One of the great things about the new web browser in BlackBerry 7 is the ability to add custom search engines. The problem is that it can be a little frustrating defining the URL needed to make those custom search engines work. We’ve put together a list of 5 URLs that you should definitely have on your custom search engine list.
Continue reading 5 Must-Add Custom Search Engines for BlackBerry 7
So you thought you had it bad with AT&T and their tiered data plans at 2GB for $25? According to a new rumor by Droid-Life users on Verizon are about to get it worse. According to that rumor Verizon will be changing its data tier to 2GB for $30 which is obviously $5 more than AT&T’s already stingy data plan tiers. If you want to get the same 5GB you get today you will have to pony up $50 a month or $80 for 10GB.
| Verizon Rumored Plans | AT&T Current Plans |
| 2GB – $30/month 4GB – $50/month including tethering 5GB – $50/month 7GB – $70/month with tethering 10GB – $80/month 12GB – $100/month with tethering |
200MB – $15/month 2GB – $25/month 4GB – $45/month including tethering NOTE: from here on down its $10 per 1GB unless you are on the 200MB plan where it is $15 for another 200MB |
If you want tethering added to your data plan you can get an additional 2GB added to your plan for $20/month. That translates into 4GB for $50/month, 7GB for $70/month, and 12GB for $100/month. In other words Verizon is also charging an extra $5 more than AT&T for 4GB of data with tethering. On the other hand Verizon is charging $5 more for 5GB instead of 4GB for tethering. Tablet plans are priced at 2GB for $30 instead of the 1GB for $20 current plan. There is no difference between 3G and 4G devices in these tiers according to the rumor.
There is even a new email that is going to Verizon employees hinting that these structured data plans are coming without the details. Luckily current users will be grandfathered into their current plans but any hope of tiers getting cheaper anytime soon seems to be going out the window. Maybe that is good for the data sipping BlackBerrys and RIM. These new tiers are rumored to come once the unlimited data promotion on Verizon ends with these plans taking effect for new customers on July 7th.
This is all currently in rumor stage but this does sound like typical Verizon…
via:bbr
If you are a fan of soccer (Fútbol for the rest of the world) Univision the largest U.S Spanish language network just released an application for the BlackBerry PlayBook. The Application has a fluid design and transitions from one screen to the other are smooth. The application lets you see the latest soccer news for all the current tournaments, keep up with live scores and share news through twitter. This may not be relevant to some of you but am sure our Spanish speaking readers will enjoy knowing they have this option.
Full App description:
NOTE: Spanish only content at this time.
The Univision Deportes (Fútbol) App brings our industry-leading soccer coverage to the large and fast growing U.S. Hispanic mobile audience. The app provides ultimate soccer fans real-time, personalized access to all the latest soccer news, videos, results, stats and photos. All year long, the app delivers nonstop coverage of the best worldwide soccer tournaments and leagues from around the world. The app is now optimized for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ with a unique user interface.
The Univision Deportes (Fútbol) App is part of a great app line-up, which includes sports scores, video, and Univision content apps that resonate with Hispanics and their passion points. The app is U.S. based.
Features:
To download the application follow this link on your PlayBook browser.
via:bbr
David sent me a link this week to a parodied email exchange on DontEvenReply.com between a cellphone repairman and a potential customer. I was on the floor laughing when I first read it and I am sure you will too. I am not even sure how he managed to burn that BlackBerry without it totally melting… Can anybody tell what model it is? My guess is a 88XX series.
NOTE: The language is a bit vulgar on the sites below so please use your own best judgment on if you should read it in public. You will also end up laughing so hard your stomach will hurt…
Read the Don’t Even Reply – Incompetent Phone Repairman exchange and let me know what you think! If you like it check out the full list of exchanges at www.dontevenreply.com. I highly recommend you check out especially the disguised weapons one.
via:bbr
This is where Protect places my BlackBerryDear BlackBerryCool,
You guys write about apps like BlackBerry Protect and SmrtGuard all the time, and I thought I would give Protect a try. Just my luck, last week I had my BlackBerry stolen and I turned on Protect to see if I could find it. Protect gave me a map with a pin of where my device is, accurate to about 6 meters (ED NOTE: pictured above). So I decided to call the police and report it stolen because it’s technically theft over $500, making it worth police attention. In the report I said I have software installed to help find my BlackBerry and an investigator called me back a few days ago. I gave him the screenshot and he said he would get back to me. This is what he said:
“Honestly, since no address is provided it would be impossible for us to follow up on that information. Unfortunately the police cannot go randomly door to door asking if stolen property is inside. We need more concrete information. Also, at the time you captured that data it may have been possible that the suspect was simply walking in the area. Having said that I don’t believe there are any solvability factors in this case. The file will be closed and submitted for information purposes only. If there is anything else I can do for you please don’t hesitate to ask.”
Continue reading Reader Asks: How Do I Get My Stolen BlackBerry Back?
Over the years there have been a few solutions for chatting on BBM from your desktop over USB or Bluetooth. Now Fixmo has blown those all away with Fixmo Messenger. You simply install the beta app on your BlackBerry after which you create an account and then head on over to their website and enter in your login information. You can then chat away from their website.
NOTE: Please keep in mind this means you are sharing your BBM chats with Fixmo which may concern users.
Instructions from the Public Beta announcement on CB Forums:
via:bbr
It has come to the point where about a third to half of planes flying domestically in the US have Wi-Fi. The most common service on these planes is Gogo Inflight Internet and it works well for browsing the web, email, and streaming radio. I even gave it a perfect score in a review back in 2009 which I will hopefully update on the trip to BlackBerry World in May.
While I remember connecting easily with my BlackBerry to the Gogo network but it did take a bunch of clicking and signing in from the browser. It wasn’t bad but Gogo just simplified it with a new BlackBerry app they told us about. The free Gogo app gives you a one step sign in for all flights using Gogo in the US. After you sign up for Gogo you can simply connect on a flight by clicking a button in the app.
As you can probably tell this app is targeted at frequent fliers who use Gogo especially since the half a megabyte app is a bit bulky for casual users. You can pick up the free Gogo Inflight Internet App in App World at this link.
[qrcode pix=170]http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/17973?lang=en&curr=USD[/qrcode]
NOTE: Gogo Inflight Internet is available on all AirTran Airways and Virgin America flights, and select Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and US Airways flights. Frontier Airlines coming in 2011.
via:BR
The mobile app market is maturing nicely; apps are becoming more sophisticated, routes to market are broader, development times have been greatly reduced, there is a plethora of billing options available, and perhaps most valuable, apps have moved from being the domain of a few niche players to being a critical part of the branding and engagement strategy of most companies. In this sense, the mobile software market has started to resemble the PC software market with a few key platforms to worry about, standardized development tools, and open APIs to enable the many parties in the value chain to connect together.
In terms of distribution, we have seen a massive change. In the old days, the only real hope for developers to achieve success was to get their app on the carrier deck. Therefore, apps were built solely with this goal in mind. Moving into the next wave of the app economy, Handango, MobiHand, Handmark and others came into the value chain and offered alternatives, however, it was only when Apple launched the App Store that the game changed; developers could finally innovate, stars were born, money flowed, and the whole process from submission to payout was clean and simple wherever the developer resided and irrespective of the user’s carrier.
It didn’t stop there; now, enterprises are building their own stores, major brands are offering app downloads on their websites, solutions companies are extending their services via custom-built apps, and app providers are partnering to sell their apps as part of a bigger solution with lucrative bundling and integration deals. This drive towards a totally open app distribution ecosystem has been motivated by the growing sophistication of apps and what they integrate to, the entrance of the big players to the market who are demanding a branded experience for their users, and the desire from developers to get above the noise of conventional app stores to reach their target users more effectively.
In terms of sophistication, two trends are worth noting. First, in the old days, apps were just that – standalone apps that did something very well on the handset they were built for. Now many of the most successful apps are actually services, hosted in the cloud, where the app is a means to an end, i.e. the app is often a fairly straightforward means of simply accessing the service, and it is the service that delivers the real value to the user. Many of these apps actually take an existing service and extend it to the mobile environment. This is something we will see much more of going forward with standardizations like HTML5. The second trend is that of a many-to-many relationship. In the past, an app typically did one thing and connected with one system. Now, due to the rise of open APIs and partner ecosystems that encourage developers to integrate across a value chain, apps will often aggregate data from many sources, and will perform functions into several systems.
Looking at payments, the traditional way to get paid was via the wireless carrier and developers had to work with, and integrate with, each carrier individually. Ironically this has come full circle because the ability to place charges on a user’s carrier bill is still the best way to get paid. However, everything is far more open now that there is a large number of aggregators and with the drive by platforms like Android and BlackBerry to provide carrier billing options in their stores. Although this is all excellent news for the industry, payment options are about to get much more complicated. Flexible billing options such as subscription and name-your-price are two good examples of this new level of sophistication, the ability for a developer to provide an app for free to the end user, but to be paid by one or more third parties that have a vested interest in supplying a service to that user, will become mainstream.
The final area that will become one of the next big battlegrounds in the sector is identity management. The debate over who owns the user, who owns their data, who owns the billing relationship, under what conditions is data shared between parties, and how does a user with 100 apps, 25 services, and 10 payment accounts manage the sign-on relationship with each of them is just starting to begin. The terms “federated ID” and “single sign-on” will become mainstream. The best example of this relationship today is through Facebook which allows users to log on to many services using their Facebook ID. However, in the world outlined above, a world with sophisticated payment options and wide interconnectivity, a world that also provides individuals with the ability to use a mobile phone as a wallet, other players are actively vying to control the “identity management” space, and the stakes are high.
In summary, those narrow and extremely targeted rivers of the early days of the app business have all flowed into a huge interconnected lake. Developers have more options for connecting and selling their apps, mainstream companies have an easy way into leveraging the app economy, rapid innovation is now happening across the value chain, and above all money is being made in a lot of creative ways.
While Wmode has been delivering many pieces of this app economy for over a decade, the company’s new Affiliate Commerce Exchange approach formalizes it for the next wave – it enables anyone in the lake to create an affiliation with anyone else to exchange data and business, enabling commerce to easily flow.
The Twitter version of this post besides not being official is only compatible with devices OS6.
Among the news is undoubtedly the new icon of the application of the notification, the client revised slightly in design but nothing too flashy.
NOTE: this version installed without disconnecting from the old to avoid having to insert the code “BETA”.
[ @ BBH-Plus via BerryReview ]
It has been said to have been in the works for years, but now RIM is apparently getting more serious about it. We’ve received word from multiple sources that RIM is definitely working on a few different horizontal keyboard designs for future BlackBerry devices. Testers were given just the keyboard to see how comfortable and efficient it was to type on. The keyboards were said to be much different than traditional horizontal keyboards we’ve seen before and that they do not necessarily resemble an ‘extended version’ of current BlackBerry portrait keyboards.
It will be very interesting to see if RIM truly does launch a device with a horizontal keyboard. It was rumored for the longest time that the Mr. T, now known as the Torch 9800, was in landscape and portrait version while as a prototype. But for whichever reason, RIM (and supposedly AT&T) decided a portrait slider was better.
Our guess, or hope rather, is that RIM will not push a horizontal keyboard to production for the the simple fact that slider phones are so 2008. Then again, the Torch 9800 was a bit of a surprise in terms of a new product line for RIM. If RIM did release a device with a landscape slider, it would position RIM with having every style of mobile device we’ve seen in the past. Would you be interested in a BlackBerry with a landscape slide-out keyboard?
NOTE: Image above is for illustrative purposes only.
Night Hawk Computers Blackberry Alliance 