Geek Review: Electric Pocket’s BlackBerry applications

If you don’t know the company name, you probably know of their applications. Electric Pocket says they’re a mobile and wireless solutions company, but we know them best for their killer BlackBerry apps. While we’ve discussed a few of them on the site already, we’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to their entire BlackBerry lineup. You can check out their list here. Whether you’re seeking a powerful MP3 player, a speed dialer, a ringtone manager, future texting, or location services, Electric Pocket has an app that can fit your needs.

FlipSide MP3 Player

FlipSide is the most ballyhooed of the Electric Pocket lineup. We’ve covered it extensively in the past. You can check out our software review, which will give you all the straight information you need. Or, if you’re looking for more of a hands-on experience, Cooper expertly reviewed the FlipSide BlackBerry MP3 Player.

As Cooper concludes, FlipSide is a sleek alternative to the native BlackBerry media player. The playlist feature is great, and the hook-in with Last.fm elevates FlipSide from a mere media player to an experience. But I don’t need to sell you on this. If RIM’s co-CEO uses the application, that should be proof enough. If it’s not, we’ve also looked at other similar apps and have found FlipSide superior.

You can get FlipSide MP3 Player for $19.95 at the BBGeeks Store. Now all you have to worry about is buying all the songs to fill it up.

Ringo Ringtone Manager

Of all the questions we get at BBGeeks, perhaps no subject comes up more frequently than ringtones. Not only do people want to know how to get them and install them, but they want to know how to customize them. It’s such a popular topic, too, because people tend to change their tone frequently. Plus, there’s the never-ending search for the perfect ringtone.

After using it for a few weeks, I became a fan of Ringo Ringtone Manager. It has a simple interface which allows me to pick and assign ringtones easily. It also makes it easier to assign ringtones and alerts to specific contacts than it is with the native BlackBerry software. They have a ringtone store, too, so it’s a one-stop ringtone shop.

We’ve got Ringo at the BBGeeks Store for $19.95. If you’re into customizing your BlackBerry alerts, you might want to give it a whirl.

FindMe

This is really one of the more ingenious applications for BlackBerry, especially for those who frequent social networking sites. FindMe for BlackBerry is, as the name suggests, a location-based application which allows you to tag your current area. Once you get the application up and running, the first thing it will do is recognize that you’re in a “new” location, and prompt you to tag it. So if I ran it on my ‘Berry right now, I’d tag my current location “home office.”

The first serves as a social networking application by itself. You can search for and find your friends who also have FindMe. I can imagine this being a neat feature on a college campus, since it can tell you who’s around to grab some food at the dining hall. I was never sure why we couldn’t just use the phone to call our friends and find out where they are, but hey, it’s a neat bit of technology, so let’s use it.

FindMe also integrates with Facebook, making it an even more powerful social networking application. Once you launch your Facebook profile from FindMe, it will broadcast your current location in your news feed. Friends can then know where you areandwhat you’re doing. This would also seem to play nicely with Twitter, though there is no current compatibility.

This one actually isn’t available at the BBGeeks Store, mainly because it’s free. You can get it at Electric Pocket’s website.

txtForward

Text messages don’t stick around forever. The older ones go byebye to make room for the new ones. But what if you want to keep an archive of your SMS conversations? You’d have to save all of them, which not only takes up time, but it takes up memory on your BlackBerry. With Electric Pocket’s txtForward, you can easily archive text messages, both sent and received, right in your email Inbox.

You might be asking why. Why forward texts to your email if you have your email right on your BlackBerry, too? As mentioned above, this is mostly about a method of archiving messages. Since txtForward sends your SMS to your email address, they can be permanently hosted there, even when they’re automatically deleted from your BlackBerry. This way, when you want to recall a conversation with a friend, you can just search your Inbox. txtForward also gives you the option of archiving sent messages, so you have a complete record of the conversation.

The application also works well if you keep your BlackBerry to the side while you’re at the office. Why use the ‘Berry when your email is right on your desktop, right? Problem is, you might miss text messages in the interim. With txtForward, you won’t any longer. Those texts will be sent right to your email, so you can view them and then respond in kind. This is why I use it. No need to have use the ‘Berry if I’m not out, at least for email purposes.

Even better, txtForward is pretty cheap. You can nab it for $7.95. It’s certainly a great value if you value comprehensive archives.

PhoneFace

How long is your address book? If it’s anything like mine, in which you’ve added nearly everyone you’ve ever met, it can be gargantuan. You can use speed dial options, of course, but that’s a lot to remember. If only there was an easier way, one where you could use pictures to scroll through your list to make your most frequent calls.

Electric Pocket delivers on this, with PhoneFace. The application is quite simple, yet wholly useful. You can quick add contacts to it from your address book, and assign pictures to them. Then you can go back and scroll through when you need to make a call. While the name does appear on top, you won’t even need it, since you can see who you’re calling or texting. Best part is that you can add pictures from anywhere, even the person’s Facebook account (if you yourself have Facebook).

Essentially, PhoneFace is a secondary address book, reserved for the most intimate contacts. While your main book might be full of business contacts and acquaintances, PhoneFace can be reserved for those numbers you call the most. It’s super-easy to use and totally useful. Not a bad combination.

You can get PhoneFace for $9.95 at the BBGeeks Store.

via bbgeeks