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By Jon M. Cohen

Their is no doubt that FREE is GOOD! Blackberry users have known this for a few years now. Blackberry owners have had a leg up on the rest of the mobile phone market by offering a free service to allow users to chat with each other. The service was called PIN-ing in the beginning and developed to become an application on the Blackberry simply known as BBM.  I was a member of the elite club of BBM (Blackberry Messenger) users for many years. In fact I was lucky enough to be one of the first users in North America ( I hacked my blackberry at the time with the OS from China).

Today I am using an iPhone and it was a hard decision to make, switching away from RIM the Blackberry makers. But now after 6 months or so with the iPhone 3GS I am happy I have made the move.

A bit of history

It should be noted that I had been using the Blackberry since 2003 and was a HUGE fan of the device. I had owned over 10 different models in the 6.5 years of using Blackberry and I was always wanting the newest and best model. I had gone as far as buying US models of the phone and unlocking them to work here in Canada. (Ironic since RIM is a Canadian company) So the title of Blackberry FanBoy would have been appropriate.

I did indeed try twice before 2009 to move away from the Blackberry by getting the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G. In both older models of iPhone I was not happy with the speed, the functionality and the lack of key features. It should be noted as well the the two iPhones mentioned were using OS 1.0 and 2.0, both an immature operating system in my opinion.

Back to the future

Now that I have made the move to iPhone, it would be very hard for me to go back to the Blackberry. I really love the iPhone and all of the Apps that are on the App. store. The two things that I found are missing on the iPhone when compared to the Blackberry where; 1. Spell Check, 2. Chat Client like BBM.

Well it was pointed out to me by a friend that Apple does have an App. for Spell check, it is not free but it does work most of the time. But until today Apple didn’t have an App. for Chat. This is were “Ping” [iTunes Link] comes in. It is a slick chat client that will give you a nice clean look and feel and also offers a unique user name for your iPhone or iPod Touch. With this unique user name this App. gives iPhone users the same FREE chatting capability that PIN-ing gave Blackberry users in the early days while still embedded this functionality in an App.

Ping is not perfect, but it will get there. Right now the App. which launched on Sept. 29th. 2009 is getting a lot of good hype and more and more users are joining Ping by downloading the App. and signing up. (No actual sign up is required)

The early tests I have done on Ping have shown great function, it is easy to use, and it is quick and the notification option works like it is suppose to.

Their are a few concerns that I have and I hope to interview the developer to see if he can address these issues.

Firstly if Ping can grow and still function? With so many users of the iPhone can a P2P chat app scale to handle the large volume of iPhone users.

Second, what is the privacy policy? Since the chat is P2P it must so through Ping’s servers and because of that I would want to know if it is encrypted, as well if it is publicly visible to anyone other then the two people chatting.

Third, user name? How is Ping going to avoid the issues that have plagued Twitter and Facebook with regards to user names being untrue. I expand on this questions by using this example;  if Oprah is my user name what will stop me from letting people believe that I am the real Oprah (TV Star)? How can Ping police this, what is there plans to validate the user is who they say they are.

Forth, Battery drain. Since I have installed Ping I have noticed a bit of battery drain (5%-10% loss)  and I assume that since Ping does use notification service that when I turn that function off my battery life will improve. It would be great if the developers of Ping would be able to figure out a way to improve battery life while keeping notification on.

In closing, as it stands today, Spell Check App and Ping App fill the only two voids I had on my iPhone following the switchover. If Ping can not or does not address user concerns thenI will have no choice but to re-think if I’d want to continue to use this App. My assumption is that like most developers the authors of Ping [iTunes Link] will want to have a great product and will welcome constructive feedback like the kind listed above. Once again I will state that Ping is a great App. Go out and  downloaded it ASAP (While it is still free).

By Jon M. Cohen

Looks like the boys over at Research in Motion have finally jumped on the “App Store” bandwagon. Following in the footsteps of both Apple’s App Store on iTunes and Google’s App Store for the Android OS. Today RIM launched their very own branded App Store called App World. A move that is not totally surprising considering the great success that Apple has seen. But the Blackberry App World has a long way to go to catch up with Apple’s 35,000+ Applications. With the upcoming App Store for the Palm Pre being highly talked about, it was a smart move for Blackberry to get the ball rolling on this App World program. The only question is if it is not a bit too late? The App market has become over saturated in the last number of months and as evidence to that we see the ongoing discounting of Apps in the iTunes store. These discounted prices unfortunately destroy the basic value system for all other Apps on all other platforms. Therefore when we look at the 475 apps that Blackberry is offering we cringe at the idea of paying $11.99 for Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile or $9.99 for SplashMoney Personal Finance. What most Apple developers have realized over the past 10 months is that the correct pricing for Apps is in the sub $4.99 price point. It is to be assumed that like any free market economy that as soon as more Apps are made, and their is a greater competition that the prices will be lowered.

You can download your own copy of the Blackberry App World HERE.

System Requirements

To ensure that your BlackBerry® smartphone will support BlackBerry App World™, it must have the following system requirements:

BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.2 or higher

BlackBerry smartphones with trackballs or SurePress™ touch screen

BlackBerry App World is only available to customers in US, Canada and UK and may not be available on all networks

How to check your operating system from your BlackBerry smartphone:

Click “Options” from your BlackBerry smartphone

Select “About”, then click. Your BlackBerry smartphone operating system information will be displayed

By Jon M. Cohen

Loving Twitter is not a crime! Not using it to it’s potential is not a crime either, but it is a shame if you don’t really see all that Twitter can offer you. Unlike other social media websites Twitter has an API that is open and allows for developers to create applications that can be independent of the web browser. One fairly new application is TweetDeck, based on the amazingly versatile Adobe Air language. TweetDeck, still in Beta has a great deal of useful components to it. Of course you can do all the basic features that one would expect from a Twitter application. Functions like: posting a tweet, seeing friend’s timeline, and seeing direct messages. The things that really stands out for me with TweetDeck is the added features that come built in to this application.

Since TweetDeck is an Adobe Air based application it is easily installable on all three major software platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).

Some of the most useful features in my opinion are “TwitScoop”, “Twitter Search”, “Stock Twits”, and “Groups” 

    * TwitScoop is in my opinion the most useful feature that TweetDeck offers. What you get with this feature is the ability to see what are the most popular buzzwords being posted on Twitter. So if you want to know the trends or the topics that the whole Internet community is talking about? Then the answer can be easily found with this feature.

    * Twitter Search is a powerful and very useful tool that will allow you to type in a keyword and then TweetDeck will create a section for you to see all the tweets about that keyword.

    * Stock Twits is just as you assume a tracker for your favorite symbols from any of the major exchanges. It is fast and easily customizable to the users preferences. All that is needed is to signup at the website and configure your portfolio.

    * Groups, this may seem like an expected feature for any Twitter application, and frankly it is common in some. But what TweetDeck does differently with its configuration and the power behind this feature is what sets it apart from all other competitors. With the groups feature you can choose which tweets you want to see while not seeing all the other people you follow. 

A few other nice parts about this application is the ability to pick the color scheme you want, as well the settings allow you to tweak the Twitter API on refresh rates. 

TweetDeck still has some room to grow and it is apparent that it is still in Beta. With that being said I would still highly recommend it for all Twitter users. In my opinion it is a must have application for all Twittter users. Get your own copy of TweetDeck here.

TweetDeck Full screenshot

Jon M. Cohen  - Technology Consultant

Haven’t heard of Boxee yet; well get excited! Boxee is an application for both Ubuntu and Mac that offers a fully integrated media player and media manager. The biggest feature that Boxee offers users is a centralized way to watch web based primetime media.

Boxee is a simple and effective media application that allows home users to set up streaming for music, pictures, and movies. As well with its great interface, users can easily grab content from sites like Hulu, Fox, ABC, and CBS, just to name a few. Boxee gives you a nice centralized place to watch all the rich content that the web has to offer instead of going to individual websites of each broadcaster.  It still allows for short web commercials, but adds improved picture and functionality such as pausing and adjusting the volume.

Most people love watching the rich web content and now Boxee has also integrated a full-featured media player, so organizing and sharing your home videos (movies), music, and photos is easy as pie. Just point Boxee to the network with the media and Boxee can do the rest. Sharing your network content is an effective and easy task when Boxee is involved.Screenshot of Boxee Movies

Another great feature that is available to Boxee users is the Boxee OS that can be loaded on the AppleTV. With the combination of Boxee to the AppleTV, we see a huge opportunity for great media viewing on your HDTV. This allows users to sit on the couch and really get involved with all of the content the web has to offer. While loading Boxee on the AppleTV does take a bit of work; a quick web search will lead you to the needed instructions.

You may be asking yourself what the down sides of Boxee are, and to be honest, there are a few. It should be noted Boxee is still an Alpha. The first thing I quickly noticed is that Boxee is slow to load and can be slow as you move through different menus. I have tested the Boxee application on the Mac and Ubuntu,  as well as the AppleTV, and regardless of which platform I tested I always got the same results. The second point has to do with configurations. As I stated earlier, it is very easy to configure, but it falls slightly short in the depth of the security configurations that are able to be setup. The final issue that I found was related to the speed and quality of streaming. I found that I spent a lot of time waiting for the buffering. This was expected due to the upsizing of the video and general speeds of the internet, but it can be assumed that this third issue will quickly disappear as speeds on the internet increase and adopt new formats for web based rich video content.

Screenshot of Boxee TV options

Boxee is the premier application for absorbing your media on a daily basis. It is not perfect, but the innovations found in this application lead me to believe that it will be a very popular application in years to come. I also assume that we will see more hardware devices that Boxee will be able to work with.  As the popularity grows and Boxee moves from Alpha to Beta and on to RC, I am sure that Boxee will be as well known a term as “TiVo”. Boxee really has endless potential; it will be great to see what the final application looks like. Do you want your own copy of Boxee? Click Here.

By Jon M. Cohen

As a New Year begins, a lot of new trends are to be found in the computer industry. C.E.S. 2009 showed off a lot of great technologies and I have compiled a list of some of the top trends for the average computer buyer this year. Now take those unwanted holiday gifts and return them. Let’s use the money you got back and make a worth while purchase. This means  before you use that $200.00 gift card to buy some DVDs that you will watch maybe once or twice, why not look into putting that money into one or more of these trends instead? Besides we use computers daily, how often can you watch the Seinfeld Box set anyways?!

1. Netbooks… they are HOT! Portables are becoming cheaper and cheaper, plus they have a lot more power behind them. In 2009 you will continue to see the Notebook sub category of ‘Netbooks’ continue to sell well. They are currently sold with screen sizes of 7″ to 10″ and SSD at 8GB or SATA Hard Drives at 120GB – 160GB. I predict that these ultra portable computers will see a big bump in speeds and specifications. The cost of these goods has gone down and the addition of such features as GPS, 802.11N, and Express Card Slots should become standard shortly. As well, more memory and bigger hard drive sizes are to be expected.

2. Solid State Drives (SSDs): These drives offer a super fast speed of data transfer and have no real moving parts; they are almost at the “tipping point” (M. Gladwell). With drive capacity closing in on 600GB and the speed being 5x faster then a 7200RPM drive, I predict that this type of drive will continue to drop in price and start being present in more and more notebooks this year. Who does not want faster drives at cheaper prices?!

3. Better backup choices: Everyone is creating media, from digital cameras, camcorders, MP3’s, etc. As we add more and more files to our lives, these files become more valuable. The more we count on them, the more earth shattering it becomes when they are lost. Thus, simple and reliable backup solutions will be a big and popular trend in 2009. Yes we have had these solutions for years, but now it will be cheap and so simple to use that mainstream consumers can do it too. 

4. Multi-core comes to life in 2009! We have seen over the last number of years the idea of multi-core processors (e.g., Intel Core Duo, Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad) invade the market. Now as the new line of processors arrive in 2009 from Intel and AMD, I predict that these cores will start being maximized in multi function operation (i.e., running two operating systems at the same time.) So, if you are buying a new computer, at least make sure it is a multi-core.

5. Move to Mac: This trend is not as much new, as it’s getting stronger. Windows is bleeding; XP is starting to get old and Vista is like that freak uncle that no one wants to admit is part of the family. These two things will be the best drivers to bring long time Windows customers to the Apple platform. Even at higher prices, people will still jump in to the Mac world for a glimpse of what is expected to be utopia. Not even the release of Microsoft Windows 7 will be able to stop Apple’s momentum.

So go out and spend your money wisely. Take with you the knowledge of these trends and enjoy what the computer world has to offer.