This week, AccelGolf launched a new BlackBerry version of their GPS Rangefinder and Scorecard app. The app works for the BlackBerry Curve, Bold, Tour, Storm, Storm2, 8800, and Pearl models. The GPS Rangefinder app provides three modes of distance tracking:
Landmarks View – Use this list of landmarks to check your precise distance to the front, center, and back of green, and distance to hazards.
Aerial Hole View – See the entire course before tee-off to determine distances for your planned strokes. Plan all shots before tee-off with a plotter that provides distances required for each stroke.
Skylab Mobilesystems has launched a speedometer app that uses the GPS to track your speed and display it in a variety of units including m/s (meters per second), km/h (kilometers per hour), mi/h (miles per hour), knots (identical with nautical miles per hour). Skylab has suggested that this app isn’t very effective when walking in the city, because tall buildings might block or reflect the GPS signal. The GPS works best in an open area outside, which makes this app perfect for a hobby such as boating.
Features include:
Hooks up to internal and external Bluetooth GPS receivers.
Shows current speed provided by GPS receiver.
Large digits for easy reading when you’re on the move.
Golf GPS for BlackBerry is a golf course mapping application that acts as a range finder as well as giving you a top-down look at the course. Swing by Swing has developed Golf GPS to use their user-generated golf course database. At present, the database has more than 8500 golf courses on file, with new ones easily added to the database using the Golf GPS app.
Swing by Swing also offers a premium golf course mapping service. If your course is not on their list and you don’t want to enter the map details yourself, you can spend $11.99 to have the experts at Swing by Swing staff map it for you.
Hertz has launched a rental car booking app for BlackBerry. The app can use GPS to find the closest Hertz location, shop from their lot’s availability and save favorite locations.
The developers say that the next version will feature Storm support, the ability to edit your current reservation(s), multi-language support, WiFi and cell tower positioning to get positioning data even indoors.
I’m surprised at how many apps omit Storm support from their flagship launch. You would figure developing an accompanying iPhone app would allow you to use the iphone art assets for your Storm port.
I am however, glad to see developers getting curious about the more robust assisted GPS data that RIM is implementing. Imagine how much better all the GPS driven apps will with accurate indoor GPS data.
Spotberry let us know that they have released version 2.3.20 of their GPS toolset app for BlackBerry. Spotberry features a few useful tools that leverage the BlackBerry’s GPS, and allows you to do some pretty fun navigation things that might be popular with the geocaching crowd. SpotBerry features a compass, speedometer and track log recorder, as well as features such as an automatic shut-off if battery levels are low.
In speaking with some developers about the GPS on BlackBerry, I’ve heard the altitude readings can be very inaccurate, so it will be interesting to see how this app handles the readings.
Mobile Spy is software for BlackBerry that is used to silently record user activity of children or employees. The app logs usage information which is then viewable online in real time. Several log types are included such as entire SMS text messages, actual GPS locations and call information. All logs can be reviewed from anywhere inside a secure online control panel.
With Mobile Spy version 4.0, employers and parents now have the ability to view every photo captured and every email sent or received. Other features added in version 4.0 include the ability to view all contacts, calendar events, memos and identification information of any cell tower the device enters into range of.
