I’ve been somewhat busy latey so this isn’t the typical technical blog post, but rather a pointer that my regular readers can find me posting semi-frequently on here but also in other places.

That’s right, I’ve joined the ranks of the unpaid professional blogger and so you can find me writing with my friends over at BlackBerryOS.com about BlackBerry news.

Keeping with the BlackBerry news, I’m also the co-host over at QuickBerryPodcast.com where we record weekly.

So, business should resume as normal over time here as I’m steering clear of posting more RIM or BlackBerry related content. Instead, I’ll be sticking with the dry technical ideas and how tos.

Enjoy!

Maybe it’s because I’m what would be regarded as a ‘power user’ – but I find calendars on my phone and online with Google very, very useful. What is a seemingly simple tool is enabled and ready to make magical things happen.

A discussion that I raised with one of my BBM groups today was a question: Will BlackBerry 10 support multiple calendars? This is and always has been a big deal for me. Although I found myself explaining to one member why it is important. I hadn’t really considered that those who don’t use calendars wouldn’t see the benefits of multiple and shared calendars.

Read on to find out how amazing multiple shared calendars are. (more…)

Having fun playing with the new BlackBerry Dev Alpha?

There’s a lot hidden away on the new software including an onscreen output for watching the performance of the handset.

To access the diagnostics, simply place your finger at the top left of the bezel and swipe inwards. Make sure that you are using the homescreen when you do this.

Repeat to clear.

Something that happens occasionally is that I need to create a function that will specifically output chunks of HTML.

A good method is to allow for functions to handle both single strings and arrays. The problem? I don’t like duplicating code. The solution? A quick convention to an array!

function arrayish($a)
{
  if (!is_array($a)) $a = array($a);

  foreach ($a as $b) {
    echo "<p>$b</p>";
  }
}

That’s it. Nice and simple!

If someone knows a more efficient way to do this, I’d love to know.

Right, let’s cut to the chase.

RIM – you’re current backup system for the PlayBook is inadequate.

There, I got it off my chest. But it had to be said. As you can probably see from this blog – I like BlackBerry. It does what I want it to do most of the time. I want to get things done. I’m nearly always mobile. BlackBerrys keep me connected to everything that I need to do.

But as BlackBerry 10 looms closer, I’m worried that some PlayBook-isms will make it across (more…)

After a long brain-think, I’ve decided to use Disqus for my comments from now on.

There just seems to be no benefit to managing a comments system when there is so much that people expect out of it now.

Please bear with me as my existing comments are synced to “The Cloud” (or as we used to call it – a server on the internet).