Canadian High Commissioner David M. Malone sent a letter to A. Raja, India’s Communication and IT Minister, questioning the way India is handling the controversy over BlackBerry security concerns. Malone said that the Department of Telcom had “inspired little confidence that those involved on the Indian side are actually empowered to settle the matter…” and requested a conference with “the relevant authorities.” He also criticized the constant media leaks (whoops) and India’s apparent willingness to negotiate through the media. All in all, it is a very polite but very scathing letter, and we can only hope that it will help to finally put the whole matter to rest. It was dated April 17th, but if Raja sent a response, it hasn’t turned up yet.
Author: Devin KentPage 3 of 19
The guys at S4BB just let us know that they’re offering a special $10 off promotion for their Wallpaper Megaplex, bringing the price to a cool $4.99. The promotion runs until May 4th, and will give you access to S4BB’s huge catalog of wallpapers. They have every kind of category under the sun — from soccer to sunsets to cars — in their database, and a huge number of wallpapers in each category. If you’re a wallpaper fanatic, you can’t really go wrong.
Nomadz is a new personal safety tool for businesses and travelers. If you’re going to a foreign country, you can simply fill out your itinerary and you will be alerted to any potentially dangerous situations you might be involved in, from terrorist threats to thunderstorms. You can contact the Nomadz team if anything untoward happens, such as a car accident or injury, and they will alert the authorities, as well as get maps and directions to business meetings or wherever you need to go. They mention that they are working on a new health service, which will give you information on drug interactions and remind you of dosage schedules, and even give a second opinion based on information your provide. Definitely something to look out for at WES.
Remember The Milk has let us know that they’ve just released a BlackBerry version of the syncing software for their to-do-list web app. The web-based service allows users to quickly and easily add tasks, and then be reminded of them over email, text message, or a huge variety of instant messengers. With MilkSync you can sync your BlackBerry tasks list with your list on Remember The Milk, combining the two or having one overwrite the other. Using the software requires a pro account, which costs $25 for a one year subscription, but there’s a 15 day trial period available.
A number of BlackBerrys went missing at the hemispheric summit meeting of representatives from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, reports The Swamp. A Mexican attaché, responsible for guiding the Mexican media around the premises, was caught on video absconding with “six or seven” BlackBerrys that were left on a table by members entering a meeting. White House press secretary Dana Perino said that the phones were definitely from members of the U.S. delegation, although she was unsure exactly who had lost one and whether they were from White House staffers. The whole thing is currently under investigation, so hopefully we’ll have more details soon.
If you’re a Mac user like myself, you probably know that RIM’s Mac support leaves a little something to be desired. So for a refreshing change of pace, we’re taking a look at the Mac-exclusive company: Mark/Space. They have a series of products for syncing your Mac to a variety of mobile devices, and of course The Missing Sync for BlackBerry. The app works similarly to RIM’s licensed solution, PocketMac, but includes a few really nice features, such as allowing you to sync up selected iPhoto albums to your microSD card. It even resizes them to fit the mobile screen, and it works in reverse, automatically adding new photos taken on your phone to iPhoto. It can also sync up with iTunes, and it works with Apple’s SyncServices for maximum compatibility with all sorts of apps. I’ve no doubt there will be some neat demos from them at WES.
InterCall offers a bunch of solutions centered around conferencing. Audio conferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing, they’ve got it all covered. For BlackBerry, they offer Mobile Assistant. Using the application grants you one-click access to your audio conferences, which you can join as a participant or as conference leader, with the conference controls integrated right into the app. It can store up to 128 conference profiles for quick access and, best of all, it’s completely free.
As predicted, AT&T has added the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 to their catalog of smartphones. The GPS-equipped 8110 is available in red and titanium, and comes with a $149.99 price tag after a $50 mail-in rebate. Also as rumored, the 8100 seems to have disappeared from their online store, except for refurbished versions.
The biggest BlackBerry event of the year is a mere 19 days away, so why haven’t you registered yet? Online registration, with its discounted price of $1,899, ends on May 9th, and after that you’ll have to pay the full price of $1,999 to get in the door. Either way, registering will get you access to a welcome reception on the first day of the conference; the WES party, an exclusive cocktail party with live music by John Mayer; all the keynote sessions; presentations onsite and after the conference ends, via DVD or their website; and complimentary breakfast and lunch on the last three days. A pretty sweet deal all in all, but if you can’t make it, don’t worry. Our coverage is going to be the next best thing.
Retain is Gwava’s flagship BlackBerry product, and it’s a doozy. With a normal BES setup, only emails routed through the server or phones could be archived. Using Retain, business can archive text messages, PIN messages, and phone logs for later use. As we mentioned last week, data retention is becoming more and more important to companies for legal issues, and this software could help a great deal. It also helps to monitor usage patterns within the company. Thankfully, it has full-featured security levels, so sensitive information is inaccessible without permission. They should have some good demos to show us at WES.
