Fuzzy Logic

So, as my Christmas gift, I received a new Blackberry Curve 8330.  My carrier is Verizon so I was fairly limited in my choices:  I could either get the Storm or the Curve.  I really don’t like touchscreen keyboards (though the Storm’s keyboard is better than the iPhone’s, in my opinion), so I went with the Curve.  To be honest, I couldn’t be happier.  It responds fairly quickly and gets my email just as fast as Thunderbird on my laptop, if not faster.  It can get a tiny bit laggy at times (for instance, loading a webpage with lots of graphics while attempting to send an SMS), but I expected that.

My Blackberry's Wallpaper, courtesy of Jeff Nadeau.

Now, the best part of the Blackberry is, obviously, the apps.  While my app list will most likely be constantly changing, here’s what I have on it right now (aside from the default applications).  Please note that all of the links here will be to the site hosting the download, except where noted.

• AOL Instant Messenger — Standard AIM messenger.  Uses data instead of SMS, so IMs don’t count against your limit.
  
• beyond 411 — An amazing little application that streamlines the process of finding businesses around your normal locations.  Supports multiple locations and has a great lookup feature.
  
• Chronograph (OTA) — A great, free program that works as a stopwatch/timer.  The app is, however, fairly unsupported, and there’s no official page.  A nice overview of the application can be found over at BerryReview.
• DexRex — This interesting application syncs your SMS messages to dexrex.com.  This allows you to have a log of all of your SMS messages (for whatever reason you like).  The desktop client looks interesting but, unfortunately, only Windows and Mac versions are available currently.
  
• Facebook — Fairly standard.  A bit lacking in substance but, to be honest, I only really use it when I don’t feel like launching the browser.  It lets you send messages, update your status, check recent status updates, and a few other basic features.  It’s a decent application overall, but nothing amazing.
  
• Galaga by Namco — This is the only app on the list that is not free.  I paid $10 for this and, to be honest, I was mildly let down.  The main problem is that the Curve’s buttons are just too small to make it easy to play.  If you like Galaga, like I do, then it’s worth the $10 for the times you’ll really want something to play.  This game also shows the fact that the Curve is a bit underpowered for gaming–slight graphical slowdown in missions with lots of fighters and missiles happen.  All of these things considered, however, it’s still Galaga, so the question is “Are you willing to spend $10 for a 28 year old game?”  If so, then go for it.
  
• Google Maps — Fairly standard application.  Uses cell towers to find your approximate location, which is cool.  Much better than trying to use Google Maps through the browser, for sure.
  
• Google Sync — Since I’ve already taken the Google plunge, have my main email account through GMail, and use Google Calendar, this is an amazing application to have.  It seamlessly syncs my contacts and calendar to my phone and from my phone to my GMail account.  The only hard part was the initial consolidation of my phone contacts with my email contacts–but once that was over, everything was fine.
• Ka-Glom! — A fun little game that can be found for free on the Blackberry Mobile site.  Rimarkable.com has a post about Ka-Glom and there’s a fairly indepth conversation that has taken place in the comments.  You can also buy the game from Magmic, but why pay for something that’s available for free legally?
• MidpSSH — A small SSH client for the Blackberry.  It’s great, works exactly like you’d expect, and is free.
  
• Opera Mini — The Blackberry browser is a decent mobile browser that works well within the limits of the platform.  Opera Mini, however, allows a much richer browsing experience at the cost of slowdown and longer loading times.  I still stick with the Blackberry browser for most of my browsing but, for some sites, Opera Mini is the browser to use.
  
• Qik for Blackberry (OTA) — It’s here and, if you have OS 4.5, it works!  Well, at least it does for me.  I had a bit of problem when I first attempted to use it but a quick reinstall with the official version for the 8330 and I was good to go.
• TwitterBerry — I love it and it works (almost) flawlessly.  The only thing I can’t get working is the integration with Twitpic.  Other than that, it’s fine. As long as you still have the email address for your Twitpic account saved, you’ll be fine.

My current theme is Cool Breeze 4.5 (Dock Loadout OTA), but with the wallpaper I posted earlier.