Review – Electric Pocket Apps

Electric Pocket has an incredible stable of software that I consider essential for the daily use of every Blackberry user.

Ringo – One of my favorite apps of all time is Ringo. Ringo allows users to assign custom ring tones to people in their address book. Users can also assign ringtones to specific groups. For example, I can assign a ringtone for everyone from work. Or, I can assign ringtones to people I meet at the gym. Additionally, ringtones and vibrations can be assigned for almost any incoming message or call. The developers have created functionalities to assign ringtones to any incoming texts, emails or PIN messages. A key functionality for me personally is how much control over the volume I have over the ringtones. I can choose from a range of settings from Silent to Loudest. However, when I am at the office, I prefer my setting at Escalating Volume since I can avail of listening to the personalized ringtones as it escalates upward in volume while catching it early enough so as not to disturb my co-workers before jacking up to the loudest volume.

With Ringo, you’re only limited by your imagination when assigning personalized ringtones to your groups, friends, family and co-workers.

Here are some examples of how I assigned ringtones in my BlackBerry:

• A co-worker from the Bahamas – “Red, Red Wine”
• My boss – “the theme from Mission: Impossible”
• His deputy – “the theme from SWAT”
• My wife – something beautiful and sweet, of course!
• A co-worker who loves The Office – “the theme from The Office”
• A co-worker who loves guns – “the sound of a silencer shooting with the brass casings falling to the ground”
• A friend who loves rocking out on his guitar – “a riff from Rush”
• A co-worker with whom I joke with a lot – “a dog barking”

Bug Me! – This is an application that I loved back when I was using my old Palm TX.. I was surprised to see its cousin for the BlackBerry platform. What I love about Bug Me is its accessibility and flexibility. I can call up the Bug Me app from within any software that I’m using or from the home screen. I don’t have to hunt around for it in order to launch it. This has been key on many occasions where I’ve had to quickly take down a phone number or address on the fly while in conversation with someone. Its convenience and accessibility alone is worth the price of owning this incredible app. However, the flexibility of being able to assign alarms to serve as reminders adds more power to its purpose. Bug Me is supposed to Bug YOU! Life moves at such a quick pace and we have so many interactions that when we need to take a quick note or set a reminder on the fly, Bug Me is the perfect solution.

Twitterlerts – At first I was confused using this app because there isn’t a manual that comes with the software (at the time I was reviewing the app). I thought it was just like the millions of Twitter clients apps you see come out every two days. However, I jumped in with both feet and when I found out what separates this application from the other Twitter-related apps, I was frankly, amazed!

Twitterlerts serves as a powerful hand-held search engine for hot-topics of interest to the user. For example, I searched for “Tiger Woods” to see what kind of press he was getting from the “Twittershpere”. I was able to quickly receive the most recent tweets about Tiger and his recent confession. I was led to a tweet that referenced what young kids thought about Tiger from interviews on the Jimmy Kimmel show. I clicked the link and was brought to YouTube where I was able to view the on-street unscripted interview with the children. Great stuff!

Twitterlerts allows users to reply to the author of a tweet or email the tweet to someone else. This is incredibly important for companies who troll social networks to protect their brand name and correct any misunderstandings about a product or brand. Twitterlerts allows users and companies the freedom to track down any negative press (or find positive reviews for that matter) and to personally respond to queries, defend the brand or bring clarity to a negatively-charged situation. Companies can use this to stem any uninformed individuals or offer assistance. Twitterlerts is a powerful search engine with some nuanced tools. For example, users can find a negative review of a flight by keying flights :(. How cool is that?

Tweets get around quicker than lightning and public relations departments and staff would do well to get this app to more accurately determine the pulse of their product or use it as a tool to fly through the internet and defend their brand as well.

Or, you can be an ordinary Joe like me and use it to track down tweets about my favorite sports teams or restaurants. Or, check out the “public airwaves” on a product I’ve been eyeing to purchase this Christmas season. For staying on top of the Twittersphere, Twitterlerts is for you!

Each of these apps get “5 out of 5 Stars!”

You can find out more about Electric Apps and their incredible stable of applications here!