It took a couple hours out of my weekend to install the Google Mobile App on my Blackberry Pearl, but I should get those hours back soon.   Google Mobile App combines some of the prior apps like Search, Reader, News, Notebook, Docs, and Picasa into one icon.  It’s pretty slick.  It gives me much more room on my Blackberry “desktop” and helps keep resources available.

I also updated Google Maps, GMail, and Google Talk and kept them as separate icons.

I finally took the plunge and switched my email address to a GMail interface.  I didn’t get a GMail account, rather a personal/business account through Google Apps.  This way I use my own email address (scott [at] scott stafford [dot] com) with the Gmail interface.  The business account is $50 a year, but you can also get a free account.

I love the push technology of Blackberry, but the mobile interface of GMail is much easier to navigate.  The control over labels and the ability to archive and search is great to have on the road.  Ultimately, I am willing to sacrifice immediate push-email for ease of use.

The biggest hurdle was changing the MX Records in my hosts Control Panel.  That took me about 20 minutes.  Here is what I changed them to:

There were multiple instructions to change your MX Records, depending what host you use.

So now I have my Calendar, Email, Reader, Maps, News, Docs, and Google Talk all streamlined in the palm of my hand.  Oh, and I can also place phone calls.  Red lights are now much more tollerable.