[XelhaBB]

Well, I am in the last month of my time on the 9530. I have been tinkering with the phone being that it also was starting to glitch quite often. The ring tone changed to different tones by itself, it pulled up the face icon of the last caller for incoming calls from different people, etc. The old gray mare just wasn't what she used to be. But here is some of my advice for those still rockin' a 9530.

3rd Party Apps: remove them ALL unless you just can't live without them. Some of those things, especially the freebies are just utter atrocities. Especially the apps that make your Storm turn into a disco ball when it rings. Bad bad bad.

Themes: delete any you aren't using. In fact, unless you absolutely love your theme, delete it and go with the stock theme. I loved my theme by Natemz but it began to glitch and make my phone run oddly. The 9530 didn't like ANY of the themes I put on it.

Berry Slider: its a good way to lock down your phone. That's it. I updated my version until I had to pay again, and updated it some more. Bottom line, the Storm still doesn't like it AND it seems the architects will never get it right. Buh bye Berry Slider.

Weather Icons: my opinion is its unnecessary. The good ones refresh every so often and this places a drain on the battery. A solution is to set up a shortcut in your internet browser which will give you a gander at the local weather anytime you need it. You can get all the info you need on websites like the Weather Channel.

VZnavigator: delete that infernal program from your phone completely. It is like that Bing icon. Once you activate it, it takes on a life of its own and just will always find a way to fire itself up. Any program that requires you to activate it and check off a user agreement, is usually a battery hog. If you are inexperienced with the app, it is also possible to engage processes you don't desire.

If you dont use it, DELETE DELETE DELETE.

I recently deleted ALL the unused programs, icons, and anything I didn't use. This was complimented by a wipe and fresh O/S install. No weather program, theme, one row on the home screen - just old school bare bones Blackberry Storm 9530.

Result: my 9530 caught its second wind. It noticeably runs smoother, transitions much quicker, no glitches, and best of all - the battery life has noticeably improved. Before I was down to 10 percent at the end of the day. Now, with my Yahoo messenger running, email / SMS traffic, substantial phone calls, etc I am still at 60% or more by 6pm. Right after retooling my 9530, I was able to pull almost two full business days before I had to charge my Storm.

Try it out if you are stuck in your contract it a little longer. You will like the results.