Yahoo! has just announced their upcoming Yahoo! Mobile website and smartphone application.

Consumers will be able to:

• Discover: via results from Yahoo!’s award-winning mobile search, editor-selected content, and new maps tools.
• Stay Connected: through access to their email and social network accounts from the most popular Web providers, as well as instant messaging, address book and calendar tools.
• Stay Informed: by bringing together favorite content – websites, sports teams, news sources, RSS feeds, weather, stocks, horoscopes and more – into a single location.

Expected launch of Yahoo! Mobile is in late May 2009, but if you want to beta test it click here to join the managed beta program.

Read the full press release after the jump.

CONTINUE READING »

Unlock Your BlackBerry Storm let me know about their new BlackBerry unlocking service. You can remote unlock the Storm 9530 to be used on the GSM and EDGE network!

Unlock Your BlackBerry Storm has also provided me with a coupon code just for BlackBerry Rocks! readers to get 10% off the sale price, which is $39.99. The coupon code is BBROCKS.

Here are other services they offer for BlackBerry remote unlocking:

• Remote unlock any AT&T BlackBerry $16
• Remote unlock any BlackBerry $49
• Remote unlock Rogers BlackBerry $16
• Remote unlock T-Mobile BlackBerry $16
• Remote unlock Vodofone UK BlackBerry $45

Info for unlocking your:

• Storm 9530
  
• Other BlackBerry

The coupon code BBROCKS works for their other unlocking services too, just in case .

CrackBerry Forums member hastings has finally released his AppleBerry theme for the BlackBerry Storm. I say finally because A LOT of people have been waiting for this theme to get released, even though he first posted about it last week. Over 1300 replies to his post!

From the description:

The time has come, AppleBerry 0.8 public beta is OUT!

After a hundred hours of development and approximately 16,000 cups of coffee I’ve managed to finish the first public beta for CrackBerry community consumption. (try saying that 10 times fast)

Price: Free
WTF?: Yep…free.
Style: Today theme style, calendar and email only show up when the icon on the homescreen is highlighted.
OS Support: This theme should work fine on all devices. However it is large, clocking in at exactly 1MB and as such older OS’, like .75 may lag a bit. .103 works excellent.

A note from hastings:

Before you download, absolutely uninstall any previous versions of AppleBerry and any other themes you do not use. This helps with performance tremendously.

Go into Options -> Advanced Options -> Applications -> “com_plazmic_theme_AppleBerry” and press the BB hardware key, select Delete.

That’s a lot of coffee! If you download this theme and like it be sure to send hastings a donation.

• Download OTA: AppleBerry for the Storm
• Info: AppleBerry – You’re gonna want to check this out

Artem from GemBlock just let me know that his awesome iBerry Bottom Dock theme is now available as a free download for the BlackBerry Storm series! I previously posted about this theme being available for the Bold and a bunch of other BlackBerrys, now Storm owners can join in on the fun.

Artem also mentioned that he plans on releasing this theme for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 soon .

• Download/Info: iBerry Bottom Dock by GemBlock

Came across this press release about a new GPS tracking service that is being offered by Rocky Mountain Tracking for a monthly fee of $14.95. It seems like most GPS-enabled BlackBerrys are supported.

Benefits:

• Can supply you with peace of mind by knowing:
  • Location by address of family member, business associate or asset.
  • Speed of travel
  • Has left or entered a predefined zone
• Twelve states have mandatory insurance discount laws for use of gps
• Can aide in parenting children and managing teen driving habits
• Provides historical data about where your family members have been

Some highlights from the press release:

• Rocky Mountain Tracking, Inc. (RMT) is releasing its newest tracking application for GPS-enabled cell phones. “Anyone with a Blackberry or Windows Mobile device can track their cell phone from any computer through web-based tracking software,” says Brad Borst, President of the company.
• With the introduction of the NavIQ Mobile technology, the safety and security benefits to the individual user are significant.
• In 2003, the Federal Communications Commission passed a directive which required all cell phones manufactured after 2005 to be GPS capable.
• The launch of NavIQ Mobile now offers a more advanced technology which provides more information, such as, address, speed, heading, longitude, latitude, date, time, and a history of everywhere it has been.
• Obviously, the ramifications for both business and personal use are enormous given the wide ranging scope of this newest level of technology. GPS-enabled cell phones allow business owners to not only keep a watchful eye over their employees, but also to track their entire fleet of vehicles used by their mobile workforce.

Be sure to leave some comments if you decide to try it out!

Read the full press release after the jump.

CONTINUE READING »

By Al Sacco:

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) has undergone quite a few transitions during the past couple of years. Most notably, the Canadian company made a major shift from its former role as a strictly enterprise-centric firm to an equally business- and consumer-focused high-tech vendor.

That push to embrace the consumer masses led to a number of valuable BlackBerry hardware and software modifications, including the addition of multimedia features, such as media players, 3.5mm headphone jacks and, of course, the inclusion of digital cameras. The problem: Some of RIM’s longtime business customers either don’t want or prohibit digital cameras on their premises.

Read more @ CIO.com

The BlackBerry Application Suite has been spotted at the 2009 Mobile World Congress. Dieter Bohn was able to get some awesome photos and information about the Application Suite running on the HTC Touch Pro.

Check out what he had to say:

In all, I was very impressed with BB Application Application Suite. It ran remarkably well — certainly better than the janky pre-release beta videos I’d seen to date. I tried to pin them down on a release date (they clammed up a bit when I said “CrackBerry.com”) and the best I could manage was “in the coming months.” One interesting note: BB Messenger does work and it does have a PIN. What RIM does is run some sort of fancy algorithm on your IMEI number and then creates the PIN off of that. So the bad news (or good news, depending your openness:security stance) is that PINs are still tied to specific pieces of hardware.

I do have to say that the BlackBerry experience is significantly hampered without a trackball — having to use the physical d-pad to click click click was a major pain. Otherwise, as I said, the thing ran relatively snappily and also didn’t seem to hamper Windows Mobile much at all. And get this: it seems to start from a cold launch in just under a minute, much faster than your average BlackBerry cold boot. :p

If you are someone who loves the BlackBerry’s OS but does not like the actual BlackBerry, this would be a good option for you once it is made available. Why someone wouldn’t like a BlackBerry is beyond me though .

Be sure to head over to CrackBerry for some more photos.

Verizon let me know that they have launched a new Friends & Family service.

Pricing info:

• Individual Plans – Up to 5 people – $59.99 or higher
• Family Plans – Up to 10 people – $89.99 or higher

The fine print:

Our surcharges (incl. Fed. Univ. Svc. of 9.5% of interstate & int’l telecom charges (varies quarterly), 7 cents Regulatory & 85 cents Administrative/line/mo., & others by area) are not taxes (details: 1-888-684-1888); gov’t taxes & our surcharges could add 4%-36% to your bill. Activation fee/line: $35 ($25 for secondary Family SharePlan® lines w/2yr Agmts). IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION: Subject to Customer Agmt, Calling Plan, credit approval. Up to $175 early termination fee/line & other charges. Device capabilities: Add’l charges & conditions apply. Offers & coverage, varying by service, not available everywhere. While supplies last. Shipping charges may apply. In CA: Sales tax based on full retail price of phone.

• Check it out:http://estore.vzwshop.com/friendsandfamily/

Gary from Made Simple Learning let me know that they have published a new BlackBerry Curve 8900 Made Simple book.

Some highlights from the press release:

• Made Simple Learning is proud to announce today it is publishing the newest book in its easy-to-read BlackBerry guide book series. This one focuses on the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 Series smartphone and includes material for the 8900, 8920, 8930 and all 89xx Series BlackBerry handhelds.
• Also available is the full Video Library for the BlackBerry ® Curve ™ 8900.
• Martin Trautschold and co-author Gary Mazo, once again have collaborated to produce the “definitive” guide to the newest BlackBerry Smartphone. The completion of the BlackBerry Curve™ 8900 Series book means that books are now available for the entire new series of BlackBerry ® Smartphones.
• This guide book is unique in that it helps both Windows™ and Apple Mac™ users with all aspects of the BlackBerry® Curve ™ 8900.

Made Simple Learning also offers video tutorials that you can watch on your PC/MAC or take it to go on your BlackBerry.

• Purchase: BlackBerry Curve 8900 Made Simple
• Blackberry Made Simple at MobiHand

Read the full press release after the jump.

CONTINUE READING »

This is definitely a useful application to have on your BlackBerry. Some people aren’t into SMS, they prefer email. SMS2Desk is the option for you . Best of all, it’s free!

Press Release

Compatible with Microsoft® Outlook®, IBM® Lotus® Notes®, Novell® GroupWise® and other e-mail programs, SMS2Desk from Cortado, a global leader in mobile applications enables BlackBerry® smartphone users to have text messages converted into e-mail.

The application presents a simple, seamless solution that converts between text messages and e-mail so that BlackBerry smartphone users can read and reply to text messages as e-mails, both on their smartphone and when accessing their e-mail on a computer (PC, Mac or laptop). The convenience of converting e-mail and text message communication allows you to work more efficiently and with greater ease.

The SMS2Desk application is compatible with the following BlackBerry smartphones: BlackBerry® 8700, BlackBerry® Curve™ series, BlackBerry® Pearl™ series, BlackBerry® Bold™ and BlackBerry® Storm™.

More information about SMS2Desk as well as a free of charge download can be found at www.cortado.com/sms2desk.

Information about other free products and services from Cortado can be found at www.cortado.com/free.