BBText2IM-Update: Now available for BETA

A few days ago we told you about the BBText2IM, which pretty much is going to allow you to view Text Messages in-line like you do Instant Messages. 

Finally the BETA is out, so here is the OTA download link if you want to check it out. 

We just got into the office and haven't had much time to play with it yet, however, the big crucial part that we notice is missing is the "Use Once" option that usually would appear when trying to create a text message using the standard SMS folder. 

One other "annoying" thing we have found about it is the fact that if you don't use the "Find" feature when going into your "Address Book" and start to scroll down, if you attempt to scroll back up, then it takes you directly to the find. Not a big PITA, but still something they probably will want to check before the Alpha version is released. 

So check it out and let us know what you think. 

Bullhorn Is Full Of Bullsh!t

I was browsing around over on the "Bullhorn Support Forums" as a parnter who I work with was asking about BlackBerry integration with the program.

First off, it can't be done. So if you are or were thinking about using Bullhorn and you use a BlackBerry, don't. (Keep reading to find an alternative that actually works).

Now, you CAN get your emails on your BB by setting up forwarding rules and "filters. By the way they are a complete pain in the ass because you have to "rank" the filters and most of the time your BlackBerry filter is going to be pushed to the bottom resulting in 3/4 of your emails never coming in. Apparently the reasoning for this is that some Brainiac at Bullhorn decided to build the software so that when something is ranked as "not spam", it actually creates a filter for that person which is ranked HIGHER than the BlackBerry. HAH. WTF? Morons.

Anyways, back to my rant about Bullhorn. You would think after being around for so long, that this company some way or another would realize that they could make SO MUCH MORE MONEY and have SO MANY MORE CLIENTS if they would just get off the little Windows Mobile/Palm fetish that the geek-boy developers have, and started working on a BlackBerry solution.

Why do I make my above comments? Here are some quotes from the "Bullhorn Staff" and "Bullhorn Developers" in the support forums:

Scavallo (Bullhorn Support Staff):

There are several advantages to using the Bullhorn Wireless client on a supported device and sync with mobile devices as opposed to simply vieweing Bullhorn Mobile via a blackberry.

1. The contacts which you sync with your device using intellisync will be integrated with your device. You can look them up on your device to call them easily from your phone, and their name will resolve on the caller ID. The webclient will not do this. Yo Scavallo-Then get your program developers off their ass and find a work around.

2. Intellisync is an offline client. You can read emails and respond when you are offline which is great for airplanes and travelling. Eh...Yeah...You can do that on a BlackBerry too..

3. The contacts on your device will be backed up in Bullhorn as private. If your device is lost/stolen/damaged/replaced, you will have a backup of all contacts which can easily be restored to a new device. You can easily publish them in Bullhorn as well. WTF? This is WHY Bullhorn needs to be integrated with BES you dolt.

4. Usability - It is also much easier to use. Yeah yeah yeah...I've got $500 on the table right now that says Scavallo uses a treo and has probably never even picked up a BlackBerry before.

cseibert (Bullhorn employee):

We don't have a way to sync to Blackberry. Talk to them about supporting third-party integrations; they're not interested. Yeah Cseibert. Probably because they saw "Sent from my Palm Treo. The bestest bestest bestest cell phone in the world" in your signature line of the email.

Not only that, have you ever heard of a competitor of yours called WinSearch? Hrmm...THEY use a BES server. THEY integrate their software into the BES server...SO...why can't you? (Those of you who actually have been thinking about Bullhorn and want a solution that IS BlackBerry friendly, check out WinSearch)

So in other words, we are going to say this about Bullhorn.....B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.

We know that you are nothing but a bunch of little TREONAUTS over there, and probably have now migrated over to being Apple FanBoys, and you will find a way to integrate that into your system before you do BlackBerry.

That being said, I hope your CEO and whatever investors you have are glad being mediocre, because that's where Bullhorn is going to remain until you get your head out of your bullend and start giving the tens of thousands of potenital users you have what they want.

:::Rant Off:::

Guess What This Post Is About

Yep. You know.

BGR broke it and now everyone else is posting, so we decided "Eh, why not".

So apparently the Bold is being delayed, and knowing BG's history with accurately leaking RIM information, we wouldn't doubt if his two sources were ole Mike and Jim themselves.

Basically, yeah, who knows.

SO...Here's what WE promise YOU...

There will be no posts about "possible" release dates of the Bold posted here on BBHP until it's confirmed to launch by either AT&T or RIM. And internal documents are going to work. We're talking about a full-fledged press release.

Travel Channel Releases BlackBerry Application And...

it's pretty nifty!

Say you are in Chicago (just because that's the default location of the application) and you want to know what cool architecture there is around you...Or entertainment...Or attractions...Whatever...

Well, if you have the TravelGO, you would be one happy camper.

You can either set your location by GPS, or you can also enter zip codes, addresses, cross streets, cities, etc.

Then you flip on over to the next tab and boom, see what's near you.

Nothing new eh?

Oh no no no...

When you pull up a location (We are going to use Carson Pirie Scott & Company since it's the first one that popped up), it gives you the address, but also gives you a picture of the building and a description.

The great thing about the description is, if you are like us (AKA: LAZY) and don't want to read the description, simply press the option to "Listen", and the description will play through your BlackBerry speaker. Especially useful if you are doing a walking tour through the city and don't want to run into a lamp post because you are looking down at your BlackBerry screen.

You can also set that location or get directions to there or from there, so that's pretty nifty too. (Would be good if you could set up a walking tour with different waypoints!)

Also, there is an option where you can add friends, and send them locations or let them see where you are! We like that, just because of the fact that whenever we run SpotJots, it crashes our BlackBerry, plus, this has more features!

Click Here to check it out or go to http://go.travelchannel.com from your BlackBerry!

Thanks for the tip Simon!

BlackberryHomePage Review -- GetitBack!

I was approached by Convenience Software, the makers of GetItBack, to do a little review of their product. I must admit, at first I couldn’t see where I would ever personally use an application with these capabilities. Let me be the first to tell you, I stand corrected. After using the program for a few days now, I couldnt think of walking outside with my BlackBerry without it.

The application comes in two parts. There is a small application that is installed on the device, and a server side portion that requires logging in to a web site. Buy it here! The Home page has an excellent break down of the service and I will not overwhelm you with the details, but to quote a few:

BlackBerry Statistics
With the new web-interface, you can view vital statistics about your BlackBerry which are updated every thirty seconds including: battery life, backlight state and lock state.

BlackBerry Controller
Another feature of the web-interface is the ability to remotely control your BlackBerry. You can make it ring (even if it’s on silent), activate an alarm, make it call you, and make it display a custom message

SIM Number
GetItBack’s Web Interface will also tell you your phone’s SIM number, so if the thief replaces your SIM card, you can easily track and retrieve your phone.

GPS Location
GetItBack’s Web Interface will even show you your phone’s GPS coordinates (if they are available on your device), and you will be able to see your phone’s location overlayed on Yahoo! Maps.

As you can see the application provides a laundry list of information to assist with the return of your device. In my experience the mapping feature (which can refresh itself in as little as 30 seconds) is extremely accurate, with not only a street view, but also satellite and hybrid views. Even going inside, the map will show the last known GPS coordinates, which was in most cases, marked as the building I was in.

Still on the fence? How about signing up your entire family’s devices, and being able to log into the web portal from any other BlackBerry? Ever lost your device in your house and cant find where it is, wishing it had a homing device built-in? Log in to the web portal and quickly send a message to the device to turn on your alarm or ringer. The music will continue to play until you either mark it found or pick up the device and silence it. No more calling from another device - that you may or may not have readily available - over and over just to find your misplaced BlackBerry.

Another great example? A corporation using a BES. We all know that the device can be remotely wiped/locked. You can also track the device via the BES. But what about being able to locate any of your employees’ devices, being able to see where they left their device, or track the cab that they left their BlackBerry in. With a 30 second refresh on the GPS map, as long as the device has power, you can see where it is with as much accuracy as any of the on-device GPS applications reveal. Now a BlackBerry Administrator can not only administer the devices, but we can now see where they are in near real time.

A few images are on the website as well, including the one used in this article. All in all, this is one of the best applications that I have used. Tech support was very quick to respond to the only issue that I had (on an OS that is not yet released to the public). This works beautifully on the 4.5 releases, including the many beta versions floating around. I would strongly recommend that you at least try this application out, because all it will take is just one use and you will be hooked

WeatherBug Direct Now Warns You When You May Die

Face it, when a tornado is coming your way, you want to get the hell out of Dodge. Or at the very least climb into your bathtub and weep uncontrollably (ahem, former intern). 

WeatherBug Direct now will actually give you AUDIO and VISUAL alerts on your BlackBerry, by adding an option in your Profiles for you to customize. 

What alerts can you set you ask? What alerts CAN'T you set we say!

Everything from tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, thunderstorms (and thunder cats!) and beyond...Well...Let's just say everything EXCEPT the Apocalypse (however, that may be added soon). 

One note of warning, when you are setting up WeatherBug Direct for the first time, make sure that you don't just whip right through the setup, as that's where you set up your "I don't want to die" alerts. 

Click Here to download OTA!

Thanks to BoneBox for helping us all live another day! 

BBText2IM-Threaded Text Messages...Coming Soon?

You have to admit: reading text messages on a BlackBerry is boring (as are emails, but after Saturday that will be changing). 

Many people would love to be able to read text messages like you do Instant Messages, and that has been impossible until now...Kinda. 

MDWHEATON (of BlackBerry Profile Scheduler fame) has come out of his dark hole he's been hiding in for a while to make a post on Pinstack announcing BBText2IM. 

Only problem is...There is no information on how to BETA test it yet. (Insert sad face). 

We will keep you up to date on when we find out how you can actually test this out, as apparently it's going to be a completely open BETA, so stay tuned!

bPlay Releases "The Office Game"...BBHP Files Infringement Lawsuit

bPlay (AKA: Really Expensive BlackBerry Themes, Games and Wallpapers but no "Trial Versions) have released a copy of The Office Game for BlackBerry devices.

Per the description on their website:
Win the title of ‘Office Champion’ by playing different office mini-games like balance, basketball, paper battle, chair racing, golf etc.
Play as an office slacker having fun on the job. Compete in seven different mini-games: basketball using a waste-paper basket, table mini-golf, a fun filled balance game; a paper-football field goal kick game, an all out paper-ball battle, a chair race around the office and a water cooler game. Earn maximum overall points to win the title of ‘Office Champion’.

WHAT THE HELL?!?!?! Needless to say as soon as we saw this description on their website, we paid a highly trained team of counter-terrorism experts to come into our office to check for bugs, because bPlay DAMN NEAR hit the nail COMPLETELY on the head with this one (other than the fact that we recently fired our office slacker that will probably be back Wednesday morning with a handgun he bought from some highschool kid, and the fact that Fun Fridays are now Nerf War Fridays).

Anyways, if you feel like dropping $7.00 on this game rather than buying a candy bar and a newspaper to sleep on , CLICK HERE and let us know how you like it...


UPDATE!
Good thing we paid Jack Bauer to come and check our offices out...They WERE bugged!

RIM Releases Desktop Manager 4.5-Inadvertently Tests BB Users Attention and Patience

While we were out enjoying the Summer Solstice this weekend by burning witches and sipping on snake soup, RIM celebrated by posting up the newest version of Desktop Manager, confusing many BlackBerry users.

Seeing that a new version was available, thousands of BlackBerry users headed on over to download it (you can find the link here) and clicked the first link they saw, not knowing that it was only the Desktop DEVICE MANAGER and it was in French. HAH! (pourquoi n'est pas mon Desktop Manager de travail?-BTW, thanks Google Translator...I don't speak French, so if I jacked up that phrase, please let me know and we will fix it.)

Judging by the amount of people who then started posted on forums and blogs that "There is no Desktop Manager icon" and "Why is it only in French" shows the impatience and inattentiveness of BlackBerry owners across the world.

For those of you who DO want to download the 4.5 Desktop Manager and DON'T want to look stupid in the process wondering why it's not working, make sure you scroll down to at least the 5th download link.

Thanks Terrapin!

2 Kids In Spain Treated For "Cell Phone Addiction"-Parents Should Be Charged With Child Endangerment

Yep...Teens addicted to cell phones. As if cough syrup, gossiping and MySpace weren't bad enough; now 2 teens in Spain are being treated for "addiction to their cell phones".

According to Dr Maite Utges, director of the Child and Youth Mental Health Centre in Lleida, Spain "it may take a year to wean them off of the drug".

We blame the parents on this. The kids were 12 and 13 years old and spent over 6 hours a day on their cell phones. Plus, just because the word "CrackBerry" has made it into Websters Dictionary, it's still not an actual drug, and with no actual drug, there can be no actual addiction.

Are todays parents THIS out of touch with their kids that they had their phones for 18 MONTHS and they didn't recognize it? It's no wonder that 17 teenage girls get knocked up without the parent's batting an eye.

It's AMAZING that isn't actually a story from the United States, because, if it were, the parents of the teen girl in the above picture would be fighting their insurance company after the awesome rear-end collision that is about to happen, saying it's because "the power of the drug called the cellphone was too over-whelming to her" causing the wreck, rather than "Little Shelly was 2 biz-e reading a txt msg from her BFF Jennifer cuz OMG Mark thinks she's hawt".

Update: BTW, shout-out to Engadget for bringing this story to our attention and Telegraph.co.uk for originally posting it.

RIM Will Make Investors Happy With Our Money...

You may think the above picture was funded by the ridiculous price of gas that you have been pumping in your 14mpg SUV...But NO NO NO...

Above you are looking at the new HeadQuarters of BlackBerryHomePage and the fleet of ridiculously over-priced rides we purchased for the staff after the success of our stock because of the amazing first quarter RIM had this year!

For those of you who have stock in RIM and want to hear WHY your stock is doing so well, you can tune into the First Quarter results live on the 25th you can Click Here for info.

It's a good thing they will continue to re-broadcast it until the 9th of July, because we will be in an alcohol induced coma on the beaches of Cancun for probably about a week.

NOS VEMOS AL RATO!

UPDATE:

Our Intern has now been fired. Apparently we all bought thousands of dollars in stock for a BlackBerry Pie Company based out of Montana rather than in Research In Motion. Excuse us while we hide all of our cars from the Repo Man before the first payment is due. Those of you who enjoy BlackBerry Pie though, feel free to email us at saveourasses@blackberryhomepage.com. Orders start at $5,000/pie...But it's yummy. 

Synch Your iTunes With Your BlackBerry

Get it while it lasts folks! MediaSynch is a standalone app that lets you transfer all your iTunes music (artwork and all) to your BlackBerry. BerryReview is reporting 260 songs transferred to their device in under 10 mins; with songs, albums and artists in all the right places! Oh. Yes.

Get it here and let us know what you think:

http://download-mustang.rim.edgesuite.net/autoupdates/MediaSync/108_120608/BlackBerryMediaSyncDM.exe

Pictures of the JAVELIN (9300)

Looks like the Javelin will be slated with the 9300 model number. Here are some great shots of the new Javelin. The screen is bigger than the Bold. Thanks BlackBerry news for the pictures. We hope to have you a release date soon.

Desktop Manager 4.5 Released from RIM

Finally, RIM has released the Desktop Manager 4.5 for BlackBerry. It's on their website now and we will provide the link below. It's available for download in Spanish, French, English and a few other languages. Here is the link to click. Now, it has not been released for all carriers so use caution if you choose to install. Check with your carrier as soon as possible to see if they support it.

Like Chanukkah in June!

While next weekend's outage may leave some of you sobbing and biting your pillows there will indeed be light at the end of the tunnel.  When all the tears have subsided OS 4.5 users will at last have, drum roll please.....HTML Email, yesssssss!!! 

Wi-LAN Goes on Litigation Rampage

Wi-Lan , a Canadian tech firm, claims that 22 companies jacked their Wi-Fi and DSL technology.  The company's website claims that these companies "have infringed and continue to infringe Wi-LANS US patents by making and of selling products including mobile handheld devices and other equipment." 

Um. So basically they're suing anyone and everyone that manufactures modems, routers and laptops. There's no 'we' in Wi-Lan.

Check out Techdirts article describing the companies ominous strategy.

Stop the Suffering

This weekend's outage may be just what the doctor ordered. Millions of BB users suffer from a trendy new affliction known as "BlackBerry Thumb". Formerly known as "Nindendonitis", Blackberry Thumb occurs when the thumbs and connecting tendons in the wrist are overworked causing pain and/or numbness.

Thumbs are designed to stabilize your other fingers. On a normal keyboard people use the more dexterous fingers for striking the letter keys, reserving the relatively clumsy thumbs for occasionally hitting the the spacebar. But since thumb typing is so repetitive and the keys are so small you're likely to press harder than usual on a normal keyboard. Hence the once humble thumb ends up doing a lot more than designed to.

For temporary relief (and about 50 bucks) you can head down to your local Hyatt spa for a "Technology Hand Massage" aimed at relaxing and stretching the hand muscles. But according to WebMD the only cure for BlackBerry thumb is to lay off thumb typing. Ha! Fat chance.

BlackBerry BLACKOUT Scheduled!!!

"Idle Hands are the Devil's Tools"

The BlackBerry network provider, Research In Motion (RIM), has planned a maintenance outage scheduled for June 21 and 22, when they will interrupt BlackBerry service in order to perform upgrades to components of the Blackberry Network infrastructure.

All BlackBerry users located in North America will experience the BlackBerry outage on Saturday, June 21, from 2:00 – 6:00 a.m. EDT (06:00:00-10:00:00 GMT).

All BlackBerry users located in Asia, the Pacific and Europe will experience the BlackBerry outage on Sunday, June 22, from 2:00 a.m. – 6:00 am. EDT (06:00:00-10:00:00 GMT).RIM is scheduling a BlackBerry outage on June 21, from 2:00 – 6:00 a.m. EDT.

During these maintenance periods, BlackBerry subscribers will not have service, and therefore will be unable to send or receive messages, register their device, roam to other locations, or use other services such as Internet browsing. All BlackBerry service should be restored following these listed maintenance periods.

Update: Palringo Goes Out Of BETA

And still sucks.

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Screw The Bold...Helloooooo Javelin!

Engadget has gotten some pictures of the Curves replacement, the Javelin. All we have to say is..."Whats a Bold?".

By far the sexiest BlackBerry device EVER, these should be hitting the streets the early part of 2009.

Something tells us though that since these pictures have been leaked and 98% of Curve owners are saving up now, that this thing is going to make it to the streets by the end of this year.

Buh-Bye Bold!

Head on over to Engadget check out all of the pics!

THE BOLD LAUNCHES WITH VODAFONE..... IN AUGUST??

Remember it was once thought Vodafone would be having the Bold as early as MAY or early June. I'm sorry. Thats not gonna happen. In fact it looks like August is the new Target month. I know... it stinks but what are you gonna do? It is at least on their website now so good chance August is it!

COUPLE OF NEW FREE APPLICATIONS

Here are two free applications for the BlackBerry

Morseme - Now you can morse any text using your BlackBerry^® Wireless Handheld’s backlight. Just select text in one of the following applications and you can translate it to morse code:

MemoPad, Browser, Calendar, Address Book, Tasks, EMail, and PIN Message.

Mypoynt beta -- At some point in time, everyone has looked for a restaurant, business or movie while they're on the go. Now, you can search for, and find, those businesses easily from your BlackBerry with the beta version of Poynt for the BlackBerry.

WTF?! Desktop Manager 4.6 Requires An Internet Connection To Setup Synchronization?!?!

File this away in the "WTF" category for right now.

A few days ago Desktop Manger 4.6 appeared on our desk here at the BBHP offices. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on if you're a pessimist or an optomist) we just now got around to playing with it, and...

It seems that the new Desktop Manager v4.6 has to be able to connect to an active internet connection in order to set up the sync process?!?!?

Hopefully this is an error and something that RIM has done because it's the BETA version (for some godly unknown reason).

If this is how the final version is, I will protest by selling half of my stock in RIM (Hopefully that one share will split into two again soon).




UPDATE: For some reason the picture was extremely minimized when uploaded onto here, so attaching a blown up picture of the message:

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Yep. Connect it to the internet, then try, and it works. RIM, WTF??? Does it happen to do with this nice little "disclaimer" you have now on your Desktop Manager Software?

Update To The Updated Update: Screw this...We're going back to 4.2.2.

BLACKBERRY 9110 SEAWOLF??? RUMORS ABOUND!

Boy Genius has a knack of getting good information pretty quickly. So, we can't help but post this.
Rumor has it that there could be this BlackBerry 9110 code name Sea Wolf. Click here and see what the Genius has unearthed.

REX REGINA CASES ARE PRETTY NICE

So I just opened my new Rex Regina case. It's in a pretty box. I feel like I just got engaged. Wait, maybe my BlackBerry now has a significant other.
These are high quality cases from Rex Regina that go beyond the rubber cases that you may see at other places.
If you want to go for the high quality case, this is it! Check out their product line here at Rex Regina . They have other phone cases as well such as TREO and iPhones. We here at BlackBerry HomePage are going to giveaway a few of these. I want to you comment on why you want one and we will pick a few.

BOLD vs IPHONE 2.0 REVIEW

This review was posted today by Jeff McCord of culturefeast.com. This is a pretty good review of the iphone 2.0 and the Blackberry Bold. I am interested to hear your thoughts audience. And what do you think about the severe price cuts that Apple did? hmm

UPDATE: Here is a strong "BlackBerry dominates iPhone" review. Click here

Rumor Has It...

First off, you're welcome for the picture of Jennifer Aniston. Woot!

Next, if you're like me, right now in your mind you are hearing "Look at all these rumors, surrounding me every day..."

Now down to business:
Ru·mor - Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[roo-mer] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation–noun
1. a story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts: a rumor of website purchase.
2. gossip; hearsay: Don't listen to rumor.

That being said...Apparently somewhere a rumor has started inside the BlackBerry community that BlackBerryHomePage has purchased the website Themes4BB.

Although if this were true, it would be an honor, this is yes, a rumor.

However, it is not. We support and work with Themes4BB, as we do every other BlackBerry community and site.

Remember some other rumors that have been made:
The Bold was going to be touch screen
The 8100 would get video recording
The Bold would have had a "front forward facing" video camera

Long story short: the internet is filled with rumors. Why they are started or where they come from, who knows. Don't believe what you may read unless there is official word or physical proof.

On a business note:
Whenever Presidio Matrix Corporation either purchases a business entity or assumes a partnership or a role with a company, official press releases will be supplied or you may contact info@pmatrixcorp.com.

~Blogged On The Move Via BlackBerry~

A "BOLD" NEW MOVE

I can hear Coldplay's new "Violet Hill" track playing loudly through this young girl's ipod and I think to myself. One day I will get itunes on my BlackBerry. Low and BE"BOLD" that day is here.

It appears that the new BlackBerry Bold will be able to sync its music with iTunes. Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Media Sync software will come with the new capabilities. This is a tight relationship that helps BlackBerry owners keep that corporate feel with an IPOD sound. Not bad.

REVIEW: EZReregister

How much is your time worth to YOU.

Have you swapped BlackBerry devices, only to have to contact the companies from which you bought an application and get a new registration code?

If you answered "More than $7/hour" to question one and/or yes to question 2, then you need this application.

EZReregister saves you time, bottom line. It's a matter of convenience. Why spend 30 or 60 minutes sending emails for new registration codes for your applications?

Is $0.66/month (0.16/week) worth that time for you, when you can just send one email, and get all of the responses back, with only investing 2 minutes of your time? Its easy to use, it works, and it's affordable...A perfect comibination for BlackBerry users.

Head on over to EzReregister and sign up for a 7 day trial of the Desktop version. The online version will be setup with a trial soon also, so you can check that out to see if it would be more convenient for you. When you go to purchase, it's worth the extra few bucks to get the ones that do every thing for you, rather than just export to a database you have to sift through.

UPDATE: EzReregister is currently collecting contact information for the developers at their website. If you have one you would like to add, drop them a line with the email address and information needed for a new registration code, and they will get it added into the database!

BREAKING NEWS: First OFFICIAL 4.5 Release For 83 Series Devices

BREAKING NEWS: From the Holy Hell We Can't Believe It's Finally Happened Department, over on Pinstack, it's been noticed that the first OFFICIAL* version of the 4.5 Operating System has been released by Vodacom (Some carrier over in South Africa that we have never heard of either).

So, if you have been holding back for the "official" 4.5, you're now clear for take-off.

We do find it interesting though that this is 4.5.0.18, which in our opinion, had several bugs with it, however, the 4.5.0.37 (which has so far been the most stable 4.5 OS) is no where in sight.

:::Sigh:::

So, who knows. Any of your brave enough to test this official release?

We aren't moving off of .37 for anything that goes backwards in the number count, so we aren't going to be testing this at all...Just letting all of you out there know who either couldn't find, or didn't trust the BETA versions that it's now available.

This hopefully means that 4.5 for other devices will be sneaking out here shortly too!

DOWNLOAD LINK: http://www.vodacom.co.za/services/blackberry/downloads_handheld.jsp


*More than likely this OS is going to give you issues, so if you have above .18, stick with it in our opinions. Still wondering why .37 isn't on the partners zone though...hrmmm

BlackBerry and E-trade Partner Up for Mobile E-Trading

E-Trade has finally recognized how amazing the BlackBerry is and has released information about their new mobile application. Here are some of the features you can expect.

• Complete view of accounts


• Streaming real time quotes


• Watch Lists


• View orders


• Stock and options trading


• Quick Transfers

Man, so now you don't have to be in front of the computer to trade. I bet you there was a rush on golf tee times today. Here is more information

Verizon Buys Alltel; Noone Buys Sprint

Verizon just officially bought Alltel...No one still has bought Sprint.

Not going to get into the major specifics here, however they will now be the largest carrier nationwide (for circa $27 billion mind you).

It will be interesting to see how this works out. Not that there are any major issues such as a GSM carrier buying a CDMA carrier, however a few questions will still be out there:

• Will Verizon merge Alltel into their company completely? More than likely.
• When they do merge, will they avoid the catastrophies of billing migration? (Yes Sprint, we are referring to you).
• Will Verizon lock down Alltel GPS on their phones as they are now?
• Will Alltels rate plans change/go bye bye?
  Thoughts?

T-MOBILE UNLEASHES NEW UNLIMITED FAMILY PLAN

T-Mobile now offers families an Unlimted Nationwide Calling & Messaging Plan. This plan lets you connect the way you want to, without worrying about minutes or unpredictable bills. You get unlimited nationwide calling and text, IM, picture and video messaging to anyone on any network, even landlines for just $149.98 per month for two lines. Up to three additional lines are just $49.99 each.
Not too shabby huh? T-Mobile customers should be pleased with this. For more information click here

VIDEO: BlackBerry Users Rampage Caught On Tape!

Jefferson Clarkston went on a rampage this afternoon at Carson, Holt and Williams LLC in Miami, Florida after being told that his company would be replacing his BlackBerry 8320 with a new Apple iPhone.

The result: terrifying. In a 2 minute fiasco, Clarkston found himself in the slammer, and 4 people had to be taken to the hospital, 1 with life-threatening injuries.

"He just snapped. I have never seen anything like it. He was in a crazed-zone" stated Anthony Tatum who has worked with Clarkston 4 years. "I never would have expected this from him.".

This is EXACTLY what our office would look like if we were to take someones Curve away. Last week we told Jason we were taking away his 8320 and going to have him test a new 9000 series. After he threw it and smashed the aquarium (the fish are okay) and 30 minutes of threatening himself with a letter opener, we told him it was a joke. It was really the KickStart.





*NOTE: The above story is completely fabricated. Any similarities are strictly coincidental. The video is pretty good though.

New BETA Messaging Program: Better Than Palringo, Almost Ramble.

We truly apologize for the 15 minutes of your life wasted dealing Palringo when we mentioned it a few days back, but here we have a new BETA called eBuddy. While JiveTalk and IM+ still reign over the pack, we're always up to trying new IM clients

7:35pm: Download eBuddy OTA.

7:38pm: During setup, we somehow turned on the "block language". Now we can't read any of the menus. Need to fix.

7:43pm: Can't figure out how to navigate with boxes. Uninstalling and reinstalling.

7:48pm: Re-Downloading.

7:51pm: Setting back up. Choose English this time!

7:52pm: Enter eBuddy screen-name or register for account. (We registered online while we were waiting on the re-install so we skip).

7:53p: Add AOL account and log in.

7:54: Testing

7:59: Close. Options. Advanced Options. Applications. eBuddy. Delete. Yes.

Needless to say, don't waste your time if you use anything other than Palringo and Ramble.

We are now fair on wasted time. Back to zero. You're welcome, you're welcome.
The only thing we can possibly hope for is for IM+ or JiveTalk to come up with a new version.

You may notice the sad dog in the picture up top. We figured you might have felt a sad spot or be depressed after reading this post, so if you are, you may want to adopt him.

UPDATE: Yes, we are aware there are no links to eBuddy. Thats for a reason.

BlackBerry Screen-Saver Application For Free....and 3 other freebies

S4BB Limited is giving away 4 free applications for your BlackBerry devices.

Three of them don't interest us enough to take the time to download them, however one did catch our eye.

It's an application that activates a screen-saver on your BlackBerry.

It needs some tweaks. Such as the ability to use your own pictures for the screen-saver. The pictures are nice, however, if you are going to have a screen-saver on your BlackBerry, you probably want to have your own pictures displayed.

Also, it would be convenient if you could hit anything on the BlackBerry to "wake it". Right now, the only way we have found is to press the back button.

You can download this and the other 3 applications over at their website.

Be warned:
OTA link does not work for the Screen-Saver application, so expect to load it through Desktop Manager. And expect it to take a minute to load. And expect it to take forever for your BlackBerry to reboot.

That being said, if you try it, let us know what you think of it. Since this is an early attempt, suggestions are probably more than welcome.

DOES THE NEW FIREOX 3.0 BROWSER EAT YOUR MEMORY?

There is excitement for those who are dedicated FireFox users with the release of their new browser release, but there have been some mixed reviews. Here is an article that shows the FireFox uses less memory than Internet Explorer. Here is an review that shows quite the opposite.

SWITCH BETWEEN CELL AND WIFI SERVICE WITH ROGERS

Rogers wireless now allows customers to toggle between cell service and wifi service at home. With the launch of the 8120 Pearl, "customers with a special voice-optimized wireless router can make calls within a home wireless network."

Read more about this here.

UPDATE: Some 4.5.0.37s Re-Appear In Partners Zone...Some 4.3's and 4.5's Disappear...WTF Is Going On?!

Less than 2 days after the infamous 4.5.0.37 Operating Systems disappeared from RIMs Partner Zone (see below), they are all of a sudden back, kind of.

4.5.0.37 has re-appeared for the 8320 series, which is interesting, as it was the Operating System that apparently was responsible for frying SIM cards on TMobile devices*. Also, now the ONLY Operating Systems appearing for the 8320 series are 4.5 versions (.9/.10/.18/.37).

And while .37 has not yet re-appeared for the 8310 series, now the ONLY Operating Systems appearing for the GPS Curves are 4.5.0.9/10/18.

The CDMA Curves still show as 4.3, which is not surprising since no 4.3 OR 4.5 has been seen for any CDMA device other than the new Curves and Pearls.

All the other devices seem to be following suit, so we wonder again/now:
Is 4.5 almost ready for a release?
Is RIM just performing house-cleaning in the Partner Zone?
Is RIM just trying to confuse everyone?

Hrmm...

*We still think RIM is frying all of you non-authorized BETA testers out there...SHHHHH

BREAKING NEWS: OS 4.5.0.37 Pulled From RIM Partners Zone

We learned today that RIM has removed the BETA Operating System v4.5.0.37 from their partners site today, which leads to much speculation:

• Is the Operating System close to being officially released?



• Did RIM find a critical bug in the Operating System?



• Did RIM get fed up with the BETA Operating Systems being leaked all over the internet?

Let's touch on the first two possibilities. If by chance the OS were close to being released, then one would assume that there would be no reason for it to disappear from the Partner Zone, especially considering the fact that the Partner Zone still has copies of the 4.0 OS, and noone can seem to remember of an OS ever being removed from the site.

Second...if a critical bug was found, then it would make sense for RIM to pull the OS, however, that really hasn't stopped them before. There have been numerous issues with the new Operating Systems, and while we normally wouldn't comment on a BETA/Unreleased OS, since these have been floating around the internet like air, it's kind of hard to keep it under wraps at this point. All seems to have been well in this Operating System, except for a few instances in which users (NON-AUTHORIZED BETA TESTERS MIND YOU) reported SIM Card Rejected errors, especially when loading the system onto 8320 BlackBerrys.

HOWEVER...

Maybe RIM is fed up that their BETA Operating Systems are being leaked out just HOURS after they hit the Partner Zone.

Word around the campfire is that RIM is actively searching for the culprit(s) behind the public free-for-all that the 4.5 OS has become, with severe legal (Criminal and Civil) consequences sure to follow. And from the looks of emails that have hit partners in-boxes recently, it also appears that some major changes can be expected in the "Partners Zone" in the next coming days.

However, maybe the BlackBerry community has taken these releases too far and is somewhat to blame for this.

Not to excuse any person(s) who may have released confidential and NDA covered material into the general public, but...BlackBerry users know that these Operating Systems are in BETA...They know they "should" not have them...They know there are issues with it...But go onto any BlackBerry related forum or community, and all you see are people asking for it and offering it.

This brings up another question...How are these un-authorized releases going to affect the future of BlackBerry partners? BlackBerry Partners are given pre-released versions of the Operating Systems for a reason...So that they can test for bugs and errors, but also so they can start developing applications which are compatible with them, so that when they are officially released, applications and programs can be updated and used.

The 4.5 Operating Systems have obviously not been released for a reason...

So some questions to ponder are:

WHY were the Operating Systems removed from the Partner Zone?

Why weren't the OTHER 4.3 and 4.5 versions removed from the Partner Zone?

Will 4.5 ever see the light of day, or will RIM scrap 4.5 all together and make users upgrade to a newer device if they want all the features?

What are your thoughts and ideas?

PEARL GIVEAWAY - WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

It's official. We have a winner and I must say I am tad surprised. I'm not saying the winner was a bad tip because it as hot, however, I thought tip 5 would win and I am not gonna lie.  But the public has spoken.  Tip number 2 has won it all. So, we will be in touch shortly with him and ship him his new pearl.  Congrats. And thank you to all you who participated. 

Next up, the music industry and Blackberry Homepage collaboration.  

BlackBerry - Leader Of The Mobile Industry

Straight out of the gate for 2008 Research In Motion came in full throttle ahead. Leading the mobile industry with a 44.5% hold gave their competitors something to think about. However, we haven't forgotten about the BlackBerry co-friend the iPhone. It came in at second place at 19.2% of the market share. In comparison to other competitors iPhone did quite well, even though most speculate that the boost in sales were from the holiday rush. Now the question still stands and will always stand > Could we expect less from Apple?

Why could BlackBerry be on top of the Market Place? It's simple and most device holders can attest to what we are about to say next. It all began with the BlackBerry Pearl which spiked the interest of many mobile device holders. Then it's big brother came and ran with the responsibility of gaining even more attention - The BlackBerry Curve. Still to this day the BlackBerry Curve is said to be the#1 Mobile device on the market. Also recently with RIM announcing the BlackBerry Bold (known before as the 9000 series ) and then information about the BlackBerrry ThunderBird , this give them even more of a boost to remain in front of it's competitors.