Posted on July 15, 2009, at 10:51 am .
The Google Voice app has launched for BlackBerry today, making quick searches much easier to perform on your device.
The news comes from Google Voice’s Vincent Paquet who has confirmed that users will not only be able to place calls on their devices and have recipients’ calls display the Google Voice number, but it will also make it possible to view voicemail transcripts within the application as opposed to through the mobile web.
You can download Google Voice for BlackBerry OTA at http://m.google.com/voice
[Via]
Posted on March 26, 2009, at 7:02 am .
Google Search for BlackBerry now uses voice search. I put it on my BlackBerry Storm 9530 and it recognizes speech fairly well. On the Storm it brings up the keyboard which you can’t get rid of. This I found slightly annoying. Also, it isn’t obvious how to scroll through the selections. Google Search looks great on my Storm and I’m curious, how does it look on your device?
{ED NOTE: The title said Storm because that is what the author was using. It did not mean to imply a version specifically for the Storm.]
Click though to see screenshots from my Storm
Posted on January 20, 2009, at 5:14 pm .
I have trouble getting away from my BlackBerry Address Book. As simple as this stock application is, as basic at it looks, it simply works. E-Mobile Software Inc. has come out with e-Mobile Contacts, an app designed to give you an at-a-glance view of all of your contacts, and the option of contacting those in your address book by e-mail, phone or SMS – depending on the contact information you have stored on your device. I was pretty excited to get my hands on an Address Book replacement because of all the possible benefits of the user interface, and the potential this holds for speeding up the endless search for contacts. And from what I’ve seen of e-Mobile Contacts, the UI looks pretty clean. Perhaps I won’t have to type Xela Zsang’s name every time I want to get to her info!
e-Mobile Contacts v.2 for the BlackBerry 8100 Review Quick Links
KEY DETAILS
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Posted on September 17, 2008, at 9:11 am .
As the power of our BlackBerrys and other smartphones grow, it’s always interesting to see the new ways in which people start using them to either send or receive information. I have the Google Search button sitting in the top six icons of my BlackBerry Bold’s Zen theme, so I can personally attest to the growth in mobile search (perfect for a quick IMDB or settling a bar bet), but I didn’t think the numbers would be quite this large.
M:Metrics is reporting that in June 2008, 20.8 million U.S. mobile subscribers and 4.5 million European mobile phone subscribers accessed search during the month, an increase of 68% and 38% from June 2007, respectively. The UK had the highest penetration of mobile subscribers using search at 9.5 percent, followed closely by the U.S. at 9.2 percent. Mobile search is growing not only in number, but in frequency as well.
“It is interesting to note that as we see the number of mobile search users increase, the frequency of activity is also growing,” observed Alistair Hill, analyst, comScore. “The number of people accessing mobile search at least once a week grew 50 percent in Europe, with France and Spain leading at a rate of 69 and 63 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of U.S. users accessing mobile search has more than doubled as a result of expanded 3G penetration and smartphone adoption, as well as the proliferation of flat-rate data plans. We have also seen a substantial improvement to the mobile search offerings in the U.S. market.”
Question time, folks: what do you search for on your BlackBerry? Please don’t say porn.
(via CN)
Posted on August 14, 2008, at 8:39 am .
Yahoo! OneSearch was a great bit of BlackBerry software that came out not too long ago, packing voice-activated Yahoo! search powered by Vlingo, but was only available in the US. Well, now Canadians and Fillipinos can get in on the fun, so long as they’re packing the BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Curve or an 8800-series device. We talked with both Vlingo and Yahoo! about what they’re doing with OneSearch in a podcast last April if you’re looking for a bit more on the nitty-gritty of voice recognition and search. Head on over to m.yahoo.com/voice on your mobile to get started.
(via Pinstack x 2)
Posted on August 13, 2008, at 9:34 am .
BlackBerry Answers, a rather underwhelming mobile support service launched in July for North America, released internationally recently, although it’s still only in English. The results tend to cover the more basic stuff (good luck finding results on tethering or OS upgrades), but the answers that are there tend to be pretty well-documented. If you’re still learning your way around the BlackBerry environment, it might be worth your while to bookmark the help page on your mobile browser. Maybe we can see some more language support soon…?
(Support Community Forums via BerryReview)
Posted on July 9, 2008, at 8:01 am .
Not one to be outdone by Yahoo! OneSearch, it turns out the Windows Live Search application for BlackBerry is also packing voice recognition, letting you pull up mobile searches just by speaking into your mobile. I’ve been making progress with vlingo lately, which features Google and Yahoo! searches built in as well, but one of our readers went so far to say “it has replaced half of my applications overnight, literally.” Tall words, but Live Search does feature GPS maps and navigation, movie showtimes, traffic, weather, and a bunch of other handy features. One-stop shops for BlackBerry software are becoming hot commodities, and voice recognition is the soupe du jour. Head on over to m.live.com to give Windows Live Search for BlackBerry a shot, or go to Live Search Mobile for more info.
Posted on July 3, 2008, at 8:03 am .
Although our faith in voice recognition has been a wee bit tainted after trying to get vlingo to work for the last week, Google recently announced that you can now make voice-activated, local searches using Google Maps on the BlackBerry 8110, BlackBerry 8120, and BlackBerry 8130. It sounds like the app is still a work in progress, but no doubt once it’s been polished and fine-tuned, we’ll start seeing it on devices other than the Pearl. I really do like the idea of all these new voice-based services, but the more you have to wrestle with them to recognize you properly, the more you’re inclined to just use the dang keypad. You can find more info on Google Maps Voice Search, or head on over to m.google.com/maps on your BlackBerry to get started.
Posted on April 25, 2008, at 4:54 pm .
Lots of guests this week! We talk with both the Yahoo! oneSearch team, as well as Vlingo, the force behind its voice recognition search. We also take some time with Alltel to talk about their upcoming BlackBerry 8330, what plans are available, as well as what it’s like being a CDMA carrier in a GSM world. We also bring in the news, including fresh news on the BlackBerry 9000, a significant raise in BlackBerry’s brand value, the due date for Sprint’s Curve, and plenty more. You can download Episode 27 directly here, get it via feed here, or subscribe via iTunes.
Posted on April 23, 2008, at 7:38 am .
Not to be out-done by Yahoo’s oneSearch, Microsoft announced Tellme for your BlackBerry. Not only does it recognize voice commands like “weather”, “movies”, “traffic” and “map”, as well as search for any company name, but the app also takes into account your GPS coordinates to further narrow down search results. It’s odd that the BlackBerry version came out before Windows Mobile, but you’ll hardly hear us complaining. You can check it out at www.tellme.com.
