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A few days ago Blackberry Messenger 5.0 leaked. It is available through download and install via desktop manager. Thanks to @0mie BBM 5.0 is available for download on most Blackberries as an Over the Air (OTA) install straight from the Blackberry Browser. Make sure you read carefully and you backup all of your information (especially your Blackberry Messenger Contacts) before you start this process.

I was so excited for the news, I installed immediately on my phone (Sprint 8330/Curve) and it worked like a champ. I installed on my wife’s phone (Verizon 9530/Storm) and  it worked like a champ. Once I did this I told everybody I knew that had a Blackberry to install the new BBM 5.0 and gave them a link to @0mie’s site. Of course one of my BB peeps @daytripper67 and a co-worker, Jeannette, lost all of their contacts on their BBM and lost BBM all together. I know this was hard for you ladies and I apologize it happened. Now for my initial thoughts on BBM 5.0

My first thoughts on the BBM were “very cool”/ It looked a lot better right from the start. Things seemed larger and fairly easier to scroll through. I remembered reading you could customize your avatar and I immediately did that. The cool thing is it lets crop the pic and as of now if you set an avatar your other BBM contacts will see it. If you want to add me my pin is 31A65D47 and my shirt says “I’m a Little Beach”.

You now have a tab that comes up for recent updates. Anybody that has updated their status, or their saying, or picture will all be listed here. I really like that you can pretty easily set group chats and you can also set a subject to the chat. You can still send a picture, voicenote, and file as before. You know can also send your location to a contact and you can even set up a proximity sensor. I leave mine off because the element of surprise is important to me.

I think contacts are easier to add now. I can add by e-mail, PIN, or can scan a QR Code. I love the QR Code and it is quite easy to do the first time you do it. You just have to choose “Scan invitation barcode from another Blackberry”, it will trigger your camera, and the rest is history. You now have the ability to back up and restore contacts on your memory card or device memory.You can now Broadcast a Message to all or a select group of your contacts, which I love because sometimes I feel I copy and paste the same message to several contacts.

Overall I love the new BBM 5.0. It was a little wonky the first day or two, but that is because I think it was on different servers. My BBM 5.0 experience has been very pleasant since yesterday. Two things I recommend doing before making the BBM 5.0 dive; back up your whole device, and make sure you have the newest OS on your phone. I think this may have had something to do with the contacts being deleted on the other phones. As always if you have any questions contact us, e-mail alex@thephonestoreinc.com directly, or you can message @gizmoalex or @phonestore.

Sorry for the late night post, but this is something I thought I posted before, but apparently I have not. There are some BBs and other Smartphones that have their MMS disabled. This means you can’t send a regular picture mail, you have to send it to an e-mail address.

I do not know about you, but there are some people I know that do not have e-mail addresses, but that would still like pictures of my beautiful Guitar Hero playing daughter. There is a way to send an “e-mail” straight to a person’s phone. Here are the codes:

Sprint : MDN@pm.sprint.com
Verizon : MDN@vzwpix.com
Cingular : MDN@mms.mycingular.com
US Cellular : MDN@mms.uscc.net
T-Mobile : MDN@tmomail.net
Nextel : MDN@messaging.nextel.com
Alltel : MDN@message.alltel.com
AT&T : MDN@mms.att.net
Boost Mobile : MDN@myboostmobile.com
Virgin Mobile : MDN@vmobl.com

I will update this as soon as possible with Cricket/Leap Wireless and I will make sure it still works for the new Boost Unlimited. Other than that if you have any questions please feel free to contact us, or if you use Twitter direct message @gizmoalex or @phonestore.

Ok, a few weeks/months ago I wrote about Slacker Radio coming to the Blackberry. I have been using Slacker and setting all my Blackberry customers up with it. Now comes Pandora, Pandora is a similar music streaming station.

When you log into Pandora the first time it asks you if you have an account (which I do) or if you are a new customer. You can set up your settings from here. I entered my e-mail address and password and pretty much hit the ground running. It had a list of my previously created stations (Bubblegum Oldies, where did that come from?). It has a pretty slick interface and seems to be very responsive.

I am on Sprint’s 3G network and after selecting my song it loaded very very fast. The main screen shows you the Album Art, Song’s Title and Album. There is a spot where you can “Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down” the song. This will play it more often, or stop playing it. You can also skip, I skipped twice before I didn’t want to try anymore (Creep Acoustic Version). The actual website only lets you skip 3 times an hour.

So if you like music and you have a Blackberry get this application. There are great alternatives like IHeartRadio which is really awesome because it lets you listen to some local radio stations. Slacker is awesome because it lets you cache your stations and listen when you are off network. Also, Slacker is only available for the Bold, Curve, and Pearl series phones. If you have any questions please contact us, or Direct Message @gizmoalex or @phonestore on Twitter.

Thanks to Twitter, I heard about a service called Contxts. It is a really simple idea, that seems to work pretty well the last few days I have been using it. It is a service that allows you to cut down on your paper business cards, and allows you to have somebody receive your contact info on their phone via text.

For example, I set my Username as gizmoalex, when you text gizmoalex to 50500 it will send you my contact info. You can set it up as you wish, but I have my name, mobile, work number, title, etc. Now would be a great time to do it, I just set my wife up, and because we are early adopters her username “Laura” has not been taken yet.

There is a spot where you can enter your Twitter or Linkedin accounts, among other social networking websites. It is a cool service, it is a free service, and it is a great way to make sure everybody gets your contact info. I do not know how many business cards I have lost, but I guarantee my phone is not something I tend to lose (often). If you have any questions contact us, or you can Direct Message @gizmoalex or @phonestore on Twitter.

The Palm Pre has been a phone I have been looking forward to since I heard it was announced. I really have been hearing cool things about it, and there are several videos which show off some of it’s features. One of The Phone Store’s close friends, Bernadette, is really a huge Palm fan and this is the phone she says she is most looking forward to….ever.

The Palm Pre is awesome and it has continued to impress me. They just announced Flash support for the Palm Pre. This is huge news since there can be Flash based videos or applications. This is the phone to look out for. As everybody knows, I love Blackberry. I am looking forward to the “Niagara”, but the Palm Pre could really change the game again. It should set a new standard on a business centric phone, having really cool consumer features. If you have any questions contact us. You can also Direct Tweet @gizmoalex or @phonestore. Also, the word on the street hints at a March/April release stay tuned.

That is a bold title, I know. When most people think of a phone right now they think iPhone. I have people walking into our stores asking for iPhones. They do not know what they do, they do not know how they would use them, but the know they want an iPhone. I can say the same thing for the Blackberry, just on a much smaller level, people ask for the Blueberry, or something along those lines, and do not really know what it does. They just know they want a Blackberry.

Well, there are die hard iPhone fans, and die hard Blackberry addicts. Both factions think their device is the best, although both also just dismiss all the good things the opposing device does. I think the iPhone is one of the coolest looking devices out there. It is very sleek looking and has a good “Apple” feel. It looks very modern and feel great in the hand. Blackberrys mostly are all a little different. You have the Storm, Curve, Bold, Pearl, World Series, and so on. I think the Curve is the most popular Blackberry and it looks nice, but not quite up to par with the iPhone.

The iPhone community is great, there are many innovative applications/games on there that I really like, some are JellyCar, Trace, Twitteriffic, and Spanish LE. There are hundreds more, and many of them are really cool. This is an area where the iPhone has pulled away from most makers. The applications developers have made for this really has made it a great device for most people. Both hardcore and casual users can appreciate many of the free and pay for applications. Blackberry has a ton of applications, but many of them are business driven. They are made to help improve operation costs for businesses, and Blackberrys (along with Palm and Windows phones) really help businesses run.

I use my phone a lot for e-mailing, texting, and talking. My good old 8830 aka “The Beast” was great, and my Blackberry Curve is just as good for that. A few things really make the Blackberry pull away from the iPhone in this category. For me the main thing is battery life. My 8830, 8330 Curve, and 9530 Storm have all had better battery life than the iPhone. The 3g iPhone is a little worse off, especially when you are using the WiFi. The other real major winner for me with Blackberry is the keyboard. The keyboards are great. I love my Curve and 8830, I have used the Pearl’s Suretype and it works well. Even though the Storm is touch screen I prefer it over the iPhone. It is much easier to not mess up on the Storm, and the keys are spaced a little further apart.

So do I hate the iPhone? The answer is no. I respect it, it is very cool, but I really need to have the best at e-mails and the best phone available, that is why I have a Blackberry. I have an iPod Touch because I do appreicate the applications, but until Apple steps up and improves a few things RIM is king of the hill. If you have any questions feel free to contact us.

Last time we covered some of the annoying habits we have picked up, or some of the bad habits we need to get rid of. Thanks to this article it has given us a great guide to what we should or should not do.

5. Texting while you are driving. Not only is this a good way to mis-spell a lot of your words while you are typing, but it is a very dangerous thing to do. I am guilty of it, and I have really tried to stop. It is really dangerous. I am usually aware of what is going on around me while I am driving, but texting really takes you out of the game. Not just texting, but e-mailing, Twitter, and so on.

4. Checking your phone at the movies. At Cinemark (The only theater in my town) Front Row Joe says no calling or texting during the movie. It really is annoying when the person at the movies is constantly checking their phone. If you have something so important to tend to, tend to it and skip the movie.

3. Interrupting a conversation by taking a call. This is self-explanatory, most of us have voice-mail for a reason. Let your voice mail pick up. You do not need to stop your conversations to answer every call.

2. Inappropriate Language/Conversation. Nobody wants to know what you did last night with your friends, or how you don’t remember after a certain point. Not only that, but it seems like when you have these conversations they are 10 times louder than a regular conversation. A good rule of thumb is to pretend small children or elderly folks are around.

1. Talking to loudly. This went with number two for me, but you do not have to put your conversation on anybody an a 100 foot radius. I am glad you are important, but I do not care if your pet squirrel zippy is sick, and I do not think the other people at Walgreen’s do either.

So that’s it, a few good rules to not do. Good luck breaking some of these habits if you have them. It is hard, but it is possible. Good luck!!!

I came across this fun article and thought I would share some basic cell phone etiquette rules. We all have our personal pet peeves for cell phones and what people should do and should not do with them . It is really funny my father in law hated that I used my phone for e-mail, games, music, new, and so on. He had a really simple ATT phone, and now he has the pleasure of using his Verizon Blackberry with his new job. I think he has seen the light!!!

So anyways here are 6-10.

10. Location There are places where you should use your phone and should not. Of course the movies is one place you shouldn’t. It does not matter how important you are, you can run out and take the phone call.

9. Disturbing Performances I love going to comedy shows and I have on a few occasions seen a person take/make a call during the routine. It is rude, and gives the comedian an extra target to go after. Save yourself the embarrassment and send a text, or leave the room.

8. Ringtones This is a hard one to gauge because everybody has really different tastes and what I feel may be appropriate may not be for you. SO here are my general rules. Do not have a ringtone with curse words when children or elderly people may hear it. Make sure your ringtone is quiet or appropriate for the work environment if you are at work.  You are not at the club you are at your job, so maybe Lil’ Wayne is not he best choice.

7. Texing insignificant conversations I hate it when somebody texts me “Hey”, I reply “What’s going on?” and they say “Nothing”. That is the whole conversation, there is nothing else said, you just made me type on my phone twice for nothing. Give me something significant to reply to.

6. Writing a text or e-mail while somebody is talking to you This is a hard one for me. I have my Blackberry and with it I take pride in responding quickly to e-mails. This becomes a problem when I am visiting with an employee or a customers. I want to reply, but I do not want them to think I am ignoring them. So I go with my instinct and either excuse myself to briefly reply to an important e-mail, or silence my phone and continue my conversation.

So I will continue the list tomorrow and hopefully you are not guilty of the top 5. It is fun to see what we do and do not do.

For those of you that read this blog, you know my love of Telenav. It has really come to my rescue on several occasions and is an application on my phone I will not live without. I like it so much in fact that I will buy( or not buy) a phone on its inclusion of Telenav. Now there are some people out there that do not have a carrier that provides the Telenav service, or they do not have a phone that has it integrated. For some of these people I recommend Google Maps.

If you have ever used Google Maps on your computer it is very similar. You can change between map view and satellite view, and it helped me on my trip over the weekend. Google Maps is another great application that helps you find where you and are, and helps you find where you are going.

Like Telenav Google Maps has a search built in, where you could search for restaurants, gas, streets, and so on. Google Maps follows your location and shows you which streets to turn on. It does not have spoken navigation, so if you did use it, I would recommend having a partner to help you navigate. I have not exploited all the features of Google Maps, but since it is a free application you can’t lose!

I have been in the wireless world for several years now and something that always intrigued me was the idea of tires that were integrated with bluetooth. Now with fuel consumption being such a hot topic, I was thinking of how something normally associated with the wireless world would help this dilemma out. Bluetooth tires were the first thing to come to mind and maybe one of the weirdest sounding useful things around.

Now, like many people we all lead busy lives, even if you do not work maybe you are a stay at home mom that has to manage the kids which is like 50 jobs. They say our tire pressure is something that can make a very significant difference when it comes to our fuel economy. I do not have time to check my tire pressure everyday, and sad to say even weekly. I know I should, but there is just a slew of things that I feel are more important.

Enter the Bluetooth Tire. The Bluetooth Tire alerts you when your tire pressure is low. It is not integrated to work with wireless devices yet, but should be easily introduced once it becomes more mainstream. Just think you get into your car in the morning and your tires send your phone a message as to what your tire pressure is. Or you get an alert on your Blackberry (or other Bluetooth phone) when you are dangerously low. This is a really cool and useful technology that we should be on the lookout for. To learn more about this product read this article.