Entries tagged with “BlackBerry Storm” from WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

The time is now for original BlackBerry Storm owners to download the latest update to the BlackBerry operating system OS 5.0.  This update improves on the entire BlackBerry Storm experience.

This is an impressive upgrade with typing enhancements, new buttons and it launches camera faster. The image capture is faster. Applications launch quicker. The BlackBerry Storm rotates faster between portrait and landscape views. Also the web browsing speeds are improved.

The typing experience is faster, more accurate and more natural text input experience.
This includes word completion (enabled right out of the box),a virtual QWERTY keyboard in portrait view, and enhanced sensitivity when editing, copying, and pasting. There is now the
 ability to enable Auto Correction as opposed to Word Completion in landscape view. Your mistakes will be corrected for you.

Form more details of the update continue reading.  If you need instructions on how to do the update yourself and what glitches this update fixes check the BlackBerry Storm Update article we published yesterday. Read about the Top Best BlackBerry Storm Free Apps.

There are several sources that showing internal Verizon websites leaked that reveal an update to the first gen BlackBerry Storm today at 7:00 pm PDT. to OS 5.0.0.328. The average udpate time will take less than an hour, usually around 20-45 minutes. 

The new BlackBerry Storm2 (which has gotten better reviews than the first BlackBerry Storm) will come already preloaded with the OS 5.0. There are some major improvements in this version of the BlackBerry Storm operating system udpate to 5.0.0.328. The browser is greatly improved and has better rendering of CSS and JavaScript. The 5.0 update offers better screen rotation and a pop-up menu to call a person when an SMS text message is received.

In the BlackBerrry Storm update 5.0, users can increase the number of SMS alerts up to 10 and there improved video/media playing. There's better auto-correction while typing and enhanced sensing of copy/paste. It also adds the quick buttons to access the web, add dates to calendar and send email.

There supposedly will not be an over-the-air update of this BlackBerry update, therefore, you will have take action yourself. You can access the update my visiting the RIM BlackBerry update website to download the file or via your desktop manager where you will see that there is a new update available.

Before you update, be sure to backup your data.

To  Back Up Data:

Open up the Blackberry Desktop Manager Program and click on Backup and Restore .

TwitVid.com, Twitter video adding service is now offering a  video uploading application for the BlackBerry. They will also power video for UberTwitter, the most popular BlackBerry Twitter app.

 After you open the TwitVid.com app, s select or record a Vide, then type a tweet. Then click Post and let your video upload. Then people can start watching it within seconds >

They claim that the technology that drives TwitVid.com gives users the ability to upload, view and share videos sooner than any other app. Senator Bernie Sanders uses the TwitVid.com site for his weekly show, Unfiltered, and last week, Jared Leto's band, 30 Seconds to Mars, named TwitVid.com as the exclusive partner for their Digital Summit contest.

TwitVid is compatible with all BlackBerry devices including the BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Tour, BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm.

As the summer smartphone wars heat-up, the price of the Verizon BlackBerry Storm has been lowered to $99 with an online only discount at the Verizon website.

The BlackBerry Storm had mixed to favorable reviews at first, but after a massive operating system update, it improved greatly. There are many fun and free BlackBerry Storm apps that our readers have enjoyed.

After the BlackBerry Storm was updated to OS 4.7.0.148, the BlackBerry Storm was transformed into a quality, lovable device.

The BlackBerry Storm is full touchscreen smartphone with removable storage (microSD), 3.2 megapixel camera, Microsoft compatibility, 480 by 360 pixel display, GPS, stereo Bluetooth, and removable battery. You do have to buy a data plan along with the BlackBerry Storm.

It has been suggested that the drop in the price of the BlackBerry Storm is a precursor to seeing a new BlackBerry Storm II, soon.

When Verizon drops the price, then online retailers usually follow suit.  Wirefly is now offering the BlackBerry Storm for $29.99 with a new Verizon account.  You can sweeten the Wirefly deal by adding coupon codes for  free 2GB memory ( enter WIREFLYMCARD5) and a free Bluetooth headset (enter WIREFLYBTOOTH30 at checkout.)

There is now a new version of  Pandora Internet Radio for BlackBerry. The new version works on the brand new BlackBerry Tour smartphone. We previously named Pandora our "Free BlackBerry Storm App of the Day" and are adding it to our list of Favorite BlackBerry Tour Apps.

Pandora creates radio stations based on songs and artists that you like based on algorithms from the Music Genome Project. Pandora Radio streams the songs to your BlackBerry.

Users give feedback on individual songs (thumbs up and thumbs down) which Pandora takes into account for future song picked. While listening, users can buy the songs or albums. Over 400 different musical attributes are considered when choosing the next song. These 400 attributes are combined into larger groups called focus traits. There are 2,000 focus traits.

If you haven't tried Pandora, you really should. It has been very popular on the BlackBerry Storm and we expect it will as popular on the BlackBerry Tour.

Pandora can be a lot of fun because you may remember an artist you liked but not always the song or vice a versa.  Type in the song or artist and you'll usually find music you like.  One day, we created a station based on the Mama's and Papa's and were taken back to the happy hippie days of the sixties.

Location-based social event and place suggestion application buzzd is now available for the the BlackBerry Storm. buzzd had been working on the BlackBerry Storm, but now it optimized for the touchscreen and other features.

buzzd delivers information about places such restaurants, bars, with up-to-the-minute reviews and ratings from other members of the buzzd community. Users rate the location with either "thrill" or "kill."

Users can browse and search continuously updated event feeds, which include pricing, location, and event details as well as the firsthand ratings and reviews posted from the event by other members in real-time.

Event and venue information is culled of Citysearch, Flavorpill, Time Out, MyOpenBar, last.fm, Upcoming.org and many other local content providers. User-generated feedback for "real-time" activity about venues and events is also layered at the top of event listings throughout the platform.

They say that complete compatibility for buzzd with the popular BlackBerry Storm touchscreen is important because 40% of the location based application's downloads to date have been by BlackBerry Storm users.

There is good news for our BlackBerry Storm user-readers, Shazam "name that tune" music-identifier app is available for BlackBerry Storm in BlackBerry App World and or from http://is.gd/IWHh.

With Shazam you can identify music tracks, buy music, and share the tags with friends. You can also learn more about artists; find out what's hot and increase your music collection.

Shazam allows users to identify music by holding a mobile handset to a song as it's playing. Shazam identifies and provides information to the user about the track, artist and album from its ever-expanding music database; currently consisting of over 8 million tracks, including the largest collection of undiscovered music and pre-release tracks. Since September 2008, Shazam has enjoyed a tremendous surge in popularity around the world, growing its user base from 20 to 35 million with more than one million tracks tagged each day.

Shazam launched a BlackBerry version in January of this year. Shazam is very music-centric app and is viral for friends. You can also see the newest/hottest release chart.

You can try Shazam for a free with a full-featured trial version which becomes limited after the trial period (7 Days).

The sun is shinning, the kids are out of school. If you are lucky enough to have a job and go on vacation with your BlackBerry Storm here are some fun and useful apps for your BlackBerry Storm for summer fun.

• bWatchDoggy - if you leave your BlackBerry Storm on the chez lounge while you are in the pool or making maragaritas, first install and then turn on bWatch Doggy. Once this app is activated if some on picks up your BlackBerry Storm, A loud dog-barking sound is played when the device is moved a barking dog sound is played. To stop the barking, swipe your finger on the screen to the right. The app description states, "This will surely scare the person away who touches your BlackBerry Try it, it's fun and free!

• StormTorch: this handy free app brings clean white light and turns the BlackBerry Storm into a flashlight. StormTorch will turn on your screen as well as the led light very brightly.

• Shortcovers eBook Reader -  this cloud-based reader app gives you access to the Shortcovers service with an eBook store that offers some free eBooks. The Shortcovers service allows readers to read thousands of bestselling books, chapters, news and magazine articles, short stories, blog posts and more, online and on your BlackBerry. Members  can bookmark and save books, chapters, articles and stories, plus build a digital library and rate, comment and share favorite reads with your friends and family.  (Available for Storm, Bold, Curve, 8000 Series Blackberry devices.)

• Audible - users can shop, sample, download, and playback audio from Audible's catalog of over 60,000 titles, right on a BlackBerry.  When you download the BlackBerry apps for a limite time, you get a  free download of Hot, Flat, and Crowded," the best seller by author and syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman.

Launch2net is now offering a tethering app to enable BlackBerry Storms and other smartphones to act as a tethered modem to Apple computers.

The latest update includes the ability for BlackBerry Storm smartphone users to "tether" their Storm as a broadband modem for the Mac.

Tethering can work through Bluetooth, wirelessly connecting your Mac to your cell data network through the smartphone. The software supports Internet connections for the Mac at up to 7.2 Megabits per second download speed (depending on the carrier and service area).

The configuration assistant automatically detects your mobile device and configures your mobile Internet connection.

Launch2Net works with  Mac OS X 10.4.11 or Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later, a supported device and a supported network carrier.

Launch2net costs $50 and is compatible with many smartphones including Windows Mobile, RAZR, Nokia, Sony and others.

Sprint has announced their 4G WiMAX plans which mirror Clearwire. They will launch in major cities this year and more markets in 2010.  New devices such as tri-mode modems are planned. Sprint owns 51% of Clearwire and acts as a reseller of Clearwire WiMAX.

They claim, Sprint 4G offers turbo-charged mobile broadband - peak downlink speeds of up to 12 Mbps in Baltimore today and average downlink speeds of 2-4 Mbps - three to five times faster than today's 3G service from any carrier.

Sprint plans to deploy Sprint 4G service in many markets in 2009, including Atlanta, Honolulu, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Portland, Fort Worth and Seattle.

Sprint also expects to launch service in multiple markets in 2010 including Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Twinkle, twinkle, little Storm, I can play a song just like I do on the piano, with a free app called Storm Piano. It only shows a few keys, but you should be able to get it to play "Twinkle Little Star".  We named it the Free BlackBerry Storm App of the Day, because it's so much fun.  It could also replace a pitch pipe.

This piano app will turn your BlackBerry Storm  into a touchscreen piano. It doesn't matter if you're a novice or a pro, everyone will find some fun in this app. To control volume swipe your finger up /down. To control pitch swipe your finger left / right. To go into advanced mode just click the screen.

If you click on the screen you go into "Two-Keyboard Mode" . If you want to play the piano  don't click on the screen. All you have to do is tap the screen and the keys will play. If you click the sceen it will put it into 2 keyboard mode where you can play more keys by "Tapping" the screen.

At the end of 2008, only 11% of worldwide wireless subscriptions were 3G. By the end of 2013, the percentage of 3G and 4G subscriptions will reach 30%, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). This trend is reflected in fourth quarter 2008 wireless infrastructure contract awards.

Looking forward, WiMAX will have to prove itself over the next couple of years with the rise of HSPA and LTE. In-Stat expects mobile WiMAX to be attractive in developing countries and remote locations in which fixed broadband networks are not yet deployed. It is still unknown whether or not mobile WiMAX will be competitive in locations with existing 3G cellular and fixed broadband networks.

Recent research by In-Stat includes:

• 802.16e, the mobile standard for WiMAX, has been mainly deployed for fixed and nomadic services. Clearwire, Korea Telecom, and UQ of Japan are among a few notable exceptions that are embracing 802.16e for mobile data applications.
• There were 132 announced deployments in the fourth quarter of 2008, consisting of 95 HSPA, 18 WCDMA, 12 mobile WiMAX, six CDMA EV-DO, and one TD SCDMA.
• Based on the contract award activity over the past few quarters, In-Stat expects most of the deployments through new live networks to be WiMAX and HSPA. In-Stat has seen a significant slowdown in contracts for WCDMA and CDMA EV-DO equipment.

At Mobile World Congress, Verizon's Dick Lynch, Verizon executive vice president and chief technology officer, detailed plans to build America's first next-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) network for 4G.

Verizon Wireless selected Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent as primary network vendors for its initial LTE network deployments in the United States. Verizon Wireless should become the first wireless company to offer commercial LTE-based service in the United States, starting in 2010.

Lynch said, "Verizon Wireless' LTE network deployment will be driven by our vision of providing ubiquitous global wireless broadband connectivity and mobility. LTE enables us to continue to meet business customer demands for a higher bandwidth, low latency service that works broadly in the United States and globally, while helping us to meet consumer demand for mobilizing the many applications they frequently use when tethered to high bandwidth wired networks."

Verizon Wireless also announced that in addition to Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, Starent Networks has been selected as a packet core vendor.

LG has developed the first handset (user equipment) modem chip based on 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)technology standards.

Thechip can supports wireless download speeds of 100Mbps (megabits per second) and upload speeds of 50Mbps.

LG demonstrated the chip at its Mobile Communication Technology Research Lab in Anyang, Korea, achieving wireless download speeds of 60 Mbps and upload speeds of 20 Mbps. The fastest phones currently on the market use HSDPA technology and download at a maximum speed of 7.6 Mbps.

If you have been reading Wireless and Mobile News Coverage of the BlackBerry Storm that has ten more power features  than the iPhone and you are thinking you may buy the BlackBerry Storm, you might want to consider these accessories or add-ons to protect your investment and your sanity:

Screen/Body Scratch Protector - The BlackBerry Storm has a stunning screen that won't be so stunning if you keep it unprotected in your pocket or purse where it can be scratched by keys, money and other gizmos.  There's a screen and body protector with a warranty offered from ZAGG the invisibleSHIELD that covers the entire body of the BlackBerry Storm and protects against scratches for the entire body, while it still fit in docks or other accessories.

Verizon is selling screen protectors and cases including a floral printed silicon cover, prices are not listed yet. Rubber outer cases in pink, red or blue as well the invsibleSHEILD are being sold at Best Buy. We are trying to find a nice looking waterproof case for sailors, beach goers and people who live in rainy places.

Holster - hostlers prevent the BlackBerry Storm from falling off of things.  There are so many people who regret bending over the pool or the sink as they watched their expensive handheld wonder's power be washed away.

A major push to include embedded 4G technologies in a wide range of mobile and consumer devices will create a built-in market for anticipated 4G services such as mobile WiMax and LTE, but it also will force some fundamental changes in the mobile industry ecosystem, particularly in the relationships between network operators and device suppliers, according to the latest report from Unstrung Insider (http://www.unstrung.com/insider

Technology development is just one part of the challenge facing the mobile industry regarding next-gen data services, Blau says. "The brains to develop these chips are arguably out there, but the economies of scale needed to drive down costs will only come with sufficient demand, which is linked to network coverage -- which, in turn, is linked to a complex mix of spectrum, technology, intellectual property rights, and industrial politics," he explained.

Infineon Technologies AG  announced that Samsung Electronics, Inc., Seoul, Korea, has chosen Infineon’s HSDPA Platform XMM 6080 for their new family of HEDGE (HSDPA/EDGE) mobile handsets. Samsung is introducing a comprehensive family using the Infineon XMM 6080 platform. The platform includes the HSDPA/EDGE baseband, power management, single chip 3.5G RF transceiver and is complemented by Infineon’s protocol stack for HEDGE phones.

This  solution enables customers to significantly reduce their component count, footprint, complexity and cost of designs. The XMM 6080 platform will enable Samsung to introduce a wide range of new HEDGE (HSDPA/EDGE) phones reusing the proven Infineon core architecture.

Infineon has already started volume shipments of its platform. The Samsung HEDGE phones with the XMM 6080 are expected to be available in the second quarter of calendar year 2008.

Verizon today announced plans to develop and deploy its fourth generation mobile broadband network using LTE - Long Term Evolution - the technology developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards organization.

The selection of LTE provides Verizon and Vodafone joint owners of Verizon Wireless an opportunity to adopt a common global access platform with compatibility to existing technologies of both companies. Trials will begin in 2008.

“Today’s 4G announcement, coupled with our Open Development initiative announced earlier this week present a major growth opportunity for Verizon Wireless,” said Doreen Toben, chief financial officer of Verizon. “Fourth generation’s higher data speeds will usher in a new era of wireless applications and appliances, all of which can benefit from connecting to the nation’s premier wireless network.”

Motorola today announced it will be showcasing its mobile WiMAX chipset modem solution at WiMAX World USA. The chipset is part of Motorola's new "controlled application centric architecture" that will support 3G and 4G mobile devices.

Dsigned to deliver ultra-high-speed functionality through thin devices, this WiMAX chipset modem solution is optimized for both size and low power consumption to further connect consumers around the globe with mobile wireless broadband. It is scheduled to be released in early 2008.