Tonight you’ll be able to unlock one of the easiest badges we’ve ever seen. 

Between the hours of 8pm and 4am, local time, just check in to any venue and get the badge. 

This is what you’ll see when you unlock the badge:

   “Happy New Year!  Thanks for all your check-ins, tips, photos, comments  and badge unlocks in 2010. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2011 – and a  hangover free tomorrow.”

Gentlemen, let’s talk about steez. You know, “style with ease.”  If you’re the kind of dude who rocks a button-down collared shirt — and likes being one of a kind — you need to check out the Blank Label application for the iPad. Blank Label is, in our opinion, a fairly ingenious iPad app that lets you customize the: fabric type, collar, cuff, pocket, shoulders, placket, labeling, monogram and buttons of a button-down, collared shirt. With 40 fabrics, 6 collar types, 6 cuff types, 4 pocket types, 4 shoulder cuts, 4 placket types, two labeling options, three possible monogram locations, and 6 different button colors, you can pretty much guarantee that your designed garment is one of a kind; you’re definitely not going to be seeing your shirt in a Gap catalog. The application gives you a live preview of your shirt as you customize it and shirt pricing starts at right around $45; the price — obviously — goes up as you inflict your personal style. Company co-founder, Danny Wong, said that Blank Label is open to the idea of porting the application to Android tablets, however, at the moment, they are laser-focused on the iPad application. If you have an iPad, you can download Blank Label (free) from the App Store. If you don’t have an iPad you can see the application in action here or customize a shirt yourself from the company’s website blank-label.com. Whether you need a custom shirt or not, you have to admit… it is a very cool use of tablet technology. Check it out and let us know what you think.

[Boy Genius Report]

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Update: Skype says the source link should work — even though it says it’s Skype 4.2, the software is 5.0.

[Engadget]

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

I have recently moved back to BlackBerry, after some time with the Pre as my main device, and I wanted to go through the programs that I have found that work well (or just work) for the 2 Operating Systems.

WebOS:

Feeds- Delicious Morsel LLC

Overall, probably the most solid of the bunch. This app has Light and Dark themes, online and offline (cached) reading capabilities, keeps your position on the page if you rotate the phone, and correctly formats pages for the screen 99% of the time.

My only gripes is that using the swipe motion to move to other other articles is inconsistent (but the button on the bottom always works) and offline caching does not sync back up to Google Reader to show what you have read.

Overall rating: 4.5/5 stars

Price: Free or $2.99

Get it from the Palm App Catalog

Scoop- Pivotal Labs, Inc.

I have also had good luck with Scoop, it’s advantages over Feeds lie in the capability to bring up your entire news feed on initial load (Feeds make you click on “All Items”) and the app itself is quick as I flip between articles. The price is also very reasonable at $.99.

On the other hand, if a article has a large picture, only part of the picture will show, and when you flip to the next article, the rest of the picture will be there, which can make it hard to read the second article. Also, on a semi-regular basis, I get an error about “not being logged in to the stream” where I have to log out and back in, and then everything comes back.

Overall rating: 4/5 stars

Price: $.99

Get it from Palm App Catalog

BlackBerry:

Feeds: CDJ Studios

This is the best that I have found for the BlackBerry. The formatting of the articles always looks good, you can choose to have images not come through at all, or only if on WiFi (should you be so unfortunate as to have a capped data plan). It also can be set to only load a certain number of articles to help load time.  It is very clean and overall easy to use, with shortcuts for next article, starring articles, etc.

The main drawback is load times when starting the program. many times will take up to 1 minute to load initially (and I only let it download 100 articles at a time, but it also loads pictures). Otherwise, a worthwhile investment, and the newest of all products I am reviewing today.

Overall rating: 4.5/5 stars

Price: $2.99

Get it from BlackBerry App World (http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/13700)

Unread: DeadBerry

Unread is another great option, with fast load times, and very quick loading of next article.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of articles that were formatted strangely, and then would read down 1 letter per line for the first few words of an article, which became very frustrating. If this were fixed, I would likely start using again.

Overall rating: 4/5 stars

Price: $4.99

Get it from Crackberry (http://software.crackberry.com/product.asp?id=50121)

BeReader (BerryReader): Bellshare GmbH

The offline reading is nice, and it will update with Google Reader in the background.

This was the most disappointing one for me. Bellshare also does BerryBuzz, and BerryWeather, which I love, but this was just not the case. The only useful way I have found to use BeReader is to read through the article names, and then choose the ones you actually want to read, and mark all others as read. for all the options, it is slow when switching articles (even with article and image caching turned on) and every time I reboot, it pops up with a notification that I have new articles, even though the option is turned off. Also, at the most expensive of the bunch, I was really expecting more.

Overall rating: 2/5 stars

Price: $9.99

Get it from BlackBerry App World (http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/12346)

Wow, all this time I’ve been talking about new badges on Foursquare and I haven’t even done a review yet?  Sheesh!  Well, here at EctoCooler, Foursquare has been a hit so far.  A few of the others (I won’t mention any names), have yet to venture into the world of location based social media.  I remember first checking out Foursquare right when it came out and I literally thought to myself, “What a stupid idea.” “Who would want to know where I’m at?”  Boy was I wrong. 

If I had ventured into it a little deeper I would’ve found all the awesome benefits of using this “top 3″ service/app (I’ll get into the specifics in a moment).  Honestly, I’m a die hard user now.  Everywhere I go, I’m checking in, trying to unlock new badges and working to be the “points leader” out of all my friends in my local area.  To me, finding how to unlock badges is the most fun, but there are a few other reasons why I love Foursquare so much. 

• Tips – Whether you are looking for someplace new to eat or want to know how the employees treat customers, you can usually find it when you check out the venue details.  I love this feature a lot.
• Social Networking Integration – You can connect your Foursquare check-ins and shouts with Facebook and Twitter, which is awesome.  If you don’t want to share with your other accounts, it gives you the option to do so every time you check in or shout.
• Specials – The best part about Foursquare, in my opinion, are the “specials” that are offered by some of the companies and businesses that have adopted this type of media for their benefit.  When I was in California, we got bumped from our flight on the way home, so we had no clothes for the following day.  We went to a local mall and there was a special at American Eagle where, just for checking in, you got 15% off your purchase.  So, it has saved me money more than once, which is great.

Foursquare has so many advantages that I could sit here all day and list them, but, you won’t get the full experience until you try it for yourself.  Go ahead and sign up and download the app and tell me what you think.

Pros: Sharing, Tips, Specials

Cons: Sometimes says I’m too far to get points even though I’m in the location

Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Where to Download: Apple App Store, Android Market, Blackberry App World, Palm App Catalog, Windows Mobile

A lot of things happening lately with Foursquare, with new badges and all.  A week ago, I reported the Swimmies Badge has made a comeback.  But, after a little more research, I found there are several new badges that have popped up in the last month or so. 

One in particular, is getting a ton of news.  MTV’s Get Yourself Tested Badge is all the rage on blogs and news sites lately.  This badge is a bit different because of it’s obvious implications, but I think it’s pretty cool to have a badge that rewards you for something like getting tested.  So, I checked in at my local eye doctor and shouted GYT, and voila, I unlocked the GYT Badge.  Now, I know eye doctors don’t test for HIV, but, the secret is to check into any place that is categorized as  “health” or “hospital” or “doctors” office, and shout GYT.

Good Luck!

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?