2009 will be the year of Active Sync

2009 will mark the year of Active Sync's rise to the top of the wireless mobility protocol stack. Microsoft has done an "adequate" job with Active Sync and both platform providers and third-party developers are flocking to fill consumer needs, using AS.

This fact is a good thing. NotifySync will allow BlackBerry users to connect directly to Exchange, Zimbra, Kerio and Communigate mail servers, using this economical connection strategy. By design NotifySync cannot compete in management performance with NotifyLink, however a huge part of the market is telling Notify Technology it wants an AS client for the BB.

If you want to learn more about the differences between the two products, drop us a line.

Novell BrainShare 2009 CANCELLED !

This is the biggest news to hit the IT world in...a week? Novell has finally succumbed to some of lifes realities and has officially cancelled its long running technology show called BrainShare. John Dragoon, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Novell, Inc is quoted in an official Novell release on their website to Customers and partners, "This note is to inform you that Novell will not be holding its annual BrainShare conference in Salt Lake City, Utah that was scheduled for March 2009."

We've attended 9 BrainShares around the world over the years and we will definitely miss the opportunity to meet and mix with other like minded Novell enthusiasts.

So long BrainShare, you will be missed.

Mobility programs are cost effective

With the current economic climate, administrators are being asked to justify expenditures of any sort. These days, your project better deliver either cost savings or increased profits or you probably won't get approval for funding. The logic applies right down to the family level who create small mobility projects of their own.

Mobile technology can save you money when the right products are applied to the process being mobilized. Remembering that a successful mobile program is an equation of mulitple parts, if you're careful you can economize to the point of eliminating some costs entirely by selecting the right products and services. How can you eliminate costs entirely? By choosing the right products and services as the components of your overall mobility equation. The right products are those that give you the most flexibility in choosing the remaining components like devices, service plans and even groupware choices. Flexibility will give you agility in the deployment of your overall mobile program.

Competion among device manufacturers and wireless carriers can work to your advantage if you're not locked into any single program under long term contract. With the pace of change in the wireless industry, long term should be considered to be about 60 days! You can rest assured if you don't like things today...wait a week and there'll be changes.

So once you've selected the right components you should find that some choices actually pay for others so your mobility program enjoys an increased ROI sooner and longer.

Mobile web slow adoption

Mobile Web can be defined as the optimization of application code for small screen input and delivery. Small screen referring to the average PDA ( 240x260).

We've been promised all kinds of interaction with the world through our all conquering BlackBerrys and iPhones. I don't know about you, but I'm just now starting to enjoy the benefits of this technology.

I checked in for a return flight from Amsterdam to Edmonton using my BlackBerry and it could not have been smoother. It was an error free process perfectly suited to my tiny screen. The navigation worked intuitively and I was provided with a confirmation number for check in. At the airport, they FOUND my online registration and confirmation, printed my boarding passes and whisked me away to my destination. As jaded as I am...I was impressed.

Congratulations to Air Canada and their mobile web experience! Some companies get it right.

Ultralight Computer or Heavy SmartPhone?

The lines are merging between today's ultra-light computers and some SmartPhones. Sony Ericsson introduces their beautiful new Xperia SmartPhone at a price of $800 USD with no subsidies available from any carrier.

The Symbian operating system has not proven as popular as developers had hoped with the main players BlackBerry and Windows Mobile holding their own. Newcomer, Apple has also eaten up a big chunk of the pie that once belonged almost exclusively to BB and WM.

Meanwhile Sony Ericsson and giant Nokia, stumble along trying to crack the North American market for SmartPhone PDA's. There's no logic to their lack of sales as their devices are top-notch in every category. The Symbian OS is mature and stable but they just can't seem to get the carriers on side, to support sales with subsription incentives (subsidies).

There are some great choices out there among ultra-light computers that with the addition of an "Internet stick", give users their entire desktop, anywhere they go. The real factor that seems to determine who prefers what device for which activity is user input. Until voice recognition enters the mobile space, keyboards either virtual or physical are going to remain the input mode of choice. Leaving consumers...with an ever increasing variety in choices.

Canadians check your data plan rate!

Our readers in Canada should be aware that data rates are changing dramatically. You can't blame them, but you'll need to reach out to your wireless carrier to learn about the newest data plan rates.

Not only are rates dropping like a stone off a cliff, but the amount of data allowed is also increasing exponentially! My own plan with Rogers went from $90 a month for 250 minutes of voice and 25 MB of data...to 550 minutes of voice and 1 GB of data...for only $70 a month.

Telus just announced an "unlimited personal email, text and web" plan for only $30 per month.

No more overages in data will save you a fortune. When's the last time you checked on updating your wireless data plan?

Where's your BlackBerry?

Have you ever misplaced your BlackBerry? You might know it's safe, but where did you leave it? Is it in your closet? At the office? In the car (fallen between the seats)?

Would you like to be able to log on to the Internet and see exactly where your BB is using the built in GPS and BlackBerry Maps? How cool would that be?

Would you like to have a contact list of friends or colleagues and be able to "see" where they are at any given time? Would you then like to have an application create a map, with detailed turn by turn directions on how to GO TO where your contact might be? It's a whole new world of context based social networking and it's available RIGHT NOW!

What would you be willing to pay for a service that made finding your lost or misplaced BB as easy as connecting to the web? $100? $200? How about NOTHING?

If any of this sounds interesting, check out Blackline GPS and their FREE service called BLIP.

BlackBerry radio signal strength - good trick!

Did you know you can change the signal strength icon on your BB from bars to actual numbers with this keyboard short cut?

Try clicking ALT "NMLL" on your BB and watch the relatively uninformative bars change to real signal strength numbers. You should know a BB will stop synchronizing when the radio signal strength drops below about -106 to -108 dB. Anything below (well technically above) -85 dB is an indication of excellent radio reception.

More tricks can be found HERE

Rogers quietly extends 6GB data plan for iPhone

That's right, industry spies tell us that although this plan has been removed from the product offering on the company website, customer's can still subscribe to the plan at their Rogers dealer.

Don't miss this opportunity Canadians! You already have the highest data rates in the entire world...even with this "great plan", so don't miss out on your chance to download all that data.

iPhone users tell me that surfing as much as possible with full image download, they were barely able to consume 250 MB of data. 6GB should take you a long way.

The five most popular phones in the US

RCR Wireless published an article indicating the five most popular phones being sold in the US.

1. Motorola Razr - The Razr still maintains “great mind share” among consumers who still find value in a voice-centric phone in a slim form factor, NPD's Ross Rubin said. The Razr generally sells for free at all the top carriers.
2. iPhone 3G - The iPhone 3G represents the touchscreen smartphone at its best: a browsing monster with a fun user interface that has alerted Americans to the possibilities of a mobile, desktop-like experience that has reshaped the market. The iPhone sells for around $200 at AT&T Mobility.
3. BlackBerry Curve - As for RIM, its success in transitioning from an enterprise-only approach to embracing more consumer-friendly designs and form factors, and its ubiquity among carriers, is well represented by the Curve, said NPD's Ross Rubin.The Curve sells for around $100 at most of the top carriers.
4. LG Chocolate - NPD's Ross Rubin attributed the success of the LG Chocolate — an exclusive at Verizon Wireless — in part to canny promotion from the carrier around the device’s music capabilities. The Chocolate sells at Verizon Wireless for around $130.
5. BlackBerry Pearl - RIM's successes in the consumer market are well represented by the Pearl.The Pearl sells for around $100 at most of the top carriers.

“The voice, browsing and music features represented on this list speak to the diversity of portfolios the carriers must maintain for a diverse consumer base,” said Ross Rubin, analyst with NPD Group.

Each one of the top-selling handsets says a little bit about Americans’ shifting preferences, too, according to Rubin. The Razr still maintains “great mind share” among consumers who still find value in a voice-centric phone in a slim form factor, Rubin said. But the once-premium handset has become emblematic of carriers’ popular offerings of inexpensive, often “free” handsets that entice subscribers.

The Razr V3, in one form or another, sells at all four of the top-tier U.S. carriers as well as many regional carriers and independent dealers. The downside, Rubin said: As the company spread the product far and wide, racking up enormous volumes, the Razr’s profit margin shrank, hurting Moto’s bottom line. Its presence at the top of the list — a position unchanged since NPD began tracking in 2005 — also is a reminder that Motorola continues to search for a follow-on handset platform.

The iPhone 3G, of course, represents the touchscreen smartphone at its best: a browsing monster with a fun user interface that has alerted Americans to the possibilities of a mobile, desktop-like experience that has reshaped the market. Rubin said that the 3G model’s pull on subscribers outside its perch at AT&T Mobility — some 30% of iPhone 3G buyers switched to AT&T Mobility from their original carrier to get the device, according to NPD — is actually less than the original iPhone’s pull.

“Verizon Wireless emerged unscathed upon the launch of the first iPhone (last year),” Rubin said, “but Verizon gave up more customers this time.” It may be those customers, Rubin speculated, that were louder in their complaints about 3G connectivity on AT&T Mobility’s less mature 3G network, due to a more mature performance on Verizon Wireless’ 3G network.

As for RIM, its success in transitioning from an enterprise-only approach to embracing more consumer-friendly designs and form factors, and its ubiquity among carriers, is well represented by the Curve and Pearl handsets, the analyst said.

Rubin attributed the success of the LG Chocolate — an exclusive at Verizon Wireless — in part to canny promotion from the carrier around the device’s music capabilities.

So, are Americans’ tastes really shifting and embracing these myriad features and forms? Or are carriers’ subsidies (and thus retail pricing) and marketing really driving the bus?

“Is it carrier push or consumer pull?” Rubin asked, rhetorically. “It’s a little of both. Put another way: Are devices changing or are consumers changing? It’s both.”

“It’s a little more consumer pull than carrier push,” the analyst added. “With the iPhone, you don’t have a wide array of network-based revenue streams that typically get pushed into high-end feature phones. The iPhone puts greater emphasis on browsing the Web — the most compelling aspect of the desktop experience. And that has opened consumers’ eyes to the possibilities.”

Mobile Net - predicting the future

Don't you just love being proven right? What can be more rewarding and spirtitually uplifting than being proven right?

Two years ago, a colleague asked me what direction they should take regarding development of their application for "mobile delivery". At that time, I indicated that I thought their best approach would be to use a "browser centric" approach and that most likely the mobile browser to do that, was not yet available. My previous post seems to bear out my own prediction...and possibly my lack of research into what Nokia were up to...

In 2008 we are starting to see the "rumblings" of paradigm shift. 2009 should bring this shift into full swing as more and more companies begin to understand how prospects for their goods and services, find information and make buying decisions.

If you dug into the link to the Nielsen report mentioned in the Nokia article, you would see that for 86% of technology buyers, the Internet is where they shop. Where they buy is another story for another day, but that tells me that if you're in technology and you're not making it easy for your prospects to find information about your product...in the manner that THEY choose...then you are missing an opportunity.

Specifically, users are staying "connected" when they leave their ethernet tethered world. More and more they are carrying devices that will connect to the Internet from anywhere they receive a signal. To make it easier, new and faster signal choices are popping up on a regular basis as we all move from GSM and Wi-Fi to 3G, 4G, Wi-Max and beyond.

Add a persons "context" as Anssi Vanjoki from Nokia coins the phrase, using GPS and you've got a whole new way to offer your goods and services. The catch is that you need to think like the person on the other end of your information delivery tools...what are they using to view what you are presenting? Will it fit into a screen that is only 480x320 pixels? Are the images optimized and do they have alt tags in place if the users has chosen not to download images?

Lot's to consider...will you be ready?

Mobile Net the next frontier

The next big shift in the way people gather information and surf the Internet will be mobile browsing. The industry is experiencing a surge in the uptake of devices capable of providing the ability to browse the web from a mobile device.

On the other side of the equation, Organizations are not keeping pace with this demand by optimizing their websites for viewing from a mobile device. At the same time we are still saddled with less than exemplary mobile browers available on today's devices. Apple is the first (aren't they always?) to recognize this paradigm shift in the way people are trying to access information. The iPhone arguably provides the best mobile web browsing experience available today.

Some of the applications that will provide future services, have yet to be written. Surprisingly, Nokia was testing these waters back in 1997 when they wrote an application that used GPS and crime statistics database, to offer life insurance to users who strayed into statistically high crime neighbourhoods. That was probably all most people needed to "high tail" it out of there!

The mobile Net will be the next battle ground for the hearts and minds of consumers and information junkies. The mobile Net will belong to those who best anticipate the new ways people will use it. Just think how the functionality of GPS can create a "situational awareness" of not only where you are, but what goods and services are available near by. It adds the benefit of creating a context to where you are and what you may be doing. to which Goods and Services can be applied and offered.

But that's only the first part of what some people envision for mapping. Using data they collect with GPS handsets, people will begin to create virtual maps of their lives. It's already starting to happen. Last year, Nokia posted a prototype of Sports Tracker, a free application for runners and other athletes that uses a GPS phone to record their training. A million people downloaded the program, which quickly morphed into a way for users to create online diaries and share photos of their whereabouts. Nokia rebranded the program as viNe for athletes and others, underscoring how the mobile Web is evolving more by user creativity than corporate decree.

BRICs and the Mobile Web
New research from Nielsen reveals contrasts in Web surfing of cell-phone users in developed countries vs. those in the so-called BRIC nations. Mobile subscribers in Brazil, Russia, India, and China rank entertainment, gaming, and music sites among their top five categories visited. In Europe and the U.S., e-mail, weather and news, and sports top the list. Why? BRIC residents often don't have the home PCs, cable TV, and iPods that Westerners do. (AAPL) So more use cell phones for entertainment. Read the study HERE

BIG News in wireless synchronisation

The big news that everyone is talking about is the announcement by Nokia that they are dropping Intellisync...and their $430 million dollar investment that went along with it. Dropping that kind of cash is news enough in itself. Dropping support for a product that you have convinced thousands if not millions of people to use...is another story.

Comments from pundits are starting to surface and it's too early to gauge the reaction to the move by giant Nokia. Our attention is immediately drawn to the situation now faced by the millions of GroupWise users the world over. Intellisync is/was the "guts" of the GroupWise Mobile Server...so now what? Poor GroupWise gets kicked in the groin again by one of its "partners" and once again we're reminded to be careful what we wish for. Support for your product by a monster organization like Nokia, may be a curse disguised as a blessing or the proverbial "wolf in sheeps clothing". I dare say the GroupWise team got bitten on the behind with this move!

Fortunately for the wireless mobility world...there is NotifyLink. As one wireless platform provider after another bites the dust, NotifyLink stands strong.

If you're not using NotifyLink now, dump what you're using before they dump you! Come to a company offering a product you can trust for the long haul. We've been here since the birth of mobility and we're remain determined to provide the worlds best third party mobility application. You will continue to have the CHOICE to use what ever email platform, device, wireless carrier and data plan that YOU CHOOSE.

We say it's time to stand up and tell your carrier what YOU want!

**These opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations about which I write.

Nokia gives corporate email the push

Nokia is to give up on corporate email and pushed applications, leaving all that to third-party companies while it concentrates on selling push email to ordinary punters.

The moment RIM proved that push email was such an important gateway into corporations, everyone started furiously developing competing services while carefully stepping around RIMs patents (often unsuccessfully).

Nokia's effort culminated in the purchase of Intellisync in 2005 for $430m, with the intention of offering businesses a push-email solution with a Nokia brand.
But the plethora of competing technologies, along with the obtuse reluctance of IT departments to support a wide variety of email gateways, has made the market fiercely competitive. It's also a business that doesn't really fit with Nokia's consumer-services-brand aspirations, so the company says that in future it will "form its enterprise solutions... by combining Nokia devices and applications with software solutions from industry leading enterprise vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and others".

The Intellisync business isn't big enough to be worth selling off as a going concern, so the company is left to claim that "technologies and expertise will be reallocated to Nokia's new consumer push email service" - so a $430m investment gets folded into the Ovi service and the Intellisync brand disappears entirely.

Meanwhile Nokia's security-appliance business is being wrapped up for a potential sale as part of what Nokia calls its "renewal of its business mobility strategy".
Microsoft, RIM and their ilk might have corporate email sewn up, but Nokia believes the market for personal email services is still wide open - though between Google and Apple the opportunity won't last much longer

New Google patent to help consumers

While we all thought Google’s Android was merely a way for Google to make it easier for is AdWords ads to appear on your cell phone, a new patent filing could reveal a larger goal.
A bidding system where wireless providers bid to offer the lowest calling rates for your unlocked cell phone.

Here’s how ComputerWorld describes the new Google patent application:

…When at home, the device would attach to the user’s Wi-Fi network…But once outside, the device could periodically search for other available service providers, asking the service providers to bid for the chance to offer service to the customer. The device could automatically switch to the network that has the best price without interrupting a user’s voice call or data connection.

On the back end, a program on the phone could contact each of the available networks individually, or the phone could instead communicate with a central server that handles the negotiations with each service provider.

List of Activesync relative deficiencies

Here is a short list of deficiencies included for free in Exchange Active Sync. Latest version of EAS is: 4.5.5096.0

1. No ability to lock a device remotely
2. Remote PC Sync (via WiFi or LAN) has been removed due to Enterprise customer feedback around security issues. Microsoft® Outlook® 2000 is not supported by ActiveSync .
3. Starting with Windows Vista, ActiveSync has been replaced with the Windows Mobile Device Center, which is included as part of the operating system
4. EAS may not connect after joining the workstation to a domain

NL v4.5 has been certified against CGP v5.2.7.

Notify Technology Corp. (NTFY) of San Jose, CA, announced today that they have certified NotifyLink v4.5 against CommunigatePro v5.2.7.

This means users of CGP's latest version can be assured of full bi-directional synchronization of email, calendar, contacts and tasks when using NotifyLink for any BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian 9.1s60r3 device.

NL v4.5 supports Scalix 11.4.1

Notify Technology (NTFY), San Jose, CA today announced full version 4.5 support for Scalix 11.4.1

Touch BlackBerry

More than rumors are surfacing regarding RIM's new BlackBerry 9500 or "Thunder" as some are calling the new smartphone.

Taken from GeniusBoyReport

No, it doesn’t have the amount of hype and speculation an iPhone did before its release, but we don’t think there has even been this much anticipation for a BlackBerry, ever. The hidden-in-a-dark-secret-underground-lab BlackBerry 9xxx has sent out a couple distress calls to us, pleading to let people know it’s coming and what it should have in store for the incredibly faithful and addicted BlackBerry users. First off, 3G. It most certainly will have a 3G radio and we’re not talking about the European bands. (The actual 3G bands are not yet clear, but we can only assume North American 3G is a go.) Second, this isn’t your momma’s 3G, this is going to be HSDPA. Forget the Wi-Fi scam, this is real speed with simultaneous voice and data! That isn’t the best part, though…we’ve been told it will rock a 600MHz processor! Finally. We shouldn’t have those necessary and annoying lag times when performing basic tasks, and there should be a drastic reduction of the bottleneck for Internet speeds on the device. What we reported ages ago still seems to be spot on — RIM is actively looking at integrating a Backup/Restore function to facilitate transferring your entire backup to an on board memory card.

Google Apps Premier Edition customers seeing challenges

GOOGLE made a bold move towards "Cloud Computing" with the release of their still in BETA, Google Premier Edition Apps. Prospects are reporting several challenges with the new broswer based application suite.

More alarming are the reports that "bugs" are not being fixed and than customer enhancement requests are met with a stone wall or worse.... Some Google sales representatives are telling customers and prospects that they don't need the features they are requesting and that Google did their research before developing and releasing Google Apps.

We've had one report from an Enterprise user that their suggestion to adopt a "superuser" strategy to deal with onerous corporate password change policies. Google reps replied that this is not necessary and is not being requested by any of our other customers, therefore will not be considered at this time...LOL...really? Because of this one factor alone, Enterprise customer's are turning away in DROVES...from using Google Apps.

NotifyLink works with Google Apps to add the mobility piece of the "mobile worker equation". With any BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian 9.1x60r3, you can use NotifyLink to get email, calendar and contacts bi-directionally synchronized with your server based email/PIM account.

Nokia and Symbian deemed by some "Irrelevant"

SAN FRANCISCO -- Symbian Ltd. and Nokia Corp. defended the relevance of the two companies in today’s market Wednesday during a roundtable discussion that focused on the creation of the Symbian Foundation.

In August, Forbes.com reported that some in Silicon Valley aren’t too keen of the Finnish handset giant. During a conference in July organized by tech blog Michael Arrington, David Rivas, Nokia VP in charge of smartphone software, was interrupted as he spoke about the company to a group of venture capitalists and software developers.

As Rivas talked about Nokia’s position in Korea and Japan and the thought that the Web hadn’t been mobile until the iPhone, someone in the crowd told Rivas to, “Wake Up,” Forbes reported. Arrington then added from the stage, “I believe that Nokia and Symbian are irrelevant companies at this point.”

Symbian provides the software for Nokia’s smartphones. Earlier this summer, Nokia announced it acquired total ownership of Symbian for a reported $411 million. The Symbian Foundation is being created to combine Nokia’s S6o platform with the Symbian platform into a single smartphone operating system.

When asked about Arrington’s comment Wednesday, David Wood, Symbian VP of research, said Symbian has seen a growth in sales and more handset models are in development than ever before. Wood also said the company has 92 different floor models available and each have average sales of 1 million. Wood also said the consulting aspect of Symbian has increased its revenue by 76% this year.

“We have a lot of engaging and exciting projects we are working on,” Wood said.

Wood also touts the formation of the Symbian Foundation. Shortly after the Forbes article was published, Wood wrote that the foundation would provide “new routes to market for Symbian technology, as well as more rapid collaborative development.

”Oren Levine, a Nokia product marketing manager of the S6o organization, questions anyone who says the company is irrelevant based on the fact that Nokia has sold 200 million devices in almost every country in the world. Symbian OS is also used on two-thirds of all smartphones worldwide, according to the company.

“By no means can you call it irrelevant,” Levine said.Christy Wyatt, who leads Motorola’s software platform and ecosystem groups, also defended Nokia and Symbian.“We wouldn’t be here if we thought Symbian was irrelevant,” Wyatt said.

Google starting to listen to customer's

This email was recently sent to Google Apps Premier Edition customer's.

We’re committed to making Google Apps Premier Edition a service on which your organization can depend. During the first half of August, we didn’t do this as well as we should have. We had three outages - on August 6, August 11, and August 15. The August 11 outage was experienced by nearly all Google Apps Premier users while the August 6 and 15 outages were minor and affected a very small number of Google Apps Premier users. As is typical of things associated with Google, these outages were the subject of much public commentary.

Through this note, we want to assure you that system reliability is a top priority at Google. When outages occur, Google engineers around the world are immediately mobilized to resolve the issue. We made mistakes in August, and we’re sorry. While we’re passionate about excellence, we can’t promise you a future that’s completely free of system interruptions. Instead, we promise you rapid resolution of any production problem; and more importantly, we promise you focused discipline on preventing recurrence of the same problem.

Given the production incidents that occurred in August, we’ll be extending the full SLA credit to all Google Apps Premier customers for the month of August, which represents a 15-day extension of your service. SLA credits will be applied to the new service term for accounts with a renewal order pending. This credit will be applied to your account automatically so there’s no action needed on your part.

We’ve also heard your guidance around the need for better communication when outages occur. Here are three things that we’re doing to make things better:

1. We’re building a dashboard to provide you with system status information. This dashboard, which we aim to make available in a few months, will enable us to share the following information during an outage:

a. A description of the problem, with emphasis on user impact. Our belief is during the course of an outage, we should be singularly focused on solving the problem. Solving production problems involves an investigative process that’s iterative. Until the problem is solved, we don’t have accurate information around root cause, much less corrective action, that will be particularly useful to you. Given this practical reality, we believe that informing you that a problem exists and assuring you that we’re working on resolving it is the useful thing to do. b. A continuously updated estimated time-to-resolution. Many of you have told us that it’s important to let you know when the problem will be solved. Once again, the answer is not always immediately known. In this case, we’ll provide regular updates to you as we progress through the troubleshooting process.

2. In cases where your business requires more detailed information, we’ll provide a formal incident report within 48 hours of problem resolution. This incident report will contain the following information:
a. business description of the problem, with emphasis on user impact;b. technical description of the problem, with emphasis on root cause;c. actions taken to solve the problem;d. actions taken or to be taken to prevent recurrence of the problem; ande. time line of the outage.

3. In cases where your business requires an in-depth dialogue about the outage, we’ll support your internal communication process through participation in post-mortem calls with you and your management team.

Once again, thanks for you continued support and understanding.

Sincerely,The Google Apps Team

Notify Technology’s Wireless Enterprise Solution To Support the Apple iPhone with Novell GroupWise

SAN JOSE, CA – August 14, 2008 – Notify Technology Corporation (OTC BB: NTFY), today announced that its NotifyLink Enterprise Edition for Novell GroupWise will now support the Apple iPhone 3G and all iPhones and iPod touch devices once upgraded with the new iPhone 2.0. The NotifyLink Enterprise Edition for Novell GroupWise will extend the enterprise functionality of the iPhone and iPod touch to include support for the wireless synchronization of Novell GroupWise email and PIM (calendar, personal address book, and global address book).

“We are excited to announce our NotifyLink Enterprise Edition now supports the new iPhone 3G and iPod touch. We are now able to offer Novell GroupWise enterprise, government, and educational customers with a push wireless email and PIM synchronization iPhone and iPod touch solution that will meet their needs,” said Paul DePond, President and Founder of Notify Technology. “Since the initial release of the iPhone last year, the GroupWise customer demand for supporting these devices with our NotifyLink Enterprise Edition has continued to escalate. GroupWise customers will be able to choose between our NotifyLink On-Premise or NotifyLink On-Demand versions for their specific environments.”

NotifyLink Enterprise Edition Versions for Novell GroupWise

The NotifyLink Enterprise Edition “On-Premise” version is ideal for organizations or enterprises who want to maintain and support their wireless email and PIM synchronization on site whereas the NotifyLink Enterprise Edition “On-Demand” version is hosted by Notify and designed for organizations or enterprises of all sizes wanting to avoid the maintenance and support of an “On-Premise” solution and still deploy any number of wireless devices.

Availability and More Information

The NotifyLink Enterprise Edition supporting the iPhone and iPod touch is now available. Notify is offering weekly Webinars on the NotifyLink iPhone and iPod touch solution. For more information please contact Notify directly at (408) 777-7930 or send an email to sales@notifycorp.com or visit our website at http://www.notifycorp.com/.

About Notify Technology Corporation

Founded in 1994, Notify Technology Corporation, (OTC BB: NTFY) is an independent software vendor (ISV) specializing in wireless solutions and services. Notify’s wireless solutions and services provide secure synchronized email and PIM access and management to any size organization or business on a variety of wireless 2-way devices and networks. Notify sells its wireless products directly and through authorized resellers internationally. Notify is an official Apple iPhone Development Partner, BlackBerry Alliance Member, Symbian Alliance Member, and Palm Select Partner. The Company is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Google Apps

NotifyLink has been tested by end-users who have verified that this excellent smartphone application supports plain old Gmail and the Google calendar and contacts!

Who are "The FIVE"?

Are you as curious as I am about who the "Rich Five" might be? Who can afford $1000 for a screen saver?

Other questions that are starting to burn:

Will the Five sell their exclusive application?
Will Armin find another way to sell his screen saver?
How much more is the application worth, now that only 6 people on the planet own it?
Will one of the "The Five" sell their app on eBay?
Will they sell their iPhone along with the installed "I am Rich" application?
What would the app be "worth" if millions could acquire it?
What if YOU were the only person on the planet to own the app, would you sell it to make a buck?
Is Apple right to crush "freedom of choice"?
Will Apple become BIG BROTHER and control other apps or content of the iPhone?
Will "The Five" leverage their unique opportunity?

Sucker born every minute or too much money?

You'll need to decide for yourself, but there is a controversy brewing over Apples control of their iTunes store.

The web is awash with references to the article hyperlinked to the title. It is about 5 users who paid $999.99 to purchase the "I am Rich" application for their iPhone, that makes the screen show a picture of a glowing garnet.

This application was "worth" the price of admission for at least five iPhone users, before Apple pulled the plug on the smart and industrious German developer Armin Heinrich. There was no misrepresentation what so ever and the description of the product matched its functionality exactly...so what's the problem?

The problem is that far too many people have become used to doing incredibly stupid things, then whine and complain to whom ever will listen, to bail them out of the results of their own stupidy (or personal purchase decision). The "government" usually picks up most of the tab for most people's stupidity...and then makes laws to govern at the lowest common denominator. We are slowy "dumbing down" society by pandering to the bottom rungs of the food chain. Laws are always made to "govern" the most stupid and irresponsible among us. Do people need a law against stealing to remind them that it is wrong? Apparently they do...and the list grows every year. Intelligent people don't steal (truely intelligent people) and it isn't because some line of text in a judges book of rules, tells them so. NO, these laws are soley there to control and manage the stupid people who can't figure out the simple "rules" of life.

Anyway, all my ranting aside, take a look at the article and make up your own mind.

We say, who are Apple to decide what is fair when it comes to a private developers application pricing strategy? Think about all the other ways a strategy like that would harm the way anybody does business in a free market economy.

SHAME on Apple for trying to regulate against freedom of choice.

Here is Armins ad on iTunes:













Here's what people are saying:

New product in the "syncworks" at Notify Technology Corp.

Our spies inside the company research department, which is buried deep in a hidden mountain bunker, deep under the earth, tell us to "hold on to our hats" when they announce an upcoming product. We can't say much but something makes us thync we know what they're up to! This could be big! Something even better than activesync and super inexpensive!!

You heard it here first. Just THYNC about it...

NotifyLink for iPhone for GroupWise

NotifyLink for iPhone for GroupWise will be available August 11th. This is direct from the source!

Notify Technology Joins Google Enterprise Professional Program

San Jose, CA, July 16, 2008 -- Notify Technology Corporation (OTC BB: NTFY) today announced it has joined the Google Enterprise Professional program, which extends the power of Google across the enterprise and helps customers get more value out of their Google Premier Apps deployment. Notify will provide Enterprises using Google’s email, calendar, and address book applications with secure over-the-air synchronization to their wireless device using its NotifyLink Enterprise Edition for Google. NotifyLink users are free to use any BlackBerry™, Palm™, Windows Mobile™, or Symbian™ wireless device to access and manage their Google email, calendar, and contacts. The NotifyLink solution is available in two versions; one being an On-Premise software solution and the other as an On-Demand service solution. Over the past four years, Notify has been recognized by Gartner Group in their annual Wireless Email Magic Quadrant as a proven provider of wireless email and PIM synchronization products and services to enterprises.
“The Google Enterprise Professional program will help expose Notify to the thousands of enterprises, businesses, and organizations using Gmail™ and Google Calendar™ who are looking for a robust wireless synchronization solution. Our NotifyLink solution will give users support for the most popular wireless devices independent of wireless carrier or network”, said Paul DePond, President of Notify Technology. “We offer our NotifyLink Enterprise for Google in either an On-Premise or hosted On-Demand version depending on the customer’s needs.”
"Google is excited to have Notify Technology as a partner in the Google Enterprise Partner program. We're looking forward to Notify's new mobile access options for Google Apps users with BlackBerry™ and other mobile devices," said Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead, Google Enterprise.

The Google Enterprise Professional program includes developers, consultants and independent software vendors that provide value-added services for Google enterprise products. For more information on the Google Enterprise Professional program, please visit www.google.com/enterprise/gep.

NotifyLink Enterprise Edition Versions
The NotifyLink Enterprise Edition On-Premise version is ideal for organizations or enterprises who want to maintain and support their wireless email and PIM synchronization on site whereas the NotifyLink Enterprise Edition On-Demand version is hosted by Notify and designed for organizations or enterprises of all sizes wanting to avoid the maintenance and support of an On-Premise solution and still deploy any number of wireless devices.

Availability and More Information
The NotifyLink Enterprise Edition supporting Gmail™ and Google Calendar™ is currently available for purchase. For more

Apple sells a million iPhones in a week

Wow...isn't that something? NO...not really. Nokia sells 120 million phones a year and Samsung sells over a million units a week.

HO Hum....nothing like a bunch of over-rated hype to get consumers to pay too much for an under performing device with a weak GPS signal and poor battery life.

Palm TREO 800w

Sprint plans to launch the latest Treo smartphone, the 800w, on Sunday. The device will feature EV-DO Rev. A data speeds,Wi-Fi with a 1-touch dedicated key, GPS navigation, a 1.3-megapixel camera, Windows Mobile 6.1 and Live Search for Windows Mobile.

Notify Technology makes important press release on iPhone 3G support

Notify Technology’s Wireless Enterprise Solution To Support the Apple iPhone

NotifyLink solution will extend enterprise wireless synchronization to 12 additional email suites using Apple’s new iPhone 3G and any iPhone or iPod touch upgraded with the new iPhone 2.0 software

SAN JOSE, CA – July 11, 2008 – Notify Technology Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: NTFY), today announced that its NotifyLink Enterprise Edition will now support the Apple iPhone 3G and all iPhones and iPod touch devices once upgraded with the new iPhone 2.0 software. With the iPhone 2.0 upgrade for the iPhone and iPod touch, Apple is only providing enterprise wireless email and PIM synchronization support for Microsoft Exchange users. The NotifyLink Enterprise Edition will extend the enterprise functionality of the iPhone and iPod touch to include support for the wireless synchronization of email and PIM (calendar, personal address book, and global address book) to an additional 12 email suites. The NotifyLink support for the iPhone and iPod touch will include all supported email suites listed on Notify’s website at www.notifycorp.com. In the coming weeks, Notify will make separate joint announcements with many of its email suite partners regarding support for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch...

You can find all the details in the press release on the NotifyLink website.

F-R-I-D-A-Y is the day for iPhone

NotifyLink for Google Apps Premier Edition

Yes, it's true! Insiders at Notify Technology advise us that Notify Technology (NTFY) is releasing their client for Google Apps!

You can now enjoy full bi-directional synchronisation on your device of choice while enjoying the benefits of Google Apps.

There is an official press release being prepared this week for release on July 16!

Prices are rumored to be in the $120 per user per year range.

Newer, Faster, Cheaper iPhone 3G

Software and Online Store Will Widen Its Versatility, But There Are Hidden Costs

July 8, 2008
by Walter S. Mossberg
Apple Inc.’s iPhone has been the world’s most influential smart phone since its debut a year ago, widely hailed for its beauty and functionality. It was a true hand-held computer that raised the bar for all its competitors. But that first iPhone had two big drawbacks: It was expensive, and it couldn’t access the fastest cellular-phone networks.



On Friday, Apple (AAPL) is launching a second-generation iPhone, called the iPhone 3G, which addresses both of those problems, while retaining the look and feel of the first model’s hardware and software.

The base version of the new iPhone costs $199 — half the $399 price of its predecessor; the higher-capacity version is now $299, down from $499. Yet, this new iPhone is much, much faster at fetching data over cellphone networks because it uses a speedy cellular technology called 3G. And it now sports a GPS chip for better location sensing.

The company also is rolling out the second generation of its iPhone operating system, with some nice new features, including wireless synchronization with corporate email, calendars and address books. And there’s a new online store for third-party iPhone programs that Apple hopes will make the device usable for a wider variety of tasks, including gaming and productivity applications. This new software and store will also be available on older iPhones, through a free upgrade.

I’ve been testing the iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks, and have found that it mostly keeps its promises. In particular, I found that doing email and surfing the Internet typically was between three and five times as fast using AT&T’s 3G network as it was with the older AT&T network to which the first iPhone was limited.

Apple’s new iPhone operating system includes an ‘App store,’ where you can browse for, and download, third-party software.The iPhone 3G is hardly the first phone to run on 3G networks, and it still costs more than some of its competitors. But overall, I found it to be a more capable version of an already excellent device. And now that it’s open to third-party programs, the iPhone has a chance to become a true computing platform with wide versatility.

There are two big hidden costs to the new iPhone’s faster speed and lower price tag. First, in my tests, the iPhone 3G’s battery was drained much more quickly in a typical day of use than the battery on the original iPhone, due to the higher power demands of 3G networks. This is an especially significant problem because, unlike most other smart phones, the iPhone has a sealed battery that can’t be replaced with a spare.

Second, Apple’s exclusive carrier in the U.S., AT&T Inc. (AT&T), has effectively negated the iPhone’s up-front price cut by jacking up its monthly fee for unlimited data use by $10. Over the course of the two-year contract you must sign to get the lower hardware prices, that adds $240, overwhelming the $200 savings on the phone itself. If you want text messaging, the cost rises further. With the first iPhone, 200 text messages a month came free. Now, 200 messages will cost $5 a month, or another $120 over the two-year contract.

The iPhone 3G still has a couple of features that made the first version unpalatable to some potential buyers. It uses a virtual on-screen keyboard instead of a physical one. While I find the virtual keyboard easy and accurate, not everyone does. Also, in the U.S. and in many other countries, the iPhone is still tied to a single exclusive carrier, whose coverage or rate plans may be unacceptable to some.

Here is a rundown of the changes in the new model.

Design: The new iPhone looks almost exactly like the old one. It is the same length and width, has the same big, vivid screen, and has the same number and layout of buttons. The main difference is the back, which is now plastic instead of mostly metal and curved instead of flat. It’s very slightly thicker in the middle, with tapered edges, and weighs a tiny bit less.

The new iPhone 3G (left) delivers much higher Internet download speeds over cellular networks than the original iPhone (right).
Like its predecessor, the iPhone 3G comes in two models distinguished only by storage capacity: 8 gigabytes and 16 gigabytes. The top model is available in black or white.

Apple has greatly improved the audio on the new iPhone. I found the speaker was much louder, for music and for the speakerphone. But the new phone produced an echo when used with the built-in Bluetooth system in my car. Also, the headphone jack is now flush with the case instead of recessed as on the first model, so it can accept any standard stereo earphones.

The camera, however, is still bare-bones. It can’t record video and has a resolution of just two megapixels. The power adapter is now tiny, at least in the U.S., but Apple no longer includes a dock for charging, just a cable.

Software: The basic software is similar. The biggest addition for some users will be full compatibility with Microsoft’s (MSFT) widely used Exchange ActiveSync service, which many corporations use. In my tests, I was able to connect the iPhone 3G to my company’s Exchange servers in a few minutes, and my corporate email, calendar and contacts were replicated on the phone. Any changes I made on the iPhone were reflected almost instantly in Microsoft Outlook on my company PC, and vice versa. Email was pushed to the phone as soon as it was received on the company’s servers.

One drawback: While you can have both personal and Exchange email accounts on the new iPhone, if you synchronize with Exchange calendars and contacts, your personal calendar and contacts are erased.

The new iPhone and upgraded older iPhones also will be able to use a new Apple consumer service, MobileMe, which offers synchronized push email, calendars, photos and contacts.

There are other improvements. You can now delete multiple emails at once, set parental controls and search your contacts. You can also save photos in emails or from Web sites. You can also now open Microsoft PowerPoint files sent as attachments, though I found in my tests that opening larger PowerPoint files crashed the phone.

Some software features missing from the first iPhone are still AWOL on the new one. There’s no copy and paste function, no universal search, no instant messaging and no MMS for sending photos quickly between phones.

Network: Like the old iPhone, the new one can perform Internet tasks using either Wi-Fi wireless networking or the cellphone networks. But the addition of 3G cellular capability makes the new model more useful for Web surfing, email and other data tasks when you’re not in Wi-Fi range. In my tests, in Washington and New York, I got data speeds mostly ranging between 200 and 500 kilobits per second. By comparison, the original iPhone, tested in the same spots at the same time, mostly got cellular data speeds between 70 and 150 kbps on AT&T’s old EDGE network. The new iPhone typically was between three and five times as fast as the old one.

While AT&T now has 3G networks in 280 U.S. cities, and aims to be in 350 by year end, it is converting its cellphone towers gradually, so not all areas of included cities have 3G coverage. The new iPhone falls back to EDGE speeds when 3G isn’t present.

One side benefit to 3G is that in some areas, voice coverage improves. At my neighborhood shopping center, where the first iPhone got little or no AT&T service, the iPhone 3G registered strong coverage. But I still found that calls regularly broke up on some major streets. In New York City, riding in a taxi along the Hudson, one important call was dropped three times on the new iPhone. Finally, I borrowed a cheap Verizon (VZ) phone and got perfect reception.

Battery life: Apple claims that over 3G, the new iPhone can get five hours of talk time, or five hours of Internet use. Talk time is twice as long on the older EDGE network, and Internet time is an hour better with Wi-Fi.

I ran my own battery tests using the phone’s 3G capability. Although I left the Wi-Fi function on, I didn’t connect it to a network, so the phone had to rely on 3G. In my test of voice calling, I got 4 hours and 27 minutes, short of Apple’s maximum claim and nearly three hours less than what I recorded in the same test last year on the original iPhone. In my test of Internet use over 3G, I got 5 hours and 49 minutes, better than Apple’s claim, but far short of the nine hours I got using Wi-Fi in last year’s tests.

More important, in daily use, I found the battery indicator on the new 3G model slipping below 20% by early afternoon or midafternoon on some days, and it entirely ran out of juice on one day. I overcame this problem by learning to use Wi-Fi instead of 3G whenever possible, turning down the screen brightness and even turning off 3G altogether, which the phone permits.

The iPhone 3G’s battery life is comparable to, or better than, that of some other 3G competitors. But they have replaceable batteries. The iPhone doesn’t.

Third-party software: If things go as Apple hopes, third-party software could be the biggest attraction to the new iPhone 3G, and to upgraded older iPhones. By some estimates, there will be hundreds of these programs, some free and some paid, almost immediately.

Apple didn’t supply me with programs for testing, but I managed to try several on older devices upgraded to the new operating system. I tested a game that used the phone’s motion sensors to control the action, and I tested several programs from America Online (TWX), including AOL Instant Messenger; AOL Radio, which streams music from the Internet; and AOL’s Truveo video search engine. All worked very well.

Among the programs Apple has publicly previewed were a sales automation program from Salesforce.com, a game called Super Monkey Ball from Sega and a program for bidding on eBay (EBAY). Also made public were a news reader from the Associated Press, a program for following live games from Major League Baseball and several programs for doctors, including the Epocrates drug reference.

Bottom line: If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.

iPhone 3G — Twice as Fast. Half The Battery Life.

Just as Jun. 26, 2007 was likely your last chance to buy shares of Apple for less than $120, July 8, 2008 may well have been your last chance to buy them for under $170. A trio of iPhone 3G reviews went to press yesterday evening, and all are largely positive. There are some caveats though: battery life is disappointing (4 hours and 27 minutes of talk time? The first iteration of the device provided up to eight hours), as is lack of video and voice capture. And the device’s GPS receiver is apparently too weak to support turn-by-turn navigation. Oh, and you’ll likely need an adapter to use first gen iPhone accessories.

If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.”

– Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal

So the iPhone 3G is a nice upgrade. It more than keeps pace with advancing technology, and new buyers will generally be delighted….But it’s not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens. Indeed, the really big deal is the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store, neither of which requires buying a new iPhone. That twist may come as a refreshing surprise to planned-obsolescence conspiracy theorists — and everyone who stood in line last year.

– David Pogue, The New York Times

The iPhone 3G … is worth the wait….It’s cheaper, faster and a lot friendlier for business. Apple’s blockbuster smartphone already had nifty features such as visual voicemail, a splendid built-in video iPod and the best mobile Web browser I’ve ever used. With GPS newly added to the mix, this handheld marvel has no equal among consumer-oriented smartphones.”

– Edward C. Baig, USA Today

Get ready for a wave of interest in iPhone 3G

Headlines like these are becoming more common as the iPhone 3G is introduced around the world. UK customers can hardly wait to get their hands on the new phone through O2.

Full story here:

Significant Improvements in iPhone 3G

The new iPhone 3G is a significant improvement in both hardware and software. Physically, it's thinner and rounder at the edges, While the durable glass front remains, the brushed aluminum back has been replaced with a plastic housing much more comfortable to grip. And the headphone jack is actually now flush so you can use any headset. Inside, Apple has added GPS in addition to its location based capabilities as well as 3G allowing for significantly faster access than the current EDGE technology with speeds approaching that of Wi-Fi or as Jobs calls it, amazingly zippy. Battery life has also been enhanced.

The software, dubbed iPhone 2.0 Software, provides new features and addresses many of the naysayers concerns. To appease the Enterprise users, it will offer, wirelessly, out of the box, full Microsoft Exchange support using ActiveSync allowing for Push e-mail, Push Contacts, Calendar, auto discovery of the Exchange servers and global address lookup. It will also offer Cisco secure VPN (Virtual Private Networks) as well as many other security support features. And if you lose your iPhone, it can be remotely wiped.

iPhone can do almost anything!

There are reports that the iPhone has built-in functionality that is not being exposed to "non-developers". Witness the evolution of the cell-phone in these images:

Rogers unannounced iPhone rates causing uproar in Canada

iPhone love it or hate it...is causing a ruckus in Canada. There is even a petition being circulated, demanding that Rogers offer an unlimited data plan "like AT and T in the US".

No one knows for sure what Rogers will charge for data plans for the sleek new device. A company spokesperson quoted in the Edmonton Sun, stated that Rogers has not yet released any pricing and any speculation is premature. She went on to indicate that Rogers customer's will have complete freedom to adjust their plans to meet their needs... OK...I need a free unlimited data plan! Accomodate that!

Nokia Intellisync Handheld Edition 6.0 Notice of Product Discontinuation

Nokia Intellisync Handheld Edition 6.0 Notice of Product Discontinuation
Nokia Intellisync Desktop Suite includes Nokia Intellisync Handheld Standard Edition and Nokia Intellisync Handheld Edition for Enterprise.

The sale of both Nokia Intellisync Handheld Editions is being discontinued. There will be no replacement products.

Schedule for products discontinuation is as follows:

Last order date: July 19, 2008
Last date to purchase support: July 19, 2009
Last (possible) date of contracted support: July 19, 2010
New product purchase:

Product can be purchased until July 19, 2008.
New product purchase will automatically include one year full support.
Nokia Intellisync Handheld Standard Edition
For new product purchase, click 'Buy Now' button on right side.

Nokia Intellisync Handheld Enterprise Edition
Product Support Contract Renewal Purchase

Support offerings will be offered for one-year renewal of one year of service.
Support contracts purchased up until July 19, 2008 will include full remedial support for one year.
Support contracts purchased after July 19, 2008 and up until July 19, 2009 will include only critical security fix support until July 19, 2010.
For new product purchase information or for support contract renewal purchase, visit nokiaforbusiness.com to locate your nearest Nokia for Business Channel Partner.

Do you like video on your BB?

Here are some sites for collecting video for viewing on your BB:

www.blackberryvids.com
Videos4blackberry.info
Videos4blackberrys.net
seabyrd.com

Control Your Blackberry Using Your Voice with Vlingo - FREE download!

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (June 25, 2008) – Vlingo Corporation today debuted a new application for BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM), offering the industry’s first complete voice-powered interface based entirely on vlingo’s breakthrough speech recognition technology. Available free-of-charge*, vlingo’s BlackBerry application lets users send emails and text messages, search the Web, open applications (BlackBerry® Calendar, BlackBerry® Maps, etc.), dial their phones, look up contacts and even send notes to themselves – all with the power of voice.
“Just a few months ago, vlingo was selected to voice-enable Yahoo! oneSearchTM, which showed the world just how quick and easy mobile Web search can be with the power of voice,” said Dave Grannan, CEO of vlingo. “Vlingo takes this technology beyond Web search into everyday applications that are now instantly more usable and easier to find because you only need to think about one button and a few spoken words. Vlingo believes that we can immediately improve the way every person interacts with their wireless device and the BlackBerry platform is the perfect place to start our aggressive expansion strategy here in the U.S. and abroad.”
Vlingo is easy to use. BlackBerry smartphone users can simply press the side “convenience” key on their handset, which lets them speak commands into the phone. Available beginning today, vlingo gives BlackBerry smartphone users voice control over the most commonly used applications, including:
•
Voice Dial. Initiate calls to anyone in your address book.
•
Text Message. Send text messages without typing.
•
Email. Simply speak “Email John Smith” to start an email on-the-go, and you can speak the body of the message as well.
•
Applications. Open calendar, maps, etc.
•
Address Book. Search for contacts without typing.
•
Web Search. Look up anything online in one step. Just say, “Web search: concert tickets in Boston,” and the results are displayed.
•
Note2Self. Send yourself a reminder in the form of an email, task or text message.
Vlingo gives BlackBerry smartphone users control over mobile information and tasks with the power of their voice. Users do not need to change how they speak or memorize a list of commands. They can say what they want, how they want, and vlingo captures the results – word for word. Vlingo’s voice-enabling technology provides users with a simple way to access almost anything on their handset. With the most accurate system on the market that gets even better as more users join the community, vlingo gives users the ability to freely mix typing and talking with no limits on what they can say.
Vlingo is currently supported on the BlackBerry® Pearl™, BlackBerry® Curve™ and BlackBerry® 8800 series smartphones. Vlingo will be adding additional devices and operating systems in the third and fourth quarters of 2008. A demo video of the new vlingo BlackBerry application is available at
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1620628573. Vlingo is available for download, free-of-charge* at http://www.vlingo.com/vlingo/download.jsp.
About vlingo
Vlingo is a voice-powered user interface that unlocks access to mobile phone wireless data services. Vlingo allows users to speak or type into any vlingo-enabled text box and get accurate, easy and consistent access to all the information, entertainment and communication made possible through today’s mobile applications. By giving consumers control of the mobile Internet with the power of their voices, vlingo provides a quantum leap in usability for mobile data services that are currently restricted by limited user interfaces. IDC has named vlingo one of the “Ten Emerging Mobile Players to Watch in 2008.” The company secured its venture capital financing from Charles River Ventures, Sigma Partners and Yahoo! Inc. Founded in 2006, vlingo is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Why tap when you can talk? www.vlingo.com.
###
* Wireless charges may apply. Please check with your wireless service provider.
The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. RIM assumes no obligations or liability and makes no representation, warranty, endorsement or guarantee in relation to any aspect of any third party products or services.

Nokia to Acquire and Open Source Symbian

Blogger zyzko writes on SlashDot: "Nokia has placed an offer on Symbian stock — it currently owns a 48% share and intends to buy the other shareholders out, 91% of the stockholders have already agreed. The press has already labeled this as an countermeasure to fight Android. Nokia has also created Symbian foundation — it might mean more open Symbian." Symbian is "currently the world's dominant smartphone operating system (206 million phones shipped, 18.5 million in Q1 2008)," writes reader thaig, who points out coverage in the Economic Times. If this deal goes through as expected, the Foundation says that selected components of the Symbian operating system would be made available as open source at launch under the Eclipse Public License (EPL) 1.0 , with the rest of the platform following over the next two years.

Symbian Foundation

NotifyLink supports the Symbian OS S60 r3 devices with full email and PIM.

Talk about a subsidy...how do I get one?

Cnet news.com writer Tom Krazit reports that AT and T is paying Apple $325 per iPhone 3G! Yair Reiner that claims Apple will wind up getting just as much revenue from the subsidies as it did from the revenue-sharing agreement between Apple and AT and T that was in place before the introduction of the iPhone 3G last week.




The actual price of the iPhone doesn't matter to most people, but certain AT and T customers who might not be eligible for the upgrade price of $199 or $299 will likely have to pay the unsubsidized price--or something close to it-- for the iPhone 3G. Current iPhone owners are eligible for the $199 price, as are new AT and T customers, but some AT and T customers who use another smartphone and have been with the carrier for a short time might have to pay the higher price.
And it matters to AT and T, obviously. The company raised the price of its iPhone data plans by $10 a month to offset the subsidies it's paying to Apple. AT and T is throwing an awful lot of cash at Apple from the start, rather than on an ongoing basis as was the case with the revenue-sharing agreement. Still, the heavy subsidies will be worth it if iPhone 3Gs start flying off the shelves on July 11.

NotifyLink for the Apple iPhone

I'm hearing some buzz that Notify Technology will have a client for the iPhone soon.
Does anyone have any news? Sounds like this will be big!

iPhone for GroupWise

It appears the word is out. NotifyLink will be supporting the iPhone on GroupWise later this summer! Check it out...http://GWCheck.com/gtml. NotifyLink's support is not only limited to just the iPhone either. NotifyLink's On Demand & On Premise solutions also supports Blackberry, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 devices.

On-Demand hosted support for Scalix

Notify Technology Corporation (NTFY) just announced NotifyLink On-Demand hosted service support for Scalix. System will be ready to start accepting hosted customers on Monday June 23. Systems in the U.K., hosted by London Web and in Switzerland hosted by European Center for Operational Support will also offer the NotifyLink hosted service for Scalix.

Scalix is now part of 13 different platforms supported by NotifyLink. There are rumors flying at the San Jose company headquarters regarding support for a new platform, called "lucky 13". We don't know which email and PIM collaborative platform this might be but insiders hint at the big building across the valley closer to the mountains, with the word GOOGLE on the top.

More to come on integration of NotifyLink for GOOGLE mobile in an upcoming article.

This is on top of the upcoming NotifyLink for iPhone2.0 release from Apple (APPL). Amazing stuff from Notify Technology Corporation!

Great site for BlackBerry lovers

Check out the site http://www.pinstack.com/ for some great info on BlackBerrys (RIMM). These guys keep their ears to the ground for all that's new in the BB world.

Lot's of free stuff to check out and play with. Their mailing list is highly recommended if you love your BlackBerry like we do ours.