Friday, April 24, 2009 by Amber
Good afternoon -- it's a gorgeous day up here in the North East, so while I lament not being able to properly enjoy it, let's take a look at these headlines... Have you ever played 'Werewolf'? Apparently it's all the rage along the West Coast where techno-geeks from around Silicon Valley are converging at conferences to play this psycho-whimsical game. Large groups -- often more than one at once -- are deemed the villagers while one unknown person among them is the werewolf. During the 'Night' the werewolf can kill the villagers (who have their eyes closed so they don't know who it is), but during the 'Day' they vote and eliminate on person they think it the werewolf. Yeah, I've played before, and it can be pretty fun. Of course, when I played, it was with 10 8-year-olds in an acting class based on Harry Potter ... but I'm sure those kids thought they were geeks, too. In news so sickening and offensive I thought about not mentioning it ... forget it, I can't bring myself to. Needless to say, Apple apologized. Now, onto better things, Pixar is teaming up with cluster-balloon pilot Jonathan Trappe -- yeah, that weird guy who uses helium balloons attached to an armchair to fly. Pixar is hoping to drum up publicity for it's new film, Up,' about a cranky old man who uses a cloud of balloons to turn his house into a true mobile home .... 4,000 feet high! President Obama is about to get his new Blackberry that has reportedly been secured by the NSA. They'd better hope the security holds -- Mr. Pres is going to have a bulls eye on his back larger than Redmond! Imagine the bragging rights of the hacker who busts into that account ... Looking for a good rant for the day? Check out this one arguing how casual gaming is going to overtake and kill hard-core gaming -- or has it already? I'm going to be gone all next week -- no blog updates!! But check back here May 4 for some full updates, new reviews and lots of snarky commentary :) Have a great week!! Labels: Apple, balloons, barack obama, BlackBerry, Pixar, shaken baby app, Werewolf
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Amber
Good afternoon, all! Tonight is LOST night -- can I be more excited?! Although recent events have left my theories and arguments of the nature of time travel hanging in the precarious balance -- can't wait to see what the show will come up with next! Now, as I get my feet wet in the wild world of the web over here in Captivate land, take a peek at these top headlines: It's embarrassing but true: I, who blasts everyone for not being literate of computer security measures, caught a virus last week. Thank goodness it wasn't Conficker, which is still terrorizing computers everywhere. Watch out. Constant vigilance. And no online computer games. Sigh.  A new CT scan has revealed a different face lives under the ancient bust of Nefertiti -- a prized piece of ancient artwork. Apparently, underneath the stucco exterior is a highly detailed stone carving of the queen. How cool! And how weird that scientists though to look! The Supreme Court has freed a spammer by not re-instating a Virginia antispam law, saying in its decision that the law was too broad and denied spammers their First Amendment right to free speech. Yeah, right. Thanks, Supreme Court. I mean, the guy didn't deserve to be jailed, but that really sends the wrong message to other spammers, doesn't it? Fictionwise, bought by Barnes and Nobles late last year, has announced an eReader application for the BlackBerry! I can smell some competition for my darling Kindle... and you know what competition brings? Cheaper prices and better devices! Yay! Is Facebook going public? After the social networking site's CFO left, rumors are running rampant the company will take over Wall Street. Remember the Microsoft/ TomTom suit we mentioned a while back? It's over, and Microsoft won pretty decisively. Finally -- my wonderful wizard of Woz has been put to sleep. And, he took a Playmate with him. Hehe ... It'll be a long season in the Chemerkovski/Smirnoff household, though. Our friends at CNet have a cute list of 4 cheap ways to entertain yourself (no), and one if them is my favorite as well! (No.) PlayStation2 is getting a price cut -- sorry for all those who thought it was PS3. That's still the most expensive Blu-Ray player you'll find -- oh, and it apparently plays games too. Who knew. Want to embrace Twitter? USAToday's story can tell you how to use the service (cough) to promote yourself and your business. OK, that's all for me today -- check back here Friday for a recap of the week's top stories and maybe even some LOST theories! Labels: Amazon.com's Kindle, antispam laws, BlackBerry, Conficker, ereader, facebook, Fictionwise, Nefertiti
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Monday, January 12, 2009 by Amber
Since friends kept asking “what was your favorite thing from CES?”, I figured I’d share my favorites. This is by no means a comprehensive “best of show” list. These are simply one man’s favorite items, the ones that stood out most to me as unique in crowded fields: (Prices are MSRP, I’ve seen each much cheaper online.) 1. Sony Vaio TT200 laptop - $1999 2. Canon PowerShot SD880IS - $249.99 (available for low-mid $200s) 3. Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth earpiece - $149.95 (available for half that online) 4. Koss PortaPro headphones - $49.99 5. Altec Lansing Expressionist BASS computer speakers - $129.95 6. BlackBerry 8900 (and magically make it work on VZW) And 4 runner’s up, just for fun: 1. iLane Bluetooth e-mail & txt reader / dictation composer - $599 2. SanDisk 16 GB microSD – price not yet set (probably around $50) 3. SanDisk 240 GB SSD for laptop - $499 4. Toshiba Tecra R10 laptop - $1549 Check out all our CES posts by clicking here. --Peter Szabo Labels: Altec Lansing, BlackBerry, Canon, CES coverage, iLane, Koss, Plantronics, PortaPro, PowerShot, SanDisk, Sony, Tecra, Toshiba, Vaio
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by Amber
Now, sadly, we’re getting to the part of the show where there are simply too many products and too little time. So far, I’ve tried to highlight some of the best things I’ve seen, and give you details on them. I wish there was enough time to do the same for a lot of these other products, but unless I want to be writing into next month, there just isn’t. Check out the 2 photo albums, there are over 50 pictures with captions for each. It’s a great way to get a quick feel for the show. We may revisit some of these products in the future, but for now, let’s roll into the first annual “bye-sized rest of CES”…  -Pioneer was among many companies featuring BD Live- which stands for Blu-ray Disc live. It allows you to tap into the internet for some great content and features. The best example I heard was how a movie’s director can host a Blu-ray viewing party. The director can pause the movie for everyone (cause you’re all watching at the same time, and are connected to the internet) and explain a scene before it plays. Or pause the movie to take questions from the audience. Takes interactivity to a whole other level. It turns a 2 hour movie into a 4 ½ hour interactive experience. -If you’re old school about getting your TV signal from an over the air antenna, Audiovox has a new line of sleek, stylish HD antennas. They match the flat appeal of the latest TVs. (No more rabbit ears.) They also showed off camcorder batteries that charge in minutes, not hours. -Panasonic is proposing a Blu-ray 3-D standard and hopes to have full HD 3-D Blu-ray authoring in place by 2010. As long as that means more sports will be available in 3-D, too, bring it on! They are also adding “Tough Display” to their Viera HDTV’s to help protect the screens from accidental bumps, soccer balls or kids running into them. -A big buzzword throughout the show that we’ve barely touched on was “convergence”- basically connecting everything gadget to the internet. Which is great, because it’s always annoying when you have to watch that episode you missed of your favorite TV show on your 13” laptop, when you’re used to watching on your 42” HDTV. Hulu, YouTube etc coming soon to your TV. -Who has the #1 market share worldwide for flat panel TVs? Samsung. But they are quickly moving to become a bigger player with cameras & camcorders. They have a tiny new HD camcorder with a 64 GB hard drive (which is huge). -Many of the TV manufacturers had what they called an “HD Shooting Gallery” set up. It allowed you to see live versions of their HD camcorders. What blew me away was that usually the HD image on the TV looked better than the real life version of what the camera was shooting. Fruit, for example, looked boring to the naked eye, but on the HDTV, it was vibrant, with richer color.  -iGo is helping reduce the clutter as you travel. Check out their lineup of chargers, some of which allow you to charge 2 devices at once with only 1 cord. -The BlackBerry 8900 (a new version of the Bold for T-Mobile) is even nicer than the Bold you see continually advertised on TV for AT&T. It’s a bit smaller, and even sleeker looking. Sure wish T-Mobile had better coverage in the US cause I’d grab this one in a heartbeat!  -Ego has a Bluetooth hands free system for your car which, they claim, allows you to talk in a convertible (with the top up) at 80mph and the caller you’re speaking with won’t know you’re in the car. I don’t know about that, but I was happy to hear they use the same technology that’s in the Microsoft’s Sync system in my Ford Edge. They also have a clever marketing campaign for it, seen here. -Panasonic, according to them, is the largest consumer electronics company in the world. Interestingly, they weren’t even showing off their ToughBook laptop line. They had a giant booth, mostly with just TVs. (I say “just TVs”, but they were gorgeous TVs.) Did you know the company was started when their founder, 23 at the time, became frustrated there was only 1 power socket in each room so he created the first multi-plug (known today as a surge protector)? Amazing how these giant companies start from such small places. -Casio demoed a new high speed anti-shake technology available in their Exilim line of compact cameras. The FS-10 camera will take 30 shots in 1 second, automatically detect which one has the most people smiling in it, and delete the other 29. It looked nice on their demo stage, but I sure wish we could have tried it ourselves.  -Roland has an electronic drum kit for $799 that allows you to learn the drums in your home, without the loud racket that would make your neighbors hate you. Paired with their $99 “Drum Tutor” software that runs on any PC, you get a clean, easy to learn interface that will be very familiar to any Rock Band fans. I'm now one step closer to learning the drums! Nice! -Kodak unveiled their new HD pocket video camera, very nice. They also were showing off a new phone, in partnership with T-Mobile, that takes amazing pictures. My father has one, so I’m already very familiar with it. It’s no “camera phone” with grainy images. This is a full fledged camera that happens to be inside a phone. Kodak also has an updated line of wifi frames. One feature is that you can put one at your parent’s house 2,000 miles away, and whenever you update your photos on Kodak Gallery, they automatically see the new ones on their frame too. No need to e-mail and hope they can download them and transfer them onto the frame. Great for the not so tech inclined. For anyone that doesn’t have wifi at home, check out the T-Mobile Cameo- same idea, but the pictures are sent over T-Mobile’s network instead of wifi.  -SanDisk- the company you probably know best from the media cards for your digital camera- is increasing their capacity by staggering amounts. First, they unveiled a new microSD card with 16GB capacity. These are the tiny memory cards for your cell phone /BB, and as of a year ago, only had 4GB capacity. You’ll see more from this in a new marketing campaign called “Wake Up Your Phone”- as in, do more with your phone because you now can! And in SSD (solid state, meaning no moving parts) hard drive advances, they’re upto 240GB. That essentially brings SSD on par with traditional laptop hard drives. You can even swap them out yourself in your existing laptop if you want. Prices for their SSD drives range from $149-499 and give you benefit of increased durability (you don’t risk a crash if you drop your laptop) along with longer battery life because there are no moving parts. -I already mentioned Netgear’s new products, but to finish the story- their USB 3B broadband router comes with a cigarette lighter power cord so you can use it in the car. It’s available now and costs $129. Hot spot in the car, anyone? -If you don’t want to run wires all over your house to get audio from one source to come out on speakers in another room, check out the i2i system. It allows each receiver to steam audio from 3 sources. Goes for $119.95 and each receiver will last 5-7 hours on a charge. Great if you want to listen to your iTunes library on your main stereo in the living room.  -Roots, which I had previously known only as a Canadian clothing company, has a great line of Blackberry & iPhone covers called “Tuff Skin”. They are rated to protect from a drop onto concrete from 4 feet high. Too bad they are only sold in Canada. But to our friends up north, grab them at Best Buy or Future Shop.  -Which company’s headset was Neil Armstrong wearing when he became the first man to walk on the moon? Plantronics. If it was good enough to bring us the “One small step for man…” audio, it’s good enough for me! I’ve had a few Plantronics products, and they’re always fantastic. Great call quality on both ends. So I was excited to see their new Discovery 925 Bluetooth headset. Not only is it tiny, but it comes with a dual use case. Dual use because it both protects the headest, and also serves as a battery backup. If you charge the headset in the case, you’ll get 5 hours talk time on the headset, but then another 5 from the case itself. A neat backup feature allowing you to be away from the charger longer. It’s available now in a rainbow of colors, and retails for $150. However, in some quick searching, I’ve already seen it for half that- $75 on Amazon.  -Plantronics’ sister company, Altec Lansing, debuted their new Expressionist line of computer speakers. My favorite is the Expressionist BASS- a $129 version that eliminates the subwoofer, but still gives you deep bass. Great sound from speakers that don’t take up a lot of space. For $199 you can step up to the Expressionist ULTRA, but get ready for the neighbors to complain. These things crank! -Do you watch a lot of TV shows on your laptop? If you’re frustrated from having to search individual websites (like Hulu, NBC, CBS, ABC, MTV, etc) to find your content, do yourself a favor …download the ZViewer from Zee Vee. It takes video from those sources (and more) and organizes them into the easiest navigation setup for web video I’ve come across. And, if you want to get all that great web content on your actual TV screen, grab their ZvBox. It’s a simple looking box that does that fancy job of converting your computer’s video output to HD TV input- oh and uses coax cable from the box to your TV, so you can set it up next to your computer in one room, and run long coax to your TV in the living room without any picture quality loss.  -Brother’s MFC6490CW all in one allows you to print ledger (11x17) size pictures & documents. If you’re always squinting at your Excel spreadsheet printouts, you won’t be if you print them out that size. The picture to the right does a great job showing the difference between a 4x6, 8.5x11 and 11x17 print. Bigger is better.  -Polaroid is back. Months after announcing they were discontinuing film for their old instant cameras, they have a new digital camera that can instantly print 2x3” prints. It looks like a regular digital camera (albeit a large & chunky one), and can print upto 10 of the small prints with each paper tray. There is no ink, and unlike their old instant film, they are instantly visible. No more shaking or waiting for the image to appear. They print onto sticker paper, so you can post them anywhere. Price is $199, and refills of paper cost $4.99.  -From the “why hasn’t anyone thought of this sooner?” category- Dish Network now allows you to get a satellite dish with your favorite NFL team’s logo on it. No longer does your rooftop dish have to be a plain gray eyesore, now it can be a vibrant tribute to your team. It’s a little odd, only because the NFL Sunday Ticket (where you get to watch all the NFL games) is exclusive only to DirecTV (Dish’s rival).
--Peter Szabo Labels: Audiovox, BD Live, BlackBerry, Brother, Casio, CES coverage, Ego, i2i, iGo, Kodak, Netgear, Panasonic, Pioneer, Plantronics, Roland, Roots, Samsung, SanDisk, ZeeVee, Zviewer
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Saturday, January 10, 2009 by Amber
.JPG) I resisted getting a BlackBerry for years. Which is odd only because if you ask any of my friends I’m always the first the have the latest gadgets. But for some reason, the BlackBerry was too much of a trade off. The always on, instantly reachable, tether to the office seemed too much. As things at work got busier, meetings outside the office increased, and I suddenly started feeling like I was missing e-mails. Driving all the way back to the office to “check e-mail” started to get more cumbersome. Slowly I began to think a BlackBerry might be worth it. Knowing if I had e-mails, and specifically needing to get back to clients quickly became more of a priority, so I caved. Off to Verizon Wireless I went. Looking back on that now, I’m amazed. Amazed because I really think you would have to pry the BlackBerry from my fingers. (Seriously, ask anyone who knows me.) I’m right up there with our new President- the BlackBerry is an integral tool I use constantly throughout the day and can’t live without. Once I figured out that getting an e-mail doesn’t mean you have to respond to it right away (ok, I’m still working on that one), I felt more in control of my “always on” world. I started with BB for e-mail, but soon realized it was more than that. It’s a great mobile internet device, and I probably read more news on that now than I do through a traditional browser. Recently, though, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated by all the iPhone hype. I don’t mean that as any knock on Apple, they have an amazing product with both the iPhone and the iPod Touch (which I have and love), but why can’t those of us in the BlackBerry world have similar toys? The iPhone App store is a wonderful collection, I just want versions I can use on my BlackBerry. I felt myself thinking things like, “I have a 3G connection too, why can’t I stream radio?” Certain websites (ESPN, NY Times, LA Times, Boston.com) have done a nice job adding shortcuts to the BlackBerry home screen, which take you directly to their BB optimized site. Nice, but that’s a glorified shortcut. Points for effort, and I love having them, but still not an App Store. That’s about to change. 5 minutes after walking into the BlackBerry booth, it was obvious that the times, they were a changin’. A variety of app style content providers were on hand to show off ways to extend your BlackBerry and make it much more of the multi-faceted communications device I was craving. I have to hand it to these guys, everyone in the BlackBerry booth was eager to show off their product, and jumped right in to help you get it set up properly on your device. This wasn’t a conceptual display where they talk about what you can do, this was about doing it yourself right now! First I wandered over to Nobex. A friendly rep said he could provide me access to 2700 radio stations in a matter of seconds. No way I said. (I also live in constant fear that any cool new BB app won’t work for me- either because of the strict restrictions Verizon Wireless places on their network, or the fact that my World Edition 8830 doesn’t seem to support all BB features. More on that in a second.) That fear jumped to the forefront of my head as I heard the concept- 300 streamable stations, 2400 stations with access to “now playing” style information. After a quick download of their “Radio Companion”, he popped on K-Rock, a popular rock station from LA. Live on the convention center floor, we were listening to live radio, for no additional cost. Now we’re getting somewhere! Unfortunately, the vast majority of stations only provide access to text lists of recently played songs, which is a major bummer. But what you do get, is still pretty cool. Say, for example you’re listening to Kiss in LA, and you hear a song you like. You can pop over to Nobex, and in one click, have an e-mail sent to you with title, artist, lyrics, along with direct links to buy the song on iTunes or Amazon. A neat feature for anyone that doesn’t necessarily know all the titles of songs, or who sings them. More streamable stations are “in the works”. Let’s hope they arrive soon, because this is great! If you have Bluetooth streaming in your car, you can even play the stations over your car audio system. Can’t wait to try this with Sync in my Ford Edge! Oh, and that “friendly rep”, turns out he was President/CEO Gadi Mazor. I love a company whose founder loves his product and talks about it with such deep passion and obvious excitement. They’ve had 250,000 new users since their launch last April. NobexRC.com to download (In further testing, the Radio Companion app seems to be a buggy. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, because Gadi made it look so easy. But when I scroll through stations, my cursor isn’t highlighting selections. It just scrolls, and I don’t know what I’m about to select. Quite odd.) Flycast is a similar program- a radio tuner for the BlackBerry. Unfortunately it’s only available for the Curve, Storm, or Bold- so I was out of luck. I do have Flycast on my iPod touch, and it’s fantastic. Not only can you listen live, but it somehow allows you to skip backwards during live radio broadcasts, a cool feature. So if the version for BB works nearly as well, you’ll love it. I heard how the company was founded by a guy named Sam, who years ago was frustrated he couldn’t watch SportsCenter on his cell phone. So he started rigging equipment to try and make it happen. After some not so successful attempts, his vision morphed into Flycast and became audio based. Love the entrepreneurial spirit! Flycast.fm to download Moving past radio tuners, we got to Viigo- a lifestyle application, that best I can describe, seems like a whole new interface for your BB. It’s a great example of how much can be done on such a small screen. It’s a free mobile companion for breaking news, blogs, finance, sports, RSS and more. Once you download, you customize what you want by adding “channels”- basically whatever interests you. Then you have a unique application finding content you want. The interface is fantastic. Very fast- much faster than to navigate than anything I’ve seen before on the BB. It seems to preload a lot of info, making it easier to jump forward and backwards, but eating up a bit of memory. A great example of convergence on your mobile phone. getviigo.com/bb to download Sling for BB is the long awaited BB version of the popular Sling Media Player. If you’ve never heard of Slingbox, it’s a magical box you easily pair with your home TV/DVR/cable box to watch your home TV anywhere in the world with an internet connection. It’s fantastic- once you buy the unit, there is no monthly fee, because it just uses your existing home high speed internet connection. It’s been a treat for me for years- saving me from missing Patriots playoff games while skiing in Switzerland last year. But I’ve always needed a laptop to watch it. I had heard about the Windows Mobile version a while back, and was jealous I couldn’t get it on the BB. The Sling Player for BB is out now as a free public beta for GSM phones (AT&T & T-Mobile). A CDMA (Verizon Wireless & Sprint) version is in the works. So I was immediately bummed that I would have to wait longer, but excited for my AT&T / T-Mobile brothers & sisters. The demo looked clean and clear, a bit choopy at times- because of network overload in the convention center I was told. But the prospect of watching my home TV (including all shows I’ve DVR-ed) from anywhere on my BB still excites me. mobile.slingmedia.com to download Poynt brings local search to the BlackBerry. Movies, restaurants and the like are all a click away and easily searchable. It was launched last June and they had 5,000 downloads from June – September. Since then, they have jumped by an additional 35,000 users. They won a Best in Show award at BlackBerry Challenge, and feature great ways to find things to do close by. For example, if you are in a new neighborhood, you can search for movie theatres around you, then buy tickets right from your BB. Note, unfortunately, Verizon Wireless locks down their GPS so you won’t get full functionality from VZW, but it’s still a great new app. m.mypoynt.com to download If you’re a fan of the Wall Street Journal, but don’t like paying for their on-line content, download the WSJ Reader. Available since August, it opens up all of WSJ’s paid subscriber content for free to BB users. wsjmobilereader.com to download Now we come to one of the coolest technologies I saw at the whole show. The ability to unlock your front door using your BlackBerry. Oh, and not just that, the ability to see who is standing in your doorway. Schlage has developed system called Schlage LiNK- a new wifi enabled locking mechanism that allows you remotely unlock your door from your BB. The starter kit is $299 and comes with a lock, light and bridge device (which wirelessly connects to your lock to your existing home router). If you’ve ever had to deal with repair men, house guests, housekeepers or delivery men, you know what a pain it is to remember to leave a key. Now you don’t have to worry about it. When they get to your house, you can remotely unlock the door. If you’re worried about security, you can even log into a webcam that’s been installed above your doorway to see who is standing there waiting to be let in. The lock is actually even more sophisticated than that, you can assign codes lasting only for 1 day for people that need one time access or give you a rundown of what codes were used at what time that day- hello parents of teenagers. Now you can see what time your kids got home from school every day. Or set it to send you txt message updates to be notified when someone used a particular code. You can also do time based lock code so a certain code will only work from 3-6pm. Neat stuff. If you’re now thinking, wow that’s a lot of stuff to control from a BB, they have a web based application you can use as well. You can do the same things I just described from your computer at work, a friends house, any internet enabled computer. They will soon be unveiling a thermostat component so you can control the heat in your house while away from home. link.schlage.com for more info If you love Brickbreaker on your BB, you’ll probably like some of the offerings from EA- Electronic Arts- the huge computer game maker. They are up to 40+ games for BB now, and demoed a great version of Trivial Pursuit. Unfortunately it was on the new Storm so I can’t get it, but it looked great. Games that are available for mine included Tetris, Monopoly and Yahtzee. Prices are around $10 / game. Eamobile.com to download The AP has a fantastic app called “AP Mobile News”- pulling together a great looking app to help you sort through a wide variety of news. Right up there with Viigo for maximizing the small screen space, it allows you to browse Top News, Local, Sports, Showbiz, US News, Wacky, Tech, Politics, Finance, Business, etc across the top of the screen. Then it gives you the headlines for each underneath. Scroll through, then click to read the full story. Looks much better than repurposed text with only a few graphics that other news sites do. apnews.com to download Ticketmaster is launching a new BB app in April- basically the same look and feel of the full size Ticketmaster.com, but on your BB. If you’ve ever purchased tickets through their main site, you’ll recognize the same menus, selection buttons, seating charts, etc. All the same as the main site. You’ll never have to rush home to be in front of your computer when your favorite band’s concert goes on sale at 10am again! Look for it in April. With more and more states passing laws that ban txting or sending .JPG) e-mails while driving, it’s amazing a device like iLane hasn’t come out sooner. It reads your txts & e-mail to you over a Bluetooth earpiece. The audio sounds like the computer voice you’ve heard for years, but text was easily understandable. It will even alert you when a new message arrives, ask you if you want to hear it, then if you do, read it to you. When it’s finished reading the message, it asks if you want to respond. If you do, it will accept your dictation and send your reply. Pretty amazing. It’s all contained in a small box that can easily fit under your car seat. It’s small enough, though, that if you want, you can take it with you to the office and use it for dictation outside the car. The price is a big downer, unfortunately- $599, with a $7.99 monthly fee + a one-time activation fee of $39.99. That gets you what you see here- translating box, cigarette power cord and Bluetooth earpiece. If you’re lucky, though, it will pair with your car’s existing Bluetooth system. Manufacturers it currently definitely works with include BMW, Acura & Mercedes (you see who the target is for this, if not from the price then from those car companies), with more coming as soon as they can certify them. I love this device. iLane.com for more info Finally we come to NIM, a service that you probably already know by another name, depending on your carrier. For Verizon, it’s called VZNavigator. I thought it was simply turn by turn GPS directions, but it actually takes things much farther. I ended up realizing it’s bringing an element of social networking to your BB. Say I’m meeting 5 friends for dinner. If I look up the restaurant’s address on my VZNavigator, I can then send it to my other 4 friends, who will have it instantly come up on their VZNavigator and all of us will be guided to the restaurant from our respective locations. You can search for restaurants, movies even the cheapest gas around you, and the system will guide you there once you select the destination. If you call 411, the service can shoot the info to your phone, and again, start routing you automatically. You can speak directions over Bluetooth in your car (usually, some old Bluetooth systems won’t support it). You can even originate the planning of a trip on VZNavigator.com, and then push the results to your phone, rather than tinkering on the smaller device. The map data & POI (points of interest) are updated every 3 months, which is a nice touch if you’ve ever had a car based GPS system that requires you to pay $200 for a DVD update after a year or so. It also ties in with your BB’s address book so you can navigate to any address you already have. Service is $9.99 / mo- not bad for $120 / year if you consider some of these features would require you to buy a stand alone GPS system costing several hundred dollars or more. VZNavigator.com for more info A quick note that some of these apps zap a fair bit of memory, so be careful as you go. The ones that pre-load content have options to set a limit on how much memory it can use. But I quickly found myself much lower on memory than I was before. Not a big deal if you have a more recent BB with plenty of free space, but just something to keep an eye on. With these few (compared to the iPhone App Store) offerings, I have already moved from the realm of “gee, I wish there were more apps” to “I can’t play with them all”- which is a good thing! --Peter Szabo Labels: BlackBerry, CES coverage, EA Games, iLane, Nobex, Poynt, Schlage, Slingbox, Viigo
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Amber Plante is your guide through the geektastic worlds of science, technology and pop culture -- the Q to your James Bond, the Cortana to your Master Chief and the McGonagall to your Harry Potter, so to speak. She makes the technobabble make sense and shows you the fantastic wired world of the Internet in a whole new light. Are you a geek, too? Don't worry, you're in good company.
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