Simple, simple way to install bar file applications on your Playbook without AppWorld

So, since AppWorld is taking forever to get applications built, and there are members of the community here that are developers of applications we would like to try out! An example is Searching for Humans, they provided a bar file for people to download so they can try their application before it hits AppWorld.

Problem is, most people don’t have the desire to install the entire SDK just to push an application to their PB. I decided to take out just the files needed to push a signed bar file to a development mode enabled PB. Also, I created a batch file to make the install process simple and easy from within Windows. (Shouldn’t need to drop to a command line to use it) This won’t let you load up development / debug bar files, only files signed by the developer will load through this tool.

Here’s what you need to do –

Set a password on your Playbook and turn development mode on. (Options -> Security)

You’ll want to make sure you have the latest Java Runtime Environment installed on your machine. Right now they’re at version 1.6 update 25, and you can download the latest for your system here: Java SE JRE 6u25 Download

And finally download the zip file provided below that has the needed libraries to load the application to your tablet, and a batch file to simplify the installation procedure.

Open the batch file (PB-Instaler.bat) in notepad and edit the lines “TABLETIP” and “TABLETPASS” up at the top to match the hostname or IP address and password on your playbook. (At homescreen press the person icon with the gear in their shirt at the top to get your current IP address) Save the file when you’re done.

Now all you have to do is drag a bar file onto the PB-Installer.bat icon. It will launch in a window and start attempting to push it to your device.

I’ve included my free app from app world, SimpleBrowser, with this zip file.
You can use this file to test the loading process listed below.

Let me know if you try this and how it works for you!

Download PlayBook_Tools.zip

EDIT:
Small change, included instructions in the ZIP file to make life a little easier for some people. Also included my free application, SimpleBrowser with the ZIP file so you have a file to test with right away. Changed the previous post to reflect the bar file being included. The forum software doesn’t seem to like a ZIP file with a BAR inside of it so I’ve made it a link instead of an attachment.

via: cb

Clearwire announces plans to adopt 4G LTE – if it can find the money

Clearwire on Wednesday announced its intent to adopt LTE across its network. The 4G wholesaler says it may add LTE Advanced-ready technology to its network that will provide up to 120Mbps download speeds according to network technology trials. ”Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO, in a statement. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.” Clearwire confirmed that it does not intend to discontinue support for its 4G WiMAX network in the near term, and it will continue to build out its WiMAX network. The company did not put a timeline on the plans, however, saying that its entire LTE deployment strategy is “subject to additional funding.”

 

Clearwire’s full press release follows below.

Clearwire adding 120Mbps 'LTE Advanced-ready' technology to its holdings, restates commitment to WiMAX

Is it really fall? We can’t say for certain that this is what Dan Hesse was referring to when he told us face-to-face that something spectacular would be coming our way a bit later in the year, but Clearwire definitely just announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its 4G network. In what’ll likely go down as the most shocking mobile news this side of the proposed T-Mobile / AT&T merger, America’s biggest WiMAX fan has finally caved to the realities of the next-gen wireless war: LTE’s winning, and it’s picking up all sorts of steam. Verizon Wireless has been building out LTE at a breakneck pace, and soon enough, Ma Bell (and presumably, T-Mob) will be following suit. According to the bizarrely worded release, Clearwire will be leveraging “deep spectrum resources and an all-IP network to meet long-term mobile broadband demands.” Translation? An “unmatched LTE network” capable of serving current and future wholesale / retail customers.

We’re told that the initial LTE rollout will target “high-demand areas of current 4G markets,” taking advantage of existing 4G infrastructure in order to reduce expenditures. For those curious about transmission rates, you can look forward to download speeds exceeding 120Mbps (or so it says). In a telling quote, Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technology Officer, confesses:

“This is the future of mobile broadband. Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States. In addition, the 2.5GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”

No doubt, that closer there is a direct shot at the dilemmas faced by LightSquared — a company that Sprint curiously just inked a partnership deal with. It’s hard to envision how this unholy love triangle’s going to play out, but the company’s making it quite clear that its LTE network will be “LTE-Advanced-ready,” enabling it to have a leg-up on the laggards here in the States. The dirty little secret in all of this is that Clearwire’s still waiting on “additional funding” to fully implement its LTE desires, which involve the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. As you’d likely expect, the company closed with a restatement of its support to the existing WiMAX network, but it’s practically a guarantee that you’ve seen the last expansion effort on that one. In case you’ve been looking the other way, Clearwire hasn’t produced plans for a new WiMAX market in all of 2011. Now you know why.

 

Clearwire Announces Intent to Add LTE to Its Network to Accelerate Wholesale Business

* Company Will Leverage Deep Spectrum Resources and All-IP Network to Meet Long-Term Mobile Broadband Demands
* Unmatched LTE Network Capable of Serving Current and Future Wholesale and Retail Customers
* Initial LTE Rollout Will Target High-Demand Areas of Current 4G Markets, Leverage Existing 4G Infrastructure for Minimal Capital Expense
* Download Speeds Exceed 120 Mbps in Successful Network Technology Trial
* Support for WiMAX 4G Network Technology to ContinueKIRKLAND, Wash, Aug. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR), a leading provider of 4G wireless broadband services in the United States, today announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its 4G network. The announcement follows the successful completion of 4G technology trials that achieved download speeds exceeding 120 Mbps and demonstrated the potential of Clearwire’s unmatched spectrum advantage.

The initial implementation of Clearwire’s LTE network would target densely populated, urban areas of Clearwire’s existing 4G markets where current 4G usage demands are high. The robust all-IP infrastructure already deployed in these markets can be leveraged to serve the company’s LTE needs, delivering significant capital cost savings compared to a similar overlay by other carriers of an existing 3G architecture.

“Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.”

“This is the future of mobile broadband,” said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technology Officer. “Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States.”

“In addition, the 2.5 GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices,” Saw added. “We anticipate that the economies of scale derived from this global ecosystem will act as a catalyst for the development of thousands of low-cost devices and applications. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”

Clearwire also noted that since launching its first 4G market in 2009, video has become the largest component of the company’s overall data traffic and video traffic itself has increased more than tenfold since 2009. The company believes that as more video-intensive smartphones and services rise, so will the needs for Clearwire’s high-capacity 4G wholesale network.

LTE Advanced is a 4G technical standard that calls for peak download mobile speeds of at least 100 Mbps, which far exceeds today’s commercial networks. Clearwire’s LTE network will be “LTE Advanced-ready” meaning that it will use an ultra-high-capacity spectrum configuration that is superior to the typical configuration of the slower, more capacity-constrained commercial LTE network designs in the United States of today.

Clearwire’s LTE implementation plan, which is subject to additional funding, contemplates deploying Time Division Duplex (TDD) LTE technology and reusing its flexible all-IP network architecture and upgrading base station radios and some core network elements, which offers significant capital savings. This will include the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. Carrier aggregation is a key feature of LTE Advanced that will enable Clearwire to further leverage its vast spectrum depth to create larger “fat pipes” for deploying mobile broadband service. The network would position Clearwire as the clear leader in 4G mobile broadband technology, capable of serving the current and anticipated future demands of wholesale and retail customers.

Clearwire, together with some of the largest wireless carriers in the world, is a founding member of the Global TDD LTE Initiative (GTI) which aims to bring together leading industry partners to steer the TDD LTE ecosystem as a major standard in mobile broadband technology and drive the development of next generation mobile broadband networks. Member companies that currently support more than a billion subscribers on their networks believe that a global LTE standard has the potential to achieve significant economies of scale and serve hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.

Clearwire also restated its commitment to its existing 4G WiMAX network, which covers approximately 132 million people while serving 7.65 million retail and wholesale customers and an ecosystem of nearly 110 WiMAX enabled devices, including all 4G phones currently offered by Sprint. Clearwire expects to end 2011 with approximately 10 million 4G customers.

Clearwire

via: engagdet

Ten years of BlackBerry (RIM)

The year is 1999. Bill Clinton is the President of the United States, gas is 94 cents a gallon, Bondi Blue iMacs are a staple in dorm rooms across the country, and Microsoft is trying to bring the desktop Windows experience to the pocket, pushing its Palm-size PC concept (after Palm had quashed the original “Palm PC” branding) on a world still feeling jilted by the failures of the Apple Newton. 3Com subsidiary Palm and its heavyweight licensee Handspring have figured out something interesting about the still-nascent PDA market, though: people like simplicity. If an electronic organizer does what it says it’s going to do, keeps your information in sync with your PC, runs for forever and a day on a single set of batteries, and does it all with a minimum of fuss, people will buy. It’s an exciting, challenging, and rapidly-changing era in the mobile business.

How to Side Load PlayBook Apps (Windows Only)

RIM seems to be going the way of Apple in some respects by forcing all PlayBook downloads to go through App World. For developers and users who want to get the apps on their PlayBook without using App World, there’s a side loading process that should help you out. The following guide comes courtesy of CMY in the Support Forums, who has been gracious to type up some instructions and distribute a .bat file you’ll need. Click through for the guide. Remember, this is only for Windows.

1. Your PC must have Java JRE Installed. Download here.

2. Turn ON Development Mode on your Playbook (Settings > Security > Development Mode)

3. Connect your PlayBook to PC using microUSB Cable, or Connect your Playbook to the same WiFi network as your PC.

4. Obtain Playbook IP Address by touching Development Mode Icon on PlayBook. There might be 2 IPs if you connect PB with PC by Cable and they are also on the same WiFi network, then just pick 1 to use.

5. Place Playbook app .bar file into the “pbapps” directory.

6. Edit file “install.bat” and change 3 fields as below:

• Change “playbook-password” to Playbook Password
• Change “169.254.180.97″ to PlayBook IP Address
• Change “MyPBApp.bar” to Playbook App Name

7. Double click on “install.bat”

8. Check if the app is installed and runs automatically on Playbook. If not, try again.

NOTE: You can use DOS console to run the install.bat to check if there is error while installation. (Dos Console: Start Menu > Run > type cmd and enter)

Special thanks to CMY from the Support Forums.

Click here to download the ZIP file containing everything you’ll need including the .bat file.

via:bbcool

aVNC by AiFlex VNC Remote Desktop Player for the BlackBerry PlayBook

While I am still waiting for LogMeIn to bring their remote desktop app to the BlackBerry PlayBook until then we have a solution. aVNC by AiFlex is a relatively cheap ($2.99) remote desktop solution that works with the very popular VNC protocol to let you connect to practically any machine. That means you can use your BlackBerry PlayBook to remotely control any of your machines running VNC.

Features include:

• Access any computer remotely – With the IP address and a password you can access any computer remotely. Ideal for System administrators, IT Managers, Helpdesk and support staff for easy multi-platform and sever connections
• Secure Access – Access remote machines with password protected VNC
• Full Keyboard Support – Use your on device soft keyboard, swiping up from bottom right bezel corner to input characters to your remote computer
• Mouse Support
• Control+Alt+Delete Ability
• Multi OS Support – Windows, Mac, Unix Remote access. Access your files, e-mails, documents, edit and view
• Convenience – Stores the previous 20 IP addresses and computer URLs for easy reconnection

• Direct type input
• Zoom mode for more convenient view and working
• View with read only option

You can find aVNC in App World at this link[qrcode pix=150]https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/41341?lang=en[/qrcode]

Let us know if you spot anything better!

RIM Announces BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 with Voice Over Wi-Fi Calling for Avaya and Legacy Nortel Communications Systems

Press Release

VoIP and SIP Compatible Platform Enables Integration with More In-Market and Legacy Phone Systems; Extends BlackBerry MVS to Unified Communications Application Development

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM, TSX: RIM) is helping more businesses bring together the desk phone and smartphone. RIM today announced plans to make BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry MVS 5) available to more corporate phone systems and unified communications applications. BlackBerry MVS 5 with voice over Wi-Fi® calling will soon be available for Avaya Aura® 6.1, Avaya CS1000 Communication Server, as well as legacy phone systems such as Avaya Communications Manager and Nortel Communication Server. It is also currently available for Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Call Manager Express, and Mitel Communications Director. BlackBerry MVS 5 has also been re-architected to be more extensible with third party applications and phone systems.

TrueNorth Avionics Connects Your Smartphone In-Flight Over Iridium Satellite and More

TrueNorth Avionics Founder Mark Van Berkel highlighting products such as their BlackBerry emailer

Ever wondered how Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stay connected even as they spend so much time traveling between countries? Well they do it thanks to a company called TrueNorth Avionics, based in Ottawa, Canada. The company partnered with RIM to give them an airborne solution for their corporate fleet and have since grown the company to support all smartphones and more solutions.

The TrueNorth OpenCabin platform is modeled after a smartphone app platform that allows you to add features and capabilities much like adding an app. The integrated suite of apps lets you modify your system as your needs change, without needing major hardware upgrades. Some OpenCabin features include:

Phone: an all-digital, IP (Internet protocol) system and Private Branch Exchange (PBX) capable of making voice calls over Iridium, Inmarsat Classic Aero, Inmarsat Swift64, Inmarsat SwiftBroadband, VoIP (eg. Skype) or any other network connecting via a 2-wire, CEPT or SIP-based Ethernet interface
Directory: offering a built-in customizable phone book and a user-configurable directory
Fax: enabling aircraft operators to send and receive faxes via the Iridium or Inmarsat networks
ClearCall: providing the clearest possible voice connection
Router: a high-performance app for transparent integration of broadband Internet connections
Accelerator: providing both data acceleration and data compression for signals going to and from global satellite networks
Firewall: for robust, real-time security
VPN: for transparent connectivity to your company’s Virtual Private Network
Network: which provides DHCP services and LAN connectivity for Ethernet devices
Hotspot: for easy-to-use, power-adjustable WiFi links to mobile voice and data devices
Smarter™: an advanced smartphone interface that automatically creates a WiFi email connection for your BlackBerry or iPhone over Iridium, Inmarsat Swift64, Inmarsat SwiftBroadband or other data network
Big Board™: a master graphical communications tool for managing aircraft communications and links
Connection Manager: to simplify the user experience
Backup: which quickly restores any unique configuration settings

The above is just initial list of features based on apps you can enable with the OpenCabin system. To buy the TrueNorth BlackBerry Emailer product, you’ll have to shell out around $11,000. If you can afford a private jet, then this may be the perfect solution for being able to use your smartphone in-flight. Otherwise, you may be out of luck unless your flight has WiFi.

via:bbcool

RIM and Intellectual Ventures strike a deal; gives RIM access to 30,000+ patents

Research In Motion and Intellectual Ventures have struck a deal (similar to HTC and Samsung) where RIM will be granted total access to IV’s 30,000+ IP assets.

Becoming an IV licensee provides access to additional products and services to address both short-term and long-term IP-related matters. As an IV customer, RIM can now complement its own strong patent portfolio with access to IV’s portfolio and can leverage IV’s portfolio in its future licensing negotiations.

It will be interesting to see what advantages will come of this deal and if RIM will attempt to leverage the patents against any of its competitors. Hit the break for the full press release.

 

CTIA 2010: BreezyPrint – One Touch Printing From Your BlackBerry

Printing from a BlackBerry? There are a few companies that offer printing solutions and BreezyPrint is here at CTIA showcasing their solution which looks easy and efficient. BreezyPrint lets print directly from your BlackBerry to any networked printer.

Key features of BreezyPrint:

• The fastest way to print any document from your mobile device
• Works with any printer
• No extra hardware or drivers required
• No IP address or firewall configuration required
• Safe – protected by end-to-end encryption
• Installs in minutes

Head over to their site and try it out now.