Twinkler Software are having a sale right now until the 23rd. Their spring cleaning sale means both Instantlog and WiFiHero are both $0.99! Check them out in the store for more details.
Monthly Archive for April, 2010Page 11 of 26
What a day for leaks! The BlackBerry 9670, a clamshell BlackBerry with OS 6, which seems to be a futuristic looking Pearl Flip, has been leaked online. The BlackBerry clamshell has been rumored to exist for ages, but only in patent form. The problem is that patents are constantly filed for a number of form factors, so there’s no telling which one will actually get manufactured. Well it turns out the 9670 clamshell is a real device and is running some pretty awesome specs.
So far we know the BlackBerry 9670 is a CDMA device with WiFi, a 360×480 display, trackpad, OS 6, microUSB, microSD, and a 5MP camera!
This device looks great but you have to wonder if it will be a success. RIM doesn’t have a great track record with clamshell/flip form factors. Have you ever seen anyone in public rocking a Pearl Flip? It happens very rarely. While we will never truly learn device specific sales because RIM keeps it secret, we can speculate from the fact that many developers avoid the Pearl Flip in porting that it’s probably not a big device sales-wise. Was it the flip form factor or the fact that the Pearl Flip had other deficiencies? It will be interesting to see how this device pans out.
Foursquare have just officially released version 1.8.2 of their BlackBerry app. The app is an incredible piece of BlackBerry developer craftsmanship that other companies should look towards for inspiration on their own applications. One of the most impressive things about the Foursquare app is that it barely, if at all, uses the BlackBerry menu, and instead has its own menu structure. The app therefore has a much more rich navigating experience, and this goes a long way to making a better user experience.
Download the latest update at foursquare.com/blackberry.
This update includes a lot of new features such as:
- Friends Page - Quickly see your own friends and discover new ones from your user profile page.
- Search - More prominent search. Now search is built into the top of the Places screen.
- “Me” Settings - Simplified user info & settings via the “Me” screen. You can now quickly manage friends, settings, and view your profile.
- My Check-in History - You can now view your check-in history from your “Me” screen.
- Connection - Improved connection support for a variety of carriers and corporate network configurations.
- UI - Updated UI including a unified look and feel.
- Small Tweaks and Fixes - foursquare is always listening to user feedback and making small fixes & tweaks along the way.
foursquare is always looking to hear back from its users. If you have any question/comments free free to email bb@foursquare.com.
Continue reading ‘Foursquare for BlackBerry Updates to Version 1.8.2 with New Features’
The BlackBerry app economy is picking up steam and with the announcement of carrier and credit card billing, we can expect an even bigger uptake in the market. Now is a better time than ever to get started building BlackBerry apps and a company called fg microtech have a VoIP SDK to help you make something new and creative.
There isn’t much in the way of VoIP on BlackBerry and it’s very hot right now in the smartphone space. With the FGVoIP Engine, developers can integrate a third party VoIP technology with high-quality full duplex media processing capabilities into applications they build for the BlackBerry platform
The fgVoIP Engine SDK will be available in early May. For licensing, pricing and further information, head over to their site.
Nuance’s Dragon dictation software is now available free in App World. Dragon for Email allows users to speak emails, regardless of whether they’re creating, replying or forwarding a message. Dragon for Email is integrated directly into your BlackBerry email, allowing you to switch between voice and text input interchangeably at any time to enter the contact name, subject line, or full message body.
This is a pretty awesome feature that doesn’t normally come free on BlackBerry. Most dictation software will cost you around $10, and Dragon for Email is only free for a limited time. Dragon for Email is now available for the BlackBerry Tour, Storm and Storm2 on Verizon; the Bold and Curve series on AT&T; and, the Curve and the BlackBerry Bold on T-Mobile.
BlackBerry OS 6 details and screenshots are here from BGR and it looks like we’re going to see a much different BlackBerry than the one we’re used to. The whole UI and experience sounds like it’s in-line with a new web 2.0-based smartphone world, and RIM has learned a lot from what their users want and their partners are providing.
The latest OS 6 details seem like they’re going to have huge implications for BlackBerry touschscreen devices. Considering the latest buzz that Lazaridis said there were uncertainties around the touchscreen market, I think this is going to very certainly make touchscreen BlackBerrys much more awesome. Some of the new gestures such as click and hold to bring up contextual menus, will make the whole Storm (assuming it will get OS 6) experience much more rich. OS 6 also features system-wide kinetic scrolling with rubberbanding, which makes it a much smoother experience.
For non touchscreen users, the experience will still be much improved. Tabbed browsing is going to rock, and many of the UI improvements to email will make the whole experience easier on the eyes. Being able to see a quick icon preview of an incoming message will make things a little more efficient. That being said, RIM’s first party apps will surely play a big role in OS 6, allowing them to integrate with all the new features.
One thing of particular interest was that apparently the new inbox style features RSS feeds, which might explain the Viigo acquisition. Although, they probably wouldn’t need the acquisition for this, but I’m sure we’ll see more creative implementation of RSS in OS 6.
It’s a little too bad we didn’t hear anything about widget support, as I think they’ll play a big part in the BlackBerry app market in the coming years. It would have been interesting to see how OS 6 performs with widgets and lets them complement the user experience.
In terms of release date, it looks like we might see this actually hit the market in the June/July timeframe. This is incredible and it might mean an announcement at WES next week.
Continue reading ‘BlackBerry OS 6 Screenshots Emerge with Huge Touchscreen Implications’
