I had the pleasure of downloading Viigo’s Project Tango Beta today, and let me just say it is AWESOME! For the folks out there who do not know what Viigo is; it is an application that lets you keep up with News, Blogs, RSS feeds, Package Tracking, and a slew of other stuff. I have had Viigo for about 2 months and I look at it everyday. It gives me updates on my favorite websites like Destructoid and Blackberry Cool, as well as it gives me my news feeds, horroscopes, and even motivational quotes of the day. So I have found it very handy and a great way to keep in touch with my world when I am away from it.
Project Tango gives me everything I had before plus more. I easily updated my Weather on the new version (90° at 9 p.m. YIKES!), it has Sports Scores and Stocks from the Home Page as well. These are all awesome tools with a few more to come like Podcasts, Travel, and Local Interests. The newest version is a little more colorful and has a nice animation slide from right to left when you enter a new menu. So my first impression score is an A+.
If you know us you know we are huge fans of RIM and Blackberry. We believe in the product so much we have launched The Smartphone Challenge. We have put a great amount of time along with our partners creating an all in one solution like nobody else has done before. We want to change the way you do wireless, and we are 100% committed to making the transition as smooth as possible for our customers.
Much of the staff are members of The Blackberry Champion program, which is a program designed to help us be your Blackberry experts. We are currently working on great solutions for Real Estate, Construction, Law, and many other industries.
We have found the average person with a Blackberry saves 60 minutes a day because they are being more productive. I can personally attest this is true, before I had a Blackberry I was always concerned about getting to my computer to check time sensitive e-mails. This meant if I was traveling or in a meeting, I would potentially miss out on a very important e-mail. Now I have my Blackberry, and my e-mails come to me, I do not have to go to them. Just think about it, what can 5 extra hours a week do for you? Check out some of our recent press at blackberrycool.com and blog.internetnews.com
Like many people I love free stuff. Not only do I love free stuff, but I love free stuff that is awesome. I found a number called 1-800-2-CHACHA. It is a free service that will answer questions for you. You call the number, say your question, and CHACHA will text the answer back to you. The first question I asked was “Who starred in the first Batman?”. Their answer was “Michael Keaton was in the first Batman movie, as well as the second one.” Not only did it answer my question, but it went above and beyond. I was so impressed I had to try it again so I asked “Why do I love 1-800-2-CHACHA so much?”, I thought this would surely warrant me a can’t answer or something like that. CHACHA gave me the best answer I could imagine, “You love CHACHA because we give you fast, accurate and witty answers! CHACHA it up!!!” I did this 15 minutes ago, and I know I will be using this on a regular basis, so next time you need to know a quick answer call 1-800-2-CHACHA and prepare to have a great answer to your question right away.
Yesterday had to be a rough day for Rackspace. As a Rackspace customer, as well as a Select Partner, I noticed several problems with my connectivity to my Managed Exchange Server. While most companies will never openly admit there is a problem UNTIL you spend 45 minutes on hold, you will NEVER find that at Rackspace. Before I could even verify that I did indeed have a problem, I had an email on my BlackBerry informing me that there had been a problem, it had been isolated and I should be up and running shortly. As the day progressed and the problem continued, it was very difficult for me to get upset because I had been informed every step of the way of what the situation was and what was being done to get it resolved. Isn’t that what we really want? We know that problems are going to happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if you DIDN’T have to call in to find them out? That is Fanatical Support®!
For more information regarding Rackspace Hosting services, please contact Kevin Kemp at Kevin@thephonestoreinc.com.
While I have had the sheer joy of moving this past weekend (do you taste a hint of sarcasm in my tone?), I also enjoyed giving out directions to my new home.You know what I’m talking about…take the second left, go through the stop sign, no, no…the second left, etc.Well, that is where I have a leg up on my non- BlackBerry neighbors.As my brother was coming back from a week long vacation, he promptly asked me for directions to my new house.He’s a great guy, but he couldn’t find his way across the street, so his Sprint Telenav is a godsend.But this was not the program of choice today; it was his good old fashion BlackBerry Maps.I simply found the address and with one click of my menu button, I was able to send my brother the exact location.Upon receiving it on his BlackBerry, he clicked on the link and started using his BlackBerry Maps GPS navigation.Within 15 minutes, and not a single wrong turn, he and his family showed up at our front door.As the weekend passed I used this method at least a half dozen times, all with the same outcome…smiling faces at my new front door!In this case, the simplicity of using BlackBerry Maps made me take a second look at the application as a whole.While it is not as robust as Telenav, it certainly will remain on my BlackBerry.
Have you checked out our Time Savers page? When you’re travelling or wasting away in traffic, wouldn’t you prefer to be reading your favorite websites on your phone? Like most people, you probably don’t want to go to those sites on your phone, because it is slow and cumbersome. Enter Viigo. With Viigo, you quickly and easily set up your favorite sites to automatically update on your phone. Then, on your time, you can check out the latest articles. Sports, news, weather - no problem. All of this is done via RSS. “RSS?!! Yikes, what’s that? Sounds complicated!” Not only is RSS (and Viigo) easy, but we have a quick video, courtesy of commoncraft.com, that explains it in plain english. Check it out below, then download Viigo for your Windows Mobile or BlackBerry device here.
Recently, on our trip to WES, we saw some great technology that is expected to hit the market soon. Below, you’ll see a Pico Projector from Microvision. The guy handling it told us that the projector was always in focus, ran off of 3 lasers (red, green, blue), lit each pixel individually instead of scanning by lines and that the majority of the device was a battery. This type of device could potentially be integrated into phones of the future or used as an accessory device, as you see in the picture. Would a projector in a phone be enticing to you? Let us know in the comments.
Have you ever gotten an important text or instant message that you wanted to hold on to forever, but you had no way to do so? Check out Dexrex, to archive these messages. You can also look up links, phone numbers and other important information once you’ve logged in. If you’d like, you can download the BlackBerry version here now. For those analytical types, it seems that the more you chat, the more tools and information on your network you can unlock. Check out the links and let us know what you think.
The BlackBerry Thunder, the first touchscreen from RIM is tentatively scheduled for release in the 3rd quarter on Verizon. According to BGR, the phone is expected to be a World Edition (both CDMA and GSM) with high speed data on both. Could this be an iPhone killer? Let’s see what RIM comes up with on the web browser. If they get it right, it could be a great battle between some excellent devices!
We are excited to announce our partnership with Rackspace! The Phone Store and Rackspace are both driven by incredible support for their customers, so the match up for us is natural. Being partners with Rackspace, we have also developed the Smartphone Challenge to test out our abilities. Doing so will put a fleet of BlackBerrys in your company’s hands to test out with full Rackspace support. Check out the press release after the jump to find out more about our partnership. If you want to know more about the Smartphone Challenge, check it out here – www.smartphonechallenge.com
Read more about the new partnership at Forbes.com ».
