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Gotta love Salomondrin for leaking pics of the upcoming BlackBerry Pearl 9100 aka Stratus. The 9100 is apparently a 3G Pearl for the GSM network. It has SureType, an optical trackpad, 3G, WiFi and the version we’re seeing is running OS 5.0.0.350. Too bad Sal’s YouTube was taken down by RIM legal. Those lawyers are killing the Internet, 1 leak at a time.
Click through for more leaked pics of this device
Testing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery has been an interesting experience. I always thought consumer electronics manufacturers embellished their battery life expectancies in order to impress the buyer. In this case, RIM has actually slightly under-stated the Bold 9700’s battery life, and really proved themselves to be an honest company when it comes to their battery life marketing. Could we say the same for Apple? I challenge TIPB to do the same with the iPhone, and see if it can play 39 hours of music off radio and last 29 hours with heavy usage. Speaking of Apple…the BlackBerry Bold 9700 lasts longer than the best iPod.
Click through to read more about the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery
Personally, I’ve never read an entire book on my BlackBerry, but I might just give it a try. Viigo is a part of my daily reading habits and if the font size were right, and the interface was clean, I could see myself going through a full eBook on my BlackBerry.
If you want to try it out, or you’re looking for another book, Fictionwise are offering BlackBerry Cool readers 25% off with the coupon code “blackberrycool25″ (sans quotes). The coupon is good until the 30th of November.
Some instructions from Fictionwise:
For Fictionwise.com customers, every MultiFormat (unencrypted) eBook and every Secure eReader eBook will work on your BlackBerry. When you log in to your Fictionwise.com account from your BlackBerry, note that you will only see listed those eBooks that work with eReader for BlackBerry. You will not be shown eBooks that don’t work, such as Secure Microsoft Reader eBooks, etc. If you see it on your BlackBerry, you can download and read it.
Scott Totzke, RIM’s vice-president of BlackBerry security, recently spoke with the press about the potential of the DDOS attack by hackers using BlackBerry devices to target wireless networks. The thought is that because the BlackBerry is essentially a smaller PC, it could be used in a similar manner to overload networks.
But is this really a big concern? I have to agree with Ronen at BerryReview, that someone stealing personal data with an application seems like a bigger concern. All you have to do is build an application that accesses user data, and sends it back to the company’s servers. If they wanted to, a company could use the data on your BlackBerry for malicious purposes.
It seems like only a matter of time until someone in Nigeria figures out how to submit a malicious app into Mobihand. While App World might have a vetting process that looks at what the app is accessing, I can guarantee you the Mobihand network isn’t diligent enough to catch something like this.
Remember, Mobihand are the same people who sell NetworkACC, a bogus application that claims to speed up your mobile network. Not only is the app bogus and a waste of money, but I bet you eMobiStudio are gaming the review system because their app is filled with 5 star reviews. Mobihand have such a weak review system that anyone can write a hundred positive reviews about their app.
We can only hope that if a malicious app shows itself, the good people at BlackBerry Cool, BerryReview, CrackBerry, etc. will find out and spread the word not to download it.
Nickel Buddy are really cool BlackBerry game developers because they’ve been putting out quality games specifically with the BlackBerry Storm in mind. The latest is called Revball and it’s a paddle ball type arcade game.
While the game is available for the Storm2, it doesn’t use the multitouch feature which is a pretty key element of the device. As a Storm2 user, I’m always on the hunt for content that uses its unique features, but a Storm game is good fun regardless.
Revball is $4.99 and there is more information available on the purchase page.
CrackBerry and BlackBerryOS are reporting a leaked OS 5.0.0.348 for the BlackBerry Curve 8520. RIM have said that it won’t be longer than 2010 before we start seeing OS 5 rolled out across a larger gamut of devices so it shouldn’t be long until this is official. So if you want it now, and you’re okay with some third party apps not working, then go ahead and give it a try. Usual caveats apply.
Download OS 5.0.0.348 from MegaUpload.
If you’re getting the error “File Temporarily Unavailable”, all you have to do is keep refreshing the screen. It took me about 15 refreshes to finally get the download to work.
Super BabyGO! is the latest update to the BabyGO! franchise by Zeebu Mobile. The first version of the app, is a free sample of how the game works, and this version has some great new features you and your kid would like.
Once downloaded, the app locks the BlackBerry and lets your 0-2 year old push the keys and hear the corresponding sound. The app also features a growing section of downloadable content to keep things fun. Instead of letters and numbers, it can deliver cute animals as well as multiple languages.
Super BabyGO! is available for $5.99, or on a free trial. You can get more details and download information from their site. Also, Super BabyGO! is soon to be in App World so feel free to check it out then.
The folks at Zeebu Mobile are also providing 25 licenses to winners who comment and tell us “what games/toys your kids love to play with.” We’ll select 25 winners at random and email them licenses.
Click through for some pretty funny video of a kid getting a kick out of the app
Berry Wars has been given a huge update and is now a visually stunning BlackBerry game called Druglord Wars. The game is just like the original Dope Wars, where the aim is to buy low and sell high, all the while avoiding the cops.
Some new features to the game include:
The game is currently on sale for $3.99 until November 20th (regularly $4.99). Druglord Wars is available for OS 4.6 and up with 480×320 or 480×360 screens, and there are plans to support 4.5+ with 320×240 soon.
UPDATE: The Bold 9700 battery just died. The BlackBerry Cool official time is 19:22, exactly 29 hours. This is 29 hours while using the device heavily. Let’s see an iPhone do that!
UPDATE: 16:19 and 26 hours into the test, with 10% battery left. Part 2 of the test has sort of changed. It started off as a test of the music playback under more strenuous network conditions and has turned into a test of how long the battery will last under power user conditions. I’ve been playing music, tweeting, taking pics, using Google Maps, running several other apps simultaneously, making and taking calls and constantly pulling data from both Maps and Twitter. There was a break when I went to sleep but I left all the connections and apps running so it was still very much active.
UPDATE: 14:16, 24 hours into the test, and the battery is at 25%. Something I’ve noticed is that making calls depletes the battery much faster than anything else. I knew this intuitively but the test really made it obvious. Streaming music doesn’t seem to have much impact on battery life at all.
UPDATE: 10:40 went through the night and we’ve been back on WiFi, radio for a couple hours. At 30% and around 20 hours we’re definitely going a full day no problem.
UPDATE: It’s 02:29, 12 hours into the test. The batter reads 40% and I have been using a very decent amount of apps and data. Holding the BlackBerry Button, it shows the following apps: Messages, UberTwitter, Home Screen, BlackBerry Messenger, Media, Radio Companion, Setup Wizard (I switch devices a lot), Visual Voice Mail, Google Maps, Browser, Gmail and Phone. I’m going to give the updates a rest until around 8 AM.
Click through for more about the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery life test
The last time we wrote about Cellcrypt, they were showcasing their secure mobile voice encryption software for BlackBerry at WES 2009. The company and BlackBerry app have come a long way and we got to talking with them last week at BBDC.
Since WES, the company has received FIPS 140-2 certification, a standard approved by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. At BBDC, the company announced that their product is available for the BlackBerry Bold 9700, as well as Curve and Pearl series devices.
Cellcrypt’s product has become more relevant than ever with the ongoing media coverage behind a group of hackers looking to crack the standard GSM network. The hackers say they’re doing this in order to send a message that 2G GSM calls lack proper security encryption, and they could make their code book available to anyone via torrents. While the process is purely academic, and not likely an imminent threat, it still demonstrates a need in the industry for greater voice security.
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