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In appreciation for BlackBerry users’ loyalty through the recent service outages, RIM has rolled out the first of its free premium apps that will continue to be released over the next month and available free of charge until the end of 2011.
More about today’s available app: Drive Safe.ly after the jump
Continue reading ‘RIM Rolls Out First Outage Loyalty App: iSpeech DriveSafe.ly Pro’
Ninja Otter is giving away copies of their amazing Wakeful BlackBerry alarm clock. Wakeful helps you start your day off right by replacing the conventional alarm clock buzzer with a voice that reads out some important daily information including local weather, stock information and the day’s top headlines.
To win, follow the steps below, and you could win your very own copy of the coolest alarm app for BlackBerry.
1) Follow @BlackBerryCool on Twitter
2) Tweet to us telling us why you want a free copy of Wakeful BlackBerry Alarm Clock and include the hashtag #WakeUpBB in the tweet.
3) Tweet as many times as you want!
We’ll be announcing the winners on Friday, June 10th at 12:00pm EST. We’ll let you know via Direct Message on Twitter if you’re a winner, and then Ninja Otter will hook you up with your free app.
With the new hands-free laws in effect almost ubiquitously, there are plenty of text-to-speech apps going around. The latest text-to-speech hands-free app is Text’nDrive, an app designed to prevent the distraction of texting while driving by reading your email and text messages out loud and letting you reply with your voice. The app also works with hands-free devices such as Bluetooth headsets or built-in car systems.
Continue reading ‘Text’nDrive Freemium Text to Speech App for SMS While Driving’
I still have a bit of a WES-over and there’s a few cool tidbits from the show to be blogged such as BMW’s iDrive and BlackBerry integration. BlackBerry can now send emails and contacts to the BMW’s iDrive dash system, in order to give the user quick access to the messages in case something important is going down. Safety is of the utmost importance, and BMW have addressed this by not fully displaying the email on the dash. In order to access the email, the user must use text-to-speech. There is a great video of the BlackBerry iDrive system from PhoneScoop after the jump.
Continue reading ‘BMW and RIM Work to Get BlackBerry Email, Contacts and SMS on iDrive’
Vlingo have announced their version 4.5 offers a cool new hands-free feature called SafeReader, that allows the user to listen to incoming text and email messages. Vlingo found that a quarter of those surveyed admit to having read an email or text while driving. Considering, 66% of the survey respondents believe the practice presents one of the biggest distractions drivers face on the road, many aren’t taking their own advice. Hopefully this feature will help keep the roads a little safer, assuming listening to an email is safer than reading while driving.
Nuance recently announced a future update to their speech recognition software, Voice Control, which will add French support to the search/instant messaging app. Another app called Narrator, which reads emails aloud if your hands are busy, recently won Best Evolution Application from Handango. Hopefully we’ll get to see some more language support or a new product at WES this year.
