Posted on September 18, 2008, at 10:37 pm .
As keen observers of cool new ways to interact with you BlackBerry, we’ve had our eyes on Vlingo since
WES back in May, when most people knew of them as the white label solution for Yahoo! oneSearch. We also helped to promote their open survey to provide feedback and improve their voice-enabled BlackBerry application.
But with the official release of version 1.1, Vlingo has stepped out of beta and into the spotlight. It’s time to answer the question of what a voice-enabled BlackBerry can do and whether or not you need it.
Vlingo for BlackBerry Reviewed
Posted on August 29, 2008, at 4:36 pm .
While BlackBerry Cool was the first website on the Internet to bring you competent speed testing of the BlackBerry Bold and iPhone 3G web browsers, it seems as though our initial tests were not as definitive as we would have liked them to be. This past week, we have been working with Kevin from CrackBerry.com, who has been trapped in BlackBerry purgatory trying to get any sort of positive browsing experience. While we suggest you read his two long and passionate posts on the subject (which describe crackberry addiction better than anything else on the Internet), here are the problems in a nutshell:
– The BlackBery Bold from Rogers has some serious issues when you attempt to enable Javascript support while browsing the web over 3G.
– There has to be some sort of issue with the Bold and WiFi/HotSpot Browser that pops up under specific circumstances. I don’t know what is yet, but I’m sure there’s something up.
While we were initially surprised to hear that Kevin had been having such problems, because we had not encountered them at all in our testing. However, out of BlackBerry unity, we agreed to give him some help and adopt his testing methodology. Once we did, it became clear that we were facing (some, but not all of) the same problems as Kevin. Which means that something is going on with the BlackBerry Browser.
Click here to read more about BlackBerry Cool’s BlackBerry Bold Browser testing
Posted on August 21, 2008, at 10:47 pm .
What, you think we didn’t have one before today? While we’re still not sure when you’ll be able to walk into a Rogers store to actually buy the shiny new device like Simon did, today still marks the official launch of the BlackBerry Bold on Rogers. In honor of this special day, we’ve decided to post our exhaustive review, if only to whet your appetites.
And boy, has this day been a long time coming: three years in development, three months since its official announcement at WES 2008, and three times the hype of any other BlackBerry release. The first in RIM’s next generation lineup of smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold has been labeled everything from an enterprise company’s desperate push into the prosumer space to a true iPhone killer. Most of the BlackBerry faithful are just hoping that it turns out to be a worthy merger and evolution of the BlackBerry 8800 and Curve device lines. This review will settle the debate.
Be forewarned, our review of the BlackBerry Bold is fairly large. However, we’ve broken the review down into specific sections for quick and convenient access to the information you seek. Make sure to post a comment to let us know if there’s anything we’ve missed, anything else you want to know about, and whether or not you feel RIM’s new flagship device meets the hype.
Enough talk! Behold, the BlackBerry Bold.
Click here to read BlackBerry Cool’s Ultimate BlackBerry Bold Review
Posted on August 13, 2008, at 11:47 am .
As bloggers, it’s in our nature to fiddle with the latest and greatest web toys. So you can guess how much time BBCool HQ has spent with Google Insights for Search, the big G’s latest and greatest toy that allows you to view a variety of metrics surrounding different search terms. We thought it would be a good idea to measure the level of interest of “blackberry” vis a vis “iphone”. The results won’t make anyone at RIM sleep easy any time soon.
The numbers on Google Insight graphs reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. As you can see from the graph above, in the past 12 months the iPhone has been handing it to BlackBerry in terms of Google search popularity. In addition, the comparative spikes of interest based around recent launches of marquee devices — i.e., the BlackBerry Bold and iPhone 3G — fall hands-down in favor of the iPhone, demonstrating Apple’s ability to run a well-oiled hype machine.
Click here to see more Google Insights metrics on the iPhone and BlackBerry
Posted on July 8, 2008, at 4:12 pm .
After encountering a half-zillion different IM clients the other week, we thought it might be prudent to throw them all in the ring together and see how they compare. It’s a beefy list, indeed… in terms of stand-alone clients, we have BlackBerry Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and Google Talk. Among the multi-platform apps, we have Palringo, IM+, Mundu, Instango, JiveTalk, and WebMessenger.
AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and Microsoft Live Messenger are also options if you’re packing a supported device.
The full monster-god of BlackBerry instant messenger reviews is behind the jump!
Posted on June 25, 2008, at 4:12 pm .
Between a BlackBerry, work computer, home desktop, and laptop, it’s easy to get your files scattered in a lot of different places. SugarSync knows this and is trying make it quick and easy to make sure you can always access all of your files. They’ve been kicking around for awhile, and I’ve been testing it out since beta. We talked with the developer about the importance of syncing across desktops and handheld, followed up by high promises of review. Well, here we are and ready to take a good close look at SugarSync.
Continue reading ‘Review: SugarSync’
Posted on June 11, 2008, at 4:01 pm .
You didn’t think I went all the way to Rogers HQ just for a pink BlackBerry, did you? The mysterious ninja that is RogersDude69 also let me put my paws on the recently released BlackBerry 8120, which is notable for its WiFi/UMA support and being the first BlackBerry to launch with OS 4.5.
First to WiFi. It should be noted that if you don’t have an active account (i.e., if you’re not using a post-paid SIM card) you cannot use the web browser. With an active SIM in the 8120, but the “Mobile Network” option turned off in your Connection Manager, the browser will connect sometimes, but it’s very spotty.
While the AT&T version of the BlackBerry 8120 has a separate icon for WiFi browsing, it gets a little bit trickier with the Rogers version. With no separate browser, you have to make sure your BlackBerry Browser is set to the WiFi Hotspot option. Unfortunately, browsing using the WiFi can be excruciatingly slow, and I could beat the 8120 to most pages using my EV-DO BlackBerry 8330. I highly recommend disabling JavaScripts in your browser options, which can make a noticeable difference. I’m not sure why exactly browsing is so slow, but I’m willing to be it has something to do with the 8120’s legacy-8700 processor.
We’re going to play around with the BlackBerry 8120 some more (specifically its UMA features), and let you know when we’ve found OS 4.5’s other idiosyncrasies.
Posted on June 10, 2008, at 9:02 am .
The New York Times has an article out today spotlighting the growing trend of women with smartphones, and of course, it’s filled with iPhone-related data. For example, did you know that one out of every three iPhones were purchased by a woman? Significantly, this number is a result of a doubling of the number of women using smartphones in the past year, to 10.4 million (women accounted for only one in four of every iPhone purchase as recently as October).
Suggested reasons for the upsurge? Cheaper phones with more appealing designs, such as the now $99 BlackBerry Pearl, the elimination of the geek stigma to purchasing a smartphone, and an ever-increasing need to keep in touch with family members. Perhaps also the color pink:
We picked a shade of pink that fit in all kinds of settings — not too flashy,” said Mark Guibert, vice president for corporate marketing at RIM. “It was the only color that was purely driven by the female audience. Years ago the market was much more focused solely on function. Now there is more focus on lifestyle.
Pink: is there anything it can’t do?
(via NYT)
Posted on June 5, 2008, at 12:56 pm .
Michael Kerfeld, an enthusiastic reader of BBCool, has submitted a great head-to-head review of Empower versus BBSmart HTML e-mail viewers. Head-to-head will be a new BBCool feature where we make two competing products slug it out until one emerges the victor. If you’d like to review for BlackBerry Cool, contact us.
We all know that the Blackberry Bold is coming, and with it RIM’s new, highly anticipated OS 4.6. A sneak peek of the features have been revealed, as well as to those using beta copies of the OS 4.5 on their current devices. RIM has given everything a touch up with fresher fonts, a more pleasant browsing experience, and snappier performance. OS 4.5 even brings a facelifted email viewer, but HTML email viewing still remains a thing of the future for those of us without an Enterprise Service activation or a carrier with BIS version 2.5. The days of endless URL strings continue.
Empower vs. BBSmart
Posted on May 27, 2008, at 1:15 pm .
You already heard what the people have chosen, and now to announce what the supposed experts have to say. Like we mentioned in last week’s podcast, it’s a tough call to make with such a wide range of products being shown off at WES. The judges for each category had their own set of standards (as you can see), so the results are bound to be highly subjective. The fact of the matter is every exhibitor at WES had something worth showing off, and these were just some of the few that stuck out in our judge’s minds.
Winners after the jump…
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