Blackberry Tips

One of the best parts of the Blackberry user experience is its simplicity.  Sure there are tons of 3rd party apps out there that do everything from update your Twitter to integrate your Flickr account.  But at its core, the blackberry is a email messaging device.  That has always been it’s core function, and hopefully always will, although the Storm gives me reason to doubt.

Embracing your Core, and never losing sight of it is critical for a device in a market oversaturated with a increasingly varied array of Smartphone devices. On the flip side of the same coin, the ability to upgrade your performance and turn your device from a simple tool into a powerful one is equally critical to differentiating yourself.

Despite the lack of an integrated app store like Apple provides the iPhone with via iTunes, Blackberry devices have a remarkable number of add on apps and internal hacks that can really ramp up your devices power.

One of my favorite is to turn off home screen dialing, and turn on one-key home screen navigation.  The process is simple, from the main Blackberry screen, simple go to your call menu, click the Blackberry button, and go to the option menu, there, turn off the “dial from home screen option.”  From now on, when you are in the main Blackberry screen you can navigate through many of the native apps just by clicking a button.  So when you hit the ‘M’ key the Blackberry will now take you to your Messages rather than the M section of your address book.  Some other nav keys include ‘N’ for BB Messenger ‘C’ for contacts, and ‘T’ for task.  To help you remember, now the text below each native app will have an underlined letter reminding you of the quick nav button. 

That’s just one of the simple hacks, there are many more including this list of hacks and tips shared by a Student Nerds reader

If you have some other favorite Blackberry tricks or tips not covered, please leave them in the comments.