This is the fourth interview in the BBHub BlackBerry Developer Interview Series. This series will put a face to many of the software programs you know and love. Developers are often power users who have unique perspectives on the industry. Many are entrepreneurs with colorful careers in technology. This series will give you a glimpse into their worlds and their outlook on the future of the BlackBerry.

The third interviewee is Morgan Slain from SplashData. SplashData makes some cool software for the BlackBerry. Feel free to pose questions to Morgan in the comments of this post and he'll answer them.

Do you think you would make a good interviewee? Drop me a line at davemabe [ at ] gmail dot com.

Dave: Tell us a little about yourself, Morgan.

Morgan: I've been working with various forms of software since I began my career with Lucasfilm Games and then The Walt Disney Company back in the early 1990's. I've been focusing exclusively on mobile software since I joined Palm in early 2000. Now, as president of SplashData, my focus is on bringing great productivity applications to everyone who uses a smartphones. At SplashData, we're known for easy to use but very capable applications like SplashID and SplashPhoto that allow you to manage information and media on both your phone and your desktop. I live near our company's offices in Los Gatos, California, which is a small town on the edge of Silicon Valley. My wife and I are best known in the community for raising and training puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and you'll often see us walking downtown alongside Labradors in little green vests!

Dave: What BlackBerry do you use now and what PDAs have you used in the past?

Morgan: I'm using a BlackBerry 8700c from Cingular at the moment. I think I've owned just about every popular smartphone and PDA that's been released since the days of the US Robotics Palm Pilots. I'm just that much of a handheld geek!

Dave: Why is the BlackBerry a good platform to develop on?

Morgan: We love the ease of working with Java, and RIM has a great team and program in place for supporting developers.

Dave: Other than your own, name your three favorite applications for the BlackBerry.

Morgan: Lately I've been using IM+, eOffice, and Solitaire Buddy regularly.

Dave: What's your favorite trick or feature that you use on your BlackBerry?

Morgan: I'm a scroll wheel demon. After using a Treo for years, it's a nice change to be able to scroll through emails and lists in SplashID quickly.

Dave: What's the most important feature that the BlackBerry lacks?

Morgan: I have to admit I still miss having a touch screen. I'd also love GPS and wi-fi.

Dave: Where do you see the focus of third party programs for the BlackBerry going over the next few months?

Morgan: You'll see more sophisticated wireless applications from us and others as well as more subscription-based applications.

Dave: Thanks, Morgan!

Morgan: Sure, Dave.

Previous interviews in the BBHub Developer Interview Series:

• Patrick Kosiol from Skylab-Mobilesystems
• Paul Dumais from Idokorro
• Andrew Zimmer of Naggie

The founder of Ascendo dropped me a note a while back asking if I'd be interested in checking out their DataVault product. I told him I would check it out.

"How much better can it actually be than the Password Keeper program that comes with the device?" I thought to myself.

It turns out that DataVault is quite a bit more convenient in a number of ways than Password Keeper. If you have complex passwords to keep track of (who doesn't nowadays), you owe it to yourself to at least see how DataVault works - you might be surprised how it can simplify your life.

What's the strangest way you've gotten use out of your BlackBerry device? Has it been a life saver in a pinch? ("It was so windy and some papers would have blown away - so I used my BlackBerry as a paper weight!" doesn't count!)

Here's mine:

One warm summer evening our family went to a neighbor's house for a pot luck dinner. There's a small, windy trail that connects our houses - lots of turns and roots to trip on. We stayed a little longer than planned and it was pitch black dark when we made the trek home. No moon to light our way, no street lights, no flash light. My kids were starting to worry - would we ever make it home???

My trusty BlackBerry 8700 to the rescue! The backlight on the device is amazingly bright! I took it out and let it puts out just enough light to make out the trail on the way home.

Disaster averted! And I was the family hero! (Well, the BlackBerry was!)

It wasn't until I got back and searched around that I discovered there's a neat program for the BlackBerry called MyFlashLight that displays a white screen for just this purpose.

Were you in a bind where your BlackBerry came through somehow in a pinch? We'd love to hear it!

This story from Wired reveals a technology that RIM is working on that might prevent would-be BlackBerry thieves.

The technology would wirelessly pair a device to its holster forcing a password prompt on the device and a notification on the holster if the two were separated.

Neat idea.

Did Santa leave a BlackBerry Pearl under the tree this year (like he did for my mom and dad)?

If so, here's a link to the product documentation that doesn't come in the box.

The docs are always worth a quick read - trust me, you'll learn something.

WallStrip continues to crack me up. This time there's another Jim Cramer spoof where he's doing a mock tryout for the show and talks about RIMM.

Funny stuff!

The folks at Skylab Mobilesystems have released an update to their Spot application. Spot allows you to turn your BlackBerry into a full fledged GPS, even allowing you to Geocache. If you're not sure what geocaching is, take a look at this video from WallStrip on the activity when they profiled Garmin (GRMN). Version 1.4.0 is supported on the following devices:

• GPS enabled BlackBerry devices (7100i, 7520 and 8703e/Sprint)
• Bluetooth enabled BlackBerry devices (7100 series, 7130 series, 7250, 7290 and 8700 series)
• Palm OS powered devices (including Palm Treo 600, 650, 680, 700p)
• GPS enabled mobile phones (Motorola A780, Siemens SXG75)
• Bluetooth enabled mobile phones (including but not limited to SonyEricsson K750i, K800i, Siemens S65)

Spot 1.4.0 introduces many improvements including:

• Improved user interface:
  It is now easier to navigate within the application.
  
  
• Location state indicator:
  Shows in which state the GPS receiver is currently in, allowing to see at a glance whether there currently is any GPS reception.
  
  
• Map view customizations are saved now:
  Spot allows you to customize the map representation by using configurable layers. You can toggle map and informational layers on and off, add your own web map servers or (if your device supports file access) georeferenced image map files, and alter the order in which layers are drawn on top of each other. Your modifications are now saved along with your last displayed position and zoom level and are automatically restored on application relaunch, allowing you to seamlessly continue working where you left.
  
  
• Map shortcuts:
  It is easy now to change the currently used web map service directly from within the map view by only one click. You can change between four pre-configured web map services: Satellite, Topographic 1, Topographic 2 and Streetlevel.
  
  
• Sevaral minor improvements have been added.

I got a note from my friend Craig Johnston who records an excellent podcast on mobile computing (a must-listen to, by the way). He pointed me to his most recent podcast where he talks to Jeffrey Neafsey from Microsoft's Mobility Solutions and Services group. They discuss Microsoft's recent addition of "Device Services" which provides centralized management of Windows Mobile devices. Craig asks a lot of good, probing questions on the new product to see how it stacks up against the current BlackBerry offering.

From where I sit, it seemed like Device Services provides some nice (and sorely needed!) remote management features, but falls well short of what RIM provides. Take a listen and let us know what you think. How do you think it compares to what a BlackBerry solution has done (for years)?

I had been planning a post in the back of my mind for a while. I use a VOIP service which I've setup to email me voice mail messages as an attachment. It works great and is quite convenient.

I've always wanted to be able to play these back on the BlackBerry instead of either calling in to my voice mail and listening to them there or playing the WAV file from my desktop computer. I've been waiting ever so patiently for RIM to come out with an OS update that will allow this.

It just so happens that I got a note from the guys at Virtual Views Mobile Software that they have a new product that makes this work called AudioPOP.

There's a free trial available that I'm going to take for a spin now.

Question: Can the Pearl do this out of the box? Please comment if you know.

I'm beginning to wonder if Phil Bogle actually does any work for Jobster. Either that or the guy never sleeps. ;-) He's released a new version of BerrySearch (OTA download)- an incredibly useful application that's kind of like Google Suggest only it works on your BlackBerry and it's more useful.

It's more useful because it generates results based on the context you've chosen to search for. Let's say you're looking up the definition of a word. Choose Dictionary and start typing the word and BerrySearch will autocomplete the word for you. There's support for the following contexts:

• Google
• WikiPedia
• Dictionary
• News
• Images
• Technorati

Did I mention it's free?

This is the second interview in the BBHub BlackBerry Developer Interview Series. This series will put a face to many of the software programs you know and love. Developers are often power users who have unique perspectives on the industry. Many are entrepreneurs with colorful careers in technology. This series will give you a glimpse into their worlds and their outlook on the future of the BlackBerry.

The second interviewee is Patrick Kosiol from Skylab-Mobilesystems. Patrick's company makes Spot for the BlackBerry, a piece of software that turns your BlackBerry into full-fledged GPS device that you can even Geocache with. Feel free to pose questions to Patrick in the comments of this post and he'll answer them.

Dave: Tell us a little about yourself, Patrick.

Patrick: I'm Patrick Kosiol a German living and working in China. I'm responsible for the actual development of our current and future products. That includes direct access to customer feedback for bringing more features, products and services our customers want.

What BlackBerry do you use now and what PDAs have you used in the past?

Patrick: Actually I'm not as handheld addicted as I should be. I never owned a BlackBerry or PDA privately as there are enough at work and I have to "play" with them quite often. Anyway, I'm currently impressed by the Pearl which has a lot of features but still lacks of built-in GPS support.

Dave: Why is the BlackBerry a good platform to develop on?

Patrick: The BlackBerry's well established system architecture enables us to develop comprehensive applications for the BlackBerry platform. There are less incompatibilities between different versions, a good security system you can rely on and well experienced users who know what they want. So this is a very good base to build high quality products for the BlackBerry market.

Dave: Other than your own, name your three favorite applications for the BlackBerry.

Patrick: Sudoku (great for lunch time), PocketDay, and MyFlashlight.

RIM has announced the dates for next year's Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES). It'll be held in Orlando, FL (like this past year's) from May 8-10.

I attended last year's symposium and it was excellent. There are always tons of great sessions with good information for developers, administrators, and users. There's always some big announcements, too and RIM always makes a big show out of the event.

I'd highly recommend trying to get there.

Add this event to your calendar here.

Remember the BlackBerry Technical Series that I reminded you about a month ago? RIM's offering something similar in January with a couple important differences - it's online and it's FREE! Sign up is coming soon. Looks pretty interesting and, of course, you can't beat the price.

More...Expert Presentations with BlackBerry technical experts answering your questions in real-time about BlackBerry® Mobile Data System, BlackBerry® Enterprise Server v4.1 Service Pack 2, applications for BlackBerry, security and management.

More...Virtual Booths with Access to BlackBerry Solution Providers who understand ways to extend your current deployment with mobile solutions and applications.

More...1-on-1s with BlackBerry Technical Experts at the BlackBerry online booth where you can get answers to the specific challenges you face with your deployment.

RIM released two new service packs for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, one for Microsoft Exchange and the other for Lotus Domino. They are both service pack 6 and contain a few enhancements and various bug fixes.

Here are the changes in functionality for the Exchange version. The following is a summary but the full details are here.

• Daylight Saving Time
• Improved MAPI address resolution (SDR 105438)
• Improved MAPIEncoding registry key (SDR 98957)
• Improved service book delivery (SDR 98227)
• Set RPC timeout value for the BlackBerry Dispatcher (SDR 97876)
• New confirmation prompt when you delete a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (SDR 94879)

The list for Domino is slightly different. Full details here.

• Daylight Saving Time
• Improved service book delivery (SDR 98227)
  
• Set RPC timeout value for the BlackBerry Dispatcher (SDR 97876)
  
• New confirmation prompt when you delete a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (SDR 94879)
  
• Improvements to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Alert tool (SDR 93880)

Dale Vile is a long time BlackBerry user. When the BlackBerry Pearl came out, Dale poo-poo'd it like many BlackBerry traditionalists - it doesn't have a trackwheel for crying out loud!

Then, a funny thing happened. Dale actually got a Pearl and started using it. He's since changed his tune and takes back all the negativity in his first review.

Here's to a reviewer who has the guts to admit when they're wrong!