Being an avid @foursquare player, I was tinkering on the website when I stumbled onto the page with a foursquare party, 16 new badges, foursquare swag and temporary tattoos.  Track down the right people at the Sobe  Lounge, Microsoft Bing Booth, IFC Crossroads House and SXSW Web Awards. Needless to say, I can’t wait to unlock these goodies and hopefully meet the folks from foursquare in Austin.  Just a few more days, so we’ll see you in the ATX!

foursquare @ SXSW

Yesterday, BlackBerry and I experienced a little turmoil in our relationship. I want to go on record right here, right now and apologize to the millions of people that experienced an outage due to my foolish mistake. Yesterday, BlackBerry came to me wearing a new pair of jeans that she had seen Lady Gaga wearing. For the record, @LadyGaga haunts my nightmares, she is often there, stealing my organs after @Pink has cold clocked me. Anyhow, BlackBerry came by the office to show me her new jeans and asked me the question every man dreads hearing “do I look fat in these jeans?” Not thinking clearly and having my truthful and analytical hat on, I slowly drew my eyes away from my computer screen, she turned around, I turned my head sideways like my dog Clunkers does when he’s confused and responded “yes, yes you do.” STUPID MISTAKE. She looked at me with fire in her eyes, the way she does from time to time (studies show she’s happy about 99% of the time) and said “you’re paying for this one and all your nerdy friends will too.” CRAP. I knew what that meant. Shortly there after I started receiving tweets, text messages, Facebook messages and even phone calls (GASP!) asking me what I had done. People were clearly upset. I felt like Tiger Woods as my four words turned into a trending topic on Twitter. Although the weather was warm in San Antonio, it was an icy night for me. BlackBerry asked me “How could you say such a thing!? Are you some kind of IDIOT!?” My slip of the tongue costs millions of you your addiction yesterday, causing massive withdrawals and anger, all due to me. I. AM. SORRY. I must have apologized to BlackBerry a thousand times. So what did I do to fix it? A home made dinner, a massage, I scrubbed toilets, read to her and was compassionate. I tried to speak as many love languages to her as I could… and it worked. This morning, she was as chipper as could be. She tried those jeans on again and asked me “so how do I look?” “Sweetie, you look beautiful.” So BlackBerry addicts, there you have it. That’s why your device didn’t work yesterday, I’ve now publicly apologized to you (she made me do that) and now all is well with the world. Welcome back to your addiction and Merry Christmas.

Apologetically,
Nan

photo by Floyd Brown

Are you interested in becoming the fastest BlackBerry user this side of the Pecos River?  To do so, you need to keep some keyboard shortcuts in mind.  Let’s jump right in:

When you’re composing an email, don’t bother typing the “@” or “.” in an email field, instead, use the spacebar, the BlackBerry already knows what symbol to enter.

In you messages list, you can use the following shortcuts to skip the menu and get right to work, the information in the parentheses is for the folks on SureType devices, such as the Pearl:

• C (,) = compose new message
• R (!) = reply to a message
• L (?) = reply to all in a message
• F (.) = forward a message
• T (1)= top, it’ll take you to the top of an email or the messages list
• B (7)= bottom, it’ll take you to the bottom of an email or the message list
• Spacebar (9) = page down in an email or the message list
• Shift + Spacebar (3) = page up in an email or the message list
• P (4) [slide finger right] = previous email or previous day’s message (if in the message list)
• N (6) [slide finger left] = next email or next day’s message (if in the message list)
• Hold a letter down to capitalize it

Keep an eye on this blog to get more tips on how to speed up your life on BlackBerry.

As you may (if you’re a nerd) or may not (not a nerd) have heard, RIM has rolled out BlackBerry Internet Service aka BIS 2.8.  One of the features that has been added to this release is the ability to synchronize Gmail contacts to your device.  Unfortunately, providers oftentimes don’t give you any notice that they’ve updated and finding the version of the BIS that you’re on can be a pain.  Fortunately, I’ve dug up a way for you to be able to tell whether it’s been updated to BIS 2.8.  Thanks to RIM’s help section, it explains where you can turn the contact synchronization on and off, via the menu system.

It states:

1. On the BlackBerry® Internet Service web site, in the left pane, click Email Accounts.
2. Click the Edit icon beside your Google Mail™ email address.
3. Select the Contacts check box.
4. Click Save.

After you finish: To stop synchronizing your contacts, clear the Contacts check box.

So if you don’t see this option, you’re not on BIS 2.8 yet. If you do see this option, you’re all set!  Remember, you have to be running OS 5.0 to use this feature.

The new BlackBerry Tour was recently released for Verizon and Sprint and this August, RIM is launching the BlackBerry Curve 8520 on T-Mobile. If you’re lucky enough to have picked up a new device or you haven’t done these tweaks to your current BlackBerry, give them a look. They’ll certainly make you look like a BlackBerry genius at the office and potentially more attractive to the opposite sex.

1. BlackBerrys have a built in dictionary called Autotext. If you go to the Options (wrench icon) and select Autotext, you can add to the list. You can add shortcuts such as having the BlackBerry replace “ty” to “thank you” or “yw” to “you’re welcome.” Doing this will make you incredibly fast in your email and text responses.

2. The camera on your BlackBerry has keyboard shortcuts that allow you change options without going into the menu.

a. Spacebar – Cycle between automatic flash, turning it off or forcing the flash with the spacebar

b. Volume buttons – let you zoom in and out

c. SYM button – toggles the full screen view

3. There are a number of Twitter applications that you can pick up for your BlackBerry. Typically, you’ll find people using TwitterBerry, one of the first good Twitter apps. Now, I prefer the following applications because they’re much faster and they have additional functionality:

a. UberTwitter (free) – this is my current Twitter application. It’s fast, allows for re-tweets, allows you to look at trending topics and allows you add locations to your tweets and photos. Use your phone’s browser to get it from http://www.ubertwitter.com

b. SocialScope (free) – SocialScope is another great free BlackBerry Twitter app that has tabs for Twitter and Facebook and allows for re-tweets. Get more information at http://www.SocialScope.net

c. TweetGenius ($5) – TweetGenius is the best looking BlackBerry Twitter application from Boy Genius. TweetGenius lets you track users and perform Twitter searches, among other features. You can see screenshots and purchase at http://www.thetweetgenius.com

4. Do you want to read your news feeds, check the weather, sports and flight status all from one place? Do you think free applications are the best ones? If you answered yes to these questions, then you should check out Viigo at http://www.getviigo.com/nan through your BlackBerry Browser.

5. Your BlackBerry is capable of streaming internet radio and again, it’s free! Point your BlackBerry Browser to Pandora http://www.pandora.com or my favorite, Slacker at http://www.slacker.com. You can set up your station on your computer, and then login with the same credentials on your BlackBerry for the same experience. Additionally, Slacker allows you to save the stations to your memory card for listening when your phone isn’t able to connect to the network, such as flying in a plane.

Keep an eye out on this blog for more BlackBerry tips and applications to help you maximize your device at little to no cost to you. Enjoy your new knowledge and ask questions in the comments or on Twitter.

As seen on MySA.com

Welcome to the first installment of Nan the Power User. You’ll see me pop in from time to time with reviews, tips, tricks and ideas with a business twist. I’m the Chief Inspiration Officer at Salesby5, a marketing and consulting group in San Antonio, TX, where we dramatically increase sales for companies and organizations. Additionally, I am quite the BlackBerry fanboy/evangelist. I’ll welcome feedback and new ideas; I always like to try new things! One of my weapons of choice in connecting with others is to use Twitter.

Connecting with People

In the recent past, there have been small windows of accessibility to the people you aspire to connect with. If you think back, sending a letter was a great way to connect with someone. Then, we evolved into sending these letters via fax because it was more time efficient. Now, looking back, faxes seem ancient compared to sending an email. Those that led the way on using these technologies were able to cut through the noise and connect with the right people. Today, the new window to access people is Twitter. I call it a window because, like the previously named methods of communication, it’ll be ruined by the noise of too many people and will close as a great way to connect.

For those of you that haven’t heard, Twitter allows you to talk to your friends and strangers, 140 characters at a time. This medium requires you to be to the point, which is important since the average human is hit with over 3,000 messages per day. It isn’t that we are too dumb to process information, it is merely a matter of scarcity – there is not enough time to deal with so many words!

Due to Twitter being hip to API’s and allowing people to develop applications to attach to their service, we have so many ways to access Twitter. Although this isn’t close to an exhaustive list, some of the BlackBerry Twitter clients include TinyTwitter, Twibble and TwitterBerry. Each of these applications allows you to post, check out your timeline and the public timeline, send direct messages and more. Some people prefer the location aware Twibble, while others prefer TinyTwitter’s ability to hide ultra chatty-friends from time to time (yeah, I’m looking at you @guykawasaki). My personal favorite is TwitterBerry. I like the layout of the screen for the timeline because the pictures aren’t too big and the font size is just right to be able to fit more tweets on the screen. Additionally, @jaschroe is working on auto-updating feeds and notifications. I would also love to see the ability to temporarily hide friends.

Today, on Twitter, you can meet new vendors, CEOs, CIOs, authors, bloggers, techies, freaks and geeks. During the course of my day, I am able to ping new folks to connect for a drink or a quick meeting. To date, I have developed relationships with world class thought leaders because I spent the time to send a “tweet” that was genuine.

Sharing Your Life

As I mentioned, I live in Texas. It wouldn’t be uncommon for me to see rattlesnakes, armadillos, or Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs. Using TwitterBerry lets me share those experiences with people all around the world who would likely be fascinated by such occurrences. Just because it’s everyday life for me, doesn’t mean that it is for you as well. When I share these sights and sounds on Twitter via TwitterBerry or Twitpic, it weaves my existence more tightly into yours and gives us a bond that we didn’t have before. Recently, I attended CTIA. From there, I tweeted the keynote highlights as they were spoken. Later, I decided to walk from my hotel to the famous Lombard St. I tweeted my progress and supplemented the walk with photos via Twitpic, a service that lets me post pictures to Twitter. My Twitter followers were ecstatic. They basically felt as if they were riding along on my shoulder learning new information from CTIA as it was announced (before the media was able to do so), and later, they received a photo tour of my walk. This scenario would not have been possible without TwitterBerry and its abilities to receive replies and direct messages. Standard texting would have been a hassle due to the number of text messages I would receive in reply.

Bottom line: You don’t necessarily have to be important, powerful or good looking. Being authentic and slightly ahead of the curve—in this instance via Twitter/TwitterBerry—is allowing me to share my life with more people, connect with people who I would not be able to reach in a different mode and find new people who are an asset to my life. I’d say that’s a great use of technology!

As seen on BlackBerryCool.com

• Come up with an original name for her email that others might not use such as ashley1019@mailbucket.org (it will always be @mailbucket.org) • Go to Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts), fill out the form and enter the email address as ashley1019@mailbucket.org • Now, she would go to Viigo > Add Channel > Enter URL > then she would enter http://mailbucket.org/ashley1019.xml (she could also enter a custom title, such as Google Alerts – Ashley)

One more thing, don’t lose all the feeds you have set up and customized. Your feeds are portable and will come with you as long as you set up a user name and password. Not sure how? Go to the Menu > Options > Account and complete the registration there. As a special treat for all you Power Users out there, here’s a look at how Viigo will look on the upcoming BlackBerry Storm.

Do you have a great way you use your BlackBerry for business that others may not have thought about? Is there a better way of doing what I did? Drop me a line, I might love it and write it up!

As seen on BlackBerryCool.com

Today I received my Sprint BlackBerry Tour and it’s amazing. But, you’re not here for a review, you’re here because you want to unlock your Sprint BlackBerry Tour. Here’s what you do. Thanks to my friend at CIO.com, Al Sacco, I knew the steps to unlocking it.  Fortunately, the good folks at Sprint will walk you through the process as well.  Here’s what I did to unlock the SIM slot on the Sprint BlackBerry Tour.

1. Call Sprint International Support – (817) 698-4199, prompt #2
2. Ask them if they’d kindly unlock your SIM slot on your BlackBerry Tour
3. Turn off your wireless network connection on the Tour (yes, you’ll have to call from another phone)
4. Click on Options > Advanced Options > SIM Card
5. Type MEPD
6. Type MEP2
7. The representative should give you a 16-digit code
8. Thank the representative for their help
9. Reboot your phone and you’re ready to go

There you have it!  It took me about 5 minutes to get my phone unlocked.  I tested my Sprint BlackBerry Tour with a T-Mobile SIM card and was able to access the web, use BlackBerry Messenger and send and receive messages.

You’ve spent time building up your Autotext entries to make it really easy to fire off a “thank you” or “you’re welcome.” You’ve invested time in building up your Password Keeper with entries for the Jonas Brothers Fan Club and you’ve got 50+ friends on your BlackBerry Messenger. Life is good, especially because you’re on a BES and your contacts, calendars, tasks and notes are being synced back to the server. Now, a new OS pops up and you want to update. You get IT’s blessing to do this, but then you remember those parts of your BlackBerry that are going to be wiped out. When you plug your phone into your computer, fire up Desktop Manager and try to back up certain parts of your device, you get this:

Great. Well, you don’t have to worry about losing or having trouble restoring anything any more! I’ve got your back with a guide on how to select what you’d like to back up and what you’d like to restore, even on BES. The first step is a tip that I uncovered from a forum post by Jibi. Go to Options > Advanced Options > Enterprise Activation. Scroll down below the PIN then hold the ALT key and type the letters CNFG to get to this screen:

You’ve made it to a secret spot, cool. Go to “Wireless Sync,” switch it over to No. Plug your BlackBerry into your computer, fire up the Desktop Manager and check out the video below. I’ll walk you through the process I went through to back up AutoText, BlackBerry Messenger contacts, and Password Keeper.

Once you’ve backed up your selected items, completed your OS update or other change, restored the appropriate items, then restore your BES connection. You can also restore your BES connection first, but you’ll have to turn off Wireless Sync like you did before. If you have already restored your BES connection and turned off the Wireless Sync to restore some items, be sure to turn it back on after you’re done.

Would you like to continue the conversation? Drop me a line in the comments or hop on to Twitter (find me at @nanpalmero) and let’s get it sorted out!

As seen on BlackBerryCool.com

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