Its been a long time since the android o.s version 2.2 code named froyo was released,but the official upgrade was only available for the google nexus one.though many roms were available which ran the froyo for various other devices,still the official update for any other devices was not recieved.We had heard sometime back that motorola was working on the froyo for its highly popular droid series for verizon,but it is sprint which which will come out witht the froyo first for its evo 4G.Sprint rolled out froyo updates for some specific test customers today.The official update will come out pretty soon so all you guys having the evo look out for your update!
It was also rumored that the froyo for samsung galaxy s was leaked and it was running in some galaxy s ,not sure about it.With the great power of the evo 4g and froyo combined that phone is going to become a beast.HTC has also tried to change their sense ui so that it can support the new android version and various kool tweeks have been done for the evo such as faster browser speeds which enables the javascripts to load faster and the flash 10x.
Now with gingerbread about to release this fall all the companies have to hurry up in sending out froyos for their devices because soon they will have to send out gingerbread updates..

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Having recently upgraded to the iPhone 4, I of course immediately went searching for cool and useful applications in the App Store. My wife and I have been banking with Chase for a while now, WAMU before that. Shortly after picking up my iPhone, Chase released a new version of their application that allows one to deposit checks using only their iPhone. I’m all for cool applications, but one that really makes my life easier is a wonderful thing, and this application does just that.

Once logged into your account, you can choose the deposit option to get started. You choose which account to deposit your check into, then specify the amount, then snap pictures of the front and back of your check (be sure to sign it of course). It’s a pretty quick and easy process that I’ve used twice now, and so far, the checks have both gone through in a days time. Very nice. I can certainly appreciate being saved the trip to the bank!

If anyone has other apps that make your everyday life easier, feel free to share what they are!

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Blackberry 9700 vs. iPhone 4 (click for full size image)

As most of you know, I’ve recently gone from Symbian (s60) powered Nokia phones (N97, E71, N86, N79) to Blackberry (9700). Well, the Blackberry didn’t last too long in the end. I’ve just switched to something that I held out against for quite some time–an iPhone. Yep, I went and got myself a 16GB iPhone 4.

Why, you might ask?

There are several reasons, but here’s a couple big points. The Blackberry 9700 was a great device in most ways. Stable, excellent battery life, allowed me to stay very well connected to the internet….except when it came to actual web browsing. Support and presence of third party applications has greatly increased on the Blackberry platform over the past year or two, and there are now applications for just about anything you want to do with the phone. But, browsing the internet is still a slow and tedious process. On a Blackberry, RIM actually does the job of compressing data to keep data transmission to a minimum. While this is good in some ways (if you’re on a tiered data plan for instance), but it also makes for a much slower page loading time. Not to mention the smaller screen makes zooming almost mandatory once the page loads, but then you have to scroll right to left a lot to even read a page that is not optimized for mobile viewing. Considering I want to be able to check out links posted by folks I follow on Twitter, Facebook, and from emails I receive, etc., web browsing is definitely an important feature as far as I’m concerned. And obviously, browsing on the iPhone–with its larger screen and fast browser speeds (in my own experience, from using my wife’s iPhone 3GS) makes it an ideal device for web browsing. Read the rest of this entry »

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So by now almost everyone has heard about [AT&T’s new tiered data plans. Many people seem to be quite unhappy about these changes, while others (AT&T claims 98% of their smartphone users) stand to benefit.

In case you haven’t heard about this yet, here’s a quick rundown. AT&T will no longer offer its $30/month unlimited data for smartphones plan. Instead, they will offer DataPlus at $15/month, which will include 200MB of data usage (AT&T claims 65% of their smartphone userbase comes in under this level of usage). If you go over that 200MB, you can get another 200MB for $15 more. AT&T will also offer the DataPro plan, at $25/month and up to 2GB of data, with each additional 1GB being $10. AT&T has also stated that they will allow users to be liberal with plan changes–for instance you can retroactively upgrade from DataPlus to DataPro if you see yourself flying through your alloted data–therefore sparing yourself from overages. Separate from these will be an option for tethering your smartphone. The ability to tether alone will cost you another $20 a month, and tethering will then still use the data from your chosen plan (DataPlus or DataPro). So in essence, if you want the DataPro plan, plus the ability to tether your iphone (when 4.0 is released), it’ll cost you $40/month for 2GB of data. That 2GB won’t last too long if you tether….

So here’s my take. My wife uses an iPhone, and I’m on my Blackberry 9700. Neither of us are super heavy data users, and we do have wifi at home that we use when there. Over the past 5 months, my wife has wandered anywhere between 209 to 354MB of data usage (average around 262MB), and I have been anywhere from 115 to 285MB (average around 187MB). Neither of us do a whole lot of streaming video or music, or much tethering. Most of our data comes from Twitter, web surfing, emails, ocassionally watching a video or listening to some music or podcasts, some searching on Google Maps, and the like. I certainly don’t feel like I use a ton of data, but I also don’t feel like I’m a super light data user–same goes for my wife. I do have access to almost everything I need and want to do from my computer at work, while my wife’s workplace blocks a few sites she checks into a couple times a day (like Twitter and Facebook). So, with all this info, I can see that we could both choose the DataPro plans (2GB) at $25/month per phone, and we’d save a total of $10 off our bill per month–$120 a year. So in that case, it doesn’t sound too bad.

But…there’s always the other side. Some users out there (only 2% of AT&T’s smartphone users), don’t have computers at work, or don’t have wifi at home, or tether their devices (unbeknownst to AT&T, *gasp, the horror!) and easily make use of their $30/month unlimited data plans. If that describes you, the good news is that you’re still going to be ok. Users who currently have the $30/month unlimited data plan can keep the plan, even if they upgrade phones–the plan is “grandfathered” in to your account. One part of this I really don’t get is the tethering offering. They’re not charging you for using more data from their network, or different data, they’re simply charging you for the convenience of being able to tether. $20 for the convenience of tethering sounds a bit pricey to me, honestly. Good thing Tether for Blackberry is still around. ;)

I’m still undecided as to how I feel about this. I feel many users will be happy at the prospect of saving lots of money ($15 a month in savings, $180/year or $5 a month, $60/year), while others would end up having to pay a lot more for the same services they currrently use. I guess I can say that these new plans are good news for those that want to save money and don’t use more than 200MB or 2GB of data, and its also good news that the old unlimited plan is grandfathered in. I also expect to see other carriers follow suit with this tiered data pricing scheme. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how good the competition will be…

What are your thoughts on this? Happy to save some money? Pissed? Let us know!

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Google has just released a new version of Google Maps for Blackberry users, version 4.2. Included are new location sharing abilities as well as “bicycle” as a choice of transportation methods to choose from. Keep in mind though, just because Google Maps gave you those directions, doesn’t mean you should follow them blindly. To get the update, visit http://m.google.com from your Blackberry.

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So not too long ago, rumors of a Blackberry tablet device started to turn up. While nothing was 100% known, at first I didn’t think the idea was a very good one on RIM’s part. I might be changing my mind though…

Just today, BoyGeniusReport.com has come up with some inside info (as they always manage to do). According to BGR, the Blackberry tablet will not be much of a stand-alone device, requiring either a bluetooth connection to a Blackberry or a Wi-Fi connection. While at first this sounds like a horrible idea, it might not be all that bad really. The Wi-Fi only iPad has sold quite well, and I’m sure will continue too. If the Wi-Fi only iPad had the ability to connect to your data connection through your iPhone, it’d probably sell even better, right? There would be no need to pay Apple the additional cost of the 3G version, and no need to pay AT&T an additional data fee. I guess we will have to wait and see how cellular carriers treat the Blackberry tablet and connecting it to their data stream though–with even “unlimited” data plans having unwritten caps these days, I can guess that this will be a problem area. BGR also reports that there seems to be a focus on multimedia with this tablet, which may or may not be good for RIM. RIM has just recently started to pay just as much attention to its non-corporate user base (adding cameras to almost every device, creating their App World, etc), but multi-media has still not been a strong suit in the Blackberry OS. Email size limits prevent you from sending or receiving emails with multiple large sized pictures or videos attached is one of my biggest Blackberry complaints. I wonder if the tablet will allow you to bypass those size limits–that would be nice.

I’m still in the middle on this one, personally. At first I thought it was just a horrible idea for RIM to try and compete with Apple (or anyone else) in the tablet market. RIM has something different than other smartphones in the Blackberry–the most stable and secure OS out there. If RIM does this right though, their tablet could provide a very usable solution to the large market share of Blackberry users that want a tablet–especially if they can manage to keep the carriers hands out of your pockets when it comes to data usage over the cellular networks.

Regardless of what one may think about the coming Blackberry tablet, it is supposed to be out by the end of the year, according to BGR’s source within RIM. What do you think about it? If you’re a Blackberry user who wants an internet tablet, do you think the iPad is still a better choice, or would you be willing to wait and see what the Blackberry tablet will provide?

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Get a load of this guy. Read the rest of this entry »

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So here’s a few new Blackberry applications I’ve stumbled across over the past few days that I thought some others might be interested in.

Having recently come back to Blackberry after using Nokia’s S60 operating system for a while, there are a few things that S60 does very well that Blackberry doesn’t do all that well, or at all. One of those is being able to backup your data to the microsd card. While this isn’t something I have ever had to rely on, it was always nice to know that your contacts, calendar, memos, etc won’t be lost if your phone crashes during the day. Well, with S4BB’s DataBackup application, now Blackberry users can get the same piece of mind. Its a very simple application that has worked fine for me so far. It allows you to choose what data you want to backup: emails, contacts, memos, tasks, calendar events, categories, call logs; and creates a file with this data on your microsd card. Of course the application also allows you to restore from the these backups, again letting you choose what data you want to restore. Its in beta testing now, and the folks at S4BB definitely want to know if you find any bugs. So, hit the link from earlier and download this app and try it out (as of right now the beta is free and open).

Next up, something that I was also very used to performing with my S60 phones that Blackberry doesn’t do well: uploading video. From my S60 phones, I could upload videos of any file size over a website, through email, or through multiple applications (like Pixelpipe, who I REALLY wish would release a full fledge Blackberry app). But on Blackberry, this task isn’t as easy. With caps on the file size you can send through email combined with the .3gp file type that the Blackberry creates videos in, there aren’t many things you can do with video on your device other than transfer it to a computer, and then upload it from said computer. To me, this is a big #VIDEOFAIL on the part of Blackberry, and hopefully something that will be addressed in future OS releases (maybe 6.0?). In the meantime though, there’s Tvider (find it in Blackberry App World for $2.99). Tvider is basically a Twitter application that has applications for every mobile OS, but one that allows you to directly upload pictures, audio, or video directly through it (and not through a third party). While the upload process did take some time (using 3G), it was successful and allowed me to upload videos and still use my Blackberry to do other things while uploading in the background. I have to say thanks to fellow Blackberry user Al Sacco for tipping me off to this application.

Another cool application I recently came across is Pageonce. Its an encrypted application that allows you to keep track of accounts you want to have quick access to. Whether its a credit card account, checking account, frequent flyer account, Blockbuster or Netflix, or your AT&T cell phone account, you can keep track of them all in one place. After creating a Pageonce account and downloading the application to your phone ($6.99 one time in the case of Blackberry), you can add the accounts you want to keep track of. In my case, they had almost everything I’d want to track, including Georgia Power and SCANA Energy, so just about anything that sends you a bill is in their system and can be tracked using their app. While you can’t pay bills, transfer money from accounts, etc using this app, it is a good way to be able to access the information quickly, and all in one place, with a single password–instead of having to go to multiple sites online and enter a password and username at each site. Definitely worth a look if you have multiple accounts you would like to keep an eye on.

New to Blackberry is another application that’s been around on S60 for a while now, Waze. Waze is much like Google Maps, or any other GPS application, but it goes a step farther allowing users to submit reports of traffic issues while on the roads. To help hype up the release of Waze for Blackberry, there is also a contest running at the moment…drive over Blackberries that you see on the roads in the Waze application to collect points, and you could win an iPad. Check out the website for more details and to download the app (free).

Last in this list is an application called CardStar. CardStar allows you to get rid of those little plastic cards you have from Kroger, Borders, Barnes & Noble, CVS, etc–so in my opinion its already a great application (I hate those stupid little cards). Anyways, simply choose the retailer/store, punch in the number and save it, and you’re done–the application has a rather large database built in of places that use these cards. When needed you can open the application, choose the card you need and voila, the barcode appears ready to be scanned. Sounds excellent to me…but, I’ve heard from someone that tried to use it yesterday and they said it didn’t work. I won’t lose hope until I try it out myself though.

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Announced earlier today by the iPhone Dev-Team blog, Spirit is here to jailbreak your iphone/ipad/iPod running OS’s 3.1.2, 3.1.3, and 3.2. For more details on the release, hit the blog or check out this articeat Read Write Web. Enjoy!

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Its been a while since I’ve posted here, and I have to apologize for that. Work and personal lives sometimes take over in priorities…such is life. So, I’m here to update a bit of Blackberry related news and events from recent.

First off, I have to recommend you check out a great article by my friend Sloan Bowman, or sloanb on Twitter. The recent post at his blog, “Blackberry Roots Grow Deep” is a great write up from someone who has used almost all mobile platforms in the last year alone, and gives many good pros/cons of those different operating systems. I’ve written similar in the past, and have come to many of the same conclusions as Sloan. Definitely worth a read.

Now more related to Blackberry news, the latest os leak (in a series of 4-5 leaks within a couple weeks time) for the Blackberry 9700 is 5.0.0.593. I’ve been running it a few days now, and its worked great so far. Best of all, updating this time around went as smoothly as butter. I backed up my third party applications using Boy Genius Reports tutorial, performed a full backup of my phone, wiped the device completely using JL_Cmder, installed the new OS, reinstalled 3rd party apps, and then restored from the backup I made earlier. At this point, I was up and running with the new OS like nothing had ever changed. I will try and update in a few days time on the battery life and any bugs that I may find with this new OS.

Probably the biggest Blackberry related news that has hit the ‘net recently is the announcement of OS 6.0 at the WES conference last week. For some commentary and a few details from WES, check out Al Sacco’s post on the topic. A good bit of the video for this upcoming release seems to focus on the touch features, but it also appears that social networking will become a bit more “built in” to the OS, obviously an attempt to compete with other platforms that are now doing the same thing. Check out the video…

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Illusions are strange In a big way, but If you make sense of It all then their pretty cool to look at. An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation (from Wikipedia). We’ll we thought that we’ve posted a lot of Technology related articles In the past and so decided to go out and post something a little distant from the norm and what could be more distant and strange than really cool Illusions. Illusions are really how our mind plays tricks on us and we can’t even make It out. We also think Illusions and technology go hand In hand on many occasions as you’ll see during the duration you view the post. This post Is pretty long, So If you have the time, be sure to shoot a peep. Some of the Illusions are artificially enhanced but most of them can be attained quite simply by manipulating time and place. Illusions are simple to create If you think out of the box.

1.) Laptop_Kid

Real Or Fake ? :  Your call.

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