Theme Review Wednesday: BeAmplified, Incredible, DeCode

For some reason, people seem to love themes that imitate other platforms. This week we’re delivering two of those. One, however, is for a BlackBerry product, the PlayBook. Yes, someone has already created a PlayBook-like theme. We’ll take a look at that, plus an Android clone, in this week’s theme review feature.

BeAmplified

We’ve all seen the PlayBook demo and its green grass background. That’s what gives BeAmplified the PlayBook feel. Well, that and the preview icons. BBThemes did a knock-up job putting this one together, and I’d say it’s one theme definitely worth the price. Starting at the bottom, you have five static home screen icons: Messages, Calendar, BBM, Browser, Music, Pictures. Above that is the static bar that features different subsets of icons. Clicking on All brings up icons one through five in your applications menu. If you click on the Social option you’ll see Facebook for BlackBerry, BBM, and Twitter in the center panel (third party apps not included). The Media option brings up music, videos, pictures, camera, and voice notes. The Favourites panel brings up icons six through 10 in your applications menu. You can hide the center panel by clicking the escape key; space bar restores it. There are also a number of shortcuts included with the theme. The BeAmplified theme is compatible with non-touch BlackBerry models running OS 4.6 and above. They say they’ll add touchscreen models soon. You can get the BeAmplified theme for $2.99.

htc Incredible

Android is all the craze these days. It seems as though we see a new device every week that runs the Google platform. Naturally, this means that BlackBerry users want Android-style themes. We’ve gone over a few in the past, and today we continue that with the htc Incredible theme. The actual Incredible runs HTC’s Sense UI, so that’s what we get with this theme. As you can see, it has the big clock on top of the screen, with a weather app slot right below it. The home screen then features six customizable icons, plus two dedicated menus. One is for messages, calendar, and SMS, while the other hides click, network, files, options, and ringtones. Touchscreen users can also activate a Today preview by touching the top left corner of the screen. There are a few other goodies for touchscreen users, too. This theme requires at least OS 5.0, covering the 97xx, 96xx, and 89xx models for non-touch, and the 95xx and even the Torch for touchscreen. You can get the htc Incredible theme for just $1.99.

DeCode

As far as I know, the DeCode theme, from Berry Good Themes, doesn’t mimic another popular platform. But it is another in a line of simple, crisp themes from BGT. They’ve quickly turned into one of my favorite theme developers. The home screen is simple enough, featuring the regular icons — profiles, network, battery, and signal — in the top bar, followed by the date and time on a similar bar. Then comes the static calendar preview, which features five entries. Below that is a six-icon customizable dock. That’s where we get to the goodies. As with many BGT themes, I enjoy the icons set on this one. You can actually hide both the dock and the calendar sections. So while the home screen is certainly wallpaper friendly, I do enjoy the black on grey they have going. You can get the DeCode theme from Berry Good Themes for $3.99. It is compatible with BlackBerry models from the 8350i through the 9700, including the touchscreen models.

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.