Yesterday, search giant Google released a critical new component in its mobile-voice strategy, Google Voice applications for both its own Android mobile OS and the BlackBerry platform. Like the invite-only Google Voice service, the new apps are free. And they go a long ways toward making Google Voice a viable everyday calling solution. But a few key shortcomings need to be addressed before I can consider fully embracing Google Voice.
Microsoft today <a href="http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/default.aspx">announced</a> that its upcoming mobile software store, dubbed Windows Marketplace for Mobile, will being accepting submissions for mobile applications on July 27, with a target launch of fall 2009 for Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Sample View of Windows Marketplace Business Center (Subject to Change)
Ready for your close-up, iPod users?
In light of a spate of recent iPhone 3GS overheating reports, Apple published a set of guidelines to help iPhone users ensure that their devices remain at proper operating temperatures to prevent overheating and related issues.
2009 is the Year of the Mobile App Store. Apple started the movement with the launch of its hugely successful iTunes App Store for the iPhone in 2008, then all the handset heavies followed suit. Today, Nokia operates the Ovi Store; Microsoft's got the upcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile; Google runs Android Marketplace; and Research In Motion (RIM) runs BlackBerry App World.
BoxTone, a maker of BlackBerry platform monitoring/support software and services, on Tuesday will begin selling a version of its product that's tailored specifically for its Managed Service Provider (MSP) customers.
The iPhone 3GS, Apple's latest addition to its smartphone lineup, has been flying off of store shelves faster than you can say "shiny new status symbol." In fact, the iPhone 3GS sold out in many places before it was publicly available, due to a deluge of pre-orders.
The Palm Pre, the world's first webOS device, went on sale in the United States on June 6. With it Palm launched a corresponding mobile software channel, the Pre App Catalog, which already boasts a number of great applications. Earlier this week, Medialets, a mobile advertising and analytics firm, released App Catalog metrics that suggest Palm's new app store hit the 1M downloads mark on June 24, just 18 days after its launch. Palm Pre App Catalog Total App Downloads Since Launch, via Medialets
Perhaps you found a manufacturers' defect in your Palm Pre handheld and need to swap it out for another? Maybe you decided to trade the Pre with a friend of colleague for a new iPhone 3GS or a BlackBerry Curve 8900? Or possibly you found that the Pre's just not for you, and you're returning it.
A new product from Phoenix Technologies, <a href="http://www.phoenixfreeze.com/">called Freeze</a>, lets you use BlackBerry or iPhone Bluetooth to tell a PC that you're leaving the area and want it to lock up. When you return, Phoenix Freeze can also automatically unlock the machine so it's ready for you. However, it only works on Windows PCs, doesn't support 64-bit platforms, disables all other Bluetooth peripherals and seems to be a bit buggy for an official release. Phoenix Freeze for BlackBerry and iPhone
<strong>Introduction: Say Hello to Pre and webOS</strong>
The Pre, Palm's first device to run the brand new webOS mobile operating system, just hit the U.S. market, but application developers are already working studiously away on Pre apps to populate the company's equally new app store, the Pre "App Catalog."
Recently <a href="http://advice.cio.com/al_sacco/blackberry_storm_2_caught_on_camera_rim_leak_fest_continues">leaked images of RIM's upcoming BlackBerry Storm successor</a>, unofficially dubbed "Storm 2"--and a very <a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/05/21/blackberry-storm-2-the-official-unofficial-hands-on/">early hands-on review</a>--seemed to suggest that BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) had decided to scrap the infamous "clicky" <a href="http://advice.cio.com/al_sacco/touch_screen_blackberry_storm_ui_takes_cues_from_google_phone">SurePress screen technology</a> that set RIM's first touch BlackBerry apart from the pack. However, RIM's co-CEO yesterday clearly stated that SurePress is alive and well. So will we see a second SurePress BlackBerry Storm? And is that pictured device simply a pre-production unit with a different screen than what will ship with the finished product?Mike Lazaridis, RIM's founder and co-CEO had this to say about the Storm 2 and SurePress when queried Wednesday at the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>'s D: All Things Digital event:
Research In Motion's (RIM) Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) is the largest BlackBerry event of the year, and as such, all the heavies in the space--from BlackBerry administrators to analysts and pundits, as well as power-users and unabashed CrackBerry addicts--come out to see the latest and greatest the BlackBerry world as to offer.
The BlackBerry platform is known for its impressive security safeguards; Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is literally designed from the ground up to meet enterprise security needs, and its various international security certifications attest to its effectiveness. However, there's one component of the BlackBerry ecosystem that's largely unguarded from potential threats: phone calls, i.e., voice traffic.