Erictric

Research In Motion Introduces The BlackBerry Messenger Barcode Generator on Facebook

Yesterday, Research In Motion promised that “exciting things” are coming for BlackBerry Messenger. We were left wondering what those things were. Luckily, Research In Motion has revealed today on the BlackBerry Facebook fan page that one of those exciting things is the ability to add your BlackBerry Messenger barcode to your Facebook profile by using the new BlackBerry Barcode Generator, an application on Facebook that allows users to create and customize their own BlackBerry Messenger barcodes.

While many might not find this so exciting, it appears that several other people did/do love it. According to the official notes, servers were brought down. The company states that they are currently working to accommodate the high demand.

You can check out a screenshot of the application in action after the break. More »

Apple Working on New App Dubbed ‘iGroups’

Uncovered from the depths of the USPTO by Patently Apple is a new patent application filed by Apple for a new social application dubbed ‘iGroups’.

It is expected the iGroups will tie in with both iPhone and MobileMe to make it possible for users of the application to share information with others in the vicinity of sporting, musical, or various other events. Grouping users around said events is powered by GPS.

Given that Apple is potentially more secretive than any other company we’ve ever known, it’ll certainly be a mission to find out what exactly will happen with iGroups — though we would expect to be hearing some more information on it in the near future.

[ via Patently Apple ]

Amazon Releases Kindle Application for Mac

Amazon has very quietly released its Kindle app for Mac computers. The free application is compatible with Mac computers running Mac OS X 10.5 [Leopard] or 10.6 [Snow Leopard], and with Intel processors faster than 500MHz only. Unlike the Kindle applications for PCs and BlackBerry smartphones, which were released in beta stages, the 22 MB Kindle app for Macs appears to be a final stable release. This application was first promised on October 24 of last year, but finally becomes available today.

According to Amazon, the Kindle app for Mac offers the following features:

• Get the best reading experience available on your Mac. No Kindle required
• Access your Kindle books even if you don’t have your Kindle with you
• Automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices with Whispersync
• Create bookmarks and view the annotations you created on your Kindle More »

Tumblr Launches Native BlackBerry Application

Tumblr has finally made a native application for BlackBerry available. The Tumblr Staff made the announcement yesterday on their official blog. The application allows users to post photos, videos, links, text, and audio to their microblog from their BlackBerry smartphones. Version 1.0 of Tumblr for BlackBerry was built by Mobelux, the same developers who created the Tumblr app for the iPhone.

The Tumblr application is available for most BlackBerry models. BlackBerry Storm and Storm2 owners, take into account that you might encounter a few compatibility issues after installing the Tumblr application. Be sure to check out our ‘How to’ guide to resolve the problem with this and other applications such as WordPress, Google Voice, and Google Maps.

You can download the application over-the-air by going to Tumblr.com/downloads/blackberry/Tumblr.jad on your BlackBerry smartphone. Enjoy.

Bing App for iPhone Disappears From App Stores Around The World

Microsoft has apparently pulled the Bing app for iPhone from the international versions of the App Store. The application has been reportedly disappearing from App Stores around the world since Monday. The reason is simple, really. Turns out that Microsoft accidentally made the application, originally meant for the U.S. market only, available worldwide.

A Microsoft spokesperson released the following statement:

“When we released the iPhone application we inadvertently made it available to all countries in which the Apple Marketplace has a presence. We noticed the error within 24 hours and took steps to remove availability for all countries except for the US.” More »

Opera Browser For iPhone Coming “Very Soon”

The user base of Apple’s incredible iPhone smartphone are seemingly excited about a new browser which claims to be a whopping six times faster than the stock Safari browser on board the device’s operating system. We are of course referring to the Opera browser.

According to Opera spokesman Thomas Ford, iPhone users could be seeing the browser in just a matter of weeks:

“I can’t positively say the time frame, but I can say it’s very soon,” he said.

Of course, the release of the highly-anticipated browser could be crushed in a split second if denied by the ultra-strict iPhone App Store approval team.

More on this as information becomes available.

[ via CNN ]

Adobe Grants Android Devs Access to Photoshop.com Mobile Editor

Adobe announced this morning that version 1.1 of the Photoshop.com Mobile App for Android is now available. The updated version brings new Contrast and Brightness editing tools and new fun photo effects such as Vibrant, Pop, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, and Soft Black & White. The original application was launched almost four months ago.

With the launch of a new updated application, Adobe went on to announce that third-party Android developers have now been given open access to the new Photoshop.com Mobile 1.1 Editor. More »

Microsoft Launches Tag Application for Android

Microsoft has introduced one of its most famous mobile applications into yet another mobile platform. We are talking about Microsoft Tag, a 2D barcode reader that Microsoft has just launched for the Android operating system. Microsoft moving into foreign territory is nothing new, as Microsoft already offers Tag for different mobile platforms other than its own Windows Mobile such as J2ME, iPhone, Blackberry, and Symbian S60.

The way Microsoft Tag works is as follows: you just point your phone’s camera at a Tag, which you can say is an equivalent of a QR Code, take a photo of it to scan it, and from there you’ll be able to access all kinds of information like coupons, schedules, contact information, restaurant menus, social networks, maps, et cetera.

There are two thing that makes Microsoft Tags different from QR Codes. For instance, Tags are barcodes made up of different shapes, usually triangles, and various colors — unlike QR Codes, which only contain black and white squares in random patterns. Second, Microsoft Tags don’t store data at all. Instead, they just store specific IDs that are sent to Microsoft’s severs for processing, thereby allowing more data to be included. That’s why Microsoft also calls its Tags, High Capacity Color Barcodes.

To learn more about Tags watch the video after the break. More »

Palm Launches New Facebook Application For webOS Smartphones

Palm has launched a new version of the Facebook application for its webOS smartphones. The revamped application promises to be a much better option than its former counterpart, which could only be described as a little pathetic, given that it would allow users to sync their Facebook contacts and read news feed. On top of it, it had many flaws in the way it would filter the news feed. Luckily, that was a thing of the past.

According to Palm, the new revamped Facebook application includes the following features:

• Enhanced Inbox – Now, your inbox lets you compose, send, and reply, so you can always access your Facebook messages.
• Photo albums – Now you can view photo albums from all your friends, not just the photos in their news feeds. Uploading photos is easier as well, and includes the ability to add captions. More »