Rogers has announced that they will be launching LTE (Long Term Evolution) in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa in 2011 with the top 25 markets across the country coming online in 2012. Rogers claims the LTE network will be capable of download speeds of 150 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 70 Mbps. These numbers will of course fluctuate based on your mobile device. LTE will enable the following:
Everyone will be able to watch streaming movies and live HDTV on their mobile devices, with crisp picture and virtually no buffering or delays
Friends and families can video chat seamlessly – as natural as talking on the phone, with virtually no lag time
Gamers can play their favourite multiplayer games from almost anywhere
Businesses can implement a truly mobile workforce that is both as efficient and secure as a traditional workplace
Yesterday many download BBM version 6.0.0.73 from the beta zone and while there isn’t anything really new in terms of UI, there’s a few features that are new for both users and developers. The new BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 will be able to leverage the BBM Social Platform, which has some really cool app hooks such as the ability to send an app to a friend and share more through the PIN messaging system. From a user standpoint, we won’t see those features until developers start implementing, but in the meantime there’s a cleaner interface for adding contacts and some performance improvements. Other features include: Continue reading ‘BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 Beta Launches with A Few New Features’
Magmic has launched a new version of New York Times Crosswords for BlackBerry that features in-app payments for subscriptions. The app features a free week of daily puzzles and it’s free to download. There are also a variety of subscription services you can choose including one month, six month or one year subscription rates. As far as we can tell, this is the first app to use the BlackBerry Payment Service to provide subscriptions.
The New York Times Crosswords is the only officially licensed app and has an archive of over 4,000 classic puzzles as well as lets you participate in the Daily Puzzle. Other cool features include:
Send messages and compare your solve times with friends online
Compete against top players via the online leaderboards
Write in ‘pen’ or ‘pencil’
Solve puzzles on the grid or directly from the clues list
Automatic highlighting of related clues
Check or reveal letters, words or the entire puzzle
Magmic also let us know that while they have limited device support for launch, they’ll be spending this week back-filling device support so stay tuned. Your device should be supported very soon.
Audrey Draw is a simple app that lets you scribble colors on the PlayBook and let your child’s imagination run wild. Here at BlackBerryCool, we’ve given a lot of attention to kid-friendly apps because we know a lot of BlackBerry and PlayBook users that are on the go and have children to take care of as well. On a long plane ride somewhere? Just pass them your PlayBook (in a case/cover) and let them paint. There’s no mess to clean up afterwards and you’re getting them familiar with the tools of the future. Audrey Draw features:
True multi-touch draw
Multiple pen sizes
Multiple background paper textures
Ability to save drawings
Unobtrusive, friendly, slide out menu
Audrey Draw is a good start and we’d like to see a few more features including the ability to email a drawing from the app. If your kid is going to be the next Picasso, those scribbles will be worth something some day.
Grindr is the hottest all-male hookup app and social network and they’ve recently announced that going forward, they will only be supporting Grindr Xtra, the premium service. Apparently there is “simply not enough ad inventory to have an ad-supported version of Grindr for BlackBerry.” The latest build of Grindr for BlackBerry contains a trial of Grindr Xtra and the Grindr Xtra Store.
To install, follow these steps:
1. You MUST delete all previous of Grindr from your device. (From your BlackBerry’s home screen head to Options>Advanced Options>Applications and delete Grindr)
2. Once Grindr is deleted you must reboot! (if you are not prompted to reboot press alt+right shift+delete)
3. Once your BlackBerry has rebooted open this URL in your BlackBerry browser:
4. When the pop-up appears to install Grindr check the box to edit permissions before installing.
5. Set ALL permissions to allow and then install Grindr
Ever wondered how Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stay connected even as they spend so much time traveling between countries? Well they do it thanks to a company called TrueNorth Avionics, based in Ottawa, Canada. The company partnered with RIM to give them an airborne solution for their corporate fleet and have since grown the company to support all smartphones and more solutions.
