A little less than a year ago, Jim Balsillie was given a lot of criticism for saying that the BlackBerry platform will beat out Apple when it comes to media. There hasn’t been much development on the native music player and while it serves the basic purpose, there’s a lot that could be improved.
This is where BlackBerry has the advantage over iPhone. Apple would never let another company try and compete with their native applications such as the browser, but RIM welcomes third party software. The latest BlackBerry media solution is from Unsynced, an all-in-one music experience for BlackBerry that the company promises will one day make all of your Apple friends jealous.
Some of the features of Unsycned include:
Painstaking care has been taken to ensure Unsynced Music is efficient and predictable.
The Unsync button will capture song information. Unsynced does a search on their end and e-mail you the most relevant results so that you won’t forget to “purchase” it when you get home.
Use any PC to drag and drop music into folders on your BlackBerry using Mass Storage Mode. Listen to your newly added songs through Browse Files, or quickly create new playlists through Create/Modify Playlists, giving you the freedom to add to your music experience not just at home, but wherever you go.
BerryWeather has been recently updated to version 1.5 and there are some great new features and bug fixes. Two of my favorite features include: animated radar maps and GPS support.
BerryWeather 1.5 features and bug fixes include:
Animated radar maps (for US Locations only, add a custom radar map for international locations).
Track your location via GPS/CELL TOWER LOCATION so you always know the weather where you are. (Cell location for GSM devices only. GPS does not work for non-Storm devices on Verizon due to carrier restrictions)
Replace the default BerryWeather radar maps for any location with your preferred weather service’s radar maps!
Sunrise/Sunset times and moon phase
New Themes
Smoother animations on BlackBerry Storm
Improved battery and memory handling
Many many more bug fixes
This is a free update to existing BerryWeather owners. Simply install over your existing copy and re-enter your activation code.
To top it all off, we’re giving away 25 free copies to BlackBerry Cool readers. The first 25 people to use the coupon win. So hurry! The code is freecoolweather.
Don’t worry, if you didn’t manage to get the free copy, there is also a discount coupon for 25% off. The code is weather25 valid until Sunday.
This Facebook theme is for the social networking and web 2.0 fans out there. Facebook is an awesome app for BlackBerry, mainly because it’s developed by RIM. Being developed by RIM, the app can use API’s that aren’t available to third party app developers. I’m expecting big things from future Facebook versions. This theme is a tribute to the great social network and useful BlackBerry app.
Currently, the theme is only available for the BlackBerry Curve sporting OS 4.5. Other versions are coming soon.
[ED NOTE: Sorry guys, a contributor posted this and I didn't realize how old it was until now. This patch was issued at the beginning of June.]
RIM has issued a security patch to address a security vulnerability that could leave many smartphones open to a virus attack. RIM didn’t issue a public statement about the vulnerability, but their site reminds users that “as a mobile device best practice, Research In Motion recommends that BlackBerry smartphone users open attachments from trusted sources only,”
Carl Leonard of U.K.-based Websense Security Lab said hackers may be looking to steal corporate sales information, intellectual property or customer data, all of which has value in the underground economy.
Nobody has come out saying they’ve been affected by this vulnerability, and RIM’s security patch will stop any future attempts at hacking into the device.
This article attempts to relay my experiences and lessons learned in the making of PodTrapper, my first mobile application for BlackBerry. It will cover development, pricing, marketing and sales in addition to other items I thought were relevant.
It all started in November of last year. I’m an avid podcast listener during my commutes, and at the time the only viable way to listen was to tote around my iPod. But I still needed my BlackBerry for work, so I was stuck with two devices. I had been toying with the idea of writing a podcast player for BlackBerry and with the announcement of the App World it was now or never. I’m hoping that the success of the iPhone App Store will enable other platforms to follow suit. Afterall, BlackBerry currently has more users and is shipping twice as many phones, albeit to users that may not know apps are available for their phone… yet. Plus the whole project sounded like a lot of fun.
I’ve read all the stories about iPhone developers making fortunes selling apps, how that may not really be the case, or even that people don’t even use the apps they download. I assumed that the truth was somewhere in the middle, but at the very least I wouldn’t have to carry two devices anymore.
Bplay is offering a sweet sale starting now and ending at 11:59 p.m. ET Sunday, June 28. During this sale, you can purchase any Bplay game or theme for just 99 cents.
A solid VoIP solution is going to really transform the way voice is used in enterprise. The costs associated with voice are just too much, especially during peak hours. Agito Networks is looking to fill the BlackBerry enterprise VoIP void, and their technology seems promising.
Agito has added BlackBerry support to their RoamAnywhere Mobility Router which uses WiFi to deliver VoIP calling. The router is geared towards the enterprise market and looks to unify communications within the organization by having PBX support.
BlackBerry support will be available early next month, and per-user costs vary by the size of the deployment. We’ll keep you updated as this solution will be great for the SMB market in particular.
In a recent survey, forty percent of smartphone users who don’t already own an iPhone said they would switch to the Apple handset for their next purchase, nearly three times the percentage of non-Blackberry users who would switch to a BlackBerry.
The online survey was conducted May 19 to June 8, by market researcher Crowd Science and found that only 14 percent of non-Blackberry users wanted to switch to that family of devices.
In the end, RIM will be saturating the market with a wider variety of handsets, and therefore is better positioned to capture a larger share of the smartphone market. While you may love the new iPhone, and it is getting a lot of hype, remember that there are many types of smartphone consumers and the iPhone can’t satisfy them all. RIM on the other hand, can offer a smartphone for every user, be it the Power User and their Bold, or the introductory user and their free Pearl.
China Telecom is reportedly in “preliminary contacts” with RIM to distribute BlackBerry devices in China. China Telecom is China’s largest fixed-line operator by subscribers.
While getting a device sold in China is a very lucrative prospect due to the vast population size of China, it may turn out to be more work than it’s worth. Some analysts are saying that the BlackBerry represents just “another handset choice,” which shouldn’t have much positive impact on China Telecom’s mobile operation. Another factor to consider is whether the BlackBerry device is a cultural fit for the Chinese.
Marvin Lo, a Daiwa Securities analyst, says the Chinese prefer short SMS communication, and a mobile email platform isn’t their preferred means of communication. “Indeed local Chinese prefer short-message service, or SMS, to email as a way of communications,” he said. “I don’t think this data-oriented device can be a big hit in China.”
I’m hoping it will be a success for RIM because the Asia Pacific market could transform RIM into a truly global organization.
elog.com is a simple and non-invasive service. Your website looks exactly like the email you send and it can serve a variety of purposes. To create your own web page, just send an email to newpage@elog.com. Your email can have pretty much anything you want in it and your new web page will look just like the email you send. You will be issued a public web page, e.g. 1993.elog.com, that others can view immediately. To update your web page with new content, just send an email to it, e.g. 1993@elog.com.
Currently, the system does not allow for attachments, but the company has told me that if the BlackBerry community were interested in such a feature, it would be easy to implement. Is this a feature you would like to see?
JohnStanners:@BlackBerryCool The Gordano Messaging Suite provides a fully functional cross-platform alternative to Microsoft Exchange, see http://www ...
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