Alex's space

Stuck at Toulouse

sitting here, as a 4 hr delay is in progress.

Glad that my half charged MacBook has given me a couple of hours work, and feeling a little foolish that I do not have a plug converter on me…

there is not that much to do at airports when you are delayed. oh well

Twidroid / Twitter on Android

short mention, but have been testing a HTC Magic – Android device for a while now and very much like Twidroid it is one of the best twitter clients I have used to date.

by the same token in comparison to iPhone and BlackBerry the Facebook clients I have tested so far do not live up to much.

(will be writing a better Android / HTC Magic post soon – in the mean time I have moved back to my 1st generation iPhone)!

Issues with unlocking a BlackBerry

I have noticed in the comments on this site and generally when speaking to people that there is a little confusion over the unlocking process.

Specifically – why does my email / internet browsing stop working after an unlock ?

For a BlackBerry to work properly and receive push email it needs to be connected to either a BIS service (from your mobile network operator) or a BES service from your company.

(Article explaining the difference between BIS and BES)

Effectively for both variants the mobile network operator needs to be ‘aware’ to route emails (and other internet traffic) from and to your BlackBerry via the RIM (BlackBerry) routers out there on the internet.

So when you buy your BlackBerry you will have probably bought it with a BIS or BES service from your mobile network operator, when you unlock your BlackBerry to put another sim in from your chosen new mobile network operator – for example a PAYG sim in a country you are visiting – you will not typically have the BIS or BES service on that sim card so your email will not work.

If the new sim has BIS on it and you had a BIS sim before then it will work, and the same BES / BES (we have tested this many times).

If you still want to unlock your BlackBerry then instructions can be found in this aticle and this one specifically for the BlackBerry Storm

An unlocked BlackBerry with out the BIS or BES service will still work for normal mobile services such as calling / sms etc

Crocs Ahoy

Gratuitous Croc Shot, originally uploaded by alexlaurie.

we all ended up wearing crocs on our recent sailing trip in the BVI

Unlock a Blackberry - quickly

To save you time if you have a BlackBerry and want to get it network unlocked so you can use any sim you want in your device you need to do one of the following:

1. Get a device unlock code from your network operator and enter this using the instructions that can be found here for general and here if you have a BlackBerry Storm.

2. Alternatively you can purchase an unlock code from specialist phone unlocking services such as this site – the phone unlockers, I mention them as commenters on this site have used them successfully – services like these ask you to enter your IMEI number and device type and pay approx £15.00 then they mail you a code right away, they also have extensive details on their site for guiding you through the process.

So have a shop around, see what you think and have fun unlocking your BlackBerry.