AT&T is the last of the cell phone service providers to offer a Droid Smartphone in their pre-paid lineup. Beginning April 17th, AT&T is offering the LG Thrive for $180. The Thrive is a mid-range Droid, running on the Android OS 2.2 (Froyo). It only has a 3.2 megapixel camera and 160 MB of memory, although it can be expanded to 32 GB with a MicroSD card. The customers will have to pay pretty dearly for using this phone however. Customers can choose the “Smartphone 10 cents per minute” plan or “Smartphone $2 USD per day for unlimited talk and text” plan. Their choices for data plans range from $5 for 10 MB to $25 for 500 MB. There is no contract, which is probably a good thing since customers may dump AT&T once they find out how poor the service coverage areas are.

AT&T Finally Gets On Board

Verizon has a whole bevy of Droid pre-paid Smartphones available. They include the Motorola Original Droid, Motorola DEVOUR, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Droid 2, HTC Droid Eris, HTC Droid Incredible, LG Ally, BlackBerry Curve 8330, BlackBerry Curve 8530, BlackBerry Storm 9530, BlackBerry Storm 9550, BlackBerry Tour 9630, BlackBerry Bold 9650, Palm Pre Plys, and Palm Pixi. Rumor has it that Verizon’s unlimited talk, text AND data plan will run about $80 per month. And Verizon certainly has better service coverage than AT&T. Of course this is just a rumor so far.

US Cellular is also in the game with the LG Optimus U and the LG Apex as their prepaid Android phones. The Optimus U features a 3.2mp camera, Android OS 2.2, 3.2″ display, and 140 MB of storage. The LG Apex runs on Android 2.1, features a 3mp camera, 3.2″ screen, and has 256 MB or Storage. The Prepaid Plans include: $70-Unlimited Talk & Text with 2GB of data, $60-450 minutes, unlimited text, and 2GB of data, $50-Unlimited Talk & Text, $50-2GB of data.

Sprint’s BoostMobile offers Droid and BlackBerry Smartphones. With the best deal in town, they offer a plan with unlimited talk, text and data for as little as $45 per month once you have paid your bill on time for 6 months. With $18 months of payments on time, your plan drops to $35 per month.

AT&T’s announcement of offering Droid Smartphones on a pre-paid plan just isn’t all that exciting. But they have to do something to stay in the game. They are losing customers and not signing up new ones. If they are able to buy T-Mobile, it may breathe some life into the company, but for now, they come in last on my list.

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A $500 AMEX card is up for grabs in the new RIM BlackBerry Retail Reps Theme Contest. Five winners will receive an AMEX gift card for $500 USD. The top winner’s theme will be developed as a BlackBerry theme and upon release, made exclusively available for 3 months to authorized retail salespeople. After 3 months, the winning theme will be made available on a non-exclusive basis in BlackBerry App World. Pretty sweet deal, or so it seems. However, royalties and income from the sales of the theme don’t actually go to the person submitting the theme idea. Hmmm…. Maybe not so sweet a deal.

RIM BlackBerry: Retail Rep Contest

The BlackBerry PlayBook is available in stores April 19th. Staples has the PlayBook available for pre-order for $499 for the 16 GB version. Unlike other BlackBerry products, you do not have to go through your wireless service provider to get your BlackBerry PlayBook. It will be available through retail outlets like Staples, Best Buy, Office Depot and other stores. There hasn’t been much advertising done other than the ads put out by the stores themselves. Here is the list released last month by RIM of the retail locations where the PlayBook will be on sale:
United States: AT&T, Best Buy, Cbeyond, Cellular South, Cincinnati Bell, Office Depot, RadioShack, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples, Sprint, Verizon, and BlackBerry from Wireless Giant.
Canada: Bell, Best Buy, Chapters / Indigo, Costco, Future Shop, Mobilicity, MTS Allstream, Rogers, Sasktel, Sears, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples, Telus, Tbooth Wireless, The Source, Videotron, Walmart, WIND Mobile, WIRELESS etc., and WIRELESSWAVE.

BlackBerry PlayBook Specifications (according to RIM’s Press Release)
• 7″ 1024×600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touch screen
• Ultra-portable at less than a pound, less than 1/2 inch thick: 0.9 lbs (425g), 5.1″ x 7.6″ x 0.4″ (130mm x 194mm x 10mm)
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• BlackBerry® Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• MP3, AAC and WMA audio playback
• Support for high resolution video playback (H.264, MPEG4, WMV)
• 1080p HDMI output
• Dual 1080p HD cameras for video conferencing and video capture (3MP front and 5MP rear)
• 1 GB RAM memory
• Up to 64 GB internal storage (16, 32 and 64 GB models)
• GPS, Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), 6-Axis Motion Sensor (Gyroscope), Digital Compass (Magnetometer)
• Stereo speakers and stereo microphones
• Wi-Fi® (802.11 a/b/g/n) connectivity
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support

The PlayBook will be running on operating system called QNX. One of the downsides to the PlayBook is that is to get your music on the PlayBook you have to drag and drop the files from your computer to your PlayBook. The tablet comes with a wild, wireless Bluetooth connection feature called BlackBerry Bridge, enabling the tablet to view your BlackBerry phone on the tablet screen. Unfortunately this is the only way you can access the email, calendar, address book and BlackBerry Messenger on the tablet.

It sounds like the BlackBerry PlayBook is not ready to compete with the tablet “Big Boys.” What’s your take on it?

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BlackBerry should be renamed LeakBerry. Photos, videos and technical specifications have been “leaked” over and over in the past few weeks. Rumors are flying. There are now stories of four new RIM Smartphones (BlackBerry Bold Touch, Torch 2, Orlando, and Touch), all of which have new capacitive touch screens. Mostly they seem to be “re-made” versions of the Curve and Torch, although there is a touch only phone as well.

BlackBerry Enters the World of Touch

The BlackBerry Orlando is mostly a Curve Sedona with a touch screen. It is supposed to ship with the new OS 6.1, have a physical keyboard and a trackpad. With the touch screen and the keyboard, it is kind of a “mini-Bold Torch.”

The new touch screen only BlackBerry is called the “Touch” or the CDMA version, the Monaco Touch. It appears to be more like an Android or iPhone device, using capacitive technology. It is reported to be coming with a 3.7 inch screen, 800×480 pixel resolution, 1.2 GHz processor, 768 MB of RAM, a MicrosSD slot, and a 5 megapixel camera.

The Bold Touch has some nice new features, including a new battery type. It’s a GSM device with a 5MP camera, 4GB of internal storage, 768MB or RAM, a 2.8-inch screen (640×480), and according to an article written by Jeffrey Van Camp, DigitalTrends, it has built in NFC technology. Since Apple has decided not to include the NFC yet, this will be a bonus for RIM. NFC is “near field communication” which allows your Smartphone to communicate with terminals like cash registers, helping you to avoid long lines in restaurants and such.

“The unit itself is extremely solid and the touchscreen is very responsive,” said BGR (Boy Genius Reports). “And who could forget that great and spacious BlackBerry keyboard? The BlackBerry Bold Touch also uses a new battery from RIM, so hopefully the addition of a touchscreen to this famous BlackBerry form factor won’t have too much of a negative impact on battery life.”

The Storm 3 Touch is also known as Blackberry Touch 9860. Here’s a short video preview of the new Storm 3:

BlackBerry has die-hard fans. If you are one of those BlackBerry users and like the BlackBerry keyboard, you will probably want to upgrade to the new Smartphones with both the touch screen and the keyboard. If you are new to BlackBerry and have been an iPhone user or an Android user, you will probably want to try the new BlackBerry Touch Smartphones. Will the new efforts by BlackBerry to stay in the market be enough to keep up with the Androids and iPhones? Google reports that there are currently 350,000 new device activations per day, and 3 billion apps overall have been installed. iPhone is trying to keep up. Will BlackBerry succeed? Let us know what you think.

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Today it’s official! Twitter for BlackBerry v1.1 is finally released. A select few were using the beta version, but the real McCoy was released today. According to a post by Kristy C., Inside BlackBerry, they have “made several changes to enhance the Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphone experience, like updated graphics that reflect the new look of the Twitter brand and a streamlined layout of the Add Photo and Add Location icons on the Home screen. The next time you Retweet something, it will appear in your Home timeline as ‘Retweeted by You’, to quickly alert you that your Retweet was sent successfully.”

New Twitter for BlackBerry v1.1 Debuts Today

The official BlackBerry App Store had this to say about the new Twitter:

“Doing the things you love on Twitter® are made quick and easy using your BlackBerry® Smartphone. With Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphones, you receive a notification as soon as a Message or @Mention arrives – no matter which application you’re using. And because you’re using a BlackBerry Smartphone, you not only receive a notification, the message itself is delivered directly to your inbox making it even easier to stay on top of what’s important to you. It even works with your BlackBerry Browser and BlackBerry Smartphone camera, so it only takes a moment to post a link or upload a picture directly to Twitter. Plus, you can follow friends, search for a topic of interest, edit re-tweets, and find users quickly by typing @usernames. Easily stay connected to the information and news you care about—all from your BlackBerry Smartphone.”

Key New Features in Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphones v1.1.0.21

•Add locations to your Tweets (adds your geographical location to Tweets and allows others to see where you were when you tweeted)
•Receive immediate notifications of @Mentions (when you’re mentioned on Twitter, you get a notification)
•View your Messages in a chat-style layout
•Select previously used hash tagged words with #Topic Autocomplete (pops up a suggested word list)

Are you a BlackBerry user? Will you try this new Twitter? Seems like a win-win situation to me. You get to have that cool BlackBerry and use Twitter as well.

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Are you a Catholic needing to go to confession? There’s an app for that. Seriously though, it’s not actually an app to substitute for confession. (The Catholic Church is very clear on this issue.) It is an app for the iPhone that helps you figure out how you’ve sinned (as if you didn’t know) and formulate a confession. It’s called Confession: A Roman Catholic App, and was created by Little iApps with the help of two Catholic priests ($1.99). And it has been given the blessing of Bishop Kevin C. Rhodes of the Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend, Indiana.

Forgiveness is Just an App Away

“Very cool; very useful,” wrote Thomas Peters of catholicvote.org, an online community for Catholics. Peters praised the app as being “not like those other programs that claim to ‘wash away sin’ and are essentially mockeries of confession, not preparations for the sacrament.”

This Confession App does not promise to forgive you of your sins. The app was developed as a tool to assist you with your confession, and offers a “personal examination of conscience,” plus a step-by-step guide to confessing. According to an article by Megan O’Neil, Appolicious, as you go through the app, you are guided through the 10 Commandments, with self-examination through a series of questions. For example: “Tap on the fourth commandment – honor thy father and mother – and you are asked several questions such as “Do I try not to bring peace into my home life?” and “Do I not care for my aged and infirmed relatives?” Check all that apply. Then, move into the confession feature. The app guides you through exactly how the sacrament should proceed, including your opening lines “In the name of the Father, Son… Bless me Father for I have sinned…” And when it is time to state your sins, the items that you had check-marked are listed for you, so you don’t find yourself scrambling or forgetting anything. Included in the app are no less than seven versions of the Act of Contrition, including one in Latin (for those who remember the pre-Vatican II days). Many of other important prayers are also there, including the Hail Mary, Our Father, Apostles’ Creed, etc.”

The app is not a substitute for meeting with a priest and receiving absolution. The Catholic Church looks at this app as a tool, a way to do a little soul searching. I find it interesting that it is only available to iPhone users. I guess those of us who own Droid or BlackBerry phones are without sin and need no confession. (Yeah, right.) With the age of smart technology, will there come a time when you can program your Smartphone to monitor your activities and log your most recent sins in preparation for your next confession? Interesting concept, don’t you think? What’s your take on the Confession app? Are you Catholic? Would you use it if you could?

Mobile phone users in the European Union will soon have universal chargers for many of their devices. According to an article by Don Reisinger, CNET.com, “DigitalEurope, the continent’s largest digital tech organization, has delivered a sample of a universal mobile phone charger to European Commission vice president Antonio Tajani. The EU said that the sample now paves the way for consumers to get their hands on devices that support the universal charger in the very near future.”

Europe Will Soon See Universal Cell Phone Chargers

“I welcome the rollout of new chargers for mobile phones based on the new EU standard,” Tajani said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “This is genuine good news for the European consumer. Now we await the arrival of the new charger and compatible mobile phones on the shelves.”

14 companies have signed a memorandum of understanding with the EU to make their devices compatible with the standard. That standard requires participating companies to use Micro-USB connectivity or an adapter if their phones don’t support that interface. Motorola Mobility, Nokia, Research In Motion (BlackBerry), and several other companies signed on. Perhaps most surprisingly, Apple also agreed to make its devices compatible with the standard.

Reducing electronic waste is the impetus behind the standardization. How many of us have a drawer full of useless chargers for our old phones? Having a universal charger for a whole bunch of electronic devices only makes sense. The trend must already be taking hold in the States, because luckily my Droid X and my Noisehush Bluetooth mobile headset both use the micro USB chargers. Since they both came with a wall charger, I have a spare that I keep in my suitcase for traveling. My car charger will work with both. Even my Amazon Kindle uses a micro USB charger. This definitely simplifies my life.

Vendors can use this as a cost cutting factor. According to Don Reisinger’s article, he believes that many mobile phone manufacturers will follow what the printer manufacturers have been doing for years. Most new printers don’t come with a USB cable. You must either use your old one, or buy a new one. You can imagine that this saves the manufacturers a bundle. Mobile phone manufacturers will be able to do the same once everyone is on the same page. If the micro USB charger is adopted by all, you will most likely see the cable being an option to be purchased.

Let’s give kudos for this standardization. It’s about time!

Google released its Latitude application for the iPhone last week after a nearly two year delay. The Google Latitude app allows iPhone users the ability to share their location with friends and contact them through by phone, text message or email. Latitude functions much like other social networking apps, meaning that you must be a “friend” with someone in order to see their location and information.

iPhone Finally Gets Google Latitude

Apple and Google’s tense relationship is blamed for the long  delay. The Latitude app was released to the Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows devices back in February 2009. However, according to an article appearing in Mobiledia, after the Google Voice program was rejected from the iPhone maker’s app store, Google launched an FCC investigation into Apple’s practices, citing Apple’s fear that the call management software would replace iPhone’s “core mobile telephone functionality.”

As with all Google apps, Latitude is free. You can set it to only share locations when in use, or share continuously in the background. Because of this feature, it runs on devices powered by Apple’s iOS 4.0 or later. Only 3G devices such as the iPhone 4, 3GS and iPad 3G support background sharing.

“You can see where your friends are and now, even in the background once you’ve closed the app,” said Chris Lambert, a software engineer at Google.

Do you have an iPhone? Are you glad you can finally have this Google app or are you pretty much non-plussed? Personally I don’t find the app all that exciting. With the GPS in my Droid X, I have plenty of apps that will give me all and more than what Latitude offers. And as with all the GPS functions and apps, I wonder just who is keeping track of me. I’m not so sure I like the idea that Big Brother watches my every move. Even though it is supposed to be secure, if you share your location with friends, it probably wouldn’t take much to hack my location. Of course that begs the question, why would anyone want to know where I am. But just the fact that they could know where I am is a little scary.

RIM will soon release its newest electronic gadget, the BlackPad. Meant to compete with Apple’s iPad, BlackBerry’s new BlackPad will have approximately the same dimensions as the iPad, a 9.7” diagonal screen, and will also include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology that will allow people to connect to the Internet through their BlackBerrys.

BlackPad vs. iPad

BlackPad will be BlackBerry’s first tablet PC. With plans to release the BlackPad in November, RIM is hoping to capture some of the tablet PC market share. Apple reported that there were over 3 million iPads sold in the first 80 days after release. RIM shares had fallen 18% earlier this year, but with the release of the new BlackBerry Torch 9800 and the announcement of the BlackPad, stocks rose 3.3% in the last week. This may be a close save for RIM, but it’s still an uphill battle.

RIM has yet to prove itself in the touch screen market. The new BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the first BlackBerry with a touch screen, and runs on the new BlackBerry OS. A lot depends on the reception of the Torch. If it is a hit, then the BlackPad may stand a chance.

BlackPad or iPad? What’s your take? Will the BlackPad really be compatible with the rest of the world? The iPad is seamless with the whole Apple system. Want to take a chance on spending $500 for the BlackPad and have it be exclusively interactive with the BlackBerry? Hmmm…

RIM (Research in Motion) has announced the new BlackBerry Torch 9800 Smartphone is being released August 12th. Partnered exclusively with AT&T (yes another one of THOSE), the new Torch 9800 is a Qwerty slider with a touch screen. Much like the original Android, this Smartphone can be used with a slide out Qwerty keyboard, as well as utilizing the touch screen that is so popular.

New BlackBerry Torch – Will its Flame Heat Up the Market?

The Torch 9800 runs on the new BlackBerry OS 6. One of the big advantages to the new BlackBerry OS 6 is that it has the ability run legacy BlackBerry apps. The BlackBerry platform still has 40% of the market share, but Apple and Android are rapidly closing the gap. For those die-hard BlackBerry users, this is a dream come true (unless you are traveling to the UAE).

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 has features new to BlackBerry users. The new features include a 5 megapixel camera with a flash and auto-focus; 4 GB of internal storage plus a micro-SD memory expansion slot; GPS; Wi-Fi; Bluetooth; a 3.5mm headset jack; and a removable battery with (according to RIM) about six hours of talk time. (Why are they bragging about removable batteries? BlackBerry phones have always had removable batteries. The only phones that don’t have removable batteries are the iPhones.)

Will the new BlackBerry Torch revive RIM’s failing market? I think for the loyal BlackBerry users, this is a well deserved reward. For the rest of the market I think it is a bit too late in the game. I have already bought and fallen in love with the new Droid X. I doubt they will pull users away from either the Droid or iPhone market. Still, this new BlackBerry Torch will help keep the BlackBerry Loyalists in the fold and keep RIM in the market, even if not at the top.

Foreign visitors are not exempt from the UAE ban on BlackBerry Smartphones. Like the 500,000 local subscribers, business travelers and tourists will also face the ban on using their BlackBerry Smartphones for anything other than phone calls, even if the phone originated from outside the UAE.

UAE BlackBerry Ban Affects Foreign Visitors Too

The ban begins October 11th, 2010. Emirati authorities claim the ban is based upon security concerns because BlackBerry data is automatically sent to company computers outside of the UAE, which makes it difficult, if not impossible for local authorities to monitor the data for illegal activities.

About 100,000 travelers pass through Dubai’s airport every day. Many of these travelers are in route to other destinations with only a quick lay-over in Dubai. Not being able to connect with their email is a major inconvenience. The UAE’s ban on data, BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services, is discouraging business travelers and tourists, which is contrary to Dubai’s quest for tourism.

“I think it’s a very big step back. All developed countries in the world have it. Why should we not?” said Emirati BlackBerry user Maisoon al-Iskandarani, 24, who works at an international bank in Dubai. “How are you going to stay in touch with your clients and colleagues?”

This is not the first time the UAE has singled out BlackBerry. Last year a directive was issued by the UAE state-owned mobile operator Etisalat telling the company’s BlackBerry users to install software described as a service upgrade. Further testing showed it actually installed spyware on the phones. RIM (BlackBerry’s device maker) strongly distanced itself from Etisalat’s decision and told users how to remove the software.

Is the UAE paranoid or intrusive, or perhaps both? What do you think? Traveling to or through Dubai any time soon?