You see, phone systems everywhere- my office, your office, the banks and any alphanumeric-driven automated system- use the letters that correspond to a standard desk set number. The number ‘2’ represents ‘ABC’, etc.

The problem is… the BlackBerry Pearl keyboard is the bastard child of a standard 9-key cell keypad and a full QWERTY keyboard that BB usually sports… making it match… well… nothing! 

So a ‘G’ on my office system to Give it to another user is number key 4, on my Pearl it would be 5, which would be ‘K’ to my phone system to save the message and tuck it back in the depths of vm storage never to be found again. Over the past months, I’ve accidentally erased things I wanted to forward, forward things I wanted to save… you get the picture.

It’s not just voicemail access. I also found I couldn’t make use of dial-by-name directories or even access my banking by phone. It gets to be quite frustrating at times, and driving down the road at 70mph is not really a good time to try and work out the mental puzzle of which number ‘should’ be what.

The solution… I decided to make a BlackBerry Pearl ‘Proper’ Keypad Cheatsheet. It’s a convenient 2x3.5” business-card sized piece that you can print and slip right into your wallet, phone holster, or wherever you need it.

And here it is, available for your enjoyment- in both his and hers colours.

Her BB Pearl Keypad Cheetsheet (in pink)

His BB Pearl Keypad Cheetsheet (in blue)

# # #

Let me get serious for a moment here.  My niece Michelle Pearl in Colorado and her boyfriend Tim are involved in the Race Across America. I am putting this up to help them help these special kids. If you find this cause worthy, please help them help others!

Local Firefighter Needs YOUR Help! Tim Case, a professional firefighter for Boulder Fire Rescue, is racing his bicycle 3100 miles this June in the Race Across America to support Camp Odayin, a camp in Minnesota for kids with congenital heart disease. www.raceacrossamerica.org Tim is affiliated with Team Strong Heart, whose goal is to raise $100,000 for Camp Odayin.  Last year Team Strong Heart placed third in the Race Across America in the 4-man relay division. www.campodayin.com Tim is collecting tax deductible donations via the Team Strong Heart website. Tim is using Pay Pal, so your donation is secure. Please visit the team website to make your donation. www.teamstrongheart.blogspot.com

What is Camp Odayin? Each year 32,000 children are born in the US with cardiovascular defects. Children with heart disease are not often afforded the opportunity to attend camp due to health risk and insurance issues. Camp Odayin is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the camp experience to these special young people. Camp Odayin runs soley on donation and only costs the familes a $25 dollar registration fee.

Contact info: tim@timcase.net http://www.teamstrongheart.com

Let me get serious for a moment here.  My niece Michelle Pearl in Colorado and her boyfriend Tim are involved the Race Across America. I am putting this up to help them help these special kids. If you find this cause worthy, please help them help others!

Local Firefighter Needs YOUR Help! Tim Case, a professional firefighter for Boulder Fire Rescue, is racing his bicycle 3100 miles this June in the Race Across America to support Camp Odayin, a camp in Minnesota for kids with congenital heart disease. www.raceacrossamerica.org Tim is affiliated with Team Strong Heart, whose goal is to raise $100,000 for Camp Odayin.  Last year Team Strong Heart placed third in the Race Across America in the 4-man relay division. www.campodayin.com Tim is collecting tax deductible donations via the Team Strong Heart website. Tim is using Pay Pal, so your donation is secure. Please visit the team website to make your donation. www.teamstrongheart.blogspot.com

What is Camp Odayin? Children with heart disease are not often afforded the opportunity to attend camp due to health risk and insurance issues. Camp Odayin is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the camp experience to these special young people. Camp Odayin runs soley on donation and only costs the familes a $25 dollar registration fee. Each year 32,000 children are born in the US with cardiovascular defects.

Contact info: tim@timcase.net http://www.teamstrongheart.com

However, as some of you may realize from my previous postings (Vista Media Center Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), I have been a fan of Media Center as a potential alternative to the recently-downgraded (don't get me started, even my wife lost what she considered *basic* features with the "standard" Comcast DVR downgrade) Comcast DVR.

The event that kicks this story of begins with a Poker game.  Just after Microsoft announced the new Zune line-up in October, I won a charity poker event where the prize was a custom Zune 30.  It was basically a "pearl" Zune with a special logo on the back and pre-loaded with some poker theme music that we heard during the event.  I played with it a few days, loading it with some songs and even buying a couple of recent ones from the Zune marketplace.

Then ... I discovered the killer feature ... integration with my Windows Vista Media Center.   Now, technically, this feature was not actually enabled when I discovered it.  However, it took me all of 5 minutes to find the registry mod on the Internet and enable it.  That became moot a week or so ago when the recent Zune upgrade rectified that issue, so now everyone can enjoy this feature by default.  Here is the very simple set-up instructions:

1. Install the Zune software on your media center
2. Make sure you add your "Recorded TV" folder, if it is in an odd place (mine is on an external half-TByte drive).
3. Plug in your Zune device as a guest
4. Sync recorded TV shows to your heart's content

Now, let's see why this rocks...

iPod vs Zune TV Comparison

The Apple Way...

There was much ado when the Daily Show became available on iTunes for $1 per show or $9.99 for 16 episodes (roughly 3 weeks of shows).  I browsed over to http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/tvshows.html just now and found this blurb:

Be a watercooler hero.  For as little as $1.99, you can own the latest episode of your favorite show as early as one day after it airs, or purchase past episodes that you missed (or want to watch over and over). Choose a Season Pass and get a whole season of a TV show, past or present, at a discount. Or buy Multi-Passes for shows that air every day, like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and enjoy a month’s worth of episodes downloaded automatically to your computer.

Well, yahoo, yipee!  Only $2 per show on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

The Zune + Media Center Way ...

I record all of my favorite TV shows on my Windows Media Center.  In the evening, I plug in my Zune and choose which shows to sync for mobile watching.  For example, last night I chose the two latest episodes of Heroes which I had not gotten around to watching because of my recent Jury Duty and the holiday activities.  The Zune software automagically converts the show to 320x240 and syncs it to my Zune.

This morning on the Connector Bus to work, I watched Heroes Season 2, Episode 7, "Out of Time" and found out the surprising identity of "Adam Monroe."  I'll watch Episode 8 on the way home...

And My TV Movies Too...

And, it doesn't stop there.  As I described previously, I've been building up quite a library of TV Movies, cutting out commercials, compressing them and creating my own on-demand TV Movies library.  Since I got my Zune, I've switched to using MP4 compression with H.264 video and AAC3 audio, which gets added automatically to my Zune library and can be synced to the device... better together indeed!

With my Zune 30, this means I can load up about 50 kids movies and TV shows that I've previously recorded for those long road trips and vacations.  In fact, I can plug my Zune into the aux-video inputs in our mini-van and play directly on the integrated DVD video screen.

And it is all so easy...