I had talked briefly talked about a few project I had to start off the new year. BluPoint USA was one of them – that I had finished last month. Due to some issues, the time had to be cut and their pur CSS site turned into a table site. It loads much slower – but it was something they needed and time wasn’t there. I was asked to redesign their layout into a more update layout that with better tabs for links. We had also talked about new flash but that was later dropped due to budget restraints. Below is an image of their old layout verses their new one. If you would like to take a peek at their website, please visit http://www.blupointusa.com.

Click to enlarge

With so many Blackberry Device’s coming out, a lot of people are asking me what operating system do they have on their phone and what does it actually mean. In this article, I will discuss what the OS means to you (and theme developers) and where to find your OS. If you want to upgrade your operating system on your Blackberry, follow this link.

What is a Blackberry Operating System

The OS of a Blackberry is a lot like a computer. When you have Windows XP, programs that were designed for Windows Seven may not work on Windows XP or vise versa. You see this a lot of the time when you have a Windows 2000 or Windows ME program and you wanted to upgrade it to a Windows XP computer. To make that program work on a Windows XP computer you will need to find certain drivers or the program redesigned for a Windows XP computer.

When a theme developer is designing a theme it is important for them to know which OS you have. The theme needs to be made for that OS for the specific device. With that being said, look below to find how to find your OS.

Follow these steps to find your OS

• 1) When you are on the main screen, hit the menu button. (it is the button that is close to the green talk button)
• 2) Find your options icon and click it.
• 3) When you are in this screen, go to the very top and choose About.
• 4) Once there, you will see a screen full of words and numbers.
  The first line will tell you what device you have.
  Under that it describe the network and directly under that it will tell you your OS.

  Look at the screen shot below, in this case, it is a Blackberry Curve 8900 with an OS v4.6.1.231 (OS 4.6).

If you have any question’s, please post them below.

This St. Patrick’s Day Blackberry theme comes three ways; you can get it with a weather slot, a hidden today, or your regular Zen style. this theme features awesome icons as well as custom backgrounds. The theme also includes a HotKey for QuickLaunch. When you press the $ sign, QuickLaunch will open. You must have that app installed on your phone.

Zen Style

Hidden Today Style

Weather App Slot

Icon’s Screen

Message’s and Delete Screen(s)

Incoming and Outgoing Call Screen

Lock Screen

Available for the Following Phone(s):

Blackberry Curve 85xx (4.6 and 5.0) – not finished yet
Blackberry Curve 8900 (4.6 and 5.0)
Blackberry Bold 9000 (4.6 and 5.0) – not finished yet
Blackberry Tour 96xx (4.7 and 5.0)
Blackberry Bold 9700 (5.0)
Blackberry Storm 1 (4.7 and 5.0)
Blackberry Storm 2 (5.0)

Purchase your’s now!!

McHide is a new theme creation that brings you the best of both worlds. The bottom dock on this theme hides away when you do not want to see it, and then you have two icons that stay stationary all the time. These icons are messages and calendar. There is a hidden today on this theme as well, so when you want to hide the bottom dock, just scroll up, and when you select the message icon or the calendar icon, you will automatically see your input.

McHide is a weird name but lets understand why it is called that. There is a Message icon of the left side (M) and a Calendar icon on the right (c). The bottom dock hides away : McHide!

There are also HotKeys with this theme as well. When you press the SpaceBar SearchIt will show up. When you press the $ sign, QuickLaunch will pop up. You need to have purchased, downloaded, and installed these applications for the hotkey to work.

Picture

The rest of the theme has OEM colors.

Functions

• Sliding Dock which Hides Away
• Six Customize Icon for the Dock
• Two Stationary Icon which can not be replaced
• Hidden Today
• Huge Clock
• Hot Keys
  SpaceBar = SearchIt
  $ = Quicklaunch
• Wallpaper friendly. You can use any wallpaper you want without loosing the look and feel of the theme!

Video

Purchase

Blackberry Curve
Blackberry Curve 8900 OS 4.6
Blackberry Curve 8900 OS 5.0

Blackberry Bold
Blackberry Bold 9700 OS 5.0

Blackberry Tour
Blackberry Tour OS 4.7
Blackberry Tour OS 5.0

Here is a Blackberry theme for all of Marines who are serving our country. The theme includes Marine style icons like guns, rank, shirts, hats and more. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Thank you for all your hard work over seas and we hope to have you home soon!

Home Screen

Icon Screen

Messages and Delete Screen

Incoming Call

Lock Screen

Purchase

Blackberry Pearl
Blackberry Pearl 81xx OS 4.5

Blackberry Curve
Blackberry Curve 83xx OS 4.5
Blackberry Curve 85xx OS 4.6
Blackberry Curve 85xx OS 5.0
Blackberry Curve 8900 OS 4.6
Blackberry Curve 8900 OS 5.0

Blackberry Bold
Blackberry Bold 9000 OS 4.6
Blackberry Bold 9000 OS 5.0

Blackberry Storm
Blackberry Storm OS 4.7
Blackberry Storm OS 5.0

bbVista is bringing the best of both worlds into one. We all love our Blackberry but we also all love our PC’s. This theme incorporates Vista like icons into the Blackberry world. This theme features Vista backgrounds, Vista icons, and there is even a slot for an extra application (top left corner). This slot is usually for the weather app but you can use it for whatever you like. Let’s take a look at the theme.

Home Screen – Zen

Home Screen – Zen w/ Weather App Slot

Icon Screen

Messages / Delete Screens

Incoming and Outgoing Call Screens

Lock Screen

Purchase without Weather Slot

Blackberry Pearl 81xx – Zen (OS 4.5)
Blackberry Curve 83xx – Zen (OS 4.5)
Blackberry Bold 9700 – Zen (OS 5.0)

Purchase with Weather Slot

Blackberry Pearl 81xx – Zen w/ weather slot (OS 4.5)
Blackberry Curve 83xx – Zen w/ weather slot (OS 4.5)
Blackberry Bold 9700  - Zen w/ weather slot (OS 5.0)

One size fit’s all

Blackberry Tour
Blackberry Curve 8900
Blackberry Bold 9000
Blackberry Curve 8500

Another new theme to add to your device. This theme includes 18 customizable icons that scroll along the bottom on the phone. It also features hotkeys which means when you press a key on the device, you will brought to the application. The two hotkeys are: Press the space bar and you will bring up QuickLaunch (you need to buy and download this) and the other one is when you press the $ key, you will bring up your SMS messages. You are also able to change the background to anything you want and it wont take away from the home screen and lock screen (please view video). This theme does come with today themes as well so make sure to check the pictures below.

If you do purchase QuickLaunch, please note, I am not the creator of that application. I do not take responsibility of you downloading in onto your phone. If you have any errors, take it up with the developer – not me. If it is theme related (you already have QL, let me know).

Home Screen – Zen

Icon Screen

Inbox and Options Screen

Incoming & Outgoing Call Screens

Lock Screen

Home Screen – Hidden Today

Home Screen – Calendar Today

Home Screen – Message’s Today

Video

Purchase Theme for Blackberry Bold 9700

Blackberry Bold 9700 – Zen
Blackberry Bold 9700 – Hidden Today
Blackberry Bold 9700 – Message’s Today
Blackberry Bold 9700 – Calendar Today

Purchase Theme for Blackberry Curve 8900

Blackberry Curve 8900 – Zen (OS 4.6)
Blackberry Curve 8900 – Zen (OS 5.0)
Blackberry Curve 8900 – Hidden Today (OS 4.6)
Blackberry Curve 8900 – Hidden Today (OS 5.0)
Blackberry Curve 8900 – Message’s Today (OS 4.6)
Blackberry Curve 8900 – Message’s Today (OS 5.0)
Blackberry Curve 8900 – Calendar Today (OS 4.6)
Blackberry Curve 8900 – Calendar Today (OS 5.0)

Other Devices (ETA : Unknown)

Blackberry Tour 96xx OS 4.7 and OS 5.0

For those who are watching me on facebook you know that I had asked you to visit heli-works.com and bookmark the URL. As of right now the website is their old website. Their new layout and website is in the works and is currently being coded and filled in with content. Below are various logo designed I did for Heli-Works with a brief description on a few of them of why I did it, and what the outcome was.

What is Heli-Works?

Heli-Works is an offshore support to the oil industry. They are a bell helicopter service center. In other words, they rebuild helicopters.

Current Logo

Before we get started here is their current logo.

Their current logo doesn’t really scream what they do. I was asked to design a logo what is for upbeat, helicopter friendly, but also keep it “within the family”.

Logo Design(s)

Now for the design concept for their new logo. Below area  few logos that got dumped because they didn’t like it or it just didn’t fit their style.

This design features a ‘helicopter blade’ spinning around their company name. The manager’s at Heli-Works wanted something more – something different.

I took an image of one of their helicopters, cut it out of the background, and made it black. They still wanted to see more as they were not really happy with this one.

This set of logos replicates the blade of the helicopter spinning. They werent really looking for something like this. Back to the drawing board.

I went with a different approach to the blades of a helicopter.

Maybe full circles was something they were looking for. Well, they never really answered me on this one.

I went back to the blade spinning effect when I got a comment about it. They said they liked it, but wanted something more. They wanted an H to be involved somewhere.

New Logo

This is their new logo. It incorporated three blades and an H.

Please subscribe to my blog to get an update on their website layout.

Love is in the air with this theme. Here is a valentine’s day theme for tons of Blackberry’s. The icons are hearts, notes, kisses, etc and the background in pink hearts. The images pictured are from a Blackberry Bold 9700, it may appear different on your Curve 83xx or your Pearl 81xx. See the images below.

Home Screen

Icon Screen

Message’s and Delete Screen

Incoming and Outgoing Call Screen

Lock Screen

Purchase Yours Today

Blackberry Pearl 81xx OS 4.2 / 4.3
Blackberry Pearl 81xx OS 5.0
Blackberry Curve 83xx OS 5.0
Blackberry Curve 85xx OS 4.6
Blackberry Curve 85xx OS 5.0
Blackberry Curve 8900 OS 4.6
Blackberry Curve 8900 OS 5.0
Blackberry Bold 9000 OS 4.6
Blackberry Bold 9000 OS 5.0
Blackberry Tour OS 4.7
Blackberry Tour OS 5.0
Blackberry Bold 9700

Please leave comments below if you do not see your device above. Changes can be made with a ‘donation’.

I had used Therese as my wedding videographer when I got marred in April of 2008. From the way she did business to the way our video came out, I knew Therese meant business. She was also voted to be one of the top videographers in NJ. I visted Therese’s website and noticed she was trying to run a video blog with WordPress. When I visited her blog I noticed she was using the standard/default wordpress theme with no color to match her website. I contact Therese immediately and this is what I came up with.

The Norm

WordPress is a very powerful tool for those who are interested in blogging. I use WordPress and I absolutely love it. You are able to customized just about everything on your website from the color, to the layout, to the plugins. On a fresh install of wordpress, you get your default theme (which is pictured to the left) and nothing more but one standard post and comment. It is extremely plain and very unattractive. Therese’s blog looked identical to the default blog with a lot of large black boxed throughout the left side of it. Those boxes were the videos she had. I came in and changed a lot of it, see below.

The Update

After contacting Therese, I found out her main objective for her blog was to host video and share it with other brides and grooms. It was also a way to share her editing skill for anyone who is looking for a videographer for their wedding. After a lot of thought I knew there had to be something different in her blog. I didn’t want there to be large video boxes throughout the entire her entire website so I thought small, widescreen, boxes would work best. When that widescreen box is pressed, instead of it loading the post, it fades out the background and plays the video on there on the site without the viewer doing nothing more but grab some popcorn and watch.  Her new blog can be seen by going to http://www.tfarrowfilms.com. I look forward working with Therese in the near future on more projects she has lined up.

If you are running a wordpress blog, or video blog, and need some updating, send me over a quote. While you at it, make sure to see what others are saying.