Reviews
DVD Converter for your BlackBerry
If you've got a young kid, you've probably got a video camera for capturing all the seemingly normal stuff that we can do as adults but that is just plain amazing when a one year old does it. Thing is, most people don't carry about portable DVD players to show off all the new stuff that the kid... but you have a BlackBerry. If you've ever wanted to show a movie on your BlackBerry that you've got on a DVD (or more likely: you want to show off some internal presentation to a client or you're a real estate agent and you want to show a potential buyer a video), then I've got some software you should check out.
Wondershare BlackBerry Converter Suite includes Wondershare DVD to BlackBerry Converter and Wondershare Video Converter for BlackBerry. With this software, you can convert DVD or video to AVI, 3GP, MP4,WMV,MP3,AAC and WMA for playback on BlackBerry with with high output quality and fast conversion speed.
You can convert your DVD by selecting the subtitle and audio track you prefer, convert multiple video files at a time, trim your DVD and video files to capture your favorite video clips, crop movie video, set movie effects, and capture pictures from your movies and so on.
The software converts your videos to AVI, 3GP, MP4,WMV,MP3,AAC and WMA (all of which are supported on the BlackBerry) and you can merge DVD titles/chapters into one file and merge multiple video files into one file. It also supports video cropping and trimming.
You can buy it now for $39 or take it for a test drive.
February 18, 2008 in Reviews, Software, Tips by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Bored? Try wattpad.com
I honestly can't imagine that you're bored if you have a BlackBerry since you probably don't stop receiving emails, but in case you're all caught up with your email (just as unlikely), you should head on over to wattpad.com and download their BlackBerry client to start reading and sharing stories via your mobile. The site and software is free of charge.
May 22, 2007 in Reviews, Software by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Documents To Go for BlackBerry
Jason from DataViz wrote in a couple weeks ago about the port of Documents To Go to the BlackBerry platform. If you've been living under a BlackBerry bush for the last couple years you may not have heard about DataViz: Documents To Go will enable users of BlackBerry devices to access, view, edit and create Native Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint® files on their devices. Natively. Pretty sweet.
You can read more about Documents To Go for the BlackBerry platform on their website and keep up on DataViz by reading their excellent blog 'Office Mobility Blog'.
May 22, 2007 in Reviews, Software by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Impatica ShowMate: PowerPoint via Bluetooth
BlackBerryBlog reader Jessica Morgan sent in the news that the Impatica ShowMate won an award for most "Innovative Wireless Device" at the CTIA 2007 show. The device is only useful for a small segment of BlackBerry users, but man is it cool. A quick poll: raise your hand if you've been in a sales presentation where the sales guys laptop didn't boot or couldn't sync up with the projector. Wait, is that all of you raising your hand? What's that? That happens in every meeting? The ShowMate is aimed at any / all of you people: it's a hardware device that attaches directly to a project and can then deliver your PowerPoint presentation from your BlackBerry device using Bluetooth, which means you can be milling about the room delivering the goods AND not have to worry about your laptop going to sleep or losing juice.
You can read more about the ShowMate here or buy it now for $249.
May 22, 2007 in Hardware, Reviews by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Pinger... really cool
Joe from Pinger.com wrote back March (wow I'm way behind, sorry!) about some new functionality that they're offering over via Pinger.com that gives you the ability to send voice mails to anyone in your Pinger.com address book by calling pinger (858-274-6437), saying the name of your contact and then leaving a voice mail. The really cool part come next though: you can create 'groups' on pinger.com and then leave a voice mail that gets distributed to all the members of the group by saying the name of the group and then leaving your voice mail.
One of the less noticed parts of this that I like is that your contacts don't live on the phone: one of the biggest pains is moving from one phone or carrier to another only to have to re-enter all your contacts and all your phone numbers. Having the phone numbers on pinger.com means you can place calls to pinger.com all day long without having to have a single number on your phone. Also, for those of you who don't actually want to talk to the person you're calling but really just want to leave a voice mail, pinger is a god send.
Check out the cool demos they have on their homepage or read about some of the 'why' questions on their FAQ page.
May 22, 2007 in Accessories, Reviews, Software by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
MySpace for your BlackBerry?
A couple weeks ago I got an email from Marc at MobilePlay about a new service they're offering called eXpress It!, which is billed as a Social Networking Service for mobile phone users. The service allows you to create a web page via your web browser that you then send to your phone (which they can do for you) and then you can forward that page to any of the people in your address book either by sending an email (probably the preferred method if you already have a BlackBerry) or by MMS. I'm not sure how the whole MMS thing is going to work out since I've never received one but email seems like a no brainer. In fact, I'm really surprised that something like this hasn't taken off: business cards seems so old and so wasteful. The only reason to have a business card is so that you can give it to some marketing / sales guy at conferences to get free t-shirts. Any reasonably connected business person has a laptop or PDA that they can and should be entering information into a regular basis. Sending a rich email or MMS message seems way more intelligent, faster and more compelling.
Check out the site @ mobileplay.com.
May 22, 2007 in Reviews, Software by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
BerryDialer: Use multiple calling cards on your BlackBerry
With the cost of international phone calls through Skype and other VOIP providers so low, I'm not sure why someone would ever choose to use a calling card, but I guess if you're on the go and don't have a laptop, then a calling card makes sense. If you're one of those people, you absolutely must check out the BerryDialer program, available from mobilesoftmarket.com, which gives you the ability to enter one or more calling card numbers into your BlackBerry and then not have to enter them again.
March 16, 2007 in Reviews, Software by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tube 2 for BlackBerry
There's a number of subway / metro applications available for your BlackBerry, the one Ryan sent me today looks like one of the nicer ones. The screenshots of the maps look really nice, crystal clear almost and the application can overlay your route on map.
Tube 2 is available for London, New York City (soon!) and Paris, each city is $10.
March 16, 2007 in Reviews, Software by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Blackberry 8800 vs. Blackberry Pearl
Om Malik over at GigaOM has a comparison / review of the new Blackberry 8800 compared to the Blackberry Pearl (hot on the heals of a similar review in The Mossberg Solution by Katherine Boehret of the WSJ). My question for all you readers: which do you prefer?
March 05, 2007 in Hardware, Phones, Reviews by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Splash ID: should you store your bank, credit card and password information on a BlackBerry?
One of the featured items in the October 2006 IT BlackBerry newsletter is a piece of software from the same company that makes SplashPhoto (which I just blogged about) called Splash ID. The article describes Splash ID as software that allows you to store information
"... including user names, passwords and credit card, calling card and bank account numbers -- in a secure Blowfish encrypted format that you can access quickly on your BlackBerry device or desktop computer."Now I'm all for the secure storage of this stuff, but what happens if you lose your BlackBerry? Can anyone else access your most personal information 'easily'? I don't mean to pull a Bruce Schneier on these guys, but can someone who has actually used the product explain how your data is protected if you misplace or lose your BlackBerry? Looks to me like a single password controls access to all of your information.
November 07, 2006 in Reviews, Software, Tips by ajohnson | link | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
New BlackBerry Training From Consilient
The guys at Consilient have come out with a new course for BlackBerry end users, which is something I wish every person who had a BlackBerry was required to take. No, I take that back. Every person who has a cell phone should be required to first take a cell phone etiquette class. And then, if they have a BlackBerry, they should have to take this class. Anyway, the BlackBerry class is approximately 56 minutes long, can be paused halfway through because you know there will be some emergency during the training that you'll probably read about on your BlackBerry while you're doing the training and includes audio narration and video demonstrations.
It costs $75 and you can purchase it online through the Consilient store.
May 06, 2006 in News, Reviews by ajohnson | link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
BlackBerry 7250 Review
Paul Scrivens over at Forever Geek.com wrote up a review of his new BlackBerry 7250.
April 12, 2005 in Reviews by ajohnson | link | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)