Best 7100 Theme And 7100 Theme Suggestions
 

I know that everyone has their differing tastes when it comes to the theme on their Blackberry 7100. If anyone here is making a future theme, this thread (I hope) will have some constructive feedback on how to make the super-ultra-hyper-mega-uber theme that we will all like.

What I am doing is listing all the themes and their pros and cons, and hopefully someone can take note of these and make the theme described above.

Rogers/RIM List Theme

http://members.shaw.ca/anthony_vu/rogers.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/anthony_vu/7100g.jpg

Pros

- very easy navigation (don't have to move the trackwheel around too often compared to the small icon/Vodafone theme)
- slick fonts and style

Cons

- big fscking fonts, if you are trying to put a background pic, essentially only 1/3 of the left side of the image is viewable
- fonts are nice, but too big
- status screen portion (time, signal, etc) is too big for all the space it really needs (small icon theme gets this right)
- if you do the NMLL thing, the dBm indicator looks somewhat out of place in that theme
- send/receive arrows are bigger than xBox (eek!)
- ALT-Esc is nasty (text only, wtf?!?)


Small Icons Theme

http://members.shaw.ca/anthony_vu/smallicon.jpg

Pros

- easy to see a background image (if set)
- status screen portion is just right (and if you do the NMLL trick, the signal number actually matches the theme, not like the Rogers/RIM one)
- easy icons for functions (if you like icons)
- send/receive arrows are nice and small
- ALT-Esc is dead sexy in this theme

Cons

- if you have a background image set, the top half will be snowed in (read: white tint added; sorry I couldn't come up with a more descriptive thingie, I need sleep)
- calculator doesn't work in this theme (yet) (image_highlight issue)
- too much running around with the trackwheel if you have even a decent amount of apps installed
- when you receive a call on this, the icons for answer/ignore do not show up properly (they do in the Rogers/RIM theme)
- default font size and style is way out of place (I prefer BBMillibank 8 Bold, 10 Plain just looks huge and not befitting of this device)
- you can't change the font color at the bottom of the main screen, which...
- if you have a dark bottomed background image, it will be hard to read the label of the icon (unless you are a true BB master and memorized what each icon is for)


T-Mobile

http://members.shaw.ca/anthony_vu/tmobile.jpg

I won't even go here; this theme is just terrible and should be removed from every 7100.


O2

http://members.shaw.ca/anthony_vu/o2.jpg

Pros

- semi-Aqua (Mac OS X) look kinda works
- fonts are just about right (they aren't huge like the Rogers/RIM theme)
- nice notification menu (eg. prompt to close the browser)
- color scheme is pretty nice (in terms of highlight color, BBMillibank 8 Plain)
- combine this theme with the water drop picture pre-installed for a pretty funky combination


Cons

- can not move applications via ALT-Wheel (pain for me)
- NMLL dBm indicator comes up in blue. Guess what color the background is? (read: hard to read dBm indicator)
- status screen area sucks up too much room
- don't try putting a non-predominantly blue background on, it just doesn't look right
- cheesy charging indicator (what is this, greased lightning, figured out a new way to make the letter z cool?)
- again, ALT-Esc is text based (arrrggghhhhh!!! :x)


Vodafone

http://members.shaw.ca/anthony_vu/vodafone.jpg
Pros

- nice ALT-Esc interface
- status area takes up just enough space
- NMLL looks right in this theme
- good default font choice

Cons

- have to run around with the trackwheel (and thanks to the size of the icons, you have to scroll down to find them as well :x)
- has an 'Applications' icon, but most apps are showing right on the main page (hello, organization? At least the other themes [except that T-Mo crap] got it right!)
- honkin huge send/receive arrows
- icons are bigger than Morgan Freeman's nose (dear Lord)
- Rogers WAP browser still has that nasty 'O Live' icon


That's all I have. If you have any you want to add/argue/agree, feel free to. I hope someone comes up with the ultimate 7100 theme for us.

**edited to show Themes right from this page**

I think they all suck. Time for programing nerds to give us a few options here. Wish there was options like you can get for Winamp. Pages and pages of themes made by users.

People, if you are going to vote for your favorite theme, at least tell us why you like it, and if you think there are any improvements that could/should be made for it.

Theme snapshot
 

It woudl be great if we could see a snapshot of each theme.... I don't know what other theme look like ... ;-)

I saw them on another threak, but wich is wich ?

Thanks

I like the "RIM Small Icons Theme" best. It's got that classic "retro" thing going. I use the term Retro very liberally here being the technology is less than 5 years old; however it has the BB look to it. I agree that the T-Mobile theme is a piece of work, but what can you do….change it.

Re: Theme snapshot
 

Your wish is granted as of now (yes it was a pain to get all the pics, but it was worth it.)

I actually like the plain list theme, but I wish someone made renditions of it in different text/background color combinations. That would be enough to keep things interesting.

Also, the T-Mobile icons are very nice, but the rest of that theme is pretty awful. Someone needs to take those nice icons and put them on a more conservative background.

are you serious about the t-mobile icons? They're hideous. thats what ruins the theme. well that and the pink, and the font, and....well everything. heh.

What we need is some nice aqua icons like found in Os X, or crystal like in KDE.

Is there ANY documentation on how to make a theme or replace icons yet? i'm totally willing to hack up a theme if there is info on doing it yet.

I am not a fan of the T-Mobile theme either, but I understand T-Mobile's attempt at making a "consumer-friendly" less business oriented layout. They are trying to attract other users. The biggest issue there is that without a camera, the average non-enterprise user would probably go for a Treo, Sidekick, or other flashier phone than this anyway. For us business users, the T-Mobile theme is just a waste of screen space. I voted O2- just different enough from List to be worth loading and still easy enough to work with. My biggest gripe is the inability to move items from the main screen to applications and vice versa...

Seems like I'm in the minority here, but I use the T-Mobile theme. I don't think it's particularly pretty, but I find it the most functional. I like the nesting of Applications and Tools and to be honest, I like the fact that the image is relevant to the function. In other words, I don't have to read anything, I can just recognize the symbol . Perhaps over time you get so used to the placement of the words that text based themes work OK, but off the bat, the icon based T-Mobile theme works best for me. I keep switching to other themes because they look so cool, but I keep switching back because T-Mobile is the most functional. Just my $0.02.

I agree with Kirson. I have switched amongst all of the different themes but keep coming back to the T-mobile one. I prefer the organization of it. I do change the background to the picture of the dunes from the photo album though- I find that a much better contrast with the icons.

I emailed myself an all black JPG I made up in photo shop from my PC. and use it with the TMO as my background, its MUCH better this way. I too like the organization of it the best.

If your crying about the font in the t-mobile theme, you can change it to whatever you want you know. :wink:

Well..I agree. We Need some new themes! Where are all the nerds! I use a combo theme of Rogers with someone elses background screen. I like that much better. I was really sold on the 7100T once I saw the Tmobile icons and screen. But once I got it home and chekced it out I noticed a pink tinge to it. I hate pink...I am a guy...therefor pink does not work for me.

Does anyone know how to make themes for this. Screw Pocket Day and crap give me some themes and a few decent ring tones and I would be a happy guy.

"I emailed myself an all black JPG I made up in photo shop from my PC. and use it with the TMO as my background, its MUCH better this way. I too like the organization of it the best."

Is there anyway you could post a picture of how it looks, and also explain how you got it to work?

I'm talking about default settings, and I based my opinions on those.

And the pink gets me too. Just eugh.

Whoever extracted the themes from the 7100s, can you update the themes.zip file with the themes from each specific 4.0 distribution?

I love the RIM List Theme... I can access almost everything with only 2 spins on the wheel (which is important as I often hold my BB in 1 hand and type with the other... I won't even talk of when I use my BB while riding my bike :P) Colors are bright, the indicators at the top are nice, and it serves well as a flashlight with BBLight :P lol

02
 

Where can I download the 02 theme. Currently use Vodaphone, but think they all have there shortcomings.

That Small Icons theme is from the non-7100s, right? So has anyone tried this one? http://www.vodafone.co.uk/cgi-bin/CO...cegjdgnfdffn.0

Hopefully no one hits one due to your 'multi-tasking!' :)