Best Buy Mobile let me know about a new service they are launching on October 12th called mIQ. This service allows you to access, share and manage mobile data through a secure and personal Web portal, all done over the air!

Key Features

• Data backup & management: Upgrading to a new phone used to be a hassle. With mIQ, all content that lives on the mobile device — contacts, text messages, calendar events, calls, photos, videos, and voicemail messages — is automatically uploaded and safely backed-up on a personal Web-based mIQ account making it easy to sync, search, interact with, share it or transfer it from one phone to another. Since the mobile phone is constantly connected to the Web, mIQ automatically syncs any changes from the Web to the mobile device and vice-versa, instantly.
• Contacts: mIQ helps users easily manage and track the communication with all their contacts. Contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and other sources can be imported into the mIQ account and synchronized with the mobile phone. Users can then add, edit, or delete contacts from the personal mIQ account – the changes will be instantly pushed to the mobile phone and backed up on the web. Additionally, mIQ enables users to easily view text messages and calls associated with each contact.
• Enhanced text messaging: The mIQ Web platform provides an instant message-like experience by organizing SMS text messages into a conversational format. mIQ automatically uploads text messages to an inbox in the personal mIQ account where they can be read, forwarded, or responded to from any computer. Unlike other Web messaging solutions that deliver texts from random phone numbers, mIQ sends the text messages through the user’s mobile phone, ensuring that the recipient will always know who the message is from.
• Calendar: Instant access to appointments and events is important whether sitting in front of a computer or on the go. mIQ automatically uploads appointments and events from the phone calendar to the Web. Users can then add, edit, or delete calendar entries from either the mobile phone or the mIQ account and changes are automatically synched between the two platforms.
• Photos and videos: mIQ enables users to do more with the memories captured with their smartphones. mIQ automatically uploads photos and videos from the mobile phone to the personal mIQ account – as soon as they are taken – making it easy to organize them by adding titles and descriptions, share them through email and text messages and post them to social networking sites.
• Social media connectivity: Social networking on mobile devices has taken connectivity to a whole new level. Updating friends on the latest happenings no longer requires a trip to the computer. mIQ features instant connectivity to popular social sites like Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed and Twitter, helping users share their mobile experiences – status, photos and videos – directly from their smartphone, wherever they may be.

Pretty awesome and best of all…it’s FREE!

Right now you can sign up for an invite and take a tour of this service at miqlive.com. For more info check out the press release after the jump. Once the service launches don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments!

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Gwabbit let me know that their server-side recognition engine has been upgraded with many improvements that will enhance the BlackBerry application’s performance.

Here are the changes:

• The engine now correctly handles the text added by anti-virus programs such as AVG
• The Improve Results feature (gwabbit for Outlook) is greatly improved, now recognizing a much higher percentage of contact blocks
• Better recognition of non-US phone numbers and non-US addresses
• Better recognition and parsing of HTML emails, taking into account the formatting of the signature block, including stylized text
• Improved handling for new varieties of signature structures, based on the feedback submitted
• Better separation of the “thread” (older email in the same conversation) so as to more accurately identify contact information of the sender. This improvement is especially noticeable in gwabbit for BlackBerry
• Overall improved recognition

If you already have gwabbit you aren’t required to do anything since this is a server-side upgrade.

Since I get a lot of emails these days the gwabbit app is a life saver for automatically detecting signatures and prompting me to create/update an address book entry with that info.

Gwabbit is available for a $9.99 yearly subscription and will work with all BlackBerry devices running OS 4.2 and higher. You can also find this app in the Mobile App Store.

A free trial is available if you’d like to try it before you buy it.

A few weeks ago I posted about the Xobni desktop application and their new partnership with the BlackBerry Partners Fund.

TechCrunch got a picture Xobni running on a BlackBerry showing its contact search feature.

Here’s a description of Xobni:

Xobni, the word “inbox” spelled backwards, has created a new way to look at your email. Xobni takes the effort out of organizing, searching, and navigating your email.

The only thing that has changed with email in the last ten years is that everyone gets more of it. Email is overflowing with information. It’s hard to find what you need. It’s hard to know what you have.

Xobni creates an information profile for each person you interact with, and surfaces historical information that is relevant to what you are working on. Xobni displays contact information, threaded conversations, attachments, related people, email usage statistics, and information from the web. Xobni organizes your communication data and makes it available through intuitive navigation and super fast search.

Xobni currently integrates with the popular Microsoft Outlook email client and will extend to integrate with other email clients, instant messaging applications, and social networks.

Who already uses Xobni on their desktop? Check them out at Xobni.com

Some highlights from the press release:

• reQall (www.reqall.com), the leading memory aid application company, has added a new, feature-rich Pro version and upgraded its original service. reQall Pro is an advanced memory system which provides location-based reminders, voice-to-calendar integration and the proactive reQall Memory Jogger(TM) to boost productivity and enhance memory. reQall’s free service, now called reQall Standard, has been improved with several new features to create an even more comprehensive user experience.
• reQall Pro anticipates needed information and automatically augments users’ memory based on their context and location.
• Ultimately, reQall Pro is a virtual assistant that helps users to: be on-time and well-prepared for appointments; capture ideas whenever and wherever they come to mind; share reminders with family and co-workers; retrieve relevant information at the right time; and not worry about forgetting important events like anniversaries and birthdays.
• The upgraded reQall Standard lets users organize tasks, shopping list items, and notes in one place and receive reminders at the appropriate time. reQall Standard’s new features include support for recurring dates, sharing to non-reQall users, an improved contacts interface, direct actions on BlackBerry and iPhone, and integrated Memory Jogger.
• reQall Pro is available for $2.99/month or $24.99/year. reQall users who signed up before March 25, 2009 can upgrade for just $19.99 for the first year. New users receive a 30-day free trial of reQall Pro. Existing users can try reQall Pro free for 45 days. reQall Standard continues to be a free offering.

Read the full press release after the jump.

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* UPDATE In my haste to post this (was running late for a class) I placed it in the wrong category. Xobni is actually meant for use on a desktop PC. I posted about it because I thought it was pretty cool with all its features, and because of their new involvement with the BlackBerry Partners Fund. I also changed the screenshots to a demo video so you can see what it’s about. Sorry about the confusion. *

Some highlights from the press release:

• Xobni, the popular Outlook search and relationship plugin, today announced an investment from the BlackBerry Partners Fund to bring the company’s Series B round to over $10 million. The company has also removed its beta label with the introduction of Xobni v1.7. The new version of Xobni includes significant performance improvements to its relationship management sidebar and is available as a free download here: http://xobni.com/download
• The BlackBerry Partners Fund’s investment allows Xobni to continue developing innovative solutions, including its lightning fast inbox search and powerful relationship management tools.
• Since the launch of Xobni’s public beta in May 2008, the company has been working to optimize speed and performance.
• Xobni has also enhanced its product offering throughout the past year by developing strategic partnerships with leading content providers including LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo! Mail, Skype and Hoover’s.

Read the full press release after the jump.

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