My dream BlackBerry: Storm with Trackball

I know this isn't a real BlackBerry, but it would be awesome.

You see, I absolutely love my Storm, but I don't like trying to accurately place a cursor or navigate web pages with the touchpad. Even with the mouse pointer 'emulator' that you can use on the browser, targeting a specific link, selecting text (ever try to do this inside of a text box on a web page?) is a frustrating affair.

So, I wanted to meld the trackball configuration of a Curve 8900 with the Storm 9530 and here's what I got.

RIM - Please make this for me!

How many of you Storm users would prefer a setup like this?

New BlackBerry Storm Theme: Google Android

Android Theme for BlackBerry Storm
http://forums.crackberry.com/f131/android-e-storm-edition-162626/

I've come to love my Storm (aside from some strange 'phone not picking up when I press the answer button' issues, but I've recently received a replacement phone)...and as all other Storm owners are probably doing, I've been waiting for some themes to come out that replaces the current Zen offering.

Not that I hate the default theme, but it is a little difficult for me to differentiate between the icons on the screen since there are no colors associated with them. I can only imagine that this is the case for a number of other Storm users out there.

Also, I am opting out of trying to find the yawnable/obligatory iPhone theme for my Storm, and wanted something new.

Availability of themes

In the arena of Storm themes there's not been a lot out there for us Storm users...until recently. The Plazmic 4.7 CDK (theme maker) beta has been floating around out there on the Torrent sites, and we are starting to see a few themes surface - - some good, some definitely not so good...but this one is great!

Of course, since the CDK is in beta, it should be worth mentioning that you shouldn't expect things to work flawlessly (although I suspect that this has more to do with creating the themes rather than using them). That being said, I've experienced no stability issues with this theme.

A member at Crackberry forums by the name of elycruz0102 has developed this awesome Google Android theme for the Storm.

The Google Android theme has offered me a breath of fresh air to my Storm, and as a result of installing it - I love my phone even more. The device even seems more responsive and allows me to find my apps a LOT faster, since they are colorful and distinct.

Most Storm default applications do have a themed icon associated with it - with exception to the app store and the installed Docs to Go apps - which is to be expected.

Problems?

I noticed that it moved my apps that I put into my 'Applications' folder into the 'Downloads' folder...not a big deal.


The only problem I saw with this theme is when I receive calls, the caller name is not centered on the screen quite right. Not a huge deal - certainly not enough of an issue for me to uninstall the theme.


***Update 3/14/09

My Talklock app didn't seem to want to work properly here, so my phone screen was still giving me the issue of hitting the mute button with my cheek while on a phone call. The problem here was that the 'turn off mute' button was then grayed out, and I couldn't press it again! Finally, I realized that if I hit the physical BlackBerry menu button, I could turn it off from there. I would consider this a notable flaw - this was in the AndroidX theme.

Variations

The developer of this theme has a few variations available, and they are all good, but my favorite by far is the android-X theme.

Check it out and let me know if you love/like your Storm just a little bit more after you use it.

Please be sure to throw a dollar (or five!) to the developer for this great theme.

Download (OTA)

• Android X
• Android 2 WB Edition
• Android 2 Dual Screen
• Bottom Slide Dock v1.3
• TodayPlus Version v1.3

Keep track of your friends: Latitude/Google Maps 3.0.1

Google Maps 3.0.1
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html

Social networking is everywhere: from LinkedIn to Facebook to Twitter to just about everything else in between, you can't escape it. Now Google is joining the fray (again) with the new 'Latitude' service in their Maps product.

Install Google Maps on your phone, enable Latitude (you need a Google account to do this). Your phone will update its location on the map, and if configured, will send updates to your friends' Google Maps as well.

So, if you want to easily meet up with friends or are just plain curious where they are at any time of day (is this a good thing?), you can find out how close by they are - maybe you can get together for an impromptu cup of joe/pint!

From Google's web site:

With Google Latitude, you can:

• See where your friends are and what they are up to
• Quickly contact them with SMS, IM, or a phone call
• Control what your location is and who gets to see it

Enjoy Google Latitude on your phone, PC, or both.

Sharing your location with friends is easy - you can use your existing Google contacts or custom email address and you can also tweak what you share with them.

Additionally, you can set your location manually if you don't want to have your mobile track you

everywhere you go. It would be nice if Latitude allowed you to 'Publish your current location' if you had auto-updating turned off...but hey, maybe next version, eh?

One thing I did notice - I have a Verizon BlackBerry Storm and Google Maps is only using the cell-triangulated location services. As such, accuracy is around 1800-3800 meters. I'm not sure if this is Verizon still locking out a portion of the GPS hardware to BlackBerry maps and VZW Navigator, or if there is some additional coding that needs to be done - - either way, a more accurate GPS would be appreciated (My guess is Verizon). I suppose in cases like that, you could manually set your location if you are meeting up with friends.