Happy Friday! To kick off the weekend, here are some of my favorite tips for BlackBerry® smartphone and/or BlackBerry PlayBook™ tablet owners.
1. Converting weights and measures
As someone who enjoys cooking, I end up doing lots of weight and measurement conversions. The Calculator app on my smartphone and tablet both offer built in unit converters that allow me to ensure my conversions are correct.
BlackBerry smartphone
1. From the Home screen or from within a folder, select the Calculator app 2. Enter a value, press the Menu key and select one of the following:
To Metric
From Metric
3. Select a conversion type.
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
1. From the Home screen or from within a folder, select the Calculator app 2. Swipe down from the top bezel and select “Unit Converter” 3. Enter a number followed by selecting your desired conversion settings.
If you have already done some customization of your BlackBerry® 6 or BlackBerry® 7 OS Home screen, then you know that you can hide panels. Something I’ve noticed among friends and family is that they always have the Frequent panel hidden — that is, until I point out how amazing it is.
If you have hidden this panel, complete the steps below to unhide it so you can start taking advantage of fast access to commonly-used apps, games and more:
1. From the Home screen, press the Menu key and select “Manage Panels” 2. Check the box next to “Frequent” 3. Press the menu key and select “Save”.
3. Reader mode for Webpages
Reader mode brings clarity to reading content on webpages in the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser; the surrounding website, ads, and other objects are quickly removed, showing only the content’s images and text in an easy to consume format.
When reader mode is available, a blue icon that looks like an open book (circled in red below) will appear on the top left of the screen. It works in both portrait and landscape mode and is enabled by tapping the icon, which then opens the content in a reader mode. To close the content, click the “X” to the left of Close in the top left corner. Now that you know how to enable reader mode, why not give it a try?
4. Setting up Contact Alerts
You can create contact alerts on your smartphone that allow you to customize ringtones and alerts for calls and messages from specific contacts, or groups of contacts. When you receive a call or message from the contact, your device uses the assigned ringtone or alert, even if you select the Silent profile or Vibrate Only profile. If you do not want to be notified with the assigned ringtone or alert, you can select the All Alerts Off profile.
1. On the home screen, click on the Sound and Alert Profiles icon 2. Click “Change Sounds and Alerts” and select “Sounds for Contacts” followed by “Add Contact Alert” 3. In the Name field, type the name of the contact alert 4. In the Contacts field, type the name of the contact and select a contact 5. Change the ring tone and alert information for calls and messages 6. Press the Menu key and select “Save”.
Purchased a new game that you love, or maybe a theme for your smartphone that’s become a new favorite? Let other BlackBerry smartphone or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet owners know by submitting a review of it in the BlackBerry World storefront.
BlackBerry smartphone: To post a review, launch BlackBerry App World on your smartphone and select “My World”. Highlight the item you’d like to review, press the Menu key and select “Add Review”. After entering your review, select “Submit Review”.
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet: To post a review on your tablet, launch BlackBerry App World and select “My World”. Tap the app to be reviewed followed by “Add Review”. When finished, tap “Submit Review”.
When leaving a review, your BlackBerry® ID screen name will be displayed alongside your comments. To customize your BlackBerry ID screen name, log in and customize your account details at the BlackBerry ID website.
You can also edit your account details on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or a BlackBerry 7 OS-enabled smartphone using the following steps:
BlackBerry smartphone
1. On the Home screen, select “Setup” 2. Select “BlackBerry ID”
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
1. Viewing the Home screen, swipe down from the top bezel to access the tablet settings 2. Select “BlackBerry ID”
