We already covered the Official London 2012 Olymics app, but that’s hardly the only one available to fans of the summer spectacle. The CTV Olympics App is also available (free) in App World for all you sport fans. And while this one may not be the “official” Olympics app, it’s got a real shot of interesting you even more than its official counterpart.
The two features most likely to be used by true fans are probably the live video and highlights functions. (I should point out that I, from America, couldn’t access either of these features. I got a pop-up that said video may only be played via WiFi - though at first I thought that that may have had to do with my service provider. When I switched to WiFi, that didn’t work either. Seemingly, the video features are designed for a Canadian audience.) Other interesting choices on the app are the athletic results, ”Passion to Win” trivia function, and the extensive athlete list (searchable by country or sport).
Though the app seemed to move a bit slowly, it’s a free app with some really nice features, so if you’re looking to learn about the goings-on in London, you may as well give it a whirl.
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Во Вьетнаме появился загадочный 10-дюймовый BlackBerry PlayBook По последним имеющимся у нас данным, все работы над BlackBerry PlayBook с диагональю 10 дюймов откладывались на определенный срок. А вместо этого RIM якобы планировала сконцентрироваться над BB10 и смартфонами следующего поколения. Однако мы только что получили эту фотографию с Tinthe, на которой запечатлено нечто, крайне напоминающее увеличенную копию планшета BlackBerry. Все остальные фото, на [...]
Концепт слайдера BlackBerry 10 В ожидании анонса новых смартфонов на базе операционной системы BlackBerry 10, которые должны будут появиться на рынке в 2013 году, дизайнер Джон Анастасиадис помогает нам скоротать время, предлагая все новые концепты смартфонов BlackBerry 10. У нас была уже возможность увидеть его концепты полностью сенсорного BlackBerry 10 и BlackBerry 10 с QWERTY клавиатурой. Следующим логическим... Read More
BlackBerry 10: BBM на смартфонах с QWERTY клавиатурой На схеме можно увидеть, как BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) будет адаптирован для смартфонов BlackBerry 10 с QWERTY клавиатурой (N-Series), которые как и полностью сенсорные смартфоны (L-Series) должны появиться на рынке в первом квартале следующего года.
Смелые концепты BlackBerry 10 Вокруг появления новых девайсов BlackBerry 10 все время витает множество различных слухов и предположений: «Когда же они наконец-то появятся?», «Какие будут их характеристики?», «Как они будут выглядеть?». У каждого есть свои ответы на эти вопросы. Мы уже видели три дизайна из серии DreamBerry, а сегодня познакомимся еще с тремя новыми образцами. Первый – это BlackBerry [...]
Еще один взгляд на BBM в BlackBerry 10 За прошедшие несколько недель мы уже видели множество просочившихся в Сеть слайдов и фотографий BlackBerry 10. И сегодня у нас есть очередное подобное изображение – на этот раз касающееся BBM. И если раньше нам приходилось довольствоваться скриншотами пользовательского интерфейса и некоторых приложений на BlackBerry 10, то теперь это полноценное цветное демо BBM. На портале N4BB [...]
RIM recently allowed developers to start submitting their BlackBerry 10 apps into App World and many are doing so. This allows other devs to test out your apps and functionality and it seems to be working well. The latest app we have seen in App World for BlackBerry 10 and available for BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha owners is Tiles by S4BB. It is a fun puzzle game that sort of reminds me of Bejeweled. The goal is to clear the screen in the least number of moves by selecting tiles that are connected with the same color.
If you own a BlackBerry Curve 9350 from Sprint you will be happy to learn they have pushed out a new OS update for you. This new update brings it closer to the recent Bold and Torch updates which is nice. No word on what is new in this release but expect some bug fixes.
Warning: This OS will NOT install on any other BlackBerry besides the one mentioned above. If you do not know how to upgrade your BlackBerry OS please start by reading this step by step guide. Don't forget to delete the vendor.xml file located in c:program files>common files>research in motion>apploader to install it on a different carriers device. Don't forget our usual warnings: do not download and install these updates if you don't know what you're doing. Incorrect procedure or just bad luck could render your BlackBerry inoperative or unstable.
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Things are gearing up for Pwn2Own again this year with the mobile space heating up. Pwn2Own is happening in Amsterdam at EUSecWest this year on the 19th and 20th of September. TippingPoint is once again the main sponsor for Pwn2Own along with RIM, AT&T, and HP DVLabs. This year Pwn2Own is dedicated to the mobile attack surface including attacks on mobile browsers, NFC, SMS, and the cellular baseband.
The Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) part of the contest is offering up four prizes with one each going to the first researcher to compromise a device through one of the following vectors:
Mobile Web Browsers
Near Field Communication (NFC)
Short Message Service (SMS)
Cellular Baseband
Each contestant will be allowed to select the device they want to go up against during the pre-registration and the only requirement is that it be a current device and running the latest operating system. They gave some examples including the BlackBerry Bold 9930, Samsung Galaxy SIII, Nokia Lumia 900, Apple iPhone 4S. Successful attacks must require little to no user interaction and must compromise or extract/exfiltrate useful data from the phone. It can also simply cost the owner money by doing things like calling long distance numbers or listening in on phone calls. Each successful compromise will win a BlackBerry PlayBook along with a cash prize with the first in each category winning:
As you assuredly know (unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere) this year is a Summer Olympic one. And with the first games in London having been played (congratulations Japan!) and the Opening Ceremony soon to follow, sports fans worldwide are turning their attention away from their other options and toward the international quadrennial spectacle in London. Unable to attend, but want to follow? There’s an app for that.
The official Olympic app (free in App World) has a huge amount of features, most of which can be utilized from wherever you are. Though it looks like it’s really designed for people attending the games (I keep being told I’m 99+ miles from the action) most of the app is also useful to those who are following from a distance. In that vein, I should point out that when times are listed, my local time as well as London time are both given.
Some key features include:
What's on: full and up-to-date event listings for thousands of exciting activities, including free events, London 2012 Festival cultural events and big screens (Live Sites), across London and the UK – find out what's happening near you, on an hour-by-hour basis.
Torch today: view the Olympic Torch Relay with street-level routes for 1000+ communities over 70 days, and details of Torchbearers. View the current Torch position in real time using the Torch Tracker function.
Paralympic Torch Relay: find out about the Flame Festivals taking place across the UK in August.
Spectator guide: get searchable maps, details of facilities and information about how to get the best out of your historic day out.
Road events: find out about free medal events such as the Marathon and Road Cycling Race.
Jump to: interactive, searchable maps of the Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays, the UK, London and the Olympic Park.
Detail maps: access and seating maps for the Olympic Park and 20+ venues.
Live updates: news, photos and social commentary from the Games.
My Games: create a personal schedule creation to help you plan your Olympic and Paralympic experience.
Facebook, Twitter and BBM integration: tweet, upload photos, post to your wall, check-in and let your friends know what you’re doing.
RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 just joined the rest of the BlackBerry family by gaining FIPS 140-2 certification. This comes along with RIM's BlackBerry Device Service, a component of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, also getting FIPS 140-2 certification. That component is the one that manages the security and policy on the BlackBerry PlayBook and will also manage future BlackBerry 10 devices. This new FIPS 140-2 certification essentially certifies that RIM securely stores personal and sensitive information on the devices.
RIM's social media app developers are really going full force in the Beta Zone with rapid release cycles. They have just announced the release of v3.2.0.7 in the Beta Zone. This is once again just to round out the application with some needed features and bug fixes. The change log includes improvements for:
Duplicate comment text field and buttons show on Photo comment screen
Multiple Birthday Reminder Dialogs popping up for the same friend
Setup Wizard does not appear after upgrade
Breaking changes on Facebook Event Table as the ability to block a user from login
Triplicate birthdays
Birthdays and Events not being pulled from calendar when IT policy "Disable organizer access" set to True
Device Sluggish
Translation issue on Facebook Options
Publisher "What’s on your mind?" text not properly redrawn when using large font
Multiple birthday reminders bring and leave Facebook into foreground when it was running in the background
When more than 1 Birthday reminders are invoked, later/subsequent reminders obscure and dismiss earlier dialogs
Missing translation for "Birthday Reminders" string
By default, Events is unchecked – should be checked
Events are not removed from Calendar when user turns off Events synching
"Disconnect from BlackBerry Contact" action removes friend’s birthday from device calendar when it should not
Icons missing on Setup Wizard GCM
Check in string not translated on News Feed
Comments Not Displaying
Focus always stays on the map field when using touchpad to scroll
You can pick up the updated Facebook for BlackBerry in the Beta Zone.
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Now this is one technology movement I am excited about. The USB 3.0 Promoter Group has approved a new specification for power delivery over USB. Specifically it is called the USB Power Delivery specification and its meant to offer a smarter way to pump power through USB. This means that they will be able to pump up to 100 watts over a USB cable which should be able to power your laptop and way more. I am secretly hoping that it also means my BlackBerry and PlayBook will finally charge at their max even when hooked up to a PC.
One of the up and coming push to talk apps for BlackBerry Smartphones, Zello, just received a nice update this week. This is an update to their push to talk application that is free with clients for your PC, BlackBerry, iOS, and Android devices. That means you can push to talk cross platform with ease. This new v1.29 update includes:
Sprint started rolling out OS updates for their OS 7 devices over the air last week and now they are following up with desktop installs. Jason let us know that Sprint has made OS 7.1.0.580 available officially for the Bold 9930 and Torch 9850. No word on what is new in the OS but its one of the latest builds we have seen.
Warning: This OS will NOT install on any other BlackBerry besides the one mentioned above. If you do not know how to upgrade your BlackBerry OS please start by reading this step by step guide. Don't forget to delete the vendor.xml file located in c:program files>common files>research in motion>apploader to install it on a different carriers device. Don't forget our usual warnings: do not download and install these updates if you don't know what you're doing. Incorrect procedure or just bad luck could render your BlackBerry inoperative or unstable.
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P3: The earpieces of the P3 headphones fold inward so that the earphones can fit into the new hard semi-circle shell-case. In testing the P3 headphones, the case was tough enough that I was able to throw the P3 headphones into a bag with keys and other tech and not worry about damaging the headphones.
P5: In contrast, the P5 headphones fit into an included soft cloth pouch that protects it from scratches in a bag, but not necessarily drops or inadvertent collisions.
Smaller Build: The P3 headphones are designed to be more portable than the P5 headphones. Thus, as-a-whole, the P3 headphones have a smaller frame (165mm in height) than the P5 headphones (180mm in height).
Dual Wire Connections:
P3: The P3 headphones have an audio cable attached to each headphone.
P5: The P5 headphones have one audio cable that connects to the left earphone.
Acoustic Fabric: Acoustic fabric replaces leather on the earpieces and the inner portion of the headband. In testing the P3 headphones, I liked the acoustic fabric a lot when I was using the headphones outdoors. While I really like the P5′s leather earpieces and headband, it can get a little sweaty around the ears and headband in the warm months. In contrast, the acoustic fabric covering the P3′s earpieces breathes, making for better on-the-go experience.
Internal Changes
Airflow redirection to minimize distortion: In the P3 headphones the driver terminals have been moved to the rear of the magnets so that air can uniformly escape, minimizing distortion.
Smaller Drivers: While the P5 headphones are powered by 40mm drivers, the P3 headphones are driven by slightly smaller 30mm drivers. While the change is necessary to keep with a smaller design, the smaller drivers sacrifice some of the heavier base tones.
The Sound: The vocals and high notes are clear and crisp. As expected the mid-range tones are full and dynamic. However, because of the smaller drivers, the bass sometimes feels like it hits a floor, with very deep notes sounding stunted. (see the notes below the red line)
Wrap-up: For $199, the Bowers & Wilkins P3 headphones are pretty great. However, having tested the P5 headphones I would recommend splurging the extra $100.
Note: Bower & Wilkins provided a demo unit for this review.
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Wikitude has updated their popular augmented reality world browser to v7.1 today. Sadly they do not have a change log for this update but I am hearing it might just be a bug fix. Check out the latest v7.1 of Wikitude free in App World and let us know if you spot anything new!
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Last night we saw some video of a new Photo Editor RIM is baking into BlackBerry 10. Now thanks to some slides from N4BB we have a bit better idea of how it will work. There is nothing really ground breaking in the slides but it does explain how the new Instagram-like photo editor will be adapted for the N-Series QWERTY devices. Check it out and let us know what you think!
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Anyone who was actually using the New York Times app on their BlackBerry probably saw this one coming. The app has been barely updated in years and the mobile website was a better bet in most cases. Still there will be some who will be saddened to hear that it is no longer with us. The New York Times has been struggling to replace their business model as the printed news industry goes into a tailspin and their latest cutback has been their BlackBerry and WebOS apps including their DealBook BlackBerry Reader. They did offer a replacement homescreen shortcut here.
My guess is they needed to make some drastic/costly changes to continue support and they saw RIM was moving away from BlackBerry 7 to BlackBerry 10 which did not warrant the investment. Either way we hope to see them release an app for the PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 in the future.
Long time BlackBerry developer XIMAD let us know that they have published four new titles for the PlayBook this week. These four games are solid releases with Brain Cube Reloaded coming to the PlayBook. Check out all four releases below:
FreeFantasy Islands – our new project that now is available for iPad and Kindle Fire. And today we have published the PlayBook version. This game is casual city builder with beautiful graphics and interesting game world history. And as a present for our users we have made it absolutely free without any ads for the limited time and given them 100 crystals for building city.
Brain Cube Reloaded (BlackBerry PlayBook edition) – version of our famous game which became a bestseller in BlackBerry App World and WP7 marketplace optimized specially for PlayBook. This game has more than 5 000 000 active users all over the world.
Throw The Knife – Game witch was in iTunes and Amazon appstore tops for a long time is now available on PlayBook! This game has 3 different game modes including Bloody mode.
You can always count on RIM's head of gaming, Anders Jeppsson, to whet your appetite for some new PlayBook games. The latest he has been teasing us with on Twitter (thanks Jason) is the Bard's Tale. Anders is saying that the game will be coming in August to the PlayBook at have a BlackBerry 10 version at launch. In case you don't know The Bard's Tale is a action role playing game by inXile Entertainment and is a spoof of other fantasy role playing video games. It has been around from the PlayStation 2 days as far as I remember and is quite a fun game.
You can check out more details about it at www.thebardstale.com or simply keep an eye out for it in App World next month!
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It looks like what RIM showed us of Scalado rewinding pictures is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to camera features in BlackBerry 10. Bla1ze @CrackBerry managed to scrounge up an early build of a photo editor in the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha. Right now it is not fully functional because it relies on a updated camera app that we do not have access to along with later builds of the OS. Keep in mind RIM is keeping the consumer side of the OS pretty locked down from developers but things like the voice commands and this show through the cracks.
This new photo editor app seems like it offers features akin to Picasa and Instagram. It offers auto optimisation of pictures including red eye. It also lets you apply filters, manipulate, and add frames to your pictures. It is built on Cascades which is nice to see though I was hoping to see some sort of tie in with RIM's could media acquisition NewBay.
I am a huge fan of Sultan Al Sooz's Advance OS and LED utility for BlackBerry smartphones. The swiss army knife of BlackBerry utilities just got a nice update to v14.5 with a boatload of new features. The main focus of this update is an extreme level of customization that you can now set for notifications. The app already offered a ton of options but now it has been taken to a new level (some might call it insane). You can now have different ringtones and LEDs for different contact sources (BBM, SMS, email, calls) for each individual contact! I personally appreciate the ability to set a different ringtone for known and unknown callers and the call end sound which is useful.
Check out the full change log below:
Added (combined) Ringtones feature inside the LED Light feature, with the following changes:
Added the ability to control phone calls ringtones like never before (2 different ringtones for known and unknown contacts).
Added Ringtones for BBM,Email,SMS,Incoming & Missed calls for INDIVIDUAL contacts and related Applications.
Added Call End sound (guarantee to play sound after call end).
Added Missed Call sound for all calls (or can be customized per individual).
Added Network and Battery status sounds and vibrations.
Added a ringtone recorder & player from within the ringtone selection screen.
Added new ability to create different notifications (Call,SMS,Mail,BBM) for the same contact.
Renamed LED Light feature to "LED & Ringtones" feature with new layout
LED Contacts are sorted alphabetically.
Changed App’s Core engine for battery and performance enhancements (better LED and Popups Response).
Battery notifications moved from Sound profiles to ‘LED & Ringtones’ feature.
Fixed "call lock screen" sometimes showing before call connect and after call end.
Fixed BBM FAQs answers not showing all text.
Fixed Issue with ‘Contacts Manager’ feature not removing extra contact lists.
As Sultan Al Sooz said on Facebook when he announced this release: "Its time to change what people know about phone customizations." You can download the free Advance OS and LED app from App World or from www.alsooz.com
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It has been a long time since RIM updated their BlackBerry News app for BlackBerry smartphones in December. Personally I was hoping/dreaming that RIM was working on a follow up that would sync read/unread status with the PlayBook app and Google Reader but I will stick with BeReader for that and I rather they focus on BlackBerry 10. Bla1ze over @CrackBerry noticed that the change log for this slightly updated version of BlackBerry News for Smartphones claims that it includes performance enhancements.
The BlackBerry Video Store on the PlayBook launched in February of this year powered by Rovi Entertainment service but it was limited to the US. RIM later promised that the store would support more countries by the end of the year. Well it looks like we are now one step further towards that goal with the BlackBerry Video Store now being available to all BlackBerry PlayBook owners in Canada starting today.
Here is how RIM describes the store:
The BlackBerry Video Store offers a catalog of thousands of movies and TV shows with new releases available for purchase or rent. With the Video Store, customers have the option of streaming a trailer before making a purchase decision, and can also begin watching media as soon as they start to download a file. They won't have to wait for the entire file to transfer before they can begin enjoying great entertainment on the tablet's high resolution display or on an HDTV using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet's HDMI output.
We have been hearing for quite awhile that RIM is getting really close to launch BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1. The 4G BlackBerry PlayBook also seems like it is right on the verge of launching (any day now!). If you needed another sign for PlayBook OS 2.1 then look no further than the latest leaked spec sheet scored by Bla1ze @CrackBerry. This spec sheet details quite a few features including some that we have not seen in the developer builds of OS 2.1. This includes:
Software updates are no longer mandatory during setup. The customer can choose the best time to update for them.
Setting Up WiFi connection is no longer mandatory at setup
Software updates can be done over a cellular network (4G models only)
Portrait Mode can now be used with the Email, Calendar, and Contacts App
Greater flexibility and control over which folders are wirelessly synced when using Active Sync
Full access to IMAP Email folders
The BlackBerry PlayBook now gives you the ability to conduct a video chat over 4G Cellular Networks (Some Carrier Restrictions May Apply)
Print To Go – Now you can send content to your BlackBerry PlayBook even if it's not connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Android Apps will now run in individual windows rather than being lumped into one Android Player Window.
Apps which require access to the camera are now supported
In-App Payments can now be submitted. Buying that next power-up in your game is easier than ever!
Video Store is now available in Canada. Thousands of movies and TV shows, new & old, available on demand to rent or buy New releases available same day as DVD
Text Messaging is now supported with BlackBerry Bridge. When Bridged you can read, send and receive text messages on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
When Bridged, and connected to WiFi, the BlackBerry PlayBook automatically sends and receives data over the WiFi network to decrease cellular data usage, and increase performance.
Its nice to see the PlayBook getting a nice OS update shortly. I am hoping there will be some more ancillary applications to go along with it but some of the updates, including full access to IMAP folders and SMS over bridge, will be greatly appreciated by PlayBook owners.
Anyone want to hazard a guess as to when it will launch?
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We know that RIM is putting quite a bit of effort into redesigning the UI and interface for BlackBerry 10 and BBM is not exception. We originally showed you some wireframes directly from RIM and then some more details on BBM concepts. Now N4BB has posted some more of the leaked slides showing off BlackBerry 10s early BBM concepts. This hints to themes being enabled for the look of BBM along with swipe gestures and keyboard shortcuts on the QWERTY N-series devices.
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Leading a double life? Afraid the Russians are on to you? Want to pretend to be 007? Then Stealth Book might be the perfect app for you.
The Stealth Book app ($0.99) hides records of calls, text messages, and emails that you received from specific contacts (who you specify). It does this by storing that information in the Stealth Book app itself instead of in the native apps for those features. It also includes other things like a hidden contact list. This app is similar to but slightly cheaper than the Blackbook app which has been doing something similar for awhile now though competition should improve both apps.
Features on the app include:
Completely Hidden Contact list
Hidden Text Messages
Hidden Emails
Edit emails while forwarding
Hidden Call Logs
Auto-reply on call disconnect
Backup/Restore Contacts
Enhanced Call Logs/Text Messages/Email Filtering
Threaded SMS
Customizable message pop-up alerts
Vibration alerts
Closes Automatically
Enable/Disable Message Pop-up
Frankly, the reviews on App World have included some very negative reviews, so buyers should probably beware (though some user feedback has been very positive).
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The latest game to tickle my fancy on my BlackBerry Bold 9900 is Bloody Sniper by Avko Labs. The game has you shooting down wave after wave of monsters, zombies, skeletons, and more. They each have their own unique weapons and you have to change up your arsenal to take them down. The free version of the game limits you to one gun which makes the game almost impossible to play through. Its a good thing that the premium version is only $0.99 in App World with six weapons and different protection.
Devs working on the latest BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha OS and latest SDK's may have noticed some font changes. Some of the default Adobe fonts are no longer available and RIM has added a whole list of new fonts to replace the depreciated ones. They have also set the new default font for Cascades to Slate Pro though other fonts can be substituted based on locale and region of the device. Slate Pro does not seem like a free font (Fonts.com by Rod McDonald?) but it is close to Helvetica.
What I found most interesting is that the new font support specifically adds languages that are not currently supported on the PlayBook. Specifically I am seeing Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Bengali, Hindi, Thai, and a few more. This is on top of all the rest of the fonts available to components like WebWorks or developers embedding their own fonts. Kizito Kasengulu gave a great breakdown of the changes and what they mean on the DevBlog. Hopefully Kizito incorporates it into the BlackBerry 10 documentation and UI Guidelines.
Personally I am really excited to see Hebrew support and I hope it is available at launch!
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While most BlackBerry users are waiting for Viber to bring their VoIP calling to their BlackBerry client that has not stopped Viber from releasing interim updates. Their last update included bug fixes and this one does too along with some other improvements. According to the change log this new version includes the:
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