On a recent trip to the California desert, with access to both a BlackBerry Storm and an iPhone 3GS, I had a chance to test Verizon's vaunted claims about better coverage.
Anza Borrego Desert State Park, about two hours south of Palm Springs by car, is California's largest state park and covers roughly 1,000 square miles of desert. In other words, it's mostly raw, but stunningly beautiful, wilderness. Over the years, I have often made day trips (alone or with friends/family) to boulder up washes (aka arroyos) in the surrounding mountains (see photo).
Anza Borrego Desert State Park: looking east towards the Salton Sea: good coverage even here.
(Credit: Brooke Crothers)The largest town in the area, Borrego Springs (the 2000 census put the population at about 2,500), is famous for having rock-solid 2G (and increasingly 3G) coverage for most major carriers. In fact, in the spot shown in the photo (embedded in this post), which was taken after an hour of bouldering up a wash just west of Borrego Springs, there is no hiccup in service.
But Borrego Springs, surrounded by a desert (figuratively) of dead zones, is the exception. Outside of town, in places like the outback of Coyote Canyon or in the desert east of the Shelter Valley area (part of Julian, Calif.), it's very hit or miss. ... Read more
Research In Motion has pushed out new software to correct a problem that left some BlackBerry users high and dry Tuesday.
Blame BlackBerry Messenger for Tuesday's data service outage.
(Credit: RIM)A new version of BlackBerry Messenger is available that apparently fixes the problems experienced by BlackBerry customers, according to a report by BusinessWeek. For several hours on Tuesday, BlackBerry users were unable to use the data services on their phones, preventing e-mails from being received and applications from working correctly.
In a statement provided to CNET, RIM said the "root cause is currently under review, but based on preliminary analysis, it currently appears that the issue stemmed from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger (versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56) that caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure. RIM has taken corrective action to restore service."
BlackBerry Messenger version 5.0.0.57 is the one to install, if you're currently running either version described above, and that should be available through the phone's browser or in BlackBerry App World. Tuesday's outage follows another one last week shorter in duration.
BlackBerry Bold
(Credit: Research in Motion)For the second time in less than a week, BlackBerry smartphone users across the country and beyond are reporting problems accessing e-mail.
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion confirmed Tuesday night that some users of the smartphone in the Americas are experiencing delays in message delivery.
"Technical teams are actively working to resolve the issue for those impacted. RIM apologizes for any inconvenience experienced by customers," read an e-mailed statement from company spokesperson Jamie Ernst. Ernst declined to elaborate, however, on the cause or extent of the outage, and offered no estimated time of repair.
This, of course, comes on the heels of similar short-lived outage on Thursday, which happened to be the same day the company announced it beat analyst expectations in the fiscal third quarter of 2009 with strong sales of its BlackBerrys.
(Credit:
Inside BlackBerry)
Ever wonder how the optical trackpad on the newest BlackBerry phones works?
Research In Motion's official Inside BlackBerry blog has posted an explanation of the technology, and it turns out that the trackpad works much like the optical mouse you use with your desktop PC: it uses a low-resolution infrared camera to capture movement across the surface and translate it into direction.
Read more of "The science behind the new BlackBerry optical trackpad" at ZDNet's The ToyBox.
In this week's preholiday edition of the Digital City Podcast, we all get ready for our one long break of the year, accompanied by special guest smartphone guru (and new CNET East Coaster) Bonnie Cha.
Scott and Joe have seen James Cameron's "Avatar"; Bonnie and Julie haven't. We also discuss Intel's new Atom Netbooks, 3D Blu-ray on the PS3, holiday smartphones, and upcoming laptops and phones at CES 2010. Best of all, Scott gets a chance to show off his one and only Batjew T-shirt. Watch it on video or you'll miss it.
Plus, don't forget to enter a comment to win a 16GB Zune HD of your very own. Happy holidays!
Related links:
>>3D Blu-ray standard outlined, includes PS3
>>New Atom Netbooks: Strange timing for shoppers?
>>CES 2010 Preview: Cell phones
>>CES 2010 Preview: Desktops and laptops
>>Watch the Digital City live every Monday at 3 p.m. EST on CNET Live!
>>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes
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>>Need more? Follow Dan on Twitter! And Scott!
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RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530
(Credit: Sprint)Right in the nick of time for the holidays, the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 is now available from Sprint for $49.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.
Though an entry-level phone, the Curve 8530 comes with a pretty decent feature list, including Wi-Fi, an optical trackpad, GPS, a 2-megapixel camera, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. In addition, it will support the Sprint Navigation, Sprint Music Store, and Sprint TV.
If you're feeling it, you can purchase the smartphone in stores or through Sprint's business channel or telesales. The carrier will offer the smartphone in black, red, and royal purple.
Verizon Wireless released new desktop software on Monday to help its customers better manage the media between their cell phones and computers.
Based on Smith Micro's QuickLink Media Software, V Cast Media Manager is available as a free download and lets you transfer photos, videos, and music from your phone to your PC via USB cable and provides you with tools for organizing, editing, and viewing the content. With the software, you can do such things as touch up photos, create slideshows, and rip and burn CDs. In addition, V Cast Media Manager can help you sync your multimedia library onto a new phone.
Be aware, however, that the software is currently only compatible with a certain number of phones, such as the Samsung Rogue, LG enV 2, LG Dare, and RIM BlackBerry Storm. Verizon said it is working on bringing support to more devices in the coming months, including Android smartphones. To see a full list of compatible phones and to download the software, check out the V Cast Media Manager product page.
(Credit:
Seesmic)
On Monday, Seesmic released an update to Seesmic for BlackBerry, a Twitter app that first debuted in late November.
Back then you had to download Seesmic from the company's Web site. Now you can get it directly from BlackBerry App World online or from the App World app on your smartphone.
Although Seesmic's interface is a bit light on features--like support for multiple accounts--it has added some enhancements that better integrate its Twitter app with the BlackBerry ethos. Chief among these are compliance with the BlackBerry's spell checker and auto-corrector, which will both help keep you from misspelling tweets or forgetting to capitalize an "i." The app has also become sensitive to keyboard shortcuts. In addition to the usual BlackBerry shortcuts T and B, to take you to the top and bottom of the page, are R to reply, D to send a direct message and F to retweet. Here is the full list of mapped shortcuts.
You can now vary your font size among small, medium, and large fonts. Seesmic for BlackBerry also lets you mark a tweet as a favorite in your timeline, but doesn't yet have a dedicated Favorites screen. In addition, Seesmic is now available for phones running 4.5 of the BlackBerry's operating system.The previous build, version 1.0.6 beta, only worked on BlackBerrys 4.6 and up.
You can view the change log for more details, and can try Seesmic's take on Twitter for free on Windows and Mac.
So you've got a new BlackBerry smartphone. You power it up, download BlackBerry App World, and find a gallery of apps waiting to fill up your phone. There's only one problem--figuring out which programs to download first.
Let us introduce you to our BlackBerry Starter Kit. We've assembled our top recommendations for productivity, communication, music, and business--if you intend use your BlackBerry for work as well as for play.
Keep in mind that our list of essential BlackBerry apps is far from exhaustive. We steered clear of games, and of applications for hobbyists and specialized communities in an effort to make our app suggestions applicable to as many new BlackBerry owners as possible. If you've got must-have suggestion of your own, you know the drill--leave 'em in the comments.
One of about 150 themes available at launch in BlackBerry App World.
(Credit: DreamTheme)Starting Monday, BlackBerry devotees will have an easier time snazzing up their smartphones.
Themes are a new download category in the BlackBerry App World, both on the online catalog and on the App World app you can download to the BlackBerry. There were just shy of 150 free and premium visual themes at launch, including animated themes.
App World took a few extra seconds to update when we launched it this morning to check out the offerings. Otherwise, the minor application update was a smooth transition.
