Virtual Reach, the fine folks who bring you BlackBerry Cool To Go have partnered up with with b5media, who are now pushing their wide selection of blogs through Viigo. We at BBCool are loathe to think you exceptional readers so much as glance in the direction of other blogs, but we must be prudent and accept the possibility, however slight. Just checked out my Viigo client, and you can find the newly-added b5media Channels under the Blogs category.
Monthly Archive for June, 2007Page 2 of 14
Viigo partners with blog network
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Boy Genius tells us that the hoi polloi won’t get it until July 15th, and Sprint even mentions in their press release that their customers won’t see it in stores until next month, but that won’t stop our favorite yellow carrier from announcing their version of the BlackBerry 8830 to the world. Perhaps Telus’ release prompted them to keep up with the Gekkos, as it were?
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect to Sprint’s offering is the fact that their BlackBerry 8830 will come SIM card unlocked, meaning Sprint customers actually have the choice of using local GSM providers during international travels rather than Sprint’s international roaming service plan. This is not something that fellow US competitor Verizon offers - can you say throwdown? Regardless, Sprint’s 8830 sounds like a true World Edition BlackBerry to us.
So far the only pricing deets we have are $199.99 USD with a two year plan and $200 worth of rebates. Go here for more info.
Because we like to look out for you, we thought we’d remind you that both RIM and Palm are announcing their Q1 financial results today. No word yet on what time Palm’s releasing their deets, but RIM will be dropping theirs after the bell, with an investor conference call to follow at 5pm EST. To participate, simply dial 416-640-1907 or enjoy it web-style by logging into www.rim.com/investors/events/index.shtml. For those who think they might miss it, worry not, a replay of the conference call will also be available at approximately 7 pm by dialing 416-640-1917 and entering passcode 21221686#.
We’re excited to hear how all of RIM’s new devices are selling, but until then, how about some speculation? Let us know how well you think RIM’s doing financially by posting a comment. We’ll also have full coverage of the results later today.
They might have backed out of their end-run bid to become the biggest telecom in Canada, but don’t think for a minute that Telus has stopped throwing punches. Following hot on the heels of Bell’s announcement, the carrier that loves to use endearing exotic animals to sell us smartphones announced today the launch of the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition.
For those who didn’t know, the 8830 is RIM’s sleek EVDO/GSM monster that’s been kicking up a storm in the enterprise world (and allows long-suffering CDMA BlackBerry fanatics feel less depressed). Although there seems to be nothing new hardware-wise for the Telus version, we do have some interesting price info. Telus is matching Bell’s $300 on a three year term offer, but upping the ante somewhat by offering a staggering 50% off international data roaming charges for the length of your contract if you activate a BlackBerry 8830 before September 30. The gloves, I think, are officially off.
The site still says ‘coming soon’, but I’d expect you’d want to head here for more details.
Bplay’s recently announced the release of a wooping 15,000+ MP3 ringtones for sale. BlackBerry’s a little behind in the consumer game, where MP3 ringtones have been around for a good long time already on most other mobiles, and not so much on our slightly more conservative handhelds. With the likes of the Curve and Pearl sexifying the BlackBerry scene with polyphonic ringtone support, it’s high time someone started taking advantage of it. Of course Bplay’s got the usual games and whatnot - I’ve been hitting Brain Up a fair bit lately, myself.
Digicel’s unleased the BlackBerry Curve upon the Carribean, starting with Bermuda. Digicel’s got a strong hold on the Central American and Carribean markets, and has been doing very well with BlackBerry since they began two years ago.
With a little help from StockHouse, Reuters has integrated live, streaming stock market information through their Connect-Station client on BlackBerry. The software features a configurable Watchlist, scrolling headlines, full news stories, and a few other handy features which would prove useful to the modern BlackBerryin’ stockbroker. Talk to Reuters about pricing, but StockStream for PC goes for around $9.95/month, so you can expect something in that range.
Whooboy, here’s a summertime surprise for ya. An “anonymous BBCool fanatic” (finally, no silly nom de guerre) sent this to us last night and man does it get the BlackBerry fanatic in us pumped. Web browsing on the BlackBerry is almost universally derided by smartphone users (and mostly with good cause) — anything RIM can do to improve what some would say is the second most important feature of their devices is a big step.
From what we’ve been told, the most important feature enhancement is “tabbed” browsing support. There is also a new browser “home screen” that sports a listed history (with favicon.ico support, no less) and “search provider” functionality, courtesy of Google, Yahoo, Dictionary.com, IMDb.com, and Wikipedia. Although we won’t be getting our dirty mitts on the new browser until the fall (hmm, just in time for a new BlackBerry launch), this might just make Opera obsolete for BlackBerry users.
Visual voicemail tycoons, SimulSays, has opened up SimulSays Beta for free download on your BlackBerry 8800, BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry 8300 and Windows Mobile handhelds. While this software is helpful for integrating voicemail with other BlackBerry services (e-mail, SMS and phone), the real product is in SimulScribe, which transcribes voicemail into text, opening up a whole slew of new functions. It’s a good product model they’ve got going here - try this for free, and if it’s doing good things for you, we’ve got a premium service available too.
If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. The Mobile World has just run a report claiming there will be 3.25 billion mobile users before the end of the year, pushing it over the 50% penetration mark. The Mobile World’s Senior Analyst John Tysoe puts this number into startling perspective.
“The mobile telecommunications industry continues to set new records, driven by huge demand, especially in India, China and Africa. And the growth rate is still accelerating. It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion. The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on. By the end of the year, the global mobile base will exceed 3.25bn connections, or over half the world’s population. With handsets and services becoming ever more affordable, the prospect of a fully connected mobile world is becoming ever more real.”
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