Three apps BlackBerry does as well as the competition.

Posted By Ray Nicolini

Any BlackBerry geek knows what outsiders think of the BlackBerry. In fact, many people won’t hesitate to tell you what they think about the BlackBerry, even if you didn’t ask for, nor care about, their opinions. Some of it is just pointless snark intended to generate a cheap laugh. Some of it is the misconception that everyone has the same needs from a smartphone. To the latter point, the dominant criticism centers on the BlackBerry application library. It simply does not measure up to the competition. That’s for many reasons, not least of which is that BlackBerry users don’t necessarily need such a large selection. Since most mobile apps don’t appreciably improve our lives, we can live without them. Yet at the same time, there are a few apps that BlackBerry does better than the competition. Here are three that I use almost every day.

Facebook

It’s hard to believe, but the Facebook app has been around for a very long time. We first wrote about Facebook for BlackBerry four years ago — almost to the day. Back then it was one of the only mobile Facebook options. Now it’s one of many. Yet it stands up to the Facebook app on any other platform.

Seriously, go grab a friend’s iPhone, and then another friend’s Android. Play around with the Facebook app. Notice many differences between those and the BlackBerry app? Probably not. Then hand your BlackBerry to them. If they’re honest, they’ll admit that the navigation is a bit better. They’ll at least admit that it provides the exact same experience. (This works even better on the Torch 9850, since it has the same all-touch interface as Android and iPhone.)

If they’re not honest they’ll make up some excuses. But make no mistake yourself. The apps are nearly identical across platforms. RIM really picked up on this one. If you don’t have it, you can grab Facebook for BlackBerry from App World.

Twitter

This is an interesting item in the list, because I don’t know many people who use native Twitter apps. While the official Facebook app is clearly the best in the biz, the official Twitter app, no matter the platform, simply falls short of the myriad third party clients out there. And yet, when I browse through my timeline I see almost no Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android entries, but I see a fair number of Twitter for BlackBerry.

Sure, some people use UberSocial, while others use SocialScope. Yet I’ve found that Twitter for BlackBerry provides a rather simple experience that handles Twitter as well as I need it to. At the same time, I’ve found great deficiencies in the iPhone and Android versions. Maybe it’s because their third-party apps — namely Echofone for iPhone and TweetDeck for Android — are superb. But I could never get into the native apps on those platforms, while I continue to use it on BlackBerry.

The best part is that RIM and Twitter have continually updated the app, so it keeps getting better and better. It would be greatly improved if they allowed for a quick and dirty option to old school retweet something — that is, RT @username — but other than that it can handle basically anything you need. If you’ve seen the Twitter 2.1 beta you know there are plenty more awesome features to come.

Of course it’s free, so go grab Twitter for BlackBerry from App World.

WordPress

This might surprise you, since iPhone and Android both have powerful platforms that would seem more ripe for blogging. Yet there is no question that the BlackBerry WordPress app is superior in to both of them in almost every way. In some ways they’re more or less the same. But Android has some UI issues, while both of them don’t allow the same level of comment moderation as the BlackBerry version. On top of that, the BlackBerry has more options, including an option to view your dashboard in the browser. It signs you in and everything.

If you want a more robust comparison of WordPress across platforms, you can read this guest post at WordPress Tavern. It also contains a review of all WordPress for BlackBerry’s features.

As with the others, you can get WordPress for BlackBerry free at App World.

Your favorites

Surely there are other applications that are better on the BlackBerry than on Android or iPhone. That’s where our phenomenal readers come into play. Leave your favorite BlackBerry apps and let us know why they’re better on BlackBerry than Android or iPhone. If we get enough I’ll compile them into a post in the near future.

Via www.bbgeeks.com

Review: Carbonite for BlackBerry smartphones

By Ray Nicolini

Via CrackBerry.com

 

Carbonite Inc has been around since 2005. The company provides a nearly effortless way to back up and restore data on your computer. In fact, their motto is simply “Back it up. Get it back”. The days of not backing up your personal data are over, and have been for quite some time, so why aren’t you? There are many different options to consider; Carbonite is one to definitely look at. As far as security goes, they use 128-bit Blowfish encryption to keep everything locked down tight. They can handle all user generated files, no matter if you are looking at backing up a few documents, 200 GB of music or more.

As far as BlackBerry goes, they’ve added a few updates to their Carbonite application not too long ago. Through the Carbonite app, you can browse through, download and email practically any file you have backed up from your PC to your account. Is this the type of access you are looking for? Let’s take a peek.

Back it up. Get it back

Before you get started, you have to set up an account and install Carbonite on your computer. During the setup, you will be asked to give your computer a nickname and identify it as either a server, laptop or desktop. You can then choose what you want to back up – you can specify which files (documents, spreadsheets, presentation, images, music, etc) or folders you want. You can also select Programs files, email, settings and contacts, as well. Depending on what you have selected, your initial back up could potentially take hours. I initially selected 608 files to back up (roughly 0.33 GB) and it took 10-15 minutes or so.

 

Of course what we are more interested in is what the heck does this have to do with BlackBerry? Carbonite has a free application that acts a doorway to your backed up files. In the BlackBerry app you will be asked to select which computer you want to work with, if you have more than one set up. The files are organized just was they were on your computer – in their proper folders and directories (of sorts). In my case, the music I selected to be backed up weren’t technically in my Music folder on my computer. Files are displayed in a list by default, but you can switch the view to thumbnail quite easily. To further this, images can be viewed as thumbnails or you can download to view them in full screen mode. Each file will display its size and the date it was last modified.

 

Pulling up folders and files is a little sluggish. Downloading an image with a file size of 893kb takes nearly 30 seconds. Now with Carbonite, you can hit Send in the menu in order to download then attach them to an outgoing email. I guess you can’t use the excuse that the file you need is at home can you? When accessing audio files, you have the option to save or stream them. It seems to only take a few seconds for the file to play. I found that I wasn’t able to skip forward or back, as it continued to get caught up while buffering.

  

In order to access your account on your BlackBerry, you will need to provide the associated email account and password. In the settings menu, you can enable the application to automatically log you out, after a specific period of inactive time. Carbonite also includes a saved file section, which is said to be for quick access and offline viewing. It essentially downloads the file as normal, but doesn’t necessarily store it in the typical directories, and forces you to access the application to view it. I was a little disappointed that I was not able to upload any files from my BlackBerry. Similar services, such as DropBox and SugarSync, allow users to do so. I am hoping to see these options added to Carbonite soon.

The application is free, but requires an annual subscription for the service. Carbonite gives you unlimited backup space for $59 per computer per year. They do offer a free 15 day trial to see if it works for you. To compare, SugarSync offers various packages from a free 5GB plan to a 500 GB plan for $399.99 per year. DropBox offers start from a free 2GB plan to a 100 GB plan for $19.99/month. Services vary between each company; some may offer real-time upload of changes, others cannot back up every folder.

Conclusion

Despite not being able to upload my own files from my BlackBerry, I could appreciate the accessibility to my backed up files that I did have. Essentially, it comes down to how many options you want to have, and how much storage. If you want unlimited space with a few less features, it’s hard to argue with the $59 per year value. The Carbonite app is free from BlackBerry App World.

Official Carbonite site
More information/download Carbonite from BlackBerry App World