I'll be the first to admit...
Blackberrys are a lot like heroin. They're a lot of fun, and all your friends look at you funny once you start spending all your time using it. Your life becomes a desparate search to find more and more apps, integrating more and more of your personal affairs into an object the size of a Kit-Kat bar. You'll start neglecting relationships that aren't taking place through the digital haze of a threaded SMS app.
Oh, but you'll make a lot of new friends without sacrificing your habit. Your buddies who do Blackberry on the regular will invite you into a small circle of text-addicted communications called Blackberry Messenger.
On the upshot, Blackberry developers haven't yet figured out how transmit hepatitis over the air.
Here are some of the amazing third-party apps that are currently keeping me glued to a 2.4" LCD screen:
- Orb/Mycast (free)
www.orb.com
Orb is a service which allows a user to stream content of virtually any type to their mobile device (or any other internet device). A host application on the home PC acts as a media server which can be accessed through a browser interface on Orb's website. The content is streamed directly from the home PC to the client device, but the control interface is served by Mycast, the company that produces Orb. This means that you don't have to have a web server on your PC to stream your content.I cannot emphasize this enough: any file on your computer can be directly streamed to the mobile browser. This means audio, video, documents, programs, literally ANYTHING can be retrieved or streamed to your device.
Orb's mobile interface
If you have an unlimited data plan, you will never be limited by the memory constraints of
your device again. - Pandora (free)
www.pandora.com
Pandora's mobile iteration first became available in the iTunes App Store last year, and the Blackberry version has successfully re-created the magic in RIM's App World. This internet radio service, which was previously only available as a Flash application on the web site mentioned above, really deserves some kind of award. Pandora will produce a playlist of streaming music for you, based on seed criteria that you provide (musical genre, artist, album, song, or "tags").
Pandora is a great toy for the mobile platform. Memory constraints make it difficult to hold a diverse selection of tunes on a mobile device, and streaming services like Orb make available only your own library of Steely Dan anthologies and Avril Lavigne covers. Pandora puts a virtually unlimited selection of streaming tracks at your fingertips, ready to go when you are. - Tetherberry ($49.95, free trial)
www.tetherberry.com
Let's imagine a scenario...
In one hand you've got a shiny new phone which has the capacity for near-broadband wireless internet speeds nearly anywhere in the civilized world, but no internet applications which could possibly take advantage of it. In the other hand, you have a laptop which can run any application you could imagine, but is only capable of internet speeds when within 200 feet of a 802.11a/b/g/n wireless router or within 10 feet of a wired outlet. You have a cable which can transfer data between the two at data rates in the neighborhood of several megabits per second.
The missing link is Tetherberry, a piece of software that allows any conventional computer to use the Blackberry's high-speed wireless internet connection like a normal network adapter. Run the tetherberry app in the background on both the Blackberry and the computer while they're connected by a USB cable, and you'll be to pwning n00bz in Counter-strike from the beach, on road trips, at your brother's wedding, or anywhere else that digital cell phone service is available.
Why would anyone plunk down fifty smackeroos for this app? Aren't there open wireless access points everywhere you go these days?
Well yes, but that's not the whole story. For one thing, the connection is seamless: you can move around virtually anywhere, even miles at a time, without any loss of connectivity.
Additionally -- if you're a business user away from home, your normal internet options are limited to free-but-slow access in a distracting, congested coffee shop, hotel services which charge by the hour, or expensive cellular wireless plans , upwards of $60 per month. Virtually all the wireless carriers charge an ancillary monthly fee for using a smartphone for computer internet access.
In context, Tetherberry is a great deal for a service that no one else provides: high-speed unlimited internet access with full functionality, ANYWHERE.
Okay, okay. Maybe I am becoming a crackberry addict.
But damn. It sure is fun.
