We wrote about Wakeful back when it was in beta testing a few weeks ago and now the app has officially launched. The app is a really cool alarm clock that wakes you up with customized news and voices. An interesting tidbit of this app is that it was inspired by Iron Man and Tony Stark’s alarm clock. Cool huh? Here are the features at launch:
Current Date & Time – Wake up to the current date and local time, set to your geo-location. Local Weather – Be ready for whatever mother nature throws at you, with up to date local weather. Optional News & Stocks – Keep on top of the market with the world’s latest breaking news and stock information. Choice of Multiple Voices – Choose from an array of both male and female voice options. Continue reading ‘Wakeful Custom Alarm Clock Now Available Out of Beta and 50% Off’
The BlackBerry Desktop Software has been updated and there are a few additional preferences and some performance improvements. The major part of this update is that the Desktop Software now includes PlayBook support. With the PlayBook having file sharing over WiFi, as well as the ability to update over the air, hopefully users don’t have to plug the device in much. These devices need to be untethered to the desktop and the desktop software just seems a little antiquated. Nonetheless, it’s good to see the update.
Grab the desktop software update by clicking “update” in the app.
I’ve been reading reviews of the PlayBook and they all seem to bring to be saying the same thing: the hardware is amazing but the software needs work. The first thing I thought while reading those reviews was, “that’s exactly how I felt about the Torch.”
The BlackBerry Torch is a great example of how it doesn’t really pay to be an early adopter. Almost as soon as the device launched, the carriers pushed out an official update to the OS. Even today, I find the Torch could use a minor update or two to help with some of the small software bugs I find. It’s not an early adopter friendly strategy, but RIM has always been pretty good about pushing updates soon after launch. After about 6 months of the device being on the market, RIM has patched the vast majority of the bugs and it’s what you wanted it to be at launch. Remember the Storm? It took a while but eventually an OS update made the Storm worth using. The Storm OS at launch was pretty abysmal though.
50 Cent teamed up with UberSocial and he’s got a special skin for the UberSocial Twitter client for BlackBerry called Uber50. The skin looks pretty cool and it features a grimy color scheme. One of the really cool features coming in the paid version (Deluxe G’d Up Edition) includes sound effects for when you post your tweets. This first version is free and gives you an idea of what to expect in the premium version.
Texas Hold’em King Live (THKLive) by Magmic is a really interesting poker game that we’ve written about several times. The game uses in-app purchases and virtual currency for a poker experience unlike any other on BlackBerry. A little known fact about the game is that you can get access to a huge portfolio of avatars that can be used in game, by connecting your account to pretzil.com. Pretzil has a couple hundred avatars that can be unlocked and used in THKLive to make your poker experience even better. To use your avatar in THKLive, follow these steps: Continue reading ‘How To Use Your Pretzil Avatar in Texas Hold’em King Live by Magmic #THKLive’
Mike Lazaridis sat down for an interview with BBC Click to talk about the PlayBook and when the conversation turned to questions about RIM’s presence in the Middle East and India, the interview was abruptly canceled. The issue was that the interviewer, Rory Cellan-Jones, said that RIM had a “security issue” which clearly disappointed Mike L. We’ve been hearing Mike L talk about security for years and you can see the pain and frustration in his eyes when the interviewer used the term “issue”. Lazaridis responds with “we don’t have a security issue” and says that RIM is just being singled out because of their success worldwide. It’s too bad that Cellan-Jones botched the interview because they could have had a really interesting conversation about the PlayBook and what it means for the BlackBerry smartphone.
