Do It Yourself: Stopwatch and timer

When I wrote about my BlackBerry as my workout companion last year, I missed one important aspect. To make sure that I’m moving through my workout smoothly, I make sure to time certain activities. This might be rest between sets, or it might be a static movement that I want to hold for a minute or two. Whatever case, I use the built-in timer and stopwatch features constantly. It struck me as odd, then, to see a couple of apps in the Store that accomplish these freely available functions.

The Stopwatch app, I think, you can do completely without. If you have a newer BlackBerry OS — 4.6 or above, I believe — you have a built-in stopwatch already. (Is this an OS 4.5 feature?) Just go into your click, click menu, and go to stopwatch. It works just as any old stopwatch would, which is how this app would. I fail to see, then, why anyone would pay $1.99 for this app. It’s not only on your BlackBerry, but it’s easy to access.

The same developer also created Timer Pro. This actually provides a small amount of functionality over your native BlackBerry timer (clock – menu – timer), since it allows for multiple timers. That can be useful if you’re working on multiple tasks at once. With the built-in timer you get only one timer. I’ve never needed more than one simultaneously, so this app seems completely superfluous to me. If you need to time multiple things at once, maybe the $1.99 is a justifiable cost to you.

Still, I can’t help but point to the free chronograph/timer app that BerryReview looked at almost four years ago. It appears to still be there, so if you have an older BlackBerry, or if you want to test out an app that provides multiple timers, give it a whirl. One user even created desktop manager install instructions. With freely available stopwatch and timer apps already on your BlackBerry, I don’t exactly see the need to pay for one.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Do It Yourself: Stopwatch and timer

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Do It Yourself: Stopwatch and timer