A co-worker the other day told me a great story.  His mom had just come back from vacation with what she thought was a great innovation – add zoom functionality to the camera. After explaining that BlackBerry® smartphone cameras do have a zoom, it made us think – what other features don’t people know about the camera?

Probably the biggest one is that you can easily share photos with friends or your online communities. After you’ve taken your photo, you can start sharing it within two clicks.

One of the cool things about a BlackBerry® smartphone is the ability to keep in touch with friends using popular IM programs like Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, AIM and ICQ, (not to mention BlackBerry Messenger) which can be downloaded from www.blackberry.com/instantmessaging.  Whichever instant messaging client you use, they all share some really useful and fun features.

Take the ability to set an alert letting you know when one of your friends comes online, for instance. If you need to chat with a friend , but you see she is offline, select the contact, and click on “Set Alert.” When your friend comes online, a notification pops up and you can start chatting.  

Ok, so I know my posts are very tutorial-like but these are all things I feel you, the BlackBerry® smartphone using public, should know! :)

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!

From The Beatles to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I carry thousands of songs wherever I go.  Stored within the microSD card in my smartphone, my entire music collection is immediately available when I have time to listen - which is most often in the car.  

A seamless and clutter-free way to extend music from your device to your car stereo is to do so wirelessly. Using the Bluetooth® A2DP audio streaming profile supported by most smartphones today, your device can stream music to any car stereo that supports the Bluetooth A2DP profile.

Back when I started working at RIM, I spent the better part of the first few days reading  the documentation and testing all the features on my shiny new BlackBerry® 950 smartphone. As a big user of keyboard shortcuts on the PC, I was struck by how many useful and time saving keyboard shortcuts are built into the software. The trackwheel is an excellent navigation device, but for someone who has hit “Ctrl + S” three or four times already while typing this post, the keyboard shortcuts were a welcome feature.

Hey! I’m at WES and having a great time. This is the first year we've had a BlackBerry® booth dedicated to handheld hardware and I'm one of the lucky people working the stand!

We have all our devices displayed in the booth alongside some great accessories. We also have a battery station here, where people can trade in their dead battery for one that's fully charged -- it's been a big hit!
 

Working at RIM lets me play work with a lot of BlackBerry® smartphones. Since I'm switching to new ones all the time, I thought I'd share what I do when I migrate.

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

Throughout last year we regularly released BlackBerry® Device Software (a.k.a. Firmware or OS) updates, including a major one back in the fall. But it seems that actually getting these updates onto your device is still a bit of a mystery to some people. Well, it's simpler than you think, and well worth it. Here are a couple reasons why:

1. Your smartphone will work even better than it does today (bug fixes)
2. With major updates you get plenty new features - like video recording in version 4.5 software for BlackBerry® Curve™ smartphone (feel free to check out the complete list of new features available in 4.5 software update)

Welcome to Inside BlackBerry -- the official BlackBerry® smartphone blog.

We might be official, but we certainly aren't the first BlackBerry smartphone blog. There are already countless bloggers out there who eat, sleep and breathe this stuff everyday.

So why are we doing this?
Because we believe we can make a valuable contribution to the conversation. We do have a slight advantage, after all -- smartphones are our life and work.