Sympatico has launched their mobile portal app on BlackBerry App World. The free, bilingual app delivers Sympatico’s Canadian users access to news, music and entertainment stories, similar to what’s found on their Sympatico.ca portal. Sympatico’s mobile portal app also features a number of mobile features like location-based content including local weather, as well as push notifications for breaking news, a built-in QR code reader and the ability to share news items over social networks.
It’s always important to find a good WiFi spot with your PlayBook and the Find Near Me app can help you do that and more. The Find Near Me app for the PlayBook helps you find ATMs, Banks, Restaurants, WiFi spots and more. The app uses the built-in GPS in the PlayBook and plots pointers as overlays on a map to show points of interest in the vicinity of your current location. Find Near Me also allows you to find other locations and search for places around them. It even remembers the locations you have previously searched in. Features of the app include:
Automatically finds your current location and plots it on a map.
Find interesting and useful places such near you from a predefined set of commonly used keywords.
Customize the application to include custom search terms.
Search around other locations. Find Near Me remembers the locations you have previously searched.
Find details such as distance from your current position, address, contact numbers and street view of searched locations.
Use it on-the-go to search for places of interest and to plan your trips to new locations.
The BlackBerry Bold Touch was a pretty cool smartphone that we got our hands on back at BlackBerry World. It was nice how the light device fits into your pocket and you almost forget that it’s even there. With a built-in-compass (magnetometer) that supports location-based services and augmented reality, the device looks like it will be a decent stepping stone until the following year when the QNX smartphones come out. From the demo, we see the app’s ability to bring up information from a variety of sources including BBM and Foursquare, and bring them on a map or into the Augmented Reality view in the camera. It’s too bad that you can only see your current BBM contacts in the Augmented Reality view though. It would have been really cool to see other BBM contacts who at least also have Wikitude.
Many of you have noticed this option but in case you haven’t, go to Options > Device > Location Settings and scroll down a little. There, you’ll see the Enable GPS option with a message that says: “Anonymously collects data to improve the speed and accuracy of future location services.” The intent is pretty clear and RIM is building a database of location data in order to be able to improve their software. RIM is explicit that the data is anonymous and give the user the ability to disable. Again, if Apple and Google had been this open about their location data collection, it probably wouldn’t have turned into such a debacle.
Read more over at SmrtGuard’s Resource Center where they’ll have regular content in the mobile security space.
Global Alert Network has created a free app that gives you emergency updates, traffic alerts and weather info that you can access safely, even while in the car via hands-free audio alert. The app uses your device’s GPS to give you location-relevant alerts that are automatic, meaning one you download the app and set the alerts, you’re done. You don’t have to touch or interact with the device any further making it like those “set and forget it” cookers.
You guys write about apps like BlackBerry Protect and SmrtGuard all the time, and I thought I would give Protect a try. Just my luck, last week I had my BlackBerry stolen and I turned on Protect to see if I could find it. Protect gave me a map with a pin of where my device is, accurate to about 6 meters (ED NOTE: pictured above). So I decided to call the police and report it stolen because it’s technically theft over $500, making it worth police attention. In the report I said I have software installed to help find my BlackBerry and an investigator called me back a few days ago. I gave him the screenshot and he said he would get back to me. This is what he said: Continue reading ‘Reader Asks: How Do I Get My Stolen BlackBerry Back?’
