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Blackberry Pearl 8130 IMAP Email, IM & more

Jan 12 ' 08 now!

Blackberry Pearl 8130

Besides being a pancake juggler, I’m really into computers and making user experience better for me and for everyone. This is just for people with Blackberry Pearls (product 8130). I have Verizon service.

I went through a lot of frustration with my Blackberry when I first got it, but I needed a way to get emails and all of my lots of contacts. The iphone is really expensive at this point so I got the Blackberry pearl - which is smaller, sturdier feeling and costs me less than half annually of the iphone’s cost.

Before doing a bunch of this stuff, you can set up an address book entry on your computer called “Blackberry.” Then, you can browse on your computer and send emails (with download links) via text message to your phone. I don’t like mobile browsers. I like my computer best for that. You can navigate using your blackberry to this blog and get all the links you need at the bottom of this article.

did I leave you in the lurch? Email me with any questions.

What is IMAP Email?

This is tricky. I think the normal Blackberry email app is supposed to support imap, but it doesn’t support mailbox syncing. That’s important to me because I don’t want to read the same emails twice. I get an email on my computer, I delete it on my computer, I want the file to be in the trash can on my phone. I send an email on my phone, I want that message to show up in my “Sent” folder on my computer. This might not be important to you, but once you get the luxury of this service, it will be hard to skip it.

Making the Blackberry work for IMAP

I think I found some software that costs money, but I really wanted to find something that was free and pretty. Then, I found out about gmail for mobile - a supporter of real imap syncing. Their app was really pretty and simple (which is my main interest in these mobile applications). Problems:

  1. I wanted to keep all my sent emails from the past 3 years synced up on my mac and my mobile.
  2. I wanted to keep using my email address scot@jugglegood.com for incoming and outgoing messages and keep them all synced.
  3. That’s all I can think of.

Then, when I was about to put my face in a salad shooter, I found google apps mobile. Ah, you can use your current domain (in my case jugglegood.com) with google’s services. Problem #2 solved. Problem #1 was still hanging out.

Google offers IMAP transfer of old emails. Unfortunately they charge for the service. Aha, but the premium service has a trial period. So, I tried it. Paid $50 dollars, did my transfer which took a long time. Then, I found that I didn’t need all of the stuff the premium plan offered, so I quit. Got my money back — please, Google, don’t get angry — and continued using the free version.

did I leave you in the lurch? Email me with any questions.

Setting up the IMAP part

Gmail Settings

Web - went into the google apps inbox, changed the settings to support IMAP. then, clicked save settings or whatever and went to the configuration instructions to setting up a google IMAP account on Mail.app. I then removed all labels from my gmail account. They’re messy to me. It won’t delete your email messages.

Mail.app Folders

MacBook - Followed google’s instructions for Mail.app. I remember it not going super smoothly, but I figured it out. If I remember why it was rough, I’ll amend this article. I think I had to delete all my accounts to make that happen.

I’ll tell you right now, gmail will not look perfect in your mail.app. It will make folders in the left column that will be numerous and numberful — making it look like you have unread email waiting sometimes. I remind myself that people don’t like me and that clears that up. It makes duplicates of items that are in the trash. This won’t mess up the performance, unless you’re looking through the trash all the time. I haven’t figured out a way to undo deleting an email with this setup unless you go into the trash, find the message and drag it to the Inbox.

Go to the Mail.app preferences and turn off junk mail filtering completely. Gmail will filter your spam for you from now on. Now, assign folders on the sidebar, expand the gmail folder. Then, select the Sent folder. On the menu bar go to Mailbox > Use This Mailbox for > Sent and repeat this step for Drafts and Outbox and Trash.

Blackberry -Easy. Download the app. install it, and go. It all works for me.

That was the hardest thing. Figuring out Email. The other stuff was a little less complicated.

Oh, the last thing… you want your email program on your phone to know your addresses. You gotta import all your addresses to your google apps account ( via the website). Then, your phone will know the addresses before you type them out.

did I leave you in the lurch? Email me with any questions.

Instant Messenger

** edit: check out the comments for dennis who proclaims a free option

I didn’t want to pay for an application, but the only solution I could find is a nice clean package from Bee Jive called Jive Talk. I wanted an app that supported Gtalk and AIM at the same time. Downloaded the demo. Looked pretty. Easy to use. Only qualm is that it doesn’t maintain a user status everytime I log on.

Q: Do you have any recommendations on what
to use for MSN Messenger that can be downloaded and installed on the Pearl?

A: The client I use … Bee jive … Gives you msn access too. If you
only use msn and no other instant messengers, go with the free ms live
client. http://www.blackberry.com/devicesoftware/entry.do?code=wlm

Maps

Google Maps. Great. Verizon disabled the GPS in phones unless you pay extra for the service, but Google has an ever-improving location guessing system. It’s close enough when you kinda know your way around. Gives you directions, finds businesses and stores locations. It also shows a slightly inaccurate traffic map that is helpful living in LA. learn the shortcut keys for navigating the map and you’ll have more fun with it.

did I leave you in the lurch? Email me with any questions.

Browser

I tried Opera Mini, and it’s nice, but you can’t set it as the Blackberry’s default browser, so forget it. I don’t want perfect websites on my handheld anyhow. I just wanna find some information quickly when I’m on the road. Set up a few bookmarks and it’s a decent enough browser. btw: youtube has a mobile section.

did I leave you in the lurch? Email me with any questions.

Calendar

Tricky. I want my calendar to be synchronized with my phone at all times. I don’t wanna hafta plug in the wire to update them. I do all my calendar editing on my mac as of now, so that made things easier.

Sending to my phone: I set up two of my ical calendars to publish to my google calendar. Then, I use Google Sync application on my phone to sync them to my Blackberry Calendar.

did I leave you in the lurch? Email me with any questions.

Blackberry Wall Paper

Blackberry Pearl Verizon Wallpaper

Verizon’s Blackberry Wall Paper is ugly, So I made my own. Uploaded it to the web, browsed to it on the Blackberry, then saved it as wall paper.

Links

If you wanna come to this blog with your blackberry, here are the links you’ll need

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