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BerryReview Websignal Public Beta – BlackBerry News Pushed to Your BlackBerry!

by Ronen Halevy on Nov 6th, 2009 at 1:00 pm EST
39 Comments »
 

When I first heard about RIM’s release of Websignals I was excited. The idea was that you could push a icon to users homepage to let them know to check out a website. After waiting a few months after launch to see if anybody did anything cool with it I was disappointed so I decided to do something about it instead of just complaining. Together the dedicated BerryReview team with some great help from RIM has delved into Websignals and created our very own BerryReview Websignal.

BerryReview-Websignal1 BerryReview-Websignal2

You can sign up for the BerryReview Websignal Beta at:
www.berryreview.com/berryreview-websignal/

This new Websignal notifies you with a icon when there is a new article to check out on BerryReview. You can preview the title and then easily click on the homescreen icon to launch the article in your browser. While setting up the Websignal I was saddened to learn a few limitations of the system. For example, the Websignal can take up to 5-8 minutes to update on your BlackBerry. You also need to send a link to your device using our signup form and then click on the link from your BlackBerry and accept the RIM legal agreement to register for the Websignal.

The BerryReview Websignal is currently in beta but our private beta testers had no issues with the push updates. We plan on releasing the source code for the Wordpress plugin we wrote to implement Websignals in Wordpress but right now the code is quite raw. I am slowly creating a simple backend management page for Wordpress that I hope to get done before unleashing it on the public. If you know your way around PHP and Wordpress just send us an email using the Contact Us form and we will send over the code. Keep in mind you will need to register for a Websignal from RIM which may take a few weeks to get approved and setup. I am trying to work with RIM to simplify the signup process.

Please let us know about any issues or comments you have by using the Contact Us link at the top of the page! Keep in mind the Websignal will only show up after a new article has published on BerryReview. Also you may find the Websignal originally hides in your downloads folder in some themes.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 and is filed under News.
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39 Comments to “BerryReview Websignal Public Beta – BlackBerry News Pushed to Your BlackBerry!”

  1. Posted by: c0rinne
    November 6, 2009 at 1:34 pm EST

    Signing up right now.

    Reply
  2. Posted by: Nikolaus Walch
    November 6, 2009 at 2:06 pm EST

    Me too. Can’t wait to see how well this works!

    Reply
  3. Posted by: twbettis
    November 6, 2009 at 2:07 pm EST

    Verification link is not working.

    Reply
  4. Posted by: Razkull
    November 6, 2009 at 2:44 pm EST

    Waiting for a new article :)

    Reply
  5. Posted by: automan69
    November 6, 2009 at 3:01 pm EST

    This is awesome! Just subscibing Now.

    Reply
  6. Posted by: FOSSroxTHX
    November 6, 2009 at 3:31 pm EST

    Well, it is working and kinda neat.it’s a shame it is nothing more than a eb hotlink with the most recent headline as the “mouseover” title. Some notification options or a history synopsis woyld be cool. I can see why no one really gives a flying flip about Websignals; there just isn’t much to be excited about.

    Reply
  7. Posted by: Andrew
    November 6, 2009 at 4:33 pm EST

    mmmm I sent my BIS email and received a message on my Bold but when i click on the link my browers shows a timeout error. Is it because I’m running on my company’s BES? Other sites work not the link in the email, any thoughts?

    Reply
  8. Posted by: andrew
    November 6, 2009 at 4:54 pm EST

    Very Cool Ronen

    Reply
  9. Posted by: Diaz
    November 6, 2009 at 5:08 pm EST

    Sounds interesting..just can’t wait to see how well this works.. :D

    Reply
  10. Posted by: lauren25
    November 6, 2009 at 5:30 pm EST

    Link was sent to my BB but when I click on it, it states that it’s unable to connect to my internet. Even though I have full signal and tried on wifi as well.

    I’m on BIS on my Bold with AT&Ts official OS.

    Reply
  11. Posted by: Luis Merlos
    November 6, 2009 at 5:36 pm EST

    that’s cool theres a BB symbol in between the 3G and the Signal bar, I guess that is the native theme on the 9700?

    Reply
  12. Posted by: Fabian Heuwieser
    November 6, 2009 at 7:40 pm EST

    cant wait to download it now!!

    Reply
  13. Posted by: eduardo
    November 6, 2009 at 8:34 pm EST

    Me thinks WebSignals should be a nice-looking RSS client App – think CBS News client on the iPhone. Each channel is then an RSS subscription and RIM’s/BIS infrastructure pushes the notification to the client when there is new info on the channel. Which then pulls the data on demand.

    Each WebSignal would have some branding/skinning so they look different, but I think that this approach would cover most uses.

    Going through the browser seems particularly ill-suited to the strengths of the (current) BBOSes.

    Reply
  14. Posted by: Justin
    November 6, 2009 at 9:29 pm EST

    Looks great Ronen, I was hoping somebody would take advantage of this technology.

    Reply
  15. Posted by: brayndeded
    November 7, 2009 at 1:15 am EST

    Backed!! very cool idea. this way we get the jump on others when there is a contest or updated news and such! more places need to do this. get on em Ronen!

    Reply
  16. Posted by: James
    November 7, 2009 at 10:48 am EST

    I agree this is very cool Ronen, Still waiting for you to post something so I can test it out…

    Reply
  17. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    November 7, 2009 at 6:45 pm EST

    Did you guys get the articles that were published later in the day? I am curious to see how well it works. Our original test had a much smaller group. I guess we will see monday!

    Reply
  18. Posted by: impak875
    November 7, 2009 at 7:19 pm EST

    I signed up on my Bold & my Curve… haven’t recieved a notification yet… still waiting…

    Reply
  19. Posted by: Michael
    November 7, 2009 at 8:48 pm EST

    Outstanding! Subscribed!

    Reply
  20. Posted by: lauren25
    November 7, 2009 at 9:57 pm EST

    Update: I tried the link a day later and it worked fine :) . Thanks berryreview for your excellent customer service.

    Reply
  21. Posted by: LawTownPoPo
    November 9, 2009 at 4:57 am EST

    * (color)=New Post
    * (B & W)=New Post that you’ve read
    ?

    Reply
  22. Posted by: PDM
    November 9, 2009 at 5:23 am EST

    My icon appeared a little while ago after you posted the article re BDC!

    Reply
  23. Posted by: impak875
    November 9, 2009 at 8:32 am EST

    Just got my notifications to my Bold & Curve… Love it!! Thanks BR for pushing the envelope and developing this before anyone else!!!

    Reply
  24. Posted by: Bryan
    November 9, 2009 at 9:21 am EST

    I signed up for it, decent widget. It took about 2 hours to get it onto my Tour but that was alright.

    The only thing that I noticed is that this doesn’t show up on the “Applications” in the Options section. How can you get rid of it if you wanted to now?

    Reply
  25. Posted by: automan69
    November 9, 2009 at 10:30 am EST

    This is good first step Ronen,but I really didn’t need an extra icon for updates. I hope you can work with RIM and having the update pushed to the berryreview launcher instead. That would be sweety!

    Reply
  26. Posted by: sgt-d
    November 9, 2009 at 11:19 am EST

    i’ve tried several times with two email accounts on two devices and it hasn’t worked yet. grr!

    Reply
  27. Posted by: Renee
    November 9, 2009 at 2:15 pm EST

    Is there a notification setting for this?

    Reply
  28. Posted by: pink2
    November 9, 2009 at 4:20 pm EST

    I am getting the updated icon, but it would be really helpful if it also put a notification icon in the banner like when you get new email, etc. I don’t have room on my home screen to keep the BR icon there so I only see there is something new when I go into the download folder. And maybe a way to say how many new since last opened.

    Reply
  29. Posted by: LawTownPoPo
    November 9, 2009 at 10:58 pm EST

    Love it, I don’t have to check over and over to look for a new posting.
    Just can’t get over the lack of continuity with all we know about BlackBerry and new notifications. Why keep the * when there’s not a new posting?

    Reply
  30. Posted by: jmarkybb
    November 10, 2009 at 10:02 am EST

    I have subcribed to this, it saves you going on to your browser or checking your RSS feeds in another app that you would have to access anyway?

    One gripe, I have read the latest article, so the icon is blacked out, but there is still a “Alert” on the icon, how do I get to go away/ out of focus?

    Were can we find more of these websignals?

    Reply

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