Once you go Black...

Things have changed over the past two months in which I haven’t posted any blogs.  It is an exciting time: I found out I am to enter the working world next year, I produced and edited material I never would have dreamt of doing 12 months ago, the watertank in our residence burst (wasn’t too overly joyed about that), and I became the proud new owner of a BlackBerry.

What a difference!

It seems the last couple of weeks I can’t do anything or go anywhere without it.  Smart Phone indeed.  BlackBerry uses OpenCOD, which is an open source initiative especially made for BB applications.

I’ve been snooping around the web trying to find some free open source applications for a BB and I found some pretty interesting stuff.

• KeePass for BlackBerry: this is a mobile version of the popular KeePass Password Safe for desktop computers, and it's an open source alternative to the default RIM Password Keeper that comes pre-installed on newer BB devices. The BB-specific version was written from scratch to take advantage of unique RIM users interface feature, and it's locked with one master password so you need only remember a single login for access to all your passwords.

KeePass for BlackBerry is available for OTA download and its source code can be found here.

• Berry Bloglines: The program imports users' existing Bloglines RSS reader account feeds, and unlike some common RSS apps, it offers not only short summaries of content within feeds but lets users read full articles without clicking to separate pages. It also integrates with Google's mobile content reformatting service so external pages reached via Berry Bloglines are optimized for mobile device screens. And once you've checked out a story via BlackBerry, it's marked as read in your desktop Bloglines interface.

The app can be downloaded OTA or via PC from TheBogles.com and the full source code is available here.

• BBTracker: The BB download tracks users' coordinates and/or altitude; records recently travelled paths, which can be displayed via line graph; tracks and charts elevation and speed over a given time period; and then exports it all to a mapping service like Google Earth so you can follow a path you travelled while carrying your BB. However, Internal GPS is a must.

BBTracker can be downloaded OTA, and its source code is available here.

• BlackBerryTools: This is a  package of five open source downloads that give users more control over BB functions like backlight, message reply options and spell checking. The utility also offers various weather and device status information, like battery life and messages received.  BBLight lets you modify your device's backlight setting so your display can remain lit for as long as you desire. BBToday displays the date, current time, messages, appointments and tasks. Weather information and forecasts are available via BBWeather. BBReply helps modify your message reply-to addresses, and BBCorrector helps spell check message. 

The five BlackBerry Tools are available for individual OTA download, and their full source code is available here.

So how about it?  I guess once you go Black, you never go back! Nuff said…