Category Archives: BLACKBERRY

RIM: Curve, Storm, Flip, Pearl…

Angry Farm for BlackBerry: If Angry Birds was stolen…

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Shaun

Angry Birds is not available for BlackBerry. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Smarter Apps has stolen the concept and released Angry Farm which bears too many similarities to be coincidence. If you want the Angry Birds experience grab this one before it gets pulled. Or don’t buy it because that just wouldn’t feel right.

The Farmer is away and the farm has been overrun by an army of hungry foxes.

Help the angry animals fight back to clear the farm of marauding foxes. The angry animals are armed with a catapult and they fly through the air like furious birds before colliding spectacularly with the foxes who are hiding inside protective farm structures.

Each of the angry animals have special properties that you can control to defeat the foxes.

Angry goat flies through the air slamming into foxes and causing hay bales and wooden farm structures to explode.

Angry pig bounces like a super ball of furious rubberized pork demolishing foxes and their hiding places.

Angry cow flies through the air and accelerates to attacking speed when you click the trackpad or touchscreen while the angry cow is in flight.

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inPulse watch available to buy for $149

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Shaun

The inPulse watch is now available to order for $149. It offers BlackBerry notifications, a Presenter controller, an iTunes controller and some dedicated watch apps. You may be asking yourself why you would want to buy something like this. I am doing the same thing…

inPulse is totally customizable. Our SDK can get you saying ‘Hello, Watch!’ in 5 minutes! Dive deeper and create your own app running right on top of our embedded OS. Code in C and get control over the OLED display, Bluetooth connection, vibrating motor, button, timers, interrupts and more.

inPulse can connect by Bluetooth to all kinds of host devices: computers, laptops, smartphones, and certain Bluetooth-enabled toasters. It plays best with Android, Blackberry, Mac, Windows and Linux. It’s a two way connection, so inPulse can send packets back to the host based on user interaction.

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BlackBerry Bold Touch photos leaked: looks like a BlackBerry Bold

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Shaun

Photos of the touch screen BlackBerry Bold have appeared and it looks like a BlackBerry Bold with a screen that you can tap.I know I keep saying it, but this is starting to get silly. For how many years can RIM release the same phone which a few small changes?

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BlackBerry PlayBook (case) released

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Shaun

The BlackBerry PlayBook may not have been released yet, but that hasn’t stopped Piel Frama from releasing a rather nice case for it. It is available in 5 colours and is priced at 105 Euros.

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Microsoft Surface on a BlackBerry PlayBook

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Janine

Ooh. Little tricks with screens do get me excited from time to time and the video demo (below) of Scrapbook running on a BlackBerry PlayBook has ticked my boxes. It’s like a little Microsoft Surface on a tablet and I like very much. Janine.

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BlackBerry PlayBook to run Android apps?

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Shaun

Bloomberg is reporting that RIM is working on software that will allow the PlayBook to run Android apps and games. If true and RIM manages to create a solution that works smoothly this could change everything (I am sure another company says that a lot?)

Imagine is RIM manages to do this and then ports the QNX based OS to its phones, which it says it is intending to do, and we can get BlackBerry hardware with the decent PIM and messaging alongside the 100,000′s of Android apps. That would be a very tempting combination.

“Research In Motion Ltd., looking to score a hit with its PlayBook tablet computer, is working on software to allow the device to run applications for Google Inc.’s Android, three people familiar with the matter said.

RIM plans to integrate the technology with the PlayBook operating system, giving customers access to Android’s more than 130,000 apps, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the effort isn’t public. RIM, after looking outside the company, is developing the software internally and may have it ready in the second half, two people said.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company aims to make the PlayBook stand out against Apple Inc.’s iPad and a rising number of competing devices. By offering a tablet with the security and messaging of BlackBerry smartphones and the wide choice of Android apps, RIM may be able to woo customers who would otherwise opt for alternative devices, said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst in Issaquah, Washington.”

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Ringtone Remix for BlackBerry updated

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Shaun

Ringtone Remix for BlackBerry has been updated with some decent new features and fixes-

Significant improvement in speed – eliminating any lag-time when ringtones are played.

Even more degrees of zoom on the waveform so users can better fine-tune which sections of songs they wish to use as their ringtones

A new song picker to make it easier to find and select the tune you want to turn into a ringtone.

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RIM launches the BlackBerry Trade up program: not great at all

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Shaun

RIM has launched the BlackBerry Trade up program in the States which gives you the chance to get some money for your old handset when you trade up to a new BlackBerry. Sounds good doesn’t it? Well, actually it isn’t.

I requested a price for my BlackBerry Bold 9700 to upgrade on AT&T to the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and was offered $120 for the 9700. I could get a LOT more than that on eBay or one of the many trade in sites now available.

Secondly, RIM would do well to let customers trade in any handset to bring them to the BlackBerry platform rather than only offering the chance to upgrade from a phone that won’t be much different from their intended purchase. And if I did want to do a proper upgrade, this program only offers $30 for a Curve 8320.

A good idea which is terribly implemented.

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Bye Bye BlackBerry

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Shaun

We recently moved house and the reception for our current carrier is quite poor. So we decide to change service providers and port our number over (something which the US can’t seem to understand) – a feature which Australia has had for nearly 10 years.

My wife had been using an iPhone 3GS for the last few years. I had straddled the RIM Blackberry and Apple iPhone 3GS for a couple of years – with a preference for RIM (going from and 8310, 9000 to a 9700).

But with this change over, I decided to ditch the Blackberry and go 100% to Iphone for a few simple reasons:

1) Blackberry apps are all tuned to the US markets. Even a simple weather app is mainly geared for US imperial measurements and data sourced from the US. The iPhone has an abundance of apps which source it from local data. GPS mapping is poorly supported for Australian maps (whilst there are at least 4 different GPS navigators on the Iphone)

2) The interface of the BB is showing it’s age quite badly! Also the user interface is implemented inconsistently. On one app, it’s in the menu while another is on a button leading to another screen.

3) Blackberry evolution of the OS is very slow – almost glacial. I wasn’t going to wait until the BB turns up something decent in a few years time when Android and iOS deliver it now.

In no way is the iPhone a superior product with various foibles and security issues. But what killed the Blackberry is that it can’t handle PXT and messaging other than simple text messages where Android and iOS handle these things without a hiccup.

Sadly – the Blackberry is in danger of slipping into obscurity like the Palm OS system (which I have fond memories of).

Eric.

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BlackBerry is number one in the UK

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Shaun

It seems that consumers in the UK are still in love with the BlackBerry platform. RIM took 28.2% of all smartphones sells during 2010 and this jumped during the Christmas period to over 36%. Throw in evidence that BlackBerry leads the way in Twitter downloads and Facebook engadgement and the story starts to fly in the face of all the recent BlackBerry doom and gloom.

From TechRadar- “Using data exclusively from consumers sales channels (ie the networks and consumer electronics stores), the research concluded that not only did BlackBerry handsets command 28.2% of all smartphone sales in 2010, RIM also managed to gain 36% of the Christmas sales, with over 500,000 shifted.”

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Android apps on a BlackBerry: maybe

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Shaun

Very interesting news coming from BGR today concerning the possibility of future RIM devices, including the PlayBook, running Android apps courtesy of the Dalvik virtual machine.Would this make you more likely to buy a RIM smartphone or tablet in the future?

Here is the big news: we have been told RIM is very much considering the Dalvik virtual machine, and we ultimately expect the company to chose Dalvik. If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s the same VM that the Android OS uses, and it would allow RIM’s PlayBook and other QNX devices to run just about any application built for the Android platform.

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Schedule Send for BlackBerry

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Shaun

I often see work emails sent at 2am and even later from colleagues and I do wonder if they are really up that late. Or maybe they are using something like Schedule Send for BlackBerry which lets you send emails, texts, MMS and PIN messages without you needing to be present. It is discounted until the end of February and on sale for just $1.99.

Great app for sending messages to friends/colleagues in different timezones or scheduling important birthday/anniversary messages.

Compare our functionality and price to other apps in BlackBerry App World that are priced higher, and offer less features! Schedule Send integrates into your BlackBerry’s menu, too easy!

Schedule Send allows you to schedule when you want messages to be sent from your BlackBerry. Send SMS, MMS, Email and PIN messages at a time that suits you and the recipient of the message.

Simple to use, just select ScheduleSend from your BlackBerry’s menu, enter your message as per normal, and select the date and time it needs to be sent. Messages will automatically be sent at the date and time you specify.

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XTop Mobile finally arrives in beta form

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Shaun

XTop Mobile has promised a lot for a very long time, but it looks as though the wait is finally over for BlackBerry users with the release of a beta service. The full version is expected next month and this could be a great productivity service for those who are tied to their desktops for most of the day.

bull-1 Get real-time notification of all incoming calls directly on your Laptop / PC so you don’t have to reach for your Smartphone during meetings or while you’re at your desk.
bull-2 View, send and receive emails from the BIS (i.e. hotmail, gmail) and BES accounts on your Smartphone, wherever you are, without having to connect to a 3rd Party Hotspot.
bull-3 Send and receive SMS and PIN chat messages in a chat-like window directly from your Laptop / PC screen.
bull-4 Add, edit and manage your Smartphone contacts directly from your Laptop / PC in real-time.
bull-5 Automatically back-up of all contacts, emails and text messages every time you walk-up to your laptop.
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Five Essential iPhone and BlackBerry Apps

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Shaun

This is the first in a two-part series looking at the best apps available on each of the mobile platforms, and more specifically ones that will make a dramatic difference to the way you use your phone. Not every app will specifically meet your needs, but hopefully some will be as useful to you as they have been for me.

iPhone / iPad

Week Calendar (£1.19 / $1/99)

Week Calendar is, in my opinion, the best calendar replacement currently available on iOS. It marries a highly visual interface with some neat tricks that will make your organisation of a busy calendar much easier than before. For example you can simply hold your finger on an appointment and drag it to another day and time and this can immediately be reflected in whatever online calendar service you are synchronising with. It looks like a mini version of iCal, an app I have never really liked using, but brings near perfect touch navigation to the small screen. Throw in list, day, week and month views and you are all set to start enjoying your calendar again without all of the needless fiddling that so many competitors require you to do.

2Do (£3.99 / $6.99)

There are countless ToDo apps available for the iPhone and believe I have tried most of them. I currently have ToDo Map, ToDo and Put Things Off loaded onto my iPhone, but 2Do has proved itself to be the winner for me. The interface is lovely and offers anyone who needs visual organisation the perfect place to get their tasks in order. It is expensive, but it is also universal and the iPad version is arguably better than the iPhone version in its presentation. With countless customisation options, projects, checklists and so much more included it is hard to consider what is missing here. Even the synchronisation is nearly perfect in its implementation.

TomTom (£29.99 – £69.99 country dependant)

When it comes to navigation I always want the best and at this time I would rate TomTom as the best available. You pay a lot for the privilege though and this means that it is not necessarily the best value for money in comparison to others, but the presentation and general navigation capabilities are exceptionally well created. There are some negatives though which I am still trying to resolve; HD Traffic is a paid-for optional extra which on two occasions has completely missed huge traffic jams and left me stranded for hours on end and the IQ Routes sometimes have a mind of their own. I use this app every day to drive to work and every day I am offered a different route even though there is no traffic on any of them (have checked with colleagues at work). This lack of consistency could lead some to distrust the app, but I have to say that for the majority of the time it wins out against the rest.

Kindle (free)

eBooks are big business these days and Amazon is currently king of the hill in this area. I have chosen Kindle as an essential because the books are, on the whole, very competitively priced and the ability to synchronise between multiple devices with ease only adds to the ease of use. The presentation is also excellent and I would argue that it is better than iBooks for flexibility and the overall look and feel. As it stands there is no better eBook service for multiple devices and until the rest open up and start looking past their own devices it will continue to prosper.

PocketMoney (£2.99 / $4.99)

Finance is another area that is well covered on iOS, but to me PocketMoney stands head and shoulders above the rest. Not only does it offer exceptionally quick transaction input thanks to its ability to memorise previous entries, but it also presents all of the information in a clear, yet detailed, form which works perfectly. There is synchronisation, backups, multiple accounts, recurring transactions and detailed reporting which makes the asking price a tiny drop in a vary large ocean of usability. Superb!

BlackBerry

Tether ($49.99)

$50 is a lot to ask for any mobile app, but potentially Tether will be your new best friend should your lifestyle and needs require such a solution. It works best on 3G BlackBerry’s and in my experience can offer a similar result to a Mi-Fi style solution, but one that you will already be carrying with you. The fact that it hides your tethering is a killer feature because your network provider will have no idea that you are using your BlackBerry this way. Clever stuff…

Ascendo Money ($29.99)

The best mobile finance software on the planet on any platform; hugely detailed reporting, extremely quick data entry and a near perfect understanding of how software should look and work on a BlackBerry smartphone. The desktop component tops off what is a wonderful piece of work and one that is well worth the premium asking price.

Aerize Email/SMS Alerts ($4.99)

This simple app can reduce the time you spend dealing with incoming communications by more than half. Instead of having to go to the email app every time a new email arrives, you can simply dismiss or action the email from your home screen. The same applies to texts and it quickly becomes a whole new way of managing your BlackBarry on a day to day basis. It works so well and the developer has cleverly managed to integrate the look perfectly into the general feel of the BlackBerry OS- it is seriously good.

BerryWeather ($9.99)

$10 is a lot of money for a weather app, but with few quality competitors available for BlackBerry and a heavy feature set, BerryWeather just about manages to pull off the price. There are pushed weather alerts, over 72,000 locations covered and an interface which looks somewhat similar to the standard HTC weather app. If you need weather tracking and you need your BlackBerry, you may as well buy the best.

REXconnect ($9.99)

Imagine being able to transfer data between your mobile calendar, email, address book, tasks, memopad, browser and almost every other default app on your phone. Very few platforms can do this, but BlackBerry can thanks to REXconnect and the price is a steal considering the functionality you are getting.

Next time, I will cover five essential apps for Symbian, Android and Windows Phone. Feel free to add your essentials with a comment.

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The Facebook PlayBook App

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Shaun

The Facebook PlayBook app is a clever way to give you an idea of what the PlayBook will actually be like. It of course cannot reflect the true hardware experience, but is a clever marketing ploy that works very well.

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