Good news for BlackBerry Travel users out there, as today the app was updated to v1.1.45.99. No real change log was given, though the most notable addition seems to be support in Austria, Brazil, Germany and Italy which is awesome! BlackBerry Travel makes it easy to plan, book, manage, and share your travel activities, so if you haven't checked it out yet, you should.
RIM has been making its rounds across some of the BlackBerry apps they control. This time around, BlackBerry Travel has received the update treatment pushing it to v1.1.42.99. While most of the listed change log was there previously, keen eyes will now notice the app has support for the upcoming BlackBerry 7 OS that will be loaded on upcoming devices:
Upgrades since V1.0:
You can find the update in BlackBerry App World right now, if you're not seeing it -- refresh App World or install it directly from the BlackBerry App World webstore. Thanks, @dwdsquared2!
When you are a BlackBerry user and you travel; be it often or just simply on random occassions, I have never come across a better application then Worldmate. Personally, I use it on my BlackBerry and when I had an iPhone I also had it installed there as well. The latest news from Worldmate is that they have updated to version 4.0. This update, brings a lot to the table in terms of how exactly Worldmate function and how it can better assist you in your travels. A new service addition has been added to Worldmate:
WorldMate introduces TripCatch to their BlackBerry application, an opt-in service that monitors a user's BlackBerry inbox for travel confirmation emails and then automatically imports them into their WorldMate account. Skipping the manual step for users, TripCatch grabs confirmation for flights, hotels, rental cars and more, generating detailed trip itineraries. Ensuring privacy, TripCatch is certified with the Privacy Seal from TRUSTe so the only information accessed is explicitly allowed by the user.
With TripCatch automation, confirmation emails for flights, hotels, rental cars and more generate detailed trip itineraries. The WorldMate service also includes flight alerts, calendar synchronization, and itinerary integration with mapping, navigation and LinkedIn contacts. Using TripCatch bypasses the old method of adding items to you itinerary wherein you had to forward all conformation emails to a specific email address before they would be added. TripCatch is an opt in service as well, so if you try it out and do not like you you may opt out at any time.
If you follow the stock market and/or the press surrounding smartphones (or visit the CrackBerry forums for that matter), you won't be surprised to hear that as of late it seems RIM has been taking more than its fair share of a beating. The stock is down, even the loyalist of users are getting a bit antsy wanting an updated/new OS, more apps and new spec-rich hardware, and potential BlackBerry buyers have more competition to look at than ever. While RIM's market share and user base speak to their success of the past, much of the discussion taking place currently is directed toward the future and what RIM should be doing to make sure they remain a top player in the smartphone game.
Normally when you read rants or articles giving this kind of advice, they come from end consumers, analysts or bloggers like me, which is fine... but I find it very compelling and telling when it comes from somebody like Nadav Gur, who is the founder of WorldMate. Over the weekend Nadav posted to his blog an article entitled How BlackBerry Can Get Fresh Again, which outlines his thoughts on this whole discussion. Give a it read below and be sure to post a comment with your own thoughts. Agree with his thesis? Disagree? Sound off!!
This year RIM had over 100 sponsors participating in the Solution Showcase at WES 2010. With the CrackBerry.tv camera out in full force at the event we figured it only made sense to hit the show floor and give those sponsors a chance to get even more bang out of their buck by having the opportunity to talk to CrackBerry Nation.
One of the things I've realized over the years is that even though we tend to put a consumer-focus on the CrackBerry site and day to day editorial, we have a TON of visitors from the business/enterprise space who check in with the site daily to keep on top of the news (they just don't leave comments at quite the same pace!). So for this series of posts (we split the tour up into five parts) the focus is more heavy on enterprise, but with some consumer stuff mixed in too.
Part I has us talking to the folks from BoxTone, Tether, WorldMate, and Bayalink. Check out the video for a quick overview of each of these companies and their offerings and be sure to visiit their sites to learn more.
WorldMate has announced today that they have partnered up with American Express Business Travel. This will allow American Express Business Travel users to have better service on the go with the well established WorldMate application. The program is currently rolling out to some clients and will be fully available later this year. Hit the jump for the full release.
Press Release
Orlando, FL, WES 2010, April 27, 2010 - WorldMate today announced its collaboration with American Express Business Travel, a leading global travel management company, to add WorldMate's mobile technology to their overall mobile platform for clients. WorldMate's premium services will broaden American Express Business Travel's current mobile offering and be available to its customers using BlackBerry® smartphones.
Our next prize in the CrackBerry Turns 3 Years Old Birthday series of contests is sponsored by the good folks at WorldMate, who have provided us with 5 1-year subscriptions of WorldMate Gold to give away. If you're not familiar with WorldMate, it really is the ultimate must-have travel app for the BlackBerry frequent flier. And the subscription to the Gold service provides some value-added features like flight alerts, flight status, flight schedules and travel directory. Be sure to jump over to worldmate.com for lots more info.
For your chance to win a 1-year subscription to WorldMate Gold, just leave a single comment to this blog post. Contest entry closes this Sunday, March 7th at midnight PST. Good luck!
Last week was a huge week for contests. I didn't even realize there were so many, but the more the merrier. We had some huge giveaways from Schlage and Worldmate, as well as some free Slacker Radio and Gym Technik subscriptions. We threw in some great apps to round out the fun, and walk away with a ton of happy winners. Hit the jump for the full list of winners.
*Also need to give a special thanks to the guys at SmrtCase - we had a mixup on our original contest, and they ended up shipping out twice as many cases to make up for our mistake. Thanks guys! *
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Wow. Seriously. This is insane. Yet another CrackBerry.com Podcast, right on our bi-weekly schedule? You bet! Maybe there's hope we keep the streak alive afterall. We got on the CrackBerry Radio line at 11am today, just two hours after getting our hands on the new Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphones client. Craig, Adam, Bla1ze and myself of course talked about that and a whole bunch of other good stuff this show. Lots of apps, like Worldmate and Craiglist, lots of fun stuff - like Jeopardy's frack up last week, and some other goodies as well.
Be sure to drop us a comment in the blogs here and if you haven't yet, subscribe to us in iTunes and leave us a nice rating and review (even if you don't use iTunes - you know we'll appreciate it). We should have some special MWC footage coming next week, and we'll be back with a regularly-scheduled CrackBerry Podcast in two weeks! Take a listen and enjoy the show!
WorldMate has long been know as the "go-to" app for travelers. With flight alerts, hotel info, itinerary tracking, weather and more, WorldMate stands above the rest. Today they have added another weapon to their arsenal by announcing integration with the popular business network LinkedIn. The new partnership allows WorldMate users to share travel and meeting itineraries, notify contacts when arriving in destination cities, search contacts by city and more.
"This WorldMate integration is a perfect synchronization of our two companies' strengths and goals," said Adam Nash, Vice President of Search & Platform Products at LinkedIn. "LinkedIn's mission is to connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. The Worldmate integration extends our mission by allowing members to access their professional networks when they're on-the-go. WorldMate has taken an innovative approach to our APIs, extending and tying together the LinkedIn experience to both web and mobile."
This makes WorldMate one of the first companies to incorporate with LinkedIn and offer enhanced features. The new tools will definitely keep WorldMate at the top of it's game, and give users multiple options for better staying in touch with business contacts when traveling. The LinkedIn app is still said to be on the way, but this will help keep users in touch for the mean time. A WorldMate Gold subscription will run you $99 for the year (a free trial is available) but if you travel often it is well worth it. The new version will be pushed out to current users on February 16th. Check out the full press release after the jump.
Contest: To enter to win 1 of 4 one-year WorldMate Gold subscriptions, leave a comment on this post telling us how WorldMate helps you with your travels and/or travel planning. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries won't count. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST.
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