While having a conversation with a friend yesterday evening about the BlackBerry craze, he narrated an interesting experience. While in church during a marriage ceremony, two of the groom’s men were busy punching their BlackBerry smartphones. It took the preacher to call them to order. Even at that, one of them was still peeping by the side and looking at his phone every now and then.

This is just an example that I am sure you can relate with. The BlackBerry craze is everywhere. If you have never owned a BlackBerry, or don’t use yours as intensely, you might be wondering, What is this all about? I use a BB device intensely and have often asked myself how I would live without my BlackBerry. The truth is, that is exactly how many BlackBerry folks feel.

In this article, I will share with you how I use my own blackberry and the applications that have endeared the device to me.

Work
I need to be connected to the internet on both my phone and PC, because they are my tools for working and learning. For work, email is essential to me, and the experience on a BB is excellent. I have Gmail account setup on my device. It also synchronises my Gmail contacts with my phone. I can also customise my signature from the email set-up too. If there is any email that requires my urgent attention I am able to respond to it quickly. Yes; I know that so many other phones do that too. Still, that doesn’t take anything away from the BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Messenger is awesome as a collaboration tool. Not only can you chat with people,you can also send them voice notes, files, and pictures. I use BBM to hold meetings with teams I work with.

Play
I work hard and play hard too. I work in the mobile technology and social media industries. As such, tools like Twitter and Facebook are my trade. I use Ubbertwitter (now Ubbersocial), an app for Twitter and Facebook for BlackBerry devices.

I also have Snaptu installed on my BlackBerry. With Snaptu, I have access to Facebook, Twitter, my RSS feeds and so much more.
There’s also Google Mobile app, which includes, Gmail, Google maps, Google search and more via the browser.

WhatsApp allows me to chat with iPhone, Nokia and Android users.

The BlackBerry Catch
For me the main BlackBerry catch is its messaging convenience and how it is integrated with serviceslike Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Email, Gtalk and Yahoo Messenger. It may not compete with Android, iOS, WindowsPhone7 and Symbian in terms of number of available applications, but the BlackBerry’s communications capacity is simply awesome.

Another catch is the data compression technology. I have not been able to exhaust the monthly BIS subscription (See Why every Small Business Team Should Consider BlackBerry).

If I were using an Android, iOS, Symbian or WP7 phone, I am sure that I would need more than 1GB worth of data monthly (you know that costs N5,000 with Glo). If I were using mobile data on any of the other networks, I may have to use the mobile data plans of N1,000 per month which gives me just 100mb or 150mb data. Obviously with the many apps installed, that would not be enough.

Now you have it. I am sure many other BlackBerry users share my sentiments.

So, what is your own reason for loving the blackberry so much? Which blackberry apps do you use and why do you use them?

Some people just spite blackberry users due to the craze and attachment. Let’s hear from you too. Why would you never use a BlackBerry device?

All aboard!

Etisalat Nigeria has introduced two new Social and Email & IM plans on Blackberry smartphones as advertised in today’s edition of The Punch newspaper. The plans “give you the option to customise your Etisalat plans to fit your lifestyle while paying less”.

Social Plan

This gives you access to:

• Social Networking Sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter)
• Windows Live Messenger
• Google Talk
• Blackberry Messenger
• Yahoo Messenger
• 100 free SMS on-net

Features

• Available only to pre-paid subscribers
• No email access on this plan
• No browsing on this plan

Opt in code
Monthly: *299*2# (N2,000)
Weekly: *299*2*1# (N700)
Daily: *299*2*2# (N200)

Email & IM Plan

Subscribers to this plan get:

• Blackberry Mail (up to 10 accounts supported)
• Windows Live Messenger
• Google Talk
• Blackberry Messenger
• Yahoo Messenger
• 100 free SMS on-net

Features

• Available only to pre-paid subscribers
• No social network access on this plan
• Email and IM access will be defined on the device side
• No browsing on this plan

Opt in code

• Monthly: *299*3# (N2,500)
• Weekly: *299*3*1# (N800)
• Daily: *299*3*2# (N300)

The email client on the Samsung Jet is a fine piece of work. It supports SSL/TLS connections, attachments, archiving by folders, and forwarding of mails. It allows you to block incoming mails either by address or subject. You can also print an email via Bluetooth.

With the built-in documents viewer, you can read (but not edit) any PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint attachments that are sent to you as email attachments.

Yet, it has limitations. It has a maximum download limit of 5mb per mail, so any emails larger than that don’t get retrieved. But aren’t we just nitpicking? 5mb sounds like much for most users.

The mail client can be configured to retrieve mails at intervals of 30 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, or daily. We wish much smaller intervals like 5 and 10 minutes are available. You cannot set specific hours of the day when mails should be checked as obtains on some more advanced email clients.

In our First Impressions of the device, we mentioned that there is a generic problem that Samsung devices have with Gmail IMAP connections. While POP3 works fine with Gmail, IMAP is just more elegant for us.

We were still sulking over this Gmail IMAP issue (you see, we really like this phone, but we use Gmail IMAP extensively!), when we tried out the included Exchange ActiveSync application.

Exchange ActiveSync is a data synchronization service that enables mobile users to access their e-mail, calendar, and contacts and retain access to this information while they are offline. Fortunately, Google Sync uses the Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® protocol.

We set it up and within minutes, we were synchronising not only our mail, but also contacts and calendar. The really, really, really nice thing here is that Exchange ActiveSync has a PUSH option (which, of course, we enabled immediately), and our emails were pushed to the Jet real-time, Blackberry style.

The Exchange ActiveSync application also has a widget that can be put up on the homescreen of the Jet so you can have easy access to your mails.

Well, we have stopped sulking. For our most critical email services, we can actually ignore the email client totally and use Exchange ActiveSync instead. This makes up for any shortcomings in the retrieval intervals of the standard email client.

For example, at our sister company, Alireta, we developed our reputation as a respected Nigerian web host by staying online all the time (at least one staff is always online at any time), so that we get real-time support and server notifications. Any handset – smartphone or not – that helps us do that better gets a pat on the back from us.

The Samsung S8003 Jet is looking more and more like a complete worktool, needing very little help from third party applications. While we are certain that it is not literally “smarter then smartphone”, as Samsung touts it, this gadget has narrowed down the gap so much that we are agreed that this gets the job done for us. We’ve been smartphone users for ages, so coming from us, that is saying something.

Update 4th February 2010
There is an annoying issue with the Jet’s implementation of IMAP in the built-in mail client. Ideally, on IMAP, if a mail arrives on phone and is read, the status of that particular mail on the server is automatically changed to “Read” as well.

On the Jet, this does not work that way. Any mails read on the phone stay unread on the server, and you have to manually mark them “Read” when you access your mails via webmail.

We ask: what is the point of IMAP then? This is annoying, seeing that it results in duplicate actions and is essentially a waste of time for a busy person.

Coming soon: Did you know that in addition to the great 5 megapixel camera, the Jet has a really useful image editor, and (yes) video editor? No; we are not kidding.

The Samsung Jet is also your media studio. Don’t go away!

Smartphones are the buzz these days – those super-phones that allow you install a gazillion native applications and let you run scores of them simultaneously. Devices running one of Blackberry, Symbian, Android, OS X, and Windows Mobile are being pushed at consumers from all sides. The pitch, more or less, is that you can do more on your phone.

The question is, Do you really need to do more on your mobile phone?

While I appreciate the value of capable smartphones, it is still my position that unless you need the capabilities they offer, you do not need one.

I once read the interview of the CEO of a large ICT form in Nigeria on the pages of a technology magazine. He was the proud owner of a Nokia 9500 Symbian smartphone at the time. When asked what activities he carried out on the mobile beast, he listed – wait for it – phone calls and text messaging. When prodded further if he did anything else beyond those, he added that he takes pictures of his kids once in a while.

For the benefits of those who do not know what the 9500 is capable of (I still have my old unit), I ran both my personal and office mail on mine, accessed web server accounts on the built-in web browser when out of reach of my PC, used Yahoo Messenger, edited Word and PowerPoint documents with it, read PDF files, took pictures, sent and recived faxes, downloaded files from the internet, beamed files via infrared and bluetooth, and studied the Bible, as well as preached from it.

Oh, yes; I must add that I made a few phone calls and managed SMS on the venerable 9500.

While I do not expect that everyone – even most people – would use a capable device like the 9500 as intensive as I did, if all someone does is voice calls, SMS and picture taking, he does not need a smartphone.

As a matter of fact, even if someone adds basic email management to that list, he does not need a smartphone. I have a low-end Nokia 1680 (costs about N10, 000) which handles basic POP/IMAP email and attachments over a GPRS/EDGE connection. And it handles it well. If he needs a touch of class to go with that, how about a Nokia 8800 Gold Arte instead?

Do you really need a smartphone? Perhaps what you need is a cameraphone, or a music phone? If you think you need a smartphone, what are the activities that you need one for?

Most current mid-tier and all current high-end mobile phones have built-in email clients in their Messaging menu. This means that you can recieve, manage and respond to your emails on your phone. Benefits include having access to your mail when away from your desktop or notebook. You can always fire a quick and short response, and then follow it up with a detailed response later.

Setting Up

1. The email account you want to setup on your phone must be either POP3 or IMAP (the latter is better). This includes Gmail, corporate email accounts, and premium (not free) Yahoo email accounts.

2. You need to have a full internet serviccee on your line via GPRS, EDGE, 3G or HSDPA. WAP internet won’t do. Luckilly, all the 4 GSM networks now offer full internet to pay-as-you-go subscribers.

3. You need to know your mail servers, both incoming and outgoing. These are usually in the format: mail.domain.com, imap.domain.com, smtp.domain.com. There must be two of them, though in some cases the two may be the same.

4. Your email username (usually the full email address) and its password

If you have all the above, simply go into your Messaging settings menu and input them in their respective fields. During setup, choose IMAp as mail service type. If your account does not run IMAP, then opt for POP3. Ask your webmaster or company technical support members for help if necesarry.

Some mail clients offer the option to set automatic retrieval, such that at the set times or intervals, the phone connects to your mail server to download new mails.

Let me know how it goes setting up your email account on your phone. I’ll be here to guide you through the tough spots if you run into trouble.

Every year, to mark my birthday, I treat myself to a new mobile phone. Usually, it is a smartphone. This year, however, I have departed slightly from the regular pattern and gotten myself a mid-tier non-smartphone.

While traditionally a Nokia and Sony Ericsson fan, I have been getting quite adventurous for some time now, straying into the territory of other manufacturers, including Palm and Samsung. Well, the adventurous streak in me is apparently still at work.

I got myself an LG this time. My very first LG. Yes; life’s good!

The LG KS360

The KS360 is an interesting device from LG that sports a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a stunning 240 x 320 pixel, 2.4 inch, display with touch screen dialling functionality, GPRS and EDGE, Bluetooth, 2 MPX camera, FM radio, threaded SMS view, and microSD slot, among others. It is primarilly targeted at heavy messaging people.

KS360 beside the E90

The size difference is amazing! The KS360 is the size of a regular phone and weighs only 108g.

The KS360 with Keyboard Slid Out

I’ll be doing a full review soon, so watch this space!

I am not sure why, but articles on Zain Mobile Internet are extremely popular on Mobility Nigeria. As a matter of fact, the top two items in terms of page views on this site are about Zain Mobile Internet.

Perhaps, part of the reason for their popularity can be attributed to the elusiveness of full internet service on prepaid lines. For quite a while, Zain Nigeria’s official policy is that only WAP is available to prepaid subscribers. This means POP3/IMAP mail cannot be used, and instant messaging apps won’t work, among others. See: From Celtel to Zain; GPRS further restricted, published in August last year.

Earlier this year, I demonstrated that with minimal tweaking, email (POP/IMAP) indeed works on the Zain network (Zain Data works on Phones for Web and Email). But IM apps didn’t.

Last Saturday, however, I receeived an SMS from Zain stating in part:

New from Zain! Internet Browsing, MMS & downloads now possible on your handset!

That sounded to me like Zain had done a rethink of their rather backward policy of limiting prepaid lines to WAP access only. I had some spare time yesterday and dashed over to the nearest Zain outlet, where I requested for full internet provisioning.

I was told that the system was problematic, but the guy I spoke with took down my details anyway. I got home around 5p.m. today and a few minutes later, I received an SMS configuration on my device. I saved it, took a peek and saw full internet settings.

In a few minutes, I was chatting on Yahoo Messenger via Slick, checking my mails, and doing all sorts of stuff. No tweaks. Just straight out-of-the-box.

There’s still neither EDGE nor 3G at my location. Yes; its gross. This is Lagos, where every other 3G-enabled network has almost seamless coverage.

So, it is official. Full internet is now available for prepaid subscribers on the Zain network. By the way, I got another SMS announcing that Blackberry service is also now available for prepaid subscribers.

Hop over to a Zain centre and specify that you want full internet service activated on your line. Then you can forget about using proxies in order to be able to browse on your PC. Alternatively, send SMS in the format, “internet sonyericsson P910i”, to 232 to get activated. If it doesn’t work, keep trying.

For those who may find the Zain internet configuration settings useful, here they are:

APN: internet.ng.zain.com
Username: internet
Password: internet
IP/Proxy: None

Well done, Zain. You are late, but hey, we’ll still throw a welcome party! And while we are at it, please extend EDGE and 3G coverage some more please.

Update: Official Zain Internet Provisioning: An Update

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