David Pollitt

Vlingo for Blackberry Storm and iPhone

// April 10th, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry, Popular

The other day Keal found this awesome program for Blackberries(and iPhones) called vlingo.  Essentially the software allows you to do accomplish many tasks on your phone using voice commands.  Sure, we are all familiar with voice activated dialing, but how about updating your Twitter or Facebook status using only your voice?  I’ve also found it very handy to create a quick email to myself, using only voice dictation.  Sure, the software isn’t perfect, but it learns from you and over time it becomes more useful and accurate.  Another trick – just say “Google Minneapolis State Capital” and the software automatically brings up a browser with the search term you requested.  Quite handy if you ask me.  The most amazing thing, it is completely free to use this application.  Just head on over to vlingo.com and they will send you a message to download the software.

Blackberry Storm users will have to make a few tweaks to the settings due to the fact that they don not yet officially support this device.  Simply do the following:

Go to Options – Advanced Options – Applications
Highlight vlingo but don’t click.  Press BB (menu) button
Disable Compatability Mode.

Same as above, instead of Disable Compatability mode now Edit Perrmissions,
Scroll down to Interactions, Recording, Set to Allow.

-DPollitt

Artist Point

// April 9th, 2009 // View Comments // Photography, Popular

Artist Point, originally uploaded by dpollitt.

A shot I took out in Yellowstone National Park a few summers ago. Its quite the scene. If you have never been to the Grand Canyon, you could easily mistaken this for it. It was quite a sight.

-DPollitt

Setup Outlook Web Access with Blackberry Devices

// March 2nd, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry, Popular

I have a personal Blackberry Storm but I still wanted the ability to check my work emails.  Of course most businesses will give you the option, but they will also take full control of your device – requiring you to setup a secure password and they will also control all software upgrades.  I did not want to lose control of my Blackberry.  Fortunately my company does provide the option to connect to Outlook Web Access to check my emails outside of the company network.

Just head over to your carriers BIS website:

Verizon – AT&T- Nextel – Sprint – T-Mobile

Next just click “Set Up Account” and provide the email address along with login information for your Outlook Web Access credentials.  Thats it, now a new icon should show up on your Blackberry and you can access the outlook account.

-DPollitt

Blackberry Storm 9530 Running OS 4.7.0.90

// January 22nd, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry, Popular

It’s only been 9 days and already a new OS from RIM has been leaked for the Blackberry Storm 9530.  This is OS v4.7.0.90 Platform 4.0.0.114. 

First Impressions:
-Full QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode-New feature
-Camera does not always save images, seems to do whatever it wants
-Accelerometer in Camera app is blazing fast, rotates instantly(Note, this is great, but the camera is extremely unreliable in actually saving the images)
-Font on keyboard has increased in size, and/or the face has changed. It looks substantially larger
-Font on Call screen has increased in size, and/or the face has changed.
-Hover over icons does not follow finger still
-”Media Card Inserted” error came up every few(1in3) battery pulls
-VSOD(Verizon Screen of Death) has come up on multiple battery pulls – I did not have an issue with this on .86
-Memory Free increased from 32.2MB to 36.3MB after battery pulls on each OS (v4.7.0.86 vs. v4.7.0.90)
-OS is very responsive, Media player is very responsive
-Fades from screens seem to be quicker and you don’t even notice much of a fade now.
-Screen Lock works fast and well under normal use

Get the leak via Crackberry.com

Some Screen Caps:

-DPollitt

Blackberry Storm Keyboard Settings: Key Rate, Tap Interval, Hover Period, Swipe Sensitivity Explained

// January 15th, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry, Popular

There are quite a few keyboard settings on the Blackberry Storm that are easily misunderstood. I’ll go over the most confusing ones here. These can be found in Options> Screen/Keyboard> Key Rate, Tap Interval, Hover Period, and Swipe Sensitivity.

Key Rate:

Key rate determines how fast the key repeats after holding it down. The two uses that I have found for this on the Storm include how fast it will capitalize a letter, and how fast it will delete characters. To test this turn it all the way up to fast, type something, then hold delete. I like setting this to fast to allow me to capitalize letters quicker. (Fastest:Fast, Slowest:Slow)

Tap Interval:

Tap interval determines the amount of time between clicks to register as a double tap, similar to double clicking on a PC. A higher value will allow you to double tap slower and still get the effect. Try using the browser and double tapping to zoom in to test this. (Fastest:100, Slowest:500)

Hover Period:

Hover period determines the amount of time you can place your finger on a hover object before it is registered as a hover. A higher value here will make the period longer, and require you to hold your finger on an object longer before the action takes place. An example of this is when you hover on a message in your inbox it will filter out all messages from that contact. You can also see the change when modifying text with the cursor. (Fastest:100, Slowest:1000)

Swipe Sensitivity:

Swipe sensitivity determines how sensitive the device is to flicking or swiping across the screen. You can test this by flicking or scrolling through images, or messages. A higher value will make this faster, and allow you to scroll and flick faster. (Fastest:(High)6, Slowest:(Low)0)

Recommendations:

What do I recommend to set these at? This is currently what I have setup:
Key Rate: Fast
Tap Interval: 100
Hover Period: 100
Swipe Sensitivity: (High)6

Explaination:

Fastest key rate, fastest double tap, fastest hover register, greatest sensitivity.

-DPollitt