A BlackBerry Users Blog

I just thought I would write a few quick updates to get caught up on a few things that have been happening. I now have two, yes two, BlackBerry 8330’s. Mine that I wrote about below and now one that work has provided me to upgrade my cell phone.  The new one from work is on the company BES servers which is great compared to the BIS that my personal one is on. Wirelessly sync’ed emails, contacts and calendar is sooooo cool.

I have added a few things to the downloads section of the site. Follow the link in the menu above that says BlackBerry Downloads. Some are themes and one is an app called ABC Amber Editor for BlackBerry. This is such a cool app for those that are not using Outlook to sync their contacts with. This will let you open the contacts from a recent backup file (I suggest making one right before editing) and change all the info in a contacts database file. After saving the file, simply reload just the contacts data from the backup file you just modified.

I have been busy as hell with work lately, summer is always the busy time for us. Most days have been between 12 and 18 hours with a couple 20 hour days thrown in for good measure. Too bad I am salary, it would have made for some great pay checks.

Well, that’s enough for the moment. I will try to get on more and make better updates. I also want to start throwing up some themes that I find and like and will be putting them on a seperate page so I can have images to go with them.

Well last Tuesday VZW added the BB 8330 to their website and made it available via telesales (new subscriber sales). I made a call to my contact at VZW and arranged to replace my 8130. Ya I know, I have only had the 8130 for 5 months, but I couldn’t resist. Since I had my 8130 replaced on three occasions I asked if it could be swapped out for the 8330 instead. She said yes!

So, fully set on stimulating the economy with my check from my Uncle Sam to get the 8330, I was quite happy (to say the least) that I got the 8330 for free. I was traveling to Virginia that day and would be gone for several days, that was a bummer since my new BB would be sitting at home waiting to meet me. So I asked if they could do a drop ship next day to my hotel room. She said yes again! WooHoo!

The next day (Wednesday) my BB arived at the hotel. I opened the box, charged the battery and swapped devices. I must say that the Curve was well worth the wait. I have played with friends Curves before (sounds bad huh?) and have been drooling over the news that Verizon was going to be selling it soon also.

Here is an image of the new Curve:

Thanks to my un-named source at VZW for her help and tollerance of me!

There have been many requests to get the Today Themes working on an 8703e with 4.2 OS installed.
Problem: The Today Themes will not work since it is missing the bbdimension_today file that it needs to run the Plazmic Today themes.
Solution: Below is a tutorial I have written to allow Today themes to install and run (the important part) on it.
Why does it work? The 4.2 OS has the Plazmic Theme Reader installed but the Today Themes do not use that file. By adding the bbdimension_today file we are giving the Today Themes the file they need to run the Plazmic Theme Reader.

Download the latest build of 8700 software from here:
https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads…2BAA6EBC8B872D

Select: (yes it is Chinese but includes English)
BlackBerry Handheld Software v4.2.1.192 (Chinese)
Package Version: 4.2.1.192
Consisting of:
Applications: 4.2.1.114
Software Platform: 2.3.0.88
File name: 8700C_PBr4.2.1_rel192_PL2.3.0.88_A4.2.1.114_Hutchi son.exe
File size: 73.36MB

Install it on your PC

Take the net_rim_theme_bbdimension_today_320×240_w.cod from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\<8700 OS Version name>\Java
and copy it to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\<8703e OS Version name>\Java (if the file exists already, replace it with the new one)

Uninstall the 8700g OS we just installed

Open your BlackBerry.alx file located in: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\<8703e OS Version name> and do a search (Menu Bar > Edit > Find Next) for “Theme” without the “”. Find the theme section that looks something like this:
<!– Theme filesets –>

Add the following after <!– Theme filesets –> tag:
<fileset Theme=”Normal” Colour=”True” series=”8700″ Java=”1.0″>
<files>
net_rim_theme_bbdimension_today_320×240_w.cod
</files>
</fileset>

Save the BlackBerry.alx file

Run Application Loader in Desktop Manager and it should prompt you to install a new update (the .cod file we added). Walk through the install of the .cod file and let the BB reboot if it needs to.

After rebooting try enabling the Today theme on the BB. It should load and run now.

Please let me know how this works for you. I have tested it before on my 8703e and it worked.

originally posted by me on PinStack here

Well, I had to travel to Phoenix, Az this week as I stated in my other post. Having the SuperBowl here this week and being here for work is like one of the greatest experiences for me since the NY Giants made it to the big game. I have been hoping to meet on of the players this week if I get lucky enough. So, when I missed my connecting flight in Atlanta, GA and was put on a later flight I was kind of bummed since I had hoped to have time to look around at the stadium and ajoining places the teams may be.

Anyways, when I got off the plane I headed to the baggage claim area (seems natural huh?). On my way there I over heard the guy in front of me saying that Jimmy Johnson was in the airport. Not thinking I had a chance of seeing him I continued on my way. I went outside the baggage area to get some air after being on planes all day, while standing there I heard someone yell “Hey coach!”. I turned just in time to see Jimmy Johnson walk behind me. Since I had my briefcase with me (I never check it, always carry on) I grabbed my camera and got off one quick picture before he quickly jumped into a white Dodge Dorango. No I did not take it with my BB, the battery on it was dead after being used all day on the planes as an mp3 player.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a Jimmy fan at all. Being a life long NY Giants fan you learn to dislike some of the other coaches out there (especially Dallas coaches). I just think it is cool to see a real life celeb once in your life.

So that’s the amount of my star seeing tonight….. the picture is below. Click for larger image.

I have added a new item to my blog. A photo album has been added that pulls our current Picasa photo album from Google, and adds it to the blog. I have added it as a page so you can find it from the link in the menu above or by clicking here. The greatest thing about this is all we have to do is add the images to our Picasa album and they will be automatically added to the blog. So now it is easier to find it all in one place.

Soon BlackBerry and Picasa will be introducing their new Picasa for the BB. That will make this feature truely great since when that is available I can take a picture with the BB, upload it from the BB to Picasa and POOF!, it is on the blog gallery with NO editing! Boy ain’t life grand…

And oh ya, one last thing… The Giants are going to the Super Bowl! Congrats to my favorite football team for going the distance when noone thought they had a chance. I will be in Pheonix the week leading up to the Super Bowl so hopefully BB and Picasa will release that new feature soon so I can post images of my Boys in Blue, should I see any of them.

I would like to welcome Cherri Chiodo to our blogging setup!

I have spent the last two days getting Cherri’s Blog site up and running for her on our servers. Along with the blog, Cherri is now using the SMF forum site also as a way to support her ever growing list of BlackBerry Theme users.

Cherri is a global moderator on Pinstack Forums, and is also one of their most popular theme builders. She sells her themes on various sites such as Handango and of course, hers. She will be utilizing the blog for her personal writings and also using pages setup in the blog software to list her themes.

Be sure to visit Cherri’s site and register for her support forums also.

 -Doughdaddy (Carl)

I have assisted several people on Pinstack with Plazmic installations lately and during one of the help sessions I created a page with all the download files and pre-requisites that were needed. I decided to post them here on the blog with their own page. You can find the link here or at the top of any page. Check the menu title Plazmic Install.

I hope this helps anyone that is trying to figure out what they need to install and what type of order to do it in. If this has been a help to you, please leave a comment on the page to let others know.

On behalf of DD, myself, and our familes we wish you a Merry Christmas.

I took this recently while crossing the Walt Whitman bridge out of south NJ into Philadelphia. Didn’t come out too bad considering I was driving.

So I thinking about going skiing sometime this winter. Looks like I will not be going anytime soon.

taken with BB8130