When I first dug into programming with the RIM APIs installed with the Blackberry JDE I ran into quite a few roadblocks that took a while to circumvent. Most stemmed from my unfamiliarity with Java and the standard Java UI toolkits (Swing and AWT). After figuring out how to create and display each of the most interesting fields I figured I might as well document them, provide screenshots, and sample application code to help others like myself. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I became frustrated with the state of free games for the Blackberry platform. BrickBreaker is really hard and choppy on the newer devices so I decided to do something about it. I also have a Blackberry Pearl just sitting at home since my recent upgrade to the Blackberry Curve. So frustration + extra device + time = development on the Blackberry platform. After wading through some web pages on the developer site and running into more than one snag I decided to document to process in tutorial form. I hope this helps you get starting with the Blackberry JDE. Please feel free to drop questions in the comments or to email me at ahewgill@gmail.com. Read the rest of this entry »

I just found out yesterday that I am able to upgrade my Blackberry Pearl to the Curve through the Rogers hardware upgrade plan. Work is going to pay for the upgrade which is a nice perk. A co-worker recently got the Curve and we have all been trying it out and getting hooked. Most affected are those of us who have the Pearl since the Curve has a full keyboard that is decent to type on. I’ll probably review the Curve once I’ve had a week or two to play with it.

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