New Blackberry Storm

A few people have asked me about the new Blackberry Storm.  I got mine about 2 weeks ago.  For the most part I am very, very happy with it.  I am upgrading from a Motorola Q that I have had for over 3 years.  It had internet access and I could do quite a few things with it.  The Storm on the other hand allows me to do much more and do it better.  Here are a few things I use it for and have tried.

1.  I use it to connect to our hosted Microsoft Exchange Server to get email pushed to my phone instantly.

2. I installed Twitterberry (Free) to make updating my Twitter account ( and also my Facebook Statuses) easy.

3.  I installed the YouTube (Free) video player for Blackberry to watch videos and also the ones I have posted to YouTube.

4.  I installed Google Maps (Free) which is really cool.  It can find your approximate location and has very good detailed maps of what is around you.  The street level view is really nice.

5.  I have the Gmail (Free) application to check my “junk email” account.

6.   I have installed both WeatherBug (Free) and AccuWeather.com (Free) applications to get current temperatures to show up on the front of my phone.  I also easily get the forecast for the next several days.

7.  I have the Facebook (Free) application installed to allow me to monitor my Facebook notifications.  It also allows you to do other Facebook functions.

8. Viigo (Free) is installed which is a news reader.  I have it connected to my Google Reader account and it pulls in all the blogs I am subscribed too.  This is really nice when you have a few minutes and want to read some updated posts.

9.  MSN Messenger (Free)- Our office uses MSN messenger to communicate.  I can now chat which everyone from my phone allowing me to be in good contact with the office.

10. Opera Mini (Free) is installed but I am not sure how much I like it.  I would really like to see Firefox come out with a browser for the Blackberry.

11.  I installed Mobiscope ($19.00) which is really cool.  It allows you to monitor webcams that you setup.  You can setup a webcam at your home or office and watch it from your phone.  The quality is actually pretty good and it works well.  I setup a demo at home to test it out.

12.  One of the best entertainment things is “Moodio” (Free) which is a streaming media website where you can listen to radio stations from around the world.  If a station you like is not on there then you can often add it.  This is an amazing FREE service that gives you tons of different genres to listen too.  From African Jungle Music to ESPN they have it all.  And the quality is actually very good.  Please make sure that you have an unlimited data service.

13.  I have been able to take pictures on the phone and upload them to Facebook and also did a test video and uploaded it to YouTube from the phone.  Worked really well.

14.  We use Youmail.com (Free) to get all of our mobile voicemail emailed to us which works really well.

15.  I installed rdmplus.com ($49.95) which allows you to connect to your home or office PC from your phone.  You can download/upload files and even view/navigate your pc from your phone.  I installed it and did a demo and was able to exchange files.  Pretty cool software if you want to store files at home and retreive them while on the road.

Overall the phone has had little bugs but I am sure that later upgrades will make it better.  The Screen is 10 times better than my old Q and is very clear.  I like the “button” clicking as it allows me to confirm selections clearly.  The interenet browser works pretty good ( no flash support) and the speed is very acceptable.

If you have any other questions about the phone just post a comment.  Hope this helps.

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Every year during the Christmas Season we try to participate in a “giving” project to help everyone in the family understand the true meaning of Christmas is giving and not receiving.   On Sunday, December 21, 2008;  we put together bags for a homeless in our area. We found a source online that helped us decide what  items to put in the bags that may be useful to someone who is homeless.  The bags contained socks, granola bars and nuts (for protein), pain reliever, alcohol swabs, band aides, hard candy, a tooth brush and tooth paste, deodorant, a rain poncho, a reusable water bottle and a reusable bag to carry everything.

The bags contained things that we sometimes take for granted such as a pair of warm socks and a simple snack which we had to explain to 9 year old, Zachary and 5 year old Carson that even a pair of socks is something that everyone does not have and the granola bar may be the only food some people have to eat during the day. We tried to explain to Zachary and Carson that we are very blessed to have a home, warm clothes, and food to eat since there were many people in our area that did not have the things we take for granted.  Everyone enjoyed the project and I think both Zachary and Carson understood (in their own way) why we took time to purchase and put together these bags.

If the local shelters think that these bags will be useful we may continue to put them together through out the year, since Christmas should not be the only time of the year we should think about giving to the less fortunate.  The items that we used may we switched depending on the season but the reason for giving will be the same.

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