buzzd, a location-sensitive city guide and social network for mobile devices, has raised $3.2 million in a Series A Preferred Stock financing with BlackBerry Partners Fund, Greycroft Partners, Monitor Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures.
Digby, a leading mobile commerce service provider, has raised $5.5 million Series B Preferred Stock with the BlackBerry Partners Fund and existing shareholders.
WorldMate, a company that has paved the way for mobile travel innovation and serves over one million frequent flyers and road warriors around the world, has raised $8 million in a Series C Preferred Stock financing with BlackBerry Partners Fund, Motorola Ventures and AMC Communications.
Congratulations to WorldMate, buzzd and Digby! You can read the full press release after the jump, with statements from key Partners Fund members and representatives of the respective development companies.
Here’s something you may not know about me: I am a HUGE NBA fan. I cheer CB4, Jose Ole and the Hump through the best of times and the worst. I will never forgive He Who Shall Not Be Named. I bleed Raptors red.
So it was a great thing to learn today that Viigo has launched a new NBA service just in time for the start of the 08-09 season (the Raptors start their season off against the 76ers tomorrow night, in case you were wondering). Typical of Viigo, the NBA service is tricked out way beyond simple NBA news feeds, offering a variety of features perfect for ballheads like myself. For example, while viewing the upcoming NBA schedule, you can add specific games of interest (Raps vs. Lakers on Nov. 30th, for example) to your Calendar to make sure you don’t miss them. Another great one is the Scores feature, which allows you to view the latest scores from around the Association while they’re being played.
You can see a bunch of screen captures of the new NBA service for Viigo. To add them, follow this path in your Viigo client: Sports –> Add Sports –> Basketball.
While stumbling around RIM’s Knowledge Center earlier today (yes, I do that from time to time), I noticed that RIM has released a networking diagnostic tool that should be of some use to all the new BlackBerry developers out there post-BBDC. Separate from the on-device hardware diagnostic tool we told you about last month, the networking diagnostic tool provides value in two different ways:
1) The NDT can be used by 3rd party developers as a support tool for their customers with networking issues, to provide information on which transports are and are not working on the device. This functionality better enables developers to diagnose and troubleshoot connectivity issues without having to use their application.
2) The NDT provides an open source and best practices implementation of connectivity on the BlackBerry. Developers can use this implementation as an example on how they would connect using the variety of mechanisms available on the BlackBerry device.
If you’re interested in learning more about RIM’s networking diagnostic tool, or downloading its source code, hit the link below.
Effective this week, Canadian carrier Bell is offering a new service to subscribers which (potentially) protects them from loss, theft and damage. I’m a little unsure about our friends to the South, but I’m pretty certain Bell is the first Canadian carrier to offer anything resembling ‘phone insurance’. Bell’s “Smart/Phone Care” service has two plans to choose from:
1. Premium: for $7/month it covers failure due to defective parts and workmanship, normal wear and tear, accidental damage, power surge, loss and theft.
2. Plus: Covers failure due to defects in parts and workmanship.
But don’t start jumping for joy yet, Bell subscribers. As with all things in life, there is some fine print to sort through. First, Bell in no way guarantees that the replacement device offered will feature the same functionality as your lost/stolen/broken device (I hope this doesn’t mean they’ll kive you a Moto RAZR for a lost BlackBerry Storm when the time comes). Also, acts of revolution, terrorism or war are not covered, leaving most of the BBCool staff out of the loop.
We’ve reprinted the important bits of the service agreement after the jump, as well as a link to the full PDF.
I almost missed this last week with all the BlackBerry Developer Conference madness last week, but it’s too good not to post. Our fellow Canucks over at MobileSyrup have found a YouTube clip from the Rick Mercer Report (think the Canadian Daily Show) lampooning a fairly well known Rogers commercial. In the Rogers commercial, two businessmen are stuck in an elevator, with only one able to maintain their cell call, leaving the other in awe.
You can watch the original commercial after the jump, but please watch the one above first. It makes you wonder whether or not having the ‘fewest dropped calls’ is a good thing or not.
Even though BlackBerry Cool was the first to tell you that RIM had partnered with Ford to give away a sweet 2009 Lincoln MKS via www.winwithblackberry.com, it seems as though our inbox was one of last to receive this latest update. What update, you may ask? There is now only 4 days left to register to win!
If that isn’t enough to get you speeding through the Internets like your browser is on fire, RIM and Ford are also giving away 10 BlackBerrys to ease the pain of those that fail to claim the grand prize. You can register (now!) at the link below.
Truphone, makers of the popular Nokia and iPhone VoIP application have finally released a version for BlackBerry. While still in beta and nowhere near as robust as the S60 version, Truphone for BlackBerry still features the same low calling rates (as low as 6¢ per minute!).
To help get you rolling, Truphone is giving away a $1 credit upon sign up. Click the link below to download Truphone for BlackBerry or to read more information.
Great news for iDEN BlackBerry users not on the Sprint network. RIM and NII Holdings jointly announced the impending release of the BlackBerry Curve 8350i in Latin America during Q1 of 2009. the iDEN BlackBerry will see release in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.
For those not in the know, the BlackBerry Curve 8350i is the first iDEN BlackBerry since the old 7100i, and features push-to-talk capability as well as Wi-Fi. There are about 10 million North and South American iDEN subscribers eager to get their hands on this device. You can read the full press release after the jump.
UPDATE 1: Bad news folks. The latest news from Telus is that the BlackBerry Storm won’t launch until December 8th. This puts the Bell November 21st date into question as well, simply because Telus is expected to launch first.
UPDATE 2: The Vodafone BlackBerry Storm has been officially announced, and will launch on November 14th for business customers in the UK. Expect the average consumer to get it around the 18th.
After spending time with the BlackBerry Storm during BBDC, it was a little hard to leave it behind. Thankfully, I did so with full knowledge that it would be returning to my awaiting hands very soon. Here’s the latest in BlackBerry Storm launch rumors for a variety of carriers:
PhoneArena is reporting that Verizon will begin selling the BlackBerry Storm in corporate Nov 15th and the following day at BestBuy locations. Ever since our initial Nov 4th post, the release date has been pushed back one day at a time. While we’ve been currently hearing the 19th from our sources, it’s close enough to not matter too much.
BlackBerry News seems to be wavering back and forth between a November 7th and 11th release date for the Vodafone BlackBerry Storm. CSRs place pricing at around £350 ($538 USD). Please take a look at BBNews’ photos for this post, it made my day.
As we reported earlier today, it appears that Bell may receive the BlackBerry Storm on November 21st, shortly after the two releases above. I wonder if Telus will try to undercut them by releasing on the 20th.
Keep hitting this page for the latest in BlackBerry Storm launch information!
HSBC, the bank that everyone thought was switching solely to iPhones for business use, has launched the first UK business banking service optimized for Blackberry users. Optimized for BlackBerry 8xxx devices and above, HSBC users can access real-time balances and transactions for the last seven days on HSBC sterling accounts, and balances on foreign currency accounts. In addition, they will have access to balances on business and commercial credit cards, with seven days worth of transactions per cardholder.
This new service can be accessed from www.m.hsbc.co.uk using the same username and password as regular HSBC internet banking service.
Great news for iDEN BlackBerry users not on the Sprint network. RIM and NII Holdings jointly announced the impending release of the BlackBerry Curve 8350i in Latin America during Q1 of 2009. the iDEN BlackBerry will see release in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.
