Verizon BlackBerry Tour Site Gets Updated: July 12th Release Official; Tour Pre-Ordering Available

Some late night activity just sprung up in the CrackBerry forums on word that Verizon's BlackBerry Tour site has been updated, which confirms the previously rumored July 12th in-store availability date and also allows for pre-ordering of the device. At the time of this post the new site seems to still be propagating through (the site isn't showing up properly for everyone just yet and the preordering isn't quite working - it should be good to go soon), but you will want to jump over and take a look.
The updated site also features a short Bloggers on the Tour video which features a couple of CrackBerry.com quotes about the BlackBerry Tour..... SWEET! The BlackBerry Tour definitely is the smartphone sooo many CDMA users have been waiting for. The release of the BlackBerry Tour is so close now. I guess it's about time we get ready for a CrackBerry contest huh? Stay tuned!!! If you're excited for the Tour, say CrackBerry!

article source: http://crackberry.com/verizon-blackberry-tour-site-gets-updated-july-12th-release-official-pre-order-available

BlackBerry Tour available for Pre-order

Verizon Wireless started to take pre-orders for the new BlackBerry Tour. The BlackBerry Tour will be released on July 12th and sells for $199.99 with a new 2 year activation. The BlackBerry Tour has a 480x360 display, a QWERTY keyboard, 16GB of expandable memory, and a 3.2 megapixel camera (with variable zoom, flash, auto-focus, and image stabilization). It's also got a built in GPS, and it comes pre-loaded with a bunch of Sprint programs, like Sprint TV and Sprint NFL mobile. Articl source: http://www.i4u.com/article25624.html

Mobile Tag's solution now downloadable for GPhones and BlackBerry

Innovative French company and European 2D mobile barcode leader, Mobile Tag, announces today that its Datamatrix embedded software application mobiletag, that allows mobile phones to read 2D barcodes simply by using the phone's camera to provide quick access to external content such as movie trailers or promotional information, is now downloadable on the Android Market for GPhones, and on the BlackBerry App Store.
The solution that was launched for all other mobile phones back in 2006 is now ready to be deployed on these smart phones and can now be downloaded for free via Android Market or BlackBerry App Store."Mobile Tag is a company that constantly tries to stay one step ahead of the trends, closely following new hardware launches, which explains why we have adapted our mobiletag solution to ensure that a version compatible with smart phones such as the GPhones or BlackBerry is available for our customers as of today," comments Christian François Viala, Marketing and Communication Director at Mobile Tag. GPhones"Using the mobiletag software on the new GPhones from Google will give our users faster direct access to the Internet when they shoot a tag to obtain external content," continues Mr. Viala. "The main difference when using mobiletag on the GPhones will be that rather than using the phone's camera to take a snap shot of the 2D barcode, users will need to use their phones in video mode instead".BlackBerry As for the GPhones, mobiletag for the BlackBerry Bold will also need to be used in video mode - saving time (as no snap shot needs to be captured) and offering an easier and more user-friendly interface. For all other BlackBerry models, the solution operates in its traditional snap shot mode. About Mobile Tag, mobiletag & MEEPASSInnovative French company, Mobile Tag is a leading software developer specialising in mobile handset software solutions. Mobile Tag has two main products: mobiletag and MEEPASS. It also added an NFC tag management server to its portfolio. In 2006, the company launched mobiletag, an embedded software application that allows mobile phones to read 2D barcodes, otherwise known as tags, simply by using the phone's camera. Mobile Tag developed the software to create quick access to external content. Mobile Tag received a venture capital investment of 4 million euros in October 2008, funded by new lead investor Alven Capital and by existing shareholders (XangeCapital and IDF Capital). This capital increase will allow mobiletag to pursue its international growth strategy in the market of 2D barcodes. mobiletag has already established business partnerships with the major French and European mobile network Operators and is in negotiation today with international brands. Mobile Tag SAS has established a Delaware Corporation, Mobile Tag, Inc. which is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Mobile Tag, Inc. is focused on North American Mobile Operators and Brands with the same proven MEEPASS and mobiletag technology and services.In addition to mobiletag, Mobile Tag is pleased to announce the launch of MEEPASS, a revolutionary new mobile identification product that the company showcased at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. For more information, please visit: www.mobiletag.com or www.meepass.com. For mobiles, please use mobiletag.com
article source:
http://www.lbszone.com/content/view/5165/2/

BlackBerry Saves British Skier

The phone prevented him from falling to his death!

Yes, we all know that the BlackBerry of yours has been a life-saver on many occasions. Providing you instant access to your e-mails, no matter where you are and keeping you in touch with colleagues and friends are all things that a BlackBerry takes in its stride. But saving you from certain death is not amongst those for sure!
That is until you hear about David Fitzherbert, a British skier who owes his life to his trusted BlackBerry, quite literally. The skier while on a usual skiing trip somehow managed to slip in to a crevice, fell 70 feet down and lived to tell the tale. What saved him from almost certain death was his BlackBerry phone he had kept in his breast pocket.
The phone caused him to get struck in an ice crack and prevented the chap from falling further. Thanks to the half-inch wide phone, he apparently was a tad "wider" than the diameter of the crack and well, he remained stuck there for a couple of hours before the rescuers reached him.
If you are worried about the fate of the phone, don't worry. It's still working. Trusty old Blackberries!

article source:
http://www.techtree.com/India/News/BlackBerry_Saves_British_Skier/551-103750-893.html

BlackBerry has Fitness Apps

There are quite a few health and fitness apps for your BlackBerry in the BlackBerry App World. This isn't a comprehensive list, but is a place to start if you're looking to make fitness tracking more mobile. Most of these apps are found under the Personal Health and Wellness section in the App World, but depending on what kinds of activities you like to do you may also want to check the Maps and Navigation section for GPS apps, and Sports and Recreation for specific sports related apps.

Ascendo Fitness ($29.99 / 7 day free trial)This is a standalone app for your BlackBerry. Make sure to set your weight, height, gender, and age in the User Settings. This will ensure the caloric values of the exercises you do are accurate for you. You have to search for all food items because there aren't any pre-filled lists to choose from. I did have some trouble finding some of my common foods on here so the food database might not be as large as fatsecret's or the Daily Plate's, but you can add foods. You can also add exercises and it has a journal feature. It doesn't sync with any websites, but you can export your journal entries, food logs and exercise logs via email. You can set goals but you have to decide on the numbers yourself. There isn't any guidance and it doesn't fill these fields in (like how many calories you should eat in a day to lose the weight you want to lose) with recommended numbers based your personal height/weight.

All Sport GPS by Trimble Navigation ($39.99 / 7 day free trial)The UI is pretty stripped down and you can't add a name or description to the routes you create, but you can do that all on their website. It's easy to use and has gotten some strong reviews and I think the Trimble Outdoors site works well so even if the BlackBerry app isn't perfect, the website might make up for it. Trimble Navigation also has a Geocaching mobile app and an outdoor planning & navigation app called Trimble Outdoors available for the BlackBerry.

Calorie Counter by fatsecret (free)It requires you to have a user account on fatsecret and keeps track of your daily food log as well as exercise and your weight. It seems to have a decent foods database -- I didn't have any trouble finding some of the common foods I eat. It syncs with the website so you can use both, and fatsecret also has an iGoogle app and a Facebook app. Use with caution though: be careful with the sync and verify that it's working before you add large quantities of data. I opted to delete from the device and it not only deleted from the device, but also didn't sync with my fatsecret user account, and there was no way to return to those options to change them for testing.

Calorie Tracker by LIVESTRONG ($2.99)This is another tool that tracks your daily food log and exercise. The Daily Plate at LIVESTRONG claims it has a database of over 525,000 foods and restaurant items. If you're already a LIVESTRONG or Daily Plate member, this would be a good tool to add to your mobile device.

FitDeck MobileFitDeck Mobile ($14.99 / 3 day free trial)This app is unlike any of the others listed here. It's like a card deck of exercises (they also sell them as card decks too) that you flip through for a workout you can do anywhere. Unlike the illustrated exercises in Total Fitness (see below), these exercises require no equipment (except for an occasional chair) so you can do them at home, in the office, on vacation. The UI is clean and easy. They are color coded to correspond to different body parts: blue for upper body, red for core, orange for lower body, red for full body exercises. The cards also include 30 second water breaks, and repeats and skips. The illustrations are helpful, and descriptions are detailed and easy to read. The reps and/or allotted times for exercises cover beginner, intermediate, and advanced users.

Good Food Near You (free) You can use this app to look up nutrition information for foods located in restaurants near you. You can let it locate you automatically or set a location manually. It's really easy to use and the UI is nice. However, it only seems to have really popular restaurants/eateries. I live in a city with a lot of local, independent restaurants and none of those were listed, but the app is free and will be useful when you have to stop into a Jamba Juice or a McDonald's and make food choices.

Map My Tracks (free)The BlackBerry app is free, but you have to have an account on their website. The free account only allows you 1 hour of tracking per month (say one medium length run a month) and the paid account is £5.99/month (about $10US). It has a nice UI, but the font is a little small, and it doesn't allow you to use the keyboard when tagging tracks (runs/hikes/walks/etc) -- you have to use the trackball instead. This app is located under the Sports and Recreation section on App World.

Total Fitness ($4.99 / 4 day free trial)This is another standalone app that doesn't sync to a website that allows you to track your food and exercise log on a daily basis. It has predefined exercises that include 40 illustrated exercises with descriptions. Most of these exercises, unlike FitDeck, require some equipment like dumbbells, barbell, ball or bench, or other gym equipment. You can add foods and exercises. You can also track your body measurements like weight, blood pressure, etc. It has a few different types of calculators like BMI, BMR, body fat, target heart rate, but doesn't pre-populate the fields with the personal data you've stored in the app like height, weight, gender. It doesn't sync with any websites, but you can email yourself reports. Note: the web link above seems to be out of date. BlackBerry App World prices the app at $4.99 and the webpage lists it at $29.99.

Recommendations
If you already use the Daily Plate (or LIVESTRONG), fatsecret, Trimble Outdoors, or Map My Tracks, then you probably want to use the tools that sync to those sites. If you're looking for a site to join, of the sites listed here I would recommend LIVESTRONG and Trimble Outdoors.
If you want a standalone app on your BlackBerry, go with Total Fitness. It's less expensive than Ascendo, and offers pretty much the same product, and the illustrated exercises are useful for beginners and anyone working on their form.
For fitness on the go and anywhere choose FitDeck. It's easy to use and reasonably priced. And take Good Food Near You while you're at it. It's free and will help you make food choices at popular eateries and restaurants.

article source: http://www.examiner.com/x-12025-Fitness-Tech-Examiner~y2009m6d26-Fitness-apps-for-your-BlackBerry

BlackBerry Tour vs Nokia E72: The Battle For Business

Two new business-oriented smart phones are about to the hit store shelves: The latest in Nokia's line of business phones, the E72, and the long-rumoured BlackBerry Tour 9630.
Both phones will be on the market later on this year, with the BlackBerry 9630 available this summer on Sprint and Verizon, while the Nokia E72 will be available in the third quarter. Here's a head-to head comparison of these brand new business phones.
Both business smart phones feature a 2.4-inch display, but the BlackBerry Tour is the hands-down winner in this category, with a brighter and crisper display, packing more pixels per inch than the E72.
The Tour 9630 features the now famous BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard, but Nokia is also catching up in this department; the E72 has a roomy keyboard inherited from the previous model, the E71.
When it comes to navigating the devie, the BlackBerry uses the trackball found on previous models. But the E72 brings something new to the table: an optical trackpad, which, judging by this demonstration video, looks easy to use. For a new user, either navigation solution will take some getting used to, so this comes down to personal preference.
As for connectivity, the Nokia E72 looks like a good all-rounder, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an Infrared port. The BlackBerry Tour features Bluetooth as well, (with A2DP) but is somehow lacking Wi-Fi (just like the much-derided BlackBerry Storm). The E72 also features an FM radio, which the Tour doesn't.
The camera is yet another major differentiation point between the E71 and the Tour. The Nokia device features a 5-megapixel camera and a secondary camera for video calls, while the BlackBerry Tour has a 3.2-megapixel camera. Both cameras have autofocus, flash, and video recording capabilities.
Both the E72 and the Tour 9630 feature built-in GPS, which is used for navigation and for geotagging pictures taken with the phones. However, Nokia added to the E72 an electronic compass, for an improved navigation experience.
Lastly, both devices come with an application store: Nokia has its brand-new Ovi Store while Research in Motion launched the BlackBerry App World a few months ago. Both app stores are relatively young, but are offering more new and useful apps regularly, so I would call a tie in this department.
Of course, this is just a rundown through the devices based on the specifications released by the manufacturers so far. When both devices become available, we will put them through some extensive tests and report back to you as usual.

Daniel Ionescu

http://www.pcworld.com/article/166737/blackberry_tour_vs_nokia_e72_the_battle_for_business.html

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Research In Motion: Where Are The Cool New Phones?

So, is Research In Motion (RIMM) in danger of suddenly looking behind the times in its phone designs?
GC Research analyst Tero Kuittinen raises that question in a research note this morning. While still bullish on the stock - he as an Overweight rating and $95 price target - Kuittinen writes that the current lineup is looking “a bit shopworn,” and asserts that the company appears to have made a decision to make incremental improvements in mid-range and and low-end models “instead of bringing advanced features aggressively to cheaper devices.”
The analyst notes that pricing on newer big display models like the Apple iPhone, the Palm Pre, the LG Cookie, the Nokia 5800 and Android-based HTC units has been “surprisingly aggressive,” and asserts that RIMM may have underestimated the rate of migration of the 3-inch touch-screen displays into lower price points.
He thinks results for the fiscal second quarter ending in August will be strong; he is modeling EPS of $1.02 a share, ahead of the Street at 99 cents. But he is cutting estimates for subsequent quarters: for FY Q3, he is down to 98 cents, from $1.22, and for FY Q4, he goes to $1.02, from $1.49.
Kuittinen says he is hearing “tepid” feedback on the 8230 flip phone model at Verizon; and he contends the new BlackBerry Tour is “extremely close to the aging Curve in look and feel,” and lack WiFi support.
“Overall, RIMMS’s expansion to flip phones is ill-timed, and the Tour line lacks kick and the low-end improvements are minor at best,” he writes. “It is the combination of these three simultaneous factors that leads us to believe RIMM may have been lulled into complacency by the stellar success of the BlackBerry devices over the past couple of years. The years 2009 is a tough period to let your product development program spin its wheels.” He does say that Storm 2 should debut at Verizon by October - but he ads that “one major big-display phone launch…may not fully offset the slight malaise afficting the rest of the BlackBerry range in the autumn.”
RIMM today is up $1.34, or 1.9%, to $70.64.

Posted by Eric Savitz
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2009/06/26/research-in-motion-where-are-the-cool-new-phones/