Ricky Says

Question: hi i have question, i just downloaded facebook mobile onto my blackberry and my friends have facebook on their blackberry but they get a little icon with an f on the top of their screen when they get a notification or friend request or message and i just get a text from a code. How would i be able to recieve that little blue f icon on the top of my blackberry and not just recieve a text from a 5 digit code? Please help me out!!! thank youu!!

Answer: I received some great tips from a couple people who deserve the credit, so please read their answers below.

Many thanks to Dennis for the step-by-step instructions and also to @powerwheelz.

If you're wondering where to get the Facebook app for your Blackberry, here's the link, and here's the Blackberry Facebook User's Guide.

I had to drop my car off at Les Schwab this morning and realized I forgot to bring my cell phone with me, so I couldn't call my wife to let her know how long I'd be.

Fortunately I had my laptop with me and was able to send her a text message using email.

To send SMS text messages to any cell phone in the US using email, just use your 10-digit phone number including area code as the first part of the email address (without any dashes or hyphens).

Use the table below to figure out the last half of the email address for each major phone carrier:

Type your text message as the email subject and don't worry about entering a message body, but remember there's a 140 character limit to text messages so keep it brief just like you would if you were using your cell phone.

Text messaging fees still apply when texting via email.

Question: I emailed myself a video I took from my blackberry curve. When i try to play the video on my computer it says it can't find the file extension. What is the deal?

Answer: The deal is that you either need a program installed on your computer that can play the video file, or a program that will convert it to a common video format like Quicktime or Windows Media.

I'll cover both approaches, and will introduce you to some free and low-cost programs that'll handle the video viewing and converting. I'll also show you how to convert Quicktime or Windows Media videos into a format that can be viewed on a Blackberry, iPhone, or virtually any mobile device that supports video.

Video Players

Most computers come with some form of a video player, such as Windows Media Player that plays video files with a .wmv extension. You can also get the Quicktime video player for free from Apple that plays .mp4 video files.

However, videos that are recorded from a mobile device will usually have a different file extension, such as .3GP for movies recorded on Motorola RAZR phones. These videos won't play in Quicktime or Windows Media.

You'll need a video player designed to read the video format that your specific mobile device uses, or better yet - one that can play a wide range of video formats so that you'll still be in luck if you switch phones in the future.

Rather then look for a universal video file player, look for a video file converter. Not only will you get the ability to view all kinds of video files, but you'll be able to convert them to be viewable on other devices or other computer systems like a Macintosh. Two for the price of one.

Video Converters

Question: Is there a way to get a wifi signal to your itouch from either your cell phone or connect an aircard to the touch?

Answer: I haven't found a way to do this, but a couple readers indicated that it might be possible using a Blackberry.

Anyone up for creating an itouch app for this? :-)

Question: I read your comments about putting a signature into a Blackberry, but to take this one step further, can I add my company logo to this signature?

Currently, we use the signature file in Outlook but this comes as an attachment through Blackberry emails.