IntoMobile » Live Event Coverage

The Signal 47: BlackBerry Developer Conference Edition

Simon Sage — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:02:27 +0000

BBDC was unexpectedly busy – hear how the devs feel about it all!

If you haven’t been following, the 2009 BlackBerry Developer Conference was the source of a lot of big announcements, like OpenGL support enabling some rich 3D graphics, an Adobe partnership that cements Flash on BlackBerry, and a long-overdue LinkedIn app. This episode of The Signal focuses a lot on themes, as we have the fine folks from BlackBerry Theme Park and themes4bb giving us our take on the new Theme Builder Studio. The winner of the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) (NSDQ: RIMM) Partner’s Fund challenge, James Shannon from DevelopIQ, gives us some feedback from the app developer side, and how all of the various announcements impact the 7digital music store. No conference is complete without hooking up with some fellow bloggers – Ronen Halevy from BerryReview and Kevin Michaluk from CrackBerry weigh in on the show overall, and what RIM’s future with developers is looking like.

At points it’s a little technical, but if you’re into BlackBerry, development, or user interface stuff, this is the podcast for you. Hit the jump!

Sorry about the audio quality, it was tricky finding a quiet spot to record.

Music by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, as featured on Tap Tap Revenge for the iPhone.

The Signal is a part of the Tech Podcasts Network.

Download The Signal ( Episode 47 ) – iTunes – RSS – (45:40)

Headlines

RIM Announces Flash Tools for Developers

OpenGL ES Arrives on BlackBerry, 3D Gaming in Tow

BlackBerry Lookin’ Good with GUI and Theme Developer Tools

OpenGL ES Arrives on BlackBerry, 3D Gaming in Tow

Themes, Widgets, and Carrier Billing Announced for BlackBerry App World

P.S.: The guy who hops in around the end is CB’s very own Bla1ze.

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Themes, Widgets, and Carrier Billing Announced for BlackBerry App World

Simon Sage — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:08:16 +0000

The BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) App World got some love at the Developer Conference keynote, with the announced inclusion of web-based widgets and themes. We had heard themes were coming down the pipe, and the widget SDK has been out there for a little over a month, but combined with the show’s focus on the new theme builder tools and OS 5.0, the devs here should feel good about diving right in to these new kinds of App World content.

BlackBerry widgets have generated a lot of talk here at BBDC, but there’s still a lot of contention about the name; most people think of tiny desktop applications, or Android home screen items, and that’s really not what BlackBerry widgets are like at all. It’s probably better to think of them as RIM’s answer to webOS – it essentially opens up the platform to those who are interested or simply more comfortable coding in web languages like CSS, HTML and XML. The presence of widgets in App World is going to be seamless, since they won’t be functionally different than the standard Java applications folks normally load up onto a BlackBerry.

As for themes, the new tools should give theme developers a little bit of extra fighting juice in a new, unified, and potentially competitive theme market. The internal testing process will likely be a little different, but I’ve been told it will be just as robust as that for apps and the submitting will be just as open to everyone.

Finally, carrier billing is something folks have been asking for, since PayPal has been the sole payment option since App World’s launch in the spring. With carrier billing, folks would just end up seeing all App World purchases right on their monthly wireless bill. Working directly with credit and debit cards would be sweet in the long run, but this is a good step in the right direction. In-app transactions will provide an added revenue stream for developers, but end-users need options on the payment front too. It’ll be interesting to see which carriers sign on for this kind of billing, and how long it takes to roll out internationally.

If you’ve got either a theme or widget that you want to get into App World, you can get submitting right now. Carrier billing won’t be around until next year, though.

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LinkedIn App for BlackBerry Announced

Simon Sage — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:01:43 +0000

It’s about time. At yesterday’s keynote, RIM announced a LinkedIn application for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), joining Facebook and MySpace as some of the platform’s pillars social networking pillars. BlackBerry was built from the ground up for professionals, so LinkedIn really is a perfect fit. All of the expected functionality is there, like notifications in the Messages folder, Address Book and Calendar integration, invitation handling, home screen notifications, and plenty more. Here are a few more screenshots, but you can keep an eye on the LinkedIn blog for more info leading up the public release before the end of the year.

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OpenGL ES Arrives on BlackBerry, 3D Gaming in Tow

Simon Sage — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:43:34 +0000

Gaming on BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) has never been what you would call breathtaking – a few low-key casual games here and there and the preloaded Brickbreaker could handle the lion’s share of twitchy boredom. Well, the platform is taking a big jump as OpenGL ES support has gone official and is currently available in the beta BlackBerry JDE we had mentioned earlier.

The in-app purchacing sounded vaguely iPhone OS 3.0, and OpenGL even moreso, but between these multimedia improvements and BlackBerry’s existing expertise in productivity, the whole platform is feeling a lot more balanced. Shown here is Need for Speed, which we’ll have some hands-on footage of shortly, complete with gesture controls for brake and boosting, and accelerometer use for steering. There’s going to be at least one other big name game showing off what OpenGL on BlackBerry can do, and we’ll be sure to check it out.

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New Geolocation and Push Services Coming to BlackBerry

Simon Sage — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:12:41 +0000

More goodies from the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Developer Conference today: fresh location-detection options using cell site recognition, and push services for those who want to leverage RIM’s biggest advantage in mobile computing. First up, cell site recognition is a big one for location-based apps who want to keep battery drain down (GPS takes a significant toll). Anyone with 5.0 will automatically update the database of cell towers and their locations; a very cool use of crowdsourcing. There’s also new reverse geocoding that will tag specific coordinates with a proper street address – a nice addition that we’re already seeing in action in Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps for Mobile. On top of those two, RIM has introduced an API for estimated travel time within the U.S. and Canada; the time is generated based on aggregated traffic conditions and speed limits cross-referenced with distance.

Good stuff all around, but push services are probably bigger news for most developers. Push Services will enable apps to pull down up to 8 KB of data with all of the righteous immediacy that makes BlackBerry e-mail oh-so-very awesome. It’ll be interesting to see how this service will fare once it’s out in the wild and what developers use it for (push Twitter, anyone?); Web Signals have been testing the waters for a little bit with Alliance Members, but we’ll have to wait to see how much apps can really do with 8 KB. An added bonus, for devs who thought they might have to pay for it, is that Push Services will be available for free.

Both the new geolocation and push services are available specifically in devices with OS 5.0 and up, and will be available in the first half of 2010. You can try out some of these new options in the beta 5 Java Development Environment that was just released today. For more information on the upcoming push service, check out RIM’s page.

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RIM Announces New Advertising Program and In-App Purchacing

Simon Sage — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:58:22 +0000

One of the many announcements made at the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Developer Conference is a new ad partner program that allows app creators to monetize their apps right away. The BlackBery Advertising Service will plug in ads from Jumptap, Lat49, Millennial Media, Navteq, 1020 Placecast, Quattro Wireless and Sympatico.ca – an impressive initial list, but I’m wondering where Google Mobile ads stand, and if their own program stands on its own just fine for BlackBerry devs. Ads offered through this program can do all sorts of stuff, like click-to-call, launching the address book or browser, or find a program in App World.

A related update on the transaction front are in-app purchases. That means you can buy new levels for a game you’re really digging, or buy songs from on-device music stores (7digital comes to mind), and similar kinds of microtransactions. Yeah, it sounds suspiciously familiar to the iPhone 3.0 announcement, but it offers BlackBerry developers some added flexibility in how they make their money.

The new ad service and in-app purchacing goes live in 2010, complete with SDKs. Keep an eye on the newly redesigned Developer Zone for more info.

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RIM Announces Flash Tools for Developers

Will Park — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:26:02 +0000

While Adobe might be taking potshots at Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) for not providing the footholds to get Flash on the iPhone, RIM has announced that upcoming versions of Creative Suite 5 will allow developers to import Flash content in a BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)-friendly format through the Eclipse JDE plug-in. So, yeah, Flash on BlackBerry. We had heard this was coming, and it’s great to see something good and official, though we’ll only really understand the scope of this announcement once we see developers do something with it (similar to the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Gears and widget support in OS 5.0).

Adobe’s participation extends to all of their popular tools, like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator at first, Fireworks, and plenty of other popular apps already being used by web developers will be available later; AIR is in the works. This all elaborates on the Open Screen Project Adobe was talking about not too long ago, and has the potential to make the BlackBerry experience a heck of a lot more enjoyable. Flash-enabled widgets are a great weapon against Android and webOS who have had the benefit of creating a smooth user interface from the ground up; RIM is shackled to their old OS, and as we all know, it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Well, BlackBerry, prove us wrong – let’s see some new tricks.

Creative Suite 5 should be coming out in 2010, along with all of this BlackBerry support, but you can find more details on RIM’s Adobe tools here. Stick around for more announcements and news from the BlackBerry Developer Conference!

UPDATE: Quick clip of the simulator running Flash video after the jump. Sure, it’s not a real device, but it’s a pretty solid step.

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Rogers and RIM Kick Off CampusChase in Ottawa

Simon Sage — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:18:16 +0000

I took the morning to check out a contest RIM and Rogers (NYSE: RCI) were holding at the University of Ottawa called CampusChase, where teams of two run around town like headless chickens on a scavenger hunt for big prizes. Rogers wasn’t quite ready to show off the Bold 9700 just yet (all of the promos were for the Curve 8520), but it was still a ton of fun hanging out with the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) mascots for awhile. Here are a few pictures of the booths, contestants, and the warm-up just prior to the race. One of my favourites is of the two Bolds getting a little friendly. CityChase goes all over, so be sure to check out their schedule to see if it’ll be happening in your city any time soon.

Gallery after the jump!

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Nokia Working on Augmented Reality Language Translation via OCR Character Recognition

Simon Sage — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:21:11 +0000

After getting a demo of some of the cool vector map capabilities on the N900 at CTIA, I prodded a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) rep about what they’ve been working on with augmented reality (since zooming down to street level on the map to check out the 3D rendering of a stadium was awfully close). He mentioned that there’s an project in alpha within Nokia that involves OCR character recognition that would effectively translate text seen through the camera into other languages. Sounds like a logical extension of Point and Find. Camera quality is a bottleneck, but now that phones are getting into the 8-12 megapixel range and optics are continually improving, picking up small text is becoming less of an issue. Given, this program will probably produce the garden variety hilarity of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) translations, it’s all you would need to get by in a foreign country.

And let’s face it: you know you’re living in the freaking future when you can point your phone at a bunch of alien characters and have them magically make sense. Combined with something like Sakhr’s voice translation software, one could be well-armed to handle some pretty exotic locales.

[pic]

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Good Technology Bringing Secure Enterprise Push E-Mail to iPhone

Simon Sage — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:57:29 +0000

Ever wanted to use an iPhone for work, but got stuck with the standard issue BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)? Well, Good Technology has made progress on their iPhone application, the back-end management for which was announced in the spring, and was showing it off at CTIA. The app has all the usual fixings, like e-mail (complete with push notifications and tomato splat on the home screen), contacts, and calendar items, all synced up to your enterprise Exchange or Domino server. The Good app uses enterprise standards for encryption like AES, and through a web-based management console, IT admins can manage employee mobility. I’m still dubious on whether or not Good’s admin side is as robust as RIM’s, but even if it’s not, I’m sure it will offer a reasonable suite of tools to work with. No word on pricing just yet, but it should be available in the App Store in the next couple of weeks. For a closer look, check out their data sheet or sign up for availability notifications.

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Orbit Address Book Controls Volume of Social Networks

Simon Sage — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:53:59 +0000

Okay, let’s face it: there are people in your social networks you just want to mute sometimes. Inane tweets, stupid Facebook status updates, or a continual influx of devilishly entertaining links distracting you from doing something productive. On the flip side, sometimes you want to be on be on the pulse of things and just want to hear it all. Well, this neat little address book app for iPhone called Orbit has an ingenious feature called Social Volume which lets you do just that.

At its core, Orbit aims to handle all of the native personal information management tasks under one roof – e-mail, phone, text, and social networking. The way Social Volume works is that you can adjust the frequency of updates from user-specified groups of contacts and specific types of updates. An “Inner Orbit” group lets you handle your top-priority contacts separately, along with being able to optionally populate the address book through Facebook.

I’d really like to see Trillibis plug multimedia social networks like last.fm and Flickr into their app, but in the end, I just really like the idea of Social Volume. It strikes me as a real poignant and natural thing for someone to do on their social networks; “I don’t hate you, but please, please, just shut up for a little while.” Free iPhone and BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) apps will be arriving before the end of the year, with Android following shortly thereafter in 2010.

[via Trilibis]

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Midomi for Android Identifies Hummed or Sung Music

Simon Sage — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:24:46 +0000

Midomi, an online community for amateur singers and music identification service, will be extending into Android soon. Until now, Shazam had struck me as the best mobile music ID service out there, but after seeing Midomi in action, I can see how handy humming a song could be when you’ve got it stuck in your head, or don’t have a chance to jam your phone right against a radio’s speaker. After either grabbing a sample of the song in question or simply speaking the artist/title, Midomi Ultra presents options for buying the track, YouTube videos, album information, lyrics lookup, and just about anything else you would want to know about a song. One of the key differentiators with Midomi is the social element – it’s heavily geared towards connecting you with people who have looked up similar music. Unfortunately, the app will be exclusive to the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Cliq for the immediate future, but if you happen to be packing an iPhone, Midomi has got you covered.

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BlackBerry Bold and Curve 8520 Show up in White

Simon Sage — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:42:15 +0000

A nice little treat from RIM last night at CTIA was these two devices, the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold 9000 and Curve 8520, in a brand new white paint job. We had heard rumours about the white Bold hitting up AT&T (NYSE: T), but the new 8520, which will be joining its black and blue brothers on T-Mobile (NYSE: DT), was a welcome surprise. T-Mobile’s offer is available now, and I’m sure AT&T’s will go live soon.

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Slacker Radio Coming to Android and Windows Mobile

Simon Sage — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:07:45 +0000

Slacker, a great music app for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and iPhone, will be launching on Android and Windows Mobile tomorrow, allowing you to browse, favourite, and discover music on your smartphone. The launch will come with some new Twitter integration which will let you tweet whenever you favourite a new track, and share a link to the station you’re listening to so your followers can take a listen for themselves. While Slacker might lack the immediate convenience of over the air downloads, its sideloading setup allows for much higher-quality tracks. Just like the previous versions, the app will be free to download, but of course you’ll always have the option to buy the tracks to do what you will with. Licensing issues are still a thorn in Slacker’s side; if you live anywhere other than the U.S., you won’t be able to use the service. Otherwise, take a look at Slacker, and keep an eye on their mobile app page for some fresh goodies tomorrow.

UPDATE: Slight miscommunication. It’s only the twitter feature launching today – Android and Windows Mobile will be arriving at a later, undisclosed date.

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Live-casting the iPhone 3G S launch

Will Park — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:37:00 +0000

Here we are. It’s the eve of the iPhone 3G S launch, and the excitement is growing. In just a couple handfuls of hours, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) will let loose the iPhone 3G S on the US. Come tomorrow morning (June 19), Apple stores across the country will open their doors, applaud the die-hard fans waiting in line, and proceed to dole out Cupertino’s latest smartphone hotness to anyone with the right number of greenbacks.

So, to continue our tradition of camping out for an iPhone bringing you live coverage of iPhone launch-day crowds, IntoMobile will be broadcasting live from the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade Apple Store in beautiful Southern California.

With a little luck, you’ll get a first-hand look at what Apple fans look like in their natural habitat (the Apple store, of course), and you might even get to chat with the IntoMobile team! The feed will go live shortly, so make sure to keep checking IntoMobile.

[Update]
Okay, we’re live! Hop in the chat room and let us know what’s on your mind.

[Update2]
Sorry guys, technical difficulties. We’re back. Stronger, faster, more sleepy!

Consolation prize - you see that fancy schmancy IntoMobile t-shirt that Will is rockin’? Well we’re giving away a couple IntoMobile shirts as consolation prizes. It’s no iPhone 3G S, but they sure are darn comfortable tees!

Remember: We’ll be announcing the third and final winner in our iPhone 3G S giveaway at midnight tonight! Make sure to enter in time!

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Joshua Jackson Christens Rogers’ Android Foray with HTC Magic and Dream

Simon Sage — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:59:49 +0000

Okay, okay, roll in those tongues ladies, this is about Rogers (NYSE: RCI)’ first Android-toting smartphones, the HTC Magic and Dream, not your beloved Joshua Jackson of Dawson’s Creek fame, however dreamy and/or magical he may be. As mentioned, Rogers has announced the first Android devices in Canada for $149.99 on three-year contract, and are offering a promotional $30 6 GB monthly data plan. You can pick ‘em up in stores now.

One of the biggest questions that lingered after their launch event in Toronto was “why did it take so long for Android to get to Canada?” I’d like to think that Rogers was taking the high road and waiting until Exchange support was available, but it seems more likely that they didn’t hop on board last fall like T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) US did because the iPhone 3G was still fresh out of the gate and they didn’t want to cannibalize any sales; even now, based on some of the ads they showed us, it’s clear Rogers is pushing the slider Dream more than the newer, more impressive, full-touchscreen Magic.

Hit the jump for some first impressions of the HTC Magic and HTC Dream from Rogers, and a bunch of pictures both of the handsets and Joshua Jackson, if you’re into that kind of thing.

The Magic’s form factor was immediately impressive – slim, sleek, and functional. The 3.2″ HVGA touchscreen is extremely responsive and smooth, especially in the browser. I hadn’t spent much time with Android, but the ability to scan a page in fullscreen with the fisheye lens then release your finger to zoom in on the area is absolutely great. My primary complaint about mobile web browsing on touchscreens has always been nailing links that are tucked away in clusters, but that’s where the trackball really shines – you can scroll through a number of links quickly and chose one precisely without any trouble using the trackball.

Having spent most of my time with the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), and previously unimpressed with my iPod Touch’s keypad, I was tentative about the Magic’s. Luckily, the keys in landscape were large, haptic feedback helpful, and apparently the OS learns your finger placement and adjusts accordingly. I remember hearing that some Windows Mobile phones were picky about where you could hit a key, so a flexible system that adapts to the user is a good way to get around that.

All-in-all, the HTC Magic is smexy (especially the 5 megapixel camera), and I am thoroughly bummed that it’ll take a couple of weeks before a review unit is available. The only downside I can imagine is the combined charge/sync/music ExtUSB port, but even that is forgiveable by many. Keep an eye in the near future for a full review. Hopefully the Market will have more than the 3,500 initial apps after it has some time to mature.

The HTC Dream is only different from T-Mobile’s G1 by way of its casing, so if you’re looking for the full scoop on the Dream, it probably makes sense to check out Will’s full-blown review of the G1 – just pretend it has the latest cupcakey goodness and Exchange support.

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WES 2009 Day 1 Keynote

Simon Sage — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:37:26 +0000

RIM’s biggest BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) show of the year is now officially on and the the keynote is gonna kick things off. We aren’t expecting anything big (like the a device announcement), but will probably have some cool stuff for enterprise and admins. Woop! Show’s starting. Time to liveblog.

8:44 – Mike Lazaridis talks up BlackBerry’s birthday, success and growth.

8:47 – Mike intros BES 5.0. Web-based console, end-users get remote access, e-mail flags and folders. Same ol’.

8:52 – Beta testers give their testimonials. Glowing all around – high availability, failover, easy upgrade, solid security.

8:56 – Mike talking about making BlackBerry an all-in-one connection back home while staying secure. Now talking about Chalk Media. Hmm… I’m listening… Dang, moved on to Mobile Voice System. Was hoping maybe there was some announcement with Chalk there. Podcast software bundled with OS might have been cool.

9:00 – Wireless Presentation Solution for projecting PowerPoints gets mentioned. Would like to have seen more of it, though.

9:03 – Mike goes off stage. More peppy video testimonials.

9:06 – IBM Lotus Software GM Bob Picciano takes the stage. Talks up their enterprise collaboration software.

9:11 – We’re building a smarter planet, apparently. I dunno, still seems pretty dumb to me. Chewing through 9 predictions for collaboration shifts. 1: Everyone needs universal access to collaboration.

9:13 – Prediction number two: Messaging becomes an integrated platform, like building into BlackBerry. Number three: managing through human networks, not hierarchies.

9:15 – Number four: Telephony becomes voice collaboration. Basically, more than just talking – click to collaborate. Number five: Desktop productivity tools can save enterprise a bunch of money. BES 5.0 supports OpenOffice and Lotus Symphony. The French dude just raspberried the Bob, totally unimpressed. Heh.

9:18 – Number six: Transform SMBs into global trading partners. Managed services work well for them. Linux emerges onto the corporate desktop. Huh, eeeeenteresting. Open Collaboration Client Solution offers low cost Linux-based options.

9:21 – Number eight: Proliferation of cloud computing, LotusLive is their main offer on that front.

9:25 – New product… Alloy by IBM and SAP gives users reports management, travel management, leave management, a bunch of other stuff.

9:29 – P.S.: The Wi-Fi here sucks. Cisco’s Laurent Philonenko takes the stage also talking up collaboration. “We are now oblivious of location. … We work everywhere.” Click to join is apparently a big deal. “Have you tried joining a conference while driving on a freeway? If not, don’t.”

9:37 – “Data has overwhelmed voice in a very big way.” IP telephony is letting us do some new things with voice. Demo time. Getting a text messaging while you’re on a voice call – the texter doesn’t call because they see their contact’s current status. Cool, I guess?

9:43 – Wow. Reserve conference room and detect resources like projector and Wi-Fi from the phone. That’s really cool, actually. Shows the conference room on a map, just click it on your device for options.

9:48 – Cisco’s off. More peppy videos.

9:50 – Eric Haseltine, President of Haseltine Partners LLC. I don’t know who he is or what he does, but he looks like he would make a great Emperor Palpatine.

9:52 – Oh, he’s a brain scientist! He was an exec VP for Disney and worked for national security. Talking a lot about “long fuse, big bang.”

9:54 – Talking about neuroeconomics, seeing how the brain works when it comes to money. Most people will take $10 today over $11 tomorrow.

9:57 – Talking about the conflict between creating revolutionar products and dealing with immediate demands of investors. “The urgent always trumps the important.”

10:08 – The I/O bottleneck will open up – projectors are already broaching the problem of small screens and small keyboards. Use a mental time machine to figure out what would be awesome in the future and start planning for it today.

10:11 – Early adopters won’t fight you. Those in discomfort zones or best candidates for trying new technology, since those who are comfy in their position won’t want to move.

10:15 – Haha, Palpatine just made a Rebel Alliance reference to counter-cultures and how useful they are to new technology.

10:20 – Palpatine’s done and so is the general session. Time to get a few posts up then hitting the show floor. Remember to follow @SimonSage!

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IntoMobile at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium 2009

Simon Sage — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:26:50 +0000

Y’know, MWC, CES, and CTIA might be bigger shows, but Research in Motion’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium really lets you focus on one platform: Blackberry (NSDQ: RIMM). Everywhere else you have to keep an eye on a bunch of different carriers, often to the detriment of anyone else trying to grab your attention. This is my second year here, and after hooking up with fellow bloggers and innovative developers on press day today, I’m already looking forward to the official start to WES tomorrow. On top of keeping a close eye on our WES 2009 category, you can follow yours truly on Twitter for a personal look, as well as IntoMobile’s official feed which will feature 12seconds clips from the show. Tomorrow I’m hoping to go booth to booth and force exhibitors to condense their pitches to fit in 12 seconds – should be fun! (Remember, anybody from the UK should follow @IntoMobile anyway for a chance to win an Xda Zest from O2!)

This afternoon, I took part on a little predictions panel as part of BoxTone’s set-up. Al Sacco from CIO, Kevin from CrackBerry, Kyle from BlackBerry Cool and Howie from Port3101 all had their own 3-year predictions to make – my most outrageous claim was that RIM would make a slider, but there was a lot of talk about whether or RIM could (or would ever) acquire Palm (NSDQ: PALM). Overall, a great discussion about the smartphone sphere and how BlackBerry fit into it. Pics below, along with shots of the show floor. Stay tuned for more news this week from WES!

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The Signal (Episode 22: CTIA Wireless 2009 Edition)

Simon Sage — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:56:59 +0000

Well, that was underwhelming.

CTIA Wireless 2009 wasn’t an especially stunning show, but Will and I run down the main device releases from Samsung and HTC, followed by an interview with RIM Manager of Developer Relations Mike Kirkup on their App World launch. I’ve been hearing some anger from abroad about the UK, Canada, and U.S. limitations on the App World, nevermind the 1.0 bumps expected in a product launch. Still, App World is overall a good thing for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), and we all wait with bated breath to see how it evolves. We’re going to have another go at giving away those Z.buds – just leave a comment and you have a shot! This week’s poll has to do with restriction on Skype for the iPhone imposed by carriers. Are Wi-Fi-only versions of the software fair, or should the carrier protect their role as a service provider rather than just being dumb pipes?

Music by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, as featured on Tap Tap Revenge for the iPhone.

Filler by Krazy Baldhead.

The Signal is a part of the Tech Podcasts Network.

Download The Signal ( Episode 22 ) – iTunes – RSS – (36:07)

Headlines

Hands-on with the HTC Snap

Hands-on the Samsung Mondi @ CTIA Wireless 2009

Hands-on with the Samsung Instinct S30 for Sprint!

RIM Opens Doors To BlackBerry App World

~~P.S.: Sorry about cutting the interview short, but there were only two questions we missed. Hopefully I can get a hold of Mike again for a do-over.~~

P.P.S.: Got some more time in with Mike today! Skip to 30:06 for the new bits, if you’ve already listened.

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ZTE Booth Tour – Live from CTIA Wireless 2009 Las Vegas

Simon Sage — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:27:01 +0000

They might get a bad rap for cheap phones, but ZTE is bigger than you think – number 6 worldwide, though you might not be too familiar with them since they only have three handsets in North America, and they’re on metroPCS (NYSE: PCS). ZTE is working to crack the tough nut of the U.S. market after seeing plenty of business back home in China and abroad in Europe, but based on some of the phones they were showing off, ZTE has a reasonable shot at some market share.

Out front, ZTE was showing off some concept tech, like a slider with tiltable speakers called Xer, two USB modem watches (Rotta and Agate),and an MID with a removable power button dubbed Pure. Of their, y’know, actual phones, the D300 looked absolutely awesome, with its brushed aluminum face and sharp lines. The D300 just a simple CDMA flip, but apparently it one a design award of some sort. The D92 looked pretty cool, with letter keys in between the standard numpad – it landed on Telus not long ago. Samsung might still be working on Blue Earth, but the ZTE Solar-S312 at least has the charging part of that equation already implemented and ready to go.

On the higher end, they’ve three Windows Mobile devices (like the E810 and U990) that, if priced right, could be a cheap alternative to the upcoming HTC Snap. Talking with ZTE was actually really interesting since they’ve got so much stuff that might actually be finding its way to our shores, but combined with their transition from feature to smart phones, they’ve got an uphill battle.

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