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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

App Review: Open On in BlackBerry Bridge 2.0

Review: Open On in BlackBerry Bridge 2.0 EdShot (Mon 12 Mar 2012 12.19.57 PM) (1)When the BlackBerry PlayBook first came out, the BlackBerry Bridge feature enabled you to link the tablet to a BlackBerry smartphone (did I say BlackBerry enough?). This allowed you to view your sync your calendar, contacts and emails to your PlayBook. Of course most people just check their email on their smartphones or their PCs, so it really wasn’t the most applauded feature. But this time RIM’s got something else up their sleeve.

Thanks to OS 2.0, this symbiotic connection of a BlackBerry smartphone and a PlayBook with BlackBerry Bridge has been strengthened by something called “Open On”. It allows you to open up an image from your smartphone on your PlayBook. It’s easy to use and integrated into the standard BlackBerry contextual menu. With an image opened up on the smartphone, you can select “Open on (insert your PlayBook’s name here)”, you’ll see the image show up on the Playbook.

This is a neat feature, which although isn’t going to sell millions more PlayBooks, is impressive and immediately will put a smile on the owner of any PlayBook/BlackBerry user. It can a little slow to open some pictures, taking up to a few seconds sometimes (almost an eternity in mobile tech). There are also a few details which I feel are worthwhile to mention. Like when you open a picture on the PlayBook, your BlackBerry goes automatically into “remote mode”. This is useful in presentations when you just showing the picture on the Playbook and not really use it. You can zoom into the picture by double tapping on your phone, yet you can’t navigate around the image unless you zoom out again. I can’t help but think that anyone testing out this feature, like me, has tried (and failed) to use pinch-to-zoom to navigate an image. The ability to pan and zoom around the image using two fingers is something I’ll be crossing my fingers for. Of course if you’re using your PlayBook, you can pinch-to-zoom all you want, you just can’t do it from the remote function.

I had about a few moments where I’ve used “Open On” too! Thought experiment: Picture you lying on a couch and you’ve succumbed to a severe case of laziness, yet you want to show a picture on your phone to someone who is more than two feet away. Now you can just open the picture on the PlayBook and they can pick up the PlayBook. It’s a win-win situation: you don’t have to move, and they can see the picture on a beautiful screen.

But that’s not all (infomercial-style)! This is where it gets useful; it even works in the Browser! Just navigate to any page on the browser of your BlackBerry smartphone, and select “View on …”, and you’ll see browsing on your tablet in no time. You can even hold down on a link to bring up the action menu, and select “Open Link on….” to open the link on the PlayBook. In about a second, your PlayBook will magically open the browser and open that web page, giving you that ultimate browsing experience whether you’re controlling the PlayBook from the couch, auditorium or in your hands.

This is convenience at its finest. When browsing on a sub-4” screen starts to get frustrating, just open it on the PlayBook and you’re good to go! You don’t have to save the link, send it to yourself, and re-open it on another tablet just to switch the web browsing experience. Plus, it’s a great way to share the link with another person without anyone moving or sharing the same small screen like a chump.

I love it. Plain and simple. It’s simple and effective. This is the kind of feature that makes me wonder how other companies didn’t think of it first. But then it hits me. It’s the kind of feature that you’d never think of until you need it. Just today, when I started thinking to myself ,“Man, reading this article on this Torch is getting lame…what if I could use my PlayB…”. And there’s the lightbulb. I didn’t have to weigh out the options if it was worth it to fire up the PlayBook and find the article again or not. In a second, I was back on the PlayBook reading the fanboi comments. You can’t really hate a feature like this, as it’s so simple and it works well, although some developments with the BlackBerry remote function would definitely help!

Monday, March 12, 2012

App Demographics of BlackBerry P’9981 User Base, according to Developer (Chart)

Demographics of BlackBerry P’9981 User Base, according to Developer (Chart) 9981-demographicsEbscer, the developer of the widely popular game Pixelated has compiled its download statistics of the game. These regional demographics are based on users with the BlackBerry P’9981.

The BlackBerry P’9981 is a device with a price tag of nearly $2,000. It was first debuted at a special event in Saudi Arabia and released in Dubai, which reflects why the user statistics are higher in that and surrounding regions. Despite these figures being solely based on the download of a single game, it is still interesting to see where the P’9981′s are concentrated.

App Formula One (F1) Timing & Track Positioning App Now Available for BlackBerry

Formula One (F1) Timing & Track Positioning App Now Available for BlackBerry f1-appFor all those die-hard Formula One fans, a new Timing and Track Positioning app has been released for BlackBerry. Whether you’re at the race track or watching at home, the F1 timing App will get you closer to the action. With the new season comes a new tyre manufacturer and pit stops are likely to be a huge part of the championship, with the possibility of 3 or more pit stops for each F1 driver each race. With that in mind, track positioning on the App will be an invaluable companion throughout the sessions.

Features Include:

REAL-TIME TRACK POSITIONING – Displayed on our dynamic and interactive map. You can see the position of every F1 driver on the track at the same time. Zoom the track maps to focus on a specific driver or pull back to see the whole field. See the gaps and pit stops as never before! FOLLOW YOUR FAVOURITE F1 DRIVER – Selecting a driver switches the camera to follow that selected driver around the race track. Watch as they battle for position! LIVE TIMING DATA – Timing data is streamed direct from Formula One Management’s technical centre at the race track to the palm of your hand. With multiple timing screens including sectors, gaps and speeds. Watch the sessions like the engineers on the pitwall! LIVE LEADERBOARDS – Combined with live timing data, scrollable leaderboards display a wealth of data. DOWNLOAD RACE PACKS – Download race packs after the event to watch the sessions again and again. Perfect for tape delayed broadcast! LIVE TEXT COMMENTARY – Lap by lap live text commentary keeps you updated while the action unfolds. EVENT COUNTER & NOTIFICATIONS – A new enhanced Infobase with an event countdown that shows the time to the next session and informs when a session is live. Optional notifications alert you when sessions are approaching. KEEP UP TO DATE – Easily access a wealth of information with latest drivers and teams stats, race information, standings and latest results. COMPLETE FORMULA ONE ACCESS – Experience each and every Formula One Grand Prix session via the live timing & track positioning feed in the palm of your hand.

The F1 2012 Timing App CP is available for $19.99 and supports nearly all BlackBerry devices from OS 5.0 and up. You can get this F1 app in BlackBerry App World here.