I started seriously considering a blackberry last summer, and had the opportunity to own one in September of 2007. A late adopter, maybe, but up until now, I wasn’t satisfied with BB 3rd party apps list. Now that I have it (an 8700g) I LOVE it. Unfortunately, Sunrise (my current mobile provider) doesn’t have a BIS option. Only Swisscom and Orange currently do.

Still, I was interested in accessing my emails using Sunrise’s 7cts/20KB mobile data tariff. Still comes to CHF3.50 per MB but that’s OK I guess. I found out that Sunrise’s APN, username and password are all “internet”. Then I downloaded Opera Mini for bb. From there, I was up and running on the internet. Opera mini compresses data amazingly for very cost efficient browsing, plus the browser itself is MILES ahead of the IE browser on Windows Mobile 5 & 6 i had used.

I was keen to check out some of the Google products available for bb for a while now, so I tried to figure out a way to get a copy. Specifically, Gmail, Google maps and Google docs, the ones I use most frequently. Normally, you’d browse on your mobile browser to: http://www.gmail.com/app and http://google.com/gmm and download the apps OTA (over the air), that is, if you have a BIS contract with your mobile provider. As of today, Google Docs is only available to browse, not edit, so you can access this directly through your browser at http://docs.google.com/m.

Seeing as I don’t have BIS, I tried to find another solution to get the Gmail and Google Maps apps onto my computer, via the Desktop Manager.

Unfortunately, Google doesn’t provide direct download links to the files you need to install the apps.

Briefly, you need a .alx file which is the type of file the Desktop Manager reads to install the application, as well as one or more .cod files which contain the actual application. Over the Air (OTA) users just download a .jar file which installs automatically. Inside the .jar file are the references to the .cod files that are needed. Thanks to this post, this post and this post, I learned this and also learned how to trick the Google sites into giving me the .jar files, which normally require a bb browser to access. Soon, I had all I needed to install the apps.

Here is a step-by-step:

1. Install User Agent Switcher for Firefox
This is an add-on which tricks websites into thinking your accessing their site with a specific browser eg blackberry browser etc…

a) Download it from here
b) Install it
c) Open it up in Firefox by clicking Tools>User Switcher Agent> Options>Options
d) Click User Agents, then click Add button
i/ In Description field, type in BlackBerry 8700g (replace 8700g with your BB model)
ii/ In User Agent field, type BlackBerry8700-4.2.1 (replace 8700 with your BB model)
iii/ In App Name field, type BlackBerry
e) Click OK, OK, OK.
f) Restart Firefox
g) Choose Tools>User Switcher Agent> and then choose the Blackberry profile you just created from the list.
h) Restart Firefox again

2. Download the app .jad file
a) Browse to either the Gmail app or the Google Maps download page using Firefox. (ill use Gmail for this example)
b) Choose your language (eg English) and then click the download link. (If you use my link, you might have an out of date version so I recommend you go through the steps yourself)

3. Find the .cod file names
a) Open the .jad file in Wordpad
b) Find the list of .cod files needed to install the Gmail app.
For this release, the files are:

gm_42_L1.cod
gm_42_L1-1.cod
gm_42_L1-2.cod
gm_42_L1-3.cod

The .cod files are located in the same directory as the jad file, so for this release, you’d point your browser to:
http://www.gmail.com/app/v1.5.1.1090/L1/

and then add on the .cod file name.
in this example: http://www.gmail.com/app/v1.5.1.1090/L1/gm_42_L1.cod

c) Download all four of the files, and put them together with the .jad file in their own folder. (You could call it Gmail app)

4. Create the .alx file
The .alx file is what the BlackBerry manager reads to install the app. It lists the app name, version, and all the .cod files needed.

a) Create a blank text document and paste the following into it:

<loader version="1.0"><application id="Gmail"> 
<name>Google Mail</name> 
<description>mobile gmail app</description> 
<version>1.5.1</version> 
<vendor>Google</vendor> 
<copyright>Copyright (c) 2007 Google</copyright> 
<fileset java="1.0"> 
<files>
gm_42_L1-3.cod
gm_42_L1-2.cod
gm_42_L1-1.cod
gm_42_L1.cod
</files>
</fileset> 
</application> 
</loader>

Notice that the four files have been references inside the “files” tag, without any path, as everything is in the same folder. This is a general format for an alx file. You can use the exact same template for the Google maps .alx file, just changing the information.

b) Save the file as (for example) Gmail.alx

5. Install the app!
a) Open BlackBerry Desktop Manager
b) Choose Application Loader from the main links
c) When Wizard opens, click next
d) Click Add button on top right of screen
e) Browse to the .alx file you created and choose Open (The program will by checked)
f) Press Next to commence software installation on your BlackBerry

Now unplug your bb from the Desktop Manager and try your app out and it should work great!

—
The same process applies for the Google Maps app.

**UPDATE: (1/2/2008)**
Since about 21h30 this evening, it looks like Google has already updated it’s software package! When you point Firefox to the Google Maps page with your “BlackBerry browser”, it now sends you to:
http://google.com/gmm/gmm.jad?make=Generic&model=Advanced%20MIDP2&ver=v2.0.2

When you download the new .jad file and open it, there is no indication of the .cod files you need. Fortunately, it’s the same path as in past versions.

In the case of 2.0.1, the path to the jad file is still relative to the path of the .cod files for version 2.0.2.

.cod files
GoogleMaps.cod
GoogleMaps-1.cod
GoogleMaps-2.cod
GoogleMaps-3.cod

Anyhow, you can download the version 2.0.2 .cod files here, here, here, and here.

For those of you like me who are impatient or just slackers, a copy of my Google Maps app and Gmail app file (zipped) are available here and here.

—
Finally, because data CAN quickly get out of hand, I downloaded this little AMAZING freeware app called Mini Moni which is a traffic monitor (records how much data you use every day). It can save the logs and can even set a beep when you pass a certain limit. This is vital for me; I love it!

Any comments, feel free to post! Again, many thanks to the contributions in this post, this post and this post. Thanks also to this post for the plug-in allowing me to post code in WP!

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