I work for the largest 1x cellular provider in North America and my job requires me to do a lot of things I don't want to do. But my employer is recognizing my ability to program software and for a few hours a week I get to develop and maintain the call tracking software they have there.
Anyway, this is besides the point, but I'm a java developer and when I mentioned to my manager that I want to make a software development position within the company and move into it full time, he simply asked me to make a business proposal and show it to him and his manager. So I was thinking about coding internal applications, but tonight I realized a lot of the Blackberry software is actually written in java and C, so I figure it won't be too hard for me to write my own java applications. And maybe even convince the company to distribute and support these applications for clients. But I have a few questions to ask in order to do up my proposal.

1. Which kinds of applications would people like to see officially offered and supported by their carrier?
2. How much do you spend a month on purchasing said applications?
3. I'm great at java, would I need to know many other languages?

I studied onject oriented development at the top university in the country and have worked on a number of projects so far, I don't imagine it'd be a huge leap. Any other ideas? I'll post more questions as I have them.

Hi / pdf viewers that work / also doc / excel viewer that work / total need for that. access to windows somehow

Sounds pretty simple so far with the viewers, even though those are pretty readily available right now. What do you mean by access to WIndows? Like remote desktop?

I'm about to go and find some development environments. I used to use JBuilder back in the day, what does everyone use for their java compiling now?

First of all, check the developer forum for developer info =) But this is a good forum to find out what people want.

I'm going to encourage you to contribute to an open source project if possible, there are many:

MidpSSH (MidpSSH | SSH and Telnet client for Mobile devices (MIDP/J2ME))
JMirc (jmIrc - Java mobile IRC-client (J2ME))

These use J2ME (Java for mobile devices) and is compatible not only with the Blackberry, but with other phones as well.

The RIM Blackberry JDE (up to version 4.2) can help you in this regard.

What's Callfilter?

Most java developers use Eclipse right now. For BlackBerry applications you can use the RIM JDE, it's a good IDE to learn how to program BlackBerry applications.

You can get Eclipse to build BlackBerry applications using ANT. All the new BlackBerries are Java only, so no need to learn C.

As for applications you may want to start simple, perhaps a "help" application that opens up your companies support web page.

Glad to hear your company is more open to this than mine is

The world of Blackberry needs a few more people like you. I would pay for a decent time tracking application that allows tracking of time, expense & milage. Check out TimeWhiz for Palm. Its free software for Palm Ive used for years but can't find anything like it for Blackberry. BizTrak-it by Shrunken Head SW is close but I need multiple client tracking with multiple projects for each plus multiple tasks. If you run into anyhting like this, yell. I have a credit card!

Eric

I woudl like my 8700 to have a data usage tracker so i know how much data i have used over the month

I would suggest that you just look at Windows OS based phones and you'll see a slew of business applications that don't require 3rd party servers. If you could develop a BB based set of applications that could open and read PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT files without being forced to use a server to host/convert the files, you could make a mint. No one is doing this. All the companies are focusing on a fee based service only......I don't know of too many BB users who would not choose to have the application on their BB rather than sharing their files to unkown service providers, especially if they receive email/documents that are confidential and required to remain so. I hope this helps.

You might see some document stuff come out with 4.2 (Pearl) since it has a file system. But the reason that everything is hosted is that there was previously no file system to store files in so you would have to store them on a server.

This *should* be simple, and a godsend for more people than they realize...


What I wouldn't give for a simple utility that would look out for spam assassin headers and either block them, delete them, or not make a sound.

All that this requires is looking at the headers and taking a defined value (lets say 4):

If header contains "X-Spam-Level: <value in x's>*" then delete

i.e.

If header contains "X-Spam-Level: xxxx*" then delete

I would lower my volume of beeps and blips tremendously.

I have searched high and low for a decent alarm application. I know that isn't very sexy, but every cell phone I have had in the last 5 years has a better alarm than my 7130e.

The pocketpc I ditched to get this thing had a very flexible alarm built into it. You could have multiple alarms and have them active on different days at different times. An LG cell phone I once had had 3 alarms, plus a quick alarm. You could set that very quickly to alarm in 10 or 30 minutes, or 1 to 20 hours. Very useful.

The alarm on the 7130e is not very flexible.

Thanks.

Hey a much needed piece of kit for the blackberry is to have templates in your emails.

we use the balckberry to reply to client leads.

so if possible the ability to have set templates for set types of lead would negate the need to type out a whole message for every lead we get.

we can get upto 100 a day so although not all are answered via blackberry many are .

This would be a god send..

what do you think.

Possible or not..

cheers

magpie

dex, are you still soliciting ideas?

id love to be able to control the volume of the speaker by more than jsut high medium and low

I was looking for software that does what I need when I bumped into this thread, and then this message. I've looked up and down for software that will help me keep track of my milage on my car for my business.

i'm self employed and keeping accurate track of the miles driven is KEY. the state pays you back like .42 cents on the mile!

anyhow, since the blackberry already has a built in calendar (and a notepad does not), i'd assume that it'd only be a few clicks to enter in the start mile and end mile of a trip. i'd love to help contribute ideas for this project. It sounds like Eric has a wider idea than I of needs, which could really develop the nicest little small business/road applet =)

I mean, if we're looking for the software you'd have to imaging several others are as well.

take care,
splaquet

VPN client software would be great..

I'll throw in my 2 cents (USD), based on capabilities from other platforms (s60, e.g.) that I realy miss on this BB device.

- a good PDF reader. standalone, not integrated with email attachments or servers or anything funky (which is what every current solution does). I want to download a PDF, save it to my SD card, and launch a standalone viewer to view it. Period.

Real life example of something you'd keep on your device and want to "read" standalone super fast: http://transit.511.org/providers/map...8200510805.pdf

- an on-device Screenshot application, no PC connection required. You're on the go, something whacky happens and you need to save it to send to IT. Or you're trying to give feedback to a developer for something not working right.

thread: http://www.blackberryforums.com/afte...ice-no-pc.html

- a good, working-on-Pearl, World Clock applet that shows multiple timezones. super duper handy if you life in location A and your friend lives 15,000km away in location B, and you want to know if it's OK to SMS them right now.

thread: http://www.blackberryforums.com/afte...ock-pearl.html

OK I'll limit myself to only three requests to be fair.

Dex I think there is alot you can develop, personally I would like to see something that could integrate with ebay and monitor auctions that you were in. Since the BlackBerry software is behind that for Pocket PC and Palm have a look at their top sellers and see if a corresponding item exists for BlackBerry.

Magpie, there are actually a few pieces of software on the market that will create email templates, we did a quick write up on Magic Mail that we like:
BlackBerry Edge » Blog Archive » Magic Mail Software a Must Have

I'm trying to give up my PDA in favour of the BB only, and most of the software, RIM and add-on -- PIMs, security, etc -- are doing the job. But I'll tell you that the calendars available for BlackBerry are awful. Is it some limitation of the OS? Oh for something like DateBk6 on a BlackBerry (but what a huge project).

hmmm, if you have a BES server you dont need VPN, the data connection is secure back to your BES server's network.

How about an IP/subnet calculator? As a techie, this is one app I've had in one form or another since my first PDA - a Palm Pilot Pro, back in 1997.

There's only one app out there called 3netcalc, but it's incompatible with the Blackberry. Apparently it's a version 2.0 midlet, and the BB only handles 1.0 (or lower) midlets.

This is a wonderful thread - really great ideas. Just so everyone is aware, the Original Poster - dex - has not been on the forums for four months. So I am not sure who is taking down all these suggestions.

Actually, it turns out that I was able to get that 3netcalc installed on my BB after all.

There were three steps to this. One was editing the MANIFEST.MF file in the JAR file so that it registered as midlet version 1.0 instead of 2. Then editing the .JAD file and making the same change, as well as changing the midlet size to reflect the file size of the .JAR file. After this I made the appropriate mime type additions for JAD files to my apache webserver, dumped the two files into the www data directory, and browsed to the url for the JAD file. The BB downloaded and installed the JAR file as designed.

So I now have the app I wanted, and learned a neat little hack in the process.

Hey, check this out if you haven't.
BlackBerryCool » Mobylo’s MultiAlarm reviewed

I would love to see a application/utility that would have a pop up like this, that you don't have to program that works with phone book and will pull the person that is emailing/ SMSing their name and number or email. I am currently using "Notifire" and its ok, but you have to program who you want to have the pop up it doens't just pop up on all SMS/emails.

I have attached screen shot of what it looks like now.

BBscreen-e0112265-2.JPG

this is what I had to progam just for basic pop up



I suppose what I want is something that will work with the phone book and not have to be programed (I don't understand why RIM just doens't have a setting like this)

thanks!

How bout a notifier for email and sms.... i would like to kno that the person im sending my messages to has recieved them... I kno that BB messenger has a lil d and an r that pops up next to tick when the person gets their message

How about a decent task manager application. One that:

1) Gets its task data from the Exchange Server via the BlackBerry's task list, so that you don't have to enter a separate set of tasks

2) Syncs the tasks correctly with MS Outlook. Right now BlackBerry devices are not capable of getting the correct due vs. overdue status of tasks, and if your BES is in a different time zone than you are in, your task due date will even be off (more or less depending upon how many time zones away from your BES that you are).

3) Provides you with different options to view tasks beyond what the native BlackBerry application gives you. For example, sort display by category (not just "filter....sometimes I care about multiple categories of tasks due on a given day, not just a single category), view only active tasks for today, next seven days, etc.

4) Allows you to link contacts to tasks and correctly syncs this information back to MS Outlook

That would be a great start. The built in tasks programs on Palm and Windows Mobile devices are poor in general, but there are a number of excellent third-party apps to bridge the gap on those platforms. Not so on the BlackBerry.

I would pay good money for a decent task manager that could overcome the BlackBerry's critical shortcomings in this area.

i would like to see a program that will let me organize the BB alot better...

like making files for put stuff in, like i wish i was able to manage my emails better like putting emails from my girlfriend in one file, and work emails in another ect ect

same thing with applications, like i would like to put all my games in one folder, ect ect

Cory

It may be a little far fetched, but to have a media player for the 4.1 devices. I know that 4.2 is coming out, and some people would say "why, with the memory limitation would you want a media player."

So the second part of this is to have a plug-in to the media player (or a separate app) that allows you to log into your XM or Sirius Satelite Radio account. Currently I can log into my account and listen to streaming audio via a PC/ie. There are apps for windows mobile devices that do this as well, emulating the internet explorer plugin.

I am not a developer, so I do not know if it is even possible, but that would be a pretty compelling app (I guess a couple of apps).

With the EVDO/RevA, it is definitely possible from a feeds and speeds perspective, but not sure if it can happen on a 4.1 BB. My 8700 series plays mp3 type ringtones, so I am going to have to guess that it is possible in some way.

Just my $.02

How about something that can integrate with Messenger to offer a little more customization. I would like to have different icons for my different contacts.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Great idea, number 3 and 4 would be huge!! Please, I have asked RIM for this as well, but 3 releases have come and gone.

Just a note on 1 and 2 because I used to have the same problem:
Make sure you have the correct Outlook task folder selected in your PIM configuration. If you're on a BES (which it sounds like you are) sometimes it points to the wrong folder in your initial setup or your configuration file may be corrupt. As for the start and due, v4.1 gives you the ability to set the specific time zone for the task.