The voice of the BlackBerry community.
Hedone Design’s latest theme has a very steampunk/Myst feel to it that looks really great on a modern BlackBerry. The top screen has 5 customizable icons along the top, and 4 along the bottom beside a large clock display. The icons are very simple and recognizable, and look great in combination with the wallpaper. The battery and signal meters are designed as the sort of gauges you would expect in a steampunk-style theme.
Calx let us know that they are having a sale for today only where Calx themes are $1 (basically 80% off). To take advantage of the deal, use the coupon code “calx80″ at the checkout.
Take a look at all the Calx themes and use the coupon code for today’s deal.
There’s a new app called Pinvote which lets you rate a user profile, sort of like the infamous Hot or Not, but puts a twist on it by allowing you to buy credits to contact a user via BBM. This is a pretty awesome idea and I have a hard time not respecting how aggressive they are with monetizing the service, but you have to wonder who is going to pay for a BBM friend. There are already many social networks that allow you to exchange PINs, but I think they’re all going to have a hard time when RIM extends BBM to desktop.
With WES 2010 just around the corner, you can bet RIM are going to make some announcements about App World and the number of applications currently in their portfolio. Mainstream media are constantly quoting app numbers, and comparing the major smartphone platforms purely based on these numbers, without any real understanding of the value that the smartphone user is getting from these apps.
Personally, I think smartphone app value comes from its ability to solve a problem. Can I do something faster or more efficiently with the app? Great, then that app provides real value. Am I saving money with this app? Excellent, sign me up. Everything else, be it games, themes or entertainment, is important to a good app economy, but I’d like to make the argument that it’s not where the real value is in smatphones.
Lets take a look at the top paid apps in Android, BlackBerry and iPhone, to get an idea of the tangible value that these smartphones are providing their uers. By taking the top paid apps, we get an idea for where the users are spending their money, and what they’re getting out of it. I’ve only listed the top 10, but I’ve linked to where the rest of the apps can be found, and I’m trying to be as general as possible.
Continue reading ‘What Do Top Paid Apps Say About the Smartphone Platform?’
This was a very exciting week in BlackBerry indeed. Not only have a ton of apps launched this week, likely in preparation for WES 2010, but we’ve seen some awesome advanced screenshots of OS 6, as well as the upcoming clamshell BlackBerry which will feature the latest OS.
In talking with BlackBerryCool readers, the resounding first impressions of the clamshell are “wow, it’s really ugly”. The BlackBerryCool Facebook page has 13 comments on the clamshell article, and only 1 person said they like “flip phones”, not even the clamshell in particular. Regardless of what you might think of the design, some will surely buy it. Considering there is a market for the LG Reveal, RIM will surely have no problem getting some decent numbers.
All of that aside, OS 6 looks awesome. Not only will OS 6 do great things for the general UI and navigation, but the implications for touchscreens is incredible. There are more gestures that will make using a touchscreen even more fun and efficient, and these will go a long way when RIM release some new touchscreen devices.The rumored touchscreen/QWERTY hybrids are going to be even better than imagined with this new OS. Hopefully we’ll have more details from WES.
Continue reading ‘BlackBerryCool Roundup for the Week of April 19th’
Marc Gingras is, simply put, an entrepreneur. Someone who finds the gaps in the way we work and fills them in a way that makes you wonder what you did before and why no one thought of it before. He’s also the founder and CEO of Tungle, an online meeting manager that makes it simple to schedule meetings, regardless of the calendaring system you and your invitees use — and now regardless of device you store on your hip.
You get a sense of what Marc is about almost immediately — he’s focused, determined and excited about what he’s doing and that excitement is viral just like his product. One of the things that stuck with me is what he terms the “Tungle Hierarchy of Needs” — you’ll have to watch to get all the details but, clearly, it is something that blew me away.
Full disclosure on this one — when you get two Canadians talking technology you can count on an animated and passionate conversation, second only to hockey.
Bad Behavior has blocked 27592 access attempts in the last 7 days.