First, yes, I bought a brand spankin’ new Bold. I may even give you a review of it once I’ve put it through all of its paces. While shopping, I played with a ton of touch screen phones and realized I don’t like ‘em. So I have no Storm jealousy. But obviously plenty of people love touchscreens, so the Storm may be for you (but not for me).
Either way, it’s time for me to share a few of my favorite non-Google BlackBerry apps I use almost daily. Oh yeah, they’re all free too, hopefully you don’t mind.
BlackBerry Messenger
http://www.blackberry.com/messenger
This SHOULD be installed on your ‘Berry, but I’ve run into a few people who either don’t have it (some older models) or have no clue what it is. Ever seen the option for PIN Messaging? Every BB has a PIN that is a unique identifier. It’s not a text message and it’s not an email (and doesn’t go through your email server). BB Messenger just turns your PIN messages into an IM-like conversation. Mine is 249E0101, feel free to hit me up, just make sure your name is setup correctly so I know who you are.
Opera Mini (http://m.opera.com) – Yes, the browser in the latest software version is great, but sometimes you need a little extra oomph. Opera is a full-fledged desktop browser and the (free) mini version ports it over to pretty much any cell phone. It’s a must-have for when those certain touchy sites won’t load on the build in browser or for those of you with older models that won’t support the 4.5+ BB OS.
TwitterBerry
http://orangatame.com/ota/twitterberry/
Yes, there’s also TinyTwitter, but I really like TwitterBerry more, so that’s my recommendation. If you haven’t heard of Twitter….ah, nevermind. Just get it, set it up, choose your auto-updates AND edit your profile so your phone doesn’t go off EVERY time the stream is updated 
Vlingo
http://www.vlingo.com/vlingo/blackberry.jsp – NOT a BB browser link
Voice activate web searches, sending text messages/emails, updating your Facebook/Twitter, creating tasks, dialing contacts or open applications. It works incredibly well, just get it.
http://www.blackberry.com/facebook
It’s Facebook. On your BlackBerry. Make sure your FB email gets forwarded to your BB for the best experience. It also allows you to direct upload images to FB right from the camera.
iSkoot
http://www.iskoot.com/register.php – NOT a BB browser link
Skype on your BlackBerry. Not just chat, but SkypeOut calling too! So I can call you using iSkoot on my BB and it will look like I’m calling from my Skype number, not my cell number.
Flickr
http://www.facebook.com/flickr
Yup, you guessed it, it allows you to directly upload to your Flickr account from your BB.
Qik
http://qik.com/sign_up – NOT a BB browser link
Not all BB’s are supported, but I think all of the 3G versions are. Basically allows for streaming video direct from your ‘Berry which can then be posted to a variety of sites automatically.
(Sorry, no graphics from me today, the $5 for a week hotel WiFi is a perfect example of getting what I pay for. The 48 minute expected time to upload a 2k file is brutal!)
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Consumerism, Geo-mapping columnist
Marketing columnist
Thanks for the tips Nick. I’m replacing my tired Treo with a Bold tomorrow.
Hey Nick
I’ve been rocking a Bold since October, it’s awesome for everything RE related.
Another tip, I find Google Maps to be much easier to use than the BB installed GPS, and Google maps uses GPS too.
PS a few of my clients work at RIM – you should see what they’re working on next
Ben from Waterloo, home of the BlackBerry
Ok well I have my work cut out for me. I use slandr for twitter on BB Curve and love it best as I can see faces.
Neato! I got a Curve for a Halloween present. (Seemed like a good excuse anyway.) And I LOVE it. I’m excited to try these aps out.
@Ben – I love gMaps too, but I decided to go for the turn-by-turn so I went with the AT&T Navigator. I may look into the Garmin offering though since AT&T Nav is pretty slow. And I’d love to see what they’re working on, especially since I’m one of their biggest evangelists
@Missy – I haven’t actually played with slandr, but TwitterBerry shows faces too
Kinda wishin I had a ‘berry now…
May have to shelve the Moto Qc9…
A friend had the Bold and he loves it. AT&T’s signal isn’t great in my area so I am looking at the BB Storm.
Looking forward to getting rid of my Treo 650.
NIck – Lots of great tools! I’m really not sure which way to go, Storm or Bold, because either way I will have to change companies. I may wait to see if Sprint gets the next new Blackberry toy.
I use MyCaption.com for voice email/tasks/calendar stuff and it’s addicting! But I’ll check out vlingo.com
do mention the agendus version for blackberry by iambic.com http://www.iambic.com/agendus/.....?cnt=todos
And I’ll definitely switch to Opera if it will help me click some buttons better.
Very satisfied Storm user who loves SureType
For the life of me, I cannot access the Blackberry-Flickr page from my Curve. I’d *love* to easily upload to Flickr from my BB. Any suggestions?
Jim, be cool and get a Storm
Love most of these applications. Not a fan of vlingo, my fingers are faster than my voice and I am often with others. Have never gotten the flickr ap to work with my blackberry. Love twitterberry. The first version of it was really poor but it has really improved in the latest version.
Just got the Storm last night and looking forward to learning it’s ins and outs.
Great Applications. I’m using the vlingo every day. Much faster than typing and I actually can use it while driving, at least while at stop lights : )
I love the Opera Mini. Can finally view PDF files online. Just one question is there a setting where it won’t ask me every time “The Opera Mini has attempted to access a low-level network connection. Would you like to allow this?”
There must be a setting some where to give permission for this so it doesn’t ask every time I use the brower.
I’m also using Qik, but the video quality on the Curve 8330 is so poor it isn’t worth uploading IMO.
Nick, Thanks for all these great apps/tools I’ll look forward to more great ways to pimp out the BB
tried Vlingo and love it for voice commands like websearch. Failed to successfully use it for longer emails and notes though and started using http://www.mycaption.com