I’ve been using a Blackberry for some time now, longer than I’ve owned my Macbook. Originally I was always under the impression that there was no way to Sync my Blackberry contacts and calendar with Apple’s iCal and Address Book, without purchasing additional software. So I was content on syncing my Blackberry data with Outlook on my Windows PC, then to my Gmail account in order to get this data to my Macbook. It was a pain in the ass so I never did it much. Typically just used my Blackberry device as my main source for everything and periodically would sync with my PC as a means of backing up in case something was to happen to my device.
Anyways I recently found a simple and free solution to Synchronize my Blackberry user data with OS X’s iCal, Address Book and StickiesNotes. It’s called Pocketmac.
A quick tutorial
If you need me to hold your hand through the steps
My setup
- First Download: Pocketmac and install it (you will need to reboot).
- Open up Pocketmac and attach your Blackberry device via USB to your Mac.
- Run through each tab representing your Blackberry user data (Contacts, Calender etc.) and check the desired OS X application you wish to sync with.
- Once you got everything checked, proceed to the giant green “Sync” button to the top right and click.
- That should do it, give it a few minutes to synchronize everything, and then confirm all of your user data made it from your Blackberry to your designated OS X app.
and heres a little doodle for the lazy, non-readers…
Since I’ve been talking a lot about cell phones lately I figured I’d share some knowledge I gave to a co-worker that saved her Blackberry the other day. I got a call on Monday from Kristen, She apparently had dropped her Blackberry in the bath tub while it was filling with water. The Cellphone was lifeless with no display or LED lights.
I instructed her to remove the battery asap, and use a blow dryer on both the device and battery until they were dry. After doing this for a few minutes, she put the battery back in her phone, tried to power it on and nothing happened, still dead. So at this point I told her to either leave it out in the sun in attempt to remove all the moisture form inside the battery/device, try a replacement battery and hope the actually Blackberry is not damaged or there was one last thing she could try that I recently just learned. Apparently leaving a soaking wet cell phone in a bowl of uncooked rice over night would suck out all the moisture and bring life back to the once lifeless cell phone.
Since there wasn’t any sun light available, she proceeded with the bowl of uncooked rice trick. The next morning her phone powered on and everything appeared as it was prior to the dip into the bath tub. She was thrilled and thanked me a million times.
Obviously if you are bringing your cellphone anywhere where you could potentially drop it into water, just be extra careful. In the unlikely event you do happen to submerge your cell phone into water and it no longer works, I would try the following steps before spending the money on a replacement.
- Remove the back of the phone and battery right away.
- Try to get both the device and battery dry as possible with a cloth.
- Use a blow dryer to remove the moisture that may have gotten inside.
- Leave your cellphone in a bowl of uncooked rice overnight.
- Leave the battery and the device with the back off out in sun light for an extended period of time.
- Try a replacement battery before replacing the device. Hopefully you have a friend with the same phone or maybe your provider has a shop nearby that would let you use a battery while in the store.
Up until last week I’ve always had to carry around 2 cell phones. A Blackberry 7250 for work which was payed for by my employer, then my personal Motorola Q which I was paying for myself. I was happy with this arrangement because the Blackberry had an unlimited data plan so I could get all my emails (personal and business related) on that device, so it wasn’t necessary for me to have data on my personal phone, which in result kept my personal cell phone bill reasonable.
One of my responsibilities at work is to maintain all the Blackberrys for our reps worldwide and I’ve been doing a good job at it for the past 2 years. Our company recently changed their expense policy so that reps can no longer submit their personal cell phone bills at month end, since we would end up paying for 2 cell phones per rep. We decided to pay for one device per rep, in result saving the company a lot of money. My boss told me to go ahead and port my personal line over to our corporate bill, upgrade my device to the latest model Blackberry and disconnect my current Blackberry. Which was needless to say great news, considering I wasn’t submitting my personal cellphone bill for reimbursement.
So now I have the latest model Blackberry (8830) with voice and unlimited data. I was able to keep my personal phone number which I’ve had for years now, and the best part about it all is I no longer have to worry about paying a monthly cell phone bill.