Application Aims: Attain Mastery Of Your Schedule

Reviewer’s Comments
Adorno! MultiAlarm Pro is alarm clock software that allows you to set multiple alarms to help you stay on schedule. Accessing the versatile tool begins by selecting ?Create?. From that point you can name the alarm event and decide on several frequencies, including fixed date, daily, hourly, or once. A handy weekly alarm option allows you to specify which days of the week the particular notification should be given. Choose from three alarm sounds or assign any sound or song that you have stored on your device or MicroSD card. There are also six alarm volume settings and a vibrate option. If you still find it necessary to procrastinate a bit, there are options that can be set in advance allowing for up to 15 minutes before the next reminder.

The user interface takes a bit of getting used to but ultimately is fairly easy to use. If you?re not careful it?s easy to set up an alarm but forget to activate it so when assigned time comes around, nothing happens?not at all unlike those nights that I judiciously set my alarm clock to get up earlier than usual but neglect to turn it on. Be careful that the alarm you?ve saved is actually activated.

Adorno claims that the application can be used to fall asleep to music but we haven?t been clever enough to figure out how to do that. We asked for clarification via their email link but didn?t receive a response.

Adorno! MultiAlarm Pro is good application for setting multiple alarms and provides a wide selection of options and is easy to use with a little practice. It?s available for a recently reduced price of $8.49 from the manufacturer?s web site, adornoapp.com. There is also a free trial available and we always encourage trials to make sure that the application meets your needs before plunking down your money.

Check out our BlackBerry reviews as well as our other application reviews to help you get the most out of your BlackBerry smartphone.

Download:?http://www.mediafire.com/?03aksfpybqvfk3l

Pass: kapresent

One of Canada?s leading marketplace for buying and selling vehicles, autoTRADER, was made more readily available as a Blackberry application a couple of months ago. Anywhere you are, you can whip out your BlackBerry and scour through listings to find the car of your dreams; like you need an excuse to pull out your BlackBerry anyway. If you find one that sports a Mr. Fusion, a flux capacitor and has the ability to fly, I strongly suggest you pick it up right away. Read on for more.

About autoTRADER

autoTRADER was developed by the Yellow Pages Group; who also have their own app for Yellow Pages Business Finder and Canada411 People Finder. autoTRADER is available for a wide array of BlackBerrys, including; the entire Pearl, Curve, Storm and Bold line-up, the 88xx series, the Tour and the Torch. It was made available in the BlackBerry App World on October 25th, 2010. The current version is 1.0.0 and has a file size of 573 KB.

BlackBerry App World rating: 2.5/5

Price: Free

Kicking the Tires

Each time you launch autoTRADER, the first thing it does it attempt to find you. You?d think it wouldn?t be too difficult, seeing that you are holding your BlackBerry and all. Your location is determined using GPS, but you can also enter your location manually. From the main menu, three drop down lists at the top of the screen allows you to choose what to look for, which city is your focal point and what you want your search radius to be. The radius ranges from 25km to all of Canada. If you rely on manually entering your location, you should know that autoTRADER does not save the last used location if you exit the application.

Through this application, you can search for items like ATVs, watercraft, heavy equipment and, of course, cars. Below the 3 lists are the main options you use to navigate. They are: Find a vehicle, Find a dealer, My Listing Alerts, My Favourites and Post and Ad (free).

Depending on what you selected as type of vehicle, autoTRADER will display a list of makes and models. After making your selections, a list of vehicles are presented to you. If available, details such as; images, asking price, mileage (or is it kilometreage?) and location will be listed. Almost everything you need to know about the vehicle can be seen with this app. Zoom in on images to see your future car up close and personal. Well, as personal you can get from a BlackBerry screen anyway. Within your selection, you could potentially call/email the seller, view the location of the seller on a map, potentially view their inventory, save it as a favourite or even post it on Facebook.

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When looking up dealers instead of vehicles, you can see their address, website and inventory. Again you can also call or email them. Unfortunately, it can?t divide the honest dealers from the dishonest ones. Selling a car? No problem, autoTRADER makes it easy to post your ride for someone else to take over. The fields are quickly filled in, which speeds up the posting process (and hopefully selling).

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Even through an app, a search for a car can be frustrating. autoTRADER includes a listing alert option that will email you when an entry that matches your keywords and search radius is posted. The frequency can be set to daily or weekly; depending on how desperate you are to buy a car. It?s up to you ? you can?t get as frisky as you could in the back of a car if you?re at the back of a city bus.

Conclusion

Like others, I found the autoTRADER app to possess a quick response time and detailed listings. Well not detailed in all cases. This of course depends on the one who listed it in the first place. The UI is crisp, clean and easy to navigate. I?m hoping that autoTRADER will reduce the stress I?ve experienced in finding a suitable vehicle that fits my lifestyle, needs and budget ? it hasn?t been fruitful so far. You can pick up autoTRADER, for free, from BlackBerry App World.

SNOW! You love to play in it and you hate to shovel it. In the lower mainland of BC, we don?t (typically) get as much snow as I did when I lived in Northeastern Ontario, but there are some pretty amazing locations in BC where you can enjoy many winter activities ? both outdoor and indoor (by the fire…wink wink, nudge nudge). BC is known for its many, beautiful ski resorts. Ok, before you think that I?m actually working in Travel and Tourism, let me get to the point. When looking for a place to travel to, you would probably want to check out maps and any kid of information you can see about the tracks or even the resort itself.

With this in mind, an application that you should check out is GPS Ski Maps, formerly BerrySki. GPS Ski Maps provides in-depth information on hundreds of resorts from across Canada, the USA and Europe. You can also record and view your runs for future analysis; whether you want a trip, season or lifelong summary of your skiing or snowboarding history. Let?s take a look at what GPS Ski Maps has to offer.

About GPS Ski Maps

GPS Ski Maps was developed by Bist LLC. The company also developed Topo Sports for Canada and the US. Topo Sports offers topo maps for use by outdoor sports enthusiasts. Basically, snow or no snow, BerrySki has you covered. GPS Ski Maps is available for BlackBerrys running 4.2 or higher ? but in order to make use of all of the features available, you need to have a GPS enabled BlackBerry. During the review, version 2.20 was used ? which has a file size of 322.9 KB (not including any maps you have downloaded). Keep in mind that GPS Ski Maps does come in multiple versions, depending on the number of resorts you wish to track you require:

For 1 North American Ski Resort ? $7.99

For 5 North American Ski Resorts ? App is $9.99

For All North American Resorts ? App is $29.99

For 1 European Resort ? App is $14.99

For All Resorts in a single European Country – App is $29.99

For all Resorts in Europe – App is $39.99

Rating in the CrackBerry App Store ? 5/5

Rating in BlackBerry App World ? 4.75/5 (average)

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GPS Ski Maps allows users to download ski maps with ease, though the time it takes to download varies; depending on the resort. For example; retrieving the Whistler Blackcomb map took upwards of 8 to 10 minutes. I wonder if they are looking into quickening the pace of this process. I?m itching to hit the slopes already! Just remember that good things come to those who wait. The map detail is pretty impressive, as you can easily see information that includes elevation, lift/transportation direction and a trail map.

When viewing a map, first time users may be a bit confused, as to the usage of colours. The colours are used to show the level of difficulty of each trail; Green Trails are for beginners (me) and Double Black Trails are for Experts (definitely not me). The application also displays out other Points of Interest such as; Terrain Parks, Parking, Bowls, Lodges and Restrooms. That last one is particularly useful if you crapped your pants trying out an Expert trail. The maps are simple to navigate, especially if you are using a touch screen BlackBerry. The application also captured important information such as the type of lifts in use (Gondola, High Speed Quad, etc). What I would like to see is just a little bit more detail with the Points of Interest in order to make them more, well…interesting. One idea would be to include a rating system based on what other users thought.

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Now while on the slopes, GPS Ski Maps works hard for you as well. Homing in on your GPS location, you can capture your progress. As you begin recording, your tracks are marked on the map, superimposed in a dark brown colour. This is used to tell you how much of the mountain you have tackled (man, you are all over the beginner trails!). As you are back in the lodge sipping on a hot chocolate (and sporting your latest cast), you can use this time to review your results. Any tracks that you have recorded can be replayed at your leisure; you can even use it to help you tell your story. In the playback, you are represented by a red dot on the map. The speed and path of the red dot mimic the path you have just taken. So if you ski faster at a certain point, the dot will move faster at the same point. Unfortunately, the dot will not record any screams of fear, but I?m sure a sudden (and drastic) decrease in speed will indicate a crash. Analytics from the recording include; the distance and time skied on each type of trail, the number of runs and your max and/or average speed. A Season or Lifelong summary will display the same information, and also includes the number of days that you have skied.
The developer has partnered with Mountain Dynamics Inc to allow users to export your recordings in a GPX format for future viewing and sharing via the SnowRanger Uplink.

Conclusion

GPS Ski Maps provides an excellent ?Seek and Record? solution for skiers and snowboarders, regardless of their level of expertise. The initial map download time may put a few users off, but hopefully they can look beyond this and be patient. In most cases, they have to wait for the slopes to be covered anyway. The recording playback is a great way to review your performance and should give you an indication that you need to stay on the bunny hill just a little bit longer.

For the longest time, I took my BlackBerrys camera and picture folder for granted. Don?t get me wrong, I loved being able to capture life?s precious moments and hold them dear to my heart (while in my pocket or in a holster). I?m referring to what I did with the images from there. If I wanted to do any tweaking to them, I would always transfer them to my laptop and get to work with Photoshop. I did get a little jealous of iOS and Android, as they had Photoshop Express. I wanted to see what I could accomplish with my BlackBerry, so I went hunting.

Today, we will take a look at a few of the best options for adding pizzazz to pictures, ingenuity to images and a fine finish to photos. Let?s compare and see what we can expect from PhotoClub, imgEdit and Photo Editor Suite.

imgEdit by Toysoft Development Inc

Rating at the CrackBerry App Store: 4/5

Rating at BlackBerry App World:? 4/5

By clicking on the imgEdit icon, you can choose the quality of image you wish to save (pick anywhere between 0 and 100%, but 80% is recommended). Next, is an option to select the pixel scrolling level (how fast you can scroll through pixels when selecting an area on an image), allowing you to choose between 1 and 10. Even though the menu of imgEdit has a button that says ?Edit Pictures?, it doesn?t actually allow you to edit pictures, it closes the menu and takes you back to the BlackBerry home screen (or whatever folder you decided to place the application in. Isn?t this a bit confusing? Shouldn?t it open up your native pictures folder? If you?re a little confused, the developers did include a help section that will explain what you can do with the application. A legend will help you figure out what each icon is used for. So through the help menu, I figured out that I have to go to the media files then choose ?open with imgedit? from the menu. It takes about 5 seconds before this command is executed. Here?s what you can do from the edit menu:

Under the Rotate feature, options include rotating by 90, 180 or 270 degrees. Here you can also flip or mirror the image. When you wish to crop, you open the crop window by moving right and down. You can also use your track pad to move the crop window around. Once you have the area selected, press the crop icon again. Fortunately, there is also undo option found in the menu.

I found that imgEdit did and well with resizing images, as far as personalization goes. When resizing, the application can decrease the size of an image increminents of 10%, or choose a size of your own percentage or pixel height/width. Using the Effects option you can apply the following effects: Black, Blur, Emboss, Flea, Grey, Interlace, Negative, Paint, Sepia, Sharp, Blk Rm, Noise, Scatter, BlurBac or Rub. From the menu, you can also apply the ?Warhol? effect. For Color (Colour for fellow Canucks), you are able to lighten and darken the image, alter the hue, saturation and brightness or play around with RGB values. I like the fact that the application includes a preview (or a before and after) option.

The Tools menu was a bit confusing to use. You can create lines, shapes, text, etc. It does take some getting used to, so take time experimenting.

Depending on which effect you choose, it takes anywhere between 5 and 25 seconds for it to take effect. At times some options were randomly unresponsive when I tried to select them and not all functions were made clear, without having to refer to the legend for each icon in the help section. It should also be noted that imgEdit can be used in both Portrait and Landscape modes.

More information/Download imgEdit from the CrackBerry App Store

More information/Download imgEdit from BlackBerry App World

?PhotoClub by MMMOOO

Rating at the CrackBerry App Store: 4/5

Rating at BlackBerry App World:? 4.5/5

I really liked how natural it felt to use PhotoClub. Not only was it quick to respond, but it did feel as though RIM should have incorporated its functionality already. While using PhotoClub, the images size is displayed above. You want to change the size? You got it. Under the Adjust option, users can crop, rotate, zoom in/out or fit to screen (width wise). The only problem I had is that I couldn?t specify the actually size of image I want, and I cannot choose an arbitrary angle to rotate by.

For some added fun, and possibly embarrassing pictures, PhotoClub comes loaded with clip art and frames you can add in. If you don?t see any that you like, you can search for more online from within the application. Clip art can be resized to fit the image, so if you wanted to add some sunglasses, you can make them fit no matter how fat the face is. Clip art includes speech and thought bubbles, so naturally the option to add text is there too. The font options include type, colour and size. Not to bog down on a lot of effects, PhotoClub does sport the following effects; Black & White, Negative, Sepia and Scenes (which turns you image into a billboard!). Don?t worry if you make a mistake when playing around with your Photos, nothing sticks until you hit apply ? and nothing gets saved unless you acknowledge. Once completed, you can then export the image from PhotoClub to a folder of your choice. I would have liked to see an option to export to email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Images edited with PhotoClub will display a watermark. The only way to not deal with the watermark is to buy the full version. One point I?d like to address is the lack of portrait mode I experience on my Torch. Though I will admit that Landscape mode is easier to work with ? it?s always best to give users a choice. In my opinion, PhotoClub provides a fun and quick way to make your images stand out without adding too much detailed photo editing.

More information/Download PhotoClub from the CrackBerry App Store

More information/Download PhotoClub from BlackBerry App World

Photo Editor Suite by Pepper.pk

Rating at the CrackBerry App Store: 4/5

Rating at BlackBerry App World:? 4.5/5

Photo Editor includes a ?Warhol? option similar to the one that is offered by imgEdit. In this case, it?s called a Pop Effect. The Sepia, Black and White and Colour Balance features are just as easy to use. Photo Editor needs to keep touch screen BlackBerrys in mind during development, as there isn?t any support for portrait mode.

The resizing option, though limited to 4 sizes, is uniquely presented. When I attempted to resize an image taken, I could choose from tiny, small, medium or large. Each size select displayed a file size and image resolution. I found this type of image resizing very straight forward, therefore saving time. Do you really need to follow resizing parameters while on your BlackBerry? The cropping tools really made excellent use of the pinch feature. Rotations can be made as well ? choose from 270, 180 or 90 ? this application also doesn?t allow arbitrary angle selection. As far as the colour palette goes, I was a little disappointed with the choice of colours you had; there were only 16 to choose from – a few also looking similar. These colours can be used when adding text, rectangles/circles (outline or filled in), or even drawing lines or freehand with a pen/paintbrush.

When using the pen or paintbrush tools, Photo Editor displays a pen and paintbrush for easy reference when you?re adding scribbles to a picture. The pen and paintbrush were incredibly responsive and allowed me to make very tight knit patterns. If you make any mistakes during your bout of creativity, the menu houses an eraser and an undo function. Once you are finished your masterpiece, you can select a frame to match (6 are available vs. 14 from PhotoClub and 5 from imgEdit). Photo Editor?s design is geared towards making editing images are simple as possible. It?s extremely responsive to touch and the trackpad. It doesn?t have nearly as many options as you would see with PhotoClub or imgEdit, but it is by far the easiest to use. This should attract those who are not looking to expect Photoshop like functionality ? but rather effectively simple alterations to pictures.

More information/Download Photo Editor from the CrackBerry App Store

More information/Download Photo Editor from BlackBerry App World

A Final Onceover

There are a few basic similarities between these applications, as far as resizing, framing and text go. The difference lies in the more advanced features, and what you can accomplish with them. It?s best to look at it like this:

• Have an urge to create funny images by using clipart? Look to PhotoClub for that.
• Photo Editor is there to help you with straight forward, simple, yet necessary image tweaking in a snap.
• If you?re looking to get the most out of filters and effects, and really get into fine editing of pictures, then imgEdit would be your best bet.

While looking at these, I did notice that quite a few missed some opportunities to take their functionality even further. What about more pen/paint brush options? Sure it?s great to doodle on a picture, but is it possible to change the brush size? The social networking aspect is missing in each of these. Nowhere do I see options to share via Twitter, Facebook or others. imgEdit includes an email option, but that?s it. Applications such as?MiniPaint?allow you to share with Twitter. I will cover that one in the future. Which image editing application are you are using? Which functions are missing that you would like to see? Let us know in the comments below.

Some of us here at CrackBerry.com are fans of the products that Fixmo Inc offers. In the past, we?ve had an in-depth look or two at their ever evolving Fixmo Tools application. That app just keeps getting better and better the more functionality they shove into it. For example: through Fixmo Tools you can, via WiFi, remotely print directly off of your BlackBerry. Through?Fixmo Extend, you can make yourself even more mobile. It allows you, much like Tether for BlackBerry, to use your BlackBerry as a gateway to the tubes ? I mean ? internet. Currently only supports Windows PCs (XP or higher), which is definitely a lack for Mac users.

So if you find yourself away from any WiFi network, and you need the power of your laptop, you can give Fixmo Extend a try. During the beta, you have 1000MB to play with in a month. In order to use Extend, you need to install software on both your computer and your BlackBerry. Oh and a USB cable might help as this is required to complete the connection.

All it took was a little fiddling with the APN settings until I was up and running, powered by BlackBerry and Fixmo Extend too. On my laptop, the Fixmo Extend App would display data transfer history, which was represented by a line graph. I could also click on the Export Log option to view traffic in detail. This allows you to keep an eye on your usage. According to Fixmo Extend, it requires 636 kb to load the CrackBerry homepage. Speeds while on the go were comparable to speeds while connected to my WiFi at home. I am hoping to see Fixmo Extend make use of Bluetooth in the future, so I can leave the USB at home. No word yet on pricing for the app (or even final features) when it comes out of beta, but hopefully it will be competitive to Tether. You can pick up the Fixmo Extend beta app for free from the CrackBerry App Store. Keep reading for more screenshots.

More information/Download Fixmo Extend from the CrackBerry App Store

Skype is one of the best ways to reach out to people for free or cheap. From your desktop or laptop you can enjoy free VoIP or Videos calls between Skype members. You can even get into group video calling. But what if you find yourself without a computer? Armed with your BlackBerry, you can still keep in contact by using the IM+ Talk application. Through IM+ talk, you unlock some of the features that make Skype so useful. Free and Cheap VoIP calls, instant messaging and file sharing between members; you are never too far away from those important to you (whether you can admit they are or not).? Let?s check out what IM+ Talk has to offer.

About IM+ Talk

IM+ Talk was developed by SHAPE Services, the same brains behind the fully loaded IM+ Pro all in one messenger, as well as Photo Translator (translate text captured in images), GPSed Pro (gps tracking and image pinning) and RDM+ (remotely access your computer from your BlackBerry). IM+ talk can be used with BlackBerry smartphones running OS 4.3 or higher. At the time of this review, the most recent version of IM+ Talk is 4.4.

The IM+ Talk UI is identical to the one used by IM+ Pro. Both display the time, battery level and connectivity status (Wi-Fi and Carrier) at the top. One tab will list your contacts and the other tab keeps track of your recent conversations. From the menu, users will be able to add contacts, so long as they are using Skype, SkypeOut or MySpace (are there any MySpace users anymore?). This can be a bit of a hassle if you typically use email addresses to add contacts through Skype directly. Now while you cannot make any necessary changes, such as grouping contacts or renaming them, you can see (very) basic information about a contact, including their ID status and which group you have assigned them to. From the main menu, you can see their avatar and status. In fact, their status is also captured by icon for a quick reference-great if you?re too lazy to read Online or Call Forwarding. You can set your own status as well, whether you use one of the standard, preloaded ones or one of your own. Any changes you make on Skype takes about 15 minutes to see through IM+ Talk, so don?t expect to be instantaneously viewing any edits you make.

Now keep in mind that you don?t necessarily have to connect via Wi-Fi in order to connect with people on Skype- IM+ Talk does allow you to connect over EDGE/3G. So long as you have a fairly decent data plan, you should be okay. In Idle mode, IM+ Talk does use 5kb per hour. The way calls work through the app, is called half-duplex mode. This means that you need to be mindful, similar to a walkie-talkie, of switching between talk and listen modes. Additionally, IM+ makes use of the callback feature ? meaning that you, as well as your contact receive an incoming call from Skype. You can also send out Skype SMS. This starts getting into Skype rates, which can be found here. IM+ Talk supports conference calls with up to 9 participants-perfect for conference calls on the go. A more frugal approach is the free instant messaging option you can use to reach out to your Skype contacts. This works just like any other instant messaging application, including file sharing.

Conclusion

While not all the options are easily accessible, the functions that work, work well. The app would cause my Torch to freeze at times (like when asking for my permission to record media). Other times, it would become unresponsive. This definitely holds it back from becoming an effective alternate way of using Skype. This only happens when trying to test call capabilities or make calls. Another cause of concern is the price tag attached to the application ? this rings up as $29.95. While Skype to Skype calls are free, you still have to follow Skype rates for other calls/sms. A price drop may help make this more attractive to users trying to decide whether it?s for them.

More power. It?s not just the Tool Man that?s looking to tweak and tinker in order to achieve that goal. Some do it with fewer explosions (and a lot less grunting). Admit it, when you get a new gadget that you love, a voice in your head will, without fail, say something along the line of ?Yeah?it?s cool..but?I wish I could?(insert awesome tweak idea here)!? Don?t fight it, it will happen without fail. Some choose to ignore it, others strive to attain it. Want an example? Try checking out BlackBerry App World or the CrackBerry App Store- they?re called applications.

Take the SixTools application for example. Recognizing what is available in OS 6 it adds ?what if? and ?how about? through shortcuts, alerts, sounds and more. Those who weren?t completely satisfied with what OS 6 offers, should take a look at the functionality this application provides. I?d suggest you put down the welding gun or duct tape and have a read on.

About SixTools

The application was developed by ShaoSoft, who is also behind a wide array of applications including; Wallpaper Changer Pro, Leave It On, Plug It In and BreakingNews. SixTools is available only for BlackBerry smartphones running OS 6. The most recent version of the application is 1.0.40, which has a file size of 177.1 KB

Cost: $3.99 (currently on sale for $2.99 in the CrackBerry App Store)

CrackBerry App Store Rating: 5/5

BlackBerry App World Rating: 4.5/5

The main menu houses 3 different sections from which you can enhance your BlackBerry to your liking.

Main?- In this section users can access options such as sounds, alerts, behavioural changes and notifications. Remember the BlackBerry startup video you watched oh so long ago? You can have it play every time you start-up. You can also associate sound notifications when your device goes into (or out of) your holster ? with the Torch you can also assign sounds to when you slide it open or closed. Also on your Torch you can auto-lock home screen in portrait mode, as well as add the lock option to menus.

SixTools provides an additional battery meter that displays a charge percentage beside the icon. It has a Precision view or Classic view available. You can choose to have it display all of the time or when it reaches a certain percentage. Additionally you can use a low battery alert that will make your BlackBerry sound an alarm (found in your profiles) and make your LED indicator a specific colour.

Lastly, you can manage the behaviour of your BlackBerry when connected via USB or docked in a cradle ? you can dismiss the USB pop-up after 5 seconds and unlock portrait when docked. I never pay attention to the USB Pop-up, so I?m glad to see it disappear.

Status?- Here you have access to the stats you need..and some you don?t (but say you have it anyway). By default, you will see standard info such as OS version, PIN, IMEI, signal strength, free device memory, battery level and battery temperature (both Celsius and Fahrenheit). In this section, you have access to the event log (no more pressing ALT+ LGLG for you). Network Diagnostics lets you see items such as Radio Access, Server names and verifies BlackBerry registration, ICMP Ping Echo and more. Each time you access Network Diagnostics, it re-registers your BlackBerry with your wireless network.

Shortcuts?- Yes! You know I?m all about shortcuts. I know I said it many, many times, but I miss having two convenience keys. What SixTools does is transform your volume keys, and mute/play key, into extra convenience keys! They can handle both native and third party applications. Of course, if you are accessing media or media apps, the shortcut functions will not work.

Conclusion

You can count on ShaoSoft to make sure your BlackBerry has all the right moves. This unique application does well with adding shortcuts and alerts. The only problem I saw was the startup video didn?t always play. I would sometimes only see a split second darkening of the screen upon startup. If you want to check out SixTools, it?s available for $3.99 (currently on sale for only $2.99) from the CrackBerry App Store.

Your BlackBerry slinks into the front door and carefully closes it. Being way past curfew, it tries to sneak back to its charging cradle before it gets caught. The lights flick on and it stops dead in its tracks. It knows it?s in trouble by the glare you?re giving it. You ask where it has been and who has been using it behind your back. Knowing it can?t lie to you, it (somehow) performs a self security wipe. In the morning it will forget what happened, as though it was in a drunken stupor. You?re not going to let it slide however. You have a pretty good idea of what it got up to last night; for you had?Tracesaver?installed and running those wild hours before the wipe.

Tracesaver keeps tabs on a BlackBerry when it is out and about. It records what types of activity it?s performed and where it is (or has been). I?ve seen similar applications being used for the forces of evil (or just plain sleaziness), but I truly think this is a great, cost effective method of keeping tabs on your kids, staff, or your own missing/stolen smartphone. Read on for a quick look.

About Tracesaver

The Tracesaver application, aka BBCallWatchV500, is brought to you by Metricell Ltd. Tracesaver is their free ?subscriber experience? option. Current version of the application is 1.8.1 and has a minimal file size of 156.6 KB

Once downloaded, access the application and register an email address you want to associate your Tracesaver account with. The rest of the set up happens from your computer. The Tracesaver application on the BlackBerry offers limited features. The main screen will display monitoring and network details. You will see data such as; positioning, GPS status, number of satellites and CGI (Common Gateway Interface). The application also has limited tracking abilities using a map. In map mode, your recorded locations are represented by dots, which provide details about date, time and signal strength. Besides being able to zoom in, out or snap to your position, there?s really not much you can do with this feature. The real magic can be seen at Tracesaver.com. The information that the Tracesaver application captures is sent to the Tracesaver site, either via email or HTTP ? you?ll be looking at 700 to 900 kb daily. It doesn?t provide live tracking, but rather recorded history of movement and usage.

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Tracesaver utilizes Microsoft Silverlight in order to provide an extremely smooth and rich navigation interface. To be honest, I was both impressed and a little creeped out about how much detail Tracesaver was able to capture. As far as reporting goes on the website, I can view any usage other than data. I?m going to focus on the reporting. so we will only look at two screens: My Day and My Calls.

My Day

So you don?t entirely believe that your son was actually at the library studying until 3am on Friday night? Time to log into Tracesaver. At this point, the route is plotted on an interactive map. Along the route, dots of multiple colours indicate the signal strength recorded at those points ? don?t worry, a legend is provided as well. Other icons are used to represent Call start /End points, dropped calls, data traffic, GPS interpolated position and network location. Not all icons seem to be used as none of my dropped calls were marked. My data traffic was nowhere to be seen on the My Day screen, but can be made accessible in the My Calls screen. A yellow line shows the route taken between the call start and end points. This way, you know if someone says they?re about to go into a produce store, but they?re actually in an Arby?s drive-thru. The map has four views to choose from: Road, Bird?s eye OSM (OpenStreetMap) or Aerial.

Despite being able to use my GPS with other applications to view my direction, Tracesaver didn?t seem to allow me to see the information on the map. The dots told me where I was at a specific interval, but didn?t show my actual path. When I clicked on a dot it also told me what was my Lat/Lon coordinates, signal strength, battery level, altitude and speed and accuracy (in metres). If you click on a call start dot, you will see the same information, plus the phone number dialed/called. Below the map is a series of graphs that can be used to view the same values over a period of time. In other words, you can see your battery level change throughout the day, your speed and how much your signal strength varied.

To the right of the screen, a calendar allows you to choose which day you want to look at. You can also see the details of the number in question (number, carrier, model, manufacturer and IMEI). Below this is the Route Details section, giving you an Interval by Interval list of which town the user was in, the duration, and the signal strength.

My Calls

My Calls is supposed to report on Today, Last Week and Last Month. I have never been able to access details about the current day, and the days from this week are grouped into the report for last week. The left half of this screen captures the quality of the signal strength, call, 3G service, coverage, data connection and data speed and uses a 5 star rating for each. Below this are the calls made in the specific report, with each indicating the date/time, duration, location, coverage, number of the other party, incoming/outgoing status, 2G or 3G network, as well as your battery life. The right side of the screen also makes use of the map and, as I mentioned before, I can also see when and where there was any data communication. It won?t say what it was, but it will tell me the upload/download speed and how much data was involved. The map screen can switch to a summary screen giving me details like my top 10 calls or locations and site proximity.

Conclusion

Before I say anything else, if you are looking at this for personal use, make sure the person using the BlackBerry knows that the application is on there. Stalking is a real no-no. Of course, it?s kind of hard to miss, seeing how it shows up under the active applications all of the time. If you?re looking to use it to keep track of your employees in the field, or even your kids, why not go with this free tracker? It also helps you learn where the weak or dead spots are for your carrier. I did find that the application was a bit of a strain on my battery life, but nothing significant. For more information on this service, head over to Tracesaver.com

We?ve heard time again how important it is to keep an eye on your memory and battery level. As hard as we try, there are times where we slip and forget to check. I?ve forgotten to close a few apps before flopping onto the couch to watch a movie or two. The next thing you know, my BlackBerry is almost completely drained. Nothing alerted me. I swear, if only my BlackBerry cried for help, I would have paused the movie to take care of the situation.

If you don?t have your BlackBerry in hand, SystemDash will keep you in the know. Battery level alerts are integrated into your BlackBerry profiles, while the app monitors items such as your available memory and battery temperature. Looking to save your battery juice instead of squeezing every last ounce of it out? Take a look.

About SystemDash

SystemDash was developed by Mobato Ltd and is their first BlackBerry application. It?s compatible with BlackBerry smartphones running OS 4.6 or higher, though there is no OS 7 support at this time. The most current version is 2.3.0 which has a file size of 185.7 KB.

Rating in CrackBerry AppStore ? 4/5

Rating in BlackBerry App World – 4.5/5

Cost $1.99

SystemDash is a hub of information about your BlackBerry smartphone; more specifically, its memory and battery life. It?s true that there are a number of applications that report on the same stuff, but I did like the UI of the application. It?s simplistic in nature, colourfully informative and customizable. In the initial view, without any tweaks, the following categories can be seen; Applications, Battery, Memory, Storage and My Device. Let?s take a peak at each

Applications?? On the main menu, this category will quickly tell you how many applications are running; divided into visible and background. Clicking on this category will take you to a list view of what?s running, in alphabetical order and with icons. The icons will indicate if the app will auto-run on start-up, is a background process, is a system process or will restart on exit. Clicking on each application will give you information such as its version number, description and file size. There?s no option to close an application using SystemDash.

Battery?? The main page displays a battery representing?well, battery life of course! The battery icon will display the general charge level, where a more accurate numerical value is shown next to the category title. You can also see the battery temperature and voltage. Click to go further into the Battery view and you can also see Camera, Radio and Wireless availability. If the battery level is too low, some of these may be unavailable. On the home screen, SystemDash provides a small battery icon with the percentage level next to it.

Memory and Storage?? The next two categories cover your flash memory and on-device storage memory. Look at the background colours in each- the lighter shade represents the free memory. Clicking on each category will take you to a screen where you?re given a breakdown of items and how much memory they are taking. In the case of Memory, it?s broken down into: Application, Data, Objects, Ram, Transient and Other. Storage is split into: Documents, Music, Pictures, Ringtones and Videos.

My Device?? This category shows you your PIN, number, model, platform and software.

Everything I just listed doesn?t necessarily have to appear in the order that you see; SystemDash allows you to shuffle the categories around. Too bad you weren?t able to hide categories ? I didn?t really need to see my device info.

Tools and Alerts?- Either from within SystemDash, or your Profile menu, you can set up alerts for when your battery level dips below predefined levels or when your memory has been boosted. If you went through the application to set these up, you can also choose to see a popup or not.
From your BlackBerry menu, you can access SystemDash tools for a quick memory pick me up or clean, view the event log (instead of pressing ALT+LGLG to access it) and clean the log.

Conclusion

SystemDash does a great job of monitoring your memory and battery life. I would have liked to see more options, such as which actions to take when levels hit a certain point. I loved how the application gave multiple views to satisfy those who prefer a quick glance and those to crave detail. Other commands offer an alternative access point for the event log, device info and charging status. If you want to check out SystemDash for yourself, it?s currently available for $1.99 from the CrackBerry App Store.