Hi,
As many of you know, keyboard shortcuts can easily be enabled for icons on the main screen of all BlackBerries (Phone -> Options -> General Options -> Dial From Home Screen -> Off).
PROBLEM:
The 8700 series no longer has a
Compose icon like older blackberries.
REASON OF SIGNIFICANCE:
In the past, older BlackBerries had a "
C" shortcut for the
Compose icon for composing a new email message. This brings up the addressbook equivalently to pressing the "
A" key or selecting the
Addressbook icon, except that selecting a name automatically brings up a blank email editor, instead of viewing details. The side effect is that someone can avoid using the trackwheel to compose an email, which speeds things up a bit for some people (much like eliminating moving between a keyboard and a mouse - for people who likes keyboard shortcuts). On the 6XXX and 7XXX series full-QWERTY-keyboard BlackBerries, you could type
C<name><enter> to start composing to a person. The name was able to be a substring of either the first or last name. That means typing
Crej<enter> on these older QWERTY BlackBerry models, automatically composes an email to the first person with a "rej" in name -- in this case "Mark Rejhon". That means I could type just 5 keypresses to compose an email to a frequent contact, without even touching the thumbwheel! (This is a BerryFAQ.com tip, no longer valid for BlackBerry model 8700).
POSSIBLE REASON OF REMOVAL:
RIM may have understadnably deemed this icon somewhat superfluous as the Addressbook icon ("A" key) and the convenience keys (which can go straight to Messages), replaces most of this functionality. Unfortunately, a side effect for keypress-shortcut enthusiasts, is that you either now need to use the thumbwheel to compose an email (if using the Addressbook icon or "A" key), or now need to hit more keypresses such as
MT<enter>rej<enter> (87XX) from the main screen instead of just
Crej<enter> (72XX) from the main screen. (assuming your "Dial from Home Screen" feature is disabled, so that main screen keypress shortcuts are enabled.)
DEVELOPER REQUEST:
Create a simple application that simply launches RIM's email composer. This would be the same thing as selecting Messages -> Compose Email. This icon should have a keypress shortcut.
This would seem to be an extremely tiny application. A free registration code for IM+ will be provided with either of the following:
(1) Create this mini utility that works as described. Give me a free copy (and to all BlackBerryForums moderators). Do whatever you wish with this software (open source, proprietary, etc)
OR
(2) Help me write the software. I've got the ability to develop software, but don't have much time to research for obscure API's (which can much longer than the time I took to wrote this email message). Need perfectly clear answers to all three questions below:
(a) Is there a way to launch RIM's email composer with a blank To: field? Which API?
(b) Is there a way to program a main-screen keypress shortcut to a user application icon? Which API?
(c) Can this be done without needing to purchase a Signing Key from RIM?