Tether for BlackBerry is an application that does exactly as the title implies, it allows you to tether your BlackBerry to your PC or Mac via USB cable or Bluetooth. A high percentage of BlackBerry users are business people. Business people travel. Along with travel, comes down time. Now most business people that I know own a laptop, and it would be fair to say that less that 80% of those people own a mobile broadband card. Those that do own a broadband card are normally paying anywhere from $50-80/month for a limited (capped) amount of data they can use. For big business users, it may not be a significant cost at $60 a month, but what about the small business owners that need to watch monthly expenses? Tether for BlackBerry may be the answer for them.

For $49.99 (less if you find it on sale, which is quite often) you can own the Tether app. For the $49.99 you get a lifetime license, the app for your BlackBerry, and the client for your computer. Installation is simple, download the app to your BlackBerry (which is sent to you via email, or through the BlackBerry app world), and then download the PC/Mac client for your computer. Once installed, you will need to run both applications at the same time in order for it to work properly. Tether makes this very user friendly. Simply select USB or Bluetooth as the form of connection, and it starts automatically. Once connected, you can minimize the apps to the background of your computer and BlackBerry, making it easy to stay productive on your phone if needed.

Speeds are generally good, similar to what you would see if you owned one of your carrier’s mobile broadband cards. Should you be unfortunate enough to be on a tiered or capped data plan, Tether is kind enough to tell you exactly how much data you have used. Tether tracks your license off your BlackBerry’s PIN serial, so if you ever get a new BlackBerry, all you have to do is log into their website and update your PIN to keep on using the application on your new phone.

All in all, I have a hard time not recommending this application to any BlackBerry user that needs a mobile internet connection. The speeds are respectable enough for most business users, and Tether.com gives you all of the support that you could ever need. $49.99 is a big gulp to swallow considering it is only a mobile app, but when you compare it to what you would pay to a mobile carrier; this application is one of the most valuable pieces of software that a person could own.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Pros: Lifetime usage for BlackBerry users

Cons: Limited to USB and Bluetooth (no wifi) connections. $49.99 is a large price to pay

How to download: Click Here or

 Cost: $49.99

Type of app: Utility

Similar apps: PDAnet

Palm’s new webOS is looking pretty sweet since they released the early version of the SDK this week.  webOS is by far one of the coolest OS’ I’ve ever played with and the possibilities are endless, which makes it even more exciting to think about considering the things HP could do with it if they bring their hardware “A” game. 

The new version promises to bring some great new features for consumers and developers.  The new features include:

• Stacks – Groups related cards in “stacks” to reduce clutter and makes it easier to move between tasks.
• Just Type – Used to be called Universal Search, but now it’s not just for searching, so they changed the name to Just Type.   It also allows developers to expand their apps’ capabilities using Just Type.  With JustType, you can now send a text, update your status, start an email, search your favorite webpages all without opening an app….Just Type.
• Exhibition – This was talked about a little when the Pre first launched,but we haven’t seen anything as of yet.  But, now, Exhibition will start when you put your Pre on the Touchstone and will display anything from your Facebook photos to your calendar’s agenda.
• Synergy – It’s always had this, but now the’yre opening it up to their developer community for their apps integration.
• JavaScript Services – Pretty self explanatory here, but developers will get to use node.js and incorporate JavaScript into the apps.
• HTML5 Capabilities

If you want to know more about the new features of webOS 2.0, you can click here and read more.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited to see some of the stuff that comes from this upgrade.  I might just have to go get me a Palm Pre again.  What are your thoughts?

The swimmies badge, once a limited-time SXSWbadge, has re-emerged with different text, that suggests you need to check in five times near bodies of water. It is unclear whether there are more specific criteria to unlock the badge as of right now, but if this new-old badge is a sign of things to come, I’m sure more people will be excited to use foursquare more often.

This badge seems to have been re-released today, Aug 31st, 2010. I unlocked the badge today, and was curious since I’d never seen it before. Well, here’s my answer.

Foursquare is a location sharing, social media, mobile application.  To learn more about foursquare click here.

Where to Download:       

So, I finally broke down and decided I was going to enter a blog post from my BlackBerry. What better app to review than the very app I am using for this post. In this case, WordPress for Blackberry. I’ve been wanting to get this up and running lately, so I can enter quick posts on the go if and when we get some breaking news important enough for me to enter it while away from the office. (Like to pretend we have an office.)

Ill get right down to it since I don’t want to be typing away all night on my Bold.

First, the app is surprisingly robust for a blogging app. I can do almost anything I can do on my computer right from my phone. Pretty rad.

Second, I can add pictures and other media right from my phone. So, for example, in this post, I am uploading a few screen shots of the WordPress app for Blackberry (With the help of Capture It, which I’ll review later.). But its almost nicer since I don’t have to plug my phone into my laptop to get the screen shots off my phone. Nice!

Third, well, I don’t have a third. But, the first two reasons alone are enough for me to jump up and down and scream. Right?

Rating: 5 out of 5

Pros:  Does almost everything.  Easy to use. 

Cons: Font changes could be explained better. 

Where to Download:         

Type of App: Blog, Social, Utility

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Looks like the legal department over at RIM has made some changes to it’s Vendor Agreement.  The changes are small, but if you look in section 8.2, you will find changes in regard to Privacy and Data Protection.  Looks like they have made these changes due to the heat on privacy right now with Foursquare and Facebook taking some of the “heat” for the risk involved in telling everyone your home is unattended when you check in somewhere other than your home.  Nothing has really changed for developers with the new agreement, but it is clear that RIM is taking actions to cover their behinds.

[ Via BlackBerry Cool ]

Main Timeline

• Themes – You can choose different color themes for each of your accounts. (May not sound like a great thing, but when you are managing multiple accounts, it’s really easy to tweet from the wrong account, unless visually, you see it’s different.)
• UberChannels – Provides real time stream of tweets on particular topics within your search criteria.  Topics can range from locations to politics to hobbies to sports to entertainment to health, well, you catch my drift.
• Picture Uploading -Integrated ability to upload pictures to a site dedicated to serving UberTwitter users. This is great because you don’t have to click on the link and open the web app to view pictures, UberTwitter downloads the picture for you and shows it underneath the users tweet.
• Google Talk Status - Ability to optionally update your Google Talk status with your tweets, allowing a further reach than just those following you on Twitter.
• Location - Ability to update your location with each tweet based on the cell tower you’re closest to, WITHOUT using GPS.
• UberTweet- Allows you tweet from ANY application on your device.  Just click menu and select Über Tweet and it brings up the New Tweet Screen.  Yeah, awesome.
• URL Shortener- Not only can you send URL’s from any webpage by hitting the menu button and selecting “Send to Uber”, but it also shortens the URL for you.  You can also shorten the URL of any webpage you manually type into your tweet or paste in from another app by clicking menu and “shorten urls”. 
• Hashtag Picker- An awesome new feature of Beta 8 is the Hashtag Picker, which allows you to choose from a list of hashtags you commonly use, so you don’t have to always type them out manually.  It’s all about saving time, right?

Now, there are so many great things about UberTwitter that are amazing, but there are some things it lacks, in my opinion, that would make it the ultimate Twitter app.  I like to @mention my newest followers to show them a little love when someone new follows me, but with this app, it’s impossible to do so without going to my followers, writing down the most recent followers, then starting a new tweet and @mentioning them by looking at what I wrote down.  Yeah, not gonna happen.  Now, it does allow you to insert an @ sign and it will bring up all your friends in alphabetical order, but alphabetical order doesn’t help me, when I need to see my most recent followers.  Also, I would like the ability to post to my Ping.fm account so it will update more of my Social Media statuses at once, but that’s not a huge deal currently. 

All in all, this is a top notch application that works great and never locks my phone up or closes on it’s own.  It’s solid, just like BlackBerry and is fully customizable, which most Twitter apps for BlackBerry aren’t. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Pros: Features, Integration of all Twitter features and common Twitter apps, Solid Application, Battery Use is minimal for a Twitter app.

Cons: Inability to @mention followers from a “most recent” list to enter multiple followers into one tweet, No Ping.fm integration yet.

Where to download: 

or

Scan to Download:

Cost: Free or $4.99

Type of app: Social, Communication

Similar apps:Seesmic for Blackberry, Twitter for Blackberry

I have always been looking for an easy app to throw movies into my Netflix Que while out and seeing an advertisement, or watching the preview during another movie. MyQ is that app. Aside from those core functionalities, they also have a very clean interface, ability to reorder both Disc and Instant Que’s on your device, see the filmography for actors and actresses, and search YouTube for trailers.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Pros: Easy to use, quick program

Cons: Inability to search for actors (if you find a movie they are in, you can see the filmography)

How to download: Palm App Catalog (http://developer.palm.com/appredirect/?packageid=net.nexapps.myq&applicationid=323)

Cost: $3.00

Type of app: Utility

Similar apps: QuickQue for Netflix

This is a program that I have been using for years now, and shared with many others.  There is also a free scaled down version, as well as a free trial on the full version.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Pros: Great interface, auto updates, very customizable

Cons: None that I have found

How to download: BlackBerry App World (http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/1062)

Cost: Free to $9.99, depending on version

Type of app: Utility

Similar apps: Countless, although I have not found one that integrates everything so cleanly.

AccuWeather is a free app for Android, webOS, BlackBerry and iOS.  The name is pretty self explanatory, a weather app that gives you all of the basic things you would desire out of a free weather application.  The application gives either GPS based or user input locations for weather data.  This review focuses specifically on the version for webOS.

AccuWeather is a free download which is accessible through the Palm App Catalog.  It is one of the only free weather apps that gives you access to live radar (the Weather Channel app being the other).  When you load the application it will prompt you to choose either GPS based weather, or to manually enter in a city name for weather location.  After you complete that, the main display on the application will give you the current weather conditions, as well as the five day forecast.  On the bottom portion of the app you will have three other options to pick from:  four hour detailed forecast, radar, and miscellaneous advisory levels.  I will touch on the three different options:

Four hour detailed forecast:  It is exactly as it sounds.  AccuWeather will tell you in detail what the next four hours of weather should be like for your specific location.  Temperature, humidity, dew point, wind, precipitation, and RealFeel™ are all displayed on this page.  RealFeel™ is essentially a heat index rating, or “what it really feels like outside” type of measurement.

Radar: Radar is displayed as a non-moving picture in this application, which is one of the few drawbacks for this free app.  An “X” marks your GPS or city spot on the map, and the radar is color coated much like any other weather radar you would see on TV.  In the upper corner the time and date are displayed for when the radar snapshot was taken.

Advisory levels: This is something unique to this application.  AccuWeather has put together a handful of categories and rated them based on the current weather conditions.  For example, “golf” is going to be rated “Excellent” on a sunny day with no precipitation and a moderate RealFeel™ temperature.  Some of the other options are skiing, tennis, outdoor concert, and beach going to name a few.

All in all this application is a “must-have” for any webOS device.  The unobtrusive advertising does not get in the way of the content that is displayed in the app, which is a major plus for this free application.  It provides simple and easy to use input and displays the data in an upfront and easy to understand format.  The only improvement that would be nice to see is animated radar.  Sometimes getting a stationary snapshot isn’t as informative as live radar.   That being said, if you don’t have a weather app yet on your Palm Pre or Pixi, I would download this application the next time you are browsing your app catalog.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Pros: Free detailed GPS based weather

Cons: Advertising banner and stationary radar

How to download: Palm App Catalog

Cost: Free

Type of app: Utility

Similar apps: the Weather Channel app