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Monthly Archives: March 2010
Deal of the Day: BerryBuzz for only $3!
Today’s Deal of the Day is BerryBuzz for BlackBerry which is on sale for only $3. This app lets you customise your BlackBerry notifications and even brings some more colour to your new emails and alerts.
“BerryBuzz extends your default Blackberry alert system. BerryBuzz allows you to customze the LED color and create repeating audible reminders for many alert types.
It will repeat alerts until acknowledged so you will never miss an alert again.
Plus it adds customizable vibrate for incoming calls. Finally you an have your BlackBerry vibrates while it is ringing.”
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VoiceMemo for BlackBerry
VoiceMemo for BlackBerry is new from Toysoft and has lots of potential uses. It could completely change the way you use yours… “Use Voice Memo to record quick notes to yourself or record a note for any Contact in the Contacts application.
Optionally record a voice memo for the caller whenever you hangup the phone.
Email the voice memo to the caller or create a new appointment and attach the voice memo. Playback the voice memo in the appointment.
All the voice memos are stored in their own folders on the SD Card so no need to back them up.
You can playback all the voice memos for each Contact or memos to yourself at any time.”
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Navigon breaks up the US
Navigon has broken its US iPhone product into bite sized pieces and is now selling US East, US Central and US West versions at £14.99 a pop. With the recent release of a pay as you go GPS app from TrafficMaster and pay as you drive traffic from TomTom, GPS for mobile pricing is changing every day at the moment and for the better.
“With NAVIGON MyRegion you can transform your iPhone into a fully functional mobile navigation system that is every bit as good as the multi-award-winning personal navigation devices from NAVIGON in terms of its user-friendliness and features.
Thanks to a faithful adaptation of the menu functions, NAVIGON MyRegion fits in seamlessly with the operating concept of the iPhone. The application includes the latest map material from the market leader NAVTEQ.
NAVIGON MyRegion provides full map flexibility. For your convenience you can enlarge your map coverage by activating up to two more map regions directly from in the App.”
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New Windows Phone 7 Series advert: same as Palm
Microsoft has published a new advert for Windows Phone 7 series which uses very similar effects to the new advert from Palm. It’s quite good, but not particularly inspiring.
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5/5 for the Palm Pre Plus
The Palm Pre Plus has received a 5/5 rating from Attack of the Show and the full look is detailed in the video below. At last some good news for Palm. Source: Pre Central.
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BugMe! for iPhone released
BugMe! has been released for the iPhone and comes with some clever features such as the ability to save notes to the home screen and a sharing option for emailing the notes or posting them to Twitter. Not bad at all for $0.99.
Wye Valley UK, March 18, 2010 — Today, Electric Pocket Limited is introducing BugMe!, the popular note-taker and reminder application, to iPhone users. For well over a decade, PDA and smartphone users have been using BugMe! to create notes and set reminder alarms to keep them on-task and on-time.
“BugMe! for iPhone brings the classic app to a new audience on the iPhone, as well as answering the pleas of long-time users who were missing a faithful friend!” said Iain Barclay, Electric Pocket’s chief products officer.
BugMe! for iPhone lets users jot quick notes and doodles – with their finger as the pen – just like a digital yellow sticky note. BugMe!’s handwritten notes can be organized for reference, or easily shared by email or Twitter. Users with iPhones can set an alarm time on each note and BugMe! will sound the alarm and show a reminder when the task is due.
The new release of BugMe! introduces a first for iPhone users – BugMe!’s “Save to Home Screen” feature lets users save a copy of any note to the iPhone’s app launcher screen. These small handwritten notes can be dragged and positioned as with any application icon so important BugMe! notes and reminders can be organized and visible on the iPhone’s Home Screen at all times.
The iPhone version of BugMe! enables users to start a note on a choice of colored paper styles or on photos from the user’s album. With the iPhone’s camera, users can quickly snap pictures and then jot notes directly on it for shopping reminders or a fun email or tweet.
BugMe! for iPhone is available in the Apple App Store at an introductory rate of US$.99. More information can be found on the Electric Pocket website at http://bugme.net.
Palm reports what we already knew
Palm has reported its third quarter results and they are not good, although better than previously warned. Revenues of $349.9 million are ahead of the previous estimate, but the rest is as expected.
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Mar 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today reported that total revenues on a GAAP(1) basis in the third quarter of fiscal year 2010, ended Feb. 26, 2010, were $349.9 million. Gross profit and gross margin on a GAAP basis were $47.0 million and 13.4 percent, respectively. In accordance with two recently released accounting standards related to revenue recognition, these results include the effects of accounting for multiple-element arrangements, including ratable revenue recognition for the future deliverables for Palm(R) webOS(TM) products as required by GAAP.
To facilitate comparisons to Palm’s historical results, Palm has included non-GAAP adjusted measures, which exclude the impact of accounting for multiple-element arrangements, stock-based compensation and other items detailed in the notes section of this release. The company believes this information will help investors better evaluate its current period performance and trends in its business.
Non-GAAP Adjusted Revenues in the third quarter totaled $366.0 million, and non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Profit was $63.5 million. Non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin was 17.3 percent and was impacted by a $45.3 million charge taken in the quarter for reserves for inventory purchase commitments, which exceed current forecasted demand. Excluding the impact of the inventory purchase commitment reserves, non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin in the third quarter would have been 29.7 percent.
“Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “The work we’re doing to improve sales is having an impact, we’re making great progress on future products, and we’re looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners. Most importantly, we have built a unique and highly differentiated platform in webOS, which will provide us with a considerable – and growing – advantage as we move forward.”
The company shipped a total of 960,000 smartphone units during the quarter, representing a 23 percent increase from the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 and an almost 300 percent increase versus the third quarter of fiscal year 2009. Smartphone sell-through for the third quarter was 408,000 units, down 29 percent from the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 and down 15 percent year-over-year.
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Add GPS to any phone with just a SIM card
This is clever. Bluesky positioning has been working with Telemap to bring GPS to ‘any’ GSM mobile phone. It is a brilliant idea, but maybe one that would have a much bigger market 2 years ago.
The full press release is here (PDF)- London, UK and Sophia Antipolis, France – March 18, 2010 – Telmap, the global leader in mobile location solutions and BlueSky Positioning, a pioneer of A-GPS for the SIM card industry, jointly announced today a cooperation to bring for the first time ever, real-time search, mapping and navigation to mobile phones, with A-GPS SIM. This cooperation showcases the ability of BlueSky Positioning’s A-GPS technology to incorporate navigation onto mobile phones which lack integral GPS capabilities.
BlueSky Positioning’s A-GPS technology, embedded into a phone’s SIM card, together with Telmap’s search, mapping and navigation solution enable effortless on-the-go experience, including excellent in-car navigation sessions with 3D moving maps, multi-lingual turn-by-turn directions with street names using text-to-speech, as well as traffic and speed camera information (where available). Telmap’s solution also includes unique pedestrian navigation, guiding users through pedestrian-only areas such as parks, squares, passages, and stairs, tracking user’s progress as they walk. The Telmap – BlueSky Positioning cooperation allows (smart and) mid-range phone users to access real-time location information without the need to invest in location-aware hardware. The full, comprehensive set of LBS features provided by Telmap’s Location Companion works seamlessly with BlueSky Positioning’s A-GPS location technology to provide accurate, instant location data and information.
Ronen Soffer, CTO at Telmap, commented, “In utilizing BlueSky’s innovation, Telmap can introduce its LBS and Navigation solution to a larger addressable market, which now includes new consumer segments and a multitude of mid-range mobile phones. This helps further realizing Telmap’s strategy of mass market reach for its services, while boosting Operators’ business case as well as control over distribution and customer ownership of such services.”
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I nearly died today!
Bit of a dramatic headline I know, but nothing to worry about, it happens once or twice a week. You see, the thing is, I live in a little country village without any pavements, and I have a dog. This means at least once a day I have to walk down a narrow country road with an unrestricted speed limit to the local common to let him run around chasing rabbits and pretending to be Lassie (or whatever it is dogs pretend to be). Three or four times a week someone will come hurtling along in a car with no regard to who or what else is on the road. Normally this results in me diving into the ditch to avoid being run over or the car swerving at the last minute to miss me. Sometimes something is coming the other way at the same time, and then things get really dangerous as the oncoming car always thinks it’s better to aim for me rather than the approaching car! Even if nothing is coming the other way some drivers seem to play a game of how little they need to move over to avoid me. I have actually been clipped by a wing mirror as a particularly stupid person moved the smallest amount possible all the time shouting at me to get out of the road. I do all the right things, wear bright clothing, walk on the correct side of the road and keep a lookout, but coming round a blind bend at sixty mile an hour doesn’t give them much chance to avoid me. Please, when your driving down country lanes, give a thought to what might be round the next bend. If you’re lucky it will be me, but it might be farmer Giles in his tractor towing a set of bailing hooks. Personally, I hope its the latter.
Nothing to do with mobile tech I know, but if only one person remembers it next time they get in a car, it will be worth it.
QOTD: Time before purchase?
How much time do you spend with a smartphone before you purchase it? I am guessing that for most people it is little or none…
The final link in the chain
When I posted the concept demonstration of the MS Courier your reaction was quite positive and I can understand why. It is only a concept at this stage, but one which would seem to be technically feasible even today. For all of the cleaver smartphones, desktops, laptops and netbooks most of us still use paper for much of the day. My Moleskine notebook lives on my desk and is a constant companion at meetings, but the information in it can go nowhere; it sits there looking pretty and is a useful reference when I need to look back, but the manual process is painful and I can spend ages trying to find something I wrote a few weeks ago.
Much money has been spent on trying to reproduce the paper reading experience in the eBook industry and it is just starting to take hold. People are gradually realising that eBook reading is convenient and despite all of the geographical restriction issues and pricing problems it is an area that will definitely grow over the next couple of years. So, why has the same amount of research not been undertaken into the world of writing? Maybe it has and it is proving too difficult to successfully implement and this may explain why the MS Courier is just a concept at this stage.
The potential for a device like the Courier that could replace a paper notebook is huge. When I say huge I mean MASSIVE! Everyone I know owns a paper notebook and the possibilities if an alternative could be made that allowed natural writing and decent recognition are endless. You could search through all of your old notes, send them via email or IM (translated from your handwriting first) and create projects to your heart’s content. It would in effect be a tablet computer, but one which utilises an interface which feels like a book to use. It is all so easy to say isn’t it, but I suspect we are still a long way off achieving this. If and when it does happen, however, we could see a huge change in the way we use computers and smartphones and the world will probably be a better place for it.
What do we know about the iPhone 4?
Firstly, we can be certain that it will not have a ‘4’ in its name. It is considered to be unlucky in China and this is a market Apple would not want to mess up. We saw the Psion 3 and 5 series, the Palm III and V series, but you never see a 4. Never.
It won’t be called 4G either, and not just because of the reason above, but because 4G means something else entirely and that would cause all sorts of problems.
Apple needs to up the game again to keep the momentum going and a small update will disappoint everyone and gives the others an opportunity to catch up, but building on the 3GS is no easy task. What Apple does have in its favour is the ability to take technology others already off and bring to an audience who largely ignored it in the first place.
Smartphone apps have been around for many years, but Apple owned it with a new method of distribution and now dominates this area.
Indeed, the smartphone has been around for years, but Apple brought the concept to the attention of the world in an incredibly short time.
Video calling was the main feature behind the first 3G networks, but it bombed to the point that almost no-one uses the facility these days. Some believe that Apple will add this feature in the next iPhone and this looks like a good shout. People will suddenly be aware of the facility and if priced right video calling could become hugely popular. I can certainly imagine myself calling home when away on business and video calling my children which is something I don’t do now because of the price. The main obstacle would be network load, but Apple has little care for network capacity and the networks have no choice but to go along with these new data hungry features and keep their fingers crossed all goes OK.
We can expect more memory, faster performance and likely a higher resolution screen, but what else can Apple bring to the party? I suspect that a slimmer design will be part of the package and the much touted iPhone mini could see the light of day, but alas I am not holding my breath for improvements in core areas such as battery life, call quality and the speakerphone. PIM is likely to be improved (at last) and this would be a classic Apple move to increase the user’s ability to do things at a slow pace.
As to what else we can expect there are two ways it could go. Apple will either hit us with features we cannot even dream of at the moment, or features that work in a new way, or it will be slow innovation that adds little excitement. Somehow it will probably be a mix of the two, but either way iPhone 4 (no, not 4!) will fly off the shelves.
The iPhone concept pictured is by Rodolphe Desmare.
Palm Pre now free on all O2 tariffs
The Palm Pre is now free on all O2 UK tariffs from £25 / month. You will also get 3 free EA games for good measure. It would be nice to see it pumped out on pay as you go at a decent price, but to make a serious difference we need to see it available from more providers.
It is apparent that the O2 only model in the UK is not working and that it needs a bigger base who can buy it. Thanks to Graham for the tip.
The iPad will be the first everyday computer that doesn’t completely suck
Lazyboy popped up with his thoughts on the iPad and they may serve as a pointer for those of you who, like me, have been wondering what the potential uses could be-
“I don’t think its a product for us geeks. It has the potential to be the computer that, probably 80% of people actually need. Something that is easy to use, is not affected by viruses and malware and does the basic jobs they need like browsing and email. I can think of a couple of dozen people where this would be a far better bet than a laptop or desktop.”
Although I definitely have my geek moments, you can count me in as one if those people for whom the iPad is perfectly suited. Given the choice between my iPhone, my laptop and an iPad, I’d choose the iPad for most of my computing needs.
To be honest, I find using a desktop/laptop computer cumbersome and annoying most of the time, especially for things like creating and editing spreadsheets. One look at the demo of iWork for the iPad (especially the Numbers app) convinced me that this was the way to go for me, particularly when I saw the dedicated numerical keyboard that pops up just when you need it.
When I look at what I do on my laptop, there are just so many tasks that will be easier and more pleasurable to perform on the iPad. How do I know? Simple, because they are already easier to do on my iPhone. Throwing in that big, bright screen just adds to the possibilities. These are the typical tasks I’ll be using my iPad for:
Manipulating a task list
Editing a spreadsheet
Writing and editing
Designing a presentation
Reading ebooks
Playing games
Surfing the web
Flicking through photo albums
Switching between my most used apps
Reviewing my calendar
Email
Watching a movie
Taking notes
And when I really want to churn out some words, I’ll just drop it into the keyboard dock.
The fact that many of us reach for our iPhones rather than our laptops (even when both are close to hand) is a tremendous indictment of the current laptop/desktop computng model.
Until the iPhone came along, most of us were using smartphones that offered a mdiocre, at best, user experience. To put it bluntly: they sucked and we didn’t even know it. I think the iPad will have the same transformative effect on our view of laptops/desktops.
In fact, I would even go so far as to say that the iPad will be the first everyday computer that doesn’t completely suck.
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BlackBerry Push Service now available to developers
The BlackBerry Push Service has now been opened up to developers which should bring some more interesting apps in the future. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking, but it’s a start. More at RIM.
“The BlackBerry® Push Service is an essential component of the real-time, always-on experience of BlackBerry smartphones. It offers an incredibly efficient and reliable way of sending information to your users. It also allows your application to process information in the background and alert users.
Use the BlackBerry Push Service to incorporate the characteristics smartphone customers love into your applications, including improved battery life, applications that run in the background and the ability to get instant information.
The BlackBerry Push Service is available to all developers and web content providers. By using push technology, you can make your app more engaging and help turn it into a Super App. Learn more about BlackBerry smartphone Super Apps.”
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