screen will greet you quite reassuringly. Suppose that you’re trying to load a Web page. For whatever reason (perhaps that page’s server is very slow), the page isn’t loading, and you’re tired of waiting. Press Escape once or twice, and you’re home free.

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Speakerphone key The utility of this key is obvious: It lets you use the phone without needing to have it right next to your head. The most obvious use of the speakerphone feature is when you need both hands to do something (driving, writing, drawing, assembling something) while you’re on the phone. The Pearl’s speakerphone feature has the same limitations that all speakerphones have, which is to say that the quality of your voice suffers depending on how far you are from the phone, but the convenience makes using it worthwhile. Getting in and out of the feature is a breeze, requiring only a touch of the Speakerphone key, which sits on the right side of the keypad directly below the End/ Power key.

Convenience keys These keys are located on both sides of the Pearl, just below the midpoint of the device. The left convenience key opens the VAD application, allowing you to dial by voice at the touch of one button; the right convenience key brings up the camera functions and even takes a picture if it’s pressed a second time. The ability to take quick pictures with a double-press of the right convenience key is an incredibly valuable feature. You don’t have to worry about what state your phone is in; you simply press the key twice, and the Pearl takes a picture. Each subsequent doublepress of the right convenience key captures another picture—a boon when time is short but the image you’re trying to capture is important.

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SureType keypad One of the first things people ask me about the Pearl is “How on earth can you type on that keypad?” The answer: with your thumbs. The keypad is laid out in standard QWERTY format, which works brilliantly for those of us who can type on a QWERTY keyboard. After just a few minutes, I found myself “typing” with my thumbs, not even thinking about what keys I was pressing. It does take a short adjustment period, but after about 15 minutes, typing on the keypad becomes second nature. But perhaps the crowning glory of the email and textmessaging features of the Pearl is the SureType technology. The technology allows you to compose messages quickly and efficiently with a single hand or two thumbs, without being limited by the size of the phone keypad (Figure 1.6). Figure 1.6 The author using his thumb to type a message.

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The most impressive aspect of the SureType technology is that the software contains a library of likely words. As you type, the software probably already knows what you’re going to type next, so you don’t have to fuss with inputting the letters; you can just press the corresponding letter keys and move along as fast as possible. There are effectively two letters for every key, and the keypad is laid out in QWERTY format. If you wanted to type Peachpit Press, for example, you’d press the following keys: OP, ER, AS, CV, GH, OP, UI, OP, TY, Space, OP, ER, ER, AS, AS. That may look very confusing, but the amazing thing is that after you glance at the view screen to ensure that the first letter you entered is P, the software figures out what you’re typing as you go, allowing you to type and not worry about picking out each individual letter. If you need to enter a space, there’s a Space key; there are also a Delete (Del) key and a carriage-return (Enter) key. The bottom-left corner contains a Shift key that allows you to access uppercase versions of letters or punctuation marks, such as periods, apostrophes, question marks, exclamation points, and the @ symbol. After a few minutes with this technology, your initial fears are likely to melt away; it’s truly amazing.

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2 Pearl Basics This chapter reviews the basics of the Pearl. From the fundamental functionality and expansion of the device to every menu item available on a brand-new Pearl, you get a look at it here. The idea of this chapter is to help show you just what you can do with this amazing little device. Although you may have purchased it as a phone or as an email appliance, you are about to be surprised by just how much more you can accomplish with the Pearl, no matter what your needs.

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Dealing with Power Issues When it comes to high-tech devices—laptop computers, portable DVD players, or even cell phones— one of the key questions consumers ask first is “What’s the battery life like?” After all, what good is a combination television/DVD/computer/radio/telephone/ camera/GPS satellite controller/garage-door opener/ “spork” utensil if the low-battery light comes on after just 45 minutes of use? Fortunately, the Pearl doesn’t suffer the malady of poor battery life, but it’s still important to know a few details about it.

Charging your Pearl The Pearl is easy to satiate when it comes to power, because it comes with a USB cable that connects it to your computer. The connection to your computer serves two purposes: • It allows you to exchange information with your PC. • When your Pearl’s connected to your PC (and the PC’s power is on), the Pearl charges its battery. The Pearl also comes with a travel charger (Figure 2.1), which is basically a small portable wall-outlet plug with a USB plug on the other end. When you connect your BlackBerry to this cable (and the wall outlet), it charges directly off the AC power in your home or business. The last option for charging up your BlackBerry Pearl is a car charger. This device is not standard equipment in the Pearl’s packaging, but for those who are on the road a great deal, a car charger is a good idea. The car charger works just like the travel charger, in

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that you plug it into your car’s 12V DC cigarettelighter outlet and let it charge up your Pearl. Figure 2.1 The Pearl’s travel charger, unplugged.

Estimating battery life The battery life of any device is usually listed in the specifications that the manufacturer distributes. Although some of those specs are very accurate, it can be tough to feel confident about battery-life times being reported by the manufacturer of the device. Indeed, it’s roughly equivalent to accepting gas-mileage ratings from a salesperson who’s trying to get you to buy a car. In the case of the BlackBerry Pearl, RIM suggests that you can expect just over 2 weeks of standby time (15 days, to be exact) and about 3.5 hours of talk time. The Pearl’s battery is a nonstandard lithium-ion rechargeable that fits inside the back cover of the device and isn’t something that you can replace by dropping by the local 7-Eleven store. I took the liberty of doing some highly unscientific tests to see what kind of performance I could squeeze out

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide of the Pearl and its battery. These are the numbers I came up with: • Talk time—between 4.5 and 5 hours of active talk time. • Standby time—just over 1 week with 10 to 15 minutes of use every day; more than 2 weeks with little or no use. • Music playback time—about 15 hours (including screen use), with some fiddling with the controls. • Video playback time—not tested at length, but RIM suggests 6 hours. (I think that may be a tad optimistic.) note

Standby is the time when the Pearl is turned on, ready to receive email, phone calls, or text messages, but not in active use. When the device is in active use, that’s talk time, and when it’s just sitting in a pocket or on a shelf, that’s standby time. Obviously, a device that’s in standby mode uses significantly less power than one that’s being used actively. Standby time is very important, because you don’t necessarily want to charge your device every single day if you use it for only a few minutes once or twice a day.

Understanding power drains So now that you know how long you can expect the Pearl’s battery pack to work, it might also be handy to know what activities suck the battery’s juice more ferociously than others. Without a doubt, the most power-intensive activities (as with any device of this sort) are actively using the phone and doing anything

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that requires the main processor to work hard and the screen to be lit up. Therefore, using the Pearl to surf the Internet can be particularly demanding on the power supply. note

Liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens in themselves don’t use much power to present the image on the screen; what usually takes up most of the power is backlighting, which makes the image stand out in bright and crisp fashion.

When it comes to any computer, most of the heat is generated by the central processing unit (CPU); when heat is generated, you know that electricity is being used up in a hurry. The Pearl is no different. Its innards also contain a CPU, and when you are using it to have a game of Sudoku or BrickBreaker, you are not only challenging the battery by using the CPU, but also using the backlit screen constantly. Those two things combined are going to eat up power much faster than good old standby mode.

Maximizing power Now that you know what causes the biggest drain on your Pearl’s power reserves, it’s a good idea to think about what you can do to make a single charge last as long as possible. The following sections list simple things you can do to keep your battery at its best—but you should do them only if you are really trying to extend the life of your Pearl’s battery. Part of the fun of the Pearl is its great set of features and abilities, so I don’t recommend

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide that you limit yourself unless you’re specifically trying to make your battery charge last an extra-long time.

Limit backlighting To set backlighting options, choose Options > Screen/ Keyboard. (You access the Options menu by pressing the Menu key and scrolling down to Options.) In the Screen/Keyboard submenu, you can set three key backlight properties: • Backlight Brightness can be set at any of 10 levels from 10 to 100, with 100 being the brightest. By using the lowest comfortable backlight setting, you can save power, because the Pearl’s backlight comes preset at the maximum setting (100). • Backlight Timeout has 7 settings from 10 seconds to 2 minutes, representing the time that passes from the last time you touch a button on the Pearl to the time the screen backlight turns off. The lower the setting, the less time the backlight will be on throughout the day (or night). • Automatic Backlight can be turned on or off. This option gives you more control of when the backlight is used, so you should be able to save a little more power over the long run.

Limit feature use Although this isn’t much fun, you can pare back on some of the cool features of the Pearl, such as the tones that sound when you press a button or key and the tones that the Pearl uses to get your attention. Creating

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sound takes more energy than not creating sound (although admittedly, the amount of energy you save from these limitations is likely to be negligible).

Limit online time Limit things such as unnecessary Web surfing, reading spam email, and playing games just to kill a few minutes at a doctor’s office. All these activities eat up battery power, so the less you use the Pearl actively, the longer the battery is going to hold up.

Connecting to Your Computer The Pearl comes with a BlackBerry User Tools CD for Windows-based computers. This disc includes the software you need to transfer various files to and from your computer, as well as to synchronize various bits of information from your Windows/Microsoft applications, such as your Address Book, Calendar, Memo Pad, and Tasks. This connection is made possible (and easy) by a simple USB cable that connects from the power/USB port on your Pearl to a standard USB port on your computer. Getting connected is a snap. Simply insert the CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive. The disc autoruns and brings up the install menu automatically. By choosing the first option in the menu—BlackBerry Desktop Manager Software—you initiate the installation of BlackBerry

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Desktop Manager, which includes five pieces of software for managing your Pearl through your PC (Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2 The BlackBerry Desktop Manager software window after installation and connection.

When the software is installed, connect the USB cable to your Pearl; then plug the USB cable into your PC. When everything is connected, run the BlackBerry Desktop Manager software. (To do this, double-click the icon that was placed on your desktop during installation.) Choose Options > Connection Settings to open the Connection Settings dialog box (Figure 2.3); then choose the USB connection. Figure 2.3 The Connection Settings dialog box has options for both serialport connections and Bluetooth connections.

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Desktop Help If you get puzzled about something, in BlackBerry Desktop Manager’s online help system, you’ll find a complete and detailed set of instructions for everything from connecting your Pearl via all the available connection options to each piece of software (from the Synchronization utility to Media Manager). If you get stuck on something, you can always refer to the troubleshooting sections of this online guide to get some assistance.

tip

You can also connect to your Pearl via a USB-to-serial cable converter or via Bluetooth wireless, both of which are also available in the Connection Settings dialog box. Ultimately, however, the USB connection method is easiest, because nearly all computers have USB connections and the BlackBerry comes with a USB cable.

The five pieces of software available in Desktop Manager are Application Loader, Backup and Restore, Media Manager, Switch Device Wizard, and Synchronize. These programs are examined in the following sections.

Application Loader Application Loader is designed to help you manage the software that’s on your BlackBerry Pearl. Although some software, such as games, can be downloaded directly onto your Pearl, other pieces of software need to be placed on the Pearl via Application Loader. Running Application Loader allows you to see exactly what extraneous software you have on your Pearl and just how much space it’s taking up. If your Pearl has become overloaded with downloaded software,

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide and you are running out of space for pictures or ringtones, you can use this software to remove (either temporarily or permanently) whichever extra piece of software you desire. Initially, only the OZ Instant Messaging software, Sudoku, and any extra games you’ve added can be removed (Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.4 Application Loader allows you to add software to and subtract software from your Pearl.

The other key use for Application Loader is to install newer versions and updates of the basic BlackBerry applications on your Pearl. If the Calendar software or email client needs to be upgraded, for example, you would follow these steps: 1. Attach your Pearl to your computer. 2. On your PC, launch Application Loader. 3. Click the Add button to add the necessary updates. Likewise, if a new and exciting piece of software that adds functionality to the Pearl comes along, Application Loader is the one and only tool for adding the new software with ease.

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Backup and Restore Backup and Restore (Figure 2.5) allows you to ensure that your device database is backed up properly at all times. You can set the backup to occur manually, or you can tell it to happen every time you connect the Pearl to the PC. The number of databases backed up is truly impressive, covering everything from text messages to Voice Activated Dialing data and your phone-call logs. Backup and Restore makes sure that all the settings and key data points that make your Pearl distinctly yours are saved on your PC, so that a loss or catastrophic bit of damage to the Pearl can be reversed quickly; you won’t have to retweak your little baby to get back to the point of bliss it took you weeks to reach as you learned the nuances of the Pearl’s systems. Figure 2.5 You can choose which parts of the Pearl’s massive databases you want to ensure are saved. Ultimately, saving them all is prudent.

Media Manager Media Manager is designed specifically for moving media files between your computer and the Pearl. When you open Media Manager, you initially

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide see a two-sided window, with computer files on the left side and Device Memory (for the Pearl) on the right side, as shown in Figure 2.6. When you doubleclick Device Memory, you see two separate folders: one for pictures and one for ringtones.

Figure 2.6 Media Manager is the best tool for getting pictures and music on and off your BlackBerry.

There are quite a few obvious reasons why the Media Manager is perhaps the most important piece of software in the Desktop Manager suite of programs. If you have taken a large number of pictures with the Pearl, for example, and you’d like to move them en masse to your computer, Media Manager can do it in a matter of seconds. The same thing goes for music. If you have some cool ringtones or MP3 files (music or even audiobooks) that you’d like to have on your Pearl, you can move them over with a click of the mouse. Moving files on or off the Pearl involves nothing more than selecting the file in one window and then clicking the arrow in the middle that moves the file in the direction you want (either on or off the Pearl or PC).

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Adding Media Cards The Pearl comes with 19 MB of memory for pictures, ringtones, games, and music files. Anyone with a penchant for mobile music knows that 19 MB isn’t exactly going to set the world on fire. Fortunately, the Pearl has an expansion slot for a microSD memory card, which can increase the memory available on the Pearl considerably. (The cards are available in configurations anywhere from 32 MB to 2 GB.) Inserting one of these media cards is relatively easy, but it does require a bit of tricky work. Here’s what you need to do: 1. Turn off your Pearl. 2. Press the button on the back (camera side) of the Pearl, and release the back plate (Figure 2.7). Figure 2.7 Open the Pearl’s back plate by pressing this button.

3. Lift up and remove the battery (Figure 2.8). Figure 2.8 Remove the battery to access the microSD slots.

continues on next page

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Adding Media Cards (continued) 4. Slide the metal grate on the microSD slot to the “open” position. 5. Lift the grate (Figure 2.9), and insert the media card into the slots in the grate. Figure 2.9 Slip the microSD card into the slots.

6. Close the grate, and slide the grate back to lock it. 7. Replace the battery and the back plate.

Switch Device Wizard Perhaps the least used of the utilities in BlackBerry Desktop Manager, the Switch Device Wizard allows you to switch information between BlackBerries and even Palm and Windows Mobile devices (Figure 2.10). If an owner of another BlackBerry device wants to upgrade to a BlackBerry Pearl, for example, the Switch Device Wizard ensures that the transfer between devices goes smoothly.

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Figure 2.10 The Switch Device Wizard isn’t used often, but if you’re upgrading from another type of phone or an older BlackBerry, it’s very handy.

Synchronize Synchronize allows you to synchronize the Pearl with several standard Microsoft programs on your Windows PC. The four main pieces of software that you can synchronize with are the Address Book, Calendar, Memo Pad, and Task portions of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. You also can synchronize other programs with the Pearl (Figure 2.11), including Lotus Notes, Lotus Organizer, Novell GroupWise, and Sage ACT!. Figure 2.11 You don’t have to be married to Microsoft Outlook. You can synchronize other programs with the Pearl.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Ultimately, Synchronize is a piece of software that very smartly allows you to keep your basic contact information synchronized between your PC and your Pearl. The synchronization of email is different and handled beautifully by the BlackBerry email client, so you need not worry about that here. For data synchronization, however, you can tweak plenty of settings and parameters to ensure that your data is kept up to date in both locations accurately (Figure 2.12).

Figure 2.12 The Synchronize utility has plenty of configuration options.

Using Pearl Applications The Pearl is an extremely powerful and diverse device. It provides many applications and tools that allow it to do truly amazing things. Following is a list of the Pearl’s capabilities, applications, and functions, all of which are discussed later in this book: • Telephone • Voice dialing

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• Personalized ringtones and pictures for specific callers • Speakerphone • Bluetooth or wired headset • Detailed call logs • Address Book • MemoPad • Tasks list • Calendar • Calculator • Camera (1.3 megapixels, with built-in flash) • Text messenger • Instant messaging for multiple services (MSN, Yahoo, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ) • Web browser • Weather forecasts • Full email reader/composer/sender (email is delivered automatically and dynamically) • Media Player • Opens most files (including .pdf, .doc, .avi, and .mp3) • Mapping for most addresses in North America • Alarm clock

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide • Games • Software downloads (games, updates, and so on) • Bluetooth capability • USB connectivity • GPS module (expansion) • Media card (microSD expansion for memory) • Quad-band (for greater reception and use) • Voice recorder • QWERTY keyboard with SureType technology • Trackball

3 Email When the BlackBerry first came onto the scene some 7 or 8 years ago, the big hubbub about it had to do with the fact that users could check their email no matter where they were. They could check email, read email, and even respond to email, all while sitting in a movie theater or a restaurant. In other words, the most expensive part of the email experience—the computer—could be replaced by a simple handheld appliance that pretty much everybody could afford. Probably the biggest question for most people is “Do I really want it?” After all, for some people, having access to email at every moment is worse than having a wireless headset strapped to your ears 24 hours

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide a day. Still, there are plenty of realistic and practical reasons why having access to email makes sense. Some people have very busy and time-consuming sedentary jobs, but having both a phone and email connection in one device frees them just enough to get out and exercise at a health club every day for a couple of hours. This chapter takes a brief look at the email functions of the Pearl, the basics of how it works, and how to set it up and use it when it’s up and running.

How It Works (Push Me, Pull You) The email system RIM uses is the BlackBerry Email Internet Service. It allows you to set up your email accounts in such a way that your email shows up on your BlackBerry within seconds of its arrival at your email server. This type of email service is different from what you’re used to. Your regular Microsoft Outlook or other email client on your computer is what’s called a “pull” email service, in that it pulls the email down from your server whenever you tell the computer to check your email accounts. Although you can set most email programs to check email accounts as frequently as every minute, the premise is still the same: The program has to go out and pull the email to your computer so you can read it.

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If you have a device that you have to tell to check for email, that adds an inconvenient step to the process and degrades the perceived value of an always-on portable device like the BlackBerry. To get around this problem, RIM came up with a highly effective way to manage the situation: a “push” email system. This system pushes every email out to the portable device the moment it arrives on the email server, rather than waiting for the user to tell the device to go get the email. This system is used primarily in the BlackBerry and other always-on devices that need to check email frequently. A tone or a flashing light on the mobile device alerts the user to the email’s presence.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) software sits behind an organization’s firewall and manages email for that organization’s BlackBerry users. If you work for a company that uses BES, the system administrator probably can set up your company emails for you. Or you can do the setup at your service provider’s Web site: T-Mobile in the United States (www.t-mobile.com) or Rogers in Canada (www.rogers.com). Generally speaking, setting up a BES account involves knowing your corporate email address and password. With these two pieces of information, you may be able to get your BlackBerry Pearl business email accounts up and running in a few minutes.

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Setting up Your Email Accounts The BlackBerry Pearl is capable of managing up to ten email accounts, which for most folks should be plenty to take care of a work address, a home address, a secret address, and even a couple of AOL and eBay addresses thrown in for good measure. When the BlackBerry first hit the market, setting up email for it could be a hit-or-miss process, because it couldn’t be used with every email server. Fortunately, those days are long gone. Today, setting up email on a BlackBerry is a lead-pipe cinch.

Setting up for the Pearl The BlackBerry Pearl system already has email set up on the device, so you don’t have to use your PC or other Internet device for setup. Many email accounts are POP3 accounts, but whatever type of account you have, setting it up on the Pearl is very straightforward and simple. Here’s a step-by-step walk-through on setting up your email account: 1. Press the Menu key, and in the main menu on the main screen, choose Set up Internet E-mail (Figure 3.1). Figure 3.1 Go to Set up Internet E-mail in the main menu.

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2. Below the Services heading, choose E-mail Accounts (Figure 3.2). Figure 3.2 Choose the E-mail Accounts option.

3. In the next screen, choose Add an e-mail account (Figure 3.3). Figure 3.3 Add an e-mail account.

4. Enter your email address and password; then enter the password a second time to confirm it (Figure 3.4, next page).

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Figure 3.4 Input your email address and password.

If you run into any troubles, you may see the screen shown in Figure 3.5. If that happens, select the appropriate account type (in my case, a POP account), and continue. Figure 3.5 You may need to configure in more detail.

Add the POP-server (or similar) information for your account, and move ahead (Figure 3.6).

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Figure 3.6 If you have the information, keep moving.

5. Enter the server information along with your login and password (Figure 3.7). After you enter that information, your email account is set up. Figure 3.7 Enter the detailed information for the server and login/password.

If your email setup wasn’t successful, the BlackBerry site emails you the address you were trying to configure to help you solve the problem. Figure 3.8, next page, shows an example of such an email.

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Figure 3.8 You automatically get a helpful email if your setup attempt fails.

tip

The T-Mobile Web site (www.t-mobile.com) lets you create a BlackBerry email address specifically for use on your Pearl. After you set up this address, you can tweak it to BCC (blind carbon copy) another address automatically and perform other typical email functions.

Ensuring that email isn’t lost Many people think that if their emails are routed or pushed through to their BlackBerry device (Pearl, in this case), their emails won’t show up on their computers. In other words, they fear that there is only one email out there and that if it goes to the BlackBerry, it won’t go to anywhere else. Rest assured, my friends: The pushed emails that go to your BlackBerry are not removed from the server. Indeed, they can still be pulled off the email server by your email program (say, Outlook).

Receiving email It seems a little silly for me to give this topic an entire section, because I just told you that you don’t need to do anything to receive your email on the

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Pearl after you’ve set up email to be pushed in. And you know what? There’s nothing to it. After you set up your email to arrive on the Pearl, you need only go to the Messages icon in the main screen (Figure 3.9) to have a look at your inbox. Figure 3.9 Click the Messages icon to get at your email accounts.

Viewing email When you are in the Messages area, you can view your email easily. The messages are organized by date of arrival, making it a snap to see when each message arrived, as well as who sent it (Figure 3.10). Figure 3.10 Email is listed according to the day it arrived.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide When you are ready to read an email, scroll over it and click it (with the trackball). The text comes up onscreen (Figure 3.11). You can scroll through the list of messages with the trackball and exit by pressing the Escape key at any time.

Figure 3.11 Read your email on the Pearl’s screen.

Changing Fonts A little-known fact about the Pearl is that you can change the text font (and its size) by pressing the Menu key and choosing Options > Screen/Keyboard, and then selecting the font you are interested in and the size you want it to be (Figure 3.12). Available font sizes range from 7 point to 14 point, making life easier for people who have difficulty reading extremely small text. Figure 3.12 When you get to this screen, you can adjust both the font and the font size.

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Sending email There are two ways to send email from the BlackBerry: compose a message or reply to a message. The only difference between these two methods is that one starts from scratch and the other starts from an email you’ve received. Ultimately, the real difference is that with the starting-from-scratch email, you must enter the recipient’s address (or get it from your Address Book), whereas it’s already entered when you reply to an email. To compose a message, simply press the Menu button when you are in the Messages area, and select Compose Email (Figure 3.13). To reply, press the same Menu button and select Reply. Figure 3.13 Press the Menu key to get access to these commands.

When you’re in the composition screen (Figure 3.14, next page), you can use a combination of the SureType keypad and the trackball to enter the text. Then press the Menu key again and select Send to send the email out into the ether.

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Figure 3.14 Composing a message on the Pearl’s keypad takes practice, but you’ll get good at it very quickly.

Sending attachments When you’re sending an email, you can attach a file to it and send both items to the recipient. An attachment can be anything that’s on your Pearl: ringtones, pictures, or other data. The most common attachment to place in an email is a picture you’ve just taken with the built-in camera. To do this, press the Menu button while you’re composing the email, and select Attach File (Figure 3.15). Then navigate the folders on the Pearl (with the trackball), find the picture you’d like to attach, and click it (Figure 3.16). Figure 3.15 Press the Menu button while you’re composing the email, and select Attach File.

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Figure 3.16 Click the file you want to attach.

Receiving and viewing attachments One of the knockout features of the Pearl is that it can read just about any type of file attached to an email. The first experience I had with it was when I received an email with a scanned handwritten image that was subsequently turned into a PDF and emailed to me. To my surprise, this Adobe Acrobat–formatted PDF file opened just fine on my Pearl, and I was able to read it. To view an attachment, scroll down in the email to where the attachments are listed (Figure 3.17); then click the file to open it. Figure 3.17 Choose the portion of the file you want to view.

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note

The initial view is likely to be a small one, but clicking it again zooms the document up so that you can get a better view. The Pearl’s small screen means that documents won’t always be perfectly readable, but at least you can view them and get an idea of what you’re looking at.

Managing email Managing email on a Pearl is not unlike managing it on your PC. You are going to get spam (unwanted email) and other generally useless emails, and you are going to have to clear some of it out from time to time, both to save storage space on your Pearl and to keep the Messages area relatively tidy. If you receive hundreds of emails per day, it can take a while to scroll through them all, so try to manage them as best you can. To delete an email, scroll over it with the trackball, press the Menu button, and select Delete (Figure 3.18). Then you get the option to delete the message from both the email server and your Pearl or from the Pearl only (Figure 3.19). Figure 3.18 Delete emails to make the Messages area more manageable.

Chapter 3: Email Figure 3.19 You can get rid of an email completely by deleting it from both your BlackBerry and the email server.

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4 Pearl and the Internet No matter how you use it, the Pearl is a fancy Internet appliance that allows you to do most of the things on the Internet that you could do with a home computer— only on a handheld device. When it comes to the Internet, the Pearl excels in three main aspects: email (Chapter 3), Web browsing, and instant messaging (text messaging). This chapter takes a look at accessing the Internet via the Pearl’s Web browser and using its messaging services to transfer information through the cyberworld with ease.

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Getting Connected Although getting connected to the Internet is a concern on an ordinary computer, by definition the BlackBerry Pearl is always connected to the Internet via the complex mobile-phone networks (in this case, digital networks) that lie like an invisible net over North America and, indeed, much of the world. The bottom line is that when you purchase a Pearl, you automatically sign an agreement with a service provider: T-Mobile in the United States or Rogers in Canada. As long as your account is paid up, the Pearl is always connected through the digital mobilephone network. Without boring you with the details of the various cellular and digital networks in North America, I’ll instead indulge you with a short list of what coverage you are receiving on your Pearl, based on what you see on your display. In the top-right corner of your screen, just below the signal indicator, you’ll find a word or an abbreviation (Figure 4.1); this tells you what services you can use. Suffice it to say that if you’re in an urban area, or in any major corridor between urban areas, you are always going to be connected. Figure 4.1 The top-right corner of the Pearl tells you what level of service you are connected to.

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Following is the list of words and abbreviations that show up on the screen to tell you your connection status: • EDGE. If you see this, you can use the phone; send/ receive email, SMS (Short Message Service) text, and MMS (Multimedia Message Service) messages; and use the Web browser with a highspeed data connection. • GPRS. If you see this word, you can use the phone; send/receive email, SMS text, and MMS messages; and use the Web browser (although not at the same speed that you can with EDGE). • edge. You can use the phone and send/receive SMS text messages. • gprs. You can use the phone and send/receive SMS text messages. • GSM. You can use the phone and send/receive SMS text messages. • • •

SOS. You can make only emergency calls. OFF. The connection to the wireless network is turned off (on the Pearl). X. You are not in an area that has wireless coverage.

Where the BlackBerries Roam Whatever contract you have with the service provider for your Pearl, that service provider doesn’t have a network that spans every single nook and cranny of North America (or anywhere else in the world). Therefore, when you are in a location that isn’t covered by your standard provider, you are said to be roaming. Roaming means that the Pearl is looking for the best possible network it can find in continues on next page

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Where the BlackBerries Roam (continued) the area, no matter which network that is. The up side of this is that your Pearl works nearly everywhere, nearly seamlessly, so you can use it and go about your job without any problems. In fact, the Pearl I’m using while writing this book is an American Pearl set up in Chicago, but it works up here in Canada just fine. Every single feature works here without a hitch, even though the Pearl didn’t go on sale in Canada until a month after its release in the United States (which is kind of odd, because Research In Motion is a Canadian company). Your Pearl’s capability to work anywhere is a huge bonus to you in terms of productivity. You can use the phone anywhere effectively and easily without changing any settings or worrying about any aspect of connecting to the Internet or phone network. There is a down side, of course: Roaming has a nasty habit of being a tad on the expensive side. Roaming charges occur when your Pearl is outside its normal network area and uses a “foreign” network’s system to provide service to you. When this happens, you are at the mercy of the service that you are attached to; you may pay anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars per minute in roaming charges. So if you’re roaming in a remote place (both literally and in terms of your Pearl’s coverage), be aware that cost may be an issue. Because I am in Canada while writing this book, my T-Mobile Pearl is using the Rogers Wireless network, as shown in Figure 4.2 just below the time at the top center of the screen. Figure 4.2 The owner of the network to which your Pearl is connected may be displayed at the top center of the screen.

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Email Email is covered in detail in Chapter 3, but it’s still worth mentioning that when you are connected to the Internet with the Pearl, retrieving and sending email (Figure 4.3) are arguably the most important aspects of the connection. As long as the Pearl has an EDGE or GPRS connection, it can send and receive email. Figure 4.3 Check out Chapter 3 for more information about email.

Messaging Several kinds of messaging are available on the Pearl, including SMS, MMS, and IM (instant messaging). Text messaging (SMS) and its more elaborate cousin, MMS, are both accessible through the menu in the Messages area of the Pearl; IM is available from the main menu. This section takes a look at SMS and MMS messaging, as well as IM messaging, with the Pearl. You can see how messaging works, what makes it useful, and how you can use it with ease to help your business or impress your friends.

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Text messaging (SMS) Text messaging is a handy way to send short and sweet text messages from one phone to another. As a general rule, text messages are addressed to phone numbers. Although they can also be sent to email addresses, most often they are used to communicate with cellular telephones and devices like the BlackBerry Pearl. To send a text message, simply press the Menu key when you are in the Messages area and then select Compose SMS Text. You are taken to your Address Book’s list of contacts (Figure 4.4); you can select the recipient there or enter a different recipient. Figure 4.4 Choose the person you want to send the message to.

If you don’t want to send the message to someone in your Address Book, you can instead enter the phone number that you want the text message to go to and create your message right there and then. When the message is created to your satisfaction, you can send it by pressing the Menu button and then choosing Send from the resulting menu.

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If you want to keep records of all the messages you’ve ever sent, you can save a draft of each message by selecting Save Draft just below Send in the menu. Then, if you want to store the records on your computer, use BlackBerry Desktop Manager to pull the files off the Pearl and put them on your computer’s hard drive.

When a text message arrives, you are alerted (depending on how you’ve set up the Pearl to alert you). To view the message, simply use the trackball to move over to the Messages area and select the newly arrived message. Text messages appear in the same area where email messages are located, so it’s easy to keep track of all messages in one place.

Text-Messaging Lingo The world of text messaging has developed its own special syntax that allows the sender to communicate with a bare minimum of typing. These abbreviations are as varied as the words in the English language (or any other), but I’ve included a list here to show you some common abbreviations and tricks for creating text messages. These abbreviations can help you create effective and stylish messages like “R U going 2 the park? If U R, C U there L8r” (translation: ”Are you going to the park? If you are, I’ll see you there later”).

A3 – Anytime, anywhere, and anyplace MYOB – Mind your own business R – Are U – You 2 – Two, too, to continues on next page

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Text-Messaging Lingo (continued) NE1 – Anyone NVM – Never mind OMG – Oh, my God OIC – Oh, I see OMW – On my way C – See CUL8R – See you later BRB – Be right back IMHO – In my humble opinion BFD – (I think you can figure this one out without my help) AFK – Away from keyboard LOL – Laughing out loud (although I usually interpret it as “lots of laughs”) WU – What’s up? WTF – A pleasant way of saying “What the *&$@?” IYSS – If you say so These are just a few of the many abbreviations used in text messages and even instant messages. Many locations on the World Wide Web have lists of these abbreviations; just type text messaging abbreviations in a search engine, and you’re bound to get at least a dozen good lists. A few of those mentioned above were spotted on the Webopedia site (www.webopedia.com).

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Multimedia messaging (MMS) Multimedia messaging is similar to text messaging except that the content of the messages includes some multimedia element: a recording of someone’s voice, a bit of music, or even a picture. Usually, it contains a text message of some type as well. To compose a message, you can go to the Messages area or the Address Book and choose the address you’d like to send to, or you can press the Menu key and choose Compose MMS. When you’ve done that, move up and select the picture, ringtone, song, or file that you want to send along with the message (Figure 4.5). Then you can fill in the text portion of the message and send it along. Figure 4.5 Choose the item you want to send with the message.

The other option is to send a file that you are looking at or that you just captured (as in the case of the built-in camera). As an example, I took a picture of my coffee cup today and plan to send it to my wife. By pressing the right convenience key twice, I activated the camera and took a picture of the cup. You can follow these instructions after you’ve taken your own picture.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide When the picture is completed, click the Send As button (the envelope icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen; Figure 4.6). Then click the Send As MMS button (Figure 4.7) to get to the messageconstruction screen.

Figure 4.6 Take the picture; then click the Send As button.

Figure 4.7 Click Send As MMS.

Now all that’s left is to enter a subject and any text message that you want to include. note

You can send this message to an email address or to a phone number.

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When the message is complete, press the Menu key and select Send to get the message on its way to its destination.

Instant messaging At this point, you may well be asking, “What the heck is the difference between instant messaging, text messaging, and MMS messaging?” This is a fair question indeed, but the situation is not as confusing as it may seem at first glance. Text messaging and multimedia messaging are sort of like two-way radios; the person sending the message has to stop and say “Over” so that the other person can talk. With text messaging, the messages are akin to email, in that they may or may not be read right at that moment, and they are saved in your Messages area as they arrive. Instant messaging, on the other hand, is very different, in that the communication is dynamic and immediate. In other words, IM conversations are happening live, much like a telephone conversation, but in this case the information being exchanged is typed instead of spoken. In the worlds of business and even personal communication, instant messaging is quickly becoming a standard form of communication. As a personal example, I sometimes work for a company in China called Digital Bamboo. This work involves communicating with Chinese-speaking employees of the company who are in Beijing while I am in Canada. Although these folks do have some command of

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide spoken English, it’s actually much easier for us to communicate via instant messaging because of the time differences, the cost, and the fact that they can communicate in the written word more easily than trying to speak to me directly. Because IMs are so useful and powerful, the folks at RIM made sure that the Pearl came fully equipped to function as a true-to-life IM device. The Pearl can use four of the most popular IM clients (Figure 4.8): AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger (the Yahoo IM client). In addition, the Pearl can use BlackBerry Messenger, which is designed specifically to communicate between BlackBerry devices. The following sections look at these messengers to give you an idea of their advantages and disadvantages.

Figure 4.8 Your Pearl has access to the four “big name” IM clients.

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is the IM client that comes preinstalled on your BlackBerry Pearl. BBM is designed specifically for communication among existing BlackBerry users, creating a dedicated network

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for chatting. BBM is particularly useful in companies where all employees have BlackBerries or in groups of friends who have BlackBerries, because it allows everyone to communicate without outside interference. Some services, such as AOL Instant Messenger, can have unsolicited messages going out to try to sell a product or even help the user claim millions of dollars that are locked in a Nigerian bank because the prince can’t claim it. The advantage of BBM is that you can avoid unsolicited messages with greater ease than you can on the other public IM clients. To get up and running with BBM, simply go to the main screen and press the Menu key to bring up a list of applications, one of which is BlackBerry Messenger (Figure 4.9). Select BBM to move to the contact screen, where you can press the Menu key and change various parameters, such as what the Pearl does when a message arrives. You can also edit your personal information, check your status, and add people or groups to your Contact List. To communicate with someone in your list, merely click that person’s name and start typing away! Figure 4.9 You can access BlackBerry Messenger from the main menu.

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AOL Instant Messenger One of the most popular of the IM clients, AOL Instant Messenger is the messaging software from the America Online giant. This easy-to-use IM client can be used on just about any platform, from cell phones to BlackBerries to Windows PCs, Linux PCs, and even the Macintosh. To set up AOL Instant Messenger, access the Instant Messaging area by clicking its icon in the main menu; then select AOL Instant Messenger and press the Menu key to bring up a menu where you can sign on. After you have your pertinent information entered, AOL Instant Messenger logs on, and your buddy list appears before your eyes. Then you can send messages, receive messages, and do anything else that you would do with this IM client on your home or work computer (Figure 4.10). Figure 4.10 When you’re up and running, the Menu key gets you the options you need to start communicating with ease.

ICQ ICQ is one of the oldest IM clients out there, arriving on the scene in 1996. It’s said that the name “ICQ” is an

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abbreviated way of saying “I seek you”—which, considering the nature of text messaging and the community that uses it, is not a difficult anecdote to believe. To log onto ICQ, you need only get to the Instant Messenger area of the Pearl, select ICQ, and press the Menu key. Next, log on in the ICQ page (Figure 4.11) with your account number and password, and use ICQ just like you would on your computer at home or in the office. Figure 4.11 Enter your account number and password to start chatting.

MSN Messenger MSN Messenger is Microsoft’s entry in the IM realm, and it’s an effective messenger service. Unfortunately, there have been problems with spam. But even with that said, MSN Messenger is an IM excellent client, and if it’s the one you use, you have access to it on your Pearl. As you do with the other IM clients, you access MSN Messenger from the Instant Messenger menu. When you hit the main page, you need only enter the email address attached to your account and your password

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide (Figure 4.12) before you can begin to chat away with your good-time buddies.

Figure 4.12 Enter the email address attached to your MSN account and the password to get the ball rolling.

Yahoo Messenger Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo’s instant-messenger client, is an easy-to-use client for instant messaging. Logging on (Figure 4.13) is as simple as entering your account name and password. Figure 4.13 Sign into Yahoo Messenger as you would in any other IM client.

Tweaking the IM experience No matter which IM client you are using, hidden in the Pearl’s menus are a few helpful features that let you tweak the IM experience to make it as easy and useful for you as possible.

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Join an ongoing conversation. To get into an ongoing conversation, from the main screen of the IM client (Figure 4.14), click the Menu button and then select Open to see active conversations. Figure 4.14 Active conversations are shown below the Conversations heading.

Change the notification settings. You are not always looking at the screen or even holding the Pearl in your hand, so you may want to change the notification settings. To do this, select them from the main menu of the IM client’s main screen. In the resulting screen, you can assign new IM messages a specific sound or piece of music, a vibration, or an LED notification (on the exterior of the Pearl), as shown in Figure 4.15. Figure 4.15 You can change the tones, lights, and vibrations associated with incoming messages.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide End conversations. Once you are in a specific conversation, many options are available to you. If you want to leave a conversation or just close the window, for example, select End conversation from the menu inside the conversation. Use IM tools. The menu inside a conversation also gives you access to Quick Text (Figure 4.16) and emoticons, which allow you to add emotion to your instant messages (Figure 4.17). Quick Text is very handy because it supplies a list of common questions and comments, such as “Meet me at” and “I can’t message right now. Hold on.” Using these shorthand and canned tools can help make using instant messaging much more efficient, enjoyable, and even useful, so take the time to practice with them.

Figure 4.16 Quick Text has many handy lines that save you a ton of time typing.

Figure 4.17 Emoticons help you overcome the lack of emotion in instant messaging.

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Web Browsing The Pearl has an outstanding Web browser, which, coupled with the fantastic Media Player, makes the Pearl a nearly fully functional Web device. You can use it for just about anything the World Wide Web offers: reading news, browsing Web sites, shopping, checking information (stocks or sports scores), and listening to or watching content. The Pearl can perform all those tasks, although with a screen that’s 240 by 260 pixels, it’s not easy to get a huge amount of information to view. The two main limitations of the Pearl’s browser are speed and screen size. Sure, the EDGE networks are faster than anything before, but if you’re used to T1 speeds with your cable modem or DSL line, the EDGE is going to seem a tad slower than what you’re used to (and that’s the understatement of the century). The screen size is less an issue, because the brightness and color of the screen are so impressive that you don’t often find yourself wishing you had a larger screen. note

Web sites themselves appear a little different from what you see on a computer screen, but all the information is still there.

To get into the Web browser, just click the Browser icon in the main screen (Figure 4.18, next page). From there, you are taken to your Bookmarks page, which looks much like the bookmarks page on your computer. Press the Menu key to access the Go To command; then you can enter any Web address (Figure 4.19, next page).

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Figure 4.18 The globe at the bottom of the main screen takes you to the Pearl’s Webbrowser application.

Figure 4.19 The Go To command takes you to any Web site when you type the site’s address.

From the Bookmarks page, you can press the Menu key to get to the History page, which shows you the entire history of your Web-browsing activities on the Pearl. In the end, you can use the Pearl to do just about anything on the Web, from watching streaming video to listening to audiobooks to shopping at Best Buy. The small screen and somewhat slower speeds can take a while to get used to, but when you are used to them, the Pearl’s Web capabilities are very impressive.

5 Pearl As a Phone With all the fantastic things that a BlackBerry Pearl can do, it’s easy to forget that it’s also a pretty darned handy-dandy cellular telephone. Early BlackBerries required a special headset connection to be used as telephones, and the earliest models had no phone functions at all; they were more like supercharged pagers. The Pearl, however, looks like a cellular phone at first glance and can be used effectively as a phone in the standard way (holding the phone up to your ear); it can be used with a wired headset or a Bluetooth wireless headset as well. The inclusion of what can only be described as “Star Trek”–level voice-recognition technology for dialing

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide contacts out of your Address Book or sending commands to the Pearl makes this device special. This chapter takes a brief look at how to use the Pearl as a phone and get the most out of it.

Making Calls Not surprisingly, you can use the Pearl to make a phone call. The interesting thing about the Pearl, however, is that you have several ways to make a phone call, as you’ll see in the following sections. You are going to be impressed by the time you finish reading.

Keypad dialing Just like any of the millions of other cellular phones out there, the Pearl can be used like a regular phone— that is, you can dial the number on the keypad and then press the green handset button to place the call. When you do, the Pearl displays the number you dialed (Figure 5.1), and if that number happens to correspond with one in your Address Book, the address is displayed as well. Figure 5.1 You can dial a number manually on the Pearl, just as you do on any other cellular phone.

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Dialing on a Pearl is a bit different from dialing on any other phone, though. When you press the green handset button to place the call, you actually get a menu that gives you the option to call the number; send an SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS (Multimedia Message Service) message; or go to the full menu, where you can add the number to your Address Book or speed-dial list. The bottom line is that you have a lot of options, but not to worry— just pressing the green handset button twice dials the number and gets you connected.

Speed dialing Pretty much every phone made in the past 20 years has a speed-dial feature built into it. You may not have even realized it, but that feature is usually there, ready to be used. When it comes to cellular phones, however, the need to dial quickly is particularly important. If, say, you’re driving a car, it can be advantageous to be able to dial with one or two buttons rather than seven or even ten. (I don’t advise anyone to talk on the phone while driving, though.)

Creating a speed-dial number Speed dialing is a fantastic, easy-to-use feature that dials at the touch of only one button for each number. The drawback? Only 13 speed-dial slots are available. But you can put your most frequently dialed speeddial numbers into this list, which is still handy.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Here’s how you set up a speed-dial number: 1. Enter the number you want to dial (or select a number from the Address Book, email, or any other source on the Pearl); then press the Menu key and select Add Speed Dial. 2. Click OK when you’re asked whether you want to add the number. The Pearl displays the list of speed-dial slots. 3. Place the number in the slot you want to use (Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2 You can assign a digit (1–9) or one of four other characters on the Pearl’s keypad to a speed-dial number.

Dialing a speed-dial number Dialing a speed-dial number is simplicity itself. After you’ve assigned a key to a speed-dial number, hold down that key for 1 second; the Pearl automatically dials the number attached to that key. It’s a slick system that requires only a moment to set up; then you can press one button to dial the number, no matter how long it is.

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You don’t even have to look at the Pearl to dial a speeddial number; you can tell which keys are where from the feel of the trackball in the center of the device!

Voice dialing In the past, Voice Activated Dialing (VAD) was always a little bit flaky, because you usually had to “train” the cellular phone to recognize your voice for each person you wanted to call. Essentially, you were programming the phone to dial a certain number when it recognized a particular sound. What makes the Pearl’s VAD feature so impressive is that you don’t have to train it at all; it recognizes English spoken (clearly) by anyone. What’s more, you can ask the Pearl questions like “Battery?” or “Network?” to learn how much battery life is left or what network you are connected to. It’s a truly amazing little device in this regard. tip

Experimenting with VAD is a lot of fun, and I recommend that you spend some time doing just that. Start by saying “Status” when the Pearl asks you for a command; you’ll get you a complete status update on your BlackBerry!

To make a call with VAD, you need to be in a reasonably quiet environment—that is, you don’t want a lot of people talking near the phone. Average, everyday background noise is just fine.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide When you’re ready, follow these instructions to place a VAD call: 1. From the main menu, choose Voice Dialing. The Pearl prompts you to say a command or a phone number (Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3 Your Pearl will ask you— literally—for instructions.

2. Speak the number you want to dial (in this case, 1-800-555-5555) exactly as you would dial it (“One, eight, zero, zero . . . “). The Pearl shows you the number and asks you to confirm. 3. If the number is correct, say “Yes.” The number is dialed automatically. You can also speak the name of a person in your Address Book, and the Pearl will dial his or her number. tip

You don’t have to go to the main menu to select the Voice Dialing command every time. The left convenience key is programmed to take you to the Voice Command/Voice Dialing area at one touch.

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Keeping Track of Numbers with the Address Book There are two ways to build up your Address Book on the Pearl. The first way is to add incoming numbers and outgoing numbers to the book (along with email addresses that come in and out of the Pearl), but it can take some time to build up all your contacts. You can also synchronize the Pearl with Microsoft Outlook or other software and import existing information from those programs. This option gives you the power and depth of your home or work computer’s address book immediately. You can access the Address Book from the main screen; simply use the trackball to highlight the Address Book icon (Figure 5.4) and then click it. When you are in the Address Book, you can scroll around and select the contact you are interested in. Figure 5.4 The Address Book is accessible from the main screen.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide If you select an address and then press the Menu key, you get a menu that lets you send a message to the current address, email the address, call the address, add a picture to it, send it as an attachment, or edit it to your liking (Figure 5.5). There’s a great deal of power in the Address Book, because you can add new addresses, people, or groups simply by selecting a newly received email or phone-number record and pressing the Menu key. The Pearl makes it easy to add contacts to your database with a bare minimum of typing and fiddling around.

Figure 5.5 The Menu key gives you plenty of options.

Personalizing Numbers and Contacts You may think that “personalizing” the phone means that you are going to glue some rhinestones on the outside of your Pearl and perhaps paint a flower on the back of it. But the Pearl doesn’t need any crafty people to make it cool, because you can attach nearly any sound, piece of music, or picture to any phone number or address.

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I’ve added a picture of my wife to our phone number, for example. Whenever she calls me, I can see it’s her just by glancing at the phone (Figure 5.6). I’ve also added the OutKast song “Hey Ya!” to the number so that I get a little MP3 serenade at the same time. Figure 5.6 A picture of my wife (she’s going to kill me for doing this) graces the number she usually calls me from when I’m out of the house.

Adding touches like these to particular phone numbers or addresses is a breeze, so follow along here, and I’ll show you just how easy it is to add a picture to a phone number from the Address Book or Call Log: 1. In the main menu, select Media and then select Pictures (Figure 5.7). Figure 5.7 Select Pictures in the Media screen.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide 2. Find the folder you want, and select the picture that you’d like to associate with a number (Figure 5.8).

Figure 5.8 Select the picture you want to use.

3. Press the Menu key and then choose Set As Caller D. 4. If you want to crop the image, press the Menu key and select the portion of the picture you want to display; then choose Crop and Save (Figure 5.9). Figure 5.9 Crop the picture to look its best on the Pearl’s screen.

The Pearl takes you to the Address Book.

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5. Select the number you want to attach the picture to, and press the Menu key to bring up a menu of options (refer to Figure 5.5). 6. Choose Add Picture. tip

You can also work it the other way: Take a picture first and then attach it to a Caller ID. Right after you capture an image with your Pearl, scroll to and click the Crop icon (the third icon over), and select Set As Caller ID (Figure 5.10). Then just pick up with Step 4 above.

Figure 5.10 One quick way to add a picture as a Caller ID is to capture an image with the built-in camera and then immediately set it as a Caller ID.

Setting Ringtones The Pearl comes with a wide selection of ringtones, and you can download more ringtones from the Internet (although sometimes at a cost of a dollar or two). Something that’s fun to do is to take a legally obtained MP3 of a song you enjoy and place it in your Pearl’s Device Memory (or memory card) for use as a ringtone. When you do this, your phone “rings” by playing the song you’ve set as the ringtone. It’s flat-out cool to see the look on people’s faces when

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide a particular song starts coming out of your phone instead of an annoying ring. To set a ringtone, follow these steps: 1. In the main screen, click the Menu button, select Profiles by clicking it, and then select Advanced at the bottom of the list. 2. Scroll to the profile you want to use, and select it. The Pearl displays a menu of the possibilities for various events, such as incoming messages from a messenger client, email, or phone calls (Figure 5.11).

Figure 5.11 You can attach a ringtone to many types of events.

3. Select the event that you want to attach a ringtone to. 4. In the next screen, customize various aspects of the ringtone—including volume, vibration, and even the number of beeps or flashes (Figure 5.12).

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Figure 5.12 Set up your ringtone exactly the way you want it.

5. Select the Tune area. You are taken to the list of ringtones on your Pearl, which may include MP3 files that you’ve added with the BlackBerry Desktop Manager software. 6. Click the file you want to use as your ringtone (Figure 5.13). Figure 5.13 Pick a song— any song.

You can set up a different ringtone for every element in the Advanced Profiles list—a different sound for each instant-messaging client, phone call, text messages, you name it! This adds a great deal of variety to your Pearl and also allows you to use sound as a tool for knowing what’s happening on your Pearl without

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide even looking at it. If you hear Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” for example, you’ll know that you have a new MSN Messenger message, whereas Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” may signify a new voice-mail message. It’s a lot of fun to add sounds to these actions, and by adding new ringtones and MP3 files, you can change your Pearl on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis to keep it fresh.

Using the Call Log The Call Log is an important place because it shows you several key pieces of information, such as who has been calling you, what calls you missed, what calls you’ve made yourself, and how long you’ve talked on your Pearl (perhaps important in your calling plan). You access this feature by choosing Call Log from the main menu. When you’re in the Call Log, you can see exactly what each call means because of the symbol beside it. An inbound arrow denotes an incoming call, whereas an outbound arrow (Figure 5.14) means that you made the call. There are also symbols for voice mail and missed calls. Figure 5.14 The symbols next to the phone numbers tell you about the calls.

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It’s also possible—and easy—to place calls directly from the Call Log. Simply move the cursor over the phone number and click the Menu key or the trackball to bring up a menu that lets you call the number or send various types of messages to it (Figure 5.15). Selecting the Full Menu option takes you to a menu that lets you add the number to the Address Book or the speed-dial list. Figure 5.15 You can send to a number easily just by clicking it.

You can also select any number and press the Menu key to check out its history—all the details of every call to or from that number. Finally, you can select any phone number, press the Menu key, and choose Options to reach a menu that lets you set up all the functions associated with the phone portion of the Pearl (Figure 5.16, next page)— including logging calls, restricting your identity when you call someone, displaying your phone number when calling someone, and automatically hanging up a call when the Pearl goes into its holster. These settings

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide are for advanced users, but it’s good to know that they’re there for you.

Figure 5.16 You can tweak a ton of parameters associated with the phone aspect of the Pearl.

6 Pearl Outside the Box So we know that the Pearl can manage email, connect to the Internet, take pictures (covered in more detail in Chapter 8), and even work as one of the best telephones ever made. Are there other features that make this device even more impressive? Yes. This chapter takes a look at the aspects of the Pearl that are outside the standard realm of a cellular phone or similar device. Offering everything from memos to alarms, and even a built-in map feature, the Pearl continues to surprise.

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Extra Handy Features The Pearl has a fair number of pretty darned cool extra features that may surprise you and other features that you may expect (such as memo capability). Whether you are in the United States or Canada, you can access these features from the main screen by pressing the Menu key. All these applications—even those that may appear in the five options on the main screen—are available through the main menu. Let’s have a look at what’s available outside the normal phone-and-email box, shall we?

Alarm! Alarm! The BlackBerry has a built-in alarm feature that’s meant to remind you of some important event during the day. You can set the alarm to wake you one morning or each and every morning at the same time, if you want. You can use the alarm for whatever you need an alarm for, but the really impressive part is that you can also change some of its parameters (Figure 6.1): • Daily Alarm. You can set a one-off alarm or one that goes off every day. • Time. Naturally, you can set the time for the alarm to sound. • Snooze. If you activate this feature, you can “snooze” the alarm by pressing any the key on the keypad. • Active on Weekends. If you’ve set up a daily alarm, you can use this setting to toggle it between weekdays only and every day of the week.

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• Alert Type. Your choices are a sound, a vibration, or both. • Tune. This setting allows you to select a specific sound or song to wake up to: a song, a ringtone, or any other sound you’ve transferred to your Pearl. • Volume. Turn it up (or down)! • Number of Beeps. You can specify one, two, or three beeps. If you have a snippet of a song as your “tune,” and you set the number of beeps to three, you are going to hear that song snippet three times when the alarm goes off. Figure 6.1 The Pearl’s alarm settings.

Memos MemoPad, which you access through the main menu, allows you to enter any number of memos in an alphabetically listed memo bank. This may not seem particularly useful if you’re not used to typing with the SureType technology, but when you get the hang of it, you’ll find that it’s really a snap and that you can enter information quickly. The other way to enter information is to synchronize the memo feature of a Windows program, such as

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes, with the Pearl. If you synchronize Outlook (Figure 6.2) with the Pearl, for example, those memos are loaded into your Pearl’s memo list. Essentially, you can type memos in Outlook on your computer and then transfer them to your Pearl by using the Synchronize application in BlackBerry Desktop Manager (see Chapter 2).

Figure 6.2 Synchronizing between Outlook and the Pearl’s MemoPad feature.

Tasks The Tasks list is exactly the same as the Memo function, in that you can enter tasks on the keypad with SureType technology or you can transfer the files from a program on your PC to the Pearl by using the Synchronize tool in BlackBerry Desktop Manager. The process is easy and, indeed, quite handy to use and exploit.

Calendar Calendar is one of the Pearl’s most impressive features, in that it too can be synchronized with software (such

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as Outlook) on your Windows machine, making it easy to put calendar information on the Pearl without having to type entries individually. You use the Synchronize tool in BlackBerry Desktop Manager to do this. That said, the Calendar function is actually a little more useful out of the box than the MemoPad or the Tasks list, in that it functions as an actual calendar. All you need to do is select Calendar at the bottom of the main screen, press the Menu key, and choose the View Month option. Voilà—you have a month-at-a-view calendar (Figure 6.3). Moving from month to month is as easy as using the trackball. We have all had times when a monthly calendar would have come in handy, and with the Pearl, you are never going to be without one again. Figure 6.3 The Pearl’s built-in monthly calendar can come in handy.

Maps Just when you thought that the Pearl’s function list was getting too crazy—when this device’s gamut of possibilities was starting to border on the unrealistic— you get hit with another whopper of a concept. Maps. Yep, the Pearl has a built-in mapping feature that doesn’t even require the Global Positioning System (GPS).

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide To use the BlackBerry Maps feature, just select Maps from the main menu. When you do this, the Pearl displays a map of North America; you can zoom in from a scale of 2000km to a scale of 50m (100 feet) with just a touch of the trackball. You need to be connected to a network for this feature to work, but it requires no GPS; you need just the trackball and a crosshair (provided) to zoom in on any part of Canada or the United States (Figure 6.4).

Figure 6.4 The BlackBerry Maps feature is amazing. In this case, I zoomed in on Southern California.

Map from Address Book If you want to see a specific location in BlackBerry Maps, you can pull it right out of your Address Book by selecting a contact, pressing the Menu key, and choosing View Map. This feature is handy all by itself, but you can also take it to the next level by calling up directions to the location.

Go To The Go To function allows you to enter an address (Figure 6.5) and have it displayed on a map. In Maps, press the Menu key and choose Go To from the list.

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In this case, I entered the address of Peachpit Press in Berkeley, California. The resulting map (Figure 6.6) is clear and concise. It’s truly amazing technology! Figure 6.5 The Go To feature allows you to enter the address you want to map.

Figure 6.6 After you enter an address, you can see its location on a map.

Directions If you want directions from one location to another, à la MapQuest, all you need do is enter the address of the location you want to go and the address of the location you are leaving from. In Maps, press the Menu key, select Directions from the list, and enter your addresses. The Pearl displays the directions on the

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide map and also provides turn-by-turn instructions (Figure 6.7). This tool is incredibly easy to use and does not require GPS.

Figure 6.7 In this case, I asked the Pearl how to go from my home to Peachpit Press. In a few seconds, this map and instructions appeared on my Pearl’s screen.

Email Location Another great feature of BlackBerry Maps is that you can send maps via email. Instead of giving people written or verbal directions, you can send them a link to a map that shows them exactly where to go. To use this handy feature, map the location in BlackBerry Maps, press the Menu key, and choose Email Location. When you do this, the Pearl creates an email link to the mapped location (Figure 6.8), which you can send to whomever you want.

Figure 6.8 Sending a location on a map via email is as easy as pie.

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GPS Finally, if you are really gung-ho about the Maps feature, you can purchase a GPS add-on for your Pearl that shows you exactly where you are on the Earth’s surface at any time. If you use GPS functions often, this is a great way to cut down on the number of handheld devices you must carry, because the Pearl can be a one-stop shop in terms of email, memos, calendar, tasks, camera, telephone, Web browser, and functional GPS. Although the GPS add-on is handy, it’s isn’t cheap, so be prepared to part with a few clams if you go this route.

Games The Pearl comes with several games, including BrickBreaker (Figure 6.9) and Sudoku, which are highly enjoyable pastimes that take advantage of the Pearl’s brilliant color screen and easy trackball control. These games are excellent for passing a few minutes while waiting in the doctor’s office or riding the bus. Figure 6.9 BrickBreaker comes with the Pearl.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide You can also download games from your service provider’s site or the BlackBerry Web site. Some games are free, and some are not; either way, plenty of great entertainment options are available to you.

Weather The weather feature on the Pearl is slightly different on Canadian networks than it is on American networks. In Canada, the option for local weather is one of the five functions on the main screen, whereas in the United States, the fifth function is Call Log. The other minor issue is that in Canada, the weather function is supplied by The Weather Network, whereas in the United States, it’s supplied by AccuWeather. Here are the two ways to get weather up and running on your Pearl for both U.S. and Canadian customers: Canada – On the Pearl’s main screen, a colorful weather icon shows you the current conditions in your location. If you use your trackball to click the weather icon, the Pearl displays a five-day forecast page for your area (Figure 6.10), which allows you to track the weather as fast as the weathercasters can make predictions. United States – To set up weather, first open the Web browser. Below Web Links, select AccuWeather. When you hit the Web page, select the “Click here to continue” link. Next up, enter your zip code, and set up a weather page for your location. From this point forward, when you select AccuWeather in the Web browser, you get your local weather.

Chapter 6: Pearl Outside the Box Figure 6.10 A weathercaster lives inside your Pearl! (At least, it can seem that way.)

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7 Taking the Pearl to Market The Pearl comes complete with a travel charger, a CD-ROM with software for connecting to a PC, a USB cable (again for connecting to a PC), and a hands-free earpiece/headset. This is more than enough to get you up and running smoothly, but we all know that when a new device is as popular and functional as the Pearl is, it won’t be long before a small cottage industry of accessories pops up around every corner. If you don’t believe me, just look at the iPod accessory market. Sales of iPod accessories have literally made companies! Even though the BlackBerry Pearl has been on the market for only a short time, there are already a fair

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide number of accessories built specifically for it. More important, many of these accessories can work with a Pearl out of the box, including Bluetooth devices and wired headsets. This chapter takes a brief look at the most prominent of the accessories available for the Pearl and helps you understand why a particular accessory may be of value to you (or not).

Headsets: Free Hands for Everyone! As mentioned elsewhere in this book, one of the main issues with cellular phones in general is that users hold the phone with one hand while talking, thereby losing one of their two appendages. Although this isn’t critical when walking on a breeze-drenched beach at sunset, when one is operating a motor vehicle— especially a motor vehicle with a manual transmission— losing the use of one hand can be a significant danger to both the driver and those around him or her. The solution to this problem is hands-free headsets. If you can make it so that you can talk to someone without having to hold the phone to your ear, you can operate your car more safely. But driving a car is only one of the things a hands-free phone lets us do. Having a conversation on your Pearl without using your hands is a powerful and valuable ability. Talking on the phone used to be “dead” time, but with a hands-free phone, you can perform tasks that require

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little thought (from cleaning the garage to preparing dinner) at the same time. The Pearl gives you three ways to go hands-free: wired headsets, wireless Bluetooth headsets, and the built-in speakerphone. Each of these options has pros and cons, but with the exception of the speakerphone, you can buy third-party accessories to make your Pearl hands-free just the way you like it.

Wired headsets The Pearl comes with a wired headset that works extremely well (Figure 7.1). The headset plugs into the headset jack on the top-left side of the Pearl (just above the USB jack) and then fits into one of your ears. The sound quality is outstanding, and no one talking to me could tell that I was talking on a headset instead of the actual phone. Figure 7.1 The included wired headset is outstanding.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Many headsets (including the one that comes with the Pearl) have a mute button on the microphone. The mute button is important if you want to talk to someone else without letting the person at the other end of the call know what you are saying.

Noise Cancellation When you’re shopping for a wired headset/microphone combination, you may hear the term noise cancellation. Noise-cancellation technology works by creating an “antinoise” for any steady background noise near the headset. It sounds crazy, but it really isn’t. Sound, as you may know, travels in waveforms, like the ripples on a pond after you drop a pebble in. As it turns out, you can cancel a noise almost completely by creating an antinoise with the exact-opposite waveform. The result is no wave at all (or a very little one); therefore, the original sound is canceled or at least greatly diminished. Noise cancellation is great in theory, and sometimes also great in practice, but it does have some limitations. The biggest limitation is that creating and generating the antinoise require the use of a computer. Unfortunately, no computer is fast enough to eliminate noises dynamically with sound that is diverse in nature. With constant sounds, however, the story is quite different. Sounds produced by airplane engines, cars on a highway, fans, air conditioning, and machinery can be reduced dramatically with noisecanceling technology. Therefore, if you need to use your Pearl’s headset in an area with lots of constant background noise, noise-canceling headphones are going to make a significant difference in your ability to hear the person at the other end of the line. The benefits include being able to keep the volume lower, because you won’t be struggling to hear what the person at the other end is trying to say. Is it worth it? The answer is yes if you are around a lot of background noise. Otherwise, it’s probably not worth the money.

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The Pearl has an EM70 jack for external headsets. This jack is pretty much the standard for cellular and wireless landline phones, so virtually any headset used for similar purposes is going to work with the Pearl. I have an over-the-head headset that I bought for my Panasonic 5.8 GHz cordless home telephone (Figure 7.2), and it works wonderfully with the Pearl. If you are interested in getting a headset for your Pearl, try a few at your local electronics or office-supply store and then pick the one that sounds best to you. Figure 7.2 This over-thehead headset that I bought for my cordless home phone works just fine with the Pearl.

Bluetooth headsets A Bluetooth headset (Figure 7.3, next page) is a good option for those who don’t want to have to worry about wires. But these headsets are not without their drawbacks, most of which involve price: Bluetooth headsets are more expensive. That said, these devices

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide are handy, and combined with the Pearl’s voicedialing feature, they allow you to dial a number and talk on the phone without taking the Pearl out of your pocket or getting tangled in wires.

Figure 7.3 This Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth headset looks great and works well but runs around $100, whereas a wired headset can cost $10 to $20.

Bluetooth explained Bluetooth is a wireless standard used for personal area networks (PANs), such as those created by cellular telephones, computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The name Bluetooth is derived from the name of a 10th-century Danish king known as Harald Bluetooth. Apparently, Harald used diplomacy to get disparate parties to communicate so as to prevent war. This name fits this technology because it allows many types of devices to communicate with relative ease. Bluetooth came about because of a need for wireless communication between relatively low-power devices such as cellular phones and PDAs, but it is also used in computers to connect wireless keyboards and mice.

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Another recent use of Bluetooth comes in the form of small wireless over-the-ear headsets for cellular telephones, allowing the user to place the phone out of sight and talk over the headset. More than once, I’ve been in the grocery store and seen someone apparently talking to himself, only to find a small over-theear headset in use. The effective range of Bluetooth devices varies considerably, but most devices work within about 30 feet of each other.

Setting up a Bluetooth headset Setting up a Bluetooth device is remarkably easy. Simply turn the device on and put it in pairing mode (the documentation that comes with the device tells you how to do this). Then enter the Set Up Bluetooth area through the Pearl’s main menu (Figure 7.4), and tell the Pearl to search for devices it can be paired with (Figure 7.5, next page). When the devices are paired off, you’re done. Figure 7.4 You access the Set Up Bluetooth area from the main menu.

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Figure 7.5 The Pearl can search for any nearby Bluetooth devices ready to be paired with it.

You can tweak a few more Bluetooth options through the Options > Bluetooth menu, but the devices generally just recognize each other and work. It may sound too good to be true, but it isn’t; Bluetooth just flat-out works.

Comfort Accessories There are plenty of what I call “comfort” accessories out there for the Pearl already, including carrying cases, holsters, auto holders (for use in your car), carrying straps, cleaning cloths, and even waterproof cases. Many stores, including your carrier’s local store, carry these accessories, so you won’t have any problems getting your hands on them if you want them. Probably the most important and usable comfort accessories are carrying cases and holster-type items. These items both protect your Pearl and help you keep tabs on it at all times. If you don’t have a place for the Pearl in a pocket or on your belt, you are more apt to set it down somewhere accidentally and lose it.

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Power Accessories The Pearl comes with a USB cable that acts as a charger (when connected to a computer’s USB bus) and a travel charger that can be plugged into any wall outlet. Still, there are reasons why more powerrelated accessories are necessary. One obvious situation is to have a car charger (Figure 7.6). You also may want a travel-adapter set to ensure that you can charge your Pearl when you travel to exotic locales. Figure 7.6 A USB car charger like this one is a great gadget that can charge the Pearl and any other USB device.

With some cellular phones and PDAs, it’s sometimes handy to get more than one battery so that you can swap out batteries when the power in one gets low. But replacing the Pearl’s battery, while relatively easy, still requires the removal of the back plate. For that reason, getting an extra Pearl battery isn’t for everyone. That said, docking stations and external battery chargers are available on the BlackBerry Web site (www.blackberry.com) for those who are interested in extra power for the Pearl.

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Expansion Other products worth looking at are those used for expansion purposes. The obvious choice is a microSD card (Figure 7.7), which gives your Pearl much more memory to store ringtones, music, pictures, and other important data. If you are serious about using your Pearl for listening to music or for taking lots of pictures with the 1.3-megapixel camera, an expansion card is a must. Figure 7.7 A card like this microSD card can improve your Pearl’s memory by an order of magnitude.

8 The Picture-Perfect Pearl The Pearl has so many functions and is so powerful, it’s easy to forget that it has a relatively powerful built-in camera. The camera also sports a built-in flash—something pretty rare in a phone/device camera. And as impressive as the camera is, even more impressive is the fact that the Pearl has a built-in Media Player that plays videos. This chapter takes a look at the Pearl’s camera and video functions, showing you how to get the most out of them and how to master their most powerful and useful features.

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note

Some devices of this nature have a built-in camera that’s capable of capturing video. In fact, that particular feature is fairly common, so I’ll save you some time trying to find the “video camera” feature right now by telling you that it’s not there. This doesn’t mean that the Pearl can’t do some amazing things with video; it just means that you won’t be recording video with your Pearl any time soon.

The Built-In Camera The Pearl’s built-in camera is special for a couple of reasons: • The flash makes it a functional and useful camera that can take decent pictures even in low-light situations, thereby averting the inevitable blur that occurs when nonflash cameras attempt to shoot in low light. • The camera has a reasonable resolution, at 1.3 megapixels. But you are not married to the highest resolution if you don’t want it. Three resolutions and three quality settings are available to you, all of which affect both quality and file size.

Setting camera options When you are in Camera mode (which you can access via the main menu or the right convenience key), you can press the Menu key and select Camera Options. This menu gives you access to six parameters (Figure 8.1), all of which are important for getting the most out of the Pearl’s camera.

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Figure 8.1 The Camera Options menu.

Here are the six parameters and the adjustments you can make with them: Default Flash Setting – On, Off, or Automatic. It’s best to leave this setting at Automatic unless you want to force the flash on or off for a specific reason. White Balance – Automatic, Sunny, Cloudy, Night, Indoor, Incandescent, or Fluorescent. This setting affects the “temperature” feeling of the picture, from warm to cold. Picture Size (in pixels) – 1280 x 1024, 640 x 480, or 320 x 240. Picture Quality – Superfine, Fine, or Normal. Superfine is the highest quality. Store Pictures – In Device Memory or On Memory Card. This setting allows you to choose where the pictures are stored when you save them. If you don’t have a memory card, the pictures automatically go into Device Memory. Folder – This setting shows the path to the folder on the Pearl where the files are stored.

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Taking pictures Taking pictures with the Pearl’s camera is as easy as pressing the right convenience key twice in a row. This is the fastest way to take a shot, because the first press puts the Pearl into Camera mode and the second press takes the shot. The other option is to choose Camera from the main menu, use the trackball to manage the various Camera settings, and then take the shot you want. The trackball appears at the bottom center of the main camera screen (Figure 8.2), with plus (+) and minus (–) signs above and below it. If you move the trackball up, the camera zooms in, and if you move the trackball down, the camera zooms out. The zoom setting, which appears to the right of the trackball, can be anywhere between 1x and 5x, so use it to set up your pictures just the way you like. Figure 8.2 The trackball manages the camera’s zoom setting, and the Menu key takes you to the Options screen, which allows you to adjust the various camera settings.

This shows you the level of zoom (from 1x to 5x) for which the camera is currently set.

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The rest of the screen shows you how many pictures you can still take, based on the memory available on the Pearl (bottom-left corner) and the state of the flash (on or off; bottom-right corner).

What now? You’ve taken the picture; what do you do now? Well, now you have several choices about what to do with that picture. With the picture sitting on the “desktop” of the Pearl in Camera mode, press the Menu key to display your options (Figure 8.3). Figure 8.3 The Pearl gives you a handful of options for your photos.

You can choose among the following options for any picture: Set As Home Screen Image – When you choose this setting, the picture becomes the background of the main screen. View Pictures – This setting allows you to view all the pictures in the Pearl’s memory.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Rename – You can give the picture a name instead of a title like 0045.img. Send As Email – You can send the picture in an email. Send As MMS – You can send the picture as a Multimedia Message Service (MMS) message. Set As Caller ID – You can set the picture to appear on the Pearl’s screen whenever you get a call from a particular number. Options – Choose this setting to access options that adjust things such as flash, destination, and picture quality. Probably the most common use of the Pearl’s camera is to take a picture of someone or something impressive and then email it to a friend or business associate immediately. The business applications of this feature are unlimited, but you also can benefit from it in nonbusiness ways. Suppose that you have a friend who is looking to buy a canary-yellow 1985 Toyota Corolla, and you’re visiting a city that’s a 2-hour drive from your friend’s house. While you’re in that other city, you find exactly the same car for sale, and you immediately think of your friend. You can wait to tell him about it when you get home—or, better yet, you can use your Pearl to take a picture of the car and then email the picture to him, along with the phone number on the “For Sale” sign in the car’s window. In a few short minutes, your friend has a picture of the car he wants and the seller’s phone number sitting on his computer.

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Fun with Caller ID Pictures Although the usual thing to do with Caller ID pictures is to take a picture of the person in question and then attach it to that person’s phone number, you can also have some fun with it by attaching different pictures to various people’s numbers. If you think someone is evil, for example, you might take a picture of a toy demon and then put that picture on your Pearl to represent that person. The possibilities are endless; let your imagination take over.

Self-portraits The Pearl’s camera has a metallic mirror-type box just below the camera lens. The reflection from the mirror shows you what the camera’s lens is seeing, and it allows you to take self-portraits or to capture yourself and a group of friends having fun somewhere. It’s surprising how decent shots like this can be, but ultimately, you are limited by the length of your arms (Figure 8.4). Figure 8.4 Obviously, I have the shortest arms ever. My selfportrait is less than revealing.

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Managing pictures

Figure 8.5 Use the Media Manager application to transfer any pictures you want to keep.

After you have taken some pictures on the Pearl, you can delete them, set them as wallpaper (by choosing Set As Home Screen Image), and attach them as Caller ID pictures. But because the pictures you take on the Pearl are of reasonable quality, you are likely going to want to save them somewhere a little more permanent. The best way to do this is to connect the Pearl to your computer and use the Media Manager utility in BlackBerry Desktop Manager to move the pictures off your Pearl and onto your computer (Figure 8.5).

Video on the Pearl As I mentioned earlier in this chapter, the Pearl’s built-in camera doesn’t record video, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t play video. Indeed, the Pearl is a highly capable video player, the only wrinkle being that it

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cannot play either audio or video that’s streamed from the Internet; the files must be on the Pearl and in its memory to be played. This doesn’t mean that you can’t download the files from the Internet; it just means that you can’t stream them from the Internet—a minor difference, perhaps, but a significant one. To play a video on the Pearl, select Video in the Media screen (Figure 8.6); then select the movie from the media folder on the Pearl and play it in Media Player (Figure 8.7). Figure 8.6 Select Video in the Media screen.

Figure 8.7 Choose the file you want from the Pearl’s memory; then view it in the Media Player window.

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide Any media file that you find on the Internet—video or audio—can be added to the Pearl via email (depending on size) or via the Media Manager application in BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

Media Player Compatibilities Media Player is one of the Pearl’s shining achievements, because it can play so many formats competently. It’s good to know what formats Media Player can manage so that if you’re making movies to run on the Pearl, you can create them in a format that will take full advantage of the Pearl’s capabilities. The compatible audio formats for Media Player are: • AAC • eAAC+ • AAC+ • MIDI • AMR-NB • MP3 The compatible video formats for Media Player are: • AVI • H.263 • MPEG-4

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Watching movies If you want to watch movies on your Pearl, you certainly can. What you need to do is use software that turns your movie into an MPEG-4 file that’s small enough to fit in the Pearl’s memory (see the next section, “Converting video”). Movies that have been reduced in size to fit on a Pearl’s screen often are only about 300 MB, so if you have a 2 GB microSD card in the Pearl, you could have up to six movies on the Pearl at any time. note

That said, I recommend that you do not use copyrighted material when you put movies on the Pearl. Use podcasts, home videos, and other legal content to fill the device.

Converting video If you want to convert some video to an MPEG-4 file for use on your Pearl (including changing the size of the file so you can fit it on the Pearl), I suggest using any of the standard software packages, such as Adobe Premiere or Nero. Nero is often bundled with software on your computer. In fact, the bundled Windows application MovieMaker can do some of the same things. When it comes to free software, a couple of the best alternatives are Video Conversion Expert 4 (Moomin Software) and Winxmedia AVI/WMV MP4 Converter 2.1 (Winxmedia Software). You can probably find a hundred kinds of freeware for converting video (and audio), but these suggestions

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The BlackBerry Pearl Pocket Guide give you a good place to start. Ultimately, though, I suggest that you look on your computer first, because it may have come with this type of software preinstalled.

Index SYMBOLS + sign, 112 – (minus) sign, 112 X connection status, 53 OFF connection status, 53 SOS connection status, 53

A AAC/AAC+ file formats, 118 abbreviations for text messaging, 57–58 accessories comfort, 106 headsets for, 100–106 microSD memory cards, 9, 29–30, 108, 111

USB cable, 10, 18, 25 USB car charger, 107 accounts BES, 37 email setup, 38–42, 55 Address Book accessing and using, 77–78 personalizing numbers and contacts, 78–81 retrieving map locations from, 92 Address Book icon, 77 alarm feature, 88–89 AMR-NB file format, 118 AOL Instant Messenger, 64, 67, 68 Application Loader, 25–26

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applications available Pearl, 4–9, 32–34 synchronizing with Pearl, 31–32 Attach File command, 46 audio formats, 118 AVI file format, 118 AVI/WMV MP4 Converter 2.1, 119

options for settings, 24, 25 Bluetooth headsets, 103–106 about, 103–105 setting up, 105–106 Bookmarks page, 70 BrickBreaker, 7, 95 Browser icon, 69, 70 built-in camera. See camera

B backlighting, 22 Backup and Restore, 27 battery, 18–23 charging, 18–19, 107 estimating life of, 19–20 maximizing power, 21–23 power drains on, 20–21 BlackBerry 8100. See Pearl BlackBerry Desktop Manager Application Loader, 25–26 Backup and Restore, 27 illustrated, 24 installing, 23–24 Media Manager, 27–28 online help for, 25 setting connection options from, 24–25 Switch Device Wizard, 30–31 Synchronize, 31–32 BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) software, 37 BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), 62–63 BlackBerry User Tools CD-ROM about, 10 installing BlackBerry Desktop Manager from, 23–24 Bluetooth about, 104–105

C Calendar, 8, 90–91 Call Log, 84–86 Caller ID photos, 81, 114, 115 calls displaying caller’s photo for, 81, 114, 115 keypad dialing, 72–73 speed dialing, 73–75 viewing past, 84–86 voice dialing, 75–76, 104 camera. See also photos about Pearl’s, 8, 109–110 flash for, 110, 111, 114 resolution of, 110 setting options for, 111 taking photos, 112–113 unavailable to record video, 110, 116 ways to use photos, 113–114 Camera mode, 110 Camera Options menu, 110, 111 Canada connection service by Rogers Communications, 37, 52 Weather feature, 96 car chargers, 18–19, 107 CD-ROM about, 10

Index installing Blackberry Desktop Manager from, 23–24 cell phone, 71–86. See also headsets Address Book for, 77–78 Call Log, 84–86 estimated battery life for, 20 keypad dialing, 72–73 Pearl’s, 6, 85–86 personalizing numbers and contacts, 78–81 ringtones, 81–84 speed dialing, 73–75, 85 transferring data between, 30–31 voice dialing, 75–76 Choose Application dialog, 31 clients email, 31–32, 36 IM, 62–68 comfort accessories, 106 Compose SMS Text option, 56 composing email messages, 45–46 computer charging battery from, 18 installing BlackBerry Desktop Manager on, 23–24 routing email to Pearl and, 42 Configuration tab (Synchronize dialog), 32 connecting Pearl to Internet, 52–53 Connections Settings dialog box, 24 contacts’ photos, 79–81 controls for BlackBerry Pearl, 11–15 convenience keys about, 11, 13 voice dialing with left, 76 copyright restrictions, 119 CPU, 21 CrackBerry, 2

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D deleting email, 48–49 dialing keypad, 72–73 speed, 73–75, 85 voice activated, 6, 7, 75–76, 104 digital camera. See camera directions, 93–94 display. See also icons main camera screen, 112 network owner displayed on, 54 pixel size of, 69 power use of LCD, 21 showing photo for calls on, 81, 114, 115 viewing and reading email on, 43–44 documentation, 10 downloading games, 96

E eAAC file format, 118 edge/EDGE connection status, 53, 69 EM70 jack, 103 email, 35–49 about, 5 attaching files to, 46–48 creating Pearl email addresses on T-Mobile, 42 failures setting up, 41–42 fonts for, 44 managing, 48–49 map locations sent via, 94 passwords for, 39–40 “push–pull” email service, 36–37 receiving and viewing, 42–44

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email (continued) routing to computer and Pearl, 42 sending, 45–46 setting up accounts, 38–42, 55 sharing photos via, 113, 114 synchronizing email clients, 31–32 email clients “pull” service from, 36 synchronizing, 31–32 email servers deleting mail from, 48–49 pushed email remains on, 42 setting up, 37 emoticons, 68 ending IM conversations, 68 Escape key, 11, 12 exporting data to other phones, 30–31 media files, 28 extra battery, 107

F features. See also cell phone alarm, 88–89 battery use by, 22–23 Maps, 9, 91–95 Pearl, 4–9, 32–34 video, 110, 116–117 files attached, 46–48 compatible formats for Media Player, 118 converting video to MPEG-4, 119–120 managing media, 27–28 organizing photo, 116

receiving and viewing attached, 47–48 renaming photo, 114 showing path to, 111 flash for built-in camera, 110, 111, 114 folders, 111 fonts, 44

G games about, 7, 95–96 power usage of, 21 getting directions, 93–94 Go To command, 69, 70 Go To function (Maps), 92–93 gprs/GPRS connection status, 53 GPS (Global Positioning System), 91, 95 GSM connection status, 53

H H.263 file format, 118 hands-free headsets. See headsets Harald Bluetooth, 104 headsets, 100–106 Bluetooth, 103–106 noise cancellation, 102 wired, 101–103 help, 25 history of BlackBerry, 3–4

I icons Address Book, 77 Application Loader, 25 Browser, 69, 70 IM emoticons, 68

Index Messages, 43 signal indicator, 52 Switch Device, 20 Synchronize, 31 ICQ, 64–65 IM clients, 62–68 AOL Instant Messenger, 64, 67, 68 ICQ, 64–65 MSN Messenger, 65–66 Yahoo Messenger, 66 importing media files, 28 installing BlackBerry Desktop Manager, 23–24 instant messaging (IM), 61–68 AOL Instant Messenger, 64, 67, 68 BlackBerry Messenger, 62–63 changing notification settings, 67 clients for, 62 ending conversations, 68 ICQ, 64–65 joining ongoing conversations, 67 MSN Messenger, 65–66 tools for, 68 Yahoo Messenger, 66 interface for BlackBerry Pearl, 11–15 Internet. See also email; messaging; Web sites limiting online time, 23 messaging, 55–69 Pearl service providers for, 52–53 setting up email accounts, 38–42, 55 synchronizing email clients, 31–32 Web browsing, 69–70

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J joining ongoing conversations, 67

K keypad composing email from, 45, 46 dialing from, 72–73 illustrated, 11 using, 14–15 keys. See also keypad; Menu key convenience, 11, 13, 76 Escape, 11, 12 illustrated, 11 Menu, 45 speakerphone, 11, 13

L life of battery, 19–20 liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens, power usage of, 21 locations getting directions to, 93–94 GPS functions, 95 retrieving from Address Book, 92 sending via email, 94

M making calls. See calls managing email, 48–49 media files, 27–28 photo files, 116 Maps feature, 91–95 about, 9 emailing map location, 94 getting directions, 93–94

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Maps feature (continued) Go To function, 92–93 GPS add-on and, 95 retrieving locations from Address Book, 92 using, 92 media cards. See memory cards Media Manager, 27–28, 116 Media Player about Pearl’s, 9 compatible file formats for, 118 illustrated, 117 selecting video in, 117 viewing video in, 117 Media screen, 117 MemoPad, 89–90 memory cards about, 108 inserting, 29–30 music storage on, 9 storing photos on, 111 Menu key accessing menu commands with, 45 Address Book options viewed with, 78 Compose SMS Text option, 56 menus for setting ringtone, 82–83 viewing AOL IM options with, 64, 67, 68 Messages icon, 43 messaging, 55–69. See also specific messaging type instant, 61–68 multimedia, 59–61 text messaging, 56–58 types offered, 55

microSD memory cards. See memory cards Microsoft Outlook, 90 MIDI file format, 118 minus (–) sign, 112 MMS (Multimedia Message Service) connection services for, 53 instant messaging vs., 61 sending items with, 59–61 sending photos as, 59–60, 113, 114 movies, 119 MP3 file format, 118 MPEG-4 files, 118, 119–120 MSN Messenger, 65–66 Multimedia Message Service. See MMS music battery life for playing, 20 importing and exporting, 28 storing more on Pearl, 9 mute button for headsets, 102

N noise cancellation headsets, 102 notification settings for IM, 67

O opening back plate, 29 Options menu, 22 organizing Pearl, 8 over-the-head headsets, 103

Index P paired devices, 105–106 passwords for email, 39–40 Pearl. See also camera; cell phone; email; messaging accessories bundled with, 10 alarm feature, 88–89 applications available in, 32–34 backing up and restoring data with, 27 battery life for, 18–23 Calendar, 8, 90–91 connecting to computer, 23–28, 30 connecting to Internet, 52–53 controls and interface for, 11–15 features of, 4–9, 32–34 games, 7, 21, 95–96 history of, 3–4 illustrated, 11 inserting memory cards, 29–30 managing space with Application Loader, 25–26 Maps feature, 9, 91–95 MemoPad, 89–90 routing email to computer and, 42 Tasks list, 90 Web browsing with, 69–70 phone. See cell phone photos. See also camera adding to contacts, 79–81 attaching to email, 46–47 Caller ID, 81, 114, 115 importing and exporting, 28 managing, 116 renaming files, 114 self-portraits, 115

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sending Pearl photos as message, 59–61 size and quality of, 111 storing in memory or on memory card, 111 taking, 112–113 ways to use, 113–114 Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth headset, 104 plus (+) sign, 112 POP servers, 40 power cord, 10 power drains on battery, 20–21 “push” email service, 37

Q quality of photos, 111 Quick Text, 68

R receiving attached files, 47–48 email, 42–43 Rename option (Camera mode), 113 renaming photo files, 114 Research In Motion (RIM), 3–4 resolution for camera, 110 restoring data, 27 ringtones about, 81–84 setting for alarms, 89 roaming, 53–54 Rogers Communications agreements with, 52 Web site address for, 37

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S saving photos in memory or on memory card, 111 text messages, 57 searching for paired devices, 105–106 self-portraits, 115 Send As MSM button, 60 sending emails, 45–46 locations via email, 94 Pearl photos as message, 59–61 text messages, 56 servers. See email servers service providers connecting Pearl to Internet, 52–53 roaming and, 53–54 setting up email system server with, 37 signal indicators for, 52 Set As Home Screen option (Camera mode), 113 Set up Internet E-mail option, 38 setting up BlackBerry Messenger, 63 Bluetooth headsets, 105–106 built-in camera options, 111 email accounts, 38–42, 55 email system server, 37 ringtones, 81–84 speed dialing, 73–74 signal indicators for service providers, 52 size of photos, 111 SMS (Short Message Service), 53. See also text messaging

snooze feature, 88 software, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, 37 spam, 48 speakerphone hands-free use with, 101 key for, 11, 13 speed dialing clicking Call Log number for, 85 setting up, 73–74 using, 74–75 standby time, 19, 20 Sudoko, 7, 95 SureType keypad, 11, 14–15 Switch Device Wizard, 30–31 Synchronize dialog, 32 synchronizing Outlook and MemoPad, 89–90 Pearl with computer programs, 31–32

T Tasks list, 90 text messaging (SMS) abbreviations for, 57–58 about, 7 instant vs., 61 saving copies or drafts of, 57 sending, 56 T-Mobile agreements with, 52 creating Pearl email addresses on, 42 Web site address for, 37 tools on BlackBerry User Tools CD-ROM, 10, 23–24 instant messaging, 68

Index trackball about, 12 illustrated, 11 managing camera zoom with, 112 travel charger, 18–19, 107 troubleshooting email setup, 41–42

U United States connection service by T-Mobile, 37, 42, 52 Weather feature for, 96–97 USB cable about, 10 charging battery with, 18 connections using, 25 USB car charger, 107

V VAD (Voice Activated Dialing) about, 6, 7 Bluetooth headsets for, 104 making calls with, 75–76 video. See also Media Player compatible file formats for Media Player, 118 converting to MPEG-4 file, 119–120 estimated battery life for playing, 20 viewing in Media Player, 117 watching movies, 119 Video Conversion Expert 4, 119 video player. See Media Player View Pictures option (Camera mode), 113

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viewing Address Book options, 78 AOL IM options with Menu key, 64 attached files, 47–48 emails, 43–44 numbers in Call Log, 84–86 video in Media Player, 117 Voice Activated Dialing. See VAD volume adjustments, 89

W Weather feature, 96–97 Web sites. See also Internet access to, 5, 52–53 addresses for Rogers and T-Mobile, 37 browsing with Pearl, 69–70 finding text message abbreviations on, 58 limiting online time, 23 weekend alarms, 88 white balance settings, 111 wired headsets, 101–103

Y Yahoo Messenger, 66

Z zooming camera, 112