Posted on February 9, 2009, at 11:35 AM .
After a few months of speculation, Fido has relaunched BlackBerry service with the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. That’s right, not the BlackBerry 8120 or even the 8110, but the BlackBerry 8100. However, Fido is Rogers’ low-end consumer brand, so there must be some sort of deal involved, correct? Well, the promo image above shows that the Pearl 8100 can be purchased for $25 with a 3 year Fido agreement/data plan. Hmm, three years is a long time, so what about some sort of month to month option? $400 freaking dollars? What about the data plans?
* $15 – Unlimited personal email and IM
* $25 – 500MB
* $30 – 1GB
* $60 – 3GB
Ok, at least that’s pretty sane. For the youth demographic, though, $15 a month for email and IM (what they want the BlackBerry for anyways) and another $15 for phone service (based upon their cheapest rate) isn’t that bad. But instead of paying $400 or signing a three year contract, swing by the BBCool HQ first: we have a box of old 8100s that we’d be willing to give away, guaranteed (guarantee void in Tennessee).
Fido BlackBerry Pearl Promo
Posted on February 6, 2009, at 3:59 PM .
Late last week YouMail launched Visual Voicemail Plus, a free visual voicemail application that works on the Blackberry Pearl, Curve, Bold and Storm. I like the sound of free, and a new visual voicemail application is always worth a try, but reports are surfacing that YouMail might not yet be up to snuff. Here’s what our main man Troy had to say over at BlackBerry News:
After 24 hours it is safe to say a lot work still needs to go into the application before it is ready for prime time much like the transcription service they charge for now. Many users including myself have experienced nothing but problems with the application… Maybe with all the ad revenue from placing ads on every aspect of your messages they can now put a little more money into their projects and refine their service. Time will tell.
We’re going to give YouMail our own thorough hands-on, but we recommend that you give it a try and post a comment on your experience. If you’re not willing to take the risk, however, post a comment and let us know of your favorite visual voicemail alternative.
Posted on February 4, 2009, at 1:27 PM .
It’s Wednesday today, which means people around the world are sitting at their desks thinking about the weekend. To help you get by, we thought this photo of a tasty AT&T BlackBerry Curve cake would help numb the brain until Friday comes. If you’re into mixing and matching your smartphone flavors, there are iPhone and Helio Ocean cakes after the jump as well. A bunch more interesting cake designs can be found here.
Thanks to @JeffHunt00 for the tip!
Smartphone Cakes
Posted on February 4, 2009, at 1:00 AM .
Slacker today announced the availability of the free Slacker Mobile application for the BlackBerry Storm. Slacker Radio, which is optimized for the handset’s unique touch screen, and can be used in both vertical and horizontal modes, is available as a free download by visiting Slacker.com from your BlackBerry Storm.
Slacker station caching, an exclusive feature for BlackBerry smartphones, enables listeners to store favorite stations on a memory card, allowing the Slacker Mobile application to play without a network connection, reducing battery life consumption by up to 5 times that of streaming playback and enhancing application performance. In addition, BlackBerry smartphone enthusiasts can enjoy Slacker Personal Radio while doing other tasks such as emailing, instant messaging or web browsing (sorry iPhone).
As you know, I’m a big fan of Slacker. Now, my BlackBerry Storm friends can share in the same level of excellence from Slacker Radio that I have enjoyed for weeks. The link was scheduled to go live at 8 AM ET, but it appears to already be functional. If you’re in the USA (sorry Canucks), have a BlackBerry Storm or other BlackBerry with OS 4.3 or better, head over to www.slacker.com on your BlackBerry and download the free application. Hit us up in the comments with your thoughts.
Posted on February 3, 2009, at 1:58 PM .
When BlackBerry Cool became the first BlackBerry website on the Internet to provide free invites to the BOLT BlackBerry Browser private beta, we never thought so many people would have such rabid interest. After thanking you the readers for providing ‘substantial feedback’ on the initial beta release, Bitstream let us know that an updated version is being pushed to users with BlackBerry-specific enhancements. You can find the full list of enhancements after the jump.
For those that haven’t tried the BOLT Browser yet, we have some great news: the ‘berrycool’ code now has unlimited referrals! So head over to the BOLT download page and tell Bitstream ‘berrycool’ sent you.
In addition, Bitstream has set up an email address for people who want to share their experiences using BOLT and possibly be quoted (with expressed permission) in BOLT’s PR efforts. The address is pr4beta@boltbrowser.com. Bitstream has also set up a support form for those with technical issues at: http://www.boltbrowser.com/support.html. So you have your task readers: download the new version of BOLT, keep providing great feedback, and help make a nifty BlackBerry Browser even better.
BOLT BlackBerry Browser Feature updates
Posted on January 30, 2009, at 11:51 AM .
Press Release
Johannesburg, South Africa and Waterloo, ON – Vodacom South Africa and Research In Motion today announced the availability of the BlackBerry Storm smartphone in the South African market. The BlackBerry Storm will be available from Vodacom on January 28.
“The BlackBerry Storm is a next-generation smartphone designed to meet the communication and multimedia needs of the most demanding customers. With its renowned communications capabilities, rich multimedia features and stylish design, the BlackBerry Storm allows customers to make the most of their time on the go with a fashionable and lifestyle-friendly smartphone,” says Shameel Joosub, Managing Director, Vodacom South Africa.
The BlackBerry Storm will be available to both Vodacom’s Prepaid and Contract customers from participating Vodacom outlets, across South Africa. Customers can also call Vodacom Direct 0860 123 123 or go to www.vodacomdirect.co.za for the best deals and have the smartphone delivered to their door. Payments start as low as R59.00 per month for the BlackBerry Internet Service (Prepaid and Contract) and R98.00 for BlackBerry Enterprise Service (excluding device).
BlackBerry Storm Specifications and Preloaded Applications
