Josep just let me know about this company PostPath that I had not heard about before. It turns out that PostPath is attempting to replace Microsoft Exchange with their low cost Linux Mail server. I was really shocked by the claimed feature set but I will reserve judgment until I see it in action. Supposedly the server even supports BES & Active-sync connectivity!

If you have been trying to move away from Exchange this may be worth looking at in more depth. Some of this is just too hard to believe. They will be at WES if somebody wants to check them out.

For more info and a 12 User free trial check out their website www.postpath.com

BlackBerry finally decided to update their accessories store at www.shopblackberry.com. The old store just looked terrible. The main thing that has stayed the same are the prices.

They still want $50 for a battery and $30 for a 1GB MicroSD card. I guess RIM truly believes in sticking to their MSRP prices.

The funniest part is that RIM does not even have their own Remote Stereo Gateway in stock until the 3rd of next month! Not to mention the fact that they will probably charge the $79.99 retail price. Especially when it is in stock for $69.99 at the BerryReview Store.

Will they ever learn? It is not the design that keeps people from ShopBlackBerry.com but rather the prices.

I just saw a slick new theme from Bplay on a friend of mines phone. It looked really hot on his 8100 so I thought I would share. The theme has a minimalist top bar and weird battery and signal meters but the icons and background are really slick. It has this far away look combined with the black and white background that looks really nice. It is also one of the more subdued themes I have seen recently.

You can pick it up for $4.99 at Bplay.com from this link

Of late I had been interested in a more functional (but of course FREE) type of voice mail service for my cell phone and had been shopping around. One service I immediately connected with was YouMail.

YouMail is a FREE voice mail service for your cell phone that has many different functions. Firstly, they offer voice mail retrieval by phone (the standard way) or online (via an account you set-up from your computer) or via a SMS or EMAIL notification. Since I don’t like having to call my voice mail to listen to a message every time and since I don’t have an unlimited text messaging plan, I opted for notifications to be sent via email.

So it goes something like this…someone calls you and goes into your voice mail. They leave a message. You then receive a notification (via SMS or EMAIL) usually within a minute and in the notification you get a Caller ID listing (so you know who called) as well as date and time of the call. You can then follow the link on your Blackberry browser to listen to the message online OR, EVEN BETTER, you can opt (which you indicate online in your account settings) to have the voice mail recording sent as an attachment to your email in either a .WAV or MP3 format. It plays in speaker mode but it beats having to call your voice mail every time you have a message.

What’s evenbetter is now YouMail has a voice message transcription service. OK, it’s still in beta and translation is a bit ‘iffy’, especially if the person leaving the message doesn’t speak clearly and slowly enough – but it does give a quick and general idea as to what the call is about. And you always have the .WAV attachment to listen to anyway.

One of the neater things about YouMail is their ‘Smart Greeting’ option which basically works by utilizing Caller ID. If it recognizes the name from the Caller ID it answers like this, ‘Hello (first name of Caller ID), (your name) can’t get to the phone. Please leave a message after the tone.” In most cases, it works pretty cool (and wows a few people :0) but in some cases, where someone is calling from say a business…it can sound pretty odd. However, I haven’t had anyone complain yet. If someone calls from a blocked or private number, you have a ‘default’ voice greeting option you can choose and it will automatically answer with that greeting.

You can of course record your own personal voice greeting but for some reason when I did that, I wasn’t able to receive any notifications. (I have an email into their support team to try and work on that.) You can also choose one of their pre-recorded ‘Cool Greetings’ which have several different categories from ‘Professional’ to downright ‘Funny’. And you can personalize greetings so each contact that calls you has their own personal greeting.

As I mentioned before, YouMail is a FREE service but keep an eye out for a few things.

1. If you don’t have unlimited text messaging on your plan be sure to choose notifications sent via EMAIL.

2. If you use the option of calling in to your voice mail using their #714 number, it will come out of your minutes.

3. Usually (at least with T-Mobile) if someone calls your phone and gets your voice mail, there is no charge. With YouMail, voice mail calls are forwarded to their #714 number, so there is minute usage involved but it is generally only one minute per call (could be longer I suppose depending on if someone leaves you a monologue) and in my case with T-Mobile, comes out of my ‘call forwarding minutes’ and not my ‘whenever minutes’…if that makes any sense. You can check with your own service provider to see how it works for you.

In summary, YouMail is a pretty cool service and there is a lot more things you can do with it that I haven’t mentioned. A visit to Youmail.com will explain more of it to you. The initial set-up is easy once you sign up. They send you a few SMS messages and then show you easily how to forward your voice mails to their number – but I would recommend being in front of a computer when you do this initially as it will just be easier. And you can configure your account settings immediately.

I am still playing around with YouMail but so far, I am finding it much more convenient and quicker to listen to voice messages. And unless I get surprise charges from T-mobile (which I’ve been checking randomly so far and all seems well) or something better comes along that’s free…I’ll probably stick with YouMail for a while.

For more information, visit Youmail online from your computer at: http://www.youmail.com/home/index.do

Simprit, the makers of GridMagic, currently has a new media player called MiuTunes, undergoing beta testing. Sadly the Beta seems to be currently closed but you can sign up for future Betas at this link.

With MiuTunes you can “flip” through your music just like Flipside but with more of the iPhone “swishy” feel. MiuTunes can read music from your media card or phone memory only if its .m4a or .MP3. As of right now, .wma is not supported but hopefully Simprit will also add this.

There are several ways to view your music on the main menu: Artwork, Albums, Songs, Artist, Genre, Year and Playlists. If you choose the Artwork option (which gives the best overall view), the MiuTunes has the ability to pick up album covers from the internet just like Flipside.

Also in the Artwork Option is the “Song Info” option which gives you the ability to click on the album or artist name for a bio on the album or artist. All other options are pretty straightforward.

The actual use of the media player is very easy. The only problems noticed for a beginner would be the shortcuts. It would be ideal and easier for a media program to use the “p” for play, “f” for forward and so on. The shortcuts currently being used are: “space” for play/pause, “hold space” for stop, “enter” for next track, and “del” for previous track. You use the phone volume controls for the music volume.

There is a shuffle option and a repeat option available by using the shortcuts “alt-s” for shuffle and “alt-r” for repeat. Which just happens to be the easiest shortcuts for MiuTunes.

Overall, MiuTunes seems to be a well thought out media program and will be a great asset for any BlackBerry abuser who uses their BlackBerry for entertainment as well as everything else. It’ll take a few to learn shortcuts but it’ll be totally worth it for the person wanting the coolest media player available.

Well T-Mobile is finally getting with the program. They have just announced 3G UMTS/HSDPA support in New York with a continued rollout in major markets throughout the year.

The only thing that concerns me is the fact that every carrier is trying to run 3G on a different frequency. This means that roaming with 3G is going to be a serious pain in the @$$. I have not had a chance to look into it fully but T-mobile seems to be rolling out on the 1700Mhz AWS spectrum which is totally different than the ones used by AT&T and even Europe.

The best part about T-Mobile used to be that you could import cool handsets that work on their GSM network. From now on this means that you won’t ever get 3G on those handsets if they don’t specifically support T-Mobile’s 3g band.

Kevin of CrackBerry.com managed to score one of those BlackBerry 9000 devices that we mentioned before off of ebay. He has just posted some amazing screenshots of the device that really make your mouth water.

So far this has to be the best view of the 9000 series that I have seen to date. I am sure RIM is not to happy to have this leak 7 days before WES.

Check out the screencandy at CrackBerry.com. Thanks Kevin for shelling out the $828 for all of us!

Zach the Z Man and Gary from Viral Electronics have turned around and created a blue version of the Pink theme they released earlier. In my opinion the theme looks much better in blue since it makes the icons stick out and easier to tell apart. Once again all the icons are custom but they are also the same color which is a bit difficult on the eyes. I still love the top bar which is what makes the theme stick out.

Once again this theme is available for Desktop Manager download only. Hopefully Gary will work tirelessly day and night to get OTA installations up soon.