Learning the BlackBerry Lingo

People who are relatively new to the BlackBerry experience might find that their vocabulary is sorely lacking, especially when talking to their ‘veteran’ friends or reading about BlackBerry devices and software. You see, corporations and individuals are fond of forming acronyms because this makes it easier to talk about BlackBerry apps and features with long names; but as you are not quite familiar with the BlackBerry lingo, here are a few of the most common BlackBerry terminologies used.
First of all, do not be surprised to hear BB, Berry and CrackBerry in conversations. All these are nicknames that users have for BlackBerry. The first two are quite obvious as nicknames go. The nickname CrackBerry was coined as a pun referring to the BlackBerry being so addictive.
One of the primary things you must be aware of when talking about BlackBerry is RIM. RIM stands for Research in Motion which is the company that designs and develops your BlackBerry models. The whole history is too lengthy to write here, but suffice it to say that RIM started the production of BlackBerrys in 1999 and that their latest release was a tablet computer called the BlackBerry PlayBook.
Push email is one of the features provided by BlackBerry support and it is one of the terminologies you must be familiar with. This technology allows for the sending and receiving of e-mails in real time. Real time capability means that your mailbox is continuously updated with incoming mail, thus eliminating the need for regular logging on and off.
BBM, or BlackBerry Messenger, is also one of the characteristic features of the BlackBerry. It allows for instant messaging with the BlackBerry PIN system and file sending through the BlackBerry network.
You might want to familiarize yourself with the SureType keyboard as well. The SureType keyboard is a keyboard system which combines two characters into just one button. This presents greater accuracy and more convenience than the traditional t9 multi-tap keyboard on most phones, while reducing the bulky and wide berth of using the full QWERTY keyboard.
The BlackBerry PIN is an eight-character hexadecimal ID number which is assigned to each BlackBerry device upon manufacture. It is unique to each device and cannot be changed.
As a BlackBerry user, you must also learn to differentiate between the BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) and the BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service). The former is mostly used by businessmen and corporate users, while the latter has more appeal with personal users.
These are the most commonly used terminologies in a conversation involving the BlackBerry. There are quite a few others like OTA (over-the-air) file sharing, OS (operating system), and DM (Desktop Manager), but you’ll eventually learn all of them and, in no time, you’ll be speaking the BlackBerry Lingo.