The shots of 4.5′s BlackBerry Desktop Manager have already been sighted, but 4.6 due to launch with the BlackBerry Bold hasn’t been seen until now. The big feature is the iTunes media syncing promised to come with the BlackBerry 9000, but aside from that, everything looks more or less like the unreleased 4.5 DM.
Tag: itunesPage 3 of 3
Desktop Manager 4.6 sighted
2 Comments
nuTsie recently announced a partnership with lyrics database LyricFind, letting you search through the lyrics of all the music in your iTunes library from your BlackBerry while you’re listening to streaming tunes. Best of all, it’s free – you just have to export your iTunes metadata and upload it to their servers. BlackBerry support is still in open beta, if you want to give nuTsie a shot and have a data plan that can stomach it. Thanks Josep!
The Globe and Mail just posted about a pretty great product RIM’s working on: the BlackBerry Home Server. The idea is that it would be kind of a mini-BES for your home, which would let RIM’s network operating center to talk with your PC at home, allowing for access to music, photos and files from anywhere with your BlackBerry. The author makes an open comparison to iTunes, and Scotia Capital’s Gus Papageorgiou wasn’t shy about bashing the old model versus the new one RIM is setting up.
“Why do you need this application-specific, expensive piece of hardware that you batch process into your PC every once in a while when you happen to be home, when instead you can just do everything you want to over the air and not have to worry about being at home to sync it with your PC or your laptop?” Mr. Papageorgiou asked.
This is a trend following Microsoft’s Windows Home Server in terms of bringing business functions to home customers, and shows a lot of promise for penetrating the multimedia-crazy consumer market. A few days ago we were talking about advanced features on BlackBerrys, such as music-playing, and how many owners actually use them. If RIM can offer the software which supports those features, we can count on usage (and the value of owning a BlackBerry) going up.
BlackBerry has received tenth place in The Software & Information Industry Association’s Ten Most Significant eCommerce Developments of the Last Decade. Sure, Google took the numero uno spot, but go figure. It’s Google, for crying out loud. The fact that we can put BlackBerrys on the same list as eBay and Amazon in terms of economic significance, while not hugely surprising when you sit back and think about it, still puts the importance of these devices into perspective. Russ at ZDNet notes that you can experience everything on the list shy of iTunes and open standards HTML 4.0 on your BlackBerry, which is quite true. The number seven spot, Wi-Fi, will be coming soon enough. The announcement has this to say about our favourite little handheld:
The BlackBerry makes communication instantaneous, and mobile. A comprehensive communications device creates a new mobile business culture. Giving road warriors the freedom to move to any location and maintain connectivity increases cooperation and efficiency. By having the web in the palm of your hand, Internet connected devices enable ecommerce anywhere, anytime.
You have to wonder, though… what did BlackBerry nudge down to 11th. place?
