Posts Tagged ‘BlackBerry’

The Global Positioning System (GPS) was developed by the United States Department of Defence and is now managed by the US Air Force and is readily available for anyone to use free of charge. Yes, free of charge. As a matter of fact, just about anyone could buy a GPS receiver and build a primitive navigation system to tell them where they are in the world (especially with cool services such as Google Maps that have an API). Did you know, for example, that when you buy a handheld GPS navigation system that you don’t have to pay a monthly/yearly fee to continue to make use of the Global Positioning System that the US Air Force so kindly maintains? Interesting indeed.

I have a Blackberry Curve from Telus that conveniently comes with a GPS chip that can be enabled with extra software. In other words, there is a lock of sorts on the use of GPS until you get Telus to unlock the service for you (based on my understanding). Somewhat dissapointing since the last Blackberry device that I owned did not have such a lock (the World Edition). After doing a quick search on the topic, it seems that people have discovered some ways around this unfair lock [keeping in mind that iPhones come with GPS  navigation out of the box]:  http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board/message?board.id=8300&message.id=2119

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl7cqFQatP4]

The other day I took a trip to the Rogers store to check out the BlackBerry Bold. I was hoping that they would have a demo handset ready for me to check out… unfortunately, they did not!

Apple has demo iphones in mostly every store that it is sold. I asked the customer representative at the Rogers store why there wasn’t a demo handset and his response was: “with BlackBerry, people know what to expect.” That was the most lame excuse that I’ve ever heard. I have a BlackBerry and I don’t know what to expect with the Bold. I checked out the online videos but until I play with the phone (just like I would with a laptop at Best Buy — and phones are becoming more laptop-like these days), it would be difficult for me to make a purchase. I know that BlackBerry phones typically haven’t had demo handsets in the past at Rogers stores, but I hoped that when RIM saw the Apple strategy, things would change.

Remember the Milk is one heck of a ToDoList application. It will plug into your Blackberry, your Gmail Account, and your Google Calendar Account. I absolutely love it! The integration is amazing! I highly recommend everyone start using this website to manage their lives…

Here is a screenshot of the Gmail integration:

Here is a smaller image:

Aydin.