During my weekend trip to Singapore, I (mostly) involuntarily found myself in the midst of many Blackberry VS iPhone debates. The iPhone of course is better, but it was entertaining to hear Blackberry owners attempt to argue how the Blackberry was superior for things like business and data input while the iPhone was mostly just a glorified games machine…

One thing that Blackberry users wished they had was more emoticons for messaging applications such as Whatsapp (which has only recently become available on Blackberry). Thinking about what to blog about, I stumbled across this best seller in our Mobile Software store that addresses this problem – Fancy Characters for Blackberry. With this application on your Blackberry, you’ll no longer be envious of iPhoners and their emoticons; you’ll be able to pimp up your messages like theirs, finally!

Try if for FREE – Fancy Characters for Blackberry.

Features of Fancy Characters for Blackberry:

• Integrates to any application
• Several categorized tabs for easy characters access
• 250+ Colored Smiles (BBM5)
• 200+ Country Flags support (BBM5)

via Fancy Characters – BlackBerry Apps.

Anyone with kids knows what a nightmare family travel can be. Checking in, finding something for the kids to eat, keep them entertained and then there’s also the arduous task of making sure that the house is in order before you leave. By the time you hit the boarding gates, stress levels can be an all time high and parents most likely at each other’s throats.

In the YouTube video below, Apple demonstrates how each of the aforementioned flight chores can be solved easily by an iPhone app. I particularly liked the ability to control your lighting remotely

I’m writing this as a prompt to download these programs before my next family holiday…

YouTube – Family Travel – iPhone ad.

With SBSH Calendar you can turn your Smartphone into a powerful time management system. Enjoy innovative and compelling tools far beyond the default S60 Smartphone tools that will help you manage your busy schedule. Advanced calendar views, dedicated tasks manager, filters, powerful recurring items engine, category coloring and icons and much more!

Try it for FREE today – SBSH Calendar Download Page

NEW RELEASE! – SBSH Calendar 1.5 is here! Among the new features with this new update you will find: overhauled design, new empowered engine that brings great speed improvement, filters engine, new category icons, optimized landscape monthly view, OS scrollbars and more!

Features of SBSH Calendar 1.5 for Nokia /Symbian:

Daily View

• Today’s events all on your screen
• Joint display for both appointments and tasks
• Use Themed Layout Mode for a fully integrated display with your current theme
• Optionally use single-line layout or multi-line layout for optimized display on landscape screens
• View alarm, private, note and recurring status icons for each of your items
• View category icons and leading rectangles for each item according to the selected categories
• Customize text size, color based on item’s characters, item display layout and more!

List View

• List style display offering seven day look ahead display with maximum details, icons and category colors
• Joint display for both appointments and tasks
• Showing single line of each item’s subject for more information display
• Quickly scroll backward and forward between weeks by moving the joystick left and right. Scroll up and down to navigate between items in the list
• See status icons, category icons and coloring for each of your agenda items
• Easily create new appointments and tasks based the currently selected date in the List View

Grid View

• Full week grid display with one line subjects. Fitting a full week worth of agenda in a single screen, giving a great preview for your week’s agenda
• Joint display for both appointments and tasks
• Daily header showing item counters and timeline for the currently highlighted day
• Colors indicating items defined as special event categories and weekends
• Configure smaller font size for more data display packed in one screen
• Leading rectangles for each appointment based on the appointment category color
• Scroll through days and weeks using your smartphone joy-pad
• Create new appointments and tasks on the current selected date on the grid view

Monthly View

• Full month worth of agenda displayed in one screen!
• Optimized display that brings maximum information to your smartphone limited screen real estate
• 20 hour timelines with category colors showing your appointments for each day!
• Category icons on each day rectangle on the monthly view
• All day and anniversary indicator icons
• Optionally include Quick View pane that shows the current day’s activities
• Quick View pane is placed at the bottom of the screen when used in portrait screens or at the right side when used in landscape screens
• Click any day to quickly load the selected day at the Daily view

Tasks View

• Full task manager solution. Manager all of your tasks in one view using advanced tools designed especially for professional task management!
• Group tasks by category, completion and more. Define up to two sort levels for your tasks display
• Easily create new or complete/activate and edit your existing tasks from the Tasks view
• View status icons, category icons and priority icons for each task in the list
• Optionally include bottom preview pane displaying more details about the currently highlighted task when scrolling through your tasks list

Categories and Filters

• Assign categories to your appointments and tasks. You can also assign multiple categories to each item
• Define icons to each of your categories. These icons are then displayed across the different SBSH Calendar views to indicate the categories associated with each item
• Similar to icons, you can associate a single color with each of your categories. Category colors are used across Calendar views to indicate items’ categories
• SBSH Calendar provides a powerful filters engine. Create your own filters were each filter can include one or more categories. Select any of your custom filters to display only items associated with the same categories included in this specific filter
• Rename filters to match your own needs, such as project names, personal life related filters and more!

Powerful Calendar Tool

• Behind the great design and colored icons, SBSH Calendar offers the most powerful personal information manager up-to-date for the professional user
• Powerful recurrence engine that helps you manage and create recurring appointments of any type!
• Google Categories support when syncing with Google Calendar
• Full robust task manager built-in as part of the same solution!
• SBSH Calendar is designed to fulfill all time management needs of the busy professional!

Tailored for S60 devices

• Full-Screen mode that brings more information to your device screen
• Support all available S60 3rd edition devices resolutions and orientation screens
• Optimized views display for use in both portrait and landscape screens

via SBSH Calendar Download Page

KBLauncher is an application launcher and switcher. It lets you very quickly run any of your dozens of commands by typing the beginning of its name. In short, it is a command line for your BlackBerry.

Like many BlackBerry users, you are good at typing. Your keyboard kung fu leaves onlookers in awe. Your fingers are a blur of motion. But when it’s time run one of your many great apps on your BlackBerry, you have to scroll painfully through countless icons with your trackball. You know exactly what you want: why do you have to waste all this time? Now you don’t. Just configure one of your convenience keys to start KBLauncher, and your apps will always be just a few keystrokes away.

Behind the deceptively simple user interface is a sophisticated application detection engine. With no effort on your part, KBLauncher will detect both installed and running applications on your phone. You can seamlessly run installed applications, switch to running applications or execute special commands by typing the first few letters (or even one letter) of the command. When your command is up, just hit Enter. KBLauncher will adapt to your usage pattern and offer your most recently used commands first.

I encourage you to take advantage of the 7 day FREE trial to see if KBLauncher is for you. You may never look at your icons list the same way again.

New in version 1.1:

• Better font sizes for high resolution screens
• Configurable fonts and colors
• Power search: hold down your shift key to match the first letter of each word. For example, type Shift-BAW to match “BlackBerry App World”.
• Ensure apps launch in the foreground

Features of KBLauncher for Blackberry:

• Fast command access
• No setup. KBLauncher automatically detects installed and running apps
• KBLauncher learns from your usage by prioritizing your recently used commands
• Works on SureType keyboard layouts (Pearl, Pearl Flip, Storm)
• Cool transparent window effects
• Run commands not normally available on your Home screen: WiFi toggle, memory cleaner
• Low memory requirements: tiny install footprint!

Minimum Requirements of KBLauncher:

• OS 4.2.2 and newer

via KBLauncher – Personal Productivity BlackBerry Apps.

I was browsing our Blackberry Software Store today and came across this awesome theme for the Blackberry – !Reflect7 Carbon. Not only does it look great with it’s custom icons set before a black background but its also very functional too with Options, Applications Folder and Clickable Clock readily available.

If you really want to differentiate yourself from the pack and be even more effective with your Blackberry, you need to check it out.

*Clean, Simple, Useful*

Clean and simply designed theme with many hidden features – a much more enticing interface than the standard BlackBerry.

Reviews on the !Reflect7 Carbon Blackberry Theme:

Hi

Fantastic is how I would describe this Theme. Works great on my Storm as advertisied! Really satisfied!!!!

Pointnino

I really liked this Theme. Anyone that’s intested in this should also know that my experience with their Tech Support was 5-stars as well. My two quiestions were answered within 24 hours with detailed responses. I installed it on a Sprint 8330, and there are a few things that will work slightly differently then you’re used to, but overall, it’s great and is exactly as stated in the specifications. Great job AG Designs & Graphics.

Mick Dutcher

This is an excellent theme. I purchased it for my BlackBerry Curve (8330) and immediately found it appealing to the eye and user friendly. I like the extra home screen location for the weather (or an additional app if you prefer) and find the menus and font to be very well-designed and easy to read. In addition, I would like to extend compliments for their customer service. I encountered problems with the menu screens on applications which are not compatible with transparent menus. I contacted the developer about this problem and within two weeks they had released an updated version which was compatible with all applications on my BB. Overall, I give it 5 stars based on appearance, performance, and customer service. I don’t often take the time to rate applications and almost never give 5 stars, so it is unusual for me to rank an application or theme this highly. Thanks for a great theme and for great support!

via !Reflect7 Carbon – Themes BlackBerry Apps.

ABBYY Business Card Reader is a handy application for Nokia smartphones which allows users to quickly and easily capture contact information from business cards and add it to the mobile address book together with contacts’ photos. The ABBYY Business Card Reader helps save time and effort by eliminated the need to manually type in names, phones and other key info. The application will be of great use and value to business professionals and anyone who communicates a lot.

Try it for FREE today! – ABBYY Business Card Reader for S60

Features of ABBYY Business Card Reader [Nokia/Symbian]:

• Fast and easy way to add new contacts. All contact information from a business card can be captured in three simple steps
• High quality of data capture and processing. The application uses ABBYY’s award-winning OCR technology, which quickly and accurately “reads” printed text on images captured with a mobile camera
• Automatic detection of different data types on business cards. The application intelligently locates different types of contact information on a business card, such as Name, Company/Organization, Job Title, Telephone Numbers (Office, Mobile, Fax), E-mail, and Web site
• Ability to add photo to a contact without quitting the application.
• Easy-to-use intuitive interface allows you to start using the application right away.
• No additional equipment required. All you need is a mobile device with a built-in camera.
• Recognizes business cards in 16 languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian.

Minimum Requirements of ABBYY Business Card Reader [Nokia / Symbian]:

• Operating systems: Symbian® OS S60 v. 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4
• Memory requirements: 10 to 20 MB RAM depending on the number of enabled recognition languages. 15 MB internal memory or storage card space for installation.
• Camera requirements: 2 mega pixels or better with autofocus.
• User Interface: available in English, German, Turkish and Russian.
• Supported devices: Nokia N73,Nokia N78, Nokia N79, Nokia N82, Nokia N85, Nokia N86 8MP, Nokia N93, Nokia N93i, Nokia N95, Nokia N95-3 NAM, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N96, Nokia N96-3, Nokia N97, Nokia E66, Nokia E71, Nokia E71x, Nokia E72, Nokia E75, Nokia E90 Communicator, Nokia 5530, Nokia 5730 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6720 classic

Display Dimensions
240×320, 320×240, 360×640
Operating System
Symbian OS v9 (3rd edition), Symbian OS v9 (5th edition)

Reviews on ABBYY Business Card Reader [Nokia / Symbian]:

Catherine

This is very usefull and comfortable product!

Josh

Works fine, thanks!

Anna

Great appl! The best from recognition application for business cards.

Try it for FREE today! – ABBYY Business Card Reader for S60

So it looks like Sony Ericsson still have some fight in them. This time it looks like they’re letting loose with their supposedly beefed up Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 which is targeted for release around the U.S. and Europe in April this year. Despite it’s impressive specifications, Gunnar from Prylkoll.se shows in the video below, that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 isn’t as snappy as a device should be with a 1Ghz Snapdragon chip.

I blame the outdated clunky OS.

Other main features of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 are:

• 8 Megapixel digital camera with smile detection
• Google Android Donut (1.6) OS
• 1 GB storage on board
• Qualcomm 1Ghz Snapdragon
• 8GB microSD memory
• Timescape and Mediascape applications

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Home Page

Working seamlessly, silently in the background, BerryJoose delivers improved Blackberry perfomance and so you experience fewer hassles. With BerryJoose, your Blackberry keeps you connected and in touch. Effortlessly. You won’t even know BerryJoose is there.

Features of BerryJoose for Blackberry:

• Memory leaks are minimized
• Super-charged for speed
• Turn on your Blackberry® in the morning and enjoy optimized performance all day. BerryJoose just does it.
• Battery pulls? BerryJoose keeps them under control.
• Warnings before you lose your work or that new client. You always look good with BerryJoose no matter what’s on the line. Or who.
• Deploy more apps simultaneously, increasing productivity.

Storm Users :
Please disable compatibility : Options->Applications->Highlight BerryJoose->Menu->Disable Compatibility Mode

*** IMPORTANT INFORMATION ***
YOU WILL NEED TO ENTER YOUR DEVICE PIN NUMBER WHEN PURCHASING THIS APP. GO INTO OPTIONS->STATUS TO FIND IT. (It is 8 Characters).

Reviews on BerryJoose:

Dwight54

working well on my Bold so far after 3 days. much less battery pulls. Glad i got it on sale.

Harrison

Works as advertised. Wasd getting fed up with my 8330 but now it is runng better than ever.

George

this is a great app!! My curvei is flying since I installed it…no more freeze ups!

Franky

Wow…what a difference my phone is since I loaded the Joose! it’s like a brand new phone…excellent app…well worth the money!!

Buzz65

really see a nice improvement on my Tour. verry happy.

Daviburt

Before I installed this on my Storm 9530, I was having slowness issues, and having to pull battery at least once a day, so I thought this app would be perfect. I purchased it, installed it, and within 2 hours I removed it from my phone. It kept my app memory at a constant 0kb, caused numerous hour glasses freezes, and drained my battery from half to almost dead within that 2 hours of installing it. I’m glad it’s working for other people, but this didn’t work for me in the least.

Features:

• Upgrades will be free!

Minimum Requirements:

• OS 4.2.1

Display Dimensions
160×160, 240×160, 240×240, 240×260, 240×320, 320×240, 360×480, 480×320, 480×360
Operating System
4.2, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 Non-Touch, 4.7 Touch Screen, 5.0 Non-Touch, 5.0 Touch Screen

BerryJoose – Personal Productivity BlackBerry Apps

Lights! Camera! Action! With the latest OS update from Palm, WebOS 1.4, Palm Pre owners will now be able to (amongst other things listed below) capture video on their devices. Not only that, as you’ll see in the video by Phonescoop below, you’ll also be able to do some minor video editing in the way of cropping the start or ends of your vids. Kind of a year behind the iPhone 3GS but glad to finally see Palm peeps getting this functionality.

List of Palm WebOS 1.4 Enhancements:

• Phonebook Transfer (import & export)
• Adds Video Capture capability & edit
• Calendar Enhancements
• Messaging Enhancements
• Improved Performance (Phone & CAL)
• Email Enhancements
• Notification Enhancements

YouTube – Video Tour: Palm WebOS 1.4.

Even though it looks like a standard screen keyboard, beneath it, lies Swype technology that lets you write whole sentences without lifting your finger from the screen.While voice dictation technology gets better I think this is a very intuitive way to input text into smartphone devices.

The video below from PocketNow shows how easy it is to use the Swype text-input functionality on the HTC HD2.

As it is, it looks like something that I would be happy to make daily use of on my iPhone!

Video of Swype In Use:

YouTube – HTC HD2 Swype Demo.

HTC HD2 Accessories