Monthly Archive for November, 2009Page 9 of 21

Deal of the Day Reminder: Wrath retro space shooter for the Storm

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BlackBerry Cool
on November 18, 2009, at 9:02 AM
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wrath_shooter

Wrath is a retro space shooter for the BlackBerry Storm. Using the accelerometer or touchscreen, you control your ship as it picks up power-ups and blasts space aliens. If things look like they’re getting messy, click the screen to super-nuke everything.

One of the coolest features in this game is the ability to listen to your own music while you play. Just make a playlist in the BlackBerry Media player, and Wrath will use it for the in-game music.

Wrath, the retro space shooter for the BlackBerry Storm, is on sale for $2.49 (regular price $4.99).

Dope Wars more awesome on BlackBerry as Druglord Wars

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Kyle McInnes
on November 18, 2009, at 8:51 AM
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DruglordWars

Berry Wars has been given a huge update and is now a visually stunning BlackBerry game called Druglord Wars. The game is just like the original Dope Wars, where the aim is to buy low and sell high, all the while avoiding the cops.

Some new features to the game include:

  • Global online leaderboard to compare your skills to the world.
  • 17 drugs to buy and sell in 11 beautifully rendered cities.
  • 18 weapons and storage containers to take down enemies and hold more drugs.
  • Over 125 custom designed images just for BlackBerry.
  • Save games and preview progress before resuming.
  • Unlimited gameplay mode to see how far you can take your drug empire.

The game is currently on sale for $3.99 until November 20th (regularly $4.99). Druglord Wars is available for OS 4.6 and up with 480×320 or 480×360 screens, and there are plans to support 4.5+ with 320×240 soon.

Stress Test: How long can the BlackBerry Bold 9700 play music? (Part 2)

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Kyle McInnes
on November 18, 2009, at 8:41 AM
in Editorials, News, Reviews, Spotlight and Top-Story
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BlackBerry_Bold9700_battery_test

UPDATE: The Bold 9700 battery just died. The BlackBerry Cool official time is 19:22, exactly 29 hours. This is 29 hours while using the device heavily. Let’s see an iPhone do that!

UPDATE: 16:19 and 26 hours into the test, with 10% battery left. Part 2 of the test has sort of changed. It started off as a test of the music playback under more strenuous network conditions and has turned into a test of how long the battery will last under power user conditions. I’ve been playing music, tweeting, taking pics, using Google Maps, running several other apps simultaneously, making and taking calls and constantly pulling data from both Maps and Twitter. There was a break when I went to sleep but I left all the connections and apps running so it was still very much active.

UPDATE: 14:16, 24 hours into the test, and the battery is at 25%. Something I’ve noticed is that making calls depletes the battery much faster than anything else. I knew this intuitively but the test really made it obvious. Streaming music doesn’t seem to have much impact on battery life at all.

UPDATE: 10:40 went through the night and we’ve been back on WiFi, radio for a couple hours. At 30% and around 20 hours we’re definitely going a full day no problem.

UPDATE: It’s 02:29, 12 hours into the test. The batter reads 40% and I have been using a very decent amount of apps and data. Holding the BlackBerry Button, it shows the following apps: Messages, UberTwitter, Home Screen, BlackBerry Messenger, Media, Radio Companion, Setup Wizard (I switch devices a lot), Visual Voice Mail, Google Maps, Browser, Gmail and Phone. I’m going to give the updates a rest until around 8 AM.
Click through for more about the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery life test

Update on Cellcrypt voice encryption for BlackBerry

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Kyle McInnes
on November 17, 2009, at 5:40 PM
in News
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2 Comments

The last time we wrote about Cellcrypt, they were showcasing their secure mobile voice encryption software for BlackBerry at WES 2009. The company and BlackBerry app have come a long way and we got to talking with them last week at BBDC.

Since WES, the company has received FIPS 140-2 certification, a standard approved by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. At BBDC, the company announced that their product is available for the BlackBerry Bold 9700, as well as Curve and Pearl series devices.

Cellcrypt’s product has become more relevant than ever with the ongoing media coverage behind a group of hackers looking to crack the standard GSM network. The hackers say they’re doing this in order to send a message that 2G GSM calls lack proper security encryption, and they could make their code book available to anyone via torrents. While the process is purely academic, and not likely an imminent threat, it still demonstrates a need in the industry for greater voice security.

FileScout updated to version 1.5.0.0

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BlackBerry Cool
on November 17, 2009, at 11:53 AM
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FileScout presented at the BlackBerry Developer Conference Final 16 in San Francisco and they have since updated their application. The latest updates include:

  • Display of thumbnails in search result.
  • Thumbnail-Options: New Button to generate all thumbnails for all images on your device.
  • When resizing images to device resolution size you can now select to keep the aspect ratio of the original image.
  • UserDefined resolution (image resizing) can be now be max 9999 pixel [but it's recommended not use more then 1200px].
  • Support for DesktopManager Backup & Restore (FileScout settings).
  • A ‘[W]‘ in the Screen Title indicating that the background threads (required for Search and other extended features) are still running (after FileScout is started) – once the threads are completed the ‘[W]‘ will disappear.
  • Integration in the RIMs FileExplorer Application: a ‘Explore with FileScout’ MenuItem is added.

What’s fixed?

  • Search files in the current Directory only function fixed to be usable multiple times.
  • Potential OutOfMemeory Error during start of FileScout (when the thumbnail store is getting too large).
  • Accessing OS5 System Folder for Bold, Bold2, Storm and Storm2.
  • For all of you who are waiting to get a “fix” for the System folder on the Bold, Bold2, Storm and Strom2 on OS5.
  • RIM confirmed that they made the System folder in OS5.x read only.
  • FileScout (and all other 3′rd party applications) can only show the content of the System folder but can’t modify anything.

Try FileScout for your BlackBerry from App World or as Donationware from http://www.emacberry.com/ota/BBFileScout.jad.

Gym Technik for the BlackBerry Storm coming in two weeks

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Kyle McInnes
on November 17, 2009, at 10:34 AM
in News
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StormDataEntryWhen we posted about RoadRunnerGPS, a lot of BlackBerry Cool readers recommended using Gym Technik for weight training. At first, this app was a web-based client but a few weeks ago they went native, which really helps if your gym is in a basement.

Gym Technik will be launching their popular fitness tracking app for the BlackBerry Storm in two weeks. To find out when Gym Technik for the Storm goes live, you can register at their site.

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