TamsBlackBerry – the BlackBerry blog

RIM has just enabled the latest version of its on-device application store. Their official change log looks as follows:

Enhanced Performance
BlackBerry App World 1.1 features faster image and icon loading, giving you the information you want – faster.

Sort Your Searches
Search and find exactly the apps you want. Look for “free” or “paid” apps, or search by category: music, games, weather and other apps. Sort your results by most popular, newest, highest rated and more.

Archive Your Apps
Load even more of your favorite apps onto your microSD card – ensuring that no matter where you go, or even if you change BlackBerry smartphones, all your applications come with you.

Memory Indicator
Always know exactly how much memory you have with the new memory status bar. When you’ve exceeded your memory, a message will appear guiding you on how to free up more space.

Unfortunately, the most notable expected feature was not implemented: applications can still not be accessed using anything except for a RIM device. This means that searching for apps using your desktop PC and a web browser still doesn’t work – which makes finding apps a bit more difficult…

Further information and an update file can be obtained here:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/appworld/download.jsp#tab_tab_features

Opera’s Java-based Opera Mini browser gets used whenever the default browser sucks: Palm OS heads have lived with it for some time.

Their latest State of the mobile Web report has revealed that RIM heads now make up for a disproportional amount of users. The figure below shows the top-10 devices which are used for Opera Mini:

In Canada, the situation is similar:

I personally think that RIM should take this trend seriously. Nowadays, smartphones need to have great native web browsers – the lack of these can and will impede platform growth significantly…

RIM’s BlackBerry App World seems to be a pretty good store: nobody has complained about it so far (which – in RIM-land – means that the developers are too busy counting their loot).

According to BerryReview, the store will soon receive a minor update – it will add various comfort functions. First of all, the App World will receive an on-line frontend: this means that users can look at the contents of the store even while not being logged in to App World.

The second – and IMHO more important – change reminds me of Handango’s download protection: it lets you archive your apps on-line and reinstall them when needed.

As of now, no information is available on availability – stay tuned!

RIM’s BlackBerry has always suffered from a somewhat incoherent developer tool landscape – while not as confusing as the one seen on recent releases of the S60 platform, finding your way through can nevertheless be daunting at times.

RIM’s latest additions are a plug-in for Visual Studio and one for Eclipse. Both of these are targeted at web developers; which means that they are little more than a glorified version of FrontPage.

Further information can be had here:
http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/BlackBerry+news/news.asp?c=14635

RIM’s Blackberry 8520 has been all over the rumor mill for some time – the image below should now clarify all further matters:

via CellPhoneSignal

Dear Readers,
in case you feel like going to the Mobile World Congress next year: book trip and hotel ASAP!

I have just gone through the hassles of trying to get a room, and failed miserably at various hotels due to lack of free space. Yes, the event is still more than 6 months away – but the vacancies are all used up.

Keep in mind that this event is huge and can easily fill up the entire city…and get booking ASAP.

P.S: If anyone of you has a hint for a hotel, I’d be thankful for a comment for the rest of the gang…

Long-term followers of the Tamoggemon Content network should know that I am a fan of MobiHand – this ESD has rock-bottom rates, friendly support staff and a no-idiocy policy.

Unfortunately, their device matching system has problems with RIM’s recently-released BlackBerry Tour. Because of this, all developers who have apps which support the Tour, are hereas requested to inform MobiHand of this as shown in the email below. The process is painless, quick and free – the full announcement is below:

If you have products in the MobiHand catalog (www.mobireach.com) which are compatible with the Blackberry Tour (9630), please set these as compatible.

MobiHand has set all previously uploaded software products to incompatible with the new Blackberry Tour (9630). While device compatibility can generally be assumed for new devices with a given version of a smartphone operating system (OS), the differences within Blackberry OS version 4.7 between the Storm (a touchscreen device) and the new Tour (a trackball
device) cause an exception to this assumption. For this reason, we have overridden our automatic device matching system in MobiReach, and have set all existing products to “incompatible” with the Tour.

If your product is compatible with the Tour, please follow these steps to make sure it is made available to Tour owners in MobiHand-powered stores:

- Login to www.mobireach.com, and select the product.
- On the Devices tab, in the Manual Include column, check the checkbox for “9630 (Tour)”.
- Select Save.

Airlines have used GSM-based credit card billing systems for quite some time – don’t ask me why the FCC had no issues with that after that infamous CrossAir crash which brought us the lovely anti-cellphone legislation we currently enjoy in most countries.

Mexico was very slow to adopt these regulations, and is one of the first to remove them – Engadget reports the following:

…
Soon, travelers there will no longer have to keep their handsets safely stowed or in airplane mode, with the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, or SCT (the Mexican FCC equivalent), approving cellphones en-masse for flights anywhere in the nation. This cancels an earlier edict made in 2001 banning their use, and while Mexico’s federal government still has to approve things, that’s not expected to take long.
…

At Tamoggemon’s, we celebrate – now all we need is to motivate Hutchison to get into Mexico…

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Fcb981, lightboxing by Tam Hanna

Palm heads thought that Palm OS 5 would revive their platform eons ago – don’t ask me why they are all fixed on the number 5, but RIM heads feel similar.

The boys at CrackBerry.com recently managed to get their hands onto a leaked beta build of the operating system…and posted a nice little instruction set for getting it up and running.

So far, users report loads of eekers and missing programs; which means that people who rely on their Storm should steer clear – all others are hereas invited to hit the link above…

Secretly installing surveillance applications is one thing. Borking up the install in a way which harms the reputation of the manufacturer is another.

Etisalat, a carrier in the UAE, has done the latter – and RIM has now responded by posting an Etisalat patch remover to its web site:

Recently an update may have been provided to you by Etisalat for your BlackBerry Handheld via a WAP push. The Etisalat update is not a RIM-authorized update and was not developed by RIM. Independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your BlackBerry Handheld, but rather to send received messages back to a central server. RIM has developed this software (“Software”) that will enable you to remove the Etisalat update.

First of all: surveillance and censorship happens NOW and CLOSER TO YOU than you may think. I don’t want to know what which carrier does, but can give you a sample: the (usually docile) Hutchison group has a list of web sites it considers “inappropriate” and bans them on its own (even though it is not required to do so under Austrian law).

RIM most likely doesn’t take with surveillance, but rather has eekers with the outfall…which could harm their brand as consumers consider RIM handsets unreliable.

I would dare to bet my hide that the same software will deployed again in the near future…

Verizon was the first carrier to sell the Storm – they have just lowered the price of the little critter:

The message behind this is clear: the Storm 2 is on its way!

P.S. Use the ZIP code 60002 to get past the ZIP lock…

RIM’s BlackBerry Storm is said to sell like mad for quite some time – we now know how to tear it down:

As usual: be ready to loose your warranty…

UK operator VodaFone has somehow leaked a top-seller list for the month July – it goes as follows:

1. Nokia N97 32GB
2. Nokia 5800
3. Sony Ericsson W595
4. Sony Ericsson C510
5. Samsung Jet
6. Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition
7. Samsung Steel L810
8. Nokia 6300
9. BlackBerry Storm
10. HTC Magic

Even though the BlackBerry Storm is on the market for quite some time, it manages to beat the Android-powered HTC Magic (which has been released very recently).

If the Storm II manages to fix the eekers found in the first model, things will look a lot better – let’s stay tuned!

RIM has just added a Facebook page containing the following bit of info:

As of now, no further information is available. BerryReporter claim that this is a launch event for the BlackBerry Tour 9520 – let’s see how it all plays out!