If you find yourself using the Voice Notes app on your BlackBerry regularly, you should check out Pinger. By dialling into one of their many numbers worldwide, you can record voice messages and send them to individuals or groups. Unfortunately, only North American users are able to access Pinger’s web features, which include uploading your contacts by computer rather than through your mobile. Still, this is a pretty cool option for those looking to inject some personality into their messages, or just trying to avoid long-distance charges. If it sounds like something you’re interested in, they’ve got a free BlackBerry app to help you keep track of your Pinger messages and export contacts.
Monthly Archive for March, 2008
Pinger offers speedy voice messages
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The entries since November have been chewed through, and we’ve now got a list of some of the top women in the tech sector. RIM’s Third Annual Women & Technology Awards aim to showcase and reward the women who are making great headway in an industry that is otherwise dominated by us menfolk. Jackie Edwards, a 2005 winner, put it rather succinctly: “It doesn’t require extra muscles or testosterone to operate a computer and I think more women should be here.”
I first heard of Jott when checking out Mentat, and was impressed enough that the new BlackBerry client got me pretty excited. Jott for BlackBerry will let you speak out e-mails which will then be transcribed, allowing you to keep doing business even if your hands are tied. Jott’s still in beta, which means free transcriptions for registered members in North America, and works seamlessly by putting a menu option in your e-mail program to “Reply with Jott”. I’m going to give it a shot right now…
The BlackBerry 8330 will be gracing Verizon customers sometime in May, according to a pre-CTIA announcement. You’ll be looking at $269.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate for this EV-DO-capable bad-boy, and just like the 8830, GPS will likely be locked exclusively to their VZ Navigator service, available for $9.99/month. This is the first official announcement of the CDMA Curve, so expect a few more from Sprint and Telus soon.
Mike Abramsky from RBC Capital Markets raised RIM’s price target from $140 to $150, causing their stock to raise 2.8% to $115.34 as of close of market on Friday. The analyst also rated the stock as “Outperform.” This is a pretty big turnaround from January, where RIM’s stock was rated as “Hold” and had its price target lowered from $145 to $110. Since then their stock has trended upward, even survived the multiple outages in February. Their fourth quarter financial results should be very interesting when they’re announced on April 2nd.
Another neat use for GPS: alerting you to speed traps. Trapster allows registered users to add speed trap locations on their website, and the mobile app alerts you when you drive close to one. The app offers customizable alerts for live police, red light cameras, speed cameras, and hiding spots that are often used. It’s currently in beta, and only offers support for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint customers, though they’re working on support for other providers. You can check out instructions for installing it here. Thanks Mike!
RepliGo is the flagship product from Cerience. The software, which can be installed and administrated on BES or via subscription to Cerience, allows users to view a wide variety of files on their BlackBerry. PDFs, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint docs, rich text files, faxes, images, and more can all be accessed directly from your phone. You can even print to an HP PCL Bluetooth printer or fax documents without sitting at a computer. It plays nicely with any other attachment services present on BES, and works with Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise, or Lotus Domino.
Rob Woodbridge from Rove graces the BBCool airwaves once more, talking about their two latest releases and their Breakout Session at WES, and we’ve also got Clyde Wagner from SweetCeasar to talk about their new financial converter, Joe Naylor from WebMessenger to give us the lowdown on enterprise IM. Of course we’ve got the week’s news, including the latest on the BlackBerry 9000, the imminent release of the CDMA Curve, and advancements of EDGE speeds. Episode 23 is available in a trifecta of MP3, iTunes and XML feed awesomeness.
So, we got some nice new piccies of the BlackBerry 9000, paired up with a potential delay until the summer. Hype is a tricky thing to play with; if you drag it out too long, or give away too many details, you risk blowing all the excitement before the main event. The first looks at the BlackBerry 9000 were back in October, and with a rumored delay, we might not be seeing it until the summer. That’s a ten month wait for 3G and a facelift – the big question here? Is it worth the wait? There are plenty of 3G, QWERTY-keypadded handhelds out there already; are the incremental upgrades to BlackBerry’s lineup quick enough to stay competitive? Give us your take on waiting for the BlackBerry 9000, and you can win Bplay’s latest two releases, Sushi Mania and Big Kahuna Words to pass the time until the damn thing comes out. Just for kicks, let’s throw in Crossbar, one of the slickest themes to come out of Bplay yet.
Last week’s winner behind the jump!
Hot diggitty. Engadget’s scoped out some live shots of the BlackBerry 9000 in action. Wi-Fi and HSDPA are confirmed features, and the snaps show off an externally-accessible microSD slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a new ringtones option under the media player, as well as a camera. Sadly, the version numbers have been covered up, so we can’t be sure what BlackBerry OS it’s running right now. It’s packing a slick theme, but all the utilities you’re used to look like they’re right where we left ‘em. Seeing these shots doesn’t make waiting for a delay any easier…
