BlackBerry

All of this information was tested on a BlackBerry Curve 8900 or BlackBerry Bold 9700 (but generally not both!) on T-Mobile, usually within Atlanta.

UMA

• Unlicensed Mobile Access (see this NetworkWorld writeup). GSM/GPRS devices using "unlicensed" spectrum -- Bluetooth, 802.11, etc (see this overview).
• "UMA" vs "uma" in display: "uma" provides only voice functionality, while "UMA" provides a full data suite.

BlackBerry data

• btool -l will list connected devices:

[hyperbox](0) $ btool -l
Blackberry devices found:
Device ID: 0xfb6d10. PIN: 228db871, Description: RIM BlackBerry Device
[hyperbox](0) $ 

• btool -t will list supported databases. Use -P devpassword if a password has been set.

LDIF

• btool -L lists contact fields native to the device:

[hyperbox](0) $ btool -L
Blackberry devices found:
Device ID: 0x26dcd10. PIN: 228db871, Description: RIM BlackBerry Device
Using device (PIN): 228db871
  Email               : Email address
  Phone               : Phone number
  Fax                 : Fax number
  WorkPhone           : Work phone number
  HomePhone           : Home phone number
  MobilePhone         : Mobile phone number
  Pager               : Pager number
  PIN                 : PIN
  FirstName           : First name
  LastName            : Last name
  Company             : Company name
  DefaultCommunicationsMethod: Default communications method
  WorkAddress1        : Work Address, line 1
  WorkAddress2        : Work Address, line 2
  WorkAddress3        : Work Address, line 3
  WorkCity            : WorkCity
  WorkProvince        : WorkProvince / State
  WorkPostalCode      : Work Postal / ZIP code
  WorkCountry         : WorkCountry
  JobTitle            : Job Title
  PublicKey           : Public key
  Notes               : Notes
  WorkPostalAddress   : Mailing Work address (includes address lines, city, province, country, and postal code)
  HomePostalAddress   : Mailing home address (includes address lines, city, province, country, and postal code)
  FullName            : First + Last names
  FQDN                : Fully qualified domain name
[hyperbox](0) $ 

• ...and btool -M will provided a LDIF mapping:

[hyperbox](0) $ btool -M
Blackberry devices found:
Device ID: 0x1a65d10. PIN: 228db871, Description: RIM BlackBerry Device
Using device (PIN): 228db871
ContactLdif Mapping:
   dn                  ->  FQDN / FQDN
   c                   ->  WorkCountry / WorkCountry
                       objectClass: country
   cn                  ->  FullName / FullName
   displayName         ->  FullName / FullName
   facsimileTelephoneNumber->  Fax / Fax
   givenName           ->  FirstName / FirstName
   homePhone           ->  HomePhone / HomePhone
   homePostalAddress   ->  HomePostalAddress / HomePostalAddress
   l                   ->  WorkCity / WorkCity
   mail                ->  Email / Email
   mobile              ->  MobilePhone / MobilePhone
   note                ->  Notes / Notes
   o                   ->  Company / Company
   pager               ->  Pager / Pager
   postalAddress       ->  WorkPostalAddress / WorkPostalAddress
   postalCode          ->  WorkPostalCode / WorkPostalCode
   sn                  ->  LastName / LastName
   st                  ->  WorkProvince / WorkProvince
   street              ->  WorkAddress1 / WorkAddress1
   telephoneNumber     ->  WorkPhone / WorkPhone
   title               ->  JobTitle / JobTitle
   >>> DN attribute: cn

• Finally, dump a device database with btool -d DB, and load it with btool -s DB:

[hyperbox](0) $ btool -d 'Address Book' | grep FirstName | wc -l
654
[hyperbox](0) $ 

Character Modification

• To quickly capitalize a letter, hold it down for about a second.
• To type characters with commonly-used diacritics, hold down the closest English letter, and spin the trackball.
  • This will not work for input fields limited to ASCII (for instance SMS test messages).

Apps

• Google Voice as of at least 2009-07-15
• Google Sync is absolutely necessary

Linux

• BlackBerry uses WINDOWS-1252 by default, which is pretty much entirely useless. Use -i UTF-8 to convert data to UTF-8.
  • No, btool doesn't appear to simply honor LANG.
• bcharge from the barry package is used to properly set up USB-based charging
• btool from the barry-util package:

[recombinator](0) $ btool -t -P devpassword
Blackberry devices found:
Device ID: 0x8f5710. PIN: 21420533, Description: RIM BlackBerry Device
Using device (PIN): 21420533
Database database:
    Database: 0x0 'MMS Options' (records: 1)
    Database: 0x1 'Input Method Switcher Option' (records: 1)
    Database: 0x2 'RMS Databases' (records: 4)
    Database: 0x3 'Certificate Options' (records: 0)
    ....
    Database: 0x59 'Bluetooth Options' (records: 1)
    Database: 0x5a 'AutoText' (records: 108)

[recombinator](0) $ 

• barrybackup

Tethering on T-Mobile

Update /etc/network/interfaces, adding:

iface ppp0 inet ppp
	provider barry-tmobileus

Place the following file at /usr/local/etc/barry-tmobileus.chat:

ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED ABORT ERROR
SAY "Initializing\n"
'' ATZ
OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","wap.voicestream.com"
OK-AT-OK ATDT*99#

CONNECT \d\c

Place the following file at /usr/local/etc/barry-tmobileus.dechat, and make it executable:

#!/bin/sh
killall pppob

Place the following file at /etc/ppp/peers/barry-tmobileus:

connect "/usr/sbin/chat -f /usr/local/etc/barry-tmobileus.chat"
disconnect "/usr/local/etc/barry-tmobileus.dechat"
noauth
user ""
password ""
defaultroute
usepeerdns
noipdefault
nodetach
novj
nodeflate
nobsdcomp
noaccomp
nocrtscts
nopcomp
nomagic
passive
ipcp-restart 7
ipcp-accept-local
ipcp-accept-remote
lcp-echo-interval 0
lcp-echo-failure 999
mtu 1492
debug

pty "/usr/sbin/pppob -P yourpassword -p yourpin"

Note that the pty argument ought be updated for your device's password and PIN.

Bluetooth

bluetooth-applet with active connection

• Ensure you have a working bluetooth adapter with hcitool dev
• At least one service must be running for a successful HCI connection (try bluez-simple-agent)