We just passed 500,000 followers! Thanks for making @BlackBerryHelp a great community. We <3 #teamblackberry #team500k ^PM—
Research In Motion (@BlackBerryHelp) August 31, 2011

Here at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog we are very excited to let you know that the @BlackBerryHelp community reached 500,000 followers! It has been an amazing journey since our team made their Twitter® debut, and I want to give a big THANK YOU to our half a million followers who made this day happen. We appreciate all your questions and comments, and hope we have provided first class support surrounding the BlackBerry products we all know and love.

I also want to take a minute to recognize the support team behind @BlackBerryHelp, who take your questions 64 hours a week! Their constant efforts have made @BlackBerryHelp an invaluable resource for you, our BlackBerry community.

As many of you know, for the past week @BlackBerryHelp has been hosting a #team500k trivia giveaway* to celebrate our milestone of 500,000 followers. This contest is intended for us to show how awesome we think our users are, and to thank our community with some @BlackBerryHelp swag! A handful of followers have already won – and we have more to give! For details on the contest, click here.

We truly LOVE helping our followers by answering their support questions and providing valuable information. Amidst all this exciting info, we want you to know that we are committed to keep helping our followers get the most out of their BlackBerry devices. Let’s go #team500k!!

*No purchase necessary. Contest open to residents of USA and Canada (excluding Quebec) hwo have reached the age of majority. Prizes avail: 10 BlackBerry Backpacks (ARV: $20US); 10 BlackBerry retractable chargers (ARV: $15) and 10 BlackBerry Sweatshirts (ARV: $30). Skill-test question applies for Canadian residents. Contest ends at 11:59pm ET on September 7, 2011 or when the last prize has been claimed, whichever comes first. Odds of winning depend on likelihood of being the 5th correct tweet amongst all eligible entrants in any given trivia question.

I come to work every day excited to work for a company driven to help our customers. I’m especially proud of the BlackBerry® community’s loyal and helpful Support Community experts.

As you may remember, a few months back, our BlackBerry Support Community had a facelift. What was once a basic support forum has been effectively transformed into a dynamic site that not only provides answers to customer inquiries, but also allows members to engage in active conversation with our BlackBerry experts, more formally referred to as Super Users.

We LOVE our Super Users, without whom the BlackBerry Support Community would not be the valuable resource that it is. Their BlackBerry expertise and enthusiasm is irreplaceable, and many community members may not realize exactly who they are. Our Super Users are BlackBerry volunteer advocates who contribute the most to our BlackBerry Support Community, some spending nearly 40 hours a week assisting others in the Community. They have special access to the Support Community and are frequently in direct contact with many of us on our internal team here at Research In Motion® (RIM®). If I may say so, our Super User program is unique and inspirational; it allows us the opportunity to empower our community members with BlackBerry knowledge.

As a result of our growing community – much of which we owe to our Super Users – we were recognized this year at both the Shorty Awards and the Social Customer Excellence Awards. And now our Support Community and our Super Users are up for two Forrester Groundswell Awards, for “Supporting” and “Embracing”.

Both of these awards are currently going through a voting process, so if you have ever visited the Support Community, I encourage you to cast your vote* and submit a review in honor of Team BlackBerry! See below for our submissions:

• How BlackBerry Turned a Discussion Forum into a Social Community
• The Power of Advocacy: BlackBerry’s Super User Program

* To vote, you can rate the award using the stars in the bottom right corner, and to write a review, click the orange box to the right of the stars.

Thanks for your ongoing support!

If you’re a regular reader of the Inside BlackBerry® Help Blog, then you know that on July 27th and 28th, we held our first BlackBerry Support Community Insider Event – and I am happy to say that this event was a huge success!

Over the course of the two days, we heard some great questions, gathered feedback and enjoyed the opportunity to engage directly with our Community members. Alex K, our awesome Senior Product Manager for the BlackBerry App World™ storefront (the hungry gentleman to the right of Community Manager Mitchell), responded to many questions and comments throughout the two day session, and he deserves a huge shout-out for his hard work – many of our members have expressed their thanks as well:

“Yay! Thanks for that update Alex, and I’m sure that will be appreciated by a lot of users when that happens. ”
- Krypto

“Hi Alex! Thanks for being here and answering our inquiries. Also thanks for making continuous improvements to appworld.”
- tanzim

The Support Community allows #TeamBlackBerry to share experiences using our products and services, and the Insider Event proved to be an excellent resource not only for our wonderful followers and fans, but also for the internal product team here at RIM. Alex was very pleased with the questions and feedback; so much so that we are going to continue hosting Insider Events on a bi-monthly basis!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the event – and if you haven’t done so already, please feel free to give us your feedback. We always love hearing back from you guys.

Our next event will take place at the end of September. Stay tuned for more info – you won’t want to miss it!

In the past while, the team over at the Inside BlackBerry® Blog has been taking some time to introduce you to their Community Manager team, with posts about Mitchell and Carolyn. So, we thought it would be a great idea to do the same over here on the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog.

If you’ve spent much time on the BlackBerry Support Community, you’ve probably seen a Welcome email from me and possibly received a Private Message or two as you’ve worked your way through the ranks. As a Community Manager, it’s my job to ensure that the members of the Support Community feel engaged and empowered. This means everything from welcoming new users on the introductions board, to figuring out incentives for users, to helping answer Community questions.

It’s my job to continually assess the health and growth of the Community and make sure that we’re always on the lookout for new ways to keep things interesting and engaging for everyone who visits us. In the past few months, we’ve done a lot of work to make sure the Community is moving in a strong ‘social’ direction, providing support but also being a place where users can feel like they’re part of a vibrant, inclusive and welcoming Community.

Beyond my visible participation on the Community, I spend a lot of time behind the scenes checking out new platform features, working with internal teams, and building strong relationships with some of our most active and awesome Community members.

On top of all this, I also work with the @BlackBerry team to send out tips, tricks and support links to all of their faithful followers. If you see ^KB at the end of a Tweet, that’s me!

So if you haven’t already, make sure you check out the BlackBerry Support Community and say hello. We’re more than just support – we’re social too!

A little while back, we gave you posts on Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones 1.9, with a focus on Facebook Places. Now, we’re super excited to let you know that the newest version, Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0, is available for download from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

The first few things you’ll notice when you log in on your BlackBerry smartphone are a beautiful new user interface and…wait for it…Facebook Chat! Today I’ll be showing you how to get started with Facebook Chat so you start chatting with Facebook friends right away.

To enable Facebook Chat, follow these easy steps:

1. Log in using your Facebook credentials.

2. From the Facebook homescreen, access the dropdown menu by selecting/tapping on the Facebook logo. (circled in red below)

3. Scroll down to the Chat bubble icon and select/tap it.

4. Click ‘Go Online’.

Now you’re all set. But there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind once you’ve enabled Facebook Chat:

1. You’ll appear online until you select ‘Go Offline’. To do this, select the menu key, then select ‘Go Offline’.

2. After 10 minutes of inactivity in the Facebook application, your status will appear as ‘Sleeping’ to other users. In the previous screenshot, the half-moon icon means that a contact is ‘Sleeping’ and may not be available to respond immediately, whereas the green circle means they are online and active – go ahead and send them a message!

3. If you no longer wish to be left online or receive chat messages, you must select “Go Offline” from the Chat screen menu or completely log out of the application by going to Options> Logout.

If you have any questions about the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 app including Facebook Chat, feel free to leave a comment here, check in with @BlackBerryHelp or visit the BlackBerry Support Community for further assistance.

If you’ve been following the Inside BlackBerry® Help Blog for some time, you know that the BlackBerry Support Community is my specialty. We’re always looking for new ways to engage our members and encourage new members to join the Community. With that said, I’m excited to announce our new Community Insider Events series! These special events will offer members of our Community the opportunity to get exclusive access to the people behind the products and services you know and love.

We’ll be kicking off our first event with the one, the only, the awesome Senior Product Manager of the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, Alex Kinsella. (That’s him in the forefront of the picture above, with trusty BlackBerry Community Manager Mitchell in the background!) He’ll be on the BlackBerry Support Community on July 27th and 28th to answer help-related questions from Community members about BlackBerry App World.

So if you have a burning support-related question about BlackBerry App World and can’t wait to get the inside scoop from one of our own, make sure to stop in during the event. If you’re unsure of a question, Alex will also be discussing support-related topics such as:

• Logging into BlackBerry App World
• Downloading Apps
• BlackBerry App World payment options
• Upgrading to a new version of BlackBerry App World
• Upgrading specific Apps
• Locating app icons on the home screen
• Deleting apps
• BlackBerry App World on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet

This session will start at 9 AM ET on Wednesday, July 27th. On the day of the event, navigate here and start asking questions.

Important Notes:

• In order to ask questions, you must be signed in. If you plan on participating in the session, but have not already registered with the Community, we suggest doing so before the start of the event. Click here to get started!
• To sign in:
  1. Click the Sign In link at the top of any page
  2. Enter your Login name and Password
  Tip: If you’re the only one who uses this computer, click Remember me on this computer to sign in automatically next time you visit
  3. Click Sign In
  Forgot your login name or password? Click “Need help with your login name or password?” and we’ll email them to you.
• See the announcement on the BlackBerry Support Community page for event guidelines.

We hope you’ll join us!

Today marks the 3rd birthday of the BlackBerry® Support Community Forums! While we started out solely as a support site, the Forums have successfully grown into the thriving, vibrant communities we see today.

It’s in honor of our birthday that we’d like to announce two awesome new initiatives: We’re getting a brand new look, and we’re launching the Forums in their own Spanish version at Foros de Soporte Comunitario BlackBerry. So not only are we adding some great new features and a cleaner, more modern look, we’re also adding whole new sites to accommodate our ongoing growth.

As we mature, we want to keep things fresh by making sure the Forums are inviting and easy to navigate for all users. From our valued Super Users to our New Visitors, we want everyone to feel as though this is a community they’re proud to be a part of – and one that they will invite their friends to join! With the redesigned look, you’ll see new features like the integration of our Inside BlackBerry Blogs, our Twitter® Support channels, and links to our other Community platforms like myBlackBerry, BlackBerry Beta Zone and BlackBerry Developer Zone.

You’ll also notice that we have added three top level categories: General Support, Business Support and Developer Support and further divided the existing categories under these top level categories. The redesign will not effect existing user generated content. All posts will exist as they do now, but will be divided under the new top level categories.

Our new Spanish Forums will also launch with the redesigned look and feel, and incorporate messages from our Spanish Twitter account @AyudaBlackBerry.

Thanks again for being a part of our community, and we hope you enjoy the redesign!

Have you ever run into a technical support issue while you’re out and about? Or perhaps you recently posted to the BlackBerry® Support Community Forums already and are waiting to receive a reply from the community? Well, we’ve got an awesome little-known secret to let you in on: The BlackBerry Support Community Forums are fully optimized to be viewed right on your BlackBerry smartphone!

The site offers much of the functionality available via your desktop browser, but displays in a clear, concise format to accommodate mobile browsers. Reading and responding to posts is as easy as it is on your computer!

To make it even easier to check responses, once you post your question, you can “Subscribe” to that message post. You’ll then receive email notifications when there has been a reply from the community, allowing you to view the response from your inbox. From there, you can click the message post link within the email and it will take you directly to the thread on the Mobile site.

Here’s a quick rundown to get you started:

1. Open the Browser on your BlackBerry smartphone.

2. Enter
http://supportforums.blackberry.com
.

3. Select ‘Sign In’ from the upper right corner.

4. If you’re already registered, enter your Log In credentials. Once you’ve entered your information, you can also click the box to ‘Save login information’ so you’ll automatically be logged in on your subsequent visits. If you’re not a Community member yet, click the black ‘Register’ box – you can easily set up an account through your mobile browser.

5. Once you’re logged in, visit the appropriate discussion board to post your question and click ‘New’.

6. Fill in the subject and body field with information providing as much detail as possible, such as: what BlackBerry smartphone you’re using, the BlackBerry® Device Software version you have, your carrier and any other information about the issue. To have emails sent to your inbox when someone replies to your post, click the ‘Subscriptions – Email me when someone replies’ box.

With these few simple steps, you’re all set and ready to access the BlackBerry Support Community Forums on the go, anywhere you have Internet access!

If you have any questions or difficulties with access, please leave a comment and let us know as we’d be happy to help you out!

Ever wonder how you can get even more battery life out of your BlackBerry® 6 OS smartphone? Lucky for you, the new user-friendly OS makes it even easier to fit more productivity into your busy life before you start running low. With a few quick and easy tips from your friends here at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog, you can get more life out of your device when you need it most.

Charging – Top it up!

To keep your device running in top shape, make sure your battery is fully charged whenever possible. Whether you’re at your desk, in your car or relaxing at home, keeping your device plugged in will ensure the battery is ready to go when you are.

Quick Tip: Wall chargers are the preferable method of charging as it is a direct electrical current to your battery which allows it to recharge quicker. Don’t have your wall charger handy? Check out this mini-adaptor to turn your USB cable into a one!

Screen Display

Take a look at your Backlight settings. Simply turning the Backlight off when your device isn’t in use will help to conserve battery life. An easy way to do this is to reduce the “Backlight Timeout” on your device. You may also want to reduce your screen brightness – you’d be surprised how well you can see when it’s not fully lit.

To Reduce Backlight Timeout
(Go to options > Display > Screen Display > Scroll down to backlight time out > lower this to 20 sec)

To Reduce Backlight Brightness
(Go to options > Display > Screen Display > Scroll down to Backlight Brightness > lower this to 30)

When your device is not being used hold down the ‘Lock’ button in the upper left corner to enter the BlackBerry® smartphone into standby mode.

Typing and Input

If you don’t need it, turn off your key tone. If you think about how many keys you press in a day, it can really add up.

(Go to Options > Typing and Input > Keyboard > Uncheck Key Tone)

Network Connections

Be sure to turn off any unused connections when they aren’t in use like your Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® signals.

(From the home screen, select ‘Manage connections’ – here you can disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi)

Browsing

Another new feature with BlackBerry 6 is the ability to create icons on the home screen. Save yourself from having to browse for your favorite website by creating shortcuts right on your home screen.

(Open the Browser to your favorite website > Press the menu key > Select ‘Add to Home Screen’)

Also, make sure to close your Browser when you’re not using it. Be sure to use the ESC key to exit instead of the red End key.

Applications

If you’re running really low and need to make your battery last, a final resort is to turn off all background Applications that may be running. Be sure to close the app by pressing the Menu key and selecting Close.

Also, keep an eye on your Podcast and social application updates. You might want to consider changing the frequency of your notifications until you’re able to top up your battery.

GPS

Keep in mind that GPS uses up power even if you aren’t using it. So unless you’re running Applications that require GPS to be on, such as BlackBerry Traffic or Facebook Places for BlackBerry smartphones, you might want to turn it off until you need it.

(Options-Device > Location Settings > Location Service > Location off)

Media

When your battery is running low, you’ll want to limit usage of your media player. If you aren’t using it, be sure to exit using the ESC key instead of the red End key. You can also set the default timeout to shorter interval within Media > Options. If you need to use it, reduce volume and use headphones.

For more great tips to get the most out of your battery life on your BlackBerry smartphone, check out this article on BlackBerry smartphone battery power saving tips.

Do you have any extra tips or tricks for extending your device’s battery life? Let us know in the comments!

I’ve written before about Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones 1.9 and the cool new feature called Facebook Places. But every now and then I’m unable to update my location, and I get a message telling me that “Your location is temporarily not available”. There are a few reasons why this happens, and I wanted to share this info with you!

When the message appears, this means that your current location – such as an elevator, an underground parking garage, or anywhere else that may have poor cell reception – may not be accessible via Facebook Places at this time. At this point, before you do anything else, try moving to a location with better cell reception. Ideally, you want to be outdoors, as it’s easier to obtain a GPS signal. In most cases, this should address the issue.

However, if the message is still appearing when you try to check in, there are a few possible reasons for this:

1) The attempts to acquire a GPS or cell site location have failed. This may mean a number of things, such as:
- Your wireless provider does not support cell site location service
- Facebook Places may not be able to obtain a GPS signal while indoors
- Your BlackBerry smartphone may not contain GPS functionality and is running BlackBerry Device Software 4.5, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.7 or 4.7.1, which do not support cell site location (see KB25069)
- Wireless service is not available at your current location
- A temporary issue affecting GPS may be occurring

2) Your BlackBerry smartphone’s Location Services are disabled or have been turned off.
- Check out my previous post to find out how to enable Location Services on your BlackBerry smartphone.
- There may also be some IT policies enabled that affect how Facebook Places functions – see KB24995 for details.

If your device is capable of providing Location Services and they are in fact enabled, you may want to check in with @BlackBerryHelp or visit the BlackBerry Support Community Forums for further assistance. You may also want to review this article from the BlackBerry Technical Solution Center for additional troubleshooting steps.

Let us know if you have any questions!