Oanda, a company specializing in foreign exchange services, and SweetCaesar, who develop custom BlackBerry apps, have teamed up to release a mobile version of Oanda’s FXConverter. The software is used around the world to convert over 160 different currencies, from the Afghanistan Afghani to the Zambian Kwacha, usually with rates less than a minute old. FXConverter Mobile puts all the information at your thumbtips, with an easy interface that sorts currencies into alphabetical categories and remembers your recent conversions, and even tells you exactly how many seconds since the rates were updated. Easily used and usable by everyone from casual travelers to millionaire bigwigs.
Monthly Archive for March, 2008Page 3 of 12
Immediately after the release of BEIKS’ free FTP app, BlackBerry users are getting another, and more besides: Mobile File Manager and Mobile Viewer are now available from Rove Mobile free of charge. Mobile File Manager offers a great deal more than just FTP support, allowing users to connect to SFTP, WebDAV, and Windows file shares as well. Mobile Viewer, formerly known as BlackBerry Viewer, displays a BlackBerry’s screen on a computer monitor, making presentations of any BlackBerry app a simple process and allowing for easy screen captures. Both are available free from Rove, so have at it!
As a regular Diggnation viewer, this is pretty awesome news. Revision3, the creators of such fine videocasts such as the Totally Rad Show, Diggnation, and the new Internet Superstar, are tweaking their mobile site to work with the BlackBerry media player to offer all of their great shows. Unfortunately, the shorter ones like Tekzilla are the only videos that are working on my end right now, so here’s hoping we can get some of the longer stuff soon. Keep an eye on m.revision3.com for more!
As their name suggests, BlackLine GPS specializes in GPS software, specifically GPS Snitch, Fuel GPS, Loner, and their latest product, Blip. Snitch, Fuel, and Loner are all GPS hardware devices, allowing you to keep an eye on your car, time your racecar, or, in an emergency, quickly determine the location of an employee who works alone. They also have Blip, which we reviewed back in September, while it was still in beta. Blip allows you to transmit your location to friends, along with a whole host of other social networking features. In our podcast, we spoke to BlackLine about the changes in Blip since the beta, as well as their plans for WES. The promised two new product announcements and teased us with the possibility of finding out just what exactly Stinger GPS is…
If you’ve somehow missed WorldMate Live, we’ve got you covered with a review, a spotlight, and a podcast. The software is a must-have for any globetrotter, allowing you to create itineraries and check world clocks, flight status, weather and more. Their latest update adds support for reading travel confirmation emails from a number of web-based email services including Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Mail. Users can forward confirmations to WorldMate’s confirmation address to have them automatically added to their itinerary and pushed to their BlackBerry, or have their travel agents skip the middleman and send them directly to WorldMate. They’ve also added Safari support, so Mac users can jump in on the action as well. If you’d like to get 6 months of WML’s premium service, you should check out our Weekly Contest…
AdMob has released a report on February’s worldwide smartphone traffic. RIM is king, with 34% of traffic worldwide, followed by Nokia with 29%. RIM was ahead of Nokia in the US, but fell behind in India, the UK, South Africa and Indonesia by very wide margins. A specific percentage for iPhone traffic wasn’t given, but AdMob did say that their number flattened out, in agreement with the theory that new devices see a big surge in January and a decline in the following month. The report is consistent with a couple others we’ve seen, which show the iPhone losing momentum, though still increasing fairly steadily.
A release schedule from electronics wholesaler Brightpoint has been leaked by Pinstack’s The Outsider revealing an April 16 release date for the CDMA Curve, with other channels getting it after April 20th. All the usual doodads, like 2.0 megapixel camera and GPS will be in there (sorry, no Wi-Fi), will be in there, and the new BlackBerry will be sporting a titanium paint job, with a red one in the works. Pricing is landing around $599.99 SRP, and we’ve got an idea of potential pricing with plans.
Networks In Motion offers a number of location-based-services for both personal and business use. AtlasBook provides you with maps and directions, as well as a local directory of points of interest, while its family-oriented counterpart FamilyFinder lets parents track the whereabouts of younger family members without requiring them to call and check in. Their PhotoFinder software allows photographers to tag their photo with location information and even get exact directions to where their photos were taken. Finally, for business customers, AtlasLink is tool for managers to track and communicate with a team in the field. Developers attending WES will likely be keen to check out their booth for their NAVBuilder solution, a platform for LBS/GPS development.
T-Mobile has finally announced the launch of the BlackBerry 8820, after a rather lengthy delay. The 8820 features both GPS and Wi-Fi capability, a rarity in BlackBerrys, and is available from T-Mobile’s store in a midnight blue finish. The colouring is also rare for an 8800-series, what with Verizon’s red 8830 being the only precedent. Now let’s see if T-Mobile can manage the same feat with the 8120.
Operators in India have a received a 15 day deadline from the government to allow monitoring of BlackBerry email before services are shut off. Though the phones themselves were pronounced safe from banning less than two weeks ago, their email service is apparently not. Operators were unconcerned with the deadline, saying that they were confident of becoming compliant well before it hit. There was no official word from RIM, but given their recent success in Russia and China, I’m sure they’re familiar with the process.
