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.

Of course, most cars do not support this Bluetooth profile. If your car does not have Bluetooth A2DP support, but does have a 3.5mm auxiliary port intended for an MP3 player, you can still extend wireless streaming.  To do so, follow three quick and easy steps:

Step 1:  Plug a BlackBerry® Music Gateway into the auxiliary port of your car.
Step 2:  Power the BlackBerry Music Gateway with a standard BlackBerry Car Charger.
Step 3:  Pair the BlackBerry Music Gateway to your device.

Once paired, your device will connect to the BlackBerry Music Gateway when you start your car.  Just select a playlist and hit play to begin streaming music through the BlackBerry Music Gateway, and into your car stereo.

For those who use and love Bluetooth hands-free solutions for safer voice calls in the car (and we hope you do!), rest assured that your smartphone can connect to both the Hands Free component in your car, and the BlackBerry Music Gateway simultaneously. You don’t have to choose one feature over the other. Music will pause for any inbound calls, and allow the user to answer calls via the car’s Bluetooth hands-free solution.  When the call ends, your music will automatically resume. Check out the User Guide for additional information on pairing, connecting and general use of the BlackBerry Music Gateway.

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?

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)

Step 1 – Check for updates: If you’re on a company smartphone, your IT department may already have plans for getting your device software up-to-date. If you’d like to take the initiative into your own hands, make sure to get the nod of approval from your IT department, and skip to Step 3 below. Otherwise, read on.

For those of you who have already downloaded and installed the latest version, checking if there’s a device software update available is as easy as pie.

1. Start BlackBerry Desktop Software
2. Connect your device and you’ll be prompted to update if there’s an update available

If you don’t have the latest version of Desktop Software installed – no worries.

1. Visit http://www.blackberry.com/updates
2. Click on the “Check for Updates” button (you can’t miss it)
3. You’ll be prompted to download and install a small application (click Run twice) and in the end, you should see something that looks like the screenshot on the right
4. Connect your device, enter the password (if you have one) and click OK
5. That’s it. We will now automatically check and let you know if there are any updates available

Step 2 – Updating: You should now see the “Update Summary” screen.

Tip: even though it may seem like an advanced setting, click the “Options” button to tweak your update, and clear any languages you do not plan on using. This can save lots of space you can use later for installing apps, games, etc…

Click “Next” and sign up for notifications. Next time a new update is available we’ll send you an email – you’ll never have to check manually for updates again. After you’re done, it’s just a matter of clicking “Finish” in the summary screen.

A couple notes:

• The overall process may take some time (40-60 minutes – depending on the size of the backup) – no worries, it’s normal
• Do not disconnect your device until the update is complete!
• All your data, settings and applications are backed up, and then restored at the end (unless you explicitly choose not to do so)

Congratulations! You have successfully updated your smartphone and it should now be running the latest available Device Software.

Step 3 – Not really a step

If you skipped here because you’re on a company smartphone or, because in Step 1:

• You got a message stating that your “BlackBerry smartphone is activated on a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server or BlackBerry® Professional Software” or;
• It appeared as if no updates were available for your smartphone, but you’re confident there should be one available, here is what you can do:

1. If you haven’t done so already, download and install the latest Desktop Software
2. Check online if there is an update available for your device from your service provider and download the new Device Software installer
3. Run the Device Software installer
4. Make sure you’re connected to your corporate network (to continue receiving work email after the update is complete)
5. Follow Steps 1 and 2

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.

What will we write about?
We’re a team of smartphone experts, each focused on a particular feature, so we’ll write about what we know best. Sean, for example, will write about all of our social applications. Sanjay will tell us all about instant messaging and Mark is our email expert. Andrey will shed light on everything to do with desktop software. Michael and Riz will help us out with device software, and Annu will talk about handheld hardware. Of course the team will continue to grow as we add more experts. Oh, and I’ll occasionally post as well, but for the most part I’ll remain behind the scenes, coordinating the team.

We also realize that this isn’t a one-way dialogue, so we’ll also write about other things that come up in our conversations with you, because that’s really what this blog is all about — having a conversation.

What won’t we write about?
We might be experts in our individual areas, but we aren’t experts in everything. Not only that, but we actually aren’t privy to most of the hot topics we know you love to speculate on — RIM’s financials, unreleased products, pricing and carrier information. So unfortunately we won’t be commenting on these areas.

What will you do?
You already do more than you know… you talk about smartphones constantly and we listen. What matters to you, matters to us. So when we read a comment or a blog that we feel we can assist on, or help shed some light on, we’ll try and be there. All you need to do is keep doing what you’re doing. But hey, if you also want to add us to your RSS reader, we would be more than thrilled.

 Looking forward to the posts ahead,

 Becky