Sunday, May 30, 2010

IGT eleven update

new version with 2 "weather" slots. one on the right is ideally for profiles as suggested.

Eleven_w2 OTA


here's what it looks like


I personally have been using this version exclusively for almost a month.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

It goes to ELEVEN!!

new theme based on the Bignumbers and the 10Black series.



11 item hidden dock. static upper and lower banners with date time messages weather icon etc. (today option coming soon) Time and 3G are buttons to clock and manage connections.

wallpaper friendly, custom icons (as seen in bignumbers) Custom lock and call screens. Spacebar/Quicklaunch, $/SMS/MMS, esc key/messages

Eleven 5.0 OTA

Eleven_Today 5.0 OTA

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Updates to Apocalypse Fax and Bignumbers

Here's an update to Bignumbers Theme

Added static upper dock with today items, inbox, sms, and calendar. There's also a browser icon and the 3Gicon is a button to Network Settings. I've also added a weather slot and made the clock clickable.


Several different versions.
OTA bignumbers plus 5.0

BigNumbersPlus- no weather OTA

BigNumbersPlus_NO TODAY OTA

With ApocalypseFax I made it compatible with 5.0 and added a hidden dock version.



OTA 5.0

OTA HIDDEN DOCK

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Big Numbers

I had the idea for these battery and signal indicators the other night as I was falling asleep. I remembered them today and built a theme around them. I used 10blanco as my starting point so some of it may look familiar. Notably the custom icons that I made for 10blanco.

There is a static dock version and a hidden dock version. both have 6 user defined icons. The hidden dock version also, if you use a dark wallpaper, hides the clock/time as well. its still there, just harder to see without the white bar.



features:
large color coded custom battery meter in %
large color coded custom signal meter in numbers
custom icons
slightly wallpaper friendly*
spacebar opens QuickLaunch
$ key opens SMS/MMS
hidden messages button*
faux hidden clock*
hidden 6 item dock*


OTA Bignumbers 5.0


OTA Bignumbers Hidden Dock 5.0


*hidden dock version only

Monday, May 3, 2010

The Console Series

I saw a couple themes that used a circular module that had icons, clock, and meters all neatly packed in the center of the screen and I got inspired to try something new for a blackberry user interface. Console611 was born. 6 for the user defined icons and 11 because 6 plus 5 static icons is 11. Also, 611 is my favorite number and has deep secret meaning between me and some friends.



6 user defined mini icons
5 static icons
spacebar/quicklaunch
weather slot
hidden today
customized and consistent menu & lists colors
custom call screens
custom batt/signal
custom hourglass.
wallpaper friendly with more translucent home console.
$ shortcut to sms/mms

Console611 OTA 4.7
Console611 OTA 5.0



ConsoleII -
with this one I kind of just went nuts. Super sleek and stylized center dock with futuristic battery and signal meters. and... wait for it, a totally unique hidden dock.

ConsoleII stats: bottom console with custom batt/signal meters, clock area, 5 static today icons. hidden 11 user defined icon dock. wallpaper friendly, space bar opens quicklaunch, $ opens sms/mms.

console II OTA
5.0

I kind of copped out on the app screen banner and recycled the one from Aliendash. So out of my shame I started from scratch with a new idea and came up with Console3.

Console3 stats:
hidden 10 user defined item dock
6 item static dock
weather slot (with 80x80 icon)
clock button
custom app, call and lock screens
3g icon
custom battery/signal meters
wallpaper friendly (kinda)
NO TODAY. sorry I'm over it.
minimal transitions (app to home/home to app only)

Console3 OTA 5.0

Console3 OTA 4.7

ConsoleII and Console3 got the attention of a blackberry blogger who did some reviews of these themes. Check them out here:
Married to Blackberry blog ConsoleII review
Married to Blackberry Console3 review

10blanco and 8 Big

These two themes are pretty different but to me, have the same vibe.

8 Big was just an experiment to see if I could do a theme with HUGE battery and signal meters. I also used my customized extra large Arial Black font for the clock. It maintained a lot of the features from the 8 and 10 series. I went lightweight on this by not including custom wallpapers.

wallpaper friendly
big clock
big battery/signal
hidden 8 item dock
spacebar quicklaunch



For Blackberry Tour
8BIG OTA 4.7

10blanco is essentially a white version of 10black2 with features like, a hidden 10 item dock. wallpaper friendly. custom batt, signal, & icons, 3g icon, spacebar-quicklaunch, $ - sms/mms, weather, transitions, 5.0, large clock.


One thing that is noticeably different and kind of a big deal on this one is the icons. I created a whole custom set of icons for this one.

For Blackberry Tour
10blancoOTA 5.0

Unoficial SF Giants Theme

Nearing the beginning of the 2010 season I put together a theme for my favorite baseball team.

And it's not just a color change and a custom background image, this thing is pretty custom. The battery meter mimics the K-Ville, strike out wall at AT&T park. The signal meter shows a baseball being hit over the wall and when you have full bars splashes down just like home runs hit to deep right field at AT&T park.
The SF logos are static so they stay there and overlay what ever background image you chose. 2 upper slots designated for a weather icon and the SFGiants.com shortcut app and 4 lower user defined icons. Banners designed to look like the bricks at AT&T park and a score board style LCD clock area.

LETS GO GIANTS!
Download via mobile browser OTA for Blackberry Tour
SFGiants OTA 4.7

Sunday, May 2, 2010

10 black

Starting where 10Lime left off, I ditched the futuristic, hard to read fonts and went to Arial. Super basic and normal.



The evolution of the 10 series, like I mentioned in that post was based on requests from people using my themes. Then I got selfish and tweaked it to a way I would like it. So I took 10black and made it the way I liked.



-no weather
-no today
-big clock -(customized Arial Black font)
-buttons are changed slightly
-new dock under icons
-scroll wheel click while dock is hidden opens messages


Then people wouldnt shut up again and I started messing with perfection.


too many versions with too many options. I actually think some of these still dont function properly. Use at own risk. Oh yea I started creating for os 5.0 on these as well.

10black3 OTA 4.7
(will work on but not optimized for 5.0)

10black3 OTA W/weather
4.7

10black3 OTA W/weather
5.0

OTA NO weather/NO today
5.0 only

10black 2
10black2 OTA 4.7

10 black
10black OTA 4.7

the10 color series.

Moving on from the 8 series, I went more mini with my icons, and did a 10 icon hidden dock theme. Used a slightly large futuristic font and went for it.

here's what my original Crackberry forum post said.

"after a lot of requests on some of my recent themes, I made a new one in the series and packed a whole lot of crap into it. "




10 ochre boasts these features.
  • 10 item Hidden dock
  • Wallpaper friendly
  • Large clock
  • 3Gicon
  • Color coded batter and signal indicators (red=bad blue=good w/shades between)
  • Weather slot
  • Hidden Today
  • Spacebar opens QuickLaunch
  • Trackball click while hidden opens sound profiles (*or weather if you scroll from slot 1)
  • Transitions
after some complaints about my color coded battery and signal meters not really showing the levels, as apposed to my purely color coded technique I updated the signals to show the "bars"


the next in the 10 series was 10 cobalt. essentially a blue version.




this one I did add a custom hourglass, shown in the bottom right.


another color in the "10" series.



Unique to 10 Lime: New futuristic font while keeping default fonts for menus and lists standard, floating homescreen icons, no dock, $ key shortcut to SMS/MMS, reduced 4 item hidden today. I also, by request from fans of the previous 10 themes, moved the batter meter all the way to the left, and put the weather icon below, as to make the banner more symmetrical.

Download via mobile browser OTA for Blackberry Tour
10 ochre OTA 4.7

10 cobalt OTA 4.7

10Lime OTA 4.7

ApocalypseFax

Originally posted on Crackberry.com 02-22-2010

This theme is kind of a step backward in UI design but I wanted to go back to the custom designed icons idea. The inspiration for this theme is a font I designed called ApocalypseFax. The font was supposed to look like a distressed bitmap font. As if it was faxed from a post apocalyptic future. So I did the same treatment on the standard icons. From there created a distressed LCD monochrome user interface look and feel.


Download via mobile browser OTA for Blackberry Tour
apocalypse fax OTA
4.7

my *FREE* Super Mario Bros. theme.

Originally posted on Crackberry.com on 02-08-2010.

I specify "free" because there was a couple of Mario themes people were trying to sell, for money, that didn't really capture the essence of the original NES Super Mario Brothers game from my youth. So I threw this together fairly quickly and offered it up.





like most of my themes around this time it has no app icons on home page, a space bar opens QL shortcut and hidden messages button you open with the trackball.

Like I said before I didn't really spend much time on it. There's some changes to the call screen but the font is screwy.

If you like it here's the OTA, I'm not making any promises tho. after all it's free. if you want performance there's a few you can buy out there.

the 8 series

Originally posted on Crackberry.com 03-08-2010

This is when I learned how to do hidden docks and mini icons. A hidden dock is a set of icons that hide out of sight when you scroll up or down. Mini icons are just that, standard icons, but smaller than normal. Both are great assets for making wallpaper friendly themes.

First in the series is 8red. My first attempt at mini icons and a hidden dock.
At this point not having color coded meters made the standard meters hard to see at a quick glance so I made larger than normal default battery and signal meters for better visibility.



Along with my not standard spacebar opens QL feature I also added a hidden button to open messages when dock is hidden.

Hidden dock works by scrolling down to unhide, scrolling up to hide.

Another thing I included in this theme is something that came out with OS5.0 called transitions. Basically it's an animation from screen to screen, either a wipe, a fade or a zoom similar to PowerPoint. While the new version of the theme creation software allowed me to put it in the theme, saving it for OS4.7 had mixed results.

After 8red I tried to make a more streamlined 8 mini icon hidden dock theme. 8aqua was the result.


This time I ditched the standard battery and signal meters for a super slim space saving color coded bar style meter. The rest of the theme is essentially the same other than a cleaner font and some more custom menus and lists.

Download via mobile browser OTA for Blackberry Tour
8Aqua 4.7 OTA

This was my first theme that I made available for 5.0 as well.
8Aqua 5.0 OTA*

I had a request for a version with larger fonts so here's that.
Larger font OTA (4.7)

and here's 8red
8red OTA 4.7

Basix, solid BLACK and 28

Originally Posted on Crackberry.com 02-17-2010, 02-23-2010

Again going with the less is more idea, I created Basix, which is a very wallpaper friendly theme. New take on the glow battery/signal meters. Using a traditional shape but sticking with the colors.



streamlined application screen.

Then I played around with the idea of accessing many applications on the home screen, while still keeping a clean look. The way I went about achieving this limited my wallpaper to only black unfortunately.


a new feature on this set was having no messages icon in banner. Just a red line meant a new message. 3rd party applications such as Facebook shown here I had no control of.


After posting SolidBlack there was a lot of people requesting a follow up, that was truly wallpaper friendly. So by popular demand I created Blank28.

Left right scroll to access to 28 apps on home screen with no icons.
new feature on this one was a 0 (zero) key shortcut to Messages.




Download via mobile browser OTA for Blackberry Tour OS4.7
OTA solid BLACK

OTA for Basix Theme

blank28 OTA

blank28 OTA w/today*
*today access with only first 7 app slots.

Glow 2

Originally posted on Crackberry.com on 11-30-2009

The second and last in the short lived Glow series. Again focusing on simplicity and keeping the home screen clean.

New take on the color-coded battery and signal meters. Whereas the Glow meters had "bars" essentially that you could see go up or down, this version is horizontal and is basically static and the only thing showing signal or battery power change is the color. Red being low and blue being full, and all shades in between.

Another thing I tried to do on this theme was to make the stock icons look custom by creating stylized images that overlay the stock icons.

Download via mobile browser OTA for Blackberry Tour OS4.7
multiple versions
OTA Glow2
no icons, no weather, no today - spacebar goes to quicklaunch.
with hidden messages button (click trackball)

OTA Glow2day
no icons, hidden today, hidden clock, messages, profiles and connection links- no icons, no weather

OTA Glow2dayw
same as 2day, with weather icon.

OTA Glow2_full
6 user defined icons, weather and hidden today

KGS Glow



Originally posted on Crackberry.com 11-09-2009

The Glow series. my first "series" of themes. Building on previous versions and ideas.
The goal of this theme was simplicity, a clear departure from Aliendash or Googie for that matter.


Custom out-of-the-way battery and signal meters, using color to indicate level. No icons on the homescreen and a feature I had just learned about, using the spacebar for a QuickLaunch shortcut. In essence using QL to access primary apps and functions.

Download via mobile browser OTA for Blackberry Tour OS4.7
again I did a couple versions of this one.
KGS_glow OTA

as shown in the preview above, a black and white version.
KGS_wytglow OTA

and I made a LOST theme based on Glow.



OTA LOST theme



GooGie icons!

Originally posted on Crackberry.com 10-22-2009

This one was a task for sure. My first attempt at a complete custom icon set. Each one hand drawn in photoshop.


Consistent look and feel throughout. I even modified the stock battery icon to go with the theme by making it get fatter or skinnier with your power level.

Download via mobile browser OTA
Blackberry Tour OS4.7

several versions of this one.
withdock/icons OTA

without dock OTA

dock-only OTA

old dock/icons version OTA

dock with icons NO QUICKLAUNCH

Aliendash

Originally posted on Crackberry.com 11-08-2009

Now I'm cooking. This was my favorite of the early themes. It has tons of potential to re-do.
Highly graphical interface with my first custom battery and signal buttons. This one was a lot of fun.

Download via mobile browser OTA
for Blackberry Tour OS 4.7

KGS paper

Originally posted on Crackberry.com on 10-20-2009

This was my third theme. It came out pretty good considering my inexperience and the limitations of the theme creation software back then. Notice the odd ball font that the old tour OS used on some of the screens. another limitation.

Download via mobile browser OTA
for Blackberry Tour OS 4.7

Tourlook

Originally posted on Crackberrry.com on 10-13-2009

This is my second attempt at a theme. Took a huge leap on this one. Inspired by the Blackberry Tour's handheld design. I flipped it and made it a graphical interface.

features: custom layout, 3 static buttons for calendar, messages and the faux trackball opens QuickLaunch, hidden today and somewhat wallpaper friendly.

Download via mobile browser OTA
for Blackberry Tour OS 4.7

My First theme. KGS7

originally posted on Crackberry.com 10-08-2009

My first theme... I'm calling it KGSX7 because it took me 6 previous tries to get it working.

features: wallpaper friendly, weather slot, 3 static icons to QuickLaunch ap, messages and calendar, hidden today and custom font.

download via mobile browser OTA
for Blackberry Tour OS 4.7

new home for my themes.

this is where I will be posting all my blackberry themes.

OTA's previews and whatever else.

we'll see if it lasts.