FINDING THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS


When it comes to finding third-party applications, the best place to start is on the BlackBerry.com website at https://www.blackberry.com/ThirdParty/search.jsp. This page allows you to search for applications written by BlackBerry Alliance Partnerscompanies that have signed up as partners with RIM.

Figure 14.1. The BlackBerry.com website is the place to start when looking for applications.


At this site you can search for applications in a specific industry or vertical market. The applications and providers listed here will be those that are focused on providing a solution to your enterprise in some area, such as improving field service support by allowing field service workers to view trouble tickets remotely for instance.

There are many other applications and developers that are not listed on this page though, and these are the ones that are more difficult to find. The next two sections list some websites where you can find them.

WEBSITES OFFERING BLACKBERRY APPLICATIONS

There are just a few websites that have good selections of applications for BlackBerry handhelds. This is because there are proportionally fewer BlackBerry handhelds out there, compared to other classes of handheld devices, and proportionally fewer developers for it.

My favorite website for BlackBerry applications is www.Handango.com. Handango offers applications for a wide variety of handheld devices, and powers the search engines behind several other websites such as tucows, Dell, and Compaq. When it comes to BlackBerry applications, their listings detail which handheld models are supported by each application, which can be a real benefit for those users who aren't very experienced with finding applications that work for them. Because Handango.com has a storefront, it is the only place where you can find certain applications that require payment to register them.

Figure 14.2. The Handango.com website.


A great website offering software for a variety of handhelds, including BlackBerry, is www.PDATopSoft.com. Like Handango, it sorts applications based on handheld model, though some are listed under different names and therefore are not grouped together in the list. PDATopSoft is newer to the BlackBerry market than Handango, so its selection is smaller and less cluttered.

Figure 14.3. The PDATopSoft.com website.


Another nice website is RIMRoad.com. RIMRoad is the BlackBerry arm of the PDAStreet.com network of websites. It is primarily intended to be a community website with news and lively forums, but it does have a section devoted to free downloads that is up-to-date and well-stocked. Be sure to look at the New Software list because this website does not sort the downloads for each device and some of the entries are old enough that they will not work on most current devices.

Figure 14.4. The RIMRoad.com website.


Of course many applications are listed at all three of these sites, but it is definitely worth it to check out all of them and to check back frequently to see what's new.

note

Once you have an application downloaded, you will likely find that it has been packaged and compressed. If this is the case, you will need to uncompress it first. When it is uncompressed you should see at least two files, one with a .ALX extension and one with a .COD extension. These two file work together to describe the application for the Desktop Manager. The .ALX file is a small text file that describes the .COD file, which is the file that will eventually be loaded onto your handheld. Some of the software comes with an installer executable. In cases like this, the installer usually takes care of registering the application with the Desktop Manager Application Loader, a process which is described in a section later in this chapter titled "Installing a Third-Party Application."




Mobile Guide to BlackBerry
Mobile Guide to BlackBerry
ISBN: 0789733439
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 146
Authors: Bill Foust

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