MobiMadness

Menstruation Ovulation Pro for BlackBerry

Lisa.Black — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:29:17 +0000

Menstruation and Ovulation Pro by EFRAC is a helpful BlackBerry application for a woman who wants to be pregnant… or does not.

It allows you to put in the dates of your last periods and calculates what the average length is and when the best chances of getting pregnant in the future, based on cycle length, are.

Even if you’re not planning or avoiding a pregnancy it is a nice way to privately keep track of when your period was and when to expect it next. I like the note feature, which a lot of similar applications do not add. This allows you to add your own notes and information on each day. The information doesn’t show up on the main calendar, but shows a little marker in the right hand corner allowing you to see at a glance which days have notes.

This is great for pinpointing the day you got pregnant in case this happens, or what happened on that day. Every time a woman goes to the doctor for anything they ask for the first day of your last period.

This application allows you to discreetly look and get accurate information in a few seconds. I’ve seen a few other similar applications that are a bit cuter, this one is very basic, pink and blue, but is effective.

Tinkergoth Theme for BlackBerry

Lisa.Black — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:23:43 +0000

The Tinkergoth theme for BlackBerry by Basic Visuals is one of the cutest themes I’ve seen so far. The colors are vibrant, and the pink and black combination makes this theme look especially great on my black phone.

Everyone likes Tinkerbells spunkiness, but put her in a cute pink and black Goth outfit with dark hair, and she’s not the blond princessy Tinkerbell anymore, she’s cuter!

The placement of the icons on the home screen is unique and stylish. I would have liked to see a little something more added to the incoming call screen, as it’s a little dull compared to the main and outgoing call screen, although the pixie dust was a cute touch. The silver icons match well with the theme.

The price seems fine; it’s not overpriced as a lot of other themes are.

If you like pink and black, and have a little Gothic side you will love having this theme on your BlackBerry.

Alice in Wonderland Theme for BlackBerry

Daniel Black — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:07:58 +0000

BlackBerry theme based off of Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland.

Free OTA Download for BlackBerry Tour 9630

Downloaded 14 times

Free OTA Download for BlackBerry Bold 9700

Downloaded 44 times

Another reason to NOT buy iPad – No Tethering

Daniel Black — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:33:51 +0000

According to an article on PCMag.com, when Steve Jobs was recently asked whether the iPad would support tethering with the iPhone, his answer was curt and to the point, “No”.

Of course BlackBerry owners have been able to tether for quite some time now and it works remarkably well.

Sadly the only way you can tether the iPhone is if you jailbreak it. As a matter of fact, that’s the only way to give it the functionality that BlackBerry users enjoy now. But jailbreaking still wont allow you to use the iPhone with iPad.

Hey wait, isn’t this the same type of nonsense we used to see from Microsoft products?

Life really is circular isn’t it Bill?

[source: PCMag.com]

Tether for BlackBerry 50% Off – One Day ONLY!

Daniel Black — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:01:35 +0000

Ok this is by far one of our favorite applications for the BlackBerry. Simply hook your smartphone up to your computer and in pours the internet. I personally use this application on trips and wouldn’t be without it.

Now today you can get it for 50% off and there’s no excuse not to buy it NOW!

Cute and Pink Ribbon Theme for BlackBerry

Lisa.Black — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:23:41 +0000

My BlackBerry Tour is plain black and I wanted to add a feminine touch to it, by adding some color and something cute but classy. While browsing for a theme the Cute and Pink Ribbon theme by ale7714 designs caught my eye.

The vibrant pink color, along with the detail and clarity of the big pink bow on the main screen is simple and very clean looking. It doesn’t clutter the screen, as some themes do, and the icons are spaced far enough apart to see them clearly. The icon highlighter was easy to see, so even in a hurry I could access the application I needed right away. I really like the little bow that appears on the message icon to let you know that a message is waiting. This is a very cute little detail.

The phone number on the incoming call screen was a little hard to read and I would have liked it better if it were centered a little more. Maybe using a larger font would have corrected this issue.

The icons for sms, calendar, browser, and contacts are very stylish and easier to pick out of the others.

All said, I like the theme, the colors are pretty and everything matches pretty well.

Rating: 4/5

Cat Emergency for BlackBerry

Lisa.Black — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:21:45 +0000

Cat emergency is a helpful application to have on your BlackBerry if you own a cat. It gives useful information on how to handle emergency situations with your cat, should one arise. The information provided was a little hard to read though, due to the small size of the print.

Most, if not all the information given could be easily found on Google, if you are at home with your cat and own a computer. It could be quicker though with this handy application, if your phone was close by, and the icon was visible on your phone. It might however be useful if your pet was at home with someone else while you are away, or if you are traveling with your animal and have quicker access to your phone than a computer at the time of the emergency.

The application is a small page of information with only fourteen topics. I thought that this application was very overpriced at the list price of $5.99 but I see now it’s on sale at $2.99 and that’s more reasonable.

Rating: 3/5

PocketGear Developer Area is Lacking

Daniel Black — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:18:21 +0000

With all the hype going on these days surrounding the recent acquisition of Handango by PocketGear, I thought I would take a look at possibly putting some of our themes and games there to sell.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the service and support that having a MobiHand store provides, but as they say, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket and since PocketGear bills itself as “the world’s largest mobile app store”, I thought it might be worth taking a look.

First off I was already optimistic from the start. I mean hey, how great must a company be to come in and remove the thorn in the backside of developers that Handango was?

The registration process was extremely easy, but “strange”. By that I mean that either PocketGear is not based in the United States or the folks putting together the words aren’t all there. As an example, during the registration process the system asks for your “Given Name” instead of “First Name”. I know what you are thinking, that I’m being knit picky but that’s not the case. Instead I’m trying to lay out a pattern of things that sort of made me pause and say, “huh?”.

Moving on, I put in our other MobiMadness information and hit finish. But then on the summary screen it did not show the support email I put in and has two blank sections for something called a “Tax District”. What the heck is a tax district? So I went back in to see if I had missed something and but there is no place to put in the mysterious tax district data.

This just illustrates another interesting thing about the PocketGear developer area and that is that it is sorely lacking in help. The most obvious and painful part is when trying to enter your products. Which is a great segue into that particular black-hole of pain and frustration.

It should be noted here that I might be just a tad bit jaded, because I like the MobiHand developer area and have gotten spoiled by it’s ease of use and intuitiveness. (read: shameful plug)

So back to PocketGear, I select add product and a nice pop-up appears and sort of prompts you for the information and based on your inputs it alters the needed information. Now that sounds all good and well, until it comes time to actually upload…well your files. Anyone that works with BlackBerry apps, knows that themes and games are divided into upwards of 10+ files because of a restriction on file size for transfer to the BlackBerry. But on the PocketGear pages there is only one place to enter a single file and there is little to no instructions or help to guide you. Then add in the fact that when it comes to entering your price you are forced to enter it in Euros and the rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper.

The last straw for me was when the pages demanded that I assign a full version and a mobile version but didn’t give any instructions on what these meant or how they are delineated within the PocketGear system. Ultimately I opted to delete our game (Mars Lander) from the system and wash my hands thoroughly.

This was not the outcome I had hoped for and unfortunately in my humble opinion, this sub-par interface sort of reminded me of another one that I hated, and it just so happened to be from the company (read: Handango) that PocketGear just acquired.

For a company as big as PocketGear, I truly expected better. My conclusion is that I would not recommend PocketGear to my fellow developers at this time.

Now I’d love to hear what your experience has been, so feel free to comment.

Verizon giving BlackBerry Storm the boot?

Daniel Black — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:40:37 +0000

According to an article on The Street, rumor has it Verizon will soon be parting ways with arguably the most controversial BlackBerry ever, the Storm. The article states that orders for the Storm are either being cut or canceled altogether.

It’s no secret that here at MobiMadness we aren’t exactly fans of the Storm. (BlackBerry Storm 2: Prepare to be Underwhelmed)

It should be noted that this is only a rumor at this point, but I for one would be happy to see Verizon dump this dog.

Track Your Employees via BlackBerry App

Daniel Black — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:52 +0000

Image Courtesy of Brick House Security

Want to keep track of your BlackBerry carrying employees while they are out of the office? Well now the folks at Brick House Security have the answer with a new application for the BlackBerry named Executrac. According to their website, Executrac runs discreetly in the background and tracks the phone via its built in GPS, without adversely affecting the BlackBerry’s performance. Of course this same application could be used to track a wayward *spouse or child.

Here are a list of features from the Brick House Security website:

Easy download directly from phone
Panic button for emergency situations
Remotely & invisibly deploy to 1000’s of phones
Complete history & reporting
Geofence safety zone alerts
Doesn’t affect functionality of your blackberry or smartphone

* Check local laws before installing any tracking software without the users permission

[source: Brick House Security]