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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.

I know there are a lot of awesome ways many people customize their telephone. If you have a phone like all of your friends have it is a definite must. It is funny, I see a lot of friends come in our stores with phones like the Razor and they have the same color and the same phone.

There are several options like the standard leather case, skin, and hard plastic shell. On my phone I opt for the Otterbox, but some people send their phone to Colorware. Colorware is an awesome company that custom paints some smartphone devices. Naturally since I am writing about it, it is offered for Blackberry. The level of quality that Colorware provides is unmatched. They have great colors and offer a high gloss scratch resistant paint. Some celebrities like Mariah Carey and Jay-Z have their Blackberries customized by Colorware.

Colorware offers their services for some Sidekicks, iPhone, and Blackjack. So if you are not partial to Blackberry, send in your iPhone or Sidekick. They also paint computers, game consoles. music players, and HD Tvs. As always if you have any questions let us know.

I love my Blackberry and everything I can do on it. I can write and receive all of my e-mails in a very organized way, I can use a great phone, I can play games, and it seems with all the applications out there I can do a countless number of things. There are so many applications out there and one I am sure many business people have been waiting for is a Quickbooks application.

Now, I am not in charge of finances for our company, but I know that Quickbooks is a very important tool to make sure we are keeping track of all of our expenses and profits. Thanks to our good friends over at Blackberry Cool, they have let us know this is available for Blackberry and iPhone users.

So for those of you that manage your company’s expenses or those of you small or medium business owners that do it yourself, download this application now. On top of the hour a day Blackberry helps you save, this should make your life just a little easier. If you do not have a Blackberry TAKE THE CHALLENGE!

For most of us using our cell phones are as much a part of our everyday lives as brushing our teeth or going to school/work. So many of us need to use the phone whether it be for business or to chat with friends. One of the biggest things many lawmakers are trying to do is, get us to use a handsfree device (Like a Bluetooth) while driving.

I know some people feel like they may be talking to themselves or they may not like the device in their ear. I feel a bluetooth gives you the safety of being able to drive with both hands and not holding a phone, which at times also blocks your field of vision.

For the people that can’t seem to find any comfortable bluetooths to fit on their ear, there is a great company called Blueant which makes an awesome handsfree speakerphone. I do a lot of driving and the Supertooth Light is awesome. The calls are much louder than what they would be with the phone pressed against my ear. Not only that but driving at 70 is usually pretty noisy, and I the people I speak with say I sound great.

So I do support bluetooths. I support them for the convenience. I support them because they allow me and other people the ability to be much safer when we drive. If you do not already have a handsfree device please get one; Also, check with local authorities to make sure you are complying with their local laws. In some states they are the law, and there are cities and counties out there that require them as well.

Something that bothers me is when a customer does not purchase insurance on their phone. It is not a pet peeve, I  just usually want what is in my customer’s best interest and declining insurance is usually a mistake. Now for some, insurance seems pointless because the mentality is this phone was just $10 or this phone was free. So the thought is if it breaks I can go to the store and receive a new one for free again.

To be honest the free phone usually retails in the $200 dollar range. So if your phone took a swim and you bought it two months ago and do not have insurance, unfortunately you have no choice but to pay retail, that is unless you buy insurance of course. All major carriers offer a form of insurance for their phones, some do not cover all phones.

Please buy insurance it is worth it. We even make it easy for you, you can walk into one of our stores pay an upfront amount and have insurance for a year. If your phone breaks or has issues, you just walk right back in and get a new phone….that was new not refurbished. Not only that but we save you about $25 in a years duration. If you do not buy it please buy the carriers or a third party’s insurance. Make that small monthly or one-time investment and you will have the peace of mind that you did. As always any questions let us know.

We usually write about the newest applications we have heard about or tried, accessories, or the news in the wireless industry. We like to give tips and tricks on how to make your phone work for you, but seldomly do we recommend wireless carriers. The best carrier for you usually is based on your needs versus what they offer.

I have noticed that some Contract Carriers have had their credit requirements become stricter and have been asking for a higher deposit. At The Phone Store we understand everybody does not have a great credit score and we do not feel that you have to have perfect credit to get a cell phone. Boost Unlimited and Cricket are great pay in advance wireless carriers.

Most contract carriers offer unlimited plans for the $100 range. Don’t get me wrong it is a great value considering the huge variety of features that some of the carriers offer. But, Boost and Cricket both offer Unlimited Minutes for $50 or less. They both have very reasonable text or web options and a decent variety of phones.

Now beware, the rate is almost unbeatable with these carriers, but keep in mind they are ideal for people that do not travel out of their calling area. Boost Unlimited charges a 15¢ a minute for calls outside of your home calling area. In Texas they allow you an extra $5 attachable that gives you most of Texas and Oklahoma. If you wanted to go to New York you have to put extra money on your account so the minutes pull from your balance.

Cricket has some great options for roaming, and they include a certain amount of roaming minutes on their higher tier plans. Overall Cricket is the less expensive of the two Pay in Advance services, but has a slightly smaller calling area. They trump that with the level of flexibility and number of plans they have. So as always do your homework to find what is best for you, and if you have any questions contact us.

Okay, even though I work in the wireless industry I at times have to call customer service myself. Now what is the worst thing about having to call customer service? For most people it is wading through all the prompts of Push 1 for English, or say what you are calling for. Of course this is time consuming and does not always know what you are trying to do. Then if you push the wrong prompt, you usually have to hang up and start again. How frustrating.

Thankfully Fonolo is trying to make this ordeal a much easier experience. They have a flow chart for every company in their database. According to the Boy Genius you select the point where you would like to be (Customer Service for example) and Fonolo will call the company, go through the menus, and ring your phone when it has reached your desired destination.

I normally would pay a premium for this, and as much as we need to work with customer service for our clients I would be happy to pay this. The awesome thing is it is FREE!!! After I read about this service on my Viigo I immediatley went to the webpage and it is in a Private beta. I signed up for it and I am so excited I will be able to try this out. I recommend visiting the site and signing up for the beta to take advantage of their services.