Disapointed in free (as in beer) applications for my BB

So, here I sit, proud new owner of a two week old blackberry curve 8310. I love the thing, with the BIS hooked up, its difficult to not play around on the internet instead of work. I have been piling through the forums looking for free (as in beer) applications that are robust and work reliably. Regrettably, there are only few, and at present I am looking for something to help me get the weather. Not weather as in forecast, I want current conditions, pressures, and wind speeds in a zip code. I dont want a trial period that will end with me needing a subscription. BBweather is very broken and not well laid out, and there are no other alteratives. This seems to be the biggest problem when I find a need that I want to fill with an applicaiton. Whats the hold up of freeware, or open source applications for the blackberry!?

i completely agree with you! I wish i knew also.

There is nothing stopping you from doing something about it yourself...

BlackBerry - BlackBerry Developer Program | Support, Downloads, Knowledge Base, Community

Plazmic

:confused: Where do you find Beer for FREE. :confused:
What would happen if your Boss tells you that you're working this week for Free?:eek:
Aren't we expecting a little too much, or are we? :D

As a beginning developer myself I admire those that spend the time to work on free open source projects (FOSS). Having said that, I will also say that I am not that generous with my time. I wouldn't have any problem with releasing something with an open source license but I would not give it away for free. Keep in mind that "open source" does not require that software be "free" as in no cost or as others like to say free as in beer.

Using the tools I linked to above you can develop a theme for the BB. Give it a try and see how much time something as simple as a theme can take...

I use weathereye. Its great and updates current conditions on my home screen icon every 30min. Great program and free as well Highly reco.

ota BlackBerry browser to:
http: //weyebb. pelmorex. com /BlackBerry/
(SORRY HAD TO ADD SPACES BECAUSE I DONT HAVE TEN POSTS. BS)
(i usually just email myself the link so I dont have to type it in.

Thanks for the suggestions, not looking to start a war about open source software, I am not looking for somethint that is free for 30 days and requires a subscription after.

Yes, I may just develop something myself. Not looking for anything pretty, just functional, correct weather stats parsed from some free public location into some easy to read format. Thought by asking around I might find something and not have to duplicate any work.

With the apparent large size of the community I expected there to be a massive pile of junk applications all free and available, just laying about. Obviously I was incorrect. I am disapointed... Perhaps my next phone will be a windows mobile device.

Originally Posted by talen.quickblade

Thanks for the suggestions, not looking to start a war about open source software, I am not looking for somethint that is free for 30 days and requires a subscription after.

Yes, I may just develop something myself. Not looking for anything pretty, just functional, correct weather stats parsed from some free public location into some easy to read format. Thought by asking around I might find something and not have to duplicate any work.

With the apparent large size of the community I expected there to be a massive pile of junk applications all free and available, just laying about. Obviously I was incorrect. I am disapointed... Perhaps my next phone will be a windows mobile device.

I hate to disappoint you, but they don't have a "massive pile of junk applications that is for free and available, just laying about" over there at Windows Mobile either. :D:D

I also recommend weathereye. I'm not sure it has all you're looking for, but you can give it a shot and decide if it's right for you.

Originally Posted by talen.quickblade

Thanks for the suggestions, not looking to start a war about open source software, I am not looking for somethint that is free for 30 days and requires a subscription after.

Yes, I may just develop something myself. Not looking for anything pretty, just functional, correct weather stats parsed from some free public location into some easy to read format. Thought by asking around I might find something and not have to duplicate any work.

With the apparent large size of the community I expected there to be a massive pile of junk applications all free and available, just laying about. Obviously I was incorrect. I am disapointed... Perhaps my next phone will be a windows mobile device.

With a device so business oriented as a Blackberry, why would you expect people to just make "junk" applications as you say?

Well, enjoy your WinBLO, and i'll buy your Curve, cheap, since its so crappy if you want..

Originally Posted by talen.quickblade

Thanks for the suggestions, not looking to start a war about open source software, I am not looking for somethint that is free for 30 days and requires a subscription after.

Yes, I may just develop something myself. Not looking for anything pretty, just functional, correct weather stats parsed from some free public location into some easy to read format. Thought by asking around I might find something and not have to duplicate any work.

With the apparent large size of the community I expected there to be a massive pile of junk applications all free and available, just laying about. Obviously I was incorrect. I am disapointed... Perhaps my next phone will be a windows mobile device.

you have fun with your winblows phone then and when it constantly freezes up and shuts down all the time i want you to come back and apologize for your actions and then MAYBE someone in this very helpful community will talk to you lol.... i love it when people dont hear what they want in the forums so they threaten the forums with "im gonna get a windows mobile phone" lol, i got news for you i dont own RIM so i dont are its your loss but im sticking with my bb cuz its reliable

weather eye is free and gives you current conditions including wind and humidity. Plus it shows current temp and general weather type (cloudy, sunny, rain, fog) without even opening the app.

excuse me sir, did you say free beer?

I have the WeatherEye app on my BB. It is not very accurate. I look at it and then log onto my PC and check wunderground or accuweather and it's off my a bunch of degrees. I also find that the long-term forecast is radically different than Wunderground or Accuweather. What's up with that anyway?

Originally Posted by kickinitlive247

excuse me sir, did you say free beer?

hahahahaha it doesn't surprise me that all you got out of his rant was that lmfao

Wunderground is a very nice free weather app with animated radar

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Again, thanks to those who offered suggestions, and for those whom troll around here, I will try to pose my opnions more delicately in the future. I was looking for suggestions for free weather applications, and additionally looking for a larger repository of free applications for my new blackberry.

So in review the data I have managed to collect:
There are quite a bit of goodies available at www DOT getjar DOT com (wap DOT getjar DOT com). Those looking for apps could start there and work their way out from there.

Weathereye looks great, but I cant seem to be able to lookup any cities that are near me in their database, I will have to look into this some more.

I am still looking into wunderground.

One of the accuweather apps I located is great, but constantly asks permission to access the network each time it auto-updates its data (which is becoming old).

Have to love it when people complain that they can't find a free program to do "xyz", or that the free program sucks, and then turn around in the same breath and complain that they have to pay someone who did develop a nice application.

OMG, I so want to slap them and say, "Hey, can't wait for your free version you are going to develop!"

To top it off, he complains there are not "tons of junk" applications laying around. First, this is because not everyone (like yourself) is capable of developing Java software. Second, those of us who do program for a living, don't write junk. :D

So, if you want some junk programs you will have to write those yourself. That shouldn't be to hard, considering you haven't a clue what goes into writing even a simple Blackberry application.

BTW, you will have to pay RIM $100 for the privledge to get a code signing key to write your freeware and junk, and even more for various other code signing licenses should you reallly want to do anything very useful. After you spend a few hundred dollars on that, feel free to write all the junk you want. :D

Personally, I'm glad that RIM does things this way, as it prevents some wanna-be programmer from bricking my Berry. :D

Patrick

Originally Posted by kickinitlive247

excuse me sir, did you say free beer?

just for you lol free beer or craigslist free beer

Talen... Sorry you didn't get much of the answers you were looking for. There aren't many "good" and "free" apps for the blackberry.

I would try to google search for some, but the good ones will cost $$$. Now if RIM made it like Apple, then you may see more quality apps free. Apple is not going to charge the developers that aren't charging the consumers. The devs that are charging the consumers, they will be charged.

Use the blackberry browser and goto

http:://mobile.weather.gov

enter in the city, state and you will get the current conditions from the selected weather service station with links to the 7 day forecast, weather radar, satellite pictures pretty much the works.

When you get the weather page up you can save the link off in the bookmarks and next time you want the weather for that location just select the bookmark.

Your tax dollars at work and it is free.

If you use Viigo to grab the RSS feeds on the weather service web site NOAA's National Weather Service for county warnings and weather station current conditions. You have to look them up and enter them into Viigo. If you need any help drop me a note.

I have weatherbug and love it. Has temp, wind, humidity, current, short term and long term forecasts. I know some here have mentioned their short term forecast doesn't work, but mine always has.