BlackBerry 7 Smartphones Buyers Guide

So you’ve decided you want a new BlackBerry Smartphone? Let our buyers guide point you in the right direction!

The latest BlackBerry 7 line of smartphones from Research In Motion brings some great new devices to the market, but choosing one that is right for you can be a challenge. Each device caters to a particular set of users, but we’ll help shed some light on things so you can better decide which device is for you. The first thing is always checking with your carrier to see what devices are available to you. You’ll also need to know if you’re on a GSM carrier (AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers and other global carriers) or a CDMA carrier (Verizon, Sprint and other North American carriers) before your new device as your next step as a BlackBerry user.

Featured on NHC Blackberry NEWS Radio: Near Field Communication – what is it and why should we care about it?

 

[ youtube link for mobile viewing ]

The future that Near Field Communications (NFC) promises is nothing short of astounding. However, the obstacles lying in the path of that future are just as great. NFC is honestly nothing new; as a technology, NFC has been around since 2004. In 2005, Cingular (now AT&T) installed NFC point of sale readers as a test in Philips Arena in Atlanta. They were confident that by 2010, over half of the wireless phones in the US would support NFC. Today, there are but a handful.

Free TV Guide App with Social TV Listings and Calendar Integration

There’s a cool new app in App World by InfoStretch Corp. that gives you up-to-date TV schedules as well as the ability to share what you’re watching with your social networks. The app looks a lot like the Miso service which lets you checkin to your favorite entertainment. With TV Guide, you get access to the following features:

• Simple & Easy To Use App
• Listing Of TV Schedule
• View Program Information
• Search for TV Shows
• Set Reminders for Favorite TV Shows
• Share Programs Via BBM, Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin
• Set Favorite Channels

Check out the free social TV Guide app in App World[qrcode pix=150]Free TV Guide App with Social TV Listings and Calendar Integration[/qrcode]

via: bbcool

AT&T and DubMeNow Partner on Education App Platform for Students

Demo of the DubMeNow platform.AT&T has announced a new cross-platform app platform called Campus Guide, which lets students, faculty, alumni and staff access campus information right on their smartphones. Community members can check out upcoming events, catch up on university sports scores and read course materials as well from within the app. The platform is possible due to a partnership with DubMeNow, a company we’ve covered before on NHCBBA. AT&T Campus Guide offers nine different features:

Courses: Students can connect with classmates and professors in real-time using AT&T Campus Guide, viewing grades, assignments, announcements and detailed class information.
Events: Wondering when the next big game is? Not sure when exams start? The events calendar on AT&T Campus Guide provides important dates and times for campus happenings.
Directory: Search and browse contact information and connect with other students and faculty, without paging through a campus phonebook.
Maps: Freshmen, visiting students and alumni will particularly appreciate campus maps and turn-by-turn directions between buildings.
Notifications: Timely notifications announce school cancellations and remind students about overdue library books, tuition payments and more.
News: Find the latest campus news, sports scores and Tweets – all in one place.
Friends: An always up-to-date and backed-up address book of all students’ classmates, friends and campus contacts. Any time students lose or replace their phones, they can just reinstall the AT&T Campus Guide app to their new phones and all of their contacts are restored.
My Card: Students can easily share their customizable contact information to keep in touch with their friends, classmates, potential employers, alumni and advisors..
Info: Looking for more information? Click on Info for miscellaneous details about campus.

AT&T will begin pre-selling AT&T Campus Guide on July 29th. Schools that participate in the pilot period (July 29th through September 29th) will receive the application free of charge until October 1st.

For more information on AT&T Campus Guide go to this link.

via: bbcool

Free LogicMail 2.0 IMAP/POP3 Email Client Graduates Out of Beta

Over the years I have found LogicMail to be a must have app on my BlackBerry. It provides a free open source email client (POP3, IMAP, SMTP) for your BlackBerry so you can access emails you don’t want pushed to your device. Right at the beginning of the year LogicMail 2.0 was released in beta form with a boatload of new features. Now those features have been considered stable and are in the full public release. There is even a nice Setup Guide to get you up and running.

The new features in LogicMail v2.0 include:

 

• Step-by-step setup wizard
• All network communications now happens in the background, and mail data is now locally cached
• Improved look and feel
• Support for both local and remote Sent/Drafts folders
• Ability to copy messages between folders, even across accounts
• Improved message composition, with an Outbox that holds messages until successfully sent
• Keyboard shortcuts mimicking the native messaging application, and touchscreen device support
• Able to read E-Mails written in many different languages and character encodings.
• Full support for IMAP IDLE (while connected; background polling not yet implemented)
• Supports OS 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 5.0, and 6.0+
• Any plenty more!

To pick up the stable v2.0.0.277 of LogicMail head to these links:

• Point your BlackBerry browser at: http://logicmail.org/ota
• Visit the SourceForge Download Page

How BlackBerry Smartphone Data Is Protected When Paired With A BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet

A question I’m sure many of you have (especially in the enterprise) is how exactly does a BlackBerry smartphone’s data stay protected when paired with a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? We know BlackBerry Bridge is the app behind smartphone pairing with a PlayBook and now, thanks to a knowledge base article from the BlackBerry Technical Solution Center, we know a bit about how secure the connection is. Here’s the overview:

Bluetooth® profiles specify how applications on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, BlackBerry® smartphones and other Bluetooth enabled devices connect and interoperate. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and a BlackBerry smartphone use the Serial Port Profile (SPP), which emulates a serial port between two Bluetooth-enabled devices, to communicate over Bluetooth®. The SPP is a client-server transport protocol, where the server controls whether and how to respond to client requests. The BlackBerry® Bridge™ application on the smartphone acts as a server for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to connect to.

Check out the rest of the KB article below for full details!

• How you can limit access to the SPP on the smartphone
  • A BlackBerry® Enterprise Server administrator can control which applications on the smartphone can use the Serial Port Profile, effectively limiting its use to trusted applications, such as BlackBerry Bridge. The Is Access to the Serial Port Profile for Bluetooth API Allowed application control policy rule controls whether an application on the smartphone can use the SPP.
  • On the BlackBerry smartphone, every Bluetooth profile has an associated IT policy rule or application control policy rule that allows the administrator to control the use of the profile.
• How the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet protects data in transit
  • The tablet and the smartphone use an encryption key (the BlackBerry Bridge pairing key) and AES to encrypt data that is sent between the tablet and the smartphone.
• How the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet protects stored data
  • When a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet connects to a BlackBerry smartphone that was activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the tablet and smartphone share an encryption key (the BlackBerry Bridge work key) to encrypt and decrypt data that is stored on the tablet.
• Additional Information:
  • For more information on Bluetooth technology and BlackBerry devices see the BlackBerry Devices with Bluetooth Technology Security Technical Overview.
  • For more information on IT policy rules and application control policy rules see the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Policy Reference Guide.
  • For more information on BlackBerry PlayBook tablet security see the BlackBerry PlayBook Security Technical Overview

source

via:bbrocks

PlayBook User Guide Now Available For Those Eager to Learn Every Detail

http://img.berryreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ScreenHunter_03-Apr.-19-07.21.jpgToday is the official launch day of RIM’s first Tablet the BlackBerry PlayBook. Are you buying yours today at the store or did you Pre-Order one? Let Us know in the comments.  If you haven’t had enough news of the PlayBook you can now download the Tablet User guide at this link. Thanks to Leo for sending in this tip. In the user guide as you can guess you can now find the answers to most of your questions about the PlayBook. One of the coolest features of the PlayBook is BlackBerry Bridge here is a short description from the user guide:

About BlackBerry Bridge

If you’re running BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 or later on your BlackBerry smartphone, you can connect your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet to your smartphone to access email, calendars, files, and other data directly from your tablet. Files and data must be stored on a media card to access them from your tablet. Your tablet connects to your smartphone using Bluetooth® technology. To connect, you need the BlackBerry® Bridge™ app installed on your smartphone. You can download it from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.
When your tablet and smartphone are connected, these icons appear on your tablet home screen

Also when you get your playbook please reley to use anything new that we might of miss that came with your Blackberry Playbook…

via:bbr

Blackberry OS 101: How to Wipe / Load OS Using BBSAK

How to Wipe / Load OS Using BBSAK

 

Requirements to run BBSAK (click to Download):

 

1.BBSAK program
2. Net Framework 2.0 or higher
3. Desktop Manager

Step-by-step Guide

1. Always backup your phone. Backup your phone using Desktop Manager.
2. You can backup your 3rd party apps too if you want but I usually don’t. I will do a fresh download of those apps to be on the safe side.
3. Plug in the cable to your phone and run BBSAK.
4. You will see a box to enter the password. If you don’t have a password, leave it blank and press OK. If you have a password, key in the password and press OK.
5. You will be able to see your BlackBerry PIN at the PIN box if the phone is connected correctly to BBSAK.
6. Search for the option to Wipe Device and it will prompt you if you are sure to wipe. If you have not backup your phone (or forgotten to), this is a good time to exit and backup first.
7. Press Wipe Device and wait until the box appear saying Wipe Complete.
8. The phone will reboot and you will then proceed to a white screen. It will prompt you 07. Do not panic and follow the next step and don’t unplug the cable.
9. If you have the desired OS installed in your computer, select the option for Load OS.
10. From here, everything is straight forward and just follow the instructions.

Other notes:

• BBSAK is much simpler as it auto delete the Vendor file for you since the older version didn’t do it
  

Reminders before backup:

1. Download and install the latest BBSAK and OS you desired.
2. Backup the contents of your choice.

Okay, here’s another guide of mine about using Loader.exe instead of BBSAK. Enjoy!


 

I hope this helps and feel free to give your comment

2010 Canadian New Media Awards Winners Include Hootsuite and Polar Mobile

While the 2010 Canadian New Media Awards may not be totally relevant to BlackBerry users, there are a couple Canadian companies you may recognize from the mobile space including Hootsuite and Polar Mobile. Hootsuite won the Digital Media Technology of the Year award which recognizes a technology that will most radically change the media landscape. Polar Mobile took home the Promising New Company of the Year award that recognizes a Canadian new media company that is “up and coming”. Hit the jump for the full list.

BlackBerry 6 Media Player Guide: Music

The new multimedia experience in BlackBerry® 6 has been designed to be intuitive, easy to use and fun! From a music player, to podcasts, videos and a stunning camera, it is fully equipped to not only take your media with you, but also enjoy it with your friends.

Let’s take a closer look at the Music player!