Posts Tagged ‘Blackberry’

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BlackBerry Accessories & Apps – Themes

December 12th, 2009

The great thing about BlackBerries is that not only are they great straight out of the box, but that there are lots of ways that you can personalize and improve them, with themes being a perfect example. Basically, themes offer a way, along with BlackBerry accessories, to make your BlackBerry stand out from the crowd.

By installing a theme on to your BlackBerry, you can specify precisely the way that almost everything on it is displayed. As with the theme system that Microsoft Windows uses, with a BlackBerry theme you are just one click away from a whole new look and feel – which is needed every now and again after looking at the same display day after day.

There’s a range of unique themes available to suit your tastes and interests – some being free and needing to be paid for. You can find them by visiting online BlackBerry accessories and applications stores, where you will find hundreds to choose. Whatever you’re looking for, you’ll be able to find. From fun and quirky, to elegant and classy, everyone is catered for. Alternatively, if you’re the creative type, you can also make your own themes.

To create your own theme, you need to use the BlackBerry Theme Studio v5.0, which is free to download, and pretty easy to use. All you need is some creativity and some skill with graphics software. On downloading BlackBerry Theme Studio, you’ll see that there are two products contained within the suite – BlackBerry Composer and BlackBerry Theme Builder.

The BlackBerry Composer is the graphic creation and editing part of the suite, and it’s great for helping you craft images, whether they’re static or animated. It’s a useful piece of graphic design software that has the basic features of the standard graphics packages that most people have on their computer. You can use it to create all the images for your theme, though you can import them from elsewhere should you wish to do so.

The actual designing of the theme is done within the Theme Builder. The selection and allocation of the images is done from here. It’s also where you can decide what, if any, sounds and animations are used, which fonts to use, and whereabouts on the screen your menus and icons are displayed.

If you fancy making some extra money for yourself, and there is even the potential to make some seriously big money, then you can sell the themes that you create on BlackBerry accessories and applications stores. If you’re stuck for ideas on what to create, then just visit an online store that sells them, make some notes on the themes which are the bestsellers, combine the best elements of each, and then put your own spin on them.

To summarize, if you’re someone that wants to make your BlackBerry truly your own, then installing a theme, to go along with some cool BlackBerry accessories, is the way to go.

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Technology Distractions Lead to a Decrease in Productivity

September 29th, 2009
by Jules Smithson

Office workers’ attention is being diverted every three minutes by answering the phone, being alerted to an incoming email, responding to an alert on their BlackBerry, reacting to an instant message or a Tweet, or clicking on internet-based distractions such as YouTube or Facebook. These distractions consume much as 28% of an average knowledge workers’ day (Basex research).

As we receive more and more e-mail messages and other technology-based interruptions, it can feel like being hit by a digital deluge. Without the skills to manage e-mail and other devices effectively, many people are wasting time just trying to keep up instead of gaining productivity through technology.

These tactics for distraction management can significantly increase your productivity:

1. Turn off the alarm or visual alerts: You wouldn’t let the postman empty a mailbag on your desk 50 times a day and you certainly wouldn’t let them ring a bell with each delivery. That’s exactly what you are doing if you check each e-mail when it arrives. Turn off the alarm or visual alert and take control of your e-mail and your time.

2. Learn how to turn off or manage alerts on mobile devices: As more and more people synchronize their phones and mobile devices they are being distracted by email alerts, meeting reminders at all sorts of inconvenient times. These alerts can ensure you are being distracted at home as well as work!

3. Treat e-mail like regular mail: Try to check your e-mail at regular times in the day, i.e. early morning, mid-day and late afternoon. Even if you receive a high volume of e-mails, you shouldn’t check more than four times a day. Checking email regularly can give you a very busy feeling but it is deceptive as it is unlikely you are focusing on your key priorities.

4. Take control of your in-box: Subscribe to e-mail services selectively. Ask friends or colleagues who frequently send jokes or huge files to stop. Get a separate e-mail address for personal communication or one that you give just to key contacts, similar to an unlisted phone number. Set up rules to automatically delete or file low priority emails.

5. Focus on your priorities: Commit 10 -15 minutes each day to plan for the next day. Ensure as part of this process you make “appointments with yourself” to focus on key priorities and projects.

E-mail, mobile devices, instant messaging and the like can save businesses considerable time and money, but managing these tools is a skill that’s just as important to acquire as other essential management skills such as communication, planning and prioritizing.

About the Author:
Priority Management is a training company specialises in time management training. Our “Working Smart” series integrates the underlying principles of Best Practice time, productivity, information and workload management into applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, GroupWise, the BlackBerry and paper.

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