eNOISE

I stumbled onto a great tip from the fine folks at BBGeeks on using a BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard to dial by letter.

In reading the BBGeeks article, I was comforted to learn that I wasn’t the only person on the planet who struggled with auto-attendants, IVRs, and spent long and painful minutes staring at my phone’s keypad trying to figure out how to spell out “BELL” by number when trying to reach good ol’ 310-Bell.

With QWERTY keypads like those on various BlackBerry devices, you’re not limited to 3-4 letters per key, so things like emails, texting, or even typing what I’m typing now become a breeze.  But on the flipside, since we don’t have the letters mapped out to numbers visibly on the keypad, it can be all-too-painful when you’re misdialing the folks at  310-BELL, 866-ROGERS1, 1-866-WOW-DEAL (and get away for less! Just writing the phone number gets the jingle stuck in my head).

It’s equally or even more frustrating when you’re in a dial by name directory or other IVR, trying to enter the name of the person/department you’re hoping to reach, and you’re forced to “guesstimate” what numbers correspond to the appropriate letters.

To avoid the hassle, you simply need to hold the ALT key while typing the letter on your keypad.  This will convert the desired letter to the corresponding number from the standard telephone keypad.

On screen it will display the letters you’ve typed (or combinations of letters and numbers), but the call will behave as if you’ve just entered numbers.

About as simple as it gets.

I just tested it myself… and no, I didn’t call iTravel2000 to book that holiday I’ve been yearning for.  I settled for navigating our own IVR to try to reach myself.  Sure enough, after ALT+typing the first few letters of my last name, my phone at my desk rang, with me on my BlackBerry on the other end.  While the ALT+typing was succcessfull, the conversation it led to was rather one-dimentional, and I’ll probably refrain from going to these extraordinary lengths to talk to myself.

But moving forward, I’ve saved myself a load of time and frustration trying to reach others!

Feel free to file this one away under the anti-climactic category, as there really isn’t much else to say beyond the title.

Ring + Vibrate.  What a novel concept… and yet, it’s still something that isn’t part of the native BlackBerry OS (among other devices too).  Buzz Me is a BlackBerry app/add-on that was recently announced that can help bridge this gap.

It’s been a number of years since I’ve had a phone that would ring and vibrate simultaneously.  Before taking the BlackBerry plunge just over a year ago, I carried cellphones that I seldom ever used, being charged monthly fees for the sake of lining the pockets of the big Canadian telco’s.

People would call, and one of two things seemed to happen 99% of the time.  If the ringer was on, I wouldn’t hear it.  If it was set to vibrate, I wouldn’t feel it.  I don’t know how many calls I missed over the years… but it quickly got to the point where friends would give up if nobody answered the home phone, or they just stopped calling altogether (sheds single tear, hangs head in shame/sorrow).

Thankfully, I’ve curbed the majority of my answering woes, but on occasion I still miss the occasional call when the phone’s packed away in a pocket and don’t feel the vibrations right away.  (Coincidentally, it always seems to happen when it’s the Missus… which brings its own set of interesting repercussions.)

Problem solved with Buzz Me.  Ring + Vibrate = good.

The jury’s may still out on it at the moment over at the Crackberry Forums, but there is a fair bit of positive response thus far.  It’s free, quick install, and essentially does something that the phone should already do in the first place.  Download it here.  For me, it’s a no-brainer, and works like a charm.

So, no more missed calls from the Missus… which brings its own set of interesting repercussions too.

Ah, c’est la vie.  Enjoy.

It’s about time we start reinventing the cellphone graveyard.  I know I’m guilty of having at least 2-3 old cellphones hiding in boxes somewhere in the crawlspace.  According to wirefly.org upward of one hundred million cell phones are replaced each year… how many of those old phones end up in landfills every year?

It’s phenemonal to consider the potential environmental impact of all these old cell phones.  It’s not like these wonderous devices (or any electronics for that matter) grow on or come from, trees.  Landfills full of decomposing cadmium, lead, mercury and more, leeching into soils, ground water… who knows.

I’m glad I’m one of the pack rats that keep ‘em in boxes never to be seen again… well, that us until now.

This week Flipswap announced a $14 million VC infusion to help build out their growing cellphone recycling network.  With folks like Flipswap, we have new environmentally (and wallet) friendly way to dispose of used cellphones, PDAs and even iPods in exchange for cash, gift cards, or if you prefer, charitable donations or trees planted in your name.  What a concept!

With all the commotion around the Blackberry Storm, I had take a closer look.  As it turns out, they’re even partnered with RIM themselves to help spread the word.

Their Eco-friendly business model even takes things like the device condition to whether or not you’ve kept the manual/box to determine what your trade-in is worth.

My 8330 is less than a year old, and as it stands Flipswap is offering me more for the return than my service provider will even offer for a hardware upgrade.

Shocking.  Now how do we get Bell, Rogers and Telus to join in?  For the sake of things other than the bottom line, I think they really need to be on board here.  Or with something of their own.   Hell, there’s even a significant opportunity for these giants to make their own business model out of it.  Take the returns in store, take x% of the rebate, and depending on the volume and the quality of phones turned in, and the % of folks who choose trees or donations over cash, there could be a model that covers the upfront for these guys.

Or at worst, partner with Flipswap - make the service available across the Bell, Rogers, Telus, Fido, Koodo, and Solo retail outlets across Canada, maybe cover shipping costs on behalf of customers based on proof of purchace for new handsets - and call it a magnificent piece of PR.

And it’s not like Rogers/Bell/Telus don’t need the good PR the way cell users are gouged in Canada.

Food for thought.