My friend pinged me a few days ago…

Friend: I just found a huge problem with my BlackBerry smartphone
Riz: Do tell
Friend: Well, you know when you call somewhere and want to dial by name…
Riz: Yes
Friend: Or you need to call a number like 1-800- RIZ-BLOG
Friend: You can’t do it!!

What do you mean you can’t do it? You can do just about everything on a BlackBerry device!

Unfortunately, this function needs a little tutorial. When you’re dialing a number like 1-800-RIZ-BLOG let’s leave it there… you need to enter letters, but your device is in some sort of number mode. How do you get out of number mode? Press and hold ALT as you type the letters when you want letters instead of numbers. Your device will translate the letters into the appropriate number.

That’s it!

Of course, it would be nicer if this was a little more “discoverable,” but I haven’t come up with any bright ideas on how to do this. Any suggestions?

1. Go through the setup wizard, which will configure the device and my email.

2. Change the font size. I like a small font size so I can see more of a message at once. You can change the font size in Options (the wrench icon)-> Screen/Keyboard.

3. Arrange my apps on the home screen. There are some apps I never use so I hide those. My top row of applications are my most used apps – Work email, personal email, BlackBerry® Messenger, Google Talk™, calendar and browser. To rearrange the applications, I just select the app, hit the menu button, and hide/move the application.

4. Download additional applications. The main ones for me are the Facebook and Google Talk applications.

5. PING!!! my friend Tim on his smartphone to let him know that I’m on a new device. It makes him jealous.

So, what do you do when you first get your device?