Mobile gadgets running Blackberry & Android OS'
Posts tagged Apps reviews
Preparing a Blackberry apps Versus bewteen WeatherEye Beta and BeWeather
0851 days
A lot of controversy is surrounding the best sold weather application for Blackberry: Berry Weather. Bellshare had to offer a free version, too, called BeWeather in order to both promote and gain some market share from the competition. The “only” problem? A LOT of customers are complaining about bugs. Then why is this the best sold application? Hopefully we’ll see.
The new BlackBerry Bold 9700 – a worthy “bold” replacement?
2856 days
As mentioned last night, I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the few, first-batch Blackberrys Bold 9700 to arrive at Vodafone Romania. The timing is completely wrong, as I was in the middle of testing the leaky 4.7 OS…or might be one of the applications I am running constantly; I wasn’t able to find out for certain because my 1.5 years old Bold 9000 started acting up – the screen is slowly dying.
So I had to start reinstalling all the free applications I could find: Weather Bug as I know it is no longer free, the App World has now two modules and I had to use a hack to install it, so I can use it in my country (not available officially), the L 10 icons theme with the Today plug-in is not available for 9700, as well as quite a few other programs. I also lost a few applications I won in the last year for my first generation Bold, applications I have to pay to replace. I also had some nice surprises: Seesmic for Blackberry ( a heads-up already, as I used this application for Android already) and a newer, better weather app, namely BeWeather Free (great visuals!!)
Overall, I think it’s a win-win situation: more RAM, a smaller form factor, a better screen, the optical track-pad, the 3.2 MP auto-focus camera and a better build quality. On OS side, the new 5.0 version brings HTML to email messages and improvements on “signaling” side; no need for BerryBuzz anymore for example.
Looking forward to see how it works in the future and I hope to be able to conduct a series of tests in order to find out if some of the apps leak or if the 5.0 is the future. Other than those, this is evolution.
Why is my BlackBerry leaking memory? – take 2
0856 days
This was supposed to be another part of the many tests in order to see what’s leaking on my BlackBerry Bold. I did it but for a shorter period of time than planned because I’m switching over to BlackBerry Bold 9700 a.k.a the Bold 2. Up until now there was no indication that any of the “always-running” applications are leaking, but I’ll never truly know as I stop testing. I am pleased to know that SocialScope and DexRex are not leaking (no impact on RAM while I stopped using them) because I plan to install them on my new 9700.
So this is waht I found out from “take 2″:
Day 1
07.30: 31.28 MB at start-up. Social Scope closed down, iCallManager Light (call filter), Mobile Data Alerter, Dexrex SMS Back-up deleted (that’s why I get the extra space when compared to the 1st test. UberTwitter is not always online, just when I use it and then shut it down. PodTrapper is auto-starting in order to retrieve the latest podcast.
09.24: 24.61 MB – PodTrapper.
13.52: 20.17 MB -UT on. Later on, Yahoo Messenger and Amaze GPS.
Day 2
09.10: 14.82 MB.
17.57: 11.45 MB – UT, PodTrapper running.
Day 3
22.30: 3.22 MB
63 hrs and 21 minutes of running time. Reboot. Had to reboot because the Auto Stand-By is not working anymore…again. It seems that it needs more than 3.22 MB to be able to function.
From what I gathered up until now, the leaking is definitely coming from the OS. Java is old and slow. Hopefully more RAM will make a difference because the 9700 is going to the get the same testing treatment when I finish loading up the 3-rd party software.
Let’s see what’s changed in version 5.0!
Why is my BlackBerry leaking memory?
1864 days
I start this experiment to find out what leaks my Blackberry Bold’s memory. Except for the ones mentioned below, I run SocialScope all day long. So, is it the OS itself or one of the apps I run 24/7?
It will take more than one experiment (I need to run this every time I take out one of the apps from the list, and that will take at least 2-3 days every time.
This is purely a fun undertaking, at this time the Blackberry leaks are already legendary. They’ve tried their best at holding them at bay, even made a tool available to developers in order to improve Blackberry applications performances: the developers probably don’t use it or Quality Control is not all that important once you sell the app.
Day 1 :
29.01 MB at start-up. Social Scope closed down, iCallManager Light (call filter), Mobile Data Alerter, Dexrex SMS Back-up. UberTwitter not always online, just when I use it and then shut it down.
12.13: 21.77 MB Some SMS’ sent and a couple of emails. And of course, Doc2Go to help me write this down.
20.00: 17.86 MB No usage whatsoever, except for a few calls.
22.53: 17.38 MB SMS usage.
00.53: 19.10 MB UT on.
Day 2:
10.20: 14.88 MB No usage.
10.40: 17.24 MB UT and PodTrapper used.
19.20: 11.62 MB Yahoo Messenger and PodTrapper.
Day 3:
01.50: 9 MB PodTrapper, some games and UT from time to time.
09.05 – 9 MB – Emails.
22.00 – 2.40 MB – Emails
Day 4 :
09.26 – 3.13 MB – PodTrapper
17.00 – 2.8 MB – Email and UT usage (not on all the time).
Stand-by: 78 hours and I have to reboot because it won’t go to stand-by anymore (I use Auto-Stand-By). I have to say I am impressed with the OS stability. Other than the stand-by issue (I could always lock the keyboard which I never do) the phone doesn’t lag,responds quickly to commands, everything works as it should be, as it runs at boot-time with 29 MB of RAM.
As I write this post, I can’t help but noticing how much the OS was improved; I currently run .304 and I started with .147 when I bought the Bold. Since then, the OS had at least 10 revisions (I upgraded only 3 times) and it shows in stability,smoothness and overall improved performance. I still use Quick Pull Lite daily just to make sure I won’t have a problem, but only because it’s automatic and carries the task before I wake up, so no waiting around for me.
As for the leaking, it lasted more than expected, so for now I am not sure this is the way the OS is behaving. I’ll see in the next week or so.
ÜberTwitter Beta 6 is out!
2868 days
In December 2009 we had a leaked version of Beta 6. It was somewhat unstable and I didn’t like the new bubble-style time-line, so I didn’t use it. But like the title says, the official version was released yesterday and I had to try it out, even if I rely entirely on SocialScope, in my opinion the best Twitter client for Blackberry, today still in a state of in closed Beta.
Because @Cr0bar cast some doubt over SocialScope’s ability to function, I decided to test UT Beta 6 extensively and shut down SocialScope (more details in the next few days). If it turns out that SocialScope is leaking memory, I’ll switch to UT or Seesmic – I had to test that one anyway, I didn’t have the time to do it because when I do, I wanna do it properly.
Ok, back to UT: as the developer says, the Beta 6 brings a lot of improvements as follows:
- Lists, Lists, Lists!!! – You can create, delete, subscribe, add members, view members, all the functionality you would expect of an Über mobile client!
- Find People – You can search for people, just like the ‘Find People’ link on Twitter’s home page.
- New Icon – We love it!
- Über Bar – We couldn’t resist the name! This is a tab bar at the top of the screen, the neat thing is that you can add your own tabs! A list can be a tab, users timelines, and soon saved searches
- Retweets – We support the old method and new method, you decide!
- Update Twitter Profile – Yes, you can update your Twitter profile directly from your phone.
- Profile Picture – We have heard you, upload a picture for your Twitter avatar right from your phone!
- Report Spam – One menu selection to report a tweet as a spam.
- Twitter Geo-Tagging – We provide support Twitter’s new geo-tagging capability. You can decide whether to use myloc.me URLs, Twitter Geo-Tagging, or both!
- Friend Picker – Type ‘@’ and a list of your friends automatically pops up allowing selection
- Larger Avatars – Click the profile picture, and view a larger version! You can even email that larger version!
- TwitLonger – Yes, you can tweet MUCH longer tweets now, thanks to the folks over at TwitLonger.com, we have fully integrated this capability into both sending long tweets, and automatically retrieving long tweets. We love it!
- What The Trend? – Ever wonder why certain topics were trending or what they meant? No more! We have integrated with the folks over at WhatTheTrend.com to allow you to see the explanations for trending topics, and also for you to provide your own explanations!
- Choice of timeline layout – Choose the new ‘bubble’ layout or the original ‘bar’ layout.
- Verified Users – We show a small blue check-mark icon in the timeline to denote verified users
- Network Connection Logic – We re-worked the network connection logic, things should be alot smoother.
It’s available for download here and I also post some screen-shots.
Some comments:
- I love the new tab system (OK, it looks a lot like SocialScope) but in the end, if SS is leaking memory it’ll make the transition easier (back) to UT.
- The new logo is nice but I can’t decide which one is more beautiful; I also liked the old one, especially its color.
- When I tried to set up the Geotagging feature I received an error, as seen in one of the screenshots; I had to move on.
- I appreciate the possibility of choosing which kind of time-line I see, I don’t like the bubble-style, as I mentioned earlier.
- Why not allow as to upload on Twitpic? I use it for a long time ago and I like the service.
- I appreciate the possibility of choosing what kind of RT I can use; I don’t really care but the option is there!
- Having the ads always (or most of the times) on top is a pain. It didn’t bother me on the last version but I hate it on this one; it ruins the whole experience.
Gwabbit – a (free) contacts manager causing headaches
0894 days
Every once in a while a good application shows-up. For Blackberry. Usually, the best applications are the ones missing from the original OS build. And free of charge! Seems that RIM rushed the builds one after another and “forgot” to add some REALLY basic functions like adding a number to an existing contact, saving a signature from an sms or e-mail, having a full-screen picture of the caller when your phone rings, saving an e-mail, call or sms in the Calendar as a reminder/meeting, setting a quick reminder, etc. I see they start to take notice, and with every new phone they build, they slowly add functions – like that famous adding of tasks in the Calendar view! A strike of genius!
Or maybe we ask too much! But when the others are doing it and we’re talking about really simple stuff you can find in a “dumphone”, I really doubt it. So whenever people request an function and RIM doesn’t provide it, small developers step in. They charge us a lot of money to provide simple functions done in weeks probably.
Gwabbit is done by gwabbit, LLC. It’s a program to “…easily capture and organize contacts in your address book (…) for BlackBerry!”. All nice and neat. Except for the fact that it costs 9.99$ per year! As a subscription! Every year! This is the American model. Why let you buy yourself the application when they can rent it to you? You plan on keeping your BlackBerry for a few years? Very well, gwabbit will rejoice! They are also allowing you to download a free version from the App World but again, there is a catch: they will spam your every new contact added to the agenda with links to their product. How’s that? Hell, your new contact can think you’re cheap and can’t afford to pay an application! Yeah, talking about starting off on the right foot!
Other than that, it simply works. It’s RAM foot-print is small, just 126 Kb which is always a good thing when your RAM is limited! But there is also another programs that work by doing almost doing the same thing: ex-Anagram done by Anagram Technologies, now out of Beta, not free anymore and re-branded as Copy2Contact. It applies the same business model as gwabbit, but it’s a bit cheaper and has more features. They even went further and made a chart proving that. I write about it now, because I use it for more than two weeks now and it’s wonderful. I was lucky enough to win a free copy, don;t think I’d pay 10$ per year for this kind of thing.
I think everyone in this business need to understand that paying 10$ (there are some charging between 30 and a whooping 70$) per application or charging a yearly subscription is not the way to go. Just look at the Apple’s applications store: over 100.000 applications costing usually less than 3$. Do we see the same performance on BlackBerry applications? No. And why? The price is one of the reasons! A savvy mobile users looks at the cost of the programs he’s going to use BEFORE buying the phone. Seems like the BlackBerry developers “forgot” that one.
So I’ll end with some hacker’s words of wisdom: if you like it (them), go buy it (them)!
