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ILLUSTRATION BY TRAY BUTLER

Research In Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry, may not have invented email-on-the-go, but its devices have become the symbol of mobile office communication. Despite a host of PDA offerings from other brands, BlackBerry models have persisted as a business productivity favorite. So how do you get the most out of one?

If you work for a big company and were assigned a device, you will typically have little freedom to customize it. If you are allowed to adjust your device, load the free App World (www.blackberry.com/appworld/download). This is a gateway to RIM's nascent application marketplace, which includes more than 3,000 apps.

If you're heading to a conference, try loading the free DUB Contact Card app to exchange information with others without needing to pass out passé paper business cards. With the push of a button, it sends your contact info and a LinkedIn invite to the recipient's device. Beyond the traditional fields, you can include more contemporary data such as social networks, a blog link or a Twitter handle.

Traveling for work may include meetings over meals and drinks, and keeping track of expenses doesn't have to be a time-consuming process. For $14.99, Exgis Time and Expense Pro tracks and plots time, expenses and vehicle mileage entries against clients, projects and locations.

If you find yourself answering the phone only to find that it's telemarketing or spam calls and texts, look into an app like Phone Spam Blocker (free) that puts the kibosh on such calls. The program tracks and blocks thousands of pesky phone numbers; it also updates its blacklist daily and lets you report irksome numbers from your phone.

To accept credit card payments using your device, try BlackCard Mobile Credit Card Terminal ($9.99), which will make you a mobile storefront. It's even commission-free. In order to use the app, you'll need a data connection and an Authorize.net or PayPal PayFlowPro merchant account.

And if your handy handheld goes missing (maybe you left it at the restaurant or bar?), you'll feel better if you've purchased Roblock Anti Theft Recovery ($9.99). If your smartphone has GPS capabilities, it can pinpoint the device on a map; if not, you'll get an approximate location via cell tower coordinates. You can also recover your contacts from a lost BlackBerry or remotely wipe your data from the phone if you think it may have been stolen.

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