BlackBerry Smartphones are basically known for having 2 main types of errors. They consist of app errors and jvm errors. App errors have different codes to give BlackBerry developers and technical support agents a general idea of what has caused the error and how to fix it. BlackBerry app errors also range in seriousness from an annoying pop up when accessing a certain app that will go away when the “Close” or “OK” button is pressed all the way to causing your BlackBerry to crash and go into a state of never ending startup loop.

So How Can you Fix an App Error?

The truth is that regardless of how many types of app errors there are there are basically 3 ways to fix a BlackBerry app error and I will go through them below.

1. Erase the Offending Application

It’s no secret that an app error is caused by an application on the BlackBerry that has either malfunctioned, become corrupt, or is incompatible with the device or device operating system it is on. If you notice that whenever you use a certain app you receive an app error whether it be contacts, calendar, memos or a 3rd party app then simply deleting this app from the BlackBerry will resolve this issue. This type of app error is usually just an annoyance and does not normally cripple your BlackBerry.

2. Hard Reset the BlackBerry

App errors can sometimes cause your BlackBerry to freeze or overload the memory which can cause your BlackBerry to become unresponsive or extremely slow. When this happens the easiest way to resolve this BlackBerry app error is to simply take the battery out of the back of the BlackBerry waiting for 1 full minute and then replacing the battery. Once the BlackBerry starts up your memory will be refreshed and any temporary corruption that was causing your BlackBerry to freeze should be taken care of. This is a bit more crippling however usually easy to fix.

3. Clean Reload the Operating System on BlackBerry

Sometimes BlackBerry app error’s can bring corruption to the operating system that the BlackBerry runs off of. These types of errors are not as common but still affect quite a few people, especially those with a ton of apps on their BlackBerry’s. When these app errors happen it often causes the BlackBerry to crash and restart constantly. If second step above does not resolve this issue then it will be necessary to reload the operating system onto the BlackBerry. Unfortunately when the app error becomes this bad 95% of the time you will not be able to do a backup and will not be able therefore to recover any of the information on the BlackBerry.

App errors can be a real pain in the butt and can devastate your information. I highly recommend doing weekly or daily backups, and making sure that before you download any applications to your BlackBerry make sure the vendor if not on App World is trust worthy and that the application you’re downloading is meant for the BlackBerry you have.

The popular mobile app maker Gameloft Inc has released quite a few of their games on appworld at a reduced price of just $0.99.  These games are available for download now from the BlackBerry App World website and include games like Uno, Where’s Wally Now, N.O.V.A, The adventures of Tintin, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Heroes of Sparta and tons more.  Like always this sale won’t last forever and a lot of these games are well worth the download.  If you are looking for some great games to play and want to save money then take advantage of the Gameloft Inc sale on App World now and get some cool games for your BlackBerry.

One of the most common issues when dealing with the web based BlackBerry Enterprise Server (5.0-5.0.3) is dealing with the BlackBerry Administration Service not loading and getting that dreadful “Page Cannot be Displayed”.  There are many reasons why this can occur but in this tutorial I will be going through how to fix the error: “Keystore was tampered with, or password was incorrect” (found in the BBAS-AS logs).

IMPORTANT!: First and foremost you will have to make sure that you are logged on to the server under the account that you installed the BES software with.  For example if you signed in as “BBAccount” to install the BES then you would log in as this account to follow this tutorial.  The easiest way to find what account you installed the BES with is to look at “Log On As” column under the services.

Generating New Web.Keystore Password

1. Stop the BlackBerry Administration Services (BAS-AS and NCC)

2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BAS\bin and rename the web.keystore file to web.keystore.old

3. Get into the Registry and take a full back-up of the Regsitry.  This is very important as messing around with the registry can do a lot of damage to your server.

4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\Administration Service\KeyStorePass

5. If no value exists for the “Keystore Password” areas then add a random password there

6. Open a command prompt(if running WIN2008 choose run as admin) and type in the following command:

” webGenKey.bat “C:\Program Files\Java\JavaPath\” “C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BAS” NewKeyStorePassword FQDN_of_BAS_or_BAS_Pool_Name”

So as an example on a 64 bit system that installs java under the default settings this command would look something like this:

” webGenKey.bat “C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.6.0_18\” “C:\Program Files (x86)\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BAS” My New Keystore Password fqdn.of.bas.or.bas.pool.name.com (the fqdn or bas pool can be found in the BlackBerry Server Configuration)”

7.  Once run this command will generate a new web.keystore file in the directory that we renamed the original. Verify that the new one is here.

8. Then go into the BlackBerry Server Configuration utility and click on the tab that states Adminitration Service – webKeystore.

9. Type in the old password as the password you entered into the command earlier.  Then type the new password as a new password that you will create right now.

10.  Click “Apply” and it should give you a message saying that it was successful.  This will update the registry keystore password to match the password used in the command.

11. Start your BlackBerry Administration Services and then wait for the BAS-AS process in your task manager to get up to 480,000+.  Then launch the BAS, if this tutorial was done correctly and there are no other underlying issues your BAS should launch without a hitch and you will be good to go.

This tutorial is for all of you who have tried to push a software package through the BES and received this error: “The application version: {version number}  is not parse-able. The accepted version format is XXX.YYY.YYY.YYY where X and Y are numeric characters”.  This error is a known issue with the BlackBerry Enterprise server 5.0.3 as per Research In Motions release notes and should be fixed in an upcoming BES server upgrade or release.  At this point in time however in order to fix this issue and get your software application uploaded to the BES you will have to change the version number of the software.

Change Application Version Number

1. Locate the zipped folder containing the .alx and .cod files and extract them.

2. Right Click on the .alx file and choose to open the file.

3. Choose the option to open the program using Notepad.

4. Within the notepad you will notice a version number that should look exactly the same as the one you’re receiving in the BAS in the error.

5. Change this version number to a format of XXX.YYY.YYY.YYY and keep in mind that only the X values are necessary.  A few of the excepted examples would be: “5.0″, “5.0.0.0″,”1.434.34.2″ etc.

6. Save the changes to the file, making sure that the filetype is set to all files and the .alx extension is still part of the name.

7. Re-zip the two files and then go into the BAS and attempt to re-attach or add your app.  If you have changed the version to a supported format your app will now be accepted and you can add it to your software configuration.

That’s it this workaround has worked for me every time I have tested it.  If this does not work for you or you have any questions simply leave a comment below and I will get back to you.

Today Research In Motion the creator of the BlackBerry Smartphone announced that amid the recent shakeup to the upper management of the company over the passed few months they have added 2 new members to their leadership team through the hiring of Kristian Tear who will be the new Chief Operating Officer and Frank Boulben who will fill the spot of Chief Marketing Officer.   This addition comes as a movement by RIM to expand and grow their dwindling customer base and position the company for success with the future release of the BlackBerry 10 devices.

RIM has stated that these executives will greatly compliment their existing leadership team, and will undoubtedly be able to bring new ideas and future insight to the table as both Kristian and Frank have deep experience in the mobile computing industry.  With all things considered the new CEO and CMO will certainly have their work cut out for them, with the most important launch to date coming up fast as well as with the quickly evolving mobile market that they will have to work hard to keep up to.

RIM is definitely making some great business moves and improvements to not only their mobile lineup but their company as well.  These changes have been needed for some time now and I can only hope that these changes will create a dramatic enough effect to turn the company around and pull it back into the competitive mobile race.  The next few months are critical for RIM and it will be interesting to see what they have up their sleeves come the launch date of their BlackBerry 10.

BlackBerry 10 Alpha which was the prototype showcased by BlackBerry representatives and Thorsten Heins at this years BlackBerry World Conference is the device that is crucial to the survival of Research In Motion and their consumer based market. This year at the BlackBerry World Conference the BlackBerry team was very laser focused on giving its participants and BlackBerry developers a good look at what’s to come in order to drum up some excitement and enthusiasm from the developers. Until now RIM has really failed to release a BlackBerry Smartphone that has focused on the consumer and what they want, and which has been tested enough to work out all of the kinks and glitches. This has caused them to lose a dramatic amount of crucial ground in the mobile market.

Even though the BlackBerry 10 device has been postponed BlackBerry wowed many participants of this years BlackBerry World Conference with the cool new features of the BlackBerry 10 Alpha and with the hint that there is more to come with the actual BlackBerry 10 device that will be launched this coming fall. A few of these features that were showcased include a camera that records frames before and after the picture so you can back up or go forward to the best frame for a perfect picture as shown below:

The BlackBerry 10 Alpha also features a smoother, easier flow from screen to screen, as well as a more robust set of hand gestures that will allow you to do more with your current open apps and conversations. This video below shows this new flow that will be on the new BlackBerry 10 Smartphones:

In addition to the flow and camera feature enhancement the BlackBerry 10 Alpha was used to show the new keyboard feature that will follow along with many of the androids with the swipe typing concept. This new software keyboard which is very unusual to see on a BlackBerry will have a very intuitive auto correct function that will give you full words based on the letters you begin swiping with. This feature can be seen in the video below:

In my opinion BlackBerry 10 Alpha which was showcased is definitely off to the right start, the start which should have taken place a year ago. The only problem in my mind is that at this point while the new BlackBerry 10 has some cool new features, it still has a long way to go to catch up to whats out there now, and BlackBerry will really have to step up their game with this new BlackBerry 10 device that will come out later this year if they want to gain back a decent portion of their foot hold in the market. I believe it can be done but BlackBerry will have to maintain their laser focused vision on giving the consumer what they want, and creating a good product that works the way it is supposed to.

In a previous article/tutorial I discussed the basics of the BlackBerry Enterprise process and gave you a number of ways you could activate a BlackBerry on the BES server. This article/tutorial can be accessed here BlackBerry Enterprise Activation Guide. In this tutorial I want to take you through some of the most common issues that you will run into when trying to activate a BlackBerry on a BES server as well as give you tips for resolving these issues so that you can successfully activate your BlackBerry Device.

ETP Messages Don’t Reach Inbox

As mentioned in the above article when a BlackBerry attempts to activate it sends what is called an ETP message to the users inbox.  If this message does not make it into the  users’ inbox then the BlackBerry will never activate.  The most common reasons for the ETP not making it into the inbox are:

- Spam Filter blocking message
– Rules on Inbox to filter messages
– BlackBerry Not Sending the Message
– Wrong email entered in activation screen
– Mail client not working properly

These issues can be resolved by checking the spam filters, adding blackberry.net to your whitelist, checking for filters on the inbox, or verifying that the email has been typed correctly. The last issue of the BlackBerry not sending the ETP out will be addressed in the next paragraph.

BlackBerry Not Sending ETP

This does not happen very often but occasionally you will see this happen. If you have gone through checking all of the above and still are not receiving the ETP in the inbox then you will want to determine if the BlackBerry is even sending out the ETP message. To do this simply try activating to a Hotmail, Gmail or other form of personal email address to see if the ETP makes it into that inbox. If so then the trouble is definitely with the mail environment. If you are not receiving the ETP messages then the problem may lie with the actual BlackBerry. To resolve this issue do a security wipe on the device and then try to reactivate.

ETP Does not get Picked Up from Inbox

If an activation goes through flawlessly you should never even see the ETP in the inbox as the BES will grab and delete it fairly quickly. However if you notice that the ETP is not being picked up and the Activation is hanging then you could have some issues, most likely being:

-No BES services on the BlackBerry.
-Appropriate Permissions are not present
-Email was tampered with (by user or Spam service)

In this case you will have a few things to verify and check. The first and foremost are services on the BlackBerry this is a very common issue. With domino and GroupWise the permissions isn’t as big of a deal but with Exchange permissions are crucial. One small permissions that isn’t set right could break everything, so verify that all of your permissions are set correctly as per BlackBerry’s KB02276. Finally make sure that the email has not been moved, edited, opened or the title modified by a spam filter this can cause the BES not to recognize the ETP message.

ETP is Picked Up but Activation does not Start

This issue is less common but it is common enough to mention it. Sometimes what will happen is that the ETP will be sent and picked up however the activation screen on the BlackBerry will get stuck at “verifying encryption” or “waiting for services”. This is usually caused with the sending of the IT policy and can usually be taken care of by restarting the BlackBerry Policy and BlackBerry Synchronization services on the BES server. Ensure that you are also getting a good network signal. It should be between 70 and 90 DBM to be most effective.

Slow Sync stops or hangs

This is another fairly common issue and is usually one of the biggest pains to take care of, not because its hard but because its time consuming. This issue can happen for a few reasons them being:

- Inconsistent network signal
- Synchronization service is stuck
- Server resources are low or Server is really bogged down.

If this issue is caused by the first or the second point above then the resolutions are simple, get to a better coverage area or restart the BlackBerry Synchronization service on the BES. If it happens to be the last point above then you will have to go into the BAS or on the Device itself and temporarily disable the contact and/or calendar synchronization to take up less server resources thus making your activation go much quicker.

Once the Activation is complete then you will be able to go back in to wherever you changed the settings for the wireless synchronization and you will be able to enable that and your contacts and calendar entries will begin to sync over.

Note- If you are running Exchange you can place the user on a static mailbox agent which dedicates special resources to the user. This will allow the activation to go a whole lot quicker. Do not keep them on this agent however as it will take a toll on your BES server.

These are the most common failure points for BlackBerry Enterprise Activations that I have run into. There are obviously many more factors and variables however if after completing this article and your activation not being successful you will have to give BlackBerry a call.

NOTE: Just a few notes to remember when it comes to activating BlackBerrys

-Wireless Sync of contacts and calendars can take up to a few hours depending on server resources and number of entries.

-If after enabling the wireless sync nothing happens after about 10 min, simply go into the calendar or contacts, press the menu button, go to Options and then type RSET. This will clear the address book or calendar off the device and reload it from the server.

This year at BlackBerry World 2012 Research In Motion kept a laser focused concentration on the new BlackBerry 10 device they are set to unveil sometime late this year (October).  During one of the seminars BlackBerry representatives took the crowd through the new camera feature that has been added to the BlackBerry 10 device.  This features was definitely a step in the right direction however, a lot of naysayers still don’t fully believe that this new BlackBerry 10 will bring enough redemption to the BlackBerry name to once again pull them out of this slump.

The BlackBerry 10 camera feature basically works by allowing you to go back in time to correct any pictures that didn’t quite turn out the first time around.  We all know that sometimes pictures have to be retaken over and over again because somebody blinked or moved suddenly or whatever, however with this new camera feature once the photo has been taken you can focus in on the area(s) of the picture you want to revert to and you can go back a few frames to where the offending part of the picture was perfect.

Here is a video demonstration given by BlackBerry Representatives at the BBW conference 2012

Alright so you’ve just downloaded and installed the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you’ve configured everything and are ready to start getting your users added to the Server and working.  Once you have your users added to the BlackBerry Administration Service (BAS) you will need to activate them on the BES server.  The process of activating a BlackBerry on the BES is simple and if all goes well takes only a short while.  In this guide I will be talking about the different ways to activate a user and about what happens during an activation.

What is an activation?

An activation is basically the process of letting the BES server know which user and email account will be connected to a specific BlackBerry and connecting that BlackBerry with the user.

Pre-Requisites of Enterprise Activation

- In order to Enterprise Activate a BlackBerry you will need to have BES services put on your BlackBerry( if you are using BESXpress you can activate with normal BIS Services)

-The user must have an Email Inbox attached to their user account

How is a BlackBerry Activated

There are 5 ways to activate a BlackBerry Smartphone on the BES server. The first is OTA (Over-The-Air).  This involves setting a password for the user on the BAS and then having your user go to the Enterprise Activation screen on the BlackBerry and enter in their email and password that you created.

The second way to activate a BlackBerry is through Email.  This process is also done through the BAS by choosing the option to send an email containing the Activation password to the users mailbox. Once the user receives this email they again go to the Enterprise Activation screen on the BlackBerry and enter their email and activation password they received in the inbox.

The third way is to use the BlackBerry Desktop Software.  This process will require you to have the BlackBerry and USB cable on hand.  Launch the BlackBerry Desktop Software 6.0 and then connect the BlackBerry to the computer.  Once the BlackBerry Desktop Software recognizes the device you will go through the wizard and select the option “Add my enterprise email account”. Once you have completed the wizard that comes up with that option the device should begin its activation process.

The fourth way to activate a BlackBerry on the BES is to use the BAS.  Simply connect the BlackBerry to the BES server or a computer that you can launch the BAS on and on the left hand side click the “+” next to attached devices.  When this expands you should see the connected BlackBerry.  Click on “Manage current device”, and then “Assign Current Device”.  Search for the user and click “Associate User” and then click “Assign Current Device”. The Activation will begin.

Finally the last way to activate the user on the BES is to use the BlackBerry Web Desktop Manager which is similar to using the Desktop Manager.

This is just a general overview of the different ways to activate, for a more thorough look at how to activate through these different ways you can take a look at this document -How to activate a BlackBerry smartphone using BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express 5.0

What Happens Behind the Scenes of an Enterprise Activation?

During an Enterprise Activation as soon as the user has been added to the BES, the BES begins scanning the mailbox that is connected to their user account.  When the BlackBerry starts the activation through the activation screen it sends out an email message(called ETP message) to the inbox that was entered into the email field within the activation screen.  This email contains a bunch of information about the phone and the encryption (password).  Once in the inbox the BES recognizes it as an ETP message and picks it up and processes the information within the ETP message with the user account information within the BES.  If  this information is the same the encryption is verified and then the phone becomes officially connected to that particular user and their mailbox.  The synchronization begins and at this point all of the contacts, memos, calendar appts etc get pushed to the device.  When all synchronization is done the BlackBerry will give you a message stating so and the BlackBerry will now be activated to the server.

I hope this has given you a better knowledge and understanding about BlackBerry Enterprise Server Activations.  Should you need any assistance in troubleshooting activation issues stay tuned as I am currently working on a tutorial that will outline the main activation issue causes and how to troubleshoot these causes.

What started out to be a fun and addictive game that emerged for mobile devices, has become a hit across the world and has become an icon for clothing, toys and more.  Rovio released the Angry Birds game for touch devices in 2009 and it literally became a world phenomenon from there.  Rovio’s latest release of the Angry Birds Space game has reached a record level of downloads with a whopping 50 million downloads in just 35 days.  That is nearly 1.43 million downloads a day.

Angry Birds Space is considered to be the fastest growing mobile game that exists out there today, and according to Rovio there is something even better on its way out for all of its customers and fans out there.  If you have not had a chance to play Angry Birds Space and would like to download and play the fastest growing mobile game and become part of the fun then go get it now for BlackBerry PlayBook.

Angry Birds Space for BlackBerry PlayBook