After posting about Packet8 I decided to share with you how I personally make cheap international calls from my BlackBerry. There is a service from 3utelecom for your cellphone that a friend of mine introduced me to that allows you to make cheap calls. There is no monthly fee so you only pay for what you use and their is no signup fee. Also their rates are only billed per second so you don’t have to pay for the whole minute .

The coolest part is how the service works. Once you register you just call 1-866-9-DIAL-3U from your cell and then dial the number you want. The service recognizes your caller ID so there is no pin code to input. The easiest way to set this up is to put 1-866-9-DIAL-3UppPHONENUMBER into your address book for each international number. The “p” in the number above are pauses which you can put into your BlackBerry by using the “N” key on your QWERTY keyboard or using the menu button and selecting “add pause” I recommend using 2 pauses since that is how long it takes 3u to pickup. You can have up to 4 different cellphones registered on each account which my wife uses for her cell.

Check out all the info at this link www.3utelecom.com. They have a convoluted sessions system that does not allow me to post links to pages. You can find more info if you click on the “Call From Your Cell” menu link on the left and you can signup by clicking the signup link on the left.

PS: If you sign up for the service and want to send some love free referral credits my way then please contact me using this form and I will give you my cell number to put in the referral field. (It is not something I want to post online)

Packet8, one of the big VOIP providers, has just announced their release of a VOIP application for BlackBerry devices. The application recognizes any international country extension and routes those calls through Packet8 for cheaper calls. There is no call back or anything but I am not exactly sure how it works. The prices seem a bit expensive for the casual user who may be better off using EQO or Gizmo Mobile.

You do not have to be a current subscriber of Packet8 in order to sign up for Packet8 Mobiletalk, though you get a discount if you are. There is a one-time $9.99 activation fee for the service and a monthly fee of $9.99 for non-Packet 8 subscribers. Existing Packet8 VOIP subscribers, including subscribers with at least one Packet8 MobileTalk account, pay a monthly service fee of $4.99.

More info after the jump or at this link…

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I have a dream that one day I will get the Wall Street Journal pushed to my Super-BlackBerry every morning….

It seems like the question I asked Neil, developer of BBSmart Email Viewer, has really stirred up some feelings. Based on the amount of emails he has received on the subject he has decided to post his justification about why Push is not the way of the future. This is really depressing for me after all these years of justifying why Push Technology made BlackBerrys better

I think I have to actually concede a point to him. Push is not an ideal technology of the future but rather a side effect. The reason Push is so valuable now is because of slow bandwidth and mediocre battery life. On the other hand if battery technology improved and with 3G out the door I really can’t see a future reason for having push technology. From what I am understanding from Neil. Push requires much more resources because everything is done on the server. This would make push always a more costly solution compared to pull technology.

So I know many of you are asking the question: Why are all the other handset makers trying to copy Push technology if it is so bad? The thing is that I see two reasons why push is better than pull. First of all their is the pure joy of getting your email on your device before you even see them in outlook. Also for instant messaging the experience is seamless compared to 3^rd party clients.

Its for these two reasons that I assume push will not be going away anytime soon. Developers may choose not to use it but I really hope RIM capitalizes on the technology. Come on RIM it has been 2 years and all we have to show for it is Push Weather Alerts!!!

Every few months for the past few years I have been hearing about another company or association that wants you to be able to pay with your cellphone. In short you would just swipe your phone and your done. The problem is that it never really happens…

I just read an article in Reuters about new trial in London that lets shoppers buy Tube train tickets by swiping their phone. It made me ask myself why do we always get promises and trials but years later we still do not have any real world solutions in the US. The closes I have seen is the RFID built into the new credit cards from Mastercard, Visa, and American Express but even that is barely accepted anywhere. Couldn’t they put one of these micro RFID chips in the SIM card of your phone?

The interesting part is that cellphone payments have taken off in other parts of the world such as Japan. When I recently went to Israel I found some soda machines that would let you dial a number from your cellphone and make a payment of a dollar for a coke. That can be quite useful when you have no change in your pocket but you always have a phone .

This is why I think it would make sense to have mobile payments. Imagine being able to pay the parking meter with your cell? Or by a coke? Or a subway ride? I know many people that would pay a 5–10% overhead for the convenience every once in awhile because they simply hate to carry cash. What I do not understand is how cellphone companies have not jumped on this new source of income. They could make transaction fees on every purchase just like a credit company.

I was just reading a great article about BlackBerry sales this past Thanksgiving on Seeking Alpha. It seems that even though RIM was not celebrating Thanksgiving in Canada they did quite well and have much to be thankful for with over 1.7 million new subscribers so far this quarter.

Seeking Alpha has some really great stats on how RIM did this past weekend. I guess they really may be able to justify the crazy high stock price during this coming holiday season. The only part that confused me was that it said Sprint did badly since it did not have any new devices. Last time I checked they have the same devices Verizon has.

Sales of Research In Motion Ltd.’s  BlackBerry Curve were strong at AT&T stores over this past weekend, while Verizon also saw healthy sales after the recent launch of the CDMA Pearl. Read the rest of this article

I was just reading a recap article on SearchSecurity by Patrick Gray who is attending the Kiwicon security conference in the land down under. He just reported about a presentation from Graeme Neilson of Aura Software Security about how easy it is to load a Trojan on a BlackBerry device.

Kiwicon day two got off to a cracking start on November 18 with a presentation by Graeme Neilson from Aura Software Security. He showed delegates precisely how easy it is to Trojan BlackBerrys.

But all code that runs on BlackBerrys is signed, right?

Yes, Neilson says, but the maker of the portable device, Research in Motion (RIM), isn’t too fussy about who it sells certs to. If you want to get your Trojan code signed to run on a Blackberry, just go to the Research In Motion Web-site, plug in your details, pay a fee and voila! You’re in business.

Keep in mind that this company would first have to convince you to download their application and get past you clicking on all of those “allow access to” prompts but this is still surprising. The idea behind certificates with RIM is that application developers need them to access certain modules on your BlackBerry. The problem is that now that these certificates are so easy to get…you get the point

SplashData, the creators of SplashID Secure Password Safe, have just released an update to their SplashID application. The new version looks very slick compared to previous versions. I would recommend checking out the plentiful screenshots on the product page.

Sadly the upgrade is not free for current users but at least the upgrade fee is a reasonable $9.95. The application can be had for $29.95 from the SplashData website. Personally I have never tried this application but I know quite a few people who use it daily. I really wish there was a way to backup this information to a secure 3DES server instead of relying on a desktop sync.

New in Version 4:

• New desktop views - Panel View and Tree View
• Tree View on the handheld application
• Enhanced security - auto lock-out after 10 failed attempts, password strength meter, and password hint option
• Web Auto-Fill - one click to open a website on the desktop and login automatically
• Synchronize multiple SplashID databases (with other version 4 database files only)
• Enhanced Lookup feature instantly displays relevant results as you type
• Email securely encrypted SplashID files to other users (from the handheld application too!)
• Add additional standalone desktop users
• Change the database and auto-backup file locations
• Toolbars give you button features where they are needed the most
• Updated icon set with enhanced high resolution graphics
• Fully Vista compatible

Josep just found a new version of Google Maps that is available for BlackBerry devices. The new version can be downloaded either by going to Google’s mobile site or by using Google’s new Updater application that we mentioned before.

I have just installed it on my BlackBerry 8310 and here are my first impressions. This is very useful since Google follows in RIM’s steps by offering no changelog.

• New look to all of the pop-up boxes. They are much smaller than previous versions and do not block as much of the map.
• You can now edit your previously used locations. This is very useful if you misspelled a location previously or got the number wrong
• When you are getting directions there is now a directions list option. To use this you hit the # button and it will show you the directions in a step by step list which is quite nice
• The shortcuts to jump forward and backwards through the directions have been changed from the original 1&3 to a new 4&6
• The font is smaller throughout the application. This can be good and bad
• Favorites are still lost when you upgrade
• There seems to be much more caching going on so when you move around the map it is not reloading all the time
• It now seems to remember your previous GPS location and refreshes you GPS location much faster!!!