Top 20 BlackBerry Tips and Tricks

From RIM's BlackBerry Tips:

1. Hold the ALT key while you roll the trackwheel to scroll horizontally in any field where you can enter or view text.


2. Hold the ALT key while you roll the trackwheel to scroll through a field to view options.


3. Hold the SHIFT key while you roll the trackwheel to select multiple items in a list.


4. Type the first letter of an item in an options list or menu to jump directly to that item.


5. Type the first letters of a name or the initials separated by a space to find a contact in the Address Book screen.


6. To cut and paste text, hold the ALT key and click the trackwheel, then roll the trackwheel to highlight text. Click and scroll to Cut Selection or Copy Selection. To paste the selected text, place the cursor in an editable field and click. Scroll to Paste Selection and click.


7. Press and hold a letter to capitalize it (with Key Rate enabled).


8. Press the SPACE key twice to insert a period and capitalize the next letter.


9. Press the SPACE key to insert the "@" and "." characters in an Email field.


10. Press and hold a letter key and roll the trackwheel to scroll through international characters, equation symbols and other marks.


11. Press ALT + SPACE to open the Select Symbol screen. Press the associated letter below the symbol that you want to insert into the text.


12. Press ENTER to page down in an open message.


13. Press ALT+ENTER to page up in an open message.


14. Press T to go to the top and B to go to the bottom message, task, memo, or appointment in the list.


15. Press T to go to "Today" in the Calendar screen.


16. Press G to go to a specific date in Calendar the screen.


17. Press C to create a new message, task, or appointment in the Messages, Saved Messages, Calendar, and Tasks functions.


18. Press ALT+O to view only the sent messages in the Messages screen.


19. Press ALT+I to view only the received messages in the Messages screen.


20. In the Home screen, hold the ALT key and click the trackwheel to select an icon. Roll the trackwheel to move the icon to another position and click the trackwheel to "drop" it into the new position.
    

Have another one that we haven't listed? Let us know about it!

Keeping Your Phone Number

Merle Ihne, III
Gopher Wireless
www.GopherWireless.com

Local Number Portability means that you can keep your phone number and bring it to your new carrier. That gives you a lot of freedom!

Tips when porting your number to a new company:

· Switch only if you don't have a long-term contract. Otherwise the penalties -- early termination charges, for example -- will make any change costly. Added to the cost of a new phone, they could offset any potential benefits. You may want to wait 'til the day after your current contract ends.

· Most cellular providers' early termination fees are $150 to $200. Cellular One's early termination fee is $20 per month remaining on the contract for each line of service. So leaving Cellular One with one line a month early would only cost $20 instead of $150-200.

· Do not cancel your account with your current provider. If you cancel you will not have your number anymore to port to another company.

· Do your switching through official carrier stores. The guys at your local electronics and one-stop phone shops aren't up to speed on number portability.

· If you don't currently have a cell phone with a SIM card, back up your cell phone contact-list data on your computer, unless you want to spend an entire weekend punching phone numbers into your new handset.

· Want to keep your current phone? Your current phone may not work with your new carrier. Ask prospective new carriers if your current phone will work with their network.

· Bring a copy of your latest cell phone bills. It has information including account number needed to complete the transition of porting your number to your new carrier.

· Expect a delay. Most numbers will be ported within a few hours. But it may take up to 24 hours to complete the transition to your new phone. This means that you should carry both your new and old phones with you for a day.

· Be aware that when terminating service with a wireless company, you may be obligated to pay any early termination fees under your existing contract. Also, when terminating service with any company, you are usually required to pay any outstanding balance owed. Review your bill or contract to determine what fees or charges apply. Once you request service from the new company, however, your old company may not refuse to port your number, even if you owe money for an outstanding balance or termination fee.

For more info on this, look at the story at: www.gopherwireless.com/lnp.

ICE - In Case of Emergency

Do you have someone that you would want called ice case of an emergency?

Example: You are in a car accident and are unconscious when the paramedics arrive. You are taken to the hospital and will be okay, but you are in critical condition. Who would the hospital personnel contact?

One solution is to add an ICE number to your phone. ICE is an acronym for In Case of Emergency. This way someone can scroll down your list of contacts until they get to ICE. Then they can call that person and explain to them where you are and how you are doing.


Just add a contact in your phone. When you are entering their name, start with ICE-________ and fill in their name in the blank. As you can see in the picture, this says ICE-Mom&Dad. Enter the contact number they can be reached at most of the time.

You may want to have backup ICE numbers. In this case, in order to make sure they are called in the right order, enter them as ICE 1-_________, ICE 2-__________, etc...

I hope you will take advantage of this safety tip but never have to have it used. As they said on Hill Street Blues, "Let's be careful out there."

Merle Ihne, III
Gopher Wireless
www.GopherWireless.com

Gopher Wireless Referral Program

Merle Ihne, III
Gopher Wireless
http://www.gopherwireless.com/

Receiving a referral is one of the finest compliments that one could receive. It means that I have built trust and confidence. It means that I provided my customer with something of value, and they in return want to share that experience with family, friends and business associates. I would like to thank you in advance for any referrals that you will send my way. I will follow up on the referrals that I receive and try to help them in any way I can.

We want referrals for people and businesses interested in:

• Clearwire
• NEXTEL
• T-Mobile
• Dish Network
• DirecTV
• Wild Blue

Who do you know that could benefit from what we have to offer? Refer people or businesses you know to Gopher Wireless and earn money back! E-mail sales@gopherwireless or visit www.gopherwireless.com/referral.


Thank you,

Merle Ihne, III
Owner of Gopher Wireless

Can You Afford To NOT Add Text Messaging?

Merle Ihne, III
Gopher Wireless
www.GopherWireless.com

When someone adds a new phone from Gopher Wireless, regardless if it is from NEXTEL or T-Mobile, they are asked if they would like to add text messaging to their plan. Some think that they'll do without it for now to save money. Besides they can always add it later, right? Be careful how you answer, because you may not be saving yourself money.

One easy answer is if you know you want text messaging and you use it a lot. You can get an unlimited texting package for about $14.99/month. Anyone who does a lot of texting will choose that. You can also get smaller packages of texting for $5 or $10/month.

The other easy answer is people who know that they won't do any texting at all. They know that they can go without that feature and they will be happy. Maybe the only texts they get are the free ones sent by the company.

Where you need to show caution is if you do a little text messaging. Maybe you'll think that you'll only text up to ten times a month. That's okay. If it is only ten texts a month then you can pay the ten cents per message instead of adding text messaging as a feature for $4.99 or more because you'll be saving money.

What about incoming messages? Most companies now count your text messages as those you sent plus those you received. So when you think about how many text messages you'll be using in a month, add those messages people will be sending to you on top of those you'll be sending out.

If you are planning on sending ten texts in a month and receiving the same number, that would put your text message total at 20 for the month. The cheapest option here is to still just pay the ten cents per text and not add the text messaging features to your line. The break even point on this is fifty messages per month. With T-Mobile, the cheapest messaging bundle is 400 messages for $4.99 a month. If you have the feature, it's like buying the first fifty messages and getting the nest 350 for free. If you go over your bundle, then you start paying the ten cents per message again.

This is where people will get a surprise on their bill. They start texting more than they originally planned. They see that it is useful to send quick messages to each other and start getting in the habit of doing some of their communicating that way. The ten cents a message quickly adds up. It is easy to send 1000 messages in one month when people get used to it. People text jokes to one another and brag to everyone on their phone list that their team just scored a touchdown, etc.

If you don't have text messaging as a feature, 1000 messages at a dime apiece can add up to $100. And don't forget the received messages! Maybe those will double it to $200 extra on your bill. This is one of the things that can upset and frustrate people with their cellular phone bill and maybe they'll take it out on the company too. That is why it is important to think ahead about text messaging.

I have a niece who totaled 4900 messages in one month. That was okay because she was on an unlimited text messaging plan for $14.99 with T-Mobile. No matter how much texting she did it was only going to cost her $14.99 on top of her regular plan. Whether she's getting her homework done or not is another question.

Where she made a mistake was reducing her text messaging plan to the 400 messages for just $4.99 a month because she wanted to save $10 a month. But she didn't reduce the texting she was doing. That would have been a huge bill if the account holder wasn't on top of things and kept track of usage online.

One customer came in wondering why their bill was so big. Their son was sending text messages at ten cents each and they got about $60.00 added on to their bill. They weren't sure what texting was and why it cost extra(because they didn't get their original phone from us). By adding text messaging as a feature they were able to keep control of the bill and their son could still text his friends. Realizing that they were saving so much, they could afford to add another phone for themselves for less than what they had been spending. Everybody's happy now!

Tips for text messaging:

1. Make sure that you have a realistic expectation of the number of text messages you'll be using in a month.

2. Keep tabs on how many you are using as you go. Once people start text messaging, they get used to it and start using it more. T-Mobile customers can easily check messages used on their phone by pressing #674#(send). Or you can check usage online. You will want to avoid overages by adding text messaging as a feature or bumping up your text messaging pool from 400 to 1000, or from 1000 to unlimited.

3. Keep track of the number of messages your kids are using. If you are on a family plan you may want to get unlimited texting for the whole family for $19.99. All phones on the family package will be able to send and receive as many messages as they wish. No overages!

4. Using instant messaging counts as text messages. AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger can be used from your cell phone. Now you can chat while you are away from your computer. Each of these chat messages counts as a text message so be sure you have enough.

At Gopher Wireless, we aren't paid more for adding features on your plan. We act as consultants instead of salespeople, so you won't be pressured to add something you don't want or need. We are focused on what is the best for you. You can see more of us at www.GopherWireless.com or give us a call at (218) 270-0052.