vB Easy Archive - questions about the pearl

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questions about the pearl
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Posted by: neona

I'm thinking of switching plans and getting the pearl and have some questions, hope you guys can help! I've only had regular samsungs etc before, so some questions may be silly in this context.

1. Alarms: I like to use alarms and/or calendar functionality to remind me to do things, like water the plants, or call someone or whatever. How easy is this kind of thing to do on the pearl?

1a. Is there more than 1 daily alarm, or do I need to use the calendar once I've set the one alarm? Ex - if I use the alarm for an alarm clock every morning, can I set a second alarm for, say, taking a prescription? And another that will wake me a few minutes before my train pulls into the station? Or do I set the morning alarm and everything else would have to be set with a reminder in my calendar?

1b. Do the calendar reminders have a snooze option?
1c. If the phone is off will the alarm still ring?

2. Prediction in text messages. How do these phones 'learn' words? I like T9 and the like in general, but I hate that my current phone learns everything, including if I changed the punctuation. So the following: Cool. Cool! Cool? would be 3 different entries in my 'user' dictionary. It also suggests words based on previous texts. So if I typed 'I really want whatever' in a text, the next text, once I hit the space bar after typing 'I' the word 'really' would automatically enter.

2a. How does the predictive text work? If I want to type 'txt' in the phone, and it can't guess what the word could possibly be after I type 'tx' will it let me keep typing so I can cycle through combinations once all the letters are in, or will it stop? Current phone stops so I have to switch out of T9 in order to add the last t (at which point it would learn the word of course LOL).

3. What do you think is annoying about the phone?

I did spend about a half hour or more with the phone at the store, but no one I know has one and I don't think I'll get the chance to go again anytime soon. I already answered most of the stuff that makes me

but forgot about these.

Thanks for any help!!!

Oh! 1 more. I heard that once you lock the keys it's easy to unlock on accident because of the trackball. How big of a problem is this? I would be keeping it in my purse mostly, sometimes in a pants pocket.

Posted by: BBnLA

Hi Neona
The alarm clock app that comes with the Pearl is rather weak, it only allows one alarm, as far as I know (don't use it). However, a generous gentleman wrote and released a replacement alarm, which gives you six alarms, so you can configure each individually. The program is free.

I personally use a program called IdeaMatrix. It is actually a Notes type of program, allowing you not only to jot down notes quickly, but to "inject" information from e-mails which you receive, from articles you may come across on the web, from your contacts list, etc. You can add alarms to any note, and the alarms have snooze feature. It even syncs with the developer's website, so, you have your own area on their web which duplicates your notes... you can go to the web and add notes, modify your existing notes, delete notes, and the web then sends an e-mail to your blackberry, instructing it to sync with the web, which takes a few seconds, and presto! the new notes you added on the web are now on your Pearl (or, the info you add to your Pearl is now on the web, safe in case you should lose your Pearl!)

As for SureType... it works GREAT! Comes with shortcuts already installed (i.e. converts its to it's, theyre to they're, or im to I'm, and allows you to create your own. I created "losa", so any time I type losa and a space, it deletes losa, and inserts Los Angeles. gtw becomes Get together with, dw and a space instantly converts to Dinner with... you get the idea.

By creating these shortcuts for commonly used phrases, texting is very easy.

The device also learns new words, based on what you type in your e-mails, your contact list, your calendar... wherever! It's pretty amazing... after about three, four days, you'll be amazed at how it recognizes, and correctly guesses names you wouldn't expect it to get right!

It does NOT add words with punctuation... if you enter yes, it's the same as Yes! or yes???

Hope this helps...SureType works amazingly well, just give it three or four days. Also, do NOT watch what words it initially selects as you are typing... wait until you've finished typing the entire work, and 99% of the time, it will guess correctly!

Posted by: SDEEDY

Quote:

Originally Posted by neona

1b. Do the calendar reminders have a snooze option?

Oh! 1 more. I heard that once you lock the keys it's easy to unlock on accident because of the trackball. How big of a problem is this? I would be keeping it in my purse mostly, sometimes in a pants pocket.

Yes there is snooze. To unlock the trackball must be pressed twice while pressing random keys on the keypad will be impossible to unlock.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBnLA

However, a generous gentleman wrote and released a replacement alarm, which gives you six alarms, so you can configure each individually. The program is free.

Can you link me to this program? I've heard of a free one that gives 2 alarms but this one sounds like a winner.

Posted by: BBnLA

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDEEDY

Can you link me to this program? I've heard of a free one that gives 2 alarms but this one sounds like a winner.

No problem, click here .

The features are as follows:

6 more alarms.
Choose which day it will beep.
Snooze 1, 5 and 10 minutes.
Optionally enter random code to turn off the alarm.
Monophonic tone, midi and mp3 support.
Each alarm has its own tone. Also you can override the individual tone with a global one.
Change the Layout of the application (this is needed to support some older OS version and trackweel models).

Posted by: neona

Thanks so much!! I'm really excited about getting my first pda phone!

Posted by: neona

I'm sad about ideaMatrix and todoMatrix. Those looks very very cool, but I cannot afford that right now, after paying for the bb and getting out of my sprint contract. Are there any alternatives?

The alarm looks really cool and I will install tomorrow, and probably donate as well =D

I also saw another alarm program that looked cool, Multi Alarm, by Mobylo, but still just a tiny bit $ out of what I have for now.

Posted by: Marks08

so you don't have enough money to buy a bb app, but you're going to donate?