Marvelous Blackberry

When BlackBerry’s service goes down for several hours in the US, over five million people were struck by a curious malaise. The symptoms ranged from feelings of isolation and rage to severe longing, something very similar to drugs withdrawal. It just showed that people had become so thoroughly dependent — professionally — on their cherished wireless email that they even reacted emotionally, and some with paranoia, when deprived of this service. A woman even said it was easier to quit smoking than to be without a BlackBerry.

The BlackBerry phenomenon seems to have taken the world by storm. Earlier, many had avoided even looking at this mobile phone because of its clunky looks. But with the advent of the super slim BlackBerry Pearl, reactions changed overnight. The Canadian company, Research In Motion, which makes these phones, sold over 6.4 million sets in less than a year.

So what is it that makes the BlackBerry so captivating and addictive? It only has a 1.3 megapixel camera, which can’t even record videos. It, however, does have a decent video player. Its music player is basic, but with good sound quality. But the feature that gets you hooked to the device is its email. You can configure upto seven email accounts and synchronise with your company’s mail server. Those without a company email can subscribe to a BlackBerry account. It was this BlackBerry email blackout that caused heartburn across the world.

As you get to use this stylish and slim BlackBerry Pearl, you will find yourself constantly checking and sending email messages. Most people nowadays keep two phones — one for their calls and the Blackberry for email. Composing mails is fast with the QWERTY keyboard and SureType. SureType is much like T9 in other cell phones.

The Pearl with its EDGE connectivity lets you surf the Internet at a very good speed. A glowing trackball set just below the screen makes navigation a breeze. You can scroll vertically and horizontally smoothly without making a dent on your thumb which happens with other cell phones. Here are a few little-used shortcuts that you could use to enhance your BlackBerry experience.

Common shortcuts

In most applications in the phone you can use the following:

Move up: Press 3 to move up the screen.

Move down: Press 9 to move down the screen.

Top of page: Press 1 to move to the top of the page.

Bottom of page: Press 7 to go to the bottom of the page.

Home: To return to the Home screen, press the End key: The End key is the red coloured phone icon on your right beside the trackball.

Lock: To lock the keyboard, from the Home screen, hold the asterisk ( * )

key.

Unlock: To unlock the keyboard, hold the Send key and press the asterisk ( * ) key. Type your password. The Send key is the one with the green coloured phone icon.

Silent: To switch between the default and vibrate profiles, from the Home screen hold the pound ( # ) key.

Phone shortcuts

Put on hold: To place an active phone call on hold and answer a second incoming call, press Send.

Contacts: To view the contact list, hold the Send key.

Plus sign: To insert a plus sign ( + ) when typing a phone number, hold 0.

Message shortcuts

Compose: To compose a message from the message list, press comma ( , ).

Reply: To reply to a message, press the exclamation ( ! ) mark key.

Reply all: To reply to all, hit the question mark ( ? ) key.

Forward: To forward a message, hit the full stop ( . ) key.

Received: To view only received messages, hold Alt and press 3. The Alt key is the one on the bottom row extreme left.

SMS: To view SMSes only, hold Alt and press the question mark ( ? ) key.

All messages: To view your message list again, press Escape. The Escape or back key is just below the screen.

Typing shortcuts

Full stop: To insert a full stop, press the Space key twice. The next letter will be in capitals.

Numbers on: To type numbers only, hold the Shift key and press the Alt key. The Shift key is on the bottom row marked with a # sign.

Numbers off: To turn off NUM lock, press Alt.

@ sign: To insert an at sign ( @ ) in an email address field, press the Space key.

Select text: To select a line of text, press Shift and roll the trackball.

Cut: To cut selected text, hold Shift and press Delete.

Copy: To copy selected text, press Alt and click the trackball.

Paste: To paste the text, press Shift and click the trackball.