gordon.dewis.ca

Kyle over at BlackBerry Cool posted a first impressions of Facebook 1.6 for the BlackBerry article, which was released over the weekend. Since this is an app that I use fairly regularly, I fired it up on my BlackBerry and clicked on the “check for updates” link in the options menu. It reported a new version was available and took me to the over-the-air install site.

The first thing I had to do was select the language for the install from a pulldown menu. Oddly enough, the default language was “Chinese (Simplified)”, which could be a bit of a gotcha for some people if they don’t notice it. I was surprised that the default language wasn’t the preferred language in my browser; or simply pre-selected based on the language of the existing install; or just English. The download and install was pretty straight forward, but did involve a device reset, presumably because Facebook weaves itself into the address book, messages thingy and other base applications.

Firing it up after the reset meant accepting a new EULA, which was similar to other RIM EULAs (or BBSLAs as they seem to be called). It didn’t appear to have any Facebook-specific terms in it. After accepting the EULA, I logged in with my Facebook details and it started updating my friends list, etc. Like the previous version, it’s much more integrated with the BlackBerry calendar and address book than versions in early days were.

The interface itself is “prettier” than previous versions and looks more like the web interface. There still isn’t a way to use the chat functionality of Facebook with the BlackBerry client, but that’s not a huge inconvenience as I don’t chat using Facebook that often. Still, you would think that would be fairly straightforward to implement and is a feature that is noticeably missing.

The status screen has become a bit cluttered, but that could be fixed if they removed your profile picture from the screen. (I have a BlackBerry Curve 8310, which has a lower-resolution screen than most of the BBs available today, like the BB Curve 8900, so this may not be as much of an issue on newer devices.)

One commenter on BBCool said it was slower, but I haven’t noticed that, yet. There are many factors that can affect how quickly something runs on a BB, so it could be an issue with the commenter’s BB than a general application issue. I’ll post an update if I notice that it’s slower.

Though I’ve been blogging in one form or another for over ten years, I’ve just had my first article for another website published.

A couple of weeks ago a comment I made about an article on BlackBerryCool.com caught the eye of the chap who runs it. He emailed me asking if I would be interested in reviewing a BlackBerry application from their store. After a couple more exchanges I picked the Aerize Card Loader 2008 application and started to play with it.

I submitted my review this afternoon, which you can read at BlackBerryCool.com.

Well, 25:59 UT has come and gone.  This means that the bounty I posted for a location-based profile manager for the BlackBerry Curve has expired without being claimed. This is too bad because people who heard about it seemed very interested in it, with one even adding $25 to the original $50 I posted.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at 19:59 Eastern (23:59 UTC), the bounty for a location-based BlackBerry profile manager expires and I refund the money added to the original bounty to the donor.

It’s too bad because I think there would be a market for a profile manager that automatically sets the active profile based on where you are.

There’s only 8 days left before the $75 bounty for a location-driven profile manager expires.

I’d gotten my hopes up that someone I know who is a BlackBerry developer was working on something because he’d asked me some questions about it on Facebook, but nothing has yet to manifest itself.

Basically, I’m looking for an application that will run on my BlackBerry Curve that will determine the active profile based on location.  For example, if it notices that I’m near the building I work in, it would automatically switch to the vibrate profile so that it doesn’t go off in a meeting.  You can read all about it in my original post.

The original bounty was $50.  Since then, someone else has added another $25 to the pot.  If the bounty expires, he’ll get his contribution back, but I’m hoping it will have been claimed before that happens.

A tip o’ the hat to the crew at BlackBerry Cool for picking up my original post.

I’ve been looking for an application for the BlackBerry Curve that can change the active profile based on the time of day, location or both for a few months now.  I’ve found a couple of profile managers that change the profile based on time, including one that can use calendar entries to determine what profile is to be used, but none that are location driven.  Similar programs exist for Symbian-based phones, such as Handy Profiles for the Nokia N71, so this shouldn’t be rocket science.

The ideal application would allow a BlackBerry Curve to automatically change the active profile based any of the following…

1. the last-known location as determined from the GPS using proximity to a waypoint (eg: “when I am within 200m of this location, use the Quiet profile”).
2. GSM cell ID (eg: “when I am ‘here’, use the Loud profile”).
3. time of day/day of week ranges (eg: weekdays between 0900 and 1700, use the Normal profile).

Multiple conditions should be supported (eg: more than one location condition).  It should revert to the profile that was active before a condition was met.

Other BlackBerry users would probably be interested in this, too, so maybe a bounty will provide a little encouragement to the BlackBerry authors out there.

I’ll put $50 in the pot to get things started.  If you’d like to sweeten the pot, PayPal some cash to paypal AT dewis DOT ca with “BlackBerry bounty” in the comments.

Terms:

• The working solution must run on a BlackBerry Curve 8310 on Rogers.
• If the solution is not made available for free (i.e. is packaged as a commercial product, which includes “crippleware”), anyone who contributed to the Bounty must be given a free license.
• The solution must be found by 23:59 UT on October 28, 2008.
• If no solution is found by that time, I will refund the Bounty contributions (via PayPal).

A tip o’ the hat to Alex King who blogged about offering a bounty for tethering a BlackBerry 8700 to a Mac.

While poking around the CBC’s Olympics website, I noticed they had a BlackBerry icon for over-the-air download.  Unfortunately, the URL is long and ugly and not terribly conducive to being typed into one’s mobile browser, even with a full keyboard.

Fortunately, TinyURL let me turn http://www.cbc.ca/partner/researchinmotion/4-2/CBCOlympicsPageLauncher.jad into http://tinyurl.com/cbcBBolympics, which is much more mobile browser friendly.

Happy downloading!