Berry Buzz for BlackBerry: Complete Review of the App and its Features
Sometimes a simple alarm on your mobile device isn’t enough to grab your attention, for those instances there’s Berry Buzz, an application for BlackBerry smartphones that allows users to fully customize their alarm settings from sounds to LED colors and even the amount of time an alarm sounds for. After a few hours of testing it was easy for me to realize how much Berry Buzz could extend my ability to grab messages and sort them as I saw fit. Keep reading to learn more about the effective yet simple functions that Berry Buzz offers.
Features (5 out of 5)
I’ll be the first to admit that getting excited over “Alarm” features is a little hard to accomplish, however the shear number of Berry Buzz features along with their simplicity of use actually let me have fun with this Blackberry App. The application is broken down into two major functions: Vibrate Settings and LED Customization Settings.
The Vibrate settings are extremely straight forward, basically you can choose to have different alerts vibrate in different ways which is great if you have your device in your pocket and perhaps don’t want to pull it out (at a meeting or elsewhere) or if you simple want to know what type of alert is coming through at any time. I also liked the ability to have my device vibrate while it was also ringing, a spot sorely missed on the RIM line of devices before Berry Buzz was implemented. Overall the vibration setting is the easier of the two options but still very effective in its use.
The second option is the ability to set LED alerts based on each type of incoming message such as Voice Mails, Text Messages, Emails, etc. Let’s take a look at the different type of options the LED Alerts via Berry Buzz offer.
First as I mentioned the LED settings can be displayed differently for each type of message, simply choose which LED Color you want for your Emails (You can use different colors for different email accounts), PIN Messages, SMS messages, Calendar Events and Missed Phones Calls. When any alert is sent your screen will light up with the color chosen for that message
Continue onto the second page to find out more of the available LED alert settings Berry Buzz offers.
More LED Alert Options for Berry Buzz
The color selections offered were well suited in my opinion for the Blackberry Storm I was testing it on, each Blue, Red, and all of the other colors were vibrant and displayed immediately.
I also appreciated the multiple alerts option which I tested by sending myself an SMS and an email one after another. Almost immediately my LED display alternated between the two colors at a fast enough pace to realize that two messages were sent, yet slow enough that I could see what type of messages were waiting for me to reply. It’s perfect when you just want to know how many messages are on your phone without checking the phone itself.
I also tested the “rapid LED flashing” option which I actually found to be less impressive, it basically allows the LED to flash when incoming calls are sent. While its cool to show off the LED, its rather pointless since I can feel my phone calls vibrations and hear the ringer. Sure I can see a call is coming in without sound, but a rapid LED wasn’t necessary. It might be a good feature if you leave your phone across the room.
I also loved the ability to customize the timeframe in which the LED would display, with typical Blackberry devices you have 15 seconds of alert time, with Berry Buzz I could set an option that would keep the LED lit until I acknowledged the message. If you want to make sure you see the message at a later time its easy to simply not acknowledge the message on the device and grab it later.
Finally I appreciated the battery saving measures offered by Berry Buzz, specifically the ability to slow down the LED flash to conserve battery life. Overall I don’t see the battery issue as a big issue but its still nice that its been added.
References
BlackBerry App World, https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/3920
