… Continued from Part I and Part II
Some little things that annoyed me about the BlackBerry 7100t.
The damned blinking light! It lights up my entire bedroom at night and I couldn’t find a way to turn it off for the longest time. Here’s the deal with lights, there are three of them:
a) Service light.
Turn it off in Settings > Screen/Keyboard
‘LED Coverage Indicator’ on/off
b) New Message light
It’s the red light. You can disable the lights for
each profile. Go to Profiles and edit the one you use,
c) Bluetooth Light
Blue light comes on as expected.
The upload/download arrows cover the signal bars in the them that comes with the 7100t. Basically, the T-Mobile theme sucks ass. You’ll want to install and changes themes, but as I mentioned in Part II, you have to install software from a PC. Emory uses the Vodafone theme or the old school BlackBerry theme which puts everything on one screen. Handy. Read more…
… Continued from Part I and Part II
Some little things that annoyed me about the BlackBerry 7100t.
The damned blinking light! It lights up my entire bedroom at night and I couldn’t find a way to turn it off for the longest time. Here’s the deal with lights, there are three of them:
a) Service light.
Turn it off in Settings > Screen/Keyboard
‘LED Coverage Indicator’ on/off
b) New Message light
It’s the red light. You can disable the lights for
each profile. Go to Profiles and edit the one you use,
c) Bluetooth Light
Blue light comes on as expected.
The upload/download arrows cover the signal bars in the them that comes with the 7100t. Basically, the T-Mobile theme sucks ass. You’ll want to install and changes themes, but as I mentioned in Part II, you have to install software from a PC. Emory uses the Vodafone theme or the old school BlackBerry theme which puts everything on one screen. Handy.
When I’m in the vibrate profile I still hear IM message sounds from the built-in IM client. I think that this is a bug being worked on by T-Mobile with Oz/RIM. VeriChat gives you new things to configure in every profile: you can set various notifications for veriChat and not use the IM client. Too bad that T-Mobile has crippled third-party BlackBerry applications in my area by disallowing outbound requests on TCP port 80.
If you’re lucky enough to have port 80 access in your area, switch to Verichat and disable the T-Mobile IM client in Settings > IM Autostart. Turn that bad boy “off” if you don’t want to use it!
The BlackBerry doesn’t support MP3 ringtones – hell with it, I prefer CallerTunes/ringback tones anyway,
No photos in the BlackBerry address book. A real bummer, because let’s face it, it’s cool when someone’s picture comes up when they’re calling you. I don’t know why they don’t do it, probably because there is no camera. You’ll notice that I am not listing the lack of a camera as a negative.
While it “has Bluetooth” the BlackBerry 7100t only supports two Bluetooth services “AUDIO Gateway” and “Voice Gateway” which allow you to connect a BT headset. This means that you can’t sync over Bluetooth, you still have to cable it to your Mac. In contrast, most Sony Ericsson phones support 12 Bluetooth services. RIM makes devices predominantly for the corporate and federal markets, where security is paramount. I guess that they figured that most people want Bluetooth for car kits and headsets. While it is probable that RIM will
let us add new Bluetooth services in the future, don’t hold your breath.
The lack of Bluetooth Sync (it’s USB only) is actually fine for me. The BlackBerry charges off that USB connection, so when you’re syncing you’re charging it at the same time. Plus, the thing syncs pretty fast over USB. RIM also did the right thing by including two USB sync cables in the box – one for your wall charger and one to keep in your bag. Nice touch.
As I mentioned in Part II, you can’t install software from a Mac, you need to use a PC, a real downer. Although most people have access to a PC, I feel kinda dirty after using one. Use the BlackBerry desktop software on your PC to install BB apps.
Immediately after buying any new small electronics gadget, the topic always ships to accessories. So let’s review a few for the BlackBerry 7100t:
Screen covers – I am incredibly paranoid about scratching the gorgeous display so I’ve decided to get one of those “screen overlays.” Options include: Martin Fields Overlay Plus (Singapore) are always the best. Emory swears that they made his SE P900 display better than without it, I ordered a Screen it! for Blackberry 7100t but it hasn’t arrived yet. Screen It includes four overlays for only US$7, which is cheap!
I know it sounds dorky, but I like the fact that the 7100t includes a
lanyard loop so that you can attach a wrist strap or lanyard. I have
several near misses with my T630 where the strap saved it from the certain peril of concrete. The problem is that the T-Mobile strap I purchased for my 7100t is weak-ass and broke within 48 hours. Strapya.com is overseas but rules. Anybody know of a good source of cool phone straps here in the U.S?
Stay tuned for more on this exiting smart phone in future installments.
