Traveling abroad with your BlackBerry smartphone is quite convenient because you can still receive all your emails wherever you are in the world. On the other hand you might be confronted with significant costs associated with data use and roaming costs. If you are used to a data flat rate in your home country you can quickly end up with several hundred dollars additional costs on your phone bill.

While turning off your BlackBerry will prevent that you receive emails it also means that you can’t be reached via phone.

Fortunately BlackBerry smartphones have included an option to turn off this email service.

Turn of email but not phone services

If you want to turn off the BlackBerry email functionality but keep the telephone service on you can simply turn it off by opening going to Applications -> Options -> Mobile Network.

There you can find the option Data Services and you can choose between On, Off and Off when Roaming.

On

All data services are activated and you can receive emails and use other applications that use data services.

Off

All data services are deactivated, no emails will get delivered to your BlackBerry but you will still be able to make phone calls.

Off when Roaming

As soon as you are registered with a mobile network in another country the BlackBerry will turn off data service prevent additional costs.

So if you want to escape the email flood and enjoy a few days without email you can simply turn off data. Whenever you are traveling to a different country turn off roaming in order to limit your costs.

I highly recommend to activate Off when Roaming if you are not regularly traveling to other countries to ensure that there are no surprises when you get your next phone bill.

Posted in how to, simple tricks | Permalink | No Comments »

If you have been wondering what the different colors of the LED on your BlackBerry mean, here is a short guide that explains them and also instructions how to turn them on or off.

 

A flashing blue light indicates an active connection via BlueTooth. You can enable/disable this feature under Applications >  Bluetooth > Menu > Options > LED Connection Indicator: On/Off

Some  other software also uses the blue indicator (i.e. iSkoot, when you receive a new message). If you are using such an application you can turn off the indicator with the software itself.

 

Green is for coverage indicator. If you don’t want to continously be reminded that you have reception you can enable/disable the light under Applications > Options > Screen/Keyboard > LED Coverage Indicator On/Off

 

 

A flashing red light indicates that you have received new message. You can choose to be notified of new messages visually under Applications > Profiles > Advanced > [Select profile you wish to modify] > [Select message type you wish to modify] > Repeat Notification LED Flashing/Off

 

The yellow light indicates that your BlackBerry is running out of Battery. It is time to charge.

Posted in how to, simple tricks | Permalink | No Comments »

If you have a problem with spam on your BlackBerry, there is a simple and free solution

Here are the steps that need to be done to prevent spam on your BlackBerry.

1. Create a free Gmail account at www.gmail.com  (i.e. your_gmail_address@gmail.com)
2. Set your unfiltered email address (example@yourdomain.com) to forward all emails to your_gmail_address@gmail.com
3. Add both your_gmail_address@gmail.com and example@domain.com to your BlackBerry using the BIS website.
4. Login to BIS and click the filters button next to the example@domain.com account.
5. Check the option under "When no filter applies" that says “do not forward messages to device”.

With this solution you can now send using your example@domain.com account just as usual, but all incoming mail will go through your Gmail account first and spam messages will be filtered by Google.

The whole process will only take a few minutes to setup and costs absolutely nothing. An additional benefit is that Gmail will archive your email and keep copies of your received mail so if you need them you can access them online.

Posted in how to | Permalink | 3 Comments »