VIP Mobile has lauched their BlackBerry service with the Vodafone’s BlackBerry 8130 and BlackBerry 8100 today, in what sounds like a vaguely MVNO-ish deal; either Vodafone’s just offering the devices and VIP has to deal with the service, or VIP is outsourcing the whole thing to Vodafone. Regardless, you can find more information on VIP’s GPS Curve and Pearl rates over here.
Tag: BlackBerry-8310Page 2 of 5
Serbia gets the Curve and the Pearl
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Christmastime is rapidly approaching, and maybe that special BlackBerry-user in your life hasn’t been bought for just yet. Well, there’s still time and BBCool’s here to help you find something you know they’ll use and love. We’ve compiled a little wish-list of stuff we would personally like to see under the tree – presents we’re so sure of that we’re knocking 10% off all in-store items marked with asterix – just enter the coupon code BBHOLIDAY for your discount. I know, we’re giving y’all presents early again, but we just can’t help it.
Check the BBCool Wishlist behind the jump!
Europe’s biggest phone retailer is now bundling navigation software with their BlackBerry 8310s, hosted by Telmap. No doubt the branded app will find its way onto other GPS-enabled handsets on The Carphone Warehouse’s catalogue, both BlackBerry and otherwise. If you’re interested, you can nab one over here.
A new ABI Research paper is forecasting $100 billion to be made from GPS-enabled handsets, like the BlackBerry 8310, in 2012. In terms of units, that translates to 240 million mobile sales next year to 550 million in four years. Now, I’ve gone on the record for being pro-GPS and all, but Wi-Fi still seems like the feature of choice for a lot of people. Manufacturers are going to be in a tough position where, in an attempt to keep costs low and their handsets slim, they’ll need to be picky about what they would rather have under the hood, and ABI seems to think that many will go with GPS. Which are you guys siding with?
Robb spotted a Seeking Alpha report which gives us a preliminary view of BlackBerry sales last Friday. Verizon’s new BlackBerry 8130 did pretty well, and it’s no surprise that AT&T’s $99 BlackBerry 8310 rocked the charts, too. On the losing end of things we have Sprint, who suffered a “lack of new devices at the U.S. wireless service provider’s stores”. Not enough BlackBerry 8130s to go around, Sprint? Tough break, especially with all that money you’re losing.
We don’t get this whole Black Friday craziness in Canada since our Thanksgiving was back in October, but with sales like $99 dollar Curves, maybe it’s time we pick up the “holiday”. AT&T’s sale will include a bunch of other phones that are also half off, but really, why would you want anything other than a Curve with GPS?
The newest addition to the Independent Software Vendors Alliance, Me Inc., is offering a free beta for their Shout Postcard service on BlackBerry. Shout Postcard makes postcards with pictures taken from your Curve or Treo, along with recorded voice notes and typed out messages, perfect for those snide “wish you were here” cards that you can send by e-mail right from the tropical beach. Now if you could send the newly-supported video clips too, you’d be set. If you’re interested in giving the beta a try, you can download it over the air at www.shoutpostcard.com/downloads/com_meinc_shout2.jad.
It’s been a barrage of Pearl news lately, but the Curve is still kickin’. T-Mobile UK released the BlackBerry 8310 with GPS over the weekend. No word on pricing, as it hasn’t even hit the online store yet, but if Vodafone’s offering can be any guideline, you can expect it to be somewhere in the £130-range or less.
Josep’s been testing out the beta for a new geotagging project called bbPlaces, which lets you directly upload pictures taken on your BlackBerry to Google Maps, where your GPS unit will place the photo where you took it. bbPlaces even provides a rating system for when you visit photos of places uploaded by others, as well as directions on how to get there in the first place. Although it might be pigeonholed to the 8310 and 8130 (the only BlackBerrys with both camera and on-board GPS), and the app is natively written in Spanish, it’s still great to see stuff like this getting developed. The site includes English instructions, so give it a shot and let us know how it goes.
The folks at Earthcomber, the free location-based app for mobile, have let know that they’re going to be busting out a BlackBerry client. Of course, stuff with integrated GPS is on the list, like the 8310 and 8800, but Earthcomber also sports a self-spotting function which lets you designate the city you’re in if you don’t have GPS handy. The program lets you browse through categorized services, like banks, ATMs, restaurants and lists results in order of proximity. Also, they’ve got a proximity detection service which alerts you when buddies are nearby. It’s got a clean interface, and you can’t beat free. Sadly, this is a U.S.-only thing right now, but we’ll be keeping our eye out for a Canadian release real soon.
