AT&T pushed out new firmware and a desktop application update for the BlackBerry Bold this week, supposedly with a new Visual Voicemail (similar to the iPhone). But somewhere in the process of the upgrade, I found that a second calendar was activated which wasn’t syncing to Microsoft Outlook. The fix that I detail below allows you to merge multiple BlackBerry Calendars. Also, I have provided some information about activating AT&T’s Visual Voicemail.
First, How To Activate Visual Voicemail
Setting up the new Visual Voicemail on the Bold is a bit confusing. While the application installed without issue, when I launched it, it gave me an error saying something like “Provisioning failed.” To fix this, you need to log into your AT&T account and go to the “Add Features” section of your BlackBerry management page. Towards the bottom, you should see “Visual Voicemail” that has a $0.00 charge associated with it. Once you do that, you immediately get options on your BlackBerry to configure Visual Voicemail. After that, you set up a pin/password and then record a new greeting for your Voicemail (note: be sure to check your messages prior to activating as they may be lost. I haven’t confirmed this. Perhaps someone else can.) But I digress…
The the firmware and desktop upgrade went well. I’m always amazed at how large updates are, but I guess that it is similar to iPhone firmware updates (in the 200-300 MB range). But I digress yet again…
The Quick and Easy Fix
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This is my first article from the Sony DigiDads Project that we kicked off last week. You can read more about it here. Our first mission (that I definitely decided to accept) was to do an article on a Sony “Connected Living Room Experience.” Well, I ran into a problem right from the start. I already have a huge HDTV that has taken over my living room. I got my 61″Â Samsung DLP well over 6 or 7 years ago. Everyone that visits our rather small house for the first time immediately says “wow, that’s a big TV” when they walk in the front door. The funny thing is, when we got it, I wasn’t the one who wanted the huge size. I was looking at a 51″ but my wife, bless her heart, said, “if you are going to go big, you might as well go all the way.” I couldn’t argue with that!
So, my main entertainment area is in the living room where I have a 5.1 surround sound setup with the big screen. Movie nights are a tradition in our family where we get pizza and watch a movie or perhaps a reality entertainment show like American Idol. When I found out that my first assignment was to set up the living room for a connected experience, I started to sweat. We don’t have a very large house and I already have every corner packed with gadgets of some type or pictures or books. We basically don’t have any room to spare. But I put my head around the challenge and found a great place that mapped to the requirements:
- The Sony Bravia TV needed an internet connection to fully enhance its capabilities
- There needed to be a flat surface large enough to handle a 46″ flat screen TV as well as a Blu-Ray player
- There had to be an area where people could sit to experience the TV fully
To the utter happiness and excitement of my 10.5 year old daughter, her bedroom became the new entertainment area and test-bed for my reviews. For a few days prior to getting the equipment, she couldn’t stop talking about it, actually the entire family (with the exception of my wife who was groaning “Not ANOTHER gadget!”) was definitely buzzing with anticipation.
Here is a quick video introducing some of the Sony gear that I reviewed:
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Honestly, DropBox has got to be one of the best services I have ever come across, and if you don’t have DropBox account by the end of this article, I will be shocked. DropBox’s service offering is incredibly straight forward and simple. It is a file sharing and back-up program and system that allows you to sync the personal files you choose across Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
Here is the premise, you set up two or more computers with DropBox (a simple software install), and start saving files, photos, folders etc. to a specific directory (named “My DropBox” if you follow the default naming conventions) on one computer and within seconds, those files or folders magically appears within the DropBox folder on the other computer(s). Not only can you configure as many computers (within reason) as you want to have this folder backup and syncing, you are also given 2 GB of space for free to do it with. There are upgrades available for larger storage space (a tempting idea) – Pro 50 which is 50 GBs for $9.99/mo and Pro 100 which is 100 GBs for $19.99/mo.
You can always keep track of your usage online or within your computer.
If your computer is not connected to the internet, you can still fully take advantage of the DropBox functionality. Simply save your file to the My DropBox directory and the next time you are connected to the internet, your files are seamlessly uploaded and synced to other connected computers. And you can visually see what files have been synced and which ones have not. Below is a file waiting to be synced:
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Everyone loves Pandora right? How can you not. These are the guys giving you the Music Genome Project where they are mapping out music, one song at a time. Pandora is a fantastic way to get commercial-free music from a browser or application, all based on a single song, artist or genre. Simple create a station and start immediately enjoying similar sounding music (defined by over 400 attributes). Click Thumbs Up if you like a song or Thumbs Down if you don’t (and that song won’t play again). The more ratings you make, the more Pandora “learns” and fine-tunes your station.
Until recently, you could only get Pandora through your browser or a cell phone app. My old non-active iPhone’s sole purpose right now is to simply stay connected to some speakers and stream Pandora. About a month ago, I was loaned a Livio Radio whose primary purpose is to receive Internet music and audio streams via a wifi or wired connection. There are a few other devices out there that allow you to stream your Pandora music to them, however, the Livio seems to be one of the only ones that actually dedicates itself to doing this task.
Appearance/Aesthetics
The Livio Radio reminded me a lot of an old Sony tabletop radio that my family had when I was younger, except this looked like it had been updated. The front is simple and not cluttered. On the left is a large speaker and on the right are the controls and display. The display is backlit with and LED blue and the main volume-like knob has blue light emanating when on. The main knob is used to control volume but also helps you navigate the various menus. Other buttons on the face are small so as not to be obtrusive and include: Power, Fav, Back, Skip, Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down. The remote that is included with the Livio Radio also has similar functions. There is also a headphone jack on the front that, when headphones are plugged in, mutes the external speaker.
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AT&T pushed out new firmware and a desktop application update for the BlackBerry Bold this week, supposedly with a new Visual Voicemail (similar to the iPhone). But somewhere in the process of the upgrade, I found that a second calendar was activated which wasn’t syncing to Microsoft Outlook. The fix that I detail below allows you to merge multiple BlackBerry Calendars. Also, I have provided some information about activating AT&T’s Visual Voicemail.
