The Blackberry Pearl is put out by Research In Motion (RIM) and is available on almost all of the mobile carriers in the United States. It's the sleekest model of Blackberry smartphones and tends to attract users look for space economy. It's a bit narrower than the Blackberry Curve, Storm and Bold.

The Blackberry Curve uses the Blackberry SureType system to save on keyboard space. This means it doesn't have a full QWERTY keyboard. Some letter will share the same key and the Blackberry Pearl will attempt to predict what you were trying to type. Most of time it gets it right and it learns words as you go, so it's always improving.

The Blackberry Pearl will run almost all of the applications you'll find for other Blackberrys with just a few exceptions. Often times, because of the SureType keyboard layout on the Pearl, you'll have a different set of keyboard shortcuts to use. These are learned quickly and haven't ever presented me with any problems.

If you've recently upgraded your Blackberry Pearl software, you'll notice a new icon on your home screen called BlackBlackberry App World. This is your portal to all of the Blackberry Pearl Apps that will work on your particular phone.

When you first click on the AppWorld icon your browser window will open up and you'll be presented with some basic information about the AppWorld. At the bottom of this screen you can click to download the complete app. Unless you have a very old Blackberry, it should work on almost all of the phones on the market currently.

Once you click the link, you'll just click on Download (don't worry about setting "permissions" right now). In less than 2 or 3 minutes, you'll have downloaded the complete AppWorld.

The screen should let you know you've succesfully downloaded the application. Just click on "OK" and close your browser.

Once you've agreed to the terms of use for the AppWorld (yes, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the AGREE button), you'll be presented with the home screen.  Here is where your journey into the world of Blackberry applications begins.

The largest section of the screen is taken up with some of the "featured applications" and a set of icons at the bottom.  Moving left to right, you'll find 1) Categories 2) Top Downloads 3) Search and 4) My World.

Each time you click on an icon it will download the information that's needed.  This may take a couple of sections but shouldn't be long.

When you download anything from the Blackberry AppWorld, it will be stored in an area called "My World." This is where you'll be able to reinstall anything you may have lost or uninstalled at some point.

I highly recommend you start off in the most popular downloads section. These are usually going to be the free applications as well. That's usually why they've been downloaded so many times.

You will need a PayPal account to download any applications that cost money.

Enjoy and download with confidence. Blackberry takes the time to make sure these items are virus free.