So we're finally done with our CES 2010 coverage. The show is long-since over and it took us a week and a half to get up on the blogs all of the content we flew away from Vegas with. In case you missed any of the news or hands-on videos, be sure to check out our CES 2010 posts and get caught up... I suggest you start with this Ed Hardy video I recorded - it was the first vid I captured at the event and despite trying my darndest, I don't think I topped it for the rest of the show.
Over the weekend I found a couple last vids on the ole HD camera from CES 2010 worth getting up here on the CrackBerry blogs, one of which is about Hallmark Mobile Greetings. You can watch the quick walkthrough above and can download the Hallmark Mobile Greetings app for BlackBerry from App World for free. Once installed, you can browse through a bunch of mobile greetings and customize and send them (only from the US right now) to your friends / colleagues / family via SMS. The receiver is prompted to install the Mobile Greetings app onto their device, and Hallmark has been good enough to provide the app for pretty much every smartphone and feature phone out there. Once the receiver installs the app and views their card, the sender is then charged 99 cents with the expense being added to their monthly phone bill by the carrier.
All in all, pretty cool. Yet another way to communicate via smartphones and I'm sure many people out there will put this to use. What do you think? Going to be sending some Hallmark Mobile Greetings in 2010??
Kodak was on hand at the BlackBerry booth CES 2010 demoing their new app for BlackBerry that allows you to print documents wirelessly from your BlackBerry. Check out the video above to see the demo. Cool stuff. Yet another thing you can do with your BlackBerry. :) Only potential downside here is that the integreation is via Documents2Go, so if you're one of those people who uninstalls it to save app space you likely won't be taking advantage of this.
Project 2010 is in full effect! We said we'd be doing our CrackBerry podcast every two weeks come the new year and we're now officially 1/1! We plan to record every second Thursday at ~11am EST. We figure this a good time - most of the week's BIG news is done, and this way you'll be able to listen on a slow Thursday afternoon or have it for the Thursday/Friday commutes. From time to time we may even record weekly, but at the least you'll be hearing some CrackBerry Radio action twice per month.
In this show we recap some of the cool stuff we saw last week in Las Vegas at CES 2010, we touch on the new Curve 8910 and I finally tell the story I tweeted about last week of how a BBM #FAIL nearly ended a 5+ year relationship for me. It's epic. The entire show clocks in at 1h18m, but it's worth the listen! Be sure to drop a comment and tell us how you liked it. One of these days we'll have a great show on our hands :)
Big thanks go to the folks at Blue for hooking me up with a new Yeti microphone. They were at ShowStoppers at CES and it turns out they were listeners of the podcast and thought I needed a better microphone and hooked me up. I pretty much just took it out of the box this morning and hooked it up and it's definitely an improvement. Once we get the settings dialed in I'll give it more of a full review. Until then, enjoy the show and we'll see you in two weeks!
While at CES I once again ran into the awesome guys at Xobni. We've seen their application in action quite a few times now, and each time they show it off it looks better and better. There aren't many apps that I've been dying to get my hands on, but Xobni is definitely one of them. The ability to manage all of your BlackBerry contacts so easily with this app is something that I think everyone needs. All of your contacts get a "profile" and you can find any person or subject with only a few clicks. Hopefully we'll see something solid in the next few months, and actually be able to play around with Xobni itself - but for now, check out the video above to see some of the cool features.
Apologies in advance for the background noise in this video -- it was loud as heck at ShowStoppers at CES 2010 -- but it's worth working through the sound pain so you can hear what Root Wireless is all about. With coverage maps all the rage in carrier commercials these days, Root Wireless is on a mission to make these maps more than lip service, by creating them off from real world user data. How do they do that? By letting users install a small Root Wireless app onto their location-aware device which runs in the background, collecting data on carrier signal strength and network data speed, and reports it back every so often to Root Wireless who compiles the info into useful data for consumers and other stakeholders (I think carriers themselves are pretty interested in what Root Wireless is up to as it can help them identify and fill in network gaps).
Be sure to watch the video above and check out rootwireless.com for more info. The service is still in beta phase, but you can register up to become a beta tester. They're looking for smartphone enthusiasts to get this app loaded and put it to good use, so let's help them out. The more users running this on their phones, the better the service will be! Cool stuff, huh?
Sick of reading blog posts and seeing videos yet about smartphone charging solutions? Apologies for that, but seriously, there was a TON of it going on at CES 2010. One of the COOLEST things going on, which I didn't get to check out in person but you can see in the video above courtesy of ohgizmo, is RCA's hotspot harvesting charger and battery pack. The devices literally leach the energy that's floating around in WiFi signals and transfer it into the charger and/or battery pack, now making it useable to recharge or power your device. Tesla would be proud. Honestly, I've never been one to freak out over all the invisible stuff that's floating around in the air, but seeing gadgets like this has me thinking the hot items we'll see at CES 2011 are tin foil hats and tin-lined underwear which protect us from the effects of this stuff. :)
[ hat tip ]
As the uptake on smartphone ownership throughout North America is growing daily, more and more companies are beginning to take advantage of mobile device ownership to improve the products they offer. A great example of this shown at CES 2010 last week was the new On Star Mobile App for use with the new Chevrolet Volt. The app not only provides detailed information of key stats going on with the car, but also allows you to interact with the vehicle itself. Cool stuff. The only thing I wish now is that every car manufacturer offered this on every new car being sold this year. I'm in the market for a new vehicle in 2010, don't want a Volt, but buying a car that doesn't report back and work with my BlackBerry just seems soooo low-tech now. Oh what to do... come on automobile industry - we need to see more of this asap!!!!
Since the BlackBerry Presenter was announced by RIM last week it has already received its fair share of coverage here on the blogs, including an in-action video. For all the hardcore Crackies out there, here's another CrackBerry video of the BlackBerry Presenter. The product manager for the BlackBerry Presenter, Ryan Bidan, gave us a live demo of it while we were on our BlackBerry booth tour at CES last week. For more info on the BlackBerry Presenter, you can check out blackberry.com/presenter.
Back in August we blogged about Thumbplay's new BlackBerry Music Store app that appeared in App World. That first app was essentially an mp3 music store for BlackBerry, and while it was a nice clean and functional application, it was really a beta for Thumbplay and actually is no longer in App World. However, at CES 2010 last week Thumbplay unveiled the BlackBerry Private Beta for their new Unlimited Music App, which to me looks like a pretty compelling offer for music lovers. Be sure to check out the video above for a walk-through demo and the official press release below.
Essentially, for $9.99/month, you'll gain access on both your computer and smartphone to Thumbplay's massive database (millions of songs & growing). You don't "own" the songs, but can create your own playlists and stream whatever you want to listen to whenever you want to. You can also take advantage of autoplaylists, or if you want to own a particular song you can buy it at anytime directly. Be sure to check out the full details below - there's wireless syncing of playlists and a number of other features.
The official release should be soon, but if you want to try and get in early you can apply for the private beta at music.thumbplay.com. I'm always surprised at how many similar yet different models of streaming music are now available out there. I think this is one of the pricier of the bunch (Rhapsody is more at $14.99/mo), but also seems to be one of the most complete in terms of what you get - basically every song you can possibly want to listen to, on demand. Not bad! So what do you think? Sound off in the comments!
Remember Unify4Life? We've been talking about them on the CrackBerry blogs for a while now, going back to their initial launch at WES 2008 where they unveiled the "BlackBerry Remote" that allowed you to control your home entertainment system wirelessly from your BlackBerry. They added follow-up products, like the the "BlackBerry Garage Door Opener" to the mix as well but never really seemed to come out of beta phase and hit the market in a big way... that is until now. Last week at CES we gained understanding of what's going on. Unify4Life is now working with Audiovox and is bringing all of the products to market under their Acoustic Research division under the brand Zentral Home Command. Watch the video above for a first-hand look and you can check out the official press release below.
Ok ok... so the number of companies starting to offer wireless charging solutions for smartphones is growing (it's already becoming a little overwhelming to be honest) but after leaving CES 2010 in my opinion it's the folks at PowerMat that are leading the charge. Their original 2009 PowerMat solution was already compelling and sold over 700,000 units in no time, but it's their upcoming PowerPak system that is going to blow the doors off the wireless charging market for smartphones.
Check out the video above. With their new PowerPak for BlackBerry (also to be available for a bunch of other manufacturers and devices), the standard OEM battery door remains on the device. Instead, they're replacing the manufacturer's battery with one of their own that has the magical inductive charging technology built into it. Seriously. This is something I've been hoping RIM would do (like Palm does with their Touchstone), but PowerMat is doing it now. Well, not quite now... it'll be available in June, but they had the pre-release stuff at the show working just fine by the looks of it. What I love about this solution is that it doesn't exclude existing accessories, like the bedside charging pod or cases and skins from being used, as the battery door does not change. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Can you tell I'm excited? Like seriously. Wicked. Need it NOW.
While attending CES 2010 we took the time to get an up close and personal look at the new Slacker 3.0. Many new changes have come to Slacker Radio with the latest version, as you can see from the video above, 3.0 includes a revamped interface, better caching implementation as it can now be done wirelessly and has also laid claim to better overall battery life while using the updated release.
We are also glad to say now that the new Slacker will be arriving in Canada as early as this week (so we were told). Yes, you read that right - Slacker will be available in Canada (finally!) with the 3.0 release.
The only word of a release date announcement at CES was that Slacker 3.0 is coming as soon as Wednesday or Thursday for Canada, and it should be another week or two before it hits the US.
Canadian users will get a 30 free trial with premium accounts starting at $4.99 a month or $3.99/month USD for a full year paid up subscription. Also, there will be a 14 day trial on caching for the US version on 3.0, but you will need to upgrade to a premium account to keep that feature active. Check out some screenshots after the jump.
[ Video Court. Of @nanpalmero / BBCool ]
While walking through the BlackBerry booth at CES 2010 a short while ago I ran into the folks from Allerta. That's the start-up company out of Waterloo, Canada, that are working on the inPulse Smartwatch for BlackBerry Smartphones, or "BlackBerry Watch" as everybody undoubtedly refers to it as. The watch is still in development and they left their working prototypes back at home, but I tried on the shell quick to get a feel for it. Suffice to say, it looks and feels better than I expected. It's big, but not too big, and it's kind of funky. It fits with the look of today's sort of fashion watches. If it came with interchangeable straps or in a full metal strap version that could be pretty sweet. I'll be eager to get my hands on the real deal when they have it ready and put it through its paces. There's lots more to say but gotta keep this post short as I'm late for a meeting... stay tuned for more!
MogoTalk has been available for the iPhone for a little while now and last night at ShowStoppers at CES 2010 they were showing off some pre-release versions of their MogoTalk accessory coming to BlackBerry Smartphones. MogoTalk offers a pretty elegant solution to an annoying problem - carrying around a bluetooth headset and ensuring it's actually charged. MogoTalk offers a case that surrounds your BlackBerry, offering protection, and on the back actually houses a bluetooth headset. On MogoTalk for BlackBerry, the cases feature a charging port that allow you to charge both your device and your headset at the same time. So with MogoTalk, you'll always have your bluetooth headset with you and always have it charged and ready to be put to use. Not a bad concept at all.
You can follow mogotalk.com for more information. Right now they're looking at a Q2 release. We'll be sure to review it as they hit the market to see how well it performs in everyday life. Definitely a unique and useful concept for those who use a bluetooth headset regularly.
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