Webware

Research In Motion's BlackBerry browser isn't poised to match Safari on Apple's iPhone, a glaring problem as the smartphone maker attempts to compete in the mobile-browser market. But RIM appears to be addressing this issue with its latest acquisition.

Torch Mobile, a WebKit developer that offers the Iris mobile browser, announced Monday that it has been acquired by RIM for an undisclosed sum.

"Our team of developers will join RIM's global organization and will now be focused on utilizing our WebKit-based mobile browser expertise to contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the BlackBerry platform," Torch Mobile wrote in a statement on the company's Web site.

RIM's decision to acquire Torch Mobile might be a smart one for the company. WebKit has become the (unofficial) standard in the smartphone market, providing users with a superior browsing experience than what is currently offered on BlackBerry smartphones. It's widely considered to be fast and robust. Most importantly, it's open source.

Several RIM competitors, including the iPhone, Palm's Pre, Symbian S60 phones, and Android-based devices use WebKit to power their respective browsers. RIM ostensibly felt that it needed to level the playing field.

Earlier this month, market analyst at TD Securities, Chris Umiastowski, said that RIM representatives are promising a BlackBerry browser on-par with the iPhone's browser by the summer of 2010. That news was followed by a report from the Boy Genius Report claiming RIM will integrate Flash and Silverlight support into the BlackBerry browser.

Torch Mobile might be the first step towards achieving that goal.

RIM did not announce its plans for Torch Mobile or its browser. Terms of the deal were also undisclosed. But at this point, it seems that the question of if RIM will release a WebKit-based browser needs to be replaced by a question of when it will be offered in BlackBerry devices.

Finally, a polished Web gateway to the BlackBerry App World.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

No matter how much you enjoy perusing BlackBerry apps with your device in-hand, it's a likely bet you'd rather browse on the big screen when you're sitting in front of your computer. RIM, following Apple's iTunes App Store model, has created an online "Web store" for its applications.

Launched on Tuesday, the online version of RIM's BlackBerry App World mirrors the software catalog found in the mobile app, plus a few extras.

There's a spotlight on featured items, a search bar, and the ability to browse by category. You see pricing information and minimum requirements, star ratings, and can access user comments. A large carousel shows screenshots of the app, and there's a list of hyperlinked icons that you can use to virally share information about the app with e-mail contacts or with your social networks.

You can now start the installation process from the computer.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Most notable of all (and also reminiscent of the iPhone's App Store), you're able to kick-start the application download process from RIM's online App World. At least in theory. The reality is, unfortunately, a tad less sensible.

First, it's not as easy as hooking up your device to the computer--there's no payment process from the Web site, and no direct file transfer to the phone. Here, you'll e-mail yourself a link. Follow it from the BlackBerry, and it opens up the BlackBerry browser, where you'll click yet another link to download the record in the BlackBerry App World app. It's a clumsy process, and you'll only be able to take advantage of it if the BlackBerry browser is the set default. (Check this by choosing Options from the Browser menu-->Browser Configuration-->Browser Identification.)

Click the e-mailed URL to get to this intermediary download page.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

I'll admit, I was a bit underwhelmed by the BlackBerry App World when it first emerged on the scene. While this online storefront doesn't materially change things, the option to search online adds a layer of richness to the offering and to the experience. For those with high-speed Internet and low-speed data connections for the phone, finding and comparing apps online will speed up the process.

Although polished and easy to use, there's room to grow. It would be better if RIM's online storefront integrated your payment account and downloaded files to the phone--just like iTunes for the iPhone. The download process should also be streamlined. In addition to screenshots, BlackBerry's online app store could support publisher's videos, which would take users on a more accurate and in-depth tour of the app. Regardless, the Web catalog is a strong start, and a welcome addition to BlackBerry's universe.

The BlackBerry App World application runs on BlackBerry phones with version 4.2.1 of the operating system, or higher.

The latest version of Facebook for BlackBerry released earlier this week with a handful of practical, if not flashy, feature enhancements to partially merge your Facebook profile pictures with your BlackBerry address book, and to add your Facebook events to your native BlackBerry calendar.

Turns out, many users experienced calendar screw-ups that caused Facebook's calendar to cannibalize the native one. In addition, the contact-syncing feature, while handy, irritatingly was sending a phone number request to those Facebook buddies you have manually associated with a BlackBerry contact. For the record, the calendar syncing issue didn't affect our Curves tied into a corporate policy.

RIM has been quick to reissue the app with fixes. The calendar feature should play nicer with merging now if you're installing Facebook for BlackBerry fresh, but those whose calendars have already been thrown out of whack will need to manually reset it using the BlackBerry's advanced options (Default Services-->Reset Calendar.)

In the meantime, take a look at the app's new features in our First Look video. Despite the initial hiccups, we recommend the update for existing Facebook for BlackBerry users, as well as for new BlackBerry owners.

(Source: CrackBerry)

(Credit: Screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET)

Delivering on its promise, Google released a new mobile application on Wednesday that brings its Voice Search feature to BlackBerrys, much like it did for the iPhone and Android-based T-Mobile G1.

The Google Mobile App is available now as a free download and allows you to conduct searches with the sound of your voice. To do so, you simply hold down the Talk button on your BlackBerry and then speak your search term into the phone. Brits, you'll also be happy to hear that the app now supports British English accents.

Perhaps even more powerful, the app also includes support for Google's My Locations feature, which brings up search results based on your location as determined by your BlackBerry's GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular triangulation.

Other enhancements include shortcuts to several Google services, such as Gmail, Maps, News, and Reader. To get Google Mobile App on your BlackBerry, you can point your phone's browser to http://m.google.com or enter your mobile number here. Be aware that the app requires you have to have BlackBerry OS 4.1 or higher and BlackBerry OS 4.2 or higher for Voice Search.

(Sources: Google Mobile Blog, Information Week)

BlackBerry's cleaner, better-organized mobile Web site.

(Credit: RIM)

On Tuesday, Toronto-based RIM relaunched its mobile-optimized Web site, mobile.blackberry.com. The result is a crisper, livelier look that has an accelerated loading time and rearranged categories of information.

Top of the list is a search box (BlackBerry Answers), followed by links, the Help menu, and categories that promote several BlackBerry applications. Previously, category headings included applications and mobile sites, which you had to click on to find news, sports, weather, and so on. The new layout should cut down on clicks.

BlackBerry's optimized mobile site loads faster thanks to a, adjusted back-end solution that loads graphics optimized for the resolution of your phone model's screen. Also, while the new site contains more graphics, each is smaller and consequently faster to load.

BlackBerry's re-engineered mobile site fits into RIM's current drive to make the company and its smartphones sleeker, hipper, and more appealing to casual users. Yet it's still less convenient than a native help center application or marketplace, like the forthcoming BlackBerry Application Storefront set to launch in March 2009.

See also: MySpace application for BlackBerry: Is RIM getting hip?

You won't be able to turn people into zombies with Facebook for BlackBerry (quick link), but you will be able to perform the essential Facebook maneuvers to keep up with your friends. Since launching in late October 2007, the wildly popular app has topped 1,000,000 downloads. With intuitive actions and a familiar look and feel that mimics the online site, it's easily a must-have BlackBerry app.

Be forewarned that the application doesn't scrimp on profile photos, so data transfers can sometimes limp along. Have patience. Also, since Facebook for BlackBerry's functionality is currently limited to proprietary apps, you'll have to learn to live without those third-party diversions that have given Facebook renewed soul. However, what you lose from Scrabulous deprivation, you partially regain by being able to tag and upload photos from your phone to your profile.

>>See all First Look videos.

P.S. Does this video seem familiar? It's not deja vu, we just really like this app. This version corrects errors in which carriers the app supports and how users can get started with Facebook for BlackBerry--to save you some search time, we've made it easy with this link.

Apple has finally granted the wish of business users who have craved the coolness of the iPhone but couldn't live without their push work e-mail.

Until now, iPhone users who wanted to get e-mail on their iPhones had to jump through a series of technical hoops. And as a result, a lot of business users, who would have otherwise bought the iPhone right away, have stood on the sidelines with their BlackBerrys or Windows Mobile phones drooling at the iPhone.

But now these business users will be able to get their work e-mail on an iPhone just as easily as they can on a Windows mobile phone or a BlackBerry. On Thursday, Apple announced at an event at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., that Apple has licensed the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol, which will make it much easier to do push e-mail and contacts with Exchange servers.

Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, demonstrated on stage how to activate and set up the Exchange function on an iPhone. The entire set up can be done over the air allowing e-mail, contacts, and calendar information to be automatically pushed to a device.

roundup
The iPhone opens up for business

Click here for complete coverage of Apple's iPhone SDK announcements, which give the hot-shot gadget its entree into Corporate America and even the gaming world.

The announcement is a huge deal for Apple, because it eliminates one of the barriers the company faced in addressing the business market. It also made the iPhone more appealing to a group known as prosumers, people who buy their own cell phones for personal use, but also access some business applications, such as corporate e-mail, on their phones.

Right now, Research in Motion dominates the business smartphone market with over two-thirds of its 12 million customers coming from businesses and government. Large businesses bought in early to RIM's push e-mail system, which requires large companies to have all their e-mail routed through RIM's own servers. For the most part, RIM's BlackBerry e-mail service has been a huge success. But there are signs that the company's dominance could be vulnerable. In the past six months RIM has experienced at least two major outages where e-mails were not forwarding to BlackBerry devices in a timely manner.

Blackberry's co-CEO Jim Balsillie said a day after the last outage that he wasn't too worried about the outage affecting its relationship with business customers. But as Apple makes it easier for corporate customers to get e-mail on the iPhone, he may reconsider.

SAN FRANCISCO--BlackBerry's users, often referred to as "CrackBerry" addicts, will now have easy access to the popular social-networking site Facebook.

The two companies, which have been working in secret for the past six months, announced Wednesday that they have integrated the Facebook Web application with Research In Motion's Blackerry smartphones.

Mike Lazaridis, founder of RIM, joined Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook, to formally unveil and demonstrate Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show here.

T-Mobile USA will be the first mobile operator to provide the software application to subscribers, the companies said. The application, which will come preloaded onto all T-Mobile BlackBerry smartphones, will be free.

"By integrating Blackberry's push technology with Facebook's networking technology provides a real-time social-networking experience away from the desktop," Lazaridis said.

Lazaridis demonstrated how easily pictures could be sent to a Facebook page from a BlackBerry Curve. Without even opening the application, a BlackBerry user can take a picture and instead of e-mailing or sending the photo by MMS to a friend, he can go directly to his Facebook mobile page, add captions and even tag the photo. Then with the click of a single button, the picture is uploaded to the Facebook page where anyone can see it.

Friends who are also using the integrated BlackBerry/Facebook application can be notified immediately that a new picture has been added. These alerts can even be customized with unique tones so that BlackBerry users know who has just messaged them. The application is also integrated into BlackBerry's address book, so that BlackBerry users can invite contacts to become Facebook "friends."

It makes sense for Facebook to work with device makers to integrate its application into more phones. As a new smartphone user, I've noticed that it can be a real pain in the neck to access Web applications I access all the time on my desktop.

It's also very telling that the young Facebook, which was started by a couple of college kids, is partnering with a company that got its start catering to the stodgy world of Wall Street bankers, government middle managers, and corporate lawyers. Even seeing the founders of the company on stage together was a symbolic look at where the future of the Internet and mobile industry are going. Moskovitz, who quipped when he came on stage that he was drinking Red Bull and eating Hot Pockets four years ago in a dorm room at Harvard, looked like he could easily be Lazaridis' son or dare I say even grandson.

Indeed, Facebook is not just for students anymore. A year after the company started letting anyone join the network, Moskovitz said that more than half of the nearly 50 million registered users of Facebook are not in college or high school. When he asked the packed hall in San Francisco's Moscone Center how many people had a Facebook profile, nearly every hand in the room went up.

"It's really exciting to see the business community using this communications platform," he said. "Opening the application to more users and developers is really the cornerstone of our growth."

But RIM is also trying to expand its market with new products geared toward more casual users. The BlackBerry Pearl has been dubbed a perfect phone for "soccer moms" who need to check e-mail on the go. And the BlackBerry Curve, which is loaded with multimedia functionality to rival Motorola's Q, the Samsung Blackjack, and other "lifestyle" smartphones, is also geared more to the mass market than the hardcore business user. While the Curve is no Apple iPhone, it certainly shows where the market is headed. The Facebook application is another indication that BlackBerry is trying to hit professionals who want to meld their work lives with their professional lives.