Pocket BLU have released a BlackBerry app that lets your BlackBerry communicate directly with your Blu-ray player. The app has some decent features and it seems like it can replace your Blu-ray remote, which is great because I personally lose remotes all the time. Features include:
View select content (deleted scenes, bonus content, etc) anywhere by streaming, over the internet, directly to the mobile device or downloading to the device to enable viewing even when not connected to the internet. This feature is only available on high-end devices.
Control playback and on-screen menus of the movie just like a traditional remote.
Simplify chat and registration by entering text directly onto the on-screen edit boxes using the keypad on the mobile device.
Tyler Shields, senior researcher at Veracode Research Lab developed a proof-of-concept spyware package that demonstrates how simple it is to retrieve private data from a BlackBerry.
The above video demonstrates the spyware package, which he calls TXSBBspy, and uses it to take some very confidential information. In the demonstration, he uses some basic, publicly available functions to remotely dump all email and SMS messages, send the contents via e-mail, and conduct real-time monitoring of phone messages. He also remotely listens to a room using the BlackBerry’s mic, and follows the a user unknowingly by listening to their GPS updates.
This is a hot topic right now for BlackBerry as more users are downloading applications and accepting permissions without fully understanding what they’re allowing the app access to. Personally, I think RIM needs to give very specific instructions to the user about what they’re allowing an app to access. The permissions screen is far too vague.
RepliGo Reader 2.0 is an app that displays PDF files on your BlackBerry. You can open PDF email attachments as well as PDF files that reside on the device/SD Card.
A while back we told you about a free Tetris game for BlackBerry called BBTetris. The game is a decent free alterternative to the Tetris that I believe EA has the rights to distribute for BlackBerry. The free version is now called BlockBerry, and is on version 5.78. The latest version saves your sound settings and improves the Storm experience.
Pic of my Bold after buying some OEM parts for it.
I’m a Bold 9000 user and the last time I saw an official release was in early January when OS 5.0.0.411 came courtesy of Bell Mobility. Zain Kuwait has officially launched OS 5.0.0.464, and I’m looking forward to seeing some performance improvements. On that note, has anyone noticed any serious battery drainage with .411?
IDC have announced the top selling smartphones in America and BlackBerry accounted for 5 of the top 10. While this is pretty significant, I’m sure RIM isn’t too happy about growth rates. RIM was significantly stronger than its competitors in terms of pure sales, but Apple’s growth far outpaced all others, with a unit sales increase of 97.7% in Q4 of 2009. Overall in 2009, Apple still dominates in terms of growth by 81.9% compared to RIM’s 46.2%. Continue reading this article
