The voice of the BlackBerry community.
TELUS and Sportsnet have launched the MIKE Playoff Beard Challenge and are looking for teams who think they’ve got the facial follicles to beat.
Are you a BlackBerry developer? Consider being a beard developer.
Check out NoOrdinaryPhone.com for contest details and entries.
The team with the bushiest beards by the end of the hockey playoff season wins:
BerryPopup is a new applilcation available in the BlackBerry Cool Store. The app gives you previews of incoming email and SMS messages the moment they arrive. Much like Aerize and PeekaWho, BerryPopup allows you to reply, forward, mark as read or delete messages right from the preview window without having to switch to the messaging application.
Features:
* – Preview incoming e-mails/alerts
* – Open inbox, reply, forward, mark as read and delete e-mails right from the popup
* – Open inbox, reply and forward SMS right from the popup
* – Disable popups until backlight dims or for a certain time right from the popup
* – Customize order of messages (Oldest first, Newest first)
* – Only show popups for messages from contacts you have in your phonebook
* – Customize positioning of the popup (”System Default”, “Bottom of screen” or “Stretch to the borders of the screen”)
* – Customize position of the button bar (left, right, top, bottom)
* – Automatically turn on backlight when a message comes in
* – Auto-dismiss popup after specified time
* – Disable popups while in the messaging application
* – Disable while device is locked so you will not be flooded with popups after unlocking
* – Disable popups while backlight is on
* – Show contact photo and customize its size
* – Customize font sizes
* – Integrates with SmartAlerts (coming May 2009) for absolute control which messages trigger popups and which don’t
BerryPopup is available for $6.95 from the BlackBerryCool store or $4.95 until May 6th.
We’re also giving away 25 free copies for the first 25 people to enter the code ‘coolpopup‘. So go!
[ED NOTE: Just to be clear, it's a promo code that you enter at the purchase link]
Yesterday I wrote an article about social networking and RIM, talking about some of the things I’d like to see from RIM in terms of interacting with the blogosphere.
Well they’ve just now launched their own official BlackBerry blog. Here’s why:
So why are we doing this?
Because we believe we can make a valuable contribution to the conversation. We do have a slight advantage, after all — smartphones are our life and work.
I’m looking forward to seeing what types of blog posts are up. Between BlackBerry Cool, CrackBerry, BerryReview, RIMarkable and IntoMobile, there is a ton of competition. Are they going to be releasing leaks? Because that’s just not fair. Way to go RIM!
Here is more info from their “About” page:
What this blog is about
Through our listening we’ve learned that you care most about discovering how to get more out of your device, so we’ve assembled a team of experts who will provide tips and advice to help you achieve this.
We have Sean who is our social applications expert, Sanjay who is our IM guru and Mark who is everything email. We also have Andrey who is the desktop software pro, Mike and Riz who are our handheld software specialists, and Annu who works on handheld hardware.
We know this blog is not just about our perspective. So, we will take every opportunity to connect you to the great conversations and expertise already being shared online.
What this blog isn’t about
We’re excited to begin contributing to the conversation, but that said, this isn’t the place to discuss topics like unreleased products, financial and forward-looking statements, service outages or carrier matters. Besides, these are matters where our topic experts aren’t, well, the experts.
TELUS has a new demo app on noordinaryphone.com that allows users to try the text-to-speech function of the TELUS Mike push to talk handsets. This includes the BlackBerry Curve 8330i that was launched with NASCAR in Toronto Canada. The best part of this new demo that you can create funny messages and send it to your friends. If you’ve never tried MIKE PTT, head over to the site and give it a shot.
LiveTracker Beta is a free GPS tracking app and it has recently been updated to internal version number: 0.1.6. This versions solves some minor issues of the previous beta but has no functionality changes.
Download your FREE copy of LiveTracker Beta.
After you installed the application, just start LiveTracker and it will start searching for GPS location fixes. There is also a “share location” option in the program’s menu where you can share your current location with your friends.
The makers of LiveTracker, SkyLab Mobile Systems, also offer a free maps program called TopoExplorer.
BlackBerry Made Simple
BlackBerry Cool readers are generally well versed in their BlackBerry but there are some people who need help. BlackBerry Made Simple is celebrating their new name with new products and new prices. The company is now able to offer a complete “Training Center” approach to learning about your BlackBerry. They have a “Training Center” available for every BlackBerry device.
The Training Center includes:
New Promotional Pricing:
Try BlackBerry Made Simple guides by visiting their site.
3 UK has finally made its way to 3 UK. The Bold is one of the best BlackBerry devices on the market right now with its slick look and feel as well as powerful media capabilities. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the keyboard (I like my keys separated), but there is a device for everyone with RIM.
With 3 UK, the device has access to the 3MusicStore, multiple email account support and unlimited Windows Messenger access.
The plan will go for £30 per month with 500 mins, unlimited text/email/internet/windows live messenger.
[Via]
Slacker Radio has enjoyed great success on BlackBerry and recently they’re hit their 1 millionth download. Slacker is killing the competition too:
* Slacker Radio offers 2+ Million tracks – 4 times as many as Pandora
* Slacker Radio offers stereo audio – Pandora only offers mono (single channel)
* Slacker Radio offers station caching so you can listen to radio even when you don’t have a signal
This is a great app, although it does have a few drawbacks. For example, the fact that it must be plugged into a PC in order to sync really hurts the functionality. I get really bothered when I have to sync things via my PC and I would love to have OTA syncing capabilities. Soon, I hope.
Here is a quick breakdown of features you get with Slacker:
* High-quality stereo playback from all streaming wireless connections (including Wi-Fi) and cached stations
* Station caching – play music even without a network connection
* Free music library featuring millions of songs from thousands of artists
* Over 100 professionally programmed genre stations
* Create custom stations by searching for artists or song titles
* View song lyrics
* Bluetooth support
* Multi-tasking – listen to music while doing email
* View artist biographies and photos
* View album art and reviews
* “Peek Ahead” artist and album preview
* Pause and skip songs
* Rate songs as favorites
* Ban songs and artists you don’t like
Download Slacker Radio for your BlackBerry.
Remember, you need OS 4.3+ and 500MB of free memory on your device for station caching.
[Via]
There is a rumor going around that the BlackBerry Apex will be announced at WES 2009 in Orlando Florida. The device will be a CDMA version of the Pearl Flip 8230 with EVDO.
The Pearl Flip was a great device that I personally used for quite some time. Although it doesn’t appeal to many people, the flip factor is very popular and it makes sense for RIM to have at least 1 of these devices. My guess is that we’re seeing greater sales than many BlackBerry enthusiasts would have expected, due to the high number of consumers buying BlackBerry devices these days.
[Via]
RIM may be expanding its retail presence worldwide. Currently, there are a small number of shops in North America and there may be plans to expand to London via the department store Selfridges.
The London RIM outlet, will be located inside the Selfridges on Oxford Street and will open in the next couple of months.
This could really help RIM with device sales since having their own outlet means they don’t have to compete with other brands and devices. Also, often the sales team that works in these stores is simply motivated by commission, and selling a smartphone may not be the easiest way to make a sale. It’s at least worth it to test the market.
[Via]
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