It seems that RIM really has something of a macho complex just now. Just yesterday we heard about the Blackberry Bold and today news of the touchscreen only Blackberry Thunder has surfaced. Expect to hear about the Blackberry Brave and the Blackberry Red Red Meat in due course.
In any case, The Boy Genious Report is claiming the scoop on the device with a bunch of details and is reporting that it will be a full touchscreen effort launching in late summer this year. Interestingly, the Thunder will launch as a worldwide lifetime exclusive on Verizon and Vodafone as opposed to being shipped out to any carrier who wants it.
As for the form factor, besides the touchscreen the Thunder is said to have only 4 physical keys; the send / end phone keys, the BlackBerry menu key, and the back key. The Thunder is also mooted to include GSM HSPA for traveling internationally as well as potentially some 4G guts (probably LTE), though whether the network support for that will be ready in time for its release is another matter.
And that’s about it for now, obviously this is all subject to change until we get our hands on a press release but for any crackberry addicts who have been feeling jealous of the iPhone’s elegant interface, this could be the handset highlight of the year. More on this as soon as we have it.
Hurrah for phones named after washing powder brands. It’s surely only a matter of time before we see the Samsung Daz Ultra and LG Ariel, but until then we’ll have to make do with the BlackBerry Bold. It’s a new business-focused BlackBerry aimed at ‘power users’ (i.e. the sort of people who’d be unhappy if they weren’t answering emails from their boss at 3am). So, you get HSDPA for fast data speeds, GPS with built-in geotagging for photos, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an impressive 480×320-pixel display. The Bold is expected to go on sale this Summer, although maker Research In Motion hasn’t given any details of pricing yet. Rest assured, with a fat business tariff, it should be fairly affordable.
Apple’s doing it for iPhone, and Google’s doing it for Android, so why shouldn’t Research In Motion do it for Blackberry? What’s ‘it’? Why, starting a venture fund for developers creating innovative new applications and services, of course. According to reports, RIM has got together with Canadian VC firm JLA Ventures, bank RBC Venture Partners, and Thomson Reuters to pump $150 million into the Blackberry Partners Fund, with an announcement due later today. It’ll focus mainly on developers creating Blackberry apps (obviously), but may have the freedom to invest elsewhere too. It’s certainly a good time to be a mobile application developer. Especially if you can find enough time and manpower to create (and seek funding for) apps for iPhone, Android AND Blackberry…
If you are a Blackberry user and haven’t heard of eVeek already, it’s a fantastic online resource for Blackberrys, featuring all sorts of services, downloads and other goodies to make your favorite addiction all the more impossible to give up. Probably worth a bookmark then.
The latest on offer from the site is an intriguing sounding video service. Announced as open to the public last week, eVeek’s video platform is a lot like YouTube in that users can upload videos into a free for all pool where they can be watched, rated and discussed. The difference is that registered users (registration will be free) will be able to download the videos too.
At the moment the service is confined to the PC where it’s BETA is being carried out, but as soon as all the kinks are ironed out (which you can help with by doing some bug spotting in the BETA build) the service will be quickly optimized for the Blackberry in terms of speed, size and what have you.
Sounds like it could be a winner, though according to eVeek’s own admission, first impressions of the PC based BETA might not seem favorable. But give it a chance, help out with the gremlins by firing a missive off to eVeek if you spot any and in sixth months time, seamlessly streamed video could be a reality for Blackberry users.
(Via The Boy Genius Report)
If you use Facebook you are presumably no stranger to having your personal details plastered all over the internet, so why not take it a step further and start telling all your FB ‘friends’ exactly where you are at all times?
FindMe lets you do just that. Using as similar cell-tower triangulation technique to Google Maps for Mobile, FindMe lets you give labels to physical locations like ‘Work’, ‘Dave’s House’ or ‘Tescos’. Whenever you (or rather, your phone) go back to those places, FindMe will quietly update your Facebook status line with an appropriate message.
For you non-Facebookers, a Status Line is a one-line descripton of what you are up to, e.g. “Stuart is listening to La Traviata and savouring a vintage port” or, more likely, “Stuart is in Tescos”.
Should you want to stop telling MI5 your exact whereabouts for a while, you can ‘Go Dark’ (e.g. stop FindMe updating for a bit).
FindMe is freeware, available for Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
Do you own a GPS enabled Blackberry? Do you want to keep meticulous tabs on the whereabouts of your friends and family? If the answer is yes then you might be interested to know that a company called BlackLine GPS Inc has just released a free service called Blip, especially for you.
But what is it? Well according to BlackLine, Blip is a ‘geo-social networking platform’ that allows users to share their location amongst friends, family members, and co-workers. Other trademarked buzz terms BlackLine is touting include, ‘Geo-Society’ and ‘Share Your Where’ which from what we can tell mean the same thing as ‘geo-social networking platform’ but sound more hip. Basically we are talking about a FaceBook-esq service with a focus on GPS (StalkerBook if you will).
Despite our cheekyness, it does sound like a good idea in principle, especially seeing as you can control exactly who in your network can see where you are so that your privacy is always ensured. Blip also lets you track the location history of your viewable contacts as well as view speed and direction information when someone in your network is on the move.
Still it is easy to see how an application like this could be misused or indeed, capitalized upon by an over zealous boss or jealous spouse. Still, if you have nothing to hide, it shouldn’t be a problem.
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Market research firm ChangeWave Research claims that 59% of iPhone-owning business customers are “very satisfied” with the handset, compared to 47% of BlackBerry users, 40% of Nokia users, 30% of Samsung users, 25% of Motorola users and a lowly 10% of Palm users.
People have already seized on the survey as proof that the iPhone could unseat the BlackBerry as the device of choice for business users. To which I say “Phooey!”. Of course people love the iPhone, with its touchscreen and intuitive user interface. There’s no reason why businesspeople should be immune to these features either.
But is an iPhone really more satisfying to use for mobile email - the most popular business application on phones - than a BlackBerry, considering the latter’s physical keyboard and full push-email features? Can you get iPhone working easily with a corporate network, and will your IT admin let you? It’s questions like these that would really show if iPhone has a future as a business handset. Apple certainly isn’t marketing it as such…
(via Zdnet)
Did you just get to work, only to remember that you had forgotten to turn on BitTorrent before you left? Do you face an evening without your daily fix of pirated blockbusters perfectly legal public domain movies?
This nightmare scenario could be avoided if only there was some way to turn it on again without going home…
PCMobilizr is a remote desktop app that runs on Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices, and lets you operate your desktop PC remotely using your phone’s internet connection.
Your PC’s desktop is scaled down to fit on your phone screen, where it can be operated using the touchscreen or keypad. Response time depends on the speed of your connection, but the app uses some nifty compression tricks to only send the minimum amount of data.
Although there are a few other, free, apps (e.g. VNC) that do the same sort of job, PCMobilizr’s biggest advantage is the ease of setup and the fact that it uses HTTPS to communicate - making it compatible with most corporate and home firewalls, and secure to boot.
PCMobilzr is a 30-day trial download, price TBA.
GPSed is billed as ‘a location based service for trip tracking’. What this means in practice is another GPS-aware mobile app that connects to a web service.
There are versions of the app for Symbian, Windows Mobile/Pocket PC, Blackberry, Palm OS and Java that can work with either built in or external GOS units to track your movements in real time, updating a database on the GPSed site and displaying your progress via Google Maps.
In other words, this is Nokia Sports Tracker, but with the emphasis on travel and geo-blogging, rather than sweaty trainers and number crunching performance stats.
Once you have recorded your ‘tracks’ the site makes it easy to share them with family and friends and will even offer a real-time view of your position on the map.
GPSed also provide a windows photo album that associates photos with geo-data and displays them with a nice ‘pin board’ metaphor via Google Earth. This is currently offline-only but there are apparently plans to let users share geotagged photos via the GPSed site.
Toshiba’s always struggled to break into the top tier of phone makers but with its three new devices, unveiled a few days ago, it’s showing signs of ambition.
The G910 (right) is a clamshell smartphone looking suspiciously like a Nokia E90, albeit without a keypad on its front. To use it you really do have to open it up. The device itself does Windows Mobile 6 Professional (can you guess who it’s aimed at?), has all the usual quad-band, GPRS, HDSPA and GPS so beloved of smartphones these days. It’s expected Sim-free price is going to be around €600.
The second device, the G710 (right) is another business smartphone looking like a BlackBerry. It too has GPS and Windows Mobile (but only the standard version) and doesn’t have 3G. It does have a 2.4-inch screen though and will be cheaper at €300 Sim-free.
The third, and by no means least phone, is the G450 (below). This is by far the most interesting. It has 3G/HSDPA compatibility, but the tiny device (98×36x16mm) also doubles as a USB modem for computers, a MP3 player and has an OLED display and 160MB of memory. And it’s going to be dead cheap at only €100 Sim-free.
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