Blackberry 8707 from Optus

I have long used a Blackberry device, and it is by far my most oft-used and useful gadget, mainly for accessing my emails.

I recently upgraded the operating system to the latest version (v4.2.1.105). As with everything Blackberry the upgrade went smoothly. The automated process first backed up all my existing data (the recommended setting). This version has some nice new enhancements such as being able to access my Facebook profile from my Blackberry.

The only thing I didn’t like was the rearranging of the icons on my Blackberry screen, which I wished to change.

I knew I had done this previously, but could neither remember nor find anything in the help section as to how to go about it.

In actual fact it is rather simple.

Highlight the icon you wish to move by holding the ALT button and simultaneously click the trackwheel. This brings up options to either MOVE ICON, HIDE ICON, SHOW ALL or SWITCH APPLICATION. This last option SWITCH APPLICATION is a useful addon that can be used whilst in any application, enabling quick navigation from one to another.

Select MOVE ICON and then with the trackwheel move the icon to where you wish to place it and then click the trackwheel once done.

Ever locked your keys in your car? – then unlock your car doors via your mobile phone…

Ever locked your keys in your car?

If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone on your mobile phone.

Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the other person at your home press the unlock button of your key fob (clicker), holding it near the phone on their end. Your car doors will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object – you could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other “remote” for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the boot!).

I’ve tried it on my car and it really works.

Let me know how you go once you’ve given it a try.

How to Block Caller ID for engin VoIP Customers

If you are an engin VoIP customer and wish to block your number appearing at the recipents end, you must first dial the prefix 1831 before each call.

Two Email Addresses are Better Than one – Beat SPAM

Having an email address these days is as important, if not more important, than other contact details, such as a home address for others to contact you.

Just like your home address, where you most likely receive ‘junk mail’, so too via your email address you most definitely will be receiving junk email or SPAM. For the moment, let’s forget about anything malicious that may arrive in your inbox, SPAM is simply annoying, unwanted and a significant waste of time to clear.

There are many ways to reduce the amount of SPAM received (although unlikely to eliminate it completely), which should be done – whether at the mail server side (if such facility is provided by your ISP) or on your local machine using a spam filter program internal to your email program or an external third party software application.

One of the most effective ways to reduce spam is to only provide your primary email address to friends and family. Never use it to subscribe to a newsletter, enter a competition, provide it to a company, register for software, online forums, place it on your website or blogs etc. Once it is out there in cyberspace you have lost control over it.

Instead obtain a second email address, which is not crucial to your everyday communications, but one whose sole purpose is to subscribe to a newsletter  or something similar, and which after a period of time is receiving masses of junk, you can simply delete it or stop using it, whilst retaining your primary email address, and sign up for another secondary email address if need be.

Many ISPs charge for a second email address, such as Telstra Bigpond. ISPs, such as Exetel, provide 20 free email addresses with every ADSL account.

Because Gmail is free and web-based and has really accurate spam filters I primarily use it as a secondary email address.

Another tip in providing your email address via an outbound email is to send it as follows:

yourname (at) isp.com.au

instead of

yourname@isp.com.au

GPS ‘My Home Location’

Replacing the days of old when cars were broken into to steal car cassette/radios/CDs, GPS devices are now high on the list of items stolen from motor vehicles.

Unlike stolen car stereos, primarily stolen and sold for cash, the main purpose of thieving GPS devices from cars is for the thief to look up the owner’s home location and assuming that the device was stolen from the car at a location other than the home address, then the thief can be relatively certain that you are not at home when he/she decides to pay your home a visit.

Aside from the precaution of dismantling your GPS device when you exit the car, it is best to actually take the device with you. Thieves know from the residual marks left on the windscreen from the GPS cradle that although the device may not be visible, it may still be somewhere in the car, for example stowed in the glovebox, and if this is the case the device will still be stolen.

To further safeguard your home address, if indeed your device is stolen, DO NOT enter your correct home address details in the My Home Location. It is one of those crazy things that people enter into their devices, but one must assume both that people know where they live and if they are nearby home then the directions to get home from nearby. Therefore, to thwart would be thieves from breaking into your home:

1. Enter no home address details;

2. Enter your street name or nearby street with no house number;

3. Enter the address details of your nearest local police station; or

4. create some other diversionary address that does not in any way lead to your premises.

Another consideration regarding your GPS is whether it is covererd by insurance. It is best to list your GPS under both your Home & Contents Insurance as well as advising your motoring organisation, for example the NRMA in NSW. It may well be the case that NRMA may cover a broken car window that was broken into to steal a GPS, but not the device itself.