Happy Friday #TeamBlackBerry!

On deck this week, five tips for the BlackBerry 10 camera, such as how to geotag photos and how to access your photos and more from a DLNA compatible device.

1 – Use different Shooting and Scene Modes

The BlackBerry Z10 has lots of options to help you capture the perfect picture depending on your situation, so after opening the camera make sure you review the various options available to you.

For example, in addition to the Normal shooting mode, you also have the option of using a Stabilization or Burst shooting mode. Stabilization is great if you’re like me and can’t keep still when taking pictures. Burst on the other hand is a great way to capture the perfect action shot, such as your dog catching a tennis ball or jumping into the family pool (ed – make sure you are out of the splash zone!). On top of Shooting Mode options, you also have several Scene Modes available to you such as Action, Whiteboard, Night and Beach or Snow.

To access these options tap the icon with three dots that appears in the bottom right corner and customize the settings to your desired preferences.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

This video will show you how to peek into the BlackBerry Hub, use the compact side bar, restart the BlackBerry Hub, turn off delete confirmation, access Voice Control and control your music using the volume keys.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

What is your favorite tip to keep moving while using a BlackBerry Z10? Leave a comment and let us know!

To learn about a feature on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone or troubleshoot an issue, there are several great options available to help. Visit www.blackberry.com/support for access to product manuals, how-to demos, tips and tricks, YouTube videos, support forums, knowledge base articles, Twitter support, and contact information for your region.

Originally posted on the Inside BlackBerry Help blog »

Check for BlackBerry 10 OS Updates

Whenever a new BlackBerry 10 OS update is released, make sure to install it on your smartphone so that you can take advantage of any available optimizations which can help improve your battery life. Typically, you’ll receive a notification of a new update, but to check for updates manually, open Settings, tap Software Updates followed by Check for Updates.

Tip: To access your BlackBerry Z10 Settings, swipe down from top of the screen while viewing your Home screen and tap Settings.

Connections

The radios on your smartphone are designed with efficiency in mind, so turning off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or NFC as well as changing your cellular connection to use a different network technology may not improve battery life. We recommend using Wi-Fi whenever possible because it offers substantial power savings, so make sure you are actively adding Wi-Fi networks and hotspots to your smartphone as you come across them.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

This week marks American Thanksgiving, which means that the kick-off to the holidays has officially begun! It’s important for me to maintain traditions, but as a tech aficionado, I like to integrate them with new technologies. Here are my favorite tips for using your BlackBerry ® device during the holidays. Just don’t get it too close to the mashed potatoes and gravy!

Master the Gift Exchange by Handing-Down Old Devices and Accessories: Do you have any accessories you’re no longer using? Chances are there’s someone in your big family or social network that could use them, so bring them along to your holiday gatherings! (It’s technically not a “re-gift.”)

The Festive Dinner – Establish Phone Etiquette: For our parents and grandparents, having a mobile device at the dinner table is a major ‘no no.’ Yet in my family, we use our mobile devices during meals to take photos, send updates to our social networks, and to send inside jokes to one another via BlackBerry ® Messenger (BBM ™). Enable the ‘Silent’ or ‘Vibrate’ profile on your smartphone during meals, and if you’d like, customize your ringtones, notifications or alerts.

Deck the Halls with a Charging Station: When you’re entertaining, preparing a charging station in advance will allow you to sit back and relax. Diminish holiday stress by allowing your guests to charge their BlackBerry devices beside the boughs of holly.

Organize a Video Chat Using Your BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet: We’ve come a long way from pictures with Santa at the mall. Now, video reigns supreme. Since many of my friends and family members live far away, I love using the Video Chat app on my BlackBerry ® PlayBook ™ tablet to send good wishes during the holidays. Simply use your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to capture the magic of presents being opening on your device.

Be an Airport Pick-Up Pro: I’m always driving back and forth between the airport, fetching or dropping off visitors. To make sure I never miss flight delay or cancellation notifications, I use the BlackBerry® Travel™ app. It keeps all trip information in one place! If you’re the one doing the travelling, you can take full advantage when planning your holiday adventure.

Tell us: what are your holiday traditions? Share some stories with us in the comment section below.

Regardless of who you are or where you live, the odds are good that you will find yourself pressed for time, grabbing your BlackBerry® device and trying to squeeze in some extra productivity. To BlackBerry users, productivity is the name of the game. While it would be great if we could slow down the pace of our lives, the reality is that we have to become more efficient instead. There are many simple shortcuts built into the BlackBerry® smartphone OS. Here are a few of my favorite shortcuts to help make your life a bit easier.

Let’s Rock n’ Scroll This!

Most of us have a ton of messages in our unified Inbox, and scrolling back to the top after reading through a hundred or so messages can be a huge investment (or waste) of time. If you need to scroll to the very top or very bottom of your Inbox, you simply tap the letter “t” for the top or the letter “b” for the bottom. This works in individual emails, as well, which comes in handy for those long email exchanges.

Mind your R’s and F’s

Responding to an email or need to forward an email to a friend? Typing the letter “r” for reply or “f” for forward on your QWERTY keyboard quickly produces the desired management of the email. Remember that to delete an email, use the DEL key!

Help! You Know I Need Somebody…

Holding down the ALT key plus the letter “h” brings up the Help screen in OS6 and older. Typing the word “help” from the home screen in OS 7 brings up the Help icon to launch the app. Singing Beatles songs, while enjoyable, unfortunately does not bring up the Help menu.

Bonus: Everyone needs a little space

Here’s a tip for those BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) addicts out there: To quickly jump between your Chats, Contacts and BBM Groups simply tap the “space” key. This will save you from having to scroll through all your open conversations, to access your countless BBM Contacts, you popular person, you.

There are a ton of other great keyboard shortcuts available to BlackBerry users and many that could help your fellow BlackBerry user, so don’t be shy — share your favorites in the comments below!

Last week I had a chance to experience the joy one feels while un-boxing a new gadget or electronic device. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the notion of “un-boxing,” it’s a term used by those gadget lovers in your life when they get a new device and are removing it from factory packaging.

My un-boxing last week was a new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone for my wife, and while going through the setup, I thought it would be a good idea to share my BlackBerry® smartphone and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet post-power up steps with you. So if you are about to get a BlackBerry device or have just received one, then this is the Five Tip Friday for you.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

Happy Friday #TeamBlackBerry! Today I’m going to provide you with some tips for using a few BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) features you might or might not be familiar with. Simply put, I don’t know what I would do without BlackBerry Messenger — I’m sure there are days I say more to my wife over BBM™ than I do face to face! Meet me after the break for some tips to further cement BBM into your life.

1. BBM Connected Apps

Many apps and games available from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront have the ability to connect to BBM. This means you can update your BBM profile, chat with your contacts from within apps, or post high scores from your favorite game to your BBM status. You can view BBM-connected apps for download by pressing the Menu Key and selecting Explore BBM Connected Apps.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

Well, here we are -– it’s Tuesday, and if you’ve been following along with us here at the Inside BlackBerry® Blog lately, you’ll know that it’s Top 3 Tuesday! This week we’re taking a look at my top three tips for BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™):

1. Communicate: With BBM you can send messages up to 2,000 characters long, and best of all, you can see when users on the other end are interacting with you. There’s a simple yet wonderful thing that happens in BBM. You can see when your message has been delivered (signified by a “D” to the left of the message) and when it’s been read (signified by an “R”). You can also see when the user on the other end is typing, so you’re not left hanging!

2. Share: With BBM, you can quickly and efficiently transfer pictures, files and voice notes from your BlackBerry smartphone to your contacts — it turns your moment into their moment. To send the file, all you have to do is open the file, hit the “menu” button on your BlackBerry smartphone, select “send”, select “BBM Contact”, then choose who you want to send it to. So simple! I use this all the time with my friends and family to share photos, and I also send voice notes when I want to add that personal touch to a conversation. Also, with BBM Connected apps, you can share what you’re doing in the app with your BBM contacts. Want to discuss the score of a sporting event you’re following, or share your app suggestions with someone you know? With BBM Connected, your apps become more social. Check out Alex’s blog post on his top 6 BBM Connected apps!

3. Organize: BBM has a built-in feature below your contacts list called BBM Groups. This is a great way to gather groups of BBM users and organize events, clubs and gatherings. Planning a surprise party for someone? Gather everyone (except that certain individual of course) into a BBM Group and share a central calendar so everyone can see key dates. You can create group lists so people can track who’s in charge of bringing what, and you can also share pictures, files and hold a group chat so that everyone can be on the same page. I’ve used this on a few occasions and the plan has always gone off without a hitch!

There you have it — my top three tips for using BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). Do you use BBM in a unique way? Share it with us in the comments below.

After attending many years’ worth of BlackBerry World™ conferences – not to mention countless other huge events like CES, Mobile World Congress and our very own BlackBerry® DevCon – it’s fair to say that we’re old pros at the whole conference-attendance thing. Now that BlackBerry World 2012 is on the horizon (coming up fast on May 1-3rd 2012, in Orlando, Florida), we thought it’d be a good idea to compile a list of all the knowledge we’ve gained and tips we’ve learned for ensuring that your BlackBerry World experience is useful, educational, and above all – fun!

Whether you’re a BlackBerry World newbie or a seasoned conference veteran, we think you’ll be able to take away at least a few ideas from the below. Of course, if you haven’t yet registered for BlackBerry World 2012 and still need to be convinced, give this video a watch first:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Now, read on for our top survival tips, and don’t forget to register for BlackBerry World if you haven’t yet done so:

• Battery swap stations are available for you, but always carry a charger or spare battery just in case. You could purchase a spare battery or an external charging kit or get a USB to AC adapter that can be used with your USB cable to recharge on the go.
• Make sure you have a good supply of business cards with up-to-date information on them to hand out to new contacts. If you and the new contact each have one of the NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones with the latest BlackBerry® 7 OS update, use BlackBerry® Tag to exchange your contact information with each other.
• Review your current sound and alert profiles – you don’t want to be the one whose ringtone goes off in the middle of a session!
• Set up a BBM Group for BlackBerry World attendees in your contact list, and use the group to organize meeting times/places as well as swap thoughts on the best sessions to attend.
• Use the Calendar on your BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to set reminders for sessions that you want to attend. (The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet calendar even has social integration, so you can keep track of which of your colleagues and friends are going to the same sessions!)
• If you’re on a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, you can set your Out Of Office using your smartphone. Here’s how to do it for users with BlackBerry® 7, BlackBerry® 6, and BlackBerry® 5.
• During the conference breaks, make sure to load up on free snacks – and stock up so you’ve got a supply handy throughout the day.
• Download apps like Poynt (for BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets) and Foodspotting for BlackBerry to help you find the perfect local place for a business dinner or team get-together.
• There will be plenty of after-parties and chances to mingle with other attendees, but be sure to drink water throughout and try to get at least 8 hours of sleep per night. We know you’ll be busy – especially those of you working – but making sure you’re hydrated and well-rested is important!
• If you’re not on a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, you can install BlackBerry Protect on your BlackBerry smartphone, just in case you accidentally leave your device somewhere you can’t remember. If you can’t locate your BlackBerry smartphone, you can use BlackBerry Protect to wipe your data remotely. Check out Jason’s post on BlackBerry Protect tips, and be sure to also read Ty’s post for five reasons why you should be using BlackBerry Protect.
• Take every opportunity possible to network and meet with new people, whether in your industry or not. The Solutions Showcase is a perfect spot to meet conference sponsors and other industry professionals.
• If you’re looking to network with friendly faces, definitely stop by our Social Media Desk – we’ll have staff handy to engage in random giveaways throughout the day. Keep an eye on @BlackBerry4Biz during the event for more details! (Also be sure you have foursquare installed on your smartphone so you can check into the Social Desk, find friends, meet people and find out about specials in the area.)
• As you’re en route to BlackBerry World (hopefully using BlackBerry® Travel to keep your trip organized!), take a moment to determine your business or personal goals for attending, then make a list of what you want to learn or accomplish. Being focused on your end takeaway will help you get the most out of your experience.

Those are just a few bits of conference-attendee wisdom we’ve accrued over the years. If you’ve got any handy tips for having a successful BlackBerry World experience, let us know in the comments!

Happy Friday #TeamBlackBerry! Since BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 is now available for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet – including new apps for Messages, Calendar and Contacts – here are five tips I’ve been taking advantage of to help me stay organized.

1 – Link and Merge Contacts

When adding new accounts to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you have the option to have contacts from your email account as well as Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter® social networks consolidated within the Contacts app. By default, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will link these contacts, so if someone in your address book is on Facebook as well as Twitter, their information is displayed on a single contact card, which makes it easy to see everything you need in one place.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »