If you're a rabid early adopter like me, you've probably already installed Leopard and discovered that the original modem script doesn't work with the new OS. However, it's unlikely you then repackaged all of the modem scripts (BlackBerry 8100,8700 and 8800) into the new modem script format and made them available for download. If you did, why didn't you let me know?! You would have saved me a half-hour's worth of work. Sheesh, some people.
At any rate, if you're on Leopard and jonesing for a Bluetooth modem fix, here's what you do:
- Download the new scripts. One download for all phone models!
- Unzip that file into Macintosh HD:Library:Modem Scripts. The same location th old script lived. If successful, you should see a new directory named BlackBerry.ccl there.
- Pair your phone as usual - when asked for the phone's Vendor and Model, choose 'Research in Motion' and whatever model of phone you have. I'm not a mind reader, you know.
- The username, password and phone number fields should be filled in with the same values as before; namely, whatever is appropriate for your carrier. Check the forums if you're not sure.
That's it! I'd like to make an installer for this to make it even more seamless, but for now this should get you going. As always, let me know if you run into problems and I'll try to help.
What does he do with his spare time? Freak crowds of people out. Frankly, given the current state of affairs, I'm surprised he isn't in Gitmo already.
Well, big T, you've had a good run. Sensible pricing, good customer service, the works. But unfortunately for you, two big mistakes are driving me into the arms of another carrier.
First off, your 3G story is abysmal. Why, oh why didn't someone read the fine print when you shelled out all that money for spectrum earlier this year? By the time you're able to roll out 3G across the country, we'll all be using WiMax's successor. Via a brain implant. While piloting our rocket cars.
Secondly, you broke my ability to reliably use my Pearl as a modem. T-Mobile's latest BlackBerry firmware has the wonderful property of requiring me to pull the battery from the phone before each attempt to connect. I realize bluetooth tethering for Mac users isn't exactly priority number one over there at Big Pink T headquarters, but someone needs to at least test these things before they roll out the door. I've even offered! I'll state it publicly here: T-Mobile, I will test your BlackBerry firmware for tether capability for free. Just send me a firmware image.
Thus yesterday found me where I swore I'd never go again: inside a Sprint store. See, the new BlackBerry 8830 has both EV-DO (which, for those who still use their phone primarily to call people, is 3G data - faster than my first cable modem) and a SIM slot for those times I travel overseas. I can even use prepaid SIMs from other countries in the thing. And the tethering? Works like a champ. Currently the speed isn't full 3G, as most of the scripts I've found artificially limit the speed. Needless to say, I'm working on it.
I have a month to decide if I'll actually be leaving the big T, but so far things aren't looking good for them. Yes, it's more money (though it wouldn't be if I could've signed up for one of them fancy SERO plans), but if I can actually do what I need to do, at reasonable speeds, without needing a new battery cover for my phone every month, then it's worth it.
Being the brave early adopter I am, I jumped at the chance to install Movable Type's latest version here on Fibble. My impressions so far:
- The install procedure was more painful than it had to be. Despite installing in a fresh directory, I had problems with default templates being missing.
- Akismet still isn't part of the default anti-spam package - why is this? The built in logic does a decent job, but the collaborative filtering provided by Akismet is far and away a better solution.
- The new authoring engine is quite nice. I keep finding small niceties as I need them; for example, the bottom of the text area I'm typing in has a grab handle that allows me to resize it as necessary.
- The meta-soup of tags, keywords and categories hasn't been unified yet. I realize people have probably created their own ontologies by now, but Melissa's tag cloud is empty because she always uses categories - every heard of a category cloud? 'Cos I haven't.
- The new templates are lovely, and well-organized. I'm looking forward to building a new site or two based on MT as a lightweight CMS thanks to the new page templates.
- Comment handling still seems to have some issues. The 'Report as Spam' link in emails I receive from MT is as likely to take me to an error page as it is to work properly.
Clearly SixApart has their work cut out for them, but I'm still pretty happy overall. Kudos to the MT team for the release.
Please stop trying to advertise on my blog. I've removed the comment in question (posted by one 'iMobimac_Guru', from a Brazilian IP address no less) and will do the same to any other obviously commercial comments. Feel free to contact me directly if you'd like ad space on Fibble.org, but the price just went up. Way up.
As a side note, I'm not opposed to iMobimac - there are models of BlackBerry out there who won't be able to connect any other way. But if you own a bluetooth-capable BlackBerry that can be upgraded to OS 4.2.1 or later, you're wasting your money by buying someone's software to accomplish what you can do yourself for free, with very little effort.
Dreamhost had an extended outage over the last twenty four hours - there's a good chance any mail I received between 7PM PST yesterday and now is lost. So if you sent me something important, please re-send.
