Our friends at SLG Mobile (formerly BeamBerry Solutions) just pinged us that BeamReader, a huge favorite at the BlackBerry Cool 15 – and winner of an offer sheet from the BlackBerry Partners Fund – has left beta and is now officially available. BeamReader is a full fidelity native PDF viewing application for BlackBerry, meaning that all document rendering occurs on the BlackBerry without the need for server side pre-processing or even a network connection. The hallmark of BeamReader is its ability to render actual fonts embedded in a PDF document as opposed to using font substitutes that adversely affect the document’s look and formatting.
“We are delighted to introduce BeamReader to the BlackBerry market and firmly believe that a native full fidelity PDF reader makes the BlackBerry platform more complete for business users and more competitive with other platforms,” said Evgeny Lebanidze, President and CEO of SLG Mobile.
Popular BlackBerry entertainment brand Bplay has released their first BlackBerry theme of the new year: Deep Blue 2.0. Deep Blue 2.0 is similar to the original Deep Blue, but is now animated, giving it that high-tech, 2009 feel! Click the link below to download Deep Blue 2.0. (unfortunately not compatible with the BlackBerry 8830).
Following up on their extremely popular $3 BlackBerry theme sale, the crazy droogs over at BlackBerry Theme Central have decided to ring in the new year with an even better $2(!) sale on all BlackBerry themes. The sale will only last for two weeks (starting today), so make sure to hit the link below and check out the themes before it’s too late.
This morning, T-Mobile and RIM put official word to what BlackBerry Cool readers have known for awhile. The T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8900 will launch this February, at an undetermined date (although we have two goodideas for you). While there’s no word on pricing yet, we do know that T-Mobile is including a 256MB MicroSD card in the Curve 8900, which is so small as to be practically useless. You can find a link to the BlackBerry Curve 8900’s specs (PDF) and RIM’s Curve 8900 page below, as well as the full press release after the jump.
Bell has made two recent announcements which show that 2009 will be a big year for them in terms of multimedia content. Firstly, Bell announced yesterday that they have reached a deal with QuickPlay Media to power their live and on-demand services, including live TV and radio.
Wayne Purboo, president and CEO, QuickPlay Media said “QuickPlay is excited that Bell Mobility has chosen us to power its mobile TV services and to build on our long-standing relationship, which now enables Bell to provide subscribers with the option to watch both live and on-demand content on most video-enabled mobile devices. With our flexible mobile video solutions our customers are equipped to not only meet the demands of their customers today, but to accommodate changing mobile content demands and associated service requirements in the future.”
Bell’s first offering is an exciting one for Canadians: live NHL games on NHL Audio, in-game and post-game video highlights, live NHL games through NHL Centre Ice Mobile and real-time text message alerts. For $8/month, Bell subscribers get all this as well as NHL wallpapers, ringtones, Mobile Video Exclusives that has pictures from the past, Fantasy tips and Game of the Week insight.
If there is one thing that bothers me to no end about my BlackBerry Storm, it is the extreme difficulty in using it as a phone. It’s not because of call quality, which is great, or problems with dialing phone numbers via the SureTouch screen. It’s because the freaking screen doesn’t lock during a call, causing you to often accidentally hang up or mute your call. Extremely frustrating!
Thankfully, there is an application in beta right now that corrects RIM’s poor design choice. Called TalkLock, the application prevents users from accidentally pressing the screen and launching programs or functions while talking on the Storm. Disabling the lock and returning to normal phone behavior is done by swiping your finger across the screen from left to right at any time. Yes, it’s just that simple.
Just before the New Year we had posted a screen capture showing a February 18th release date for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 on T-Mobile. Those fine gents at BerryReporter have published a new image showing a possible February 11th release date. Whether it comes just before Valentine’s Day or just after, I’m sure T-Mobile subscribers are itching to get their hands on the ‘BlackBerry Bold Lite’.
TechCrunch has posted an interesting (if cursory) investigation of the ways in which the Twitter community gets their Tweet on. Getting their metrics from Twitstat, TechCrunch shows that not only does popular BlackBerry Twitter client TwitterBerry crack the top ten, but TwitterBerry users are going Twitter crazy, with an average of 3.68 tweets per user. Currently, TwitterBerry is beating out desktop clients TweetDeck (a personal favorite) and FriendFeed.
While Twitstat’s metrics come from both a small and dedicated group of users, and thus don’t reflect the general Twitter population, it really doesn’t matter. BlackBerry users have always been considered ‘hardcore’ adopters, and it’s cool to know they’re using TwitterBerry to keep their Twitter feed well stocked. Are you on Twitter? If so, follow us:
BlackBerry Cool is a pretty big fan of PeeKaWho, SmrtGuard’s original SMS and email alert application for BlackBerry. So much so, that when SmrtGuard sent out the call for translation help, we rallied the BlackBerry Nation to the cause.
Now, thanks to you, PeeKaWho v.1.20 is now available, featuring no less than SEVEN LANGUAGES! But that’s not all the new version of PeeKaWho contains. Check it out below.
What’s NEW in PeekaWho v1.20
* PeeKaBlock – SPAM Control on your BlackBerry. You can now setup Blacklist and Whitelist with PeeKaBlock. [Learn how to use PeekaBlock]
* Improved LED Notification. When you read an email, the LED alerts turns off with the email.
* Multi-lingual support – See our options in these languages: French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portegese, Chinese (Traditional/Simplify), and of course English. [PeekaWho Multi-lingual version]
* PeeKaLight – using your BB as Flash Light – now works with Left Convenience Key for quick access
Bug Fixes:
* PeeKaPic not showing up bug when language is not set to English.
* HTML Support showing tags.
:: Followup! Integration ::
PeeKaWho now integrates with FollowUp! so you don’t forget to reply to that email.
PeekaWho retails for the affordable price of USD $10. Download it from the links below, or check out the free 7-day trial!
Hmm, it seems as though my stocking hanging upon the BBCool HQ mantle is already stuffed with holiday cheer. Such a gift just in time for Christmas can only mean one thing: RIM Developer Support Guru Mike Kirkup and his merry elves were hard at work all weekend preparing the latest installment of the BlackBerry Developer Newsletter! The BDN Holiday Edition seems to be all about taking advantage of the myriad BlackBerry MDS Runtime tools to create feature rich BlackBerry Applications. You’ll find all the relevant links below, as well as the latest Open Mike with Mike Kirkup, which focuses on the Breaking New Ground Technical Seminar that was such a hit.
If there is one thing that bothers me to no end about my BlackBerry Storm, it is the extreme difficulty in using it as a phone. It’s not because of call quality, which is great, or problems with dialing phone numbers via the SureTouch screen. It’s because the freaking screen doesn’t lock during a call, causing you to often accidentally hang up or mute your call. Extremely frustrating!
