iV3 (iVista3) Theme Review

iV3 (iVista3) Review

RaT Rating = 93.74%

IVista3 is another great theme created by Zman Designs. This theme is the continuation of the iVista line of themes and is by far the best. It gives your Blackberry the true Vista look with “My Computer” and “Network” icons. It also has gadgets that you can add or remove from the home screen.

The theme is 1.3Mb, which is an average size for a theme. The theme is very detailed so the size isn’t too bad.

The theme runs smooth and runs without delay with everything except for one thing. The one thing that has a little delay when using it is the media gadget. When trying to get to pictures, music, or videos through the gadget it is slightly delayed but it works.

The memory is very stable for the first 24 hours of running the theme. After the first 24 hours the memory leaks slowly.

IV3 doesn’t affect the battery at all. It doesn’t put any extra stress on the battery and will not cause the battery to drain more then usual.

The Graphic User Interface (GUI) is very nicely layed out on this theme. It definetly gives you the Vista look look on your blackberry. Every part of this theme has serious thought put into it and the time for detail is also there.

There is nothing buggy about this theme. Everything works as its suppose to in both portrait and landscape mode.

The storm version is very responsive to the touch screen and everything is very accurate when using the touch screen on all aspects of the theme.

IV3 is going to be priced at $5.00 which is a good value for the amount of time and detail put into the theme.

The theme does exactly what it claims, it gives your Blackberry the look and feel of Windows Vista.

The theme is easy to navigate. All the home screen icons work and are clearly there. There is no hidden spots or unclear icons. There is 12 icons on the home screen that are all customized by the user. There is 2 locations for your network options and access options from the home screen as well.

All the fonts fit the boxes and windows perfectly. All the fonts are also perfect sizes. They are not too small or too big.

This is with both Gadgets open

There are a couple extra functions that stand out to me. One is the “Gadget” option on the home screen. You can show or hide the weather icon and the media panel depending on what u want. Another extra function is the power button in the application menu changes color when you have it selected. When its not selected its green and when you have it selected it turns red. There is also a icon on the homescreen “Today Info” which has your calendar with a hidden today and your message folder.

My first impresstion of this theme of this theme when I loaded it and activated it was “wow”. To point out a couple things that really stand out to me is the home screen colors. The bottom bar is kind of translucent and it takes the color of the picture you set for your background. So this theme is wallpaper friendly. Another wow factor is the amount of time that was put into the color scheme of the theme, everything fits perfect. Also the amount of detail put into the icons. There is not one stock icon and every icon is highly detailed and customly made.

Opera Mini 5.0 Review

Opera Mini 5.0 Review

RaT Rating = 93.39%

Opera Software has made great strides to accommodate newer Blackberry models with their new Opera Mini 5

A few improvements include, browser software is faster, easier to use for touchscreen users, intuitive interface, more complete menu style, and much more.

The first thing that I noticed when downloading this beta was it size, much smaller in comparison to pervious versions. The browser connected to the Internet with no problems or extra user configuration. The initial experience of this browser has been like night and day. The user defined visual bookmarks are a nice touch, to easily get you to your most common web pages.

The ability for the program to save your logins, again makes life easier for the end user. If you turn on the Password Manager from the Privacy settings menu, you do not have to type your logins every time you open your web pages. The web pages load faster since they compress the pages 90% before they get to your phone. When the web pages load, the browser automatically checks the format of the web site, if its mobile the browser optimizes the page for mobile viewing, if not the page loads full view (if you have not selected mobile view as default in the menu settings). There is also a Download Manager to review your downloads.

Depending on the mobile phone your using the default text size can be adjusted for better viewing. The default zoom level can also be set in the settings menu from 60 to 200%. Text search within web pages makes finding what your looking for simpler. Overall, I would say that this is a giant step in the right direction for Opera Software.

The file size of the browser is really not that large 622.6 Kb, compared to other similar apps. I have not seen much of any processor sluggishness, only a bit with multiple pages open. There are average memory consumption issues but are to be expected for the graphics that are displayed. The battery usage will go down faster and to be expected, but not extremely bad. The GUI has really come a long way, however it would be nice to have a variable zoom in and zoom out without changing the zoom percentage in the options.  I did see a few bugs with the screen not resizing correctly in portrait view but if you rotate to landscape and then back it clears up. It is definitely compatible with touchscreen Blackberries and I have not experienced much memory loss while running or when closed. This app definitely does what it claims and is very easy to navigate, even though it does not make good use of the BB button. The browser is quick to load and has a good amount of options to be found in the options menu (not the BB button). All in all this browser is a very good and a much nicer surfing experience on your BB.

Ultimate Lock Review

Ultimate Lock Review

RaT Rating = 95.82%

Ultimate lock is a great 3rd party application that is well worth the money. Ultimate Lock gives you a way to lock your device without having to use default Blackberry lock. The greatest advantage that Ultimate lock provides over the default lock is it can be set to activate when the device starts up and it locks the phone when making a call so that you don’t press buttons by accident. Also when Ultimate lock is activated you can switch between two sound profiles which is also very handy so you don’t have to unlock then change profiles then relock.

The file size for Ultimate Lock is a little over 1MB which is very reasonable for the amount of detail and features that are implemented in this application.

Ultimate lock does know affect the processor speed at all and runs smoothly. Normally when the lock engages, the phone is idling or doing minor tasks in the background.

Ultimate lock does not leak memory at all.

Any kind of 3rd party lock application will affect the battery but ultimate lock consumes a very small amount of your battery. You will most likely not notice a difference in your battery when you use your device with Ultimate lock.

The graphic user interface (GUI) is clean and very detailed. There is so many options you can add and remove. It shows the amount of signal you currently have, your carrier or berryweather, berryweather icon, the current time, current date, battery level, and all notifications that you choose to show (email, sms, bbm).

The application is not that buggy overall, I found two minor issues. One issue is when you get a missed call, sometimes the missed call notification will pop up infront of the lock and if you click view it will open the missed calls. However when you close out of the missed call menu the lock will re-engage. The second issue I found was if you have one of the more up to date OSs running on your device. With the newer OSs RIM has changed the lock system so when pressing the lock button on the outside of your device it will not engage the lock.

The application works perfectly with the touch screen. When you touch anything everything responds fast and accurately.

It does not leak memory or consume it, so it does not need to free memory.

Ultimate lock does exactly what it claims to do. It locks your phone when you activate it or when you have it set to activate. When the lock is activated you cannot open applications or make calls while the phone when you do not want it to.

Ultimate lock is very easy to navigate with all the options that are available tp you. Under each option (the options are convenviently located in your options menu) there is a brief description of what it does.

The load time for Ultimate lock is very good. When you activate the lock it takes about a second and dims the screen as soon as the lock engages, great feature for conserving battery.

There is an amazing amount of options for Ultimate lock. There is several different ways to lock the device (pressing the default lock button, locking on time out, lock on device start, and lock during a call. Also with the new version of Ultimate lock there is berryweather integration with many options on how you to display the weather. Also there is security options where you can set a password, amount of attempts before the device locks you out from trying, and how long the lock out will last. The last bit of options are notifcations for SMS, BBM, and email which display in Ultimate lock.

There is no functionality of the Blackberry button because there is no need for one.

The only data that is required for Ultimate lock to function properly is to download it and to register it with the registration code that is provided to you when purchased.

Ultimate lock is always running in the background and it does slightly drain the battery but not enough for anyone to see a difference. While Ultimate lock is running in the background, there is no memory leaks that come from it.

Bolt 2.0 Review

Bolt Browser

RaT Rating = 76.00%

Bolt Browser is a decent browser to use. It does render full pages fast and you get to watch videos in the web page instead of loading your video player on your blackberry device. Now with version 2.0 of bolt, you get the option of having more than one tab opened. However, with all these good things, there will also be some downsides that to the Bolt browser. When Bolt renders a full webpage the font is pretty small and there is no zoom feature. Another thing is the type of font that Bolt choices to use are also hard to read at times. The last downside to the Bolt browser I find is whenever you need to enter text it brings you to a completely new window and you have to enter the text there. Then press the blackberry button and press “ok” because the enter key does not respond in the new window. Everything is done through the use of the blackberry button while using Bolt.

The file size of the Bolt browser is 328kb. This is very small for the amount of memory for many things the browser can do. Most applications are double or triple the size.

The browser does not affect your processor speed that much but If your loading a mutiple tabs or a big website it could put a strain on it. For the most part the browser runs smoothly.

There is no memory leak while using the browser but if u leave it open in the background you will start to see your memory drop a little. All browsers leak memory if they are left open in the background.

The browser does not put that much strain on the battery. There isn’t much to load visually with the browser and all the websites are compressed when they are sent to your phone. This browser puts much less strain on your battery then the native browser does.

The graphic user interface(GUI) is not good at all. It has a very plain look for the amount of options that are available. If you are looking for something that looks good, this browser isn’t for you.

They are some things that are buggy with Bolt that I have found. One thing that I find very annoying is that when the browser is open, your convenience keys do not work. Another issue I found was that when you enter your password to login to some websites, the browser lags for awhile before it continues.

Bolt browser is touch screen compatible but sometimes when you goto click on a link it doesn’t register or you press another link if they are close. If you scroll too fast it doesn’t scroll smoothly and sometimes jumps around the webpage.

The application sometimes causes a small memory loss and when you do close the browser it does not recover the memory that was lost until you do a battery pull. Definitely would be a bother for the people that watch there app memory like a hawk(kind of like me).

The application does give you access to the internet faster than the native browser so its safe to say it does what it says. However, it does have some issues(listed above) that will slow you down or possibly irritate you.

When I first used Bolt browser, I did not find it easy to navigate at all. Its completely different from native browser and opera. I’m use to press enter to start searches and things like that. With Bolt everything is done pretty much through the Blackberry button as previous mentioned. This took me awhile to get used to.

The load time of Bolt is faster than the native browser and is about the same speed as Opera.

There is sufficient options but some of them are hard to find. In the 2.0 version of Bolt there is a option to download new font but they only give you one option. You can also zoom in the entire page but you can’t zoom in on a page by page basis.

Bolt browser takes full use of the blackberry button because as mentioned several times, everything is done through the Blackberry button.

Bolt browser is a browser so yes it requires data to run. However, by using the bolt browser it reduces the pages size so that when its sent to your phone its not as much data as you would be using on your computer or the native browser.

If you leave the browser running in background it does cause a memory leak and it will drain your battery. If you close it when your done using it then you should see very little to no issues.

Berry, My Hero Theme Review

Berry, My Hero

RaT Rating = 93.o3%

ZMan went all out with Berry, My Hero theme. This is the closest Blackberry theme that I have seen imitating the HTC Hero. This theme can be purchased from the CrackBerry Store for $5.00 and works on both OS 4.6 and 5.0. It is available for the Storm 1, Storm 2, Curve 8900, Tour 9630, Bold 9000, and Bold 9700. It has a huge analog clock on the home screen, hidden today with messages, compose, and calendar. From the home screen you have a quick access menu for sound profiles and manage connections along with a hidden menu with five (Curve 8900, Bold 9000, Bold 9700, Tour) or six (Storm 1 and 2) choices. Unfortunately, the hidden menu cannot be customized. The last thing available from the home screen is a hidden lock feature. When the lock is engaged you have the option to power down your device. The hidden lock is on available on the touch screen versions.

The theme is a big file to download at 1.7 MB. However all the functions that the theme offers and the amount of detail that ZMan put into making this theme you have to expect to give up some memory.

The theme runs very smooth with the exception of one thing. When I open the hidden menu on the home screen the menu doesn’t open smooth. When you close the menu it doesn’t close smooth either.

There is a small memory leak with the theme. A small memory leak is to be expected because all customs themes leak memory.

This theme does not affect the battery at all. To be absolutely honest it actually increased my battery time when using this theme.

The graphic user interface (GUI) is very nice with this theme. There is so much detail in every aspect of this theme. The icons that are used in the theme are customized to look like the HTC Hero.

I have not had one buggy experience with this theme, everything runs perfectly.

The Storm version of this theme runs perfect with the touch screen. Everything is very responsive when you touch different areas of the theme.

The theme is $5.00 which is kind of high but you get exactly what you pay.

The theme does what it claims it does. When you press the left side of the home screen on the storm version, the lock engages. When the screen is locked, you touch the right side of the screen and it unlocks the screen. When you touch the right side of the home screen you get the hidden today with messages, compose, and calendar. When the hidden today is up and you touch the left side of the screen it closes the hidden today. The quick access menus for your profiles and manage connections works perfectly.

The theme is very easy to navigate and if you’re not sure of some of the features ZMan posts videos to show everyone how the theme works.

The font fits the theme perfectly. The fonts are not too small so that you can barely see the words. The fonts are not too big so that you only see half the word in the dialogue boxes. The font follows the user font sizes.

There are plenty of extra functions such as the hidden lock and the hidden today. There is also a spot on the home screen for a weather application right underneath the big analog clock. All the icons on the home screen are user defined.

There are many WOW factors to this theme. Two wow factors that stand out the most to me are when you are making a connection, the connection arrows on the top right hand side of the screen customize to the color of the window you are currently in. The second wow factor is when you highlight the icon “manage connections” it moves the icon to “on” and when you do not have the manage connection highlighted it goes back to “off.”

Meterberry v2.03 Review

Meterberry v2.03 Review

RaT Rating = 96.91%

Meterberry is a diagnostic application that is very useful in so many ways. It monitors your memory, battery, signal strength, and temperature of your phone. It also has an option to reset your device. I find this very option useful so that I don’t have to take off my case and battery cover to pull the battery physically. Another option is to Recover Memory, I will talk about this option a little later on in the review.

The file size is under 180kb which is very small for the amount that the application offers.

The processing speed of the application is very good, there isn’t that much to be rendered throughout the application.
There is little to no memory consumption with Meterberry.
Meterberry does not put much strain on the battery, if any.
The graphic user interface (GUI) isn’t that impressive and there isn’t that much graphics with the application at all besides the various icon choices for your home screen.

The application is a little buggy because there is an option within the application to “recover memory” and sometimes when you use that option, you actually lose more memory.
The application comes with a touch screen version for the storm1 and storm2. The touch screen is very accurate and I have had no issues at all with using it. There is also a non-touch screen version for users with a QWERTY keyboard.
It doesn’t appear to use memory so it doesn’t need to free memory when it’s closed. Another thing is the app runs every 15, 30, 45, or 60 mins to log information.
The application does what it says it does.
The application is very easy to navigate.
The load time on the application is very fast and there is no delay at all.

There are many different options to do many different things with the application. You can set the home screen icon to change every couple seconds (10, 20, or 30 seconds). You can choose either Fahrenheit or Celsius and if the temperature gets over a certain degree it notifies you. It monitors your application memory and if it goes below a certain MB, it notifies you. Has an option to recover memory hourly when the phone is idle. You have three logs to monitor battery, memory, temperature, and signal. You can also choose how often the logs update (15, 30, 45, or 60 mins). Clear the logs on startup or clear the logs when the phone is idle for an hour. There is an option to reset your device (soft reset) and you can also set the device to reset at a certain time every day. There is two different kinds of reset modes. You can set the signal to be monitored in dBm or bars.
When you press the Blackberry Button, it responds right away and brings up a short menu of choices.
This application does not need data to run. The only thing you need data for is to download the application.
This application does run in the background but does not show up on the application list (when u hold down your BB button).

Here is the graph of the RaT (Review and Testing) for this application our points and the wieghted grading that we have calculated. We are hoping this becomes a very accurrate meathod for reviewing apps of all kinds.

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