What's NEW at Bell?
Strong demand for revolutionary new smartphone offered in Canada only by Bell, the Palm®Pre™.
Palm®Pre™
Voted best mobile phone at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, the Palm Pre is available exclusively from Bell.
- Move seamlessly through open applications with just a flick of your finger
- Link your contacts, calendars, and email from different sources
- Use the Pre's powerful search function to find what you're looking for with ease
Bluetooth Headsets: Attention Drivers
Adding Applications to a BlackBerry®;
currently more than 1000 available!
By Patrick Morrison, Corporate account representative– Halifax
One reason contributing to the exponential growth in Smartphone sales today is a user’s ability to personalize their devices through the addition of custom add-on applications. In the past, adding applications to phones or PDA devices was a painful process. You first had to do your own searches on the web to find a suitable program that you’d like and then decide on your own if it’s from a trustworthy vendor - a task that too many inexperienced users failed at. Next you had to download the application to the phone (or a computer connected to a phone), find that download and then sit through a lengthy installation routines and hope for the best. Considering all the steps that this process could involve, it was no surprise to see why so many smartphones only had one or two extra programs onboard. In addition, the quality and stability of some of these applications was questionable and more often than not, a lot of third party applications would jeopardize the performance of the device.
These days, phone manufacturers are now setting up simple software catalogues that can put new and approved programs on a phone with only a few taps of its screen or keyboard. Apple certainly popularized this process with the App Store it added to the iPhone (and iPod Touch) last year. Google followed next with its Android Market, and last month BlackBerry®® manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) joined the club by shipping its BlackBerry® App World program. Unlike those other systems however, BlackBerry®’s App World doesn’t arrive already installed on new phones. However, assuming you have a current compatible model – The Curve, the Pearl, the 8830 World Edition or The Storm models – you simply have to visit RIM's App World page (http://blackberry.com/appworld) on your phone, download this program, and then run its installer. Once set up, App World should appear on your phone's home screen and you’re ready to go.
When you first open the App World program, simply start by looking at the categorized lists of applications under a folders icon located at the bottom of the screen. App World will only list the programs compatible with the BlackBerry® model on which it's running and there are currently more than 1,000 programs available. Although 1000 applications only represents a fraction of the 35,000-plus titles Apple claims for its App Store, keep in mind that the BlackBerry® App World has only been operational for about a month now.
Despite RIM's reputation of being mainly targeted to the “Business” community, the most popular category being displayed and selected in their App World was "Games”. With about 300 applications currently listed, the Games category has a few more listings than the 220 offered under the "Productivity & Utilities" category or the 46 listings under “Professional and Business”. The App World collection also includes some of the iPhone favorites, such as Shazam - the application that can tell you the name of a song and the artist playing it by simply placing the BlackBerry® next to a speaker that is playing that song. You’ll also find some Internet-radio programs and a front end to the Facebook social-networking site. This inventory does not, however, include every Smartphone application as programs must go through a review and testing process before showing up in the BlackBerry® App World, so some newer applications may not appear for a while.
A large number of App World offerings are free, and although many others typically cost about $4.99USD most of them offer a “try-before-you-buy” demo version for a short trial period. A few applications can be considerably more than $4.99 such as the $39.99USD/year Green Finder Golf GPS that turns your BlackBerry® into GPS-enabled rangefinder. The application works like a dedicated GPS rangefinder costing hundreds of dollars and provides you with distances to the green and hazards while golfing at over 10,000 different courses in the US, Canada and around the world.
All in all, BlackBerry® App World represents a major improvement over what RIM offered before - much less what Microsoft provides in its Windows Mobile operating system. Windows Mobile 6.5 is due later this year and will add a “Windows Marketplace for Mobile" storefront that should finally bring some sanity to that process. Until then, the BlackBerry® App World and all of these other Smartphone application storefronts make the experience of adding programs on regular Windows computers look pretty miserable in comparison.
NOTE 1: Opening and viewing content from the BlackBerry® App World does consume data usage so be aware of your consumption amounts in relation to the size of your data plan. In addition, be aware that the size of these applications being downloaded will vary from one to another and although some programs reside entirely on your device as they are being used such as a lot of the games, other applications do require further data consumption as they are being used.
NOTE 2: If you have an employer-issued Smartphone, be sure to familiarize yourself with your IT department's policy before attempting to install or uninstall software from your device as your company might impose guidelines on what applications - if any - can and cannot be installed.
Maximize battery life on your BlackBerry®
By Michel Blais – Service, Montréal
To maximize your Blackberry’s battery life, go into “options” and select “screen/keyboard”. Scroll through and you will find various settings you can change by simply pressing the trackball and then scrolling to the option you want. Settings like ‘Backlight Brightness’, ‘Backlight Timeout’ and others will affect your battery. Find what works best for you.
Do you have a tip or trick you’d like to share?
Email Jessie Vaillancourt and your idea could be featured in the Mobile Insider.
Stay tuned for more tips and tricks next month.
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3G Palm® Pre™ smartphone
• Palm webOS™
• Touch Screen
• Email
• Wi-Fi
• Music
• 3.0 MP Camera
• QWERTY keyboard
• More Details
• To order
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Voyager 520
In the car, at the airport, or on the job – Plantronics Voyager™ 520 delivers business quality audio performance. Noise-canceling microphone filters distracting background noise so you can be easily heard while the innovative wind screen minimizes wind noise.
• More Details
• To order
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ViewSonic 42" CD4230
ViewSonic's 42" CD4230 Commercial Display features a super-slim 14mm bezel in a robust, all-metal chassis.
• Ideally suited for installations in public information applications
Available on CBCI
Standing Offer
• More Details
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Sony BRC-Z700 HD 3 CMOS Robotic PTZ Camera
A high picture quality HD 3 CMOS camera with pan/tilt/zoom mechanism, wrapped in a sleek, compact body, it can also be ceiling mounted. It is also equipped with a slot for optional cards to adapt to diverse needs.
Available on CBCI
Standing Offer
• More Details
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