Slacker Radio sat us down at CES to show us their new Slacker Radio 3.0 for BlackBerry. They’ve showed up with a new, clean interface. One of the most compelling updates, though, is the ability to wirelessly cache your stations. With Slacker 3.0 and wireless caching enabled, your device will search first for wifi, then 3G if wifi isn’t available, late at night. It will also confirm that you have your phone plugged in, so your phone doesn’t cache the stations and you wake up with a dead battery. Once the cache is done, you wake up to fresh coffee and a some steaming goodness of new music. Check out the video for more details. You can expect Slacker 3.0 very soon.
Author: Nan PalmeroPage 4 of 9
Slacker 3.0 Video Hands On
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Spracht, a little company from Mountain View, California, made a new and cool Bluetooth headset. Sure, everyone has noise cancellation and wind protection and full duplex. Blah blah blah. Spracht’s new Aura EQ launches with a few cool features. First, it is capacitive, so you slide your finger up the headset to raise the volume or slide it down to lower it, all the way to mute. Next, you have the ability to adjust the audio with an 8 Band EQ. Finally, in true Whisper 2000 fashion, you can turn the headset into an audio booster so you can hear better in noisy situations, like CES. Expect the Spracht Audio EQ in March with pricing around $79.
The BlackBerry Presenter is BlackBerry’s newest announcement that has been over a year in the making. At an initial price of $199, it truly was designed for the road warrior in mind. The BlackBerry Presenter is a device that connects your OS 4.6+ device to a projector to present your most beautiful PowerPoint presentations. It is able to display about 90 to 95% of the transitions from PowerPoint. If it can’t it’ll substitute it with “fade in/out” with the same timing to not throw you off. Additionally, if you’re on a BES you can stream your presentation off your server. They’ve made the setup drop dead simple and it’ll auto-configure the resolution. Additionally, the pairing is done for you via a piece of software and you can have numerous Presenters set up campus wide and select the one you’d like to use. It’s powered by Micro USB and outputs via VGA or S-Video to a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768 (XGA). How many of your PowerPoint ninjas are interested?
How many times have you been eating a pastry as you realize that your BlackBerry is below, getting covered in crumbs…and maybe a little saliva? Now, I’m not judging you, but you might want to check out Cyber Clean which helps you become a less disgusting slob with their magical compounds that pick up the crumbs and grime and traps it. Honestly, the stuff reminds me of Nickelodeon Gak, just not as runny.
My wife and I just returned from Europe for our anniversary. While we were there, we stopped in Munich to meet up with Fabian Heuwieser. Fabian is one of those people that you have to meet if you’re in Europe. He’s a sharp, friendly and fun guy to hang out with and of course, a BlackBerry application developer. We chatted with Fabian after a beer at the famous Hofbräuhaus in Munich to see what he had to say about his upcoming application, thoughts on the BlackBerry platform and what his wishes are from RIM to help him make applications more quickly and better looking. Check out the video and drop Fabian a line on Twitter via @fabianmh.
If you’re here, you likely have heard, RIM has rolled out BlackBerry Internet Service aka BIS 2.8. One of the features that has been added to this release is the ability to synchronize Gmail contacts to your device. Unfortunately, providers oftentimes don’t give you any notice that they’ve updated and finding the version of the BIS that you’re on can be a pain. Fortunately, I’ve dug up a way for you to be able to tell whether it’s been updated to BIS 2.8. Thanks to RIM’s help section, it explains where you can turn the contact synchronization on and off, via the menu system.
1. On the BlackBerry® Internet Service web site, in the left pane, click Email Accounts.
2. Click the Edit icon beside your Google Mail™ email address.
3. Select the Contacts check box.
4. Click Save.
After you finish: To stop synchronizing your contacts, clear the Contacts check box.
So if you don’t see this option, you’re not on BIS 2.8 yet. If you do see this option, you’re all set! Remember, you have to be running OS 5.0 to use this feature. Let us know if this feature is available from your provider in the comments.
