BlackBerry Playbook Update 1.05

Good news for all the BlackBerry playbook users as the New update brings in a lot of upgrades and some much needed improvements.

Research In Motion has announced yet another update for its BlackBerry Playbook devices, named as V1.05.

Aimed at adding more functionality to the devices apart from fixing some bugs, the update comes as a welcome summer gift for the BlackBerry Playbook users. With this update, the Playbook also takes a giant step towards social networking. The Facebook app, for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, has been updated to include video uploading, message deletion, Search enhancements and more.

Free cross-platform messengers for smartphones

Sending text messages, sharing multimedia and staying connected with friends who use a different operating system from your own is easily done with the apps we've picked.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones have become quite popular in India in recent months. While the dispute between RIM and the Government of India persists, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has become a popular application that keeps the majority of BlackBerry owners busy, texting their contacts, friends and relatives.

The primary reason for BBM's popularity is that it is integrated with the BlackBerry operating system and is a light-weight app that is economical in its consumption of resources. Users can send and receive text, photos, audio and video, and can receive real-time delivery confirmations. BBM's chief purpose is that it enables people to converse with their contacts live at minimal cost.

Indians mostly look for Nokia phones online: Survey

35 per cent of users searched for Nokia followed by 30 per cent for Samsung and 29 per cent for BlackBerry. Micromax came in a close 4th at 22 per cent.

Nokia is the most sought after mobile phone in India, according to the findings of a research conducted by ViziSense on the 'interest in mobile phones online'.

The study, which cited data for the January-April 2011 period of all the users who searched for mobile handsets on ecommerce sites, said that 35 per cent of users searched for Nokia followed by 30 per cent for Samsung and 29 per cent for BlackBerry. Micromax came in a close 4th at 22 per cent.

Twitter 2.0 app comes out of beta for BlackBerry

It comes with some additions such as search bar where tweets, usernames, real names, and hash tags.

Just about two weeks after its beta version was launched, the Twitter 2.0 application has been officially released and is set to be available in the BlackBerry app world for download. 

Those users, who haven't experienced the beta version yet, would find the application more convenient and faster as everything they look for in a Twitter app have been combined in the same screen. Those who are conducting universal search on BlackBerry 6 will get results obtained from Twitter as well. 

Manage your Travel Plans with BlackBerry Travel Application

BlackBerry Travel, an application which helps users in travel management is now in India. This app was announced about 3 months back and provides BlackBerry smart phone users with an all-in-one integrated tool to plan, book, manage and share travel activities quickly and easily.

This application offers good synchronization through integration of travel itineraries and flight status updates with the calendar and even push notifications. Whenever a new itinerary arrives in the users e-mail, it is automatically updated into this travel application.This app even provides push notifications about changes in the flight status and other information.

RIM recalls 1,000 PlayBooks

It was reported there were 935 PlayBook tablets with the flaw in their operating system. Some users reported they couldn't complete the user agreement screen also, which meant they couldn't operate the device also.

About 1000 PlayBook tablets have been recalled by Research In Motion (RIM) due to a flaw in the operating system. The flaws had the potential to pose problems to users during the initial set up, reported the technology blog Engadget.

The affected devices had not even reached customers as they were still with the distributors. 

The news may affect RIM negatively and comes close on the heels of less than expected sales of BlackBerry handsets. The company believes the new products will lead to a turnaround in its sales. 

Five must have apps for summer vacation

These applications meant for travelers are more than just emergency tools. They will definitely help maximise your fun while you are on the move during vacations.

Traveling can be classified under two main categories: One is boring business travel, and the other is traveling for fun.

With summer vacations coming up, a lot of families and individuals will be planning their trips. Especially for these people we have a bunch of very useful and must have applications.

These applications work across all smartphone platforms including Apple, BlackBerry, Android and Symbian.

World Mate

One thing that starts way in advance of the journey is the making of a travel itinerary. Where to go; which route to follow; whether to go by car or bus or plane; where to stay — all this needs to be decided in advance. But if the itinerary is not managed well, all the effort might be in vain.

RIM extends Playbook tablets warranty to two years

RIM launches special warranty plans for Blackberry playbook users that includes protection against accidents and user mishandling also.

Research In Motion, the makers of BlackBerry, has announced newer warranty plans for its Playbook tablet computer, extending it to two years from the current one year term. 

Earlier, Playbook buyers were given only 90 days of technical support and one year of limited hardware support.

With this new plan, they can have two years of technical support and hardware warranty, which not only provides additional protection against manufacturing defects but also covers accidental damages such as screen breaks too. 

The plan, however, is optional and is available only for the United States and Canada users, who are required to pay $129 (Rs 6,000 approximately) to avail this service.

With the tentative launch of the BlackBerry Playbook in India scheduled in the month of June sometime, it is highly expected that RIM will also extend the warranty plans for the Indian users as well.

Al Jazeera launches news app

Al Jazeera, a 24 hour international news channel that shot to fame during the Iraq conflict, has launched mobile applications for Android and BlackBerry. The app provides photos, text articles, video clips and live streams.

Al Jazeera, a news channel that became popular for its coverage of the Iraq war and recent conflicts in other parts of the region, has launched a new mobile app for Android and BlackBerry operating systems.

The news channel had an Android app earlier as well, but that only streamed the channel live. With the new application, users will get access to photos, text articles, video clips and live streams.

The home screen of the app is well designed with thumbnail photos for top stories, which are divided into a number of categories including News, Opinion, Features and Video.

There is also a section that allows you to submit content to Al Jazeera from your phone, similar to Citizen Journalist of CNN IBN.

Along with the videos, you also get to view full length articles from the company's website. The app has a picture gallery which lets you browse stories by images.

It is free of cost and the BlackBerry version can be downloaded from BlackBerry App World; while the Android version is available from Android app store.

Nokia is no more No 1 in Europe

The mobile phone giant which has been losing market share for past couple of years on account of lack of smartphone success has finally been relegated to number two position in Western Europe, Samsung is the new number one.

Nokia, which ruled the mobile phone market for over a decade, has now lost its position to Samsung in Western Europe. Nokia shipments dropped 10.3 per cent year-on-year to 12.6 million units and is now the second player with 27.9 per cent market share, according to IDC's European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.

While, Samsung shipments increased 5.3 per cent year-on-year to 13.2 million units and the Korean giant became the biggest mobile phone maker in the region with 29.3 per cent market share. 

In the smartphone space, Apple became the biggest player with 20.8 per cent market share with its shipments increased 48.9 per cent year-on-year to 4.4 million units. Nokia comes second with 19.6 per cent market share. 

"Samsung and Apple achieved outstanding milestones this quarter in the region. Samsung became the biggest mobile phone vendor in Western Europe and Apple the biggest smartphone vendor. These results show how volatile this market is and how important it is not to underestimate the trends. Companies like Nokia (and Ericsson in the past) may have strong brands and big market shares as Nokia always had, but can be overtaken by their competitors on a blink of an eye," said Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager, IDC.

Too many operating systems? Innovation can come anytime

The mobile market is bursting with new operating systems, but like in any other business, the best ones will float while the ones that don't become popular will have no option but to go down.

There was a time when people used to perform simple functions such as making calls and sending SMSes with their mobile phones. Now people want their mobile phones to work like computers. They want to see and share photos with it, send email, browse the internet and more. That's why they need phones to have full fledged operating systems (just like computers do).

The arrival of smartphone operating systems started a long time ago. It was in 1996 that Palm OS was launched, and Pocket PC (Microsoft) arrived in 2000. 

Windows Mobile 5 and BlackBerry OS 4.1 came in 2005. Android was acquired by Google in the same year and iPhone was released in 2007. Android 1.0, BlackBerry OS 4.5, iPhone OS 2.0 and Windows Mobile 6.1—all came in 2008. Samsung bada was announced in 2009.

Despite the surfeit of smartphone operating systems, the market for them didn't really take off as Java based phones were popular at that time, and operating system-based phones barely had any applications, which meant that users had to manage with the apps their handset manufacturers gave them. If developers wanted to sell an app, they had to strike a deal directly with the manufacturer of the phone, which was very difficult.

Book My Show app now on Android

Android users will be able to book movie and ongoing IPL cricket tournament tickets using the application.

After BlackBerry and iPhone, online ticketing portal Book My Show has announced the launch of its application for Android based devices.

With the Book My Show application, Android users will be able to book movie and ongoing IPL cricket tournament tickets through multiple payment options including credit card, bank transfer and so on.

The application's design, according to the developer, has been kept simple so that it can be easily used by everyone. It has one touch access to most features like search and book movies.

The application as of now only supports movie and cricket ticket search and booking, but the developers wish to add the functionality to search and book tickets for plays, concerts and other sports event in future. 

The application has support for devices running Android version 1.5 and above including support for tablets running on Android as well with the automatic resizing capability added by the developer. 

Users who wish to download and install this application can visit the Android marketplace from their respective device or can click here to download the application.

BlackBerry in a hurry to re-establish itself

The BlackBerry's problems have been obscured by sales figures so far. But with the iOS and Android onslaught, it needs apps fast.

The shift towards the perception that BlackBerry makers Research In Motion are in trouble due to the onslaught of Android and iOS phones is natural, but premature. Only some time ago, BlackBerry made a serious effort to take younger users into its fold as well, and the campaign seems to have hit it off in the UK, in India, South Africa and in some other countries (that don't include the USA).

In these countries, the new trend started with younger people getting their BlackBerrys through their seniors or parents who were buying new devices and handed their old BlackBerrys to the kids. These youth found BlackBerry messenger to be very useful and the fact that it was free was an added bonus. Despite the new-found popularity among younger users and, of course, the enterprise segment, Research In Motion is definitely having some problems due to the increasing popularity of iPhone and Android phones.

However, the growth rate of handset sales has obscured some of the company's problems so far. The operating system is all important when it comes to smartphones, because where hardware is concerned there are only touchscreen devices and those that have Qwerty keyboards.

The BlackBerry operating system looks good but dated, and that's why the company has come out with BlackBerry OS 7. 

Research In Motion recently made a slew of announcements at the BlackBerry World event, and in addition to that, BlackBerry Messenger is its hidden social network, which has a community in everywhere, including in India, and the members of this community are not likely to trade their messengers for anything else.

Best mobile phone gift for Mother's Day

Mother's day is just round the corner and here are some Mobile phones that you can gift your mother, which she will like and find easy to use.

Mothers are truly special, and with Mother's day round the corner, it is best time to show our appreciation for what they have done for us. Here are some mobile phones that you can gift your mother, which she will like and find easy to use.

iBall Senior

Generally mothers are not very keen on tech, and like simple to use devices. The iBall Senior is precisely the phone that you can gift your mother who is technology shy. 

The phone sports large keypads, and simple call and SMS function without unnecessary clutter. Additionally, iBall Senior has large fonts, amber colour, enhanced sound and comes with feature of SOS button. Within 7 seconds of pressing the SOS button, the handset sends a siren to alert the surrounding people know that the person is in trouble and should be immediately attended to. It also sends SMS to five pre-defined numbers and starts dialling those numbers automatically one after another till one call is attended.

Due to large keypad, it is easy to dial a number and large fonts make it easy to see the numbers. The phone also comes with wireless FM to keep your dear Mom entertained and an easy to switch on Torch to help her in dark. 

The price of the phone is Rs 3,249, which isn't that costly considering its special purpose and design. 

If your mother is very aged and has trouble seeing or hearing you can go for a very similar phone Intex Vision which has the same design but slightly tweaked with Braille letters on the keypad.

Intex Vision is even priced cheaper at Rs 2,600.