How to keep “Facebook for BlackBerry” from driving you insane…

Facebook for BlackBerry is a great way to drive yourself insane if you’re constantly receiving “Notifications” of activity from your friends and relatives on Facebook. Since not all of the notifications on the website are supported by email and BlackBerry in the first place, here are the settings I recommend to only alert you of things that might actually affect your life between now and the next time you sit down at your computer.

You can change these settings here: http://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?notifications …. Or by going to “Account”, “Account Settings”, then “Notifications”.

Perfect example of why changing these settings is important: Let’s say you’ve commented on someone’s photo that they’ve just posted. This person has a lot of friends, and that particular photo is controversial. You’ll be receiving notifications on your phone EVERY time one of their friends comments on that particular photo, even if you do not know the person commenting. That’s why I’ve unchecked “Comments after me in a photo”, but left “Comments on my photos” and “Comments on a photo of me” checked (see image below)… but feel free to tweak these settings as you so desire. You’ll still receive notifications when someone invites you to an event, cancels or changes an event, sends you a message, or adds you as a friend. But, not the stupid notifications!

Another tip: Go into the Facebook Application’s options (on your BlackBerry) and make sure that “Leave email notification on mail server” is unchecked. That way, your BlackBerry will delete the email after it has notified you… so you won’t have to delete a bunch of Facebook emails later on! (Huge timesaver here.)

Blackberry Curve (8310) Review

A while ago I switched to a Blackberry… without telling anyone. No posts, no blurbs. And since then I’ve never looked back… well, only a little bit! I do miss my Sony Ericsson W910i that I special-ordered but foregoing email-in-my-pocket-on-the-fly any longer just seemed impossible.

When asked on Flickr what I thought about it… I replied: “It’s pretty solid. I unlocked all of the carriers’ themes and ended up choosing the Vodafone one, it’s pretty neat. Applications I installed are Facebook, Google Maps, Opera Mini, Instant Messenger (AIM/MSN/Yahoo!), and MusicID. (last two were downloaded from AT&T; for free, others from their respective developers’ websites)

I haven’t used my iPhone in months… I really like how this has an actual keyboard, flash for the camera, regular headphone jack (not needing an adapter), expandable memory, expandable functionality, and it’s a bit more rugged and less smooth (doesn’t slip out of your pocket when standing up or sitting down). Oh, and you can tether Internet via Bluetooth (like a normal phone) which was a huge turn-off for me with the iPhone. I need emergency Internet from time-to-time and any phone I look-at has to have it.”

So yeah, I’m pretty happy with it. I honestly really think it’s an all-around good device — not too flashy, not too thin… yet not too impractical or ill-equipped. The ONLY thing I wish it could do was use the camera to record short videos for YouTube or emailing. This is the only downfall I’ve found… that and the lack of a 3G-connection, which isn’t a huge deal at least right-now.

When I bought this I had about a 50/50 chance of returning it (as I have with past Blackberry purchases) but this one I’ve been using and loving, so until the iPhone can catch-up to my standards this is my lovely new center of all being ‘smash’… you can call me a crackberry.