BlackBerry - How to add content to the Home Screen?

Question

In the Windows Mobile world you can create a so-called Today plugin that adds content to the phone\'s main screen -- the one where you see the number of missed calls, unread

Answer 1

To provide some information on the Home Screen you can use App Icon:
Add a notification icon at the status bar in BlackBerry JDE 4.5.0
alt text http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6459/icoupdate3.jpg Other thing available from RIM OS 4.6 if app indicator:
Blackberry - How to use notification icon in statusbar
alt text http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/3807/standardindicator.png

Answer 2

These things are already displayed on the ribbon depending on the theme. If you want to create/modify a theme, use the Plazmic CDK.

There are two ways to put individual icons onto the ribbon (similar to icons like mail, calendar, address book, browser, maps, etc):

1. channel push: easiest if the user is on a BES, now a way to do it for the non-enterprise people on BIS called WebSignals.
2. write a midp or rimlet j2me application. Rimlet preferred unless you really need compatibility with other (non-RIM) j2me midp devices.
3. OK, there is technically a third way, but I really don't think it's serious: MDS Studio.

All the tools are free but you may need a code signing key if you're writing a rimlet using a secure API.

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/docs/developers/?userType=21