Some fresh screenshots of OS 4.5 have emerged for the BlackBerry 8100. The audio equalizer is conspicuously absent from this version, but stereo Bluetooth and folder creation are both a go. Office document support is well on its way, with both PowerPoint and Word editing functioning nicely. The camera’s got a bit of a tweak, now offering some blur detection. On the whole, it looks like this OS is standing nicely on the shoulders of 4.3.
Monthly Archive for March, 2008Page 2 of 12
Screenshots of OS 4.5 on Pearl leaked
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Previous info on a WES release for the next generation of BlackBerry could be nixed as the latest rumors are pointing to a July or August release. This would be a tad disappointing, considering all the hype that’s been building up for it over the last couple of months. Lazaridis confirmed HSDPA in the new device recently, and the screen is reportedly going to be fantastic. Waddaya say? Worth the wait?
Nokia has unveiled the Dual Carrier EDGE solution, a new technology which could double the speed of EDGE networks, reports Wired. The technology is a software upgrade which will be released some in Q3. If it is a purely software upgrade, chances are good that we could see a roll out on at least some carriers, although that might change if it requires any sort of hardware restructuring. Regardless, the technology will be followed some time later by EGPRS 2, which will again double the speeds up to a max of 1.2 Mbps. There’s definitely an exciting future for us EDGE users.
SpinVox does one thing: turn voice into text, in quite a lot of ways. Using their various products you can get voicemails emailed to you immediately, write to your blog by simply speaking into your phone, speak message and have it sent as text to any or all of your friends, dictate a memo and have it sent straight to your email, and quite a bit more. Their products page allows you to simply tell them what you’d like to do, and they’ll show you what service are applicable. Who knows what new applications of the SpinVox engine will come out of their booth at WES?
Viigo has teamed up with Interactive Ontario to bring the ICE08 (Interactive Content Exchange) conference to smartphones everywhere. Using the ICE08 edition of Viigo, which you can snag by pointing your mobile brower here, users will be able to get live updates from the conference and news from blog feeds covering it. The announcement comes at the perfect time, as today RIM’s Jeff McDowell joins Mark Ruddock of Viigo, Dominique-Sebastien Forest of Quebecor Media Interactive, and Thomas Purves of WirelessNorth.ca on a panel discussing mobile innovation. We’ll be talking with one of the speakers at ICE, Clyde Wagner from SweetCeasar, in this week’s podcast, so stay tuned!
BPlay just opened up a whole new category of themes for Zodiac signs, so you can answer the age-old “what’s your sign?” pick-up line in style. All the signs available across Zen, Today, and Icon styles, but it would be cool if the backgrounds fit the signs a bit more – you know, a big ol’ bull for Taurus, some scales for Libra, that kind of thing. My question is when are they going to start porting over themes to the Crossbar style?
This is pretty awesome right here. Take a picture of any text (document, business card, whiteboard, etc.) and so long as it’s in focus, ScanR will convert the image into a PDF, DOC, or vCard, depending on what you’re sending. All you have to do is send the image to one of three e-mail addresses, and you’ll get an automated reply with the processed file. You can always access the original pictures and their results from their website, too. Be warned, only the newer camera-toting BlackBerrys with a 2.0 megapixel camera will do the trick for this service. Definitely didn’t work on my old 8100. Keep an eye out for a launch this week. Thanks Ronen!
The free proximity detection service, SameCell, has launched an interesting new cell capture program that pays out two cents for every new cell tower you access on your GPS-enabled BlackBerry. The goal is to compile enough info on tower locations to improve service accuracy, and a pretty clever way to go about it, too. You only get paid out once your earnings hit $25, and even then, you can opt to donate those earnings to a charity instead. If you’re using SameCell anyway, it’s worth giving a shot, since the application just runs quietly in the background.
Nuance has announced that their voice-based search and instant messaging service, Voice Control, will be extending language support for French Rogers customers. Rogers has been pretty good about language support in Canada, so it’s good to see they’re keeping up. Look out for the updated software in April, available on the 8310, 8110, 8800 and Windows Mobile devices.
Vettro, the developer of asset-tracking software, has recently teamed up with IRTH, to bring underground GPS tracking to BlackBerry and Motorola mobiles. Vettro’s 360 platform includes an electronic white lining technology which has yielded some impressive results.
Based on a recently published company report, the use of the GPS-based mobile white lining functionality alone reduced the average notification area for locate requests by over 89.42% and eliminated over 8% of outbound locate tickets. The report conservatively estimates a potential cost savings of over $120 million nationally in the damage prevention process through use of the mobile application.
By working tightly with IRTH’s One Call system, this new deal will help underground workers quickly find out if it’s safe to dig without busting up gas and electric lines.
