Entries tagged with “applications” from WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

At the BlackBerry Developer Conference, in the “Final 16” awards event,  judges awarded 7digital Music Store (by DevelopIQ) as the winner of the US$100,000 grand prize in the 2009 BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge. The free app lets users browse and buy DRM-free music.

Here are the top 3 BlackBerry App  winners.

• 7digital Music Store - (FREE) lets users browse the latest music charts, preview the latest tracks and discover, purchase and download high quality, DRM-free MP3 music directly to a BlackBerry smartphone. The software also comes with an integrated advanced media player that imports your existing playlists and music files.
• Fierce Towers ($4.99) is the first tower defense game for the BlackBerry smartphone. Control the field to stop the waves of attacking enemies as you place upgradeable towers around the field as you try your best strategies to stop wave after wave of invading enemies.
• Kik (FREE not available yet) lets users find, manage and play music files stored on BlackBerry devices.

The runner up in this year’s Challenge, Fierce Towers (by Nickel Buddy), receives a prize package valued at more than US$25,000. An on-the-spot honorable mention and US$5,000 prize was also awarded to Kik (by Unsynced). 

There are many free apps available for the BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Tour  our readers love the top free best app articles.

Flixster updated to its popular Android app. Flixster 2.0 for the Android launched today, adding integration with Facebook Connect, a newsfeed for up-to-date friend ratings, and other enhancements.

Flixster offers an easy way to share your movie choices and meet-up with movie-going friends because it is a combination of movie information and social networking.

Using Flixster, you can find information about movies and showtimes, you can buy tickets using Flixster, you can search for theaters, find maps and even find restaurants.

You can also immediately share your reviews, ratings and opinions with friends and read what they have to say.

Flixster's mobile apps link with Facebook, so you can make movie plans with friends, share your opinions and read other users' reviews, blending "traditional" movie information with social networking.

Flixsterites are busy, on average, mobile Flixster users rate a movie every five seconds and stream 140 trailers per minute. The Android app is available in the Android marketplace. 

The LG Vu, and LG Shine are very popular feature phones but not much has been written about the best free apps for these fun phones. The LG Vu has 3G and great TV capabilities, now you can enhance your LG Vu with these free apps. We rounded-up reviews of LG VU, and LG Shine apps and found these free apps for your enjoyment.

Best Browser
BOLT Browser - This PC-like browser has proprietary compression, navigation and rendering technologies. BOLT enables users to find and read information quickly and easily. Built in J2ME and able to operate on phones of all types, BOLT can work on an estimated 3 billion phones already in the market.

Fun Goodies/Lifestyle
Feel-Goodies - this free feel-good app can really made your day. Filled with inspirational uplifting sayings, Feel-Goodies, can give you a quick lift in the bank line or the "bored room." This app has been featured as one of our J2ME Apps 2Day.

Social Networking, News & Photo Sharing Apps
Snaptu - is free service filled with apps that work on the LG Vu and LG Shine that requires internet access.  Snaptu provides iPhone-like applications to almost every mobile phone.  Although the service is geared toward people in the U.K. and Europe it has many free ad-supported apps for facebook, Picasa, Flikr, Twitter and Soduko.

Here are new apps for letting people friends know where you are and sending them directions. It's called zhiing (LBS) mobile location messaging. Zhiing is work across-devices and works via messaging.. Zhiing follows the trend of Bing, and people turn the word into a verb, such as "ping me" or "Google me."

ShoZu social media hub client app is now available for many BlackBerry smartphones  on BlackBerry App World.

The new ShoZu app provides two-way interactivity with a variety of social networking sites.

"Whether you're uploading photos, blogging or using other social media features to keep up with your online social life, Shozu brings together all the information you are sending and receiving from different sites and allows you to manage it and respond broadly from one application," said Shozu Chairman and CEO Chris Wade.

The new mobile client for BlackBerry smartphones, includes the ability to receive updates from multiple sites to one integrated spot directly on the handset, read and reply to comments in real-time, update status, upload images and video, add tags, titles and descriptions before or after uploading, and much more. The mobile client also offers the ability to edit, add, and remove destination sites to/from a user's account, making it even easier to stay connected.

BlackBerry Storm, Tour and Curve owners are probably aware by now that there are many fun music apps fro their BlackBerry smartphones, such as  Pandora, Slacker Radio and FlyCast  Nobex Radio is yet another streaming radio choice for BlackBerry music listeners.

Pandora, creates radio stations for you based on your likes.  Slacker Radio stations are programmed according to themes by Slacker expert DJs, or you can make your own stations, or base a station on an artist. (Tour and Storm versions of Slacker let your buy music) FlyCast broadcasts over 1200 popular radio programs (the same ones, you hear on the car radio).

Nobex Radio Companion  lets you listen to over 1000 radio stations around the world and see the playlist of over 2700 radio stations. These are radio stations you usually hear on a radio.  What's nice about this feature is that Los Angelenos who have been without a country radio station, can listen to country radio stations in other parts of the country.

Nobex Radio Companion also lets you get songs or ringtones with a single click, right from your mobile device. Or, receive an email with links to buy the song on your PC.  You can see lyrics of any song that scroll in sync with the song. You can now see artist and song info as well.


Nobex Radio Companion won the BlackBerry Developer Challenge last year. It was Number 7 top downloaded BlackBerry apps from BlackBerry App World. Nobex Radio Companion works on the BlackBerry Tour, BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Pearl, and BlackBery Curve (8900, 83--, not 8520 yet.)

Didiom audio streaming service is now available for BlackBerry smartphones in BlackBerry App World. With the Didiom appl, you can stream music, podcasts and audiobooks from your PC to your BlackBerry, wirelessly and for free. Choose from your own library, or buy and download from the Didiom MP3 Store of over 2 million songs and audiobooks.

Didiom Beta is fre and works on the  BlackBerry Tour, BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl, and BlackBerry 8800 series. As a bonus, all new users will receive 25 free, pre-selected songs from up-and-coming artists, ready for download to their phone and PC/Mac.

Ran Assaf, Didiom's founder and CEO said, "Didiom doesn't only eliminate the need for synching your iTunes library with your phone via USB; it also shifts the paradigm on how we mobilize our home computer's media library. When you wait for a flight, stand in line at a busy Starbucks, or walk your dog, you can easily access your computer from your phone and stream anything from the latest audiobooks you've downloaded from Barnes & Noble to the latest podcasts you've downloaded from CNN, The Wall Street Journal, or ESPN."

Didiom's hybrid service uses placeshifting technology for the wireless content delivery platform. Throughout the beta period, Didiom offers a free mobile application for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phones, as well as a desktop application that seamlessly scans users' personal computers, and maintains an encrypted channel between the user's computer and phone. When users add new audio files to their computer, Didiom's desktop application automatically scans and makes them available for wireless streaming on their phone

Amazon.com is now offering their free Amazon App for Android in Android Market.

The app makes it easy shop on Amazon.com and thousands of other merchants.. The application includes the Amazon Remembers feature that gives Android users two different ways to use their device camera to find and remember items available for sale on Amazon.com: they can either snap a photo of an item or scan a barcode, and then receive a product match. For barcode scans and many photos, matches are instant. Other items take just a few minutes.

Amazon Android App Features:

• Purchasing using Amazon's 1-Click ordering and Amazon Prime.
• Tracking packages or modifying orders using the Your Account feature.
• Receiving personalized recommendations.
• Viewing editorial and customer reviews.
• Getting the Gold Box Deal of the Day.
• Accessing their Wish List.
  

The Amazon App for Android is available on any Android-enabled device as a free download through Android Market^T. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/android_app.

The FCC is investigating Apple's rejection of Google Voice iPhone app and other apps to its app store.  The FCC has sent letters to Apple,  AT&T, and Google to investigate the matter. They have been getting a lot of pressure from consumer and activist groups to look into the practices of carriers and exclusive deals.

Google Voice is a suite of phone resource products that acts as a switchboard, voicemail and router service.

The letter to AT&T asks:

Are there any terms in AT&T's customer agreements that limit customer usage of certain third-party applications? If so, please indicate how consumers are informed of such limitations and whether such limitations are posted on the iTunes website as well. In general, what is AT&T's role in certifying applications on devices that run over AT&T's 3G network? What, if any, applications require AT&T's approval to be added to a device? Are there any differences between AT&T's treatment of the iPhone and other devices used on its 3G network?

"Recent news reports raise questions about practices in the mobile marketplace," FCC Chief Julius Grenachowski stated. "The Wireless Bureau's inquiry letters to these companies about their practices reflect the Commission's proactive approach to getting the facts and data necessary to make the best policy decisions on behalf of the American people."

If you love YouTube and you have a BlackBerry Tour, Bold or Storm, you may want to try Vision from Metova.  This visionary Vision app recently was chosen to be one of the first four Finalists in the 2009 BlackBerry Developer Challenge.

Vision for YouTube provides BlackBerry owners with easy access to YouTube videos. Vision is a separate native app for YouTube. It makes it easy to search video, share, create custom searches and load standard feeds on YouTube.

Vision BlackBerry for YouTube was the number one downloaded app for on BlackBerry App World, for some time. As of today, it is number five. 

The way the BlackBerry browser currently works, it does not support YouTube videos, therefore you need to download a separate app or browser to view YoutTube videos.  The BOLT browser allows you view YouTube videos also from the browser.

Metova's Vision for YouTube currently works on the  BlackBerry Tour, Bold, Storm.  It requires BlackBerry OS 4.6 or higher.

Vision is a free application and there is no purchase or registration necessary. You can download Vision to your device by visiting http://vision.metova.com/download or you can search for it on BlackBerry App World.

The documentation for BlackBerry developers for BlackBerry App World 1.1 shows some new developments: flexible storage capabilities, and more features at the website for BlackBerry App World.

For BlackBerry users who like to download a lot of apps this feature will be popular, "BlackBerry App World users can also install or archive applications on expandable memory, such as a media card."

For those BlackBerry users who want to free up space by removing programs there's a new feature that allows BlackBerry App World storefront users to remove applications from their BlackBerry devices and reinstall the applications without paying for the application a second time.There is a record keep of the installation.

The website will allows users to read descriptions and reviews and view screen shots of applications even if they are not BlackBerry App World users. Users can find applications by using the search function, selecting an application category, or browsing by Featured Items, Top Free, Top Paid, or Newest Applications.

LifeinPocket is now available for the BlackBerry Tour and Storm. LifeinPocket has many functions for people with busy lives. It is a free text messaging via phone and PC service powered with navigation and other GPS based services. It has been suggested that the LifeinPocket app "transcends" iPhones. It offers GPS directions with maps, syncing, business search, weather, parking, gas station-finding. There are many location-based functions of this app which parents, teens, and mobile types will love. We name it our "BlackBerry Storm / Tour App of the Day" because it is very "location functional."  There moto is "Your phone, your life, in your pocket."

From the main screen you can access these icons/functions:

Navigation - advanced turn-by-turn navigation prompts with voice guidance. that  allows for hands-free navigation. Utilizing synced address book and its unique online trip planning tool, LifeInPocket Navigation virtually eliminates the need for typing on tiny keyboards.

GPS - offers fully personalized business, restaurants, attractions, WIFI hot spots search, real-time traffic, map, weather etc. based on your GPS location, address book, destinations or "MyLocation".

Friends - whether they are using the same carrier or not. Let friends and family know where you are by sending location messages to them. They can click on the location to let LifeInPocket Navigation take them there, to view it on map or to search nearby POIs (Point of Interest) meet.

For example, teens can send a location message to Mom. Mom clicks on the message and LifeInPocket guides Mom to pick up the teen via voice instruction.

Roadside Assistance and GPS Gas Finder - Request emergency and roadside assistance. Find nearby gas price, towing services, auto repair shops and parking.

Email, IM & Social Networking - access

Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, etc. and company emails and attachments by POP3, SMTP, IMAP and web. You can send and receive IM, connect with friends by social networks  easily

PIM - Sync/import/export with Yahoo, Gmail, MSN, Hotmail, Palm Desktop, Outlook Express, Outlook etc. Click to navigate, call, email and socialize with your contacts!

Finance - manage stock portfolio, get stock quotes, charts, financial news/ analysis/report, access brokerage accounts.

Document - upload documents and books to LifeInPocket. Then, you can read them on your phone anytime and anywhere you want.

Media - news, Sports, Entertainment News, magazines, sports (NFL MLB NBA NHL LPGA NASCAR etc.), entertainments and local reports.

Search - search via GPS, view ratings and real-time reviews by real people before navigating to an unknown restaurant/store/repair shop.

Internet- access mobile Internet anytime, any place simply click and go! Needs no or very little typing to browse through sites.

Sync- sync with server, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN or Outlook Express.

OpenTable now offers a free dining restaurant-locator reservation-maker app that integrates with the Palm Pre's calendar and earns points for free meals

They say it makes it easier than ever for people to find and book reservations on-the-go, OpenTable for the Palm webOS platform allows diners to check the availability of multiple restaurants in the area; read restaurant reviews; get the location of the restaurants; make free, confirmed reservations; invite friends to join them; and, then follow directions to the restaurant

OpenTable's second mobile application to date, OpenTable for Palm webOS, includes several new features, like the ability to view comments about particular restaurants from actual diners. The application takes advantage of the unique capabilities of Palm webOS, allowing OpenTable users to integrate their reservations into the phone's calendar and even modify reservations if plans change.

Diners specify the desired date, time and party size, and they are immediately provided with a list of available tables at restaurants in the vicinity. They can also view results on a map, get directions to the restaurants, and send emails complete with reservation information to friends. With OpenTable for Palm webOS, registered OpenTable members can see their upcoming reservations, earn OpenTable Dining Points and view their current points balances. OpenTable for Palm webOS users can also book 1,000-Point reservations with their mobile phones, allowing them to earn free meals faster than ever before.

For more information on OpenTable for Palm webOS, please visit www.opentable.com/palm. The application was developed in close collaboration with Goodrec, Inc., a social recommendation engine and is available for download today in the Palm Pre's on-device beta App Catalog.

Attention doctor's office TIME magazine readers who need to read Time magazine on your BlackBerry smartphone.  Today, TIME launched their free TIME BlackBerry application, just in time for you take on your vacation or to the pool.

The TIME app gives readers the latest news, opinions and analysis from TIME influential bloggers, and offers the ability to browse through award-winning photography and TIME's hugely popular Lists.

We are naming TIME our BlackBerry Storm/Tour App of the Day, because it is so "timely."

You can also customize the content to easily view headlines from your favorite sections in TIME.

You'll get updates automatically pushed out to your BlackBerry smartphone, so you can read it on the subway or on a flight without having to commandeer the only copy in the dentist's office.

You can download the TIME BlackBerry app either at http://app.time.com/ or find it on BlackBerry App World.  

More BlackBerry Tour Apps and Accessories Articles.
Best of Article
Best Top Ten BlackBerry Tour Apps (So Far).

BlackBerry Tour Apps and Uses from Verizon.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: Poynt Super GPS 411 with Movies.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: Nogago Outdoor Navigation.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: Slacker Radio.
BlackBerry (Storm / Tour ) Updated Apps 2Day: FlyCast Streaming Radio Now with Caching.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: TweetCaster - Twitter App.
BackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: WHERE Widgetry.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: Google Maps.
BlackBerry (Storm / Tour) Updated Apps 2Day: BOLT Mobile Browser Beta3.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: Pandora Internet Radio 1.1.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: WorldMate Live Travel.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day:TeleNav GPS Navigator.
BlackBerry Tour Apps 2Day: Charge Anywhere Credit Card App

The BlackBerry Tour has had record sales for Verizon and is readily available on Sprint.  After you become accustomed to using the basic functions of the BlackBerry Tour, you can enhance your experience with free apps.

We've rounded up the best free top BlackBerry Tour apps so far and we will be periodically writing about new BlackBerry Tour apps as they appear.

Travel
WorldMate Live - helps users plan and manage trips at home and on the road, with instant access to travel tools and resources, making travel hassle-free. Features include email notifications of flight changes/delays, flight/hotel search/booking, mapping/directions and reminders.

Music/Radio Apps
Slacker Radio - lets you listen to over 100 expert-programmed stations and an unlimited number of listener generated stations whether you are connected to a network or not. Slacker Radio caches the stream of audio and stores it on the memory card.

FlyCast - FlyCast claims to have more radio stations than any other Internet radio or satellite platform with 1200 stations. There is a free version and a premium version the premium version allows for caching.

Pandora Internet Radio -Pandora creates radio stations based on songs and artists that you likeu, based on algorithms from the Music Genome Project. Pandora Radio streams the songs to your BlackBerry Tour.

Fun Goodies/Lifestyle
Feel-Goodies - this free feel-good app reminds you how wonderful you really are. Click through positive empowering sayings to feel better about yourself. "An app to give or receive that can't go wrong."

Here's a free app that tracks outdoor activities.  nogago connects to the GPS in your BlackBerry smartphone and then keeps track of your travels, speed and how far you went.  It works with the most popular BlackBerry smartphones including our readers' favorites the BlackBerry Tour, BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Curve 8900 as well as most recent BlackBerrry models. We name it BlackBerry Storm/Tour App of the Day for outdoor tours.

The nogago BlackBerry app lets you:

• Measure the time, distance and speed of your travels
• Record and view your tracks (while on the go and later when you are back home on your PC.)
• Navigate along prerecorded tracks (you can find many, many thousands of tracks at gpsies and other GPS track communities).

The nogago website has an online search function to help your find tracks to trek for biking, canoeing, bicycling, sailing, running, skating, horse riding, sailing and trekking all over the world.



How the nogago app works:

You can create a track log (press "0″) of your movements and share this track with your friends and family when you are back. Press "3″ to reset the odometer, whenever you want to start over with measuring your time and distance. This does not affect your track log but resets display, so when back home you can analyze how far, fast and long you went for what was recorded.

You can see your traces in the map mode pressing "9″ (always facing north) and return to the instrument view by pressing "9″ again.

To use the nogago, it would help if you have knowledge  basic outdoor navigation and how a compass works.

We've gotten positive feedback from our readers for articles featuring free BlackBerry Tour apps. BlackBerry Tour apps can be difficult to find, while developers are tweaking their BlackBerry apps to work on the BlackBerry Tour.

The spokesman for Slacker Radio confirmed that Slacker Radio works on the BlackBerry Tour. You can listen to over 100 expert-programmed stations and an unlimited number of listener generated stations whether you are connected to a network or not.

The Slacker app also shows detailed artist bios and album reviews for each song.

Slacker Radio for BlackBerry Tour is a personalized music discovery and listening experience, with over than 100 expert-programmed Slacker stations, over 10,000 artist stations or nearly unlimited number of the listener's own custom-created stations. Features include station caching to storage memory, and "peek ahead," allowing the listener to see a preview of the next artist and album in their stations' rotations.

Recently, Slacker and Verizon announced that the Slacker Radio app was being sent as an Over-The-Air download to BlackBerry Storm smartphones with the added ability to buy music directly from V CAST.

FlyCast is a streaming audio "radio stations" program, we previously named "BlackBerry Storm App of the Day." FlyCast claims to have more radio stations than any other Internet radio or satellite platform with 1200 stations. For our BlackBerry Tour readers, we have confirmed from FlyCast that FlyCast works on the BlackBerry Tour.

FlyCast streams popular radio stations and it will work anywhere. If you are out of town and want to listen to a major radio station, you should be able to find some of your favorites from Boston, New York or Los Angeles.

Flycast has updated their service now offers "wireless station caching," the ability listen to  favorite radio stations without a wireless connection. With FlyCast 2.0, users store their favorite stations when  connected to a cellular or Wi-Fi network, then disconnect from the network and listen to the stations any time.

Version 2.0 of their BlackBerry app presents music stations in a track-based cover flow, enabling in-application music purchases and providing time shifting skip-ahead and skip-back functionality. FlyCast 2.0 reduces battery drain and cellular data usage charges.

Handmark has released TweetCaster, a new free Twitter application available exclusively for BlackBerry smartphones with a trackball (including the BlackBerry Tour) and the BlackBerry Storm.

TweetCaster claims that their app, makes Twitter on a BlackBerry smartphone fast, easy, and fun. With TweetCaster, offers nearly twice the number of features as alternative BlackBerry smartphone or mobile web-based Twitter apps.

TweetCaster offers:

• Ability to toggle between multiple accounts.
• URL shortening.
• Picture sharing.
• One-step @reply and retweet capabilities.
• GPS locator to find Twitter friends near you.
• Real-time trending topics list.

TweetCaster is currently the only Twitter application for BlackBerry smartphones offering the ability to toggle between multiple accounts.

It appears that the most popular apps for the BlackBerry Storm are appearing for the BlackBerry Tour.  It was recently announced that WHERE now does all its locating magic on the BlackBerry Tour.

WHERE is a GPS location-based service that helps you find people, places and things. From the GPS in your BlackBerry Tour, WHERE knows "where u at" and then depending on the widget will let you know the weather, closest gas station, events, movie times,  restaurant reviews, and weather nearby. If we wanted to pun, we could say WHERE gives you the wherewithal to live and have fun where ever you are.

WHERE on the BlackBerryTour features an at-a-glance home -screen layout to access local information. WHERE comes pre-packed with some of their most popular GPS based widgets including, News, Weather, Gas Station Locator, Yelp & Eventful, plus many more. WHERE's networking venue, the WHERE Wall is also available on the BlackBerry Tour.

They claim "WHERE makes you feel like a local, no matter what city you are in."

There are a lot of BlackBerry WHERE widgets to choose from such as:

• Zoospi  tracks your location, receives and responds to booking requests and enables you to invoice your customers on the go, saving time, money, and gas.
• Mapicurious allows users to create their own maps with interesting points nearby and share them with others.
  
• Buddy Beacon tells your friends where you are and what you are doing with the click of a button.
• Flickpics gives you a photographic window to the world around you, with photos geotagged by flickr members.
• Beaches, Surf's up, dude! Find the closest beach to your location and directions to it with the Beaches widget and catch some killer waves.
• ShopLocal Mobile gives you the ability to search and view information on products and then easily find retail locations where the product can be purchased.
• Twitter GPS Widget lets you tweet with your current location.