Today seems to be the day of GPS. I am not sure when this one came out but one of our readers sent me a link to a post by Sith_Apprentice on BBforums. Turns out that there is yet another GPS application compatible with the BlackBerry and once again the maps are not stored on the device. Sadly this application does not seem to be available to the general public. You have to buy a branded version from specified companies such as vodaphone or carphone warehouse.

I think the coolest part about this application is that it has a mode for driving and another for when you are walking. You would think other applications would pick up on the fact that I walk more than drive with my BlackBerry.  The software even has a web planning client which syncs with the application.

Features from the product page:

• Clear navigation screen with 2D or 3D moving maps showing POI’s such as gas stations and rest areas along the route, parking around the destination, full navigation information and detailed text instructions with road sign information.
• Well-timed sound prompts that read out street names using text-to-speech technology.
• Multiple navigation views such as overview map, route details and list of turns as well as day and night mode.
• Full support for traffic information provides traffic aware routing and re-routing as well as alternative routes along with a detailed event list for traffic along the route or on any map.
• Speed camera alerts to enhance driver safety.
• Fastest and shortest optimization with different avoid options for the route calculation.
• Cross-regional routing allows uninterrupted navigation between geographical regions.
• Instantaneous local reroute through use of proprietary Mobile Optimized Navigation Data (MOND) technology.
• Manual navigation mode shows directions so that you can preview your route.

Check out some screenshots at this link

CoPilot Live is one of the latest full GPS navigation systems for BlackBerry. Sadly once again it does not allow you to store maps on your SD card!!!

You can read about the application on the product page. You can then download a 6 Month trial! 

• Full featured GPS Navigation on your BlackBerry™
• Most up to date maps downloaded each trip
• Easy to carry for use on Foot or on a Bicycle
• Searchable Points of Interest by Category

Detailed features:

• Latest street level maps of U.S. and Canada downloaded each trip
• Turn-by-turn directions available in over 20 languages
• 6 million Points of Interest
• Easy destination entry: address, zip code, home, work, POI, recent and favorite
• Routing Options: Automobile, RV, Walking, Quickest, Shortest and Toll Road avoidance
• Enter up to 10 addresses in one trip
• Automatically re-routes if you miss a turn
• Provides continuously updated information including: ETA, speed, direction

You can download the application by going to www.alk.com/blackberry from your Berry

Handmark has made an announcement for 3 new applications/games that they will be releasing very soon. Two of these sounded really promising so I thought I would share. Personally if you need the Bible application you can always check out Noah Bible study viewer from BEIKS. They also have a ringtone service that is just a one time fee. I wonder if that means for $19.95 you get unlimited ringtones for life?

From their press release

Bible Translations for BlackBerry Smartphones – AVAILABLE 5/28 

This is the first Bible product designed by Handmark specifically for BlackBerry smartphones. The application offers unlimited wireless access to 16 Bible translations including four of the five most popular modern translations. The Bible product for BlackBerry smartphones will be available May 28 at www.Handmark.com. 

Ringtone Junkie – AVAILABLE 5/28 

Ringtone Junkie is a new and improved ringtone management application, developed by Handmark, providing access to thousands of popular MP3 ringtones. The application enables customers to download, store, access, and assign custom ringtones to contacts in their BlackBerry Address Book. Ringtone Junkie will be available May 28 at www.rtjunkie.com or www.handmark.com for a one-time purchase of $19.95. 

Astraware® games – AVAILABLE by 8/31 

Astraware, the world-renowned UK-based game developer, will expand its reach by releasing its first games for BlackBerry smartphones in Q3 2008, including Idigicon’s highly acclaimed Platypus. Flagship titles Astraware Solitaire, Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Casino and Astraware Boardgames will follow from Q4 onwards. These titles will be available at www.astraware.com or www.handmark.com. 

SHAPE services has released a new version of VR+, one of my favorite applications for the Blackberry. Some of you may remember my raves in the review I wrote for it. The last time, I was excited about the (then new) tight integration with the iDictate service - which I plan to review too, sooner or later.

This time, I am not so excited because I’ve never been that kind of “social” type, but they are again extending the possiblities with something that should be interesting to a bunch of people: the ability to post immediately your recording to MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. If you’re too lazy to type 140 characters, well, you can just dictate them. Of course, MySpace and Facebook don’t have that limitation, so you can blabber a lot more. Here is a mini review:

Like I said, I am not the social type. I don’t have a MySpace account, and my Facebook and Twitter accounts are abandoned. I never really intended to use them anyway. That’s enough to run a quick test, but I don’t think I can make VR+ work with any of them. I uploaded the recording to Twitter first and nothing happened in my Twitter page. I waited for 15 minutes and nothing happened. Then I got a message from Remember The Milk telling me that a new “todo” task had been added?!! The message contained a link to my recording at SHAPE’s site, but my Twitter timeline never displayed it. So I unfollowed RTM and uploaded the recording again. Another 15 minutes later, still nothing new in my timeline yet. 45 minutes later, still nothing. So the feature is not working, I am doing something wrong or Dvorak finally has accomplished his evil plan to bring Twitter down. I realize there is a “Make this post public” at the top of the posting page and I checked it, but I still can’t make my VR+ post turn up in my timeline. Then I tried it with Facebook and had the same result: nothing happened in my Facebook page.

I am sure this is going to work eventually and should be nice.

But I have to repeat the same complaint I made the last time I upgraded VR+, when I wrote the review: once again, VR+ can no longer detect and display my old recordings. They are all there in my media card where they have always been, but they no longer show up in my list. What is going on, SHAPE? That is an annoying bug!

Kudos to SHAPE for pushing the envelope once again, but they will have to sort out those bugs. And I still don’t know if it works as expected with MySpace.

If you don’t know VR+ at all, you can get the information about it and purchase it here.

I just got an email with the latest news from iTookThisOnMyPhone. It turns out that they have been working long and hard on this release.

iTookThisOnMyPhone now lets you take a picture or shoot a video and have it automatically uploaded to the web without having to do anything else. You can now also manage your image library from your BlackBerry.

New features in version 2:

• A new, more graphical and intuitive user interface
• Geo-tagging of photos and videos with mapping so users can see a graphic representation of where each photo, or video, was taken
• Enabling users to create, select, and send to photo albums from a BlackBerry smartphone
• Enabling users, if they choose, to review photos and videos in the queue prior to uploading to the website

You can download the application free from www.itookthisonmyphone.com

They have added a ton of functionality in this latest release and I highly recommend giving it another spin.

Okay I have been waiting for something like this for ages. I was just sifting through the press releases from WES and ran into this one head on. Turns out Unify4Life has a box that lets you control your home theater and media from your Berry. I can’t wait! The main downer is that their product will not be available in stores until October 1 2008 from what I can tell. The cool part is that the communication is done OTA from a BlackBerry application to their box. No Bluetooth. Also home control will be coming soon.

I highly recommend checking out their website at www.unify4life.com

From the press release:

The Unify4Life solution enables BlackBerry smartphone users to fully manage their home entertainment environment, including home theaters, radio receivers, stereo gateways and televisions. Access to TV listings are available to users via a searchable program guide that they can seamlessly navigate to find their favorite shows and program their evening’s entertainment.

The Unify4Life communications server simply plugs into a central location in the home and is easily programmed to communicate with various selected devices. Once users download the application to their BlackBerry smartphone, they can immediately begin to send commands wirelessly to their programmed home devices.

According to Paul Tennyson, President of Unify4Life, “We’re creating ways to expand the world for BlackBerry users. Unify4Life’s application gives users ultimate control over a wide range of devices in their home and creates a user experience that will change the way BlackBerry fits into people’s everyday lives.”

Control Lights, Thermostats and More
Unify4Life stands at the forefront of the “universal remote” market as they plan for their software to ultimately provide users with control of their entire home environment. Additions will include remote activation of lighting, thermostats, intercoms and other home electronics.

The BlackBerry is slowly building up applications that let it read multiple document file formats. The latest in the roundup is from RepliGo with an upcoming piece of software called RepliGo Reader. It is scheduled for release in Q3 and should be interesting.

From the product description:

RepliGo Reader is a full-featured PDF viewer, similar to Adobe Reader for your desktop. You can quickly zoom in and out of documents to inspect the details of any page. RepliGo Reader can also intelligently reformat pages to fit the width of your BlackBerry screen, making it easy to read documents by eliminating horizontal scrolling.

Advanced navigation features are also supported. PDF bookmarks are presented in a hierarchical view, allowing you to quickly jump to any section of a document. Hyperlinks are active and integrated with the BlackBerry browser, email and phone applications. A powerful search feature is also included, enabling you to quickly find information in the PDF file.

Check out the press release here or sign up for the Beta program by filling out your info on this page!

I just got an email from S4BB telling me that they just updated their BerryDialer application to version 1.6. BerryDialer is a calling card application for BlackBerry that lets you easily make use of multiple calling cards. It can even be managed by a BES.

New in this version:

• Improved user interface
• Multi-language support for English and German
• Phone log shows the called contact name instead of calling card
• Compatible with more calling card types.

You can pick up the latest version from our store.

BTW: As a little known fact if you head to the aforementioned link from your BlackBerry and click TRY you will be able to download the application OTA.