Selasa, 31 Januari 2012

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community


BlackBerry PlayBook Gets Another RDP Remote Desktop App via Android Player

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 09:30 PM PST

Forsetti RDP2 Forsetti RDP

I am starting to see the quality of the Android port apps showing up in App World increasing steadily. The latest gem is a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Windows Client (Aka Terminal Services client) for the BlackBerry PlayBook. It runs in the Android Player so you will need to be running PlayBook OS 2.0. This app by Forseti Digital is going head to head with a native RDP client for the BlackBerry PlayBook that was released recently for $6.99. Either way its nice to have options and competition!

You can find Forseti RDP Terminal Service Windows Client for the BlackBerry PlayBook in App World for $8.99. They also have some good documentation for the app here.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, January 31, 2012, 12:30 am. | BlackBerry PlayBook Gets Another RDP Remote Desktop App via Android Player | Leave a comment |


SNES Emulator on the PlayBook in Action!!!

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 08:54 PM PST

I grew up playing SNES. It started with MarioWorld and MarioKart and moved into Super Punch Out, StarFox, Street Fighter 2, and UN Squadron. Needless to say, as soon as I found out this SNES emulator was available for PlayBook, I sprinted for my PC, PB, and USB cable to get the retro goodness rolling! I chose UN Squadron as my first screenshot because it is a less well known game that I absolutely LOVE. Sidescrolling airplane fighting action with awesome upgrades and lots of challenging levels. I highly recommend it.

I already had the DDPB installer ready to go on my PC, so getting my favorite SNES games on my PlayBook was as simple as this:

  1. Connect the PlayBook to the PC via USB
  2. Start development mode on the PlayBook
  3. Frantically find SNES roms for my fave games of all time (found them all here, but google can tell you more I’m sure)
  4. Download the .bar file
  5. Open the DDPB installer
  6. Click scan and enter your password
  7. Add the .bar file (snes9x-pb-1_0_0_5.bar)
  8. Click install and wait for it to complete
  9. Find the icon on your PlayBook, open it and allow file access
  10. Add all your favorite roms (.smc files) to the roms folder on your PlayBook
  11. Enjoy hours of SNES awesomeness wherever you tote your PlayBook!!!

Here are some more screenshots of my favorite SNES classics. Let us know what you load up!

No related posts.


Posted by jforce for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 11:54 pm. | SNES Emulator on the PlayBook in Action!!! | One comment |


SNES Emulator Ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook for Sideloading!!!

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 06:49 PM PST

SNES1 SNES3

You have to love native SDK's. The latest goodies are coming to us courtesy of A7omic and jtokarchuk who have together ported SNES9x, a Super Nintendo emulator by Makoto Sugano, to the BlackBerry PlayBook. They have even done all the hard work for you and compiled it into a BAR file for you to sideload onto your PlayBook ASAP. Jtokarchuk sent us the tip and screenshots of the project led by A7omic and I have to say I am excited for some serious Super Nintendo nostalgia on my PlayBook. Now all I need to do is put the control scheme to the test.

Check out A7omic's thread on CrackBerry forums or GitHub for instructions and you can download the BAR file (just change the extension from .ZIP to .BAR) to play around. The source code and build instructions are also available. Keep in mind you will need to "acquire" ROMs somehow to be able to play SNES games! Let us know if you find some good sources. Street Fighter here I come!!!

SNES2

PS: A7omic mentioned that he has submitted his app to App World but I highly doubt it will get past App World's crack team of reviewers… :)

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 9:49 pm. | SNES Emulator Ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook for Sideloading!!! | One comment |


How to add fonts to your BlackBerry smartphone (without an app)

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:51 PM PST

For years, I was under the impression you could only install fonts with the assistance of an app. I recently found out that is not at all accurate. You simply need the a font in TrueType (.ttf) format. In this guide, for illustration purposes, I will be using the free (open source)  ’Ubuntu-R’ font.

*WARNING: As we are editing/adding hidden system folders of the device, I can make no guarantee this won’t leave your device completely FUBAR. So please, only do this at your own discretion. I’ve only confirmed it working on OS 7 & 7.1 but it SHOULD work for all OS’ back to at least os5. Again I haven’t been able to test on many phones but I haven’t had a single problem either. If you are successful (or unsuccessful) with this method, leave a comment and let us know if it is working for you.*

One time setup

  1. Download a file manager you can handle zip files with(rock file manager, filescout etc.)
  2. Change options in your chosen file manager to show hidden files & folders
  3. Navigate to ‘/Device Memory/appdata/rim/’*
  4. Create a folder called ‘fonts’ inside of ‘/rim’

You should now have a created this directory ‘/Device Memory/appdata/rim/fonts/’*

*Note: Depending on the file manager, the directory ‘/Device Memory/’ may be called ‘/store/’.  In that case, the location of the fonts folder would be ‘/store/appdata/rim/fonts/’

How to install a font

  1. Find a font in TrueType format [.ttf] you’d like to use. In this example, I’m using the free ‘Ubuntu-R.ttf’
  2. A) Download the ‘Ubuntu-R.ttf’ file (this specific font is in a zip folder) | B) Unzip if necessary
  3. Rename ‘Ubuntu-R.ttf’ to ‘Ubuntu-R.font’
  4. Cut/Copy  ‘Ubuntu-R.font’ to ‘/Device Memory/appdata/rim/fonts/’

You should now have the (renamed) font located inside of the folder ‘/Device Memory/appdata/rim/fonts/’  aka ‘/store/appdata/rim/fonts/’

 

5. A quick reboot and the fonts should be available in your screen display settings.

*Note: The first time I did this, I had a font app installed & device encryption enabled and the fonts weren’t available after a reboot. If your having problems try turning off encryption before pasting the font or uninstalling your font app*

The font used for this tutorial is available for free here

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Posted by nah.uhh for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 5:51 pm. | How to add fonts to your BlackBerry smartphone (without an app) | Leave a comment |


Free VendorTool Offers App World Vendors Mobile Reports & Statistics

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 12:45 PM PST

Vendor Tools Vendor Tools2 

QuiteSimple has released an interesting new application called VendorTool. The free app pulls BlackBerry App World Reports and Statistics for App World vendors on their BlackBerry smartphones. Right now the interface and app are pretty simplistic but the idea is very cool. I have been telling RIM for ages that they need to offer a mobile interface to App World for vendors. Its nice to see that somebody is working on it.

Vendor Tools3 Vendor Tools4

If you are an App World vendor check out VendorTool and let us know what you think

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 3:45 pm. | Free VendorTool Offers App World Vendors Mobile Reports & Statistics | 2 comments |


GfK Says RIM is #1 Smartphone Brand in the UK for Second Year

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 11:22 AM PST

BlackBerry 7.1 Liquid Graphics

Research firm GfK has just released their data for 2011 and its looking good for RIM. According to their research RIM "continues to dominate the market, grabbing 26.3% of December sales and averaging 27.7% through 2011" for the second year in a row. They also found that RIM added 8.5 million BlackBerry subscribers in the UK alone in 2011. Some are saying this contradicts data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech which said that BlackBerry had 22.5 of the UK smartphone sales in November while Android had 49.9% and iOS had 18.5%. This has lead some to suggest that GfK is breaking down each Android manufacturor (Samsung, HTC, etc) into a different brand which makes sense.

Still this is great news for RIM who is being hammered in the press as losing smartphone share hand and fist. Still it points to the fact that BlackBerry 10 cannot come soon enough so hopefully RIM is firing on all pistons to get it out the door!

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 2:22 pm. | GfK Says RIM is #1 Smartphone Brand in the UK for Second Year | 2 comments |


Register for “Porting webOS to BlackBerry WebWorks” Amsterdam Hackathon & Win Big! (Feb 6th)

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:37 AM PST

Hackathon Amsterdam

BlackBerry DevCon Europe in Amsterdam starts on February 7th but ddluk let us know that there is a great hackathon before the event. They are organizing a Hackathon the day before DevCon Europe on "Porting HP webOS applications to BlackBerry WebWorks platform" now that HP has open sourced Enyo. The event is hosted by BlackBerry and will have Markus Leutwyler from HP Developer Relations and Ken Wallis from BlackBerry WebWorks team. Pretty sweet deal right especially for some great guidance from both RIM and HP. The Hackathon is related to ddluk’s “COM365: Porting WebOS to WebWorks” session at DevCon Europe.

Registration is free and accepted developers will receive a FREE BlackBerry 7 device and are eligible for a FREE pass plus accommodations for themselves at the sold out DevCon Europe where they will receive a FREE BlackBerry PlayBook along with other attendees!

Pretty sweet deal right? If you are a former webOS developer or know one definitely check out this EventBrite registration and sign up since places are limited!!! Kudos to RIM for really reaching out to web developers.

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 1:37 pm. | Register for “Porting webOS to BlackBerry WebWorks” Amsterdam Hackathon & Win Big! (Feb 6th) | 3 comments |


OverDrive Releases Their Free ePub eBook Reader for PlayBook OS 2.0

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:12 AM PST

OverDrive OverDrive2 OverDrive3 

I have been waiting for OverDrive to bring their OverDrive Media Console to the BlackBerry PlayBook. From what I can tell they have done it by using the new Android Player to port their Android app to PlayBook OS 2.0 so this is OS 2.0+ for now. In case you are not familiar with OverDrive they provide you access to over 18,000 libraries worldwide to get both eBooks and AudioBooks. You can check them out from Libraries nearby or even load your own ePub eBooks though I have not managed to get that to work yet.

OverDrive Media Console is definitely one of those apps that you want to have installed on your PlayBook if you have OS 2.0. You can pick up OverDrive Media Console free in App World.

OverDrive4 OverDrive5 OverDrive6

Thanks Ron for sending this in via Nerdberry!

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 1:12 pm. | OverDrive Releases Their Free ePub eBook Reader for PlayBook OS 2.0 | 3 comments |


Heins Says “Wait for First Big Security Flaw” For Enterprise Market to Turn Back to BlackBerry

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 09:55 AM PST

Charlie Miller iPhone hack

The New York Times obviously had their story angle established before they got this quote from RIM's new CEO, Thorsten Heins, but it is an interesting one. The NYT threw in something we have been hearing from quite a few security gurus since iOS and Android started making inroads into the enterprise. I doubt RIM's strategy is to wait for this to happen but like a major earthquake in California everybody seems to know it is going to happen sometime. RIM is planning on supporting both iOS and Android management in their upcoming BlackBerry Fusion product but other solutions like Goodlink attempt to contain the possible damage from a big security issue.

Check out exactly what Thorsten Heins had to say to the NYT:

Mr. Heins believes that RIM's advantage in the business market remains the company's focus on security. He said that RIM regularly speaks to chief information officers, who say they do not like that Android devices and iPhones have become prominent in the work place.

"They are in a pickle. Their pickle is security," Mr. Heins said in an interview. "When the first big security flaw even happens in one of the large enterprises, you will see this turn around. Wait for the day this happens."

I am not sure if Heins really expects these companies to backpedal but this really stresses RIM's need to release BlackBerry 10 phones that RIM promises will address this "Consumerization of IT."

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 12:55 pm. | Heins Says “Wait for First Big Security Flaw” For Enterprise Market to Turn Back to BlackBerry | 5 comments |


Devs: RIM Releases Quake3 Engine Port Source Code for PlayBook

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 08:53 AM PST

Quake Multitasking PlayBook Quake Multitasking PlayBook2

RIM has been using a port they did of the Quake3 (id tech 3) engine they made to show off some of the BlackBerry PlayBooks gaming capabilities since January of 2011 (CES). I questioned back then when we would see a public Quake port for the PlayBook and it looks like we just got one step closer. RIM teased us a bit with a multiplayer demo at BlackBerry World and now that the Native SDK is rounding out to v2.0 they have released the source code for their Quake3 engine port.

EM let us know that RIM has posted their port on GitHub for their Quake3 engine port. The big catch is that even though the Id Tech3 engine is open source the maps are not. That means you would either needs to use the .pk3 maps that come on an original Quake3 CD to build the game or you can test and try one of the many custom Quake3 maps out there. All we need are devs to step up to the plate and get a built version out there or better yet put it in App World if they can secure the custom game files maybe even using OpenArena maps.

RIM has provided the instructions for building the Quake3 port from the source along with the files on their GitHub page. Take a look for yourself here.

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 11:53 am. | Devs: RIM Releases Quake3 Engine Port Source Code for PlayBook | 2 comments |


Free Tangkap Layer Screenshot App With no Watermark & Great Features

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:16 AM PST

Tangkap Layer Tangkap Layer2

Tangkap introduced me to their sweet screen capture app that is currently my favorite screenshot app on my BlackBerry. Tangkap Layer is totally free and gives you all the basic screen capture functionality you need without all of the annoyances. It allows you to set the image format you wish (JPG/PNG/GIF/BMP) along with also giving you the ability to set the image quality from 10%-100% which allows for smaller images. The other nice part is that unlike other screenshot apps there are no watermarks or logos. It also offers you the easy ability to share the screenshot over email.

I have asked Seal555 if they plan on keeping Tangkap layer free and he confirmed that they have no plans of charging for it. I also asked them to add an option to email screenshots directly from the main screenshot menu instead of having to hit share first and they plan on researching it. Now all they need is the ability to queue up screenshots and post to Twitter and I am golden.

Check out Tangkap Layer free in App World

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 10:16 am. | Free Tangkap Layer Screenshot App With no Watermark & Great Features | Leave a comment |


RIM Launches BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 06:44 AM PST

Steve Balmer BlackBerry World

We heard about RIM offering free BES cloud hosting back in March of 2011. RIM then finally gave the details during BlackBerry World in 2011 and launched a public beta in October. Now the service has finally launched to the public for the rapidly growing Microsoft Office 365 service for business and government along with standalone Exchange Online service and works with both enterprise and consumer BlackBerry data plans.

You can read more about it at www.blackberry.com/cloudservices or check out the features and press release below.

Features include:

Single login

    • Log in to the BlackBerry Business Cloud Services using the same credentials that you use to access Microsoft Office 365

Powerful and familiar administration

    • Look and feel similar to the BlackBerry Administration Service for the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server
    • Manage individual user accounts, groups, and your entire organization all from the BlackBerry Business Cloud Services web console. You can also activate BlackBerry devices and send wireless commands.

Wireless activation

    • Activate devices over the wireless network and associate them with the BlackBerry Business Cloud Services

Support for personal devices

    • BlackBerry Balance allows for an employee's use of a single BlackBerry smartphone for both work and personal without compromising the security of corporate data. This feature is available on devices running BlackBerry® 6 or later.

Instant messaging

    • Supports BlackBerry® Messenger and consumer instant messaging applications available from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront

Data protection

    • Uses AES as the symmetric key crytographic algorithm to protect data that is in transit between the BlackBerry Business Cloud Services and devices
    • Protects the connection between BlackBerry Business Cloud Services and the BlackBerry Administration Service using HTTPS
    • Provides IT policies and IT administration commands to control the behaviour of the device

Web-based self-service

    • Allows users to switch devices, back up and restore data on devices, set their own activation passwords, or send wireless commands to lock or erase the data on devices

User features

    • Supports all of the messaging features that users expect with BlackBerry devices, including wireless email reconciliation, email filters, email forwarding, signatures, out-of-office reply, contact lookup and updates, attachment viewing and downloading, personal distribution lists, personal folders and subfolders, follow-up flags, calendar event forwarding, availability viewing in meeting invitations, and so on

 

RIM Launches BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced general availability of BlackBerry® Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365 – a new service for business and government organizations that extends Microsoft Exchange Online to BlackBerry® smartphones and allows customers to manage their BlackBerry deployments in the cloud. The service is available at no additional charge to current medium-sized or enterprise subscribers of the Office 365 suite or standalone Exchange Online and works with BlackBerry smartphones on business or consumer data plans.

"RIM is pleased to launch BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365. This new cloud-based option allows customers to cost-effectively support mobility across their organizations and easily manage and secure their BlackBerry deployments," said Alan Panezic, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management and Marketing at Research In Motion. "We continue to build upon the end-to-end BlackBerry solution for our business and government customers with both on-premise and cloud-based solutions, a range of technical support options to suit any size organization, and a growing ecosystem of apps and services for users."

"Microsoft's partnership with RIM exemplifies our commitment to providing customers with the best productivity experience across the PC, browser and phone," said Julia White, Senior Director of Microsoft’s Exchange Product Management Group. "The availability of BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is great news for Office 365 and BlackBerry customers who want to get the maximum benefit from these two business collaboration services."

BlackBerry Business Cloud Services offers advanced administration and flexible smartphone self-service features to support an organization's BlackBerry deployment in the cloud. Key features include:

  • Wireless synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Online email, calendar and organizer data from a BlackBerry smartphone
  • BlackBerry® Balance™ technology, which presents a unified view of work and personal content on a BlackBerry smartphone while keeping the content separate and secure
  • An intuitive web-based console for IT administrators to provision, manage and secure BlackBerry smartphones from anywhere
  • Online access to employee self-service smartphone security functions, allowing users to easily reset a device password or remotely lock or wipe a device in the event of loss or theft

Managed service providers, systems integrators, carriers, resellers and other partners can also use the cloud service to manage BlackBerry deployments on behalf of their customers.

The service is available today in over 50 countries. Customers can go to www.blackberry.com/cloudservices to get started.

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 9:44 am. | RIM Launches BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365 | One comment |


Thorsten Heins to Present Board with “Significant Ideas” in Two Weeks

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 05:42 AM PST

Thorsten Heins RIM

As I said earlier Thorsten Heins has fallen into his new CEO role with relative ease and the old guard media seems to appreciate his frankness. Heins told Reuters on Friday that "his plans for RIM would be significant" and "I will have time with the board in two weeks to present my ideas and changes." From that same interview Heins admits that RIM has work to do in the US to turn things around and it is something he plans to address. Heins would not tell Reuters when the new BlackBerry 10 phones would come but "implied" that they would be in time for the year end holiday shopping season in Q4.

Another interesting tidbit he mentioned was that only 20% of RIM's subscriber base in the US is using BlackBerry 7 devices which Heins says are competitive. The rest of RIM's US consumers have devices which are up to two generations behind. Heins hints that there are carrier agreements and plans ready to get an upgrade program in place for those 80% of customers to get them onto BlackBerry 7.

I am sure many US customers are curious to know what those incentives will be… It has to be big for it to make a huge impact and it also needs to transition well into the BlackBerry 10 phone launch.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 8:42 am. | Thorsten Heins to Present Board with “Significant Ideas” in Two Weeks | 6 comments |


RIM’s New CEO, Thorsten Heins, Managing COO –> CEO Transition Smoothly

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 04:33 AM PST

Thorsten Heins RIM

I have to give RIM's new CEO and President some serious credit for managing the transition from Jim Balisillie and Mike Lazaridis. Both Jim and Mike had a big hand in making RIM what it is today but out of nowhere we have Thorsten Heins taking the reins as if all three of them were planning this all along. Heins is doing a great job of staying on message with the media and analysts while assuming the new role at RIM. He has even been reaching out to Kevin @CrackBerry to extend his message to the whole BlackBerry user base with a pumped up phone interview.

I am really excited to see what Heins brings to the table at RIM. From what I have heard over the years there was definitely a need for a "Buck stops here" management figure after RIM's previous COO stepped down. Hopefully Heins can continue on that track along with some solid follow up and clear directions and marching orders for the RIM employees cooking up the next generation of BlackBerry experiences.

Anybody else excited?

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, January 30, 2012, 7:33 am. | RIM’s New CEO, Thorsten Heins, Managing COO –> CEO Transition Smoothly | 3 comments |


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