Chapter 6. Shareware Apps

Hacks 60–71: Introduction

There’s nothing like free enterprise to spur innovation and fill the needs of paying customers. In places where the BlackBerry comes up a little short (there are a few—not many, but a few), there are a growing number of third-party developers ready to fill the void. This chapter showcases the entrepreneurial spirit of the BlackBerry application developer. Most of these providers are small businesses (some even a single person!) that have found a nice niche with the BlackBerry. RIM’s loyal customer base makes a nice, motivated target audience for third-party applications. If you’ve got a need, there’s a good chance there is a BlackBerry application that can fill it. If there’s not a program that does what you’re looking for, at the current rate of development, just wait a couple weeks! This chapter highlights some useful third-party programs to get you started: a real-time stock quote program [Hack #70] , a program to modify Office documents [Hack #68] , an alternate web browser [Hack #66] , and an alternate email program [Hack #67] .

Display a BlackBerry Today View

Use this application to display your recent emails, upcoming appointments, and other pertinent information on a single screen.

Just as Microsoft Outlook can display an overview of current items such as unread messages, today’s appointments, and tasks, you can use an add-on application to do the same on your BlackBerry. The software is called PocketDay and is made by ...

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