Skype Available On Android Devices Worldwide

Like to use Skype on your computer? Wish you could use it on your Android device, but you aren’t on a carrier that allows it? Well, keep reading because I think you’ll be pretty happy after reading this!

Skype has JUST announced that their popular app is now available on all Android devices boasting an OS of 2.1 or higher. On all carriers. Worldwide. WOO HOO!

Just head on over to the Android Market to pick up your copy! Want to read the full press release? Head on over HERE to check it out!

Source – Phandroid / Skype PR

TSR Deal Of The Day – Compass for BlackBerry 50% Off

Todays TSR Deal Of The Day is an app called Compass and you can pick it up in the mobihand store for just $2.49, that’s 50% off the regular price of $4.99! Today is the day to pick this app up, so head on over and get your copy!

This wonderful fully-featured compass is the next step up from our popular Compass Lite. Compass uses the built-in GPS in the device to show your line of travel, speed, latitude and longitude and where North is in relation to your heading on a variety of stunning backgrounds. To establish a line of travel, you MUST BE MOVING to use it! .

Compass can now store locations called WayPoints and integrates those WayPoints with Google Maps and BlackBerry Maps!

Be sure to check our website for more information, including FAQ and disclaimer information at blueinc.ca

Here are some of the features of this app:

Features:

• Stunning new backgrounds (in both portrait and landscape orientations on the Storm); some are even animated!
• The ability to change the format of the Heading, the lat/long and the speed: You can choose formats like Degrees, Minutes, Seconds or miles/hour
• The ability to display and/or reset the maximum speed
• New header graphics that show time, date, battery strength, # of satellites/GPS strength
• Store WayPoint locations with a title and description
• Show WayPoints or your current location in Google Maps or BlackBerry Maps
• Show a route to a chosen WayPoint in Google Maps or BlackBerry Maps
• Multilingual: supports English, German, Italian, French and Spanish
• The red arrow in the compass rose always points to True North and updates when your location changes
• Requires access to the internal GPS on device and the ability to set device permissions; Google Maps and/or BlackBerry Maps to enjoy all features (data charges *may* apply depending on your plan with your carrier)
• This is not an iPhone compass! It is GPS-based and you NEED TO BE MOVING to use it! It takes REPEATED READINGS from the GPS data so you must move your location (not far: 5 – 10 meters or so) to cause the compass rose to rotate.

Make sure you check to see that your device is compatible with Compass!

RIM Announces BlackBerry Messenger Social Platform

RIM announced today during DEVCON 2010 that they will be opening up access to BBM integration to app developers, thus giving developers the tools to build apps that take advantage of the social aspects of BBM.

Here’s the full Press Release put out today by RIM:

Developers Will Be Able to Leverage the Power of Social Interactions within their Apps

San Francisco, CA – BlackBerry DEVCON 2010 – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger) Social Platform, giving developers the tools to build applications that take advantage of the  social aspects of the popular BBM service.

“The BlackBerry developer community has been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to integrate BlackBerry Messenger with their apps. BBM is a very popular service with over 28 million users and opening its real-time social connectivity to third party applications presents incredible opportunities,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platform at Research In Motion. “Access to BBM services from within apps will revolutionize gaming, enhance multimedia experiences, and add a new dimension to location based applications.”

Developers will be able to integrate various functions of the BBM service into their applications including chat capabilities, content sharing, and invitations. For example, users will be able to invite their BBM friends to join them in a game and then chat with one another while the game is being played.

Other BBM functionality accessible to developers through the BBM Social Platform includes:
• Contact list – allows users to choose from their BBM contacts from within another application in order to initiate social interactions such as chatting or initiating game play
• BBM user profile – an application can insert application status updates into the user’s BBM profile allowing it to be launched or downloaded from BBM by the user’s friends
• Application-specific communities – users can create BBM friend groups specific to an application
• Data Transfer – allows users to transfer pictures, audio, video and other content directly from an application to their BBM contacts or groups
• Invitations – allows users to invite new friends to BBM, invite their friends to interact within or download an application, and accept invitations, all from within an application

Through the BBM Social Platform, RIM is providing the BlackBerry developer community with the opportunity to leverage the power of BBM in their own applications in order to help drive loyalty to their applications through social and community interactions, as well as increase discoverability of their applications through peer communications and referrals.

Several BlackBerry® Alliance members are already testing the BBM Social Platform as part of an early access program.

“Kik is all about sharing, buying and experiencing music on a mobile platform, so integrating with BBM will deliver huge value to our users,” said Kik CEO Ted Livingston. “Kik users will be able to connect with friends and colleagues to discover and share music, the experience will be much more intimate through BBM.”

“With the new BBM Social Platform we will be able to build a ground breaking social eReading experience,” said Dan Liebu, Chief Technology Officer at Kobo. “We expect to increase engagement as Kobo users share their reading and shopping experiences in real-time.”

“The BBM Social Platform will allow us to bring innovative social features to our games that get friends playing together. Making social connections is a cornerstone to successful casual gaming, and with BBM integration, our fans will be able to easily connect with their friends to compete or cooperate,” said Nick Tremmaglia, Product Manager THK Live, Magmic Games

“The integration of BBM functionality into our leading sports app will be a game-changer for ScoreMobile,” says Benjie Levy, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Score Media Inc. “We expect that embedding key BBM features will deepen user engagement, lengthen visit sessions, and help virally grow ScoreMobile’s user base.”

“Telmap’s search, mapping and navigation solutions have been a huge success in recent years and have proven to be extremely popular with BlackBerry smartphone users. We are proud to be one of the first application developers to integrate with BBM, as we strongly believe that the combination of a community together with Telmap’s expert location capabilities and BBM’s best-in-class messaging solution, will result in a winning offering,” said Motti Kushnir, Telmap CMO.

The BBM Social Platform is expected to be available in the spring of 2011.

source – RIM PR

Verizon Wireless Encourages & Enables Mobile Application Development With Tools For Developers

In a press release sent out yesterday, Verizon Wireless announced some tools for developers to make creating applications a bit easier and a more enhanced experience. These tools were announced at the Verizon Developer Community (VDC) in Las Vegas yesterday.

Here is the complete press release sent out by Verizon Wireless:

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and LAS VEGAS, NV — Verizon Wireless is expanding the number of tools available to members of the Verizon Developer Community (VDC) with the addition of third-party technology and services that will help developers create and enhance the value of their applications, the company announced today at the VDC Conference taking place in Las Vegas. The tools range from in-app analytics to the ability to send push notifications to 2-D and 3-D facial recognition capabilities, each giving developers cost-effective options as they build applications for current and future networks. “Verizon is committed to participating in a robust mobile application ecosystem, and the addition of these tools and other enablers for third-party developers helps everyone involved,” said Todd Murphy, director, Verizon Developer Community. “Working with these companies to bring the tools to the VDC is just the beginning, and we will continue to expand what’s available as the entire ecosystem continues to grow.” Among the companies providing tools and enablers for the VDC are: Ground Truth: The Ground Truth Applications Analytics tool can provide developers with the ability to access aggregate data on demographics, usage and custom events on their applications at no charge and in an intuitive, Web-based interface for Android™, RIM and future Brew® and Windows Mobile® platforms. Urban Airship: Urban Airship offers developers the infrastructure and easy-to-integrate tools to enable push notifications within mobile apps. Its AirMail Push services add value to mobile apps by encouraging users to re-engage, increasing app awareness and revenue opportunities. Urban Airship helps developers deliver real-time mobile messages and content across multiple platforms quickly and cost effectively. Mobile Roadie: Mobile Roadie provides a simple and inexpensive self-service solution to create professional-looking applications in minutes. Mobile Roadie’s platform lets users build and manage their own applications by controlling the look, feel and message of their applications, all with innovative drag-and-drop tools. With Mobile Roadie, users become developers without ever having to write a line of code. These tools can be found on the VDC portal beginning Sept. 21, 2010. Verizon Wireless is also working with Animetrics for 2-D and 3-D facial recognition technology, PayPal for one-touch billing for in-application payments, and PrinterOn for mobile printing solutions. More information about these companies, the tools and their availability is available to members of the VDC. For information on how to register for the Verizon Developer Community, visit . source – PR: http://news.vzw.com/news/2010/09/pr2010-09-20e.html

Excited For Blackberry App World 2.0???

I don’t know about the rest of you Blackberry fans out there but I’m truly excited for Blackberry App World 2.0. Here’s the skinny on the upcoming features:

* Credit card billing
* Carrier billing
* Preload on all OS 5 devices and higher
* WiFi downloads
* Desktop catalog to mirror on-device App World
* Microtransactions for games, premium video content etc.
* More account management options and search improvements
* Greater number of enterprise apps in the catalog (new category perhaps)
* Free and Paid catalogs in all countries App World currently supports

RIM is under an extreme amount of pressure to deliver a better App World experience and try to play catch-up to Apple and Google offerings. Carrier billing will be a big hit as many BB users don’t have a Paypal account. Score a big one for RIM there. RIM is supposed to announce Blackberry App World on June 16, so we’ll see if this does indeed happen.

Excited yourselves out there? Let us know in the comments your views on this. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekends! Keep it locked here at TSR for the latest and greatest.

PJ

Twitter for BlackBerry Update!

For those who weren’t aware, there is a Twitter for BlackBerry app being beta tested, and it has been for a few months now. It is the official Twitter app brought to us by RIM.

The current beta version of Twitter for BlackBerry is set to be updated this evening and will start rolling out to users sometime between this evening and tomorrow (Thursday). If you’ve already downloaded the app, it will be pushed right to your device, and you should be prompted to update.

RIM has been asking for feedback all through testing, and I think they’ve implemented quite a few updates to this new version that testers were asking about. Before we get to the updates, let’s have a quick overview of what the current features are:

• Push Direct Messages
• Timeline Support
• Following & Followers
• Posting, Sending, Deleting , Replying and Re-Tweeting Tweets
• User/Saved/Keyword/Proximity Search
• Tweet Photos/Links
• Trending Topics
• Seamless integration into core BlackBerry Applications
• URL Shortening
• Auto-Update
• Polling Notifications of new tweets and @replies/mentions
• Lists Support
• Profile Editing
• Personalization Settings
  • Show/Hide Nav. Bar and Tweetbox
  • Font Size/Style
• Enlarged Profile Avatar Viewing
• Additional in Application Caching

Now, here is what you’ve been waiting for the ENTIRE time you’ve been reading this post – the updated features:

* You will now have the ability to edit ReTweets (MANY people cried out for this)

* Usernames will autocomplete when you type @ followed by the first few letters of the username you want to tweet to or about

* Pop-up to warn you when you are about to share personal information

* Integration with BlackBerry Maps to view geotagged locations

* Implementation of Hotkeys

Those are just some of the exciting new features that this new beta offers users! This is great news. One feature that I don’t see on the list that I was hoping WOULD be, is to remember the last tweet you were on. The app always scrolls to the top of your timeline when opening it up. Oh well, maybe in the next update.

Anyway, keep your eyes out for this update, and be sure to let us know what you think of it when you try out all the new features!

[pictures/features courtesy of BlackBerry]

ZenMinder for BlackBerry

ZenMinder is a reminder application for your BlackBerry device. With this application, you are able to set multiple reminders for appointments, tasks, or any other important reminder you want to set up.

Here is an overview of the ZenMinder features:

* Simple and elegant user interface for a remarkable user experience

* Set reminder at a certain date and define recurrences

* Four available Zen reminder sounds

* Possibility to play custom sound files from your BlackBerry

* Unlimited number of reminders

* Notification with vibration

* Deactivation of reminders on weekends or manually

* 12/24 hour time format

* Optional auto-delete of expired reminder

With ZenMinder, you can really set up every type of reminder that you need, and separate them into categories, using up to four different reminder sounds to notify you! Alternately, you can choose your own sound/ringtone to notify you of reminders, outside of the four pre-loaded sounds provided by ZenMinder.This is great for those VERY busy folks that don’t have a spare moment to check to see what notification they’re being reminded of. Just take note of the sound and you should know what the reminder is.

Once you open the app, you have the option to view your current and upcoming reminders:

As you can see, it’s a visually appealing application, and it’s very user friendly. It’s very easy to add a new notification, and you have a few options like reminder name, date, sound, volume, etc….

On top of the above options, you can also set the snooze time and choose to auto-delete reminders once they pass. Some people don’t  like them to auto-delete, so it’s great that the folks at ZenMinder give you the option! Two thumbs up for that.

Here are just a few situations that ZenMinder can help you stay on track with your schedule:

• Multiple wake up calls in the morning
• Reminds you to take your medicine
• Get reminded to pick up the kids
• Get reminded to water the flowers every second day
• Get reminded to follow a new habit
• Schedule important calls every few months
• Set alarms to get up in the morning and set reminders to go to bed
• Define a personal mission statement and remind yourself regularly

You can download a free version of ZenMinder by going HERE, after the free trial ZenMinder is available at the same link for $4.99. ZenMinder is available for most BlackBerry devices, but make sure you click on the link above to check to make sure YOUR BlackBerry is compatible.

Head on over to SmartphoneAddicted to enter to win a FREE copy of ZenMinder! Find out the details on the contest HERE!

Welcome to The Sauce Report!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love new devices and the apps that go along with them!

I am currently an admin on smartphoneaddicted.com, where I have planted myself for a few years now. I love it there, but also wanted to expand my horizons with this blog.

What will this blog be all about? Well, I hope to bring you device reviews to help you in your decision making, along with reviews of various apps that I have used on all different smartphone platforms.

I hope you find this blog useful and entertaining! If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask!

Thank you for following me in my journey!

Kelly