by alec on January 9, 2012
I’m in Las Vegas for CES. I’ve been coming here for industry events for 25 years now. Yesterday, however, I did something I had never done in all that time. I rented a car, and drove out of the city to see what else Nevada had to offer besides gambling, hotels, and shows.
An hours drive north led me to the Valley of Fire State Park, where I took in the sunset, and the rising of the moon over Lake Mead to the east. It was stunning. I’ll go back there again, just to see the rock formations along the 20 mile scenic route through the park.
So, what does that have to do with anything?
If you’re a mobile developer, I’d encourage you to try something new today. Take another look at BlackBerry development. Our HTML 5 development platform, including the WebWorks framework, and the Ripple simulator, are great. Developing on the Playbook platform is getting easier all the time too, as we bring more open source, and more development partners to the platform. And there’s a great opportunity in building apps for BlackBerry.
So go ahead. Give it a shot. Try something new.
by alec on January 7, 2012
Anyone who follows my 4Square updates on Twitter will know that I travel a lot. This week it was a quick jaunt to Waterloo. Next week, I’ll be in Las Vegas for CES 2012. In February I’ll be at BlackBerry DevCon Europe in Amsterdam, and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And in March, I’ll be taking a short vacation with my wife and kids!
With that in mind, here are the killer travel apps I use on BlackBerry.
The big Kahuna is BlackBerry Travel. I’ve used other apps in the past, on other mobile devices, but BlackBerry Travel blows them all away. When you first book a trip, the incoming email from your travel agent triggers the creation of an itinerary on your behalf, that BlackBerry Travel then manages and updates in real time from that point forward. Forget to book a hotel? It suggests one. Gate changes at the airport? You already know, because Travel knows. And on arrival at your destination, Travel updates your LinkedIn profile to let folks know that you’ve arrived. Plus it has local and destination weather updates, points of interest, and more. Free from RIM. Alternatively, Tripit is a similar app to BlackBerry Travel – a little less automated, but with more itinerary sharing options.
BlackBerry Traffic is the next. BlackBerry Traffic is a simple nav system that uses GPS to provide turn by turn directions to your destination. It finds your destination from an address, and then barks out directions clearly and loudly, taking into account real time traffic information, even when left on the passenger seat. In fact, it can even message ahead to let others know your time of arrival! Travel is simpler than a full blown nav, like the brand-name system I paid $70 for on my previous phone, but it gets the job done quickly and efficiently, and the price is right. Free, from RIM, and BBM enabled so you can easily share it with your friends as well!
For local search, I use Poynt. Poynt is a local restaurant, event, and shopping guide all rolled into one. Need to find a restaurant? Poynt knows. Tickets to an event? Poynt knows. Also free. Urban Spoon is also available for older BlackBerry’s.
See you next week in Las Vegas!
