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This Week In BlackBerry 6/13 - 6/19
Jun 19th
I’m glad to see that some of TheCellularGuru readers and our in-house writer GuruJustin, took advantage of the Verizon free Bold 9650 upgrade! Keep in mind, all BlackBerry devices have a 1-year manufacturer’s warranty. As long as you don’t have excessive drop or water damage, you can have your device replaced if there is a hardware issue. It is very rare for a carrier to be out of stock on current replacement devices when they are ALL less than a year old, but lest call this a lucky loophole.
Dealing with tech support is never fun, but to get an upgraded device for free, makes it all worth it. A lot of Tour users have dealt with enough issues that they deserve the Bold 9650 for their troubles. Some people have purchased a Tour in the last couple of months and should not have to wait another year to get an upgrade when their 2 month old Tour is already outdated. I have no idea how much longer you Tour users will be able to take advantage of this, but it doesn’t hurt to try. If you happen to get a free upgrade this weekend, please drop a comment so we know this is still live! Hit the jump to see what else you may have missed this week in BlackBerry.
Verizon Upgrading Plagued Tours To Bold 9650′s For Free! Act Now!
6 New BlackBerry Devices Coming In Q3/Q4 2010?
Rogers Pricing Update Coming For Blackberry Bold 9700
BlackBerry App World 2.0 Coming Soon, What It Should Have Been All Along
Tell RIM How You BBM For A Chance To Win $5,000
Majority of Apps in the Palm App Catalog are Free From Now Till July 9th
Jun 18th
Palm hinted the other day that they were going to run a half-off deal on many of the applications in the App Catalog and it looks like they have come through today. Right now, you can pick up almost any app in the App Catalog for half it’s original price. Don’t worry about the developers though, because Palm is paying them the same amount that they would if the app sold for full price making this a win-win for them.
If there is an app you have been holding off on because you couldn’t come up with the cash, now is your shot to buy it. There are a ton of apps going for $0.50 and the offer even includes a bunch of 3D games that make use of Palm’s PDK.
No excuses people. Get in there, buy some apps, and support webOS developers!
[Via The Official Palm Blog]
Verizon Looking to Drop Unlimited Data Plans with LTE
Jun 18th
I think we all knew this was coming but if you need more confirmation that there is a shift in the market on the horizon, then look no further than Verizon’s CFO John Killian. He expressed his opinion about the current cellular pricing packages and especially the availability of unlimited data in an interview with Bloomberg recently.
Here’s what he had to say:
“We [Verizon Wireless] will probably need to change the design of our pricing where it will not be totally unlimited, flat rate”
It seems safe to assume that Verizon will probably adopt something similar to AT&T’s model by bringing a tiered pricing scheme to their data plans. This could spell trouble for customers who are accustomed to using data liberally. Like AT&T, we may see the term “unlimited” disappear from Verizon’s vocabulary entirely, but it’s still up in the air as to whether or not they will allow current customers to keep their current plans. Either way you look at it appears the “datapocalypse” may finally be upon us.
iPhone Tips and Tricks: Installing Themes on Your Jailbroken iDevice
Jun 18th
Screenshot of Winterboards Main Page
One of the neatest things about having a Jailbroken Apple device is the ability to customize and personalize it. Cydia boasts a large amount of themes available to do just that. There are themes just for your lockscreen, graphical wallpapers, or “complete themes” that will change the entire user experience including the lockscreen, the wallpaper and the application icons. If you’re a fan of uniformity I would highly suggest using the complete themes.
Themes are a fun and simple way to make your unit an extension of your personality, mood, or even style. Cydia offers what seems to be hundreds of themes ranging from Sport Teams and Vehicle’s to Cartoons and Brand Name Clothing. The collections offered are quite amazing. Searching through the myriad of themes available is the most difficult part.
In order for your device to run themes, an app called Winterboard will need to be downloaded from Cydia. This application works as a settings protocol and manages the various themes you download.
Let’s get started.
-Open Cydia, and wait for all the packages and sources to load. This can sometimes take up to a couple of minutes.
-At the bottom left of your screen you’ll see a Search icon, click on it and enter into the search field Winterboard.
-Once it appears in the screen click on it. Another screen will appear with an “Install” button that is located on the top right corner of your screen. This will open the confirmation screen, with a confirm button also in the top right corner of your screen.
-Click it and wait for the magic to happen.
To find “Complete Themes” Click on the “Sections Icon” at the bottom of your screen and scroll down until you find it. You can scroll through the list of themes alphabetically. Screen shots are available nine times out of ten. They’re usually made available for review under the “More Information” link or the “ScreenShots” link.
When you find a theme that you’d like to download just follow the same steps you used to download and install Winterboard. When you’re ready to get your theme on, open Winterboard and click on the Select Themes Button and turn on the theme you’d like to have on your device. Hit your home key and wait for the device to respring (equivalent to a restart). Once your device lockscreen appears your theme is installed and running.
Happy customizing.
Secret Late Night iPhone Data Transfers?
Jun 18th
I was browsing GDGT earlier today when I stumbled upon this interesting post. By what I can gather, after AT&T announced their data plan changes, this person started thoroughly checking their data usage. He noticed that his wife’s iPhone was making mysterious data transfers around 2:00 AM, and about 20 MB. This of course, should cause alarm to AT&T customers with 200 MB data plans.
It looks like others are chiming in claiming the same thing. Some are reporting that they called AT&T and that “they had no idea either.” Others say that 1:00 AM - 5:00 AM is when AT&T charges customers for data usage from earlier in the day. However, people in other countries report the same, 10 MB - 20 MB data transfers at the same time… MobileMe? Gmail? Perhaps, but 20 MB is an excessive amount of email/calendar/contact updates.
What it is exactly, I can’t find a consensus just yet. The iPhone was designed with unlimited in mind. Apparently some users are emailing Steve Jobs himself. Maybe we’ll learn more later.
iPhone 4 Canadian Launch Delayed?
Jun 17th
Say it ain’t so? Could the most anticipated device of the summer be delayed past the intended July launch in Canada? Though no official word has been given from Apple, BGR pointed out an interesting update that showed up today on Apple Canada’s website. What once said, “Coming in July” has been updated to “Coming soon.” At the moment the outcome is speculative, but if you consider the overwhelming pre-orders AT&T received, chances are that pending stock issues are the culprit for the change. Will update as the story unfolds.
[via BGR]
Follow me on twitterVerizon Upgrading Plagued Tours To Bold 9650′s For Free! Act Now!
Jun 17th
LouiV over at BBLeaks wrote an article about Verizon having major issues with their latest Tour OS 5.0.0.732. Their newest OS release apparently brought on more bugs than fixes.
It is said that if you are experiencing major issues with 5.0.0.732, and go through the troubleshooting process with Verizon tech support, the rep will likely send you a refurbished Bold 9650. To solidify this claim, one of BBLeaks’ readers posted a comment saying he just got off the phone with Verizon and their replacement Tours are out of stock! Verizon said they would call him back tomorrow and if they are still out of stock, they will send him the most comparable device!
If you’ve recently upgraded your Tour to OS 5.0.0.732 and experiencing issues, you better get on the horn and tell Verizon what’s up. Chances are you’re stuck in your contract and you’ve been looking for a way to upgrade your Tour to a Bold 9650 anyway, which is arguably what the Tour should have been in the first place. Things have a funny way of working out, don’t they?
Source: BBLeaks
iOS 4 Sneak Peek: Game Center
Jun 17th
I’m sorry to report that there just isn’t much to say about Game Center yet. iOS 4 capable devices are few, so friends and friend requests are non-existant. The first tab has a status message, and it uses your iTunes account. I can elaborate on my one and only hope for it since I can’t actually test it (and these sneak peek photos don’t say a whole lot to me). All I want is a comprehensive solution to gaming with friends. The other networks (Plus+, Crystal, OpenFeint, etc) allow the connections, but I still never ever game with anyone. It’s too complicated right now to set things up. I want Game Center to permeate every game, and have everyone use it…, so there is no excuse anymore. Hopefully the transition is smooth and encompassing.
AT&T Announces Samsung Captivate, its Galaxy S Variant
Jun 17th
What a day! Android up the wazoo!
With an overhauled (and admittedly more sexy) exterior, the Samsung Captivate is the same Galaxy S variant we know and love. The specs are well known by now: 1GHZ Hummingbird processor, 4″ Super AMOLED screen, 16GB internal memory, 512MB RAM, 5MP camera (no flash?), custom TouchWIZ 3 UI (which is actually pretty good) and a chrome-plastic finish.
Looking good! Too bad AT&T will likely mar it with its sideload lockdown: no apps outside the Android Marketplace will be allowed to be installed on the device. HOWEVER, it should be fairly easy to root the device, which will give it access to custom ROMs and, inevitably, sideloading access, among other things.
(via MobileCrunch)
Verizon’s Droid X Teaser Page Goes Live
Jun 17th
How sweet it is to be loved by Droid! Verizon seems to be pimping out their latest Android iteration to go head to head with both the iPhone 4 and the Sprint Evo 4G. With a 4.3″ WVGA display, 720p video recording, HDMI out, a front-facing camera for video conferencing, and a VERY fast OMAP processor (that should kick Snapdragon’s butt in benchmarks) its biggest challenge will be keeping afloat during the mad rush of the iPhone 4 launch on the 24th of June.
The Droid X is going to be widely successful on Verizon. The Droid brand is already highly-valued and draws people to Android without them realizing it’s Android. It’s the face they’re putting on it. Even the Motoblur on the Droid X doesn’t look to be too invasive.
Check out the teaser page at Verizon’s site.
