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BlackBerry has $250,000 for your app ideas

So you have a great idea for a BlackBerry application, but like the rest of us in the poor old U. S. of A., you have no money to develop it.

Enter the Jump Start Financing Initiative, which provides entrepreneurs with capital infusions of up to $250,000. The initiative is designed to bring new and innovative ideas into the development process faster, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on building smartphone applications instead of raising capital.

Announced Monday, the initiative is funded by the BlackBerry Partners Fund, a $150 million venture capital fund formed to focus on applications and services for … Read more

Search for your home with your smartphone

It sure is hard to keep your home these days, and it's not a good time to sell it, either. But if you just want to look around, checking the market, it has never been more convenient.

Recently, I blogged about how you can search for a new home on your iPhone, but now, if you own a BlackBerry or any other smartphone, you can do that, too.

Coldwell Banker, the company that released the iPhone-optimized home-hunting Web site, announced recently its new Web sites designed specifically for BlackBerry and other smartphone users.

BlackBerry owners can just go to … Read more

Internet-scale 'man in the middle' attack disclosed

Correction at 3:15 p.m. PDT: This post initially misstated the meaning in this context of ASN. It stands for Autonomous System Notation.

In Black Hat's October Webinar on Thursday, Anton Kapela, datacenter manager at 5Nines Data, spoke about Internet-scale "man in the middle" attacks.

The talk reprised a last-minute substitution presentation he gave along with Alexander Pilosov at this year's Defcon conference in August. During the conference, the two researchers intercepted all conference Internet traffic at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas and ran it through their servers. According to Black Hat founder and … Read more

Rumor: New touch-screen BlackBerrys on the way

Research In Motion's latest phone, the BlackBerry Storm, is only about a week old, and the blogosphere is already churning up the next set of BlackBerry rumors.

First on the list, The Boy Genius blog reported Friday that RIM is preparing a 3G GSM version of the touch-screen BlackBerry Storm. Currently, the Storm, which was released last week for Verizon Wireless' network, only works on CDMA-based 3G, or third-generation, networks.

But now, The Boy Genius is reporting that RIM is making an HSDPA version of the phone, which means that it could operate on AT&T in the … Read more

Face-off: All-in-one mobile messengers

Article updated 10/17/08 at 8:45 am PT to include more services.

Like most of you, I prefer to instant message with friends on all my networks for free. However, in a time when the instant-messaging applications preloaded on mobile phones are more about dividing and conquering than coming together, three IM-only add-on programs make a strong case for shelling out a few dollars. Stick around to read up on totally free chatting with two apps primarily targeted to VoIP users--Fring and EQO. In the meantime, we'll check out Mundu IM, BeejiveIM, and IM+ All-in-One-Messenger, all … Read more

Pageonce productivity app coming to BlackBerry

Updated 10/20/08 with a product download link.

I just demoed the prerelease version of Pageonce for BlackBerry, an app that will help track your personal finance and other online accounts.

For those of you unfamiliar with the product of which I speak, Pageonce (covered here and here) is a one stop shop for accessing all your online accounts from your mobile phone (as of today that's just the iPhone).

You sign up for an account online and begin filing the details for any number of personal accounts. There are templates you can choose by category, such as … Read more

T-Mobile releases three new colors for BlackBerry Pearl 8120

It's officially fall. The leaves are changing colors, and apparently, so are the colors of smartphones. Just one day after Sprint announced two new colors for the Palm Centro, T-Mobile introduced three fresh hues for the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120.

Available immediately, you can now get the Pearl in emerald black, indigo, or frost, in addition to the current titanium offering. All versions will cost $149.99 with a 2-year contract and will include integrated Wi-Fi, a 2-megapixel camera with video recording, instant-messaging clients, and a microSD expansion slot. To learn more about the smartphone, please read our full … Read more

Orange UK halts BlackBerry Bold sales

Orange UK has temporarily stopped selling Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold while it tries to figure out a solution to unspecified 3G-related problems on the handset.

The operator halted sales of the popular handset on Friday. According to a spokesperson, sales will resume when a software fix becomes available, though no date was given.

"Orange UK is committed to providing the BlackBerry Bold to its customers in the U.K.; however, Orange UK and (BlackBerry manufacturer) RIM are currently working on providing a maintenance release of software to address some reported 3G-related concerns," a statement from Orange … Read more

T-Mobile RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 now available

It's been quite a year for Research in Motion. In 2008, the company has unveiled its premiere touch-screen BlackBerry, the RIM BlackBerry Storm, as well as its first clamshell model, the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. While it didn't draw quite the oohs and ahhs of the Storm or the BlackBerry Bold, there are still plenty people of who really like the flip-phone design. In fact, according to RIM, about 70 percent of the cell phone-owning population in the United States have clamshell phones, which is why the company wanted to provide this option to customers and now … Read more

Yahoo OneSearch 2.0 slowly spreads voice search

Updated on 10/10/08 at 11:35 a.m. PST with more details about beginning a voice search on Nokia devices.

Voice-responsive search has been available from Yahoo's OneSearch 2.0 application for select BlackBerry phones since this last April, but until this week only a few of you could to try it out.

On Thursday, Yahoo slipped voice recognition into the OneSearch 2.0 home-screen shortcut--available for a smattering of Nokia Series 60 phones--and in the Yahoo! Go 3.0 files for select BlackBerry, Nokia Series 40, and Nokia Series 60 models, such as the … Read more