Nuance just announced that they will be working with TeleNav to get voice recognition in TeleNav’s cellphone products. There is no specific mention of BlackBerry but I know that the BlackBerry offering is one of their flagship mobile devices.

This could get interesting as the BlackBerry fleshes out as more and more of a GPS device. Personally it is not replacing my trusty MIO anytime soon but it is a amazing backup device. It got me out of some really sticky situations in Vermont. The BlackBerry also has an amazing amount of flexibility with applications ranging from Google Maps to TeleNav.

The next hit for TeleNav should be on device maps! It just does not make sense to rely on data services to always be available.

QuickPlay does not seem to have gotten enough traction with the First Video player for BlackBerry so I guess they are moving on to Satellite radio. AT&T has had this feature for quite awhile but the subscription fees were just not worth it for the few minutes I might listen a month.

The nice part about the QuickPlay XM feature is that it is Universal. Meaning that it will work on any carrier. Once again the privilege of XM radio is priced high at $7.99 a month with a free 24–hour trial.

For the $7.99/month price tag you get 20 XM channels including XM’s 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s decade channels, 20on20 (Top 20 Hits), Ethel (New Alternative Rock), The City (Hip-Hop/R&B Hits), XMU (Indie Rock), Watercolors (Easy Jazz) and Highway 16 (New Country Hits). You can also listen to XM comedy channels, The Virus (outrageous uncensored talk) and XM Comedy (uncensored comedy).

You can pick up the trial from www.xmradio.com/bb. I know of at least one other person who had issues downloading it so hopefully it will work. So far it only seems to be available for OS 4.2 devices including the 8100, 8300, 8700, & 8800 series devices.

Josep just let me know that the rumored Opera Mini 4.1 Beta has just been released today. I don’t remember where I first heard about this beta but I guess they were spot on. There are some really cool features in the new version!

You can pick up the new version by going to www.operamini.com/beta from your BlackBerry browser. You need to select the last link with no certificates for your BlackBerry. You can also download it for desktop installation from the same link.

The new version of Opera Mini must have gotten on a diet because I don’t remember the application only being 173Kb.

According to the Beta website these are the new features:

Now even faster

Prior to this release, we upgraded our servers and Opera Mini now receives your requested web pages up to 50% faster. So you can now access sites like Facebook, BBC, and any of your other favorite web sites even faster, with Desktop-like speeds.

Find things faster

Even though scrolling to your Web content is already easy with Opera Mini, the new Opera Mini 4.1 beta lets you search for text within a Web page so you can get to the information you need even quicker than before.

Get your to your web sites faster

Now you can stop wasting time typing in full web addresses more than once while browsing. When typing web addresses, Opera Mini 4.1 beta will recognize and suggest completions for you based on your Bookmarks and browsing history, making address input faster, easier and much more intuitive.

Download and upload files

On phones with JSR-75, you can now upload and download files using Opera Mini 4.1 beta, without being re-routed to your phone’s native browser. Update your blog while on the go. Upload photos to your web site or social network. Add attachments easily to web-based email, and download other non media-rich content to your phone using Opera Mini 4.1 beta.

Save it for later

On phones with JSR-75, Opera Mini 4.1 beta lets you save pages for offline viewing so you can quickly access and read your desired Web content, even when you’re on a plane, in the subway, or in other places where you can’t get network reception. Depending on your phone, you may need to choose a destination folder for storing pages for offline viewing.

Review: Guitar Hero Mobile by Magmic/Bplay
Rating: 9/10
Cost: $14.99 (1 time fee) or $4.49/month subscription
Website: www.bplay.com

Bplay has done a wonderful job of recreating the Guitar Hero experience on the BlackBerry. I was forced to dock a whole point off the rating for one simple reason. The controls are a bit clumsy on the curve or 8800 series. On the other hand it works like a dream on the pearl! To understand what that means you will have to read the rest of the review.

All I can say is that if you enjoy Guitar Hero at all on your console you will love it on your BlackBerry. The songs are great and I had a blast playing the game. The controls are the only caveat and I really wish that in the next update Bplay will let us customise the controls to our own playing style.

Read the rest of this article

Okay this has to be some of the best news I have heard all day even with CTIA kicking off. Bplay is now selling Guitar Hero for a one time purchase price of $14.99. The initial game comes with 15 tracks. With the one-time purchase, you will have access to an additional three tracks issued each month for 12 months after purchase. Pretty cool stuff! Expect a review shortly…

The songs included in the main version are:

(1) Santana - Black Magic Woman
(2) Wolfmother - Woman
(3) AFI - Miss Murder
(4) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
(5) Alice Cooper - School’s Out
(6) Pat Benatar - Hit Me with Your Best Shot
(7) Van Halen - You Really Got Me
(8) KISS - Strutter
(9) Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
(10) Stone Temple Pilots - Trippin on A Hole
(11) Matchbook Romance - Monsters
(12) Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
(13) Black Sabbath - Paranoid
(14) The Allman Brothers Band - Jessica
(15) Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane

They even have a video of the gameplay at the bottom of the product page. Sadly no trial but this is Guitar Hero so I am sure it will be an instant hit. I will report back shortly with a review ASAP!

If the $14.99 is not to your style they will be posting a $4.49 a month subscription version later today. While this may be higher than most other games from Bplay I guess the licensing fees for a franchise such as Guitar Hero is quite high.

Personally I am not that happy with EA Mobile’s half hearted attempts to create BlackBerry games. They just don’t seem to follow through. After CES they had a giveaway for one BlackBerry game and their website would not even let you purchase the BlackBerry games. It was like they did not even bother.

Well now at CTIA EA Mobile is again doing the half hearted move. They have announced the availability of the following games for BlackBerry:

Tetris(R), Bejeweled(R), SCRABBLE(R) (in North America only), EA SPORTS(TM) Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 07, SimCity(TM) Societies, and most recently, MONOPOLY HERE & NOW

The funny part is that they are showing off these games at the Symbian booth. I guess EA and RIM don’t get along?  EA Mobile will be demonstrating games at the Symbian booth during CTIA, located in Hall N4, Number 4855.

EA Mobile still does not even have screenshots of the RIM devices on their website when you are selecting your device. I tried out their SKATE game and the graphics were good but the gameplay obviously showed the game as a port from another device. EA didn’t bother to check that you cannot move diagonally with the trackball to pull off half the moves.

It has so much potential but they kill it with the execution…

T-Mobile and RIM finally came out of the closet and announced the release of the 8120 with WiFi. Not much else is new but it is the Pearl 2. The cool part about the whole release is the chance to win one of over 1,000 BlackBerry 8120s just by registering at this link. Winners are supposed to be announced May 6th.

You can find the Pearl 8120 on T-Mobiles website at this link but it is not available for preorder yet. You can check out their cool pre-release site here.

Viigo has been making a big push towards CTIA. They have been promising to release some details on their closely wrapped Project Tango that has something to do with audio. For anybody at CTIA Viigo has a preview of Viigo’s new platform, code-named “Project Tango” on display at RIM’s booth (#425).

They are also offering a simple way to keep on top of the CTIA Wireless Tradeshow that just started today in Las Vegas. You can add the channel to your Viigo RSS reader by going to channel library, under Viigo Recommends > Feed of the Week.

You can also keep on top of the news with any other BlackBerry RSS reader such as Freerange and NewsGator Go. Personally I have seen the pros and cons for both so I wont get into preferences of tomato and tomaato.

You can read the press release at this link. If you don’t have a copy of Viigo you can pick up the current version from www.Viigo.com/ctia