This is likely to become the talk of the day among the great Blackberry fanboyhood. RIM decided to make and air their own advertising on TV and  Omie07 has been quick to post it at YouTube.

Every once in a while someone complains that RIM should advertise more and make the Blackberry more visible and widely-known. I think that is absolutely true here in Brazil and probably other countries, but… in North America? Who in North America has never heard of the Blackberry?

Anyway, the commercial is pretty good and maybe there is no such thing as too much publicity. Stay tuned to this post, we will add updates here or in the comments section when we get a better copy of the ad.

I just got confirmation from one of our longtime readers, another Ronen, that the BlackBerry Unite version from Bell works on AT&T and is not carrier dependent!!!

Pretty amazing stuff. He got the Bell-Canada copy, installed it and it is working amazingly on his at&t blackberry. It looks awesome, can sync and share: Calendar, Contacts, access all your local PC files remotely, manage (wipe, lock, report on etc.) the devices OTA and more.

Only major disappointment is that it does not handle Tasks or Notes Why would RIM ignore that part I don’t know. So it is not really a personal BES replacement but it is pretty close and free so can’t argue with that.

A friendly birdy told me you could pick it up from this link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/113519145/bbunite_1.0.0.exe

Anyways, just FYI , it is NOT carrier dependent (meaning you can download the Bell Canada version, install it and run it just fine, at least over at&t wireless) and does not require any carrier activation. You just plug your blackberry via USB once and activate it that way.

This Online Help link is only available post-installation:
http://www.blackberry.com/select/blackberryunite/BlackBerryUnite.htm
You can get a lot if information from it.

Attached are a couple of screenshots (installation process).

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Review: gCalc!
Rating: 5.6/10
Cost: FREE!
OTA installation

This the fourth installment of the calculator roundup. It was intended to be written and published in one single week, but that was a lot less viable than I had imagined. I hope I can publish the last part tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, let’s see what gCalc! has to offer.

Not much, if you’re in a hurry. Personally, I was as disappointed at this calculator as I was at BKGcalc, perhaps even more. While gCalc! can plot a chart and the other calculators I have reviewed can’t, that is not a useful feature to me and the other features were not really exciting. Let’s see all the details then you can agree with me or not.
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It was just yesterday that I emailed a bunch of other bloggers about BlackBerry Unite. It had been getting to the point where I thought Unite was vaporware. RIM came up and surprised me today by announcing and releasing BlackBerry Unite on Bell Canada!

As a reminder BlackBerry Unite allows BES like functionality for up to 5 users. It lets you share documents, files, calendars, contacts and much more.

The lucky ba$+@rds on Bell Canada can pick up a copy of BlackBerry Unite at this link. The official press release can be found here. You can also find it on Bell’s website at this link.

BTW I checked they block all non Canadians from downloading the software. Anybody want to be a pal and upload it to rapidshare.com?

Thanks Simon for the info!

Old news, I know, but better late than never. Sorry.

Quickoffice has announced the acquisition of Dynoplex. Quickoffice is known for its Office suite for the Palm and Symbian platforms, while Dynoplex is known for its Office suite for the Blackberry platform. You can check the official announcement in plain Corporatese, sure to include the obligatory “leading provider” moniker, here. The text is hidden with a little Javascript. Open the page and click the link to view it.

The acquisition strategically enhances Quickoffice’s unique position as the premier mobile office software provider for major platforms, including Symbian S60, UIQ, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Google Android. Quickoffice is now able to expand on its strong Symbian market position and enter key markets in North America.

With the companies combined engineering teams, Quickoffice will accelerate the development of mobile office suite software to additional platforms and devices.

Exact terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed.

That’s pretty much the gist of the announcement if you filter out the gung-ho talk.

Andrew D. Smith, of the The Dallas Morning News, has some more information:

The company expects its products to work on all major smart phones by year’s end.

“Any user, on any kind of smart phone, will be able to view, edit and save Office files just as they can on a computer. Every formatting detail will come through,” Quickoffice chief executive Alan Masarek said.

Quickoffice users can already do all that on their Symbian and Palm phones, but they have limited ways to access files. Quickoffice and rival programs such as Documents to Go give users only two ways to transfer documents: attach them to e-mails or attach the smart phone to a computer. Such options make it impossible to grab a document on the fly without help from someone else, such as a co-worker. Quickoffice hopes to eliminate this problem when it rolls out its Quickaccess service in the coming weeks. By adding a program to their computers, Quickaccess users will be able to open and edit all their Office files on their phones. Once they’re done, Quickaccess saves changes and syncs all copies of the file.

“Any user, on any kind of smart phone, will be able to view, edit and save Office files just as they can on a computer. Every formatting detail will come through,” Quickoffice chief executive Alan Masarek said.

I was unable to find out what is going to happen to Dynoplex’s existing product line. Meanwhile, Dynoplex has added native file format support and slashed prices a little. I, for one, welcome our new Office suite overlords since Documents to Go for Blackberry is taking forever to become available.

You can pick up the new 8330 CDMA Curve from Verizon Wireless for $219 after a 2 year contract and $100 online discount at this link. Supposedly there is also another $50 rebate you get somehow.

Sadly I find it very hard to get excited about a year old device that is finally making its way to the CDMA world. If your stuck with Verizon then I can highly recommend the Curve as a solid device. The only question I have is why it took so long…

Now we only need to wait until 2010 for the 9000 series to come to CDMA carriers

Viigo has been dangling the juicy Project Tango release and they finally let us release some screenshots. This is not a review since this is just a pre release version for attendees of WES. As you can see many of the features are grayed out but it is obvious that Viigo has really been burning the midnight oil for the last few months to get this out the door. With Project Tango, Viigo is positioning itself as a content provider rather than just an RSS reader. Check out the screenshots below to see what I mean. You can also check out their new video preview of Project Tango.

Below you can see the new homescreen of Viigo. Notice how Audio & Podcasts are grayed out along with travel, local interest, and Stocks/Finance. From what I hear they really want to nail it down perfectly before they release it.

The weather application works rather well and updates automatically. It even shows you the forecast for multiple cities with icons. It is pretty easy to add new cities.

There are also sports scores from the MLB, NHL, Golf, & NBA:

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Everybody attending WES should be getting a download link by email. It even has a WES guide built into the RSS reader. One of the main things that is hard to describe are the iPod like swish you will see when you go between menus. Looks really hot!

The public beta of Project Tango with begin in June but there will be a private beta program will begin just after WES in MAY, and will start to showcase more of the services planned for Viigo than are made available in the preview release. The private beta volunteers will be getting the latest and hottest features about a month before the public betas so I would highly recommend signing up for the Beta program at this link. Who knows you may get accepted.

Sadly some of the hottest features are not available in this WES version but they are coming soon. Check out the next article with screenshots of the new application. Sadly Podcasts and Audio are not supported in this version. All you will get are RSS, WES 208 Guide, Weather, and Sports.