Instructions for Trapster® BlackBerry version
The small blue dot follows your GPS location in real time. The blue circle shows your alert radius. As you approach reported trap locations and one or more of the traps come within that blue circle, Trapster® begins playing audio alerts such as "Live Police" or "Red Light Camera", and animating the associated icons. Of course as with everything Trapster®, you can report new traps and rate the traps that other users have reported.
To download Trapster® to your BlackBerry use the following instructions:
The current version is 3.1.0, posted 3/30/09
1) Open your BlackBerry Web browser, choose "Go to...", and enter "trapster.com". The correct download link will automatically show. Click on it and the download will start. The links are listed at the bottom of this page if for some reason you need to type them in directly, or you wish to use BlackBerry Desktop to install the software.
Notes for users with the new Verizon BlackBerry Storm (9500/9530)
* Do not use Compatibility Mode. Trapster® is a native Storm app.
If the keyboard won't go away you are in compatibility mode
* This does use the internal GPS, you do not need a Bluetooth puck
* Depress the screen for menus but just touch for map actions
* Volume up/down hardware keys control zoom in/out.
* Known issue: Alerts are too quiet
Note: The next version of Storm OS firmware from Verizon will fix this issue.
Update: For the brave at heart, a pre-release of the new Storm firmware fixes
this audio issue! It was posted by our friends at Crackberry here
try at your own risk!
2) Allow the program to install, and then exit the BlackBerry browser.
3) Look for the Trapster® police car icon in the home screen, the Applications folder, or the Downloads folder. Click on it.
4) If you are not already a Trapster® user, choose Signup and enter the required information.
You must enter your correct mobile phone number and carrier to get the confirmation code via text message. When the confirmation code arrives, will need to open the text messaging app on your BlackBerry to see the message. To do this, press the menu button and then choose Switch Application and the home screen icon. That will bring you to the home screen where you can open the text message. Once you get the confirmation code, use Switch Application again and choose the Trapster® icon. Then enter the code here:
If you do not receive the confirmation code text message, you must confirm your account using the code or the link that comes in your confirmation e-mail. If you are already a registered Trapster® user, log in using your user name (not e-mail address) and password. Forgot your username? If you are already logged in to this Web site, your Trapster® username is listed above the blue account links box to the right on this page.
Note: If you get stuck at "Signing up, please wait" or "Logging in, please wait..."
or you get a red screen instead of a map, that means Trapster® cannot connect to our servers or the Microsoft maps server. See the connection troubleshooting steps at the bottom of this page.
5) You can receive spoken alerts, and report trap locations, only after Trapster® determines your current GPS location. You will see a "Searching for Location..." message on the map until your location has been determined. You may also notice that the initial location shown is Rancho Santa Fe (and more specifically, our favorite restaurant, Delicias).
Note: If you are reading this Web page on your computer, you are likely indoors. GPS requires a clear view of the sky. Go outside!
If you see something like this it means that Trapster® has found your current GPS location, but is still loading the map. If you have a poor connection, loading the map can take some time:
After the map loads, you should see something like this:
If your BlackBerry cannot find your location, please see the notes related to GPS troubleshooting in the Frequently Asked Questions page .
6) If there are traps near your current location, they will appear as icons on the map. See the help page here on the main Web site for an explaination of what the various trap icons, colors, and types mean. You can click the icons, and then the "i" to get more information about each trap, such as the confidence level, who reported it, and when it was last reported:
Use the trackball to click icons on phones with a physical keyboard. Touch the icon to click it on touchscreen phones such as the Storm. Note: On the Storm you do not need to depress the screen to select an icon within Trapster. You do need to depress the screen to excecute menu operations.
7) For devices with physical keyboards, you can report traps at your current GPS location using the shortcut keys (see cheat-sheet at the bottom of this page*, and in the Help menu in the Trapster app). On the Storm use the trap bar at the top of the screen. When you report a trap, a large icon will appear at the center of the screen. If the correct trap location is not exactly at your current GPS location, you can pinpoint the position of the trap using the trackball and the map, or by dragging the map on the Storm:
Please try to be as accurate as possible when entering traps. The accuracy of the data is only as good as you, the community, make it.
8) After pinpointing a trap at the correct location, confirm it by clicking the green checkbox:
9) You can rate traps entered by other users as follows. Click on the trap icon, and then either the green thumbs up (if you agree there is a valid trap of this type at the marked location) or the red thumbs down (if you do not agree). Annoyed by too many false traps in your area? Vote no!
10) If you accidentally enter an incorrect trap, you can delete it as follows. Click on the incorrect trap, and then on the blue "i", and then choose "Delete" from the menu. You cannot delete a trap that was entered by or rated by another user.
11) There are seven types of spoken alerts supported by this version of the mobile application: live police, red light camera, fixed speed camera, usual police hiding place, combo camera, mobile speed camera, and checkpoint. For each type of alert, a corresponding audio file will play.
12) You can customize your alert radius, audio, and other preferences using the Settings menu on the mobile. You can also configure more advanced settings such as Trusted Groups and what kinds of traps you want to be alerted about on your account on the server here.
Notes: Please plug your car charger into your phone while running these apps (GPS consumes battery life)!
If your BlackBerry does not have internal GPS, or if you have a Verizon BlackBerry (note: you do not need this with the Storm), you will need to purchase an external Bluetooth GPS accessory to use Trapster®. Even if your phone does have GPS, you may want to consider the external Bluetooth accessory. We find that the external accessories get a better signal than the internal GPS, are much faster to acquire a GPS fix, and have much longer battery life.
Get one of these to GPS Enable your BlackBerry
* Shortcut keys:
# zoom in
* zoom out
(On touch screen phones use the volume +/- keys for zoom in/out)
1 Report live police trap (police on location right now with laser/radar or visual observation)
2 Report red light camera
3 Report speed camera
4 Report usual police hiding place (typical speed trap location, but police officer not currently there)
5 Report combo camera
6 Report mobile speed camera
7 Report checkpoint
0 Find Me, re-center map on GPS position
9 Acknowledge current alerts (alerts will stop playing until a new trap is encountered)
Note: Since there is no keyboard on the Storm, an on-screen pop-up menu replaces items 1-7, Find me is the icon in the lower left, and acknowledge is the icon in the lower right. Use either the +/- icons, or the volume up/down hardware button on the side of the phone to zoom in/out.
** On Verizon BlackBerry (except Storm) you will need to purchase an external Bluetooth GPS accessory, even if your BlackBerry already has internal GPS, and even if you already have Verizon Navigator working. If the message on the map is stuck on "Searching for Location" and shows you in California, this is likely the issue. See the Frequentely Asked Questions page for more information.
Direct download links
BlackBerry Bold, Curve, Pearl, WorldPhone, etc. (8130, 8810, 8820, 8830, ...)
Verizon 8xxx users See note below**
trapster.com/tm31/tm.jad
Verizon BlackBerry Storm (9500/9530)
trapster.com/tm31/tm.jad
Alternatively, download files to your computer and use BlackBerry Desktop
http://trapster.com/tm31/dl/TrapsterBB.zip
Connection troubleshooting
If you are stuck on "Signing up, please wait..." or "Logging in, please wait...", or you get a red screen, please do the following:
a)Exit Trapster®
b)Start Trapster® again, and choose "Continue":
c)Click the menu button (to the left of the trackball on models with a physical keyboard, and the second button from the left on the Storm). Choose Settings:
and then Advanced:
d)Now you will need to select a different connection method. This may take some trial and error. Try the third option down:
and then click OK:
If you don't click OK it won't save your changes. Now exit and restart Trapster® and see if it will connect. If it still cannot connect, try each of the other settings, restarting Trapster® each time. If this still doesn't work, contact us for help.
Trapster® is still in a beta testing phase. This means you may experience bugs or deficiencies in the software from time to time. Issues? Please feel free to contact us.