Do It Yourself: ThinkOfMe important date reminder

To open 2011, I’d like to introduce a new feature for BBGeeks. It won’t be something regular. Instead, it will pop up any time I see a certain type of new application. Every day we see new BlackBerry apps released. Surely they can’t all be useful. When we write about BlackBerry applications, we’re usually shooting for something that will appeal to a certain portion of our readership. Few apps will appeal to everyone. There are a number of apps, though, that you can probably do on your own, without the help of an app. Maybe the app makes it easier, and maybe that’s worth your buck or five. Our new feature will take these apps and show you how to do it without buying anything. Up first: ThinkOfMe. I really do like the idea behind ThinkOfMe. It basically reminds you of birthdays you might otherwise forget. Once you download the app you add all the birthdays and anniversaries you know, and then you’re set. The app will send you a reminder so that you won’t forget. If it were a free app I’d suggest that everyone download it. But it’s not, and you can perform the same task for free using the basic BlackBerry calendar. Open up your calendar, hit menu, and then select Go To Date. You can then enter the birth date on the pop-up screen. From there you enter in the person’s birthday or anniversary as an event, and set the recurrence to yearly. Then you can set reminders so you’ll know of the date in advance. It won’t connect the contact in your address book to the entry in your calendar, but I’m not sure that much matters. ThinkOfMe does have a neat feature where you can easily add birthdays for contacts. The app will send a text asking for the contact’s birthday, and when he or she responds the app automatically adds it. That’s nice and convenient, but I need not explain exactly how easy this is to do for free. There are certainly some conveniences to ThinkOfMe. For instance, if you’re lazy, forgetful, and disorganized, this will come in handy. In that case you can get ThinkOfMe for $1.99. If you’d rather spend that two bucks elsewhere, just follow the instructions above. It’s the easy, cheap, do-it-yourself way to remember birthdays and important dates.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.