Moving the ol' blog

I am going to be hosting my own blog now. You can view it at http://www.ryannickel.com

All new posts will now be going there.

So listening to the latest BBGeeks.com pod cast, the host mentioned that there was going to be a dedicated button on the new Javelin that would allow you to lock the keyboard without having to go into the main dashboard and selecting the "lock keyboard" option. Is this really necessary? I'm a fan of very minimalistic design when it comes to my tech. My current Pearl already has 2 volume buttons, a mute button, a mini USB port, a mini sound port, and 2 side buttons (on top of all the buttons on the front). Why do we need another one? Sure you can have your BlackBerry automatically lock itself, but I find this to be more annoying than anything else. So here's what I did:

1. Go into your options
2. Screen/Keyboard
3. Scroll down to the Left Side/Right Side Convenience Key Opens
4. Now change this option to "Keyboard Lock"

Now whenever you press that side button it will automatically lock your keyboard. No more phantom phone calls, no more pictures of the inside of your pocket.

If you have your own shortcuts that you like, or another way of locking your keyboard please leave your thoughts.

How Do You Deploy Your BlackBerry Projects?

Currently I am playing around with a few different ways of deploying new builds for my projects. For the longest time I'd just go into my console, fire up the SignatureTool.jar, sign my app, then launch LeapFTP (I still believe this is the best ftp app available), navigate to the appropriate directories and upload the appropriate files and .zip file. Boy what a pain in the ass that is!

There's Gotta Be A Better Way!

Lately I've discovered the joy of ANT tasks. They are VERY helpful when it comes to different parts of development. You can create tasks for your build task, debug, run, and lately I've been working on a deploy task. Right now it's pretty rudimentary: launch the SignatureTool.jar file (of course now submitting my password and files so it's done automatically - at least for my 4.3 builds, everything else still requires manual intervention for putting my password in.)

I've also been toying around with the idea of deploying my releases to a subversion repository (that way I can always offer up older releases without having to manually create a folder structure and pay attention to everything). The only issues I have to get past with this solution (which I believe to be the most ideal) is setting up apache/subversion to properly send out the correct MIME types. Has anyone used this solution before? If so do you have any recommendations?

How Do You Deploy Your Projects?

How do you deploy your projects for consumer download? I'd LOVE to hear your solutions!

NOTE: I have not had a chance to try unjaring the SignatureTool.jar for the older sdks to make it automatic yet

My Issues With The BlackBerry

I love my BlackBerry. No surprise there, but I do have one major issue: the network.

When it comes to writing network aware applications its a total crap shoot. There are so many things that can go wrong that it really just leaves everyone scratching their head, and becoming ever more frustrated. When I first jumped into the world of writing BlackBerry apps that are able to communicate with web servers I thought to myself, "gee! This is easy!" Well it is... When you're testing on the emulator. Just wait until you decide to do a little BETA testing. Here's a very small list of things that can go wrong

1. Your BlackBerry hasn't been set up properly. This typically stems from your service provider not sending you all of the service books
2. Your provider locks the network down. Sure you can surf the web from your blackberry, launch your Google chat client, and check your email, but when it comes to playing with any small third party applications you're totally out of luck.
   
3. Your service provider doesn't understand what you're trying to do. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like any providers really know how the BlackBerries work. Sometimes you can fix your network connection issues simply by filling in your providers APN user name and password. A very simple procedure. The hard part is trying to actually find this information. Its damn near impossible to find this info on the web, and a lot of the information is out dated. Don't bother calling your provider for support, because they will think you've gone off the deep end! (If you want to find the APN information for your carrier BlackBerryFaq.com is a good place to start (direct link to APN article)
   

Now not all providers will lock your network down like Bell Mobility does. Rogers (in Canada) is pretty good for allowing network aware applications to run nicely.

See to me it seems like RIM is doing its damnedest to make sure that they squeeze every last penny out of the BlackBerry users, and all that ends up happening is that the general user thinks that nothing ever works, and that their provider doesn't know anything (well, they're right on that one) and that all the programs suck. This isn't the case! The problem comes from the fact that everything can be locked down in so many ways that its almost impossible to tell where the problems come from!

Really the only way to ensure that the network enabled apps work fine is to connect these things to a BES server... Which unfortunately isn't cheap.

How can we fix this?

1. would be for RIM to open the documentation up a bit so that all network aware applications run fine on any network (like Google's applications).
   
2. Get some actual BlackBerry support people who know what the hell they're talking about to work for the service providers,
   
3. Release a free BES like hosting system that handles all your application data. (My IMAP email works quite fine when it comes to syncing my inbox on everything).

Let me know what you think about these points!

What An Ego Boost!

Today The KW Record released a tech spotlight on follow-me.ca. I must say that it feels wonderful to have something like this happen. It's almost an honor really.

Hopefully this article can turn over some sales for us though! Really kick this thing into high gear!