Back in June, Jason took at look at the Poynt application for the Blackberry OS. He called it a “staple” on his Blackberry and one of the best applications available.
Well Poynt is back, this time with a release for the iPhone OS. The free application hit the iTunes App Store early last week, and I’ve had some time to play with the all-in-one location based search powerhouse.
Has Poynt become a staple on my iPhone like it did on Jason’s Blackberry?
Read on to find out.
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In North America, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) is currently the smartphone to beat, but the meteoric rise of the iPhone will continue well into 2011 and nab RIM’s number one market share spot, according to Trefis. This conclusion was based on the clear outpacing of growth Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has enjoyed with the iPhone. In 2007, iPhone growth sat 0.3%, and in 2009, they were at 2%, while RIM went from 1% to 3% in the same period. By 2011, Trefis is forecasting Apple’s mobile market share will hit 11% and RIM will reach 8%.
Even as one of the BlackBerry faithful, I find it hard to deny this eventuality. Apple has a ludicrously large marketing budget, which will continue to be used to to capitalize RIM’s buttoned-down image and win the dead hearts and vacant minds of the masses. Despite the competition, the latest forecasts for RIM continue to be positive – BlackBerry still has more than a little fight left in her, that’s for sure.
[via Forbes]
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It's Monday again, which means that it's theme roundup day! We had a crazy week on the blogs last week with all our birthday celebrations, and things are starting to settle back to normal. CrackBerry's 3rd birthday got me thinking about our members, and how much they mean to us. This naturally progressed to considering the members themselves, and I realized that we have been remiss in not including our female readers as much in the roundup. In light of that, I present this week's roundup, dedicated to our readers of the fairer sex.
Click the jump to read on!
CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BlackBerry Theme Roundup for March 8th 2010 - 50 Copies of Sands to be Won!
The ability to remotely schedule DVR recordings hasn't hit every Comcast system yet (c'mon Ann Arbor) but that hasn't stopped the company from delivering version 2.0 of the Comcast Mobile app on iPhone (Blackberry is "coming soon," no word on webOS, Android or WP7 plans) complete with the aforementioned myDVR manager, an improved TV Guide browser, push notifications for emails and voicemails and more. Comcast Voices blogger Scott McNulty has put together a pretty thorough video demo, embedded after the break (also there for comparison, our video walkthrough of the original release), so give it a look while we doublecheck... again to see if our DVR has gotten a new firmware update, or punch the read link to go straight to the App Store and download.Continue reading Comcast Mobile 2.0 for iPhone flashes remote DVR scheduling skills on video
Comcast Mobile 2.0 for iPhone flashes remote DVR scheduling skills on video originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One of my most used apps has to be QuickLaunch. It is an extremely valuable app that allows for easy access to loads of BlackBerry functions. You can set it to launch applications, web sites, quickly compose emails, make phone calls and more. It integrates extremely well with the operating system, and with a few clicks you can get things done instead of having to search around or click through various apps. QuickLaunch sells for $4.99 in the CrackBerry App Store and is well worth it. Check out the video above for a quick look at all of the application features. If you aren't currently a QuickLaunch user, you should be - and that's all there is to it :-)
CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. QuickLaunch for BlackBerry A to Z
Gowalla users will be able to check in to locations featured on the Travel Channel’s Food Wars show, thanks to a new collaboration between the network and the checkin service.
Food Wars, which pitches culinary rivals against each other to create “The Best Dish In Town,” will get specially created passport stamps that Gowalla users can collect at filming locations.
After checking in to such locations, users will also be able to access specific show information, see the details of the culinary showdown that was filmed there and pick up items specific to the show.
The mainstream angle of this TV-themed team-up shows that Gowalla is stepping it up in an effort to compete with Foursquare. Gowalla recently increased its mobile offerings with a full-fledged Gowalla Android app in addition to its iPhone and BlackBerry options. A webOS version is coming soon as well.
Tags: food wars, gowalla, travel channel
Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has recently announced the launch of its second touchscreen device, the BlackBerry Storm2, on the market in Hong Kong. The new mobile phone comes with a great deal of enhancements when compared to the previous touchscreen smartphone from the company, including an improved touch functionality, as well as... (read more)
Continue reading 'SeeClickFix' Directly Alerts City Hall About Vandalism, Potholes
Filed under: Cell Phones, BlackBerry, iPhone
'SeeClickFix' Directly Alerts City Hall About Vandalism, Potholes originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For me, Spring cleaning means ripping out that rat's nest of cords behind my desk and getting a fresh start with minimal cable interference. Thankfully, there's a new wireless charger on the block that will help me keep things neat and tidy. Like the Powermat before it, the Case-Mate Hug ($100) charges your iPhone without all those nasty wires and cords. Sure, it won't charge your BlackBerry or your PSP, but it will do the job for your iPhone 3G or 3GS. The sleek aluminum Case-Mate Hug comes with two elements - the slim, form-fitting, and shock-absorbing iPhone case, and the pad, which transfers power to the case via magnetic fields to juice up your smartphone. The coolest part about this pair? The pad uses "smart charge" technology to only charge your phone till it's 100 percent full, then stops pulling power to save you some cash.
BlackBerry Internet Service users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa will be suffering some downtime from 2-6 GMT as they get upgraded to version 3.0. Some of the most important features we’ve heard about BIS 3.0 are support for WMA audio files and OpenOffice documents, as well as two-way GMail read/unread syncronization. Here’s what the internal memo says regarding the EMEA upgrade:
BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Internet Service v2.8 upgrade to BlackBerry Internet Service v3.0 – EMEA – 14 March
BBCHG45911 (Update) S1 Severity Maintenance for BlackBerry Internet Service (v2.x) Email service for subscribers of *EMEA BIS (MULT)
This message is to inform you of scheduled network maintenance.
Maintenance Summary: BlackBerry Internet Service v2.8 upgrade to BlackBerry Internet Service v3.0
Impact: BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers may be unable to send or receive messages, use the BlackBerry Internet Service web site, or perform activities such as creating new accounts, accessing their Internet mailbox, integrating third-party email accounts, or viewing email attachments during the maintenance.
Wireless service providers and device resellers may be unable to use BlackBerry administration web sites or perform activities such as creating subscriber accounts or provisioning services for subscribers during the maintenance. [0214]
Ticket Number: BBCHG45911
Change Window Start Date and Time: 14 March 2010 02:00:00 (GMT)
Change Window End Date and Time: 14 March 2010 06:00:00 (GMT)
Estimated Duration of Service Impact: 4 hour(s) and 0 minute(s)
% of Subscribers Affected: 100.00 (estimated)EST = GMT – 5 hours
EDT = GMT – 4 hours
AEST = GMT + 10 hours
Features coming in the following 3.1 will include built-in calendar syncing (not unlike what BIS 2.8 did with contacts), and contact syncing for Hotmail and Yahoo!. Of course, the big question remaining is, “when do we get BIS 3.0 in North America”? Shortly after, one can only assume.
[via BlackBerry Rocks]
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Tafasa has had a great year and cranked out some awesome games for BlackBerry. To celebrate their first birthday, they are running a sale on all of their games. You can pick up 4-In-A-Row, Bubble Burst, CodeBreaker, Hangman, Memory, WordSearch and more for just $0.99 through March 14th. They have been hard at work converting the former Storm-only games to work on other devices, so why not pick one up as your way of saying thanks? Head to the CrackBerry App Store to check out the full lineup. Happy Birthday Tafasa!
CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Tafasa Celebrates Their First Birthday - All Games Just $0.99 Through March 14th
Back in January we saw the Thumbplay Music Store that was shown off at CES. We gave away some free-trials, and are happy to announce we have a few more to give out to the CrackBerry Nation. Thumbplay is out of private beta and has added some device support to their lineup, so users with a Tour 9630, Curve 8900, Storm, Bold 9000 or Bold 9700 can now get in on the action. Thumbplay lets you stream music from their database, as well as create playlists and buy songs right from the app. The full service is priced at $9.99/month (a free 3-day trial is available via BlackBerry App World), but we have 30 free 30-day trials to give away. To enter to win, just leave a single comment on this post. Winners will be picked at random and the contest ends this Sunday at midnight PST.
CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Thumbplay Music Store Store Goes Public - 30 Free Trials to Give Away
When I first tried my luck at the one-of-a-kind puzzle game ‘Nintaii‘, I have to admit, I was hooked. The idea of the game is simple. Flip and tip your block through each level, with the goal of depositing your block in the hole at the end. Sounds simple right? Think again. There are all kinds of obstacles and switches to look out for, and the actual shape of each level is a huge hinderance; trying to find how to best navigate your block through tight spaces can be a real pain!
At any rate, cutting to the chase here, Concrete Software announced Nintaii 2 for the iPhone and iPod Touch over the weekend. 100 brand new levels are included for your frustration. While the new levels are sure to confuse and puzzle, perhaps the biggest feature upgrade in Nintaii 2 is the addition of OpenFeint community. Players can create free OpenFeint accounts to share info, tips, hints and view leaderboards… You can also earn achievements, and compete against your friends. It’s an awesome way to connect with other Nintaii players all over the globe.
Nintaii 2 is available now for $0.99. A free demo version is also available, if you’d prefer to give it a try before you buy. iTunes links are below!
Nintaii 2 ($0.99) [iTunes link]
Nintaii 2 ‘Lite’ (FREE) [iTunes link]
Note: Nintaii 2 for BlackBerry should be available in a few weeks.
Concrete Software Announces the Release of Nintaii 2 for iPhone and iPod Touch
March 4, 2010 – Concrete Software, Inc.®, a leader in innovative mobile content, announced today the release of Nintaii 2 for the iPhone and iPod Touch to be sold in the App Store. Nintaii 2, the follow-up to the hit game Nintaii, is a strategic puzzle game that includes 100 brand new levels with new features and obstacles for enjoyable and challenging game play.
The success and rave reviews for the original game Nintaii, are sure to make Nintaii 2 a hit game as well. The Japanese term “nintaii” means “patience, perseverance, or endurance.” Both games encourage players to use all three to complete the ever increasing difficulty and complexity of the 100 levels. Nintaii 2 keeps the unique concept of rolling a block through a maze of tiles and dropping it into the end destination to complete a level- but new twists were added including ghost tiles, glass tiles, and springs.
Another new addition to Nintaii 2 is OpenFeint, the social media component of gaming. Nintaii players can join the OpenFeint community to share information, tips, and hints with each other, give feedback to the developers, and view multiple leader boards. Players can earn points by completing achievements and winning challenges. This adds an element of competition, as friends can challenge one another, while still building a community for Nintaii players to interact.
Nintaii 2 invites a new experience for game players and raises the bar for expectations of a puzzle game. It is currently available for the iPhone and iPod Touch via the App Store along with a free demo version. For more information or to contact the developers please e-mail feedback@concretesoftware.com.
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First launched back in April 2009, TweetPhoto has been steadily building out its service with multiple useful features, including Foursquare integration and a partnership with Kodak. Today, the site is getting a huge overhaul with more social features and a new iPhone app.
TweetPhoto has now added the ability to sign in with Twitter OAuth, Facebook Connect, MySpace OAuth and Foursquare OAuth so that a user of any one of these social networks can use TweetPhoto as a stand alone photo sharing service. The site will also be rolling out LinkedIn support in the next few weeks. In addition to login capabilities across all four of these services, TweetPhoto users can also link these social networking accounts together. Once you link your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace , or Foursquare accounts on the site, your photos uploaded to TweetPhoto can be simultaneously broadcast to all of the networks. Third party applications that use TweetPhoto as the default photo uploader such as TweetDeck and Seesmic’s BlackBerry app, will also include this functionality.
TweetPhoto’s new, free iPhone app, called TweetPhoto Pro, is a suped-up version of its sister iPhone apps. The app allows users to upload photos, see their friends photos, the public photo stream, popular photos (usually celebrities or breaking news), and can link their social network accounts. The startup has also submitted similar apps for Android and Blackberry platforms.
In connection with the new social broadcast features, TweetPhoto is rolling out a new API to include over 35 new API calls. And as we wrote last year, TweetPhoto got into a bit of a pickle over its logo. That combined with Twitter’s trademark of the word “Tweet,” is resulting in TweetPhoto completely rebranding its service. The first step of this effort is a new logo, which we’ve attached above. A new name is forthcoming, says TweetPhoto, and its focus will be much more on the mobile side of things.
While TweetPhoto is still not getting the same amount of traffic as the leaders in the space, TwitPic, the site is edging out fellow competitor yFrog, according to January’s Compete numbers. But as TweetPhoto, which met with a little bit of scandal last fall, makes its offerings more social and interactive, the site could even give TwitPic a run for its money.
New from the insanely awesome theme developers at Hedone Design, comes ‘Explicit’… a very premium BlackBerry theme. The new addition is wallpaper friendly, has space for 10 customizable icons, and much more. Hedone has done an excellent job making Explicit compatible with most BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) devices. In fact, if you’re running anything from a Pearl 8100 through today’s Storm 9500 series, you should be good to go.
The official description from Hedone:
Metallic blue color on high-quality leather, beautifully designed form and fast navigation. Unobtrusive, nice included battery and signal meters.
Theme design is drawn to the pixel accurate, but we also take account of the fall of light and intensity and brightness of BlackBerry display. Even the icon for the alarm and battery charging (“A” and “B”) are sited to act friendly and unobtrusive.
I should note, a minimum of OS 4.5 is needed to run this one, and of course 5.0 is supported as well.
Explicit BlackBerry Theme ($6.99) [Hedone Design]
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Over the weekend, yet another BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) OS dropped… courtesy of the CB Forums. If you’re packing a Bold 9700, this may (or may not) perk your ears… if it does, listen up.
This is NOT an official update, so be sure to backup your device and take all necessary precautions before you proceed. Chances are if you’re geared up for an update, you already know what you’re doing and take proper steps when updating… But I’m just sayin’… Be careful! The update will bring your Bold 9700’s OS up to 5.0.0.536. You can nab it right here.
As always, be sure to let us know of any marked improvements, fixes or feature enhancements that you notice. Happy Monday to all, and happy OS updating to Bold 9700 users!
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Sky 3D TV is coming to UK homes sometime this year, but if you can’t wait for the full launch you can get a taster by dropping into Westfield shopping centre in London’s Shepherd’s Bush. This Friday, 12 March, Sky will start showing demos of its 3D TV service at the huge complex.
The Sky 3D TV demo will showcase a handpicked selection of 3D goodness filmed over the past two years. Included will be footage from last month’s Burberry London Fashion Week show and the first ever sports 3D TV broadcast – Arsenal versus Manchester United. Also on show will be tennis, boxing, golf, ballet, live music and films.
Westfield is just the first of many shopping centres to get a 3D TV demo station, and Sky promises to roll out its “3D TV experience” at over 100 more locations.
We don’t yet have a confirmed date for Sky 3D TV’s entry into the home (other than “sometime in 2010″), but it’ll be available to any Sky customer with a Sky+HD box. You’ll need to team the box up with a 3D ready TV, of course.
Out TBC | £TBC | Sky
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I have been using Pandora’s online stream music service off and on for several years. What got me more interested lately was it being one of the many services on my Roku video streaming box, which my wife and I use mostly for watching movies from Netflix’s “watch instantly” queue.
As I investigated the service more, I came to understand exactly the challenge of what it takes to be truly multi-platform in the current era. It isn’t just about having both Web and mobile phone versions of your service, but how you have to go deep into a lot of different devices to appeal to your customers.
The cool thing about Pandora isn’t that you can create your own custom radio station that will try to find music based on a particular artist or genre. But that once you set up your account on one platform, you can access it in your car, in your home, and on the road in between. All with the same collection of stations and music. As you spend more time with the service, it tries to figure out your likes and dislikes.
Let’s look at all the various places you can get your Pandora fix as an example of how hard it is to become this ubiquitous. First is the Web browser: you have to work in a bunch of them properly, so there is the usual testing in IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. Add Mac, Windows and Linux versions of each browser, and that’s 15 regression tests right off the bat. But we have just gotten started. Add in the newer brower versions, like IE8, the fact that Linux isn’t a single OS, and 64 bit Windows. Then stir in support for both Flash and HTML v5, and you can easily get more than 200 different environments if you want to support a wider base. Pandora, by the way, doesn’t officially support much beyond Flash on Firefox, IE, and Safari on Mac and Windows.
Then we have separate apps for each of the five mobile phone platforms (Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, and Windows Mobile) and four cellular providers because their phones work differently on each network. Never mind that each phone’s ecosystem has different rules on how an app can get posted for download and get itself updated. There are at least twenty different tests there. The phone apps have to be designed to work with the limited screen real estate available on each phone, and yet still connect to your account in a way that you can recognize without a lot of user training. Some of the phones have different screen and control button configurations, so just supporting the Blackberry line, for example, isn’t so simple. You also need to get the development environment for the phone (typically these run on PCs with simulators that show you what your phone user will end us seeing) and probably a bunch of phones to test out too.
But wait, there is more. How about Facebook, My Space, and other social networks? Don’t you want to integrate with them and leverage them to make your app viral? More code to write, more interfaces to learn, more tests to run to make sure you new versions don’t break these links.
Then there is support for the home-based entertainment systems. While each of these have some embedded Web browser in them (like the Roku or the Samsung BluRay DVD players), you still have to test to make sure that the pages load properly and the music keeps on playing and your fancy navigation controls operate as intended. There are more than a dozen different devices, including the Ford Sync in-car service that will be available later this year, to test out. The trouble here is that these devices typically have older and less capable browsers that don’t get updated, unlike the PC world where users are trying out new versions.
As you can see, it is easy to lose count of how many different platforms you want your app to run on. And then if you have to make choices and limit yourself, how do you do the triage? Do you drop Andoid in favor of Roku? Bring up the new Ford Sync API and leave the Pre to wither away? The user populations of each of these communities is constantly changing, as sales wax and wane.
It is enough to make many of us long for the simple days of the 1990s, when we just had to worry about Mac vs. Windows support.
I got the idea to look at Pandora from an article in today’s NY Times. And while the service can wreck havoc on corporate networks (lots of folks start the audio stream and then walk away from their PCs), I think they are doing exactly the right kind of things when it comes to managing their multiplatform strategy.
The long awaited, oft rumored Twitter for BlackBerry app has been released in beta form for a while now. Granted, not everyone was able to get their hands on a copy due to the invitation only nature in which the app was released. But that also hasn't stopped others from taking their own avenues in getting the same version released to those with invite codes. In fact, it's been in enough hands now to have generated quite the amount of feedback I assume considering RIM has placed the feedback URL right within the application itself.
So with that said, how come there have not been any updates released so far? Surely Research In Motion is working on the "beta" app. And if so, wouldn't they want the latest bug fixes and implementations tested? Many of you may not have noticed when installing Twitter for BlackBerry but the EULA (End User License Agreement) clearly stated the terms and conditions of the Pilot program end on March 31st, 2010 (shown above). So it should be fairly safe to assume we'll see a full on roll out shortly before or shortly after that and let’s hope by then they'll have pushed out some updates to the already existing users to check out and test.
CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Twitter For BlackBerry - Where Are The Updates?
Your BlackBerry address book is boring. It just lists your contacts in alphabetical order, like every other address book on the planet. Wouldn’t it make sense to have different organization options? I’d like, for instance, to have my address book by default sort my contacts by the frequency with which I contact them. That would make things a little easier. If you’re among those who don’t think that is a trivial functionality, you can check out SwooshContact. It’s a new application that gives you greater control over your address book.
Every time you contact someone in your address book, SwooshContact takes note. Then, when you go to your address book and choose to sort by activity, your contacts will be listed in order of how frequently you call, email, or text them. You can keep it in this mode, allowing you quick access, or you can choose other sorting options. These include date, name, company, or rank.
On that last item, you can manually add ratings to your contacts. Since it’s based on a star system, I was thinking about doing it like my iTunes library. Five stars are reserved for the untouchables — in this case, the people I’ll be calling when I’m 60. The four stars are the solids, the people I call when I’m in town or otherwise want to invite somewhere. Then the three stars are the average ones. Anyone two starts and below gets cut.
My only gripe with SwooshContacts is the price. You can get it for $4.99. It seems a little steep for an application like these, especially when VersaTool runs at the same price.
Hat tip to BlackBerry OS.
This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.
Better organize your BlackBerry contacts with SwooshContact
This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.
Better organize your BlackBerry contacts with SwooshContact
In case you thought CrackBerry's crazy week of Birthday giveaways was going to lead to a contest dry spell afterwards we thought we'd kill any notion of that immediately (bday week winners announced later today). Granted, the contests won't be quite so crazy for a little bit, but here's one to kick the week off right...
ZenMinder is the ultimate way to manage multiple or new routine reminders, without adding stress. It has the ability to create scheduled, repeating reminders, which will help you assimilate new habits into your life. I actually had a chance to review it; you can check it out here. From their site, here is the overview:
For all you previous or future customers of ZenMinder, they offer free lifetime upgrades!
The developer, BBHacker, has given us 50 copies of ZenMinder 2.0 to give away to you, the CrackBerry Nation! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to be entered into the draw. While you’re at it, why not tell us what stresses you out and how ZenMinder would help you get a handle on that stress. Contest closes this Sunday, March 14th at Midnight.
CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Contest: 50 Free Copies Of ZenMinder To Give Away!
It seems like Palm’s new webOS PDK (plug-in development kit) can be used to port over iPhone games in a matter of days — or even hours. Given how fast some iPhone games have turned up on the Palm Pre we’ve kind of suspect there was a little something something going on behind the screen, and our sibling site PreCentral.net confirmed it by way of Digital Daily’s pre-GDC coverage.
As just mentioned, I’ll be at GDC to have a look at what they’re doing. If it’s really just that easy to get your iPhone games onto webOS, then Palm has once again made their platform as frictionless as possible for developers (on top of the web technology SDK and Classic PalmOS emulation). Smart.
Windows Phone 7 Series looks to be packing Xbox Live gaming muscle, so they likely won’t go the same route as Palm… but could Android and BlackBerry? And if developers can keep making great iPhone games and get webOS (and maybe others) as a bonus, is that ultimately better for iPhone gamers, or does it weaken the uniqueness of the platform? If it does, will there eventually be “exclusives” like there are on Xbox and Playstation, or will Apple do more first-party games like the console makers — especially Nintendo — do?
iPhone Games Can be Ported to Palm webOS PDK in “Days”? — The Competition is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
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