Here's the BlackBerryTools binaries again!

For others interested:
- the story of what happened
- source code information
- substitutes and alternatives to BBTools

Enjoy!

Edit: bbCorrector has now been added. I hereby uphold GNU General Public License, by doing a favour to the public, by legally re-releasing BlackBerryTools.

Enter this web address into your BlackBerry for wireless over-the-air downloads:
BlackBerryTools OTA
Or if you prefer to install via BlackBerry Desktop, download any one of the below:

BBLight: Allows you to set the screen backlight to stay on under certain conditions, i.e. charging, time of day, etc.
BBReply: Allows you to show a different reply to address on your emails. (This is now done in BIS and this app doesn't work on newer devices.)
BBToday: A Today screen with customizable fields for weather, stocks, email info, etc.
BBWeather: Allows you to quickly check current weather and forecasts for locations you specify.
BBCorrector: A spell checking application.

Edit 2/23/09 by MrKyoo: There are two versions, one for OS 4.2 and above (without WiFi) and one for OS versions 4.3 and above (with WiFi). The OTA link should hopefully autodirect you to the correct download for your OS and the desktop install contains a folder for each version.
OTA
http://www.tateu.net/software/bb.php?f=BBWeather

Desktop Install
http://www.tateu.net/software/dl.php?f=BBWeatherDT

Also, there is an alpha version available which will always be updated with whatever version I am currently using/testing/debugging on my own device.
http://www.blackberryforums.com/afte...eases.html#top

The weather portion of BBToday has been updated, as well, and the new version can be downloaded OTA by pointing your BB's browser to:
http://bbrtm.org/bbtoday/bbtoday.jad (or a desktop manager install is attached below.)

Edit 2/24/2009 by John Clark: BBLight has received another update as well, thanks to Tateu on this forum. The new 1.93 version can be downloaded OTA by pointing your BB's browser to:
http://www.tateu.net/software/bb.php?f=bblight (or the Desktop Manager version is attached below. Instructions and information on this new version can be found here.)

The older versions of BBLight can be found here.

We have no issue with the re-release of the spelling checker providing it does not conflict with our bbSpell trademark.

Thanks Mark for getting these back in the communities hands.

I have the BlackBerryTools source code ready now in a zip file, including renamed spell checker (bbCorrector).

If you are somebody who wants to reinstall BlackBerryTools onto SourceForge, please contact me by PM.

According to the GNU General Public License, the BlackBerryTools source code belongs to the public.

Mark thanks a lot for getting this going!

this is great news!! Thanks for the getting the code back up there Mark!!

Here's the source code:
BlackBerryTools SourceForge CVS
(If you're a developer, please feel free to participate.)

Alternate location if you prefer a zip file (Old Source Code - May 1st, 2005 edition):
www.marky.com/files/bb/BBTools-Source.zip
I hereby uphold GNU General Public License by releasing the source code.

I did a lot of correspondence with the parties involved. The new name for bbSpellCheck is now already "bbCorrector" - I have already changed the source code for everybody. The trademark issue has been resolved. Both wonderful products continue to exist. The only exception is that Chris Miles never got back to me.

This is under GNU General Public License, an open source license, and belongs to the public. I have worked with GNU open source projects since 1994 under Linux, so I am familiar with the legal implications of GPL. The GPL guarantees my protection even if Chris Miles does not want me to re-release the source code. This source code legally belongs to the public!

Thank you to Chris Miles for releasing BlackBerryTools, the BEST open source BlackBerry software.
Thank you to SomeDevelopers.com for being very reasonable with me, and for releasing an excellent spellchecker!
(I should note I got the SomeDevelopers.com 'bbSpell' spellchecker beta before the Chris Miles 'bbCorrector' spellchecker was ever released)

Can you add the bbCorrector to the attachments above?

Thanks!

I can't, as I don't have the correct environment to recompile. If you have Eclipse and the $100 RIM signing key to recompile, please do so. Even if I installed Eclipse, I don't want to use my employer's RIM signing key as that would be unethical. One of us developers could probably pony up $100, but I'd like it to be someone who can take over the BlackBerryTools project and put it back into SourceForge. Someone else with the appropriate environment will have to recompile bbCorrector from the source code.

In the meantime, for a hassle-free solution, please try the free bbSpell spell checker from http://www.SomeDevelopers.com

Ohhhhh I see... Thanks for explaining that...

I would post the old binary, but it is not legal to do so because of the naming conflict. That's the only sticking point right now.

To the best of my knowledge and others' knowledge, of all parties I have contacted, I have posted everything that is legally allowed to post. I did my best to uphold the GPL requirements while satisfying the naming issue.

Well I DID try out bbspell and it works great and is very fast. Now if it was a little less expensive I'd actually pay for a license. But $35 is a bit steep for a utilty app, in my opinion, when you can get fairly robust apps like Pocketday for around $20.

Guess I'll just stick with the free version for now.

I also downloaded and am using the free advertiser supported version of BBSpell, which like you, I found easy to install and to use. I did this even before the issue with the trade mark in connection with the former bbspellchecker, as I wasn't prepared to take the time and effort to set it up. For now the advertising is not an issue as I find the ads, for the most part, informative of BlackBerry useful products.
As a former (a while ago) user of palm products I am amazed and pleased at all the third party products that have come out for BlackBerry during the last six months.

Me too. In fact, I have used Palm products for years; I owned one of the original Palmpilots and most recently I used a Palm T3. However, since I acquired the 7100T about a month ago I have practically forgotten about my T3. It IS a nice gaming device when travelling, but for my business needs, the 7100T rules.

I think that comparing BBSpell pricing to Pocketday pricing actually helps justify the $35 charge. I agree that Pocketday's pricing is fair. The price of BBSpell really isn't that much more when you consider what you are getting. BBSpell uses the developer's server to do the spell checking. So they are maintaining a production environment for you, which includes power, bandwidth, etc. Even so they are willing to provide a free version so you don't have to directly pay out of pocket. Also, they have an active presence here on the forums. If you add it all up, they are still costing you less than many of the commercial IM clients. Now if I want to make the comparison to them, BBSpell can help me not look like an idiot when I compose mail, and costs less than an IM client that can potentially get me glared at in a meeting.

That's certainly one way to look at it. But the certainly don't have to maintain a programming staff to update and maintain the code like a company would for a more robust piece of software with a lot more functionality. (Oh, and with Pocketday I don't have to pay again for the software every year).

I appreciate your perspective, but I wouldn't pay $35/year for bbSpell.

Very understandable.

Let's put things into another perspective. One year ago, long before I was employed by them, I was willing to pay for Idokorro MobileSSH, even though it cost vastly more than most telnet/ssh clients. (Except for the very best desktop telnet/SSH clients, such as the Vandyke SecureCRT, which costs the same as Idokorro MobileSSH).

There are people who do not have the time and money to worry about not-officially-supported software and the intricacies of setting up a spellcheck server.

I do understand many people go to midpssh (A free telnet/SSH competitor to MobileSSH) and to bbCorrector (A free spellchecker competitor to SomeDevelopers.com bbSpell) for very same reasons. However, the commercial projects are pretty sustainable, they are simply marketed to different segments of the BlackBerry-using population than for the free products.

Thanks for an donor (who will remain anonymous) who has used his signing key, bbCorrector has now been recompiled. The zip file has now been attached above!

bbCorrector REQUIRES you to have a CGI-capable web hosting account, because you must install a server component for bbCorrector. To get help installing bbCorrector, please post a separate thread asking for instructions. (No, I don't have instructions, but I think there's some old instructions on RIMROAD, I could probably dig up). The GNU 'aspell' binary must be preinstalled on the web server. It is preinstalled on most Linux web servers. If it is not, you can google 'aspell' if you need to recompile it on the web server, for the use by the bbCorrector server component.

For a more user friendly spellchecker, try bbSpell at www.SomeDevelopers.com.

It would be great if someone could recompile BBSpellCheck, uh, I mean BBCorrector and bold the words instead of just underlining them. <hint><hint>

Congratulations,

great easy small tool. Really helpfull....
Some enhancment whishes I would have:
- proxy authentication support (either by saving the credentials or passing the prompt to the user)
- Possibility for lookup of Location ID, either via internal function or external small tool
-to keep data traffic low I would like to be able to increase the refresh interval higher than possible now.
- additional different look (with less details) for the forecast...similar to bbtodaz
- different languagesupport (I could help you with some languages if needed)

Again thanks for the work

Sure would be nice if the developers of bbSpell would offer a discount for Blackberry Forum members. Pocket Express has been offering a 20% discount for forum members and I'm giving some serious consideration to purchasing it with the discount.

All,

I am trying to create a sourceforge project. I used the same name as before, BBtools. I am have been going back and forth with SourceForge admin trying to give the information that they want. If all goes well I will have the project setup and can install the code there by next week.

I am looking for people who would like to take the project forward and imporve on what Chris Miles has created. Please PM me if you are interested in working on the project.

I think we all should thank Mark for working so hard tracking down the source code. Also for Chris Miles for creating some of the best programs made for the BlackBerry.

Vinnie

Hi PDHLA,

We've been offering nearly a 30% discount since release. The details are:

SPECIAL OFFER for blackberryforums members:

Use coupon code bbforumsapril when checking out for $10 off the $35 fee to remove advertising.


It's not in a sticky, so falls out of view:

http://www.blackberryforums.com/show...4999#post44999


jeff

How Would I Go About Getting The Location Id For My City. Barbourville Ky?

zip code

Well, I'm heading over to the web site to purchase. $25 seems reasonable to me and I appreciate your re-posting the offer here.

Cheers.

I should mention that SomeDevelopers.com is now a sponsor of BlackBerryForums.com so this offer is welcomed!

Many thanks for providing these utilities, I've installed BBToday on my new Blackberry 7100v and I find it very useful indeed.

However, I have not managed to get the Weather module to work. I do not use a BES, but connect directly - is that called WAP Transport ? My assumption is that this means I should select Disable MDS Proxy, as if I understand correctly, MDS is a feature of BES.

My GPRS ADN is correctly set to wapsfr, as per my Services entry, however although my browser works fine, the weather module fails with Bad DNS Address, and Malformed Address. Returning Null.

I see in a number of places info about configuring WAP transport for java apps :-

http://www.reqwireless.com/support_bb_wap.html
http://www.simprit.com/miniexcel/support_faq_bb.html

However, I don;t see a way of configuring that in BBweather. Is there a way to get BBweather to work with WAP transport users ?

Cheers

Check the Configuring Internet FAQ inside my BlackBerry FAQ below. You may wish to test out other third party Internet software (non-web-browser based) and see what happens.

I have just installed BBWeather for the first time. When I try to load it, it says "Error: Could not find a service book entry for IPPP". When I look in options under service books, it shows a service book for IPPP. I tried clicking the Disable MDS Proxy option, and then it says "Error: could not open tunnel - failed." Any ideas on what may be causing this issue? I'm on T-Mobile with a 7100t. All other web based things are working fine (browser, IM).

Thanks in advance.

All,

I have brought back the BBTools SourceForge site and will include the programs BBCorrector, BBLight, BBWeather, BBToday, & BBReply. The URL is the same as before:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools/

I am working on getting the source code and binaries put into the CVS. I have to say this is my first time using SourceForge form the admin side so I am learning.

AGAIN I am looking for anyone who would like to work on the project to extend the functionality of the programs. PM me if you are interested.

Vinnie

I have BBToday installed on my 7520 and LOVE IT, almost could say I couldn’t live without it. Can someone tell me the difference between BBWeather & BBToday’s weather area.

BBweather won't work for me. What am I doing wrong? I'm a newbie, so please have mercy on me! 7520 running OS 4.0, BBlight works great. When I try to get a weather update I always get a popup error: Could not find a service book entry for IPPP. What does that mean, and how can I get past it? TIA!

Never mind! I got it to work. After doing more searching on this board, I found out that I had to disable the built-in firewall and ALSO disable the MDS proxy in the program. Then it worked perfectly! Would be nice to have a tiny little help file that goes with the zip to explain things like this...

Wish I could get BBtoday weather to work at all. Every time I try to change the location ID it always goes back to some place in Texas! Not that TX is a bad state, it just isn't where I am right now...

Hi Mark, many thanks for the FAQ, which I had followed religiously.

o I have a 7100v, with OS 3.8.0.128
o The APN is set to wapsfr, as per the details in the service book entry
o i've disabled the firewall
o TLS is set to Handheld, (whatever that means).

My BB browser works perfectly, and I can surf the web and wap sites without a problem, and retreive e-mail (NB I don't connect to a BES).

In the weather module of BBtoday all I get is Bad DNS address, or Malformed URL.

In the IPPP service book entry it had an APN of blackberry.net. I tried that, but it didn't help either.

Looking at the BBtoday code, I see that it uses the directive deviceside=true in the URL for non-BES use. However looking at configuration info in the BB developer documentation, and for various third party tools, it mentions one should specify WapGatewayIP and
WapGatewayAPN in the URL.

As far as I can understand, deviceside=true only works for certain networks.

http://www.jasonlam604.com/tipshints...blackberry.php

Unless someone has a workaround, I guess I'll have to wait till the code is changed to allow the gateway and apn info to be added to the BBtoday preferences.

Cheers
Guy

I am a newbie and just purchased a 7250 this week. I am trying to download BB Tools (Today, Weather, etc) and I need some help. I downloaded the files to My Computer, and they are showing up in zip format...all files, inlcuding the alx applications. I opened Desktop Mgr and Application Loader. When I open App Loader, it shows Attachement Support, Languages, etc. I then selected Add and browsed to find the location of the files. When I select BBToday.alx I get a pop up stating "No additional applications for your handheld were found." HELP!

This is great. I cant wait to get home and load it up.

Nextelnutt

Jchamlee... same thing happened to me. When I unzipped the folder, I moved the .alx icon into the my docs folder and I got the message you are getting. I went back and moved both the .alx and the .cod files into the my docs and was able to load them into the Desktop Manager and on the BB. Hope that helps...

Hello all ... I have completed the recreation of the SourceForge site for BlackBerryTools (BBCorrector, BBLight, BBWeather, BBToday, & BBReply). The URL is the same as before:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/blackberrytools/

The download can be accessed from there and also the sourcecode is in the CVS repository.

PM me if you have any questions.

Works now. Thanks!

I punched my zip code in BBToday and it works ok. But I cannot get to work BB Weather.