The Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog
I just read a press release about a new BlackBerry application called MyCaption that transcribes spoken messages up to 3 minutes long and allows you to send them as email. I haven’t tested MyCaption out yet, however, they are offering a free trial in case you want to try it out for yourself. If you do, come back and leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
BlackBerry Unite!, the software that helps you coordinate and keep in touch with your family and provides access to files on your home computer or colloborate with co-workers in a small office, is now avaialble internationally.
Truth be told, BlackBerry Unite! has been available in Asia and Europe for a few weeks, however, we are just now hearing about it thanks to Berry Review…
Regular RIMarkable commentator Amish sent in an interesting email that I thought that I would publish…
I was just talking to a friend that is a die-hard Apple fanatic that made an astonishing revelation when I asked them how the like their iPhone 3G. They told me that that it sucks when it comes to text entry so they took it back will continue to use their BlackBerry 8830 until the Bold comes out.
Now, this particular friend probably would have gotten the BlackBerry Bold when released anyway because he is the type that carries once device for personal use and one for business, so, I was really shocked when he told me that he actually took his iPhone 3G back. He said that the iPhone is just too hard to type he he found that after the first couple of weeks that he had it he did little more than surf the web with it.
“I can already surf the web on my iPod Touch and it doesn’t cost me 80 bucks a month to do it. I’ll stick with the BlackBerry until they improve the virtual keyboard or put a real one on there. I would gladly give up screen size for a keyboard.”
It seems like I am hearing stories like this more and more…
Finally, a public release of BlackBerry OS is available for CDMA BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and BlackBerry Curve 8330 users. The downloads are from MTS Mobility, however, they will work on any 8130 or 8330.
I do want to warn you up front that the installation will take you about an hour or so and you may have to delete the vendor.xml file to get the install to run on your device, so, make sure you have time to go through this before you start.
You can find complete download and installation instructions over on BlackBerryForums in the Blackberry 8100 forum or BlackBerry 8330 forum depending on which device you use. Sorry BlackBerry 8703 and BlackBerry 8830 users… This update won’t work on your device, however, we hope that updates for you will become available in the not too distant future.
[Via BlackBerry News]
Kevin over at CrackBerry.com got some pretty good marketing slick photos of the BlackBerry Javelin.
The BlackBerry Javelin is supposed to be a replacement of the BlackBerry Curve and, coming in a bit smaller than the Curve, might be the first full QWERTY keyboard bearing BlackBerry that I would choose over a SureType BlackBerry.
More BlackBerry Javelin pictures here…
A week ago we heard that the BlackBerry Thunder would be launching October 8th. Needless to say we were a bit skeptical, however, we are now hearing that the BlackBerry Thunder is possibly coming October 13th.
We are still a bit skeptical, but, we should point out the the BG, who is famous for being dead on with his BlackBerry release date leaks, is the one making the October 13th call on the BlackBerry Thunder which according to the product inventory screen cap below, is the BlackBerry 9530.
Over on the BlackBerry Support Forums, forum administrator Beholder has announced that BlackBerry Answers has launched world wide to English BlackBerry users.
BlackBerry Answers is web based tool that you can access by visiting the Help section at mobile.blackberry.com Simply enter your BlackBerry related question into the text field and receive an answer from the Research in Motion’s premium knowledgebase within a matter of seconds.
Krussel just put out a marketing release with the top-10 selling mobile phones and not a single BlackBerry made the list. This wasn’t completely unexpected as Research in Motion didn’t release any new BlackBerry devices in July.
I’ll bet you can guess which mobile phone topped this list. Here is the entire list in case you are wondering about 2 through 9…
1. (1) Apple Iphone
2. (5) Nokia 3109
3. (3) Nokia E51
4. (4) Nokia 6300
5. (-) Sony Ericsson C902
6. (-) Sony Ericsson C702
7. (7) Nokia N95 8 GB
8. (8) Sony Ericsson K810i
9. (9) Sony Ericsson K530i
10. (6) LG KU990
() = Last month’s position.
[Source]
We heard that Virgin Mobile was planning to launch the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 in Canada. We didn’t know that they were going to throw in an 8GB memory card for free.
The Virgin Mobile BlackBerry Pearl will be free with a 3-year plan, $299 and $249 for 2 and 1 year plans respectively, and $399 for a 30-day plan. Minutes plans are starting at $25 per month and BlackBerry data plans start at $15 per month.
I don’t imagine that it will be too long before we see the BlackBerry Curve offered by Virgin Mobile to complement the Pearl.
[Source]
In case you haven’t noticed yet, the BlackBerry Bold is making its debut all around the world less it’s largest market, the United States.
The Bold came out on Movistar in Chili yesterday and T-Mobile in Germany today. The latest rumor states the the BlackBerry Bold will be available on Rogers in Canada beginning August 19th and we will probably see it on a few other carriers before the months end.
The problem for me, unless we get a really big surprise in the next 3 weeks, is that the BlackBerry Bold won’t hit the United States, the BlackBerry’s biggest market with over 70% market share, until September.