Cell phone accessories blog

(Credit: Seesmic)

On Monday, Seesmic released an update to Seesmic for BlackBerry, a Twitter app that first debuted in late November.

Back then you had to download Seesmic from the company's Web site. Now you can get it directly from BlackBerry App World online or from the App World app on your smartphone.

Although Seesmic's interface is a bit light on features--like support for multiple accounts--it has added some enhancements that better integrate its Twitter app with the BlackBerry ethos. Chief among these are compliance with the BlackBerry's spell checker and auto-corrector, which will both help keep you from misspelling tweets or forgetting to capitalize an "i." The app has also become sensitive to keyboard shortcuts. In addition to the usual BlackBerry shortcuts T and B, to take you to the top and bottom of the page, are R to reply, D to send a direct message and F to retweet. Here is the full list of mapped shortcuts.

You can now vary your font size among small, medium, and large fonts. Seesmic for BlackBerry also lets you mark a tweet as a favorite in your timeline, but doesn't yet have a dedicated Favorites screen. In addition, Seesmic is now available for phones running 4.5 of the BlackBerry's operating system.The previous build, version 1.0.6 beta, only worked on BlackBerrys 4.6 and up.

You can view the change log for more details, and can try Seesmic's take on Twitter for free on Windows and Mac.

(Credit: Skyfire)

The Skyfire mobile browser has gone through some dramatic design changes in the last year. The most recent version released on Wednesday continues to adjust Skyfire's visual composition--as well as its guts and performance--on Windows Mobile touch-screen and standard phones.

The changes to the navigation menu was the first thing we noticed when we booted up Skyfire 1.5 on an HTC Touch Diamond 2. Skyfire has replaced the Menu key and back button navigation with gray, balloon-like buttons that strike us as a hybrid of Opera Mobile browser and Internet Explorer Mobile. The back arrow, Home screen button, zoom control, favorites tab, and Options icons are more finger-friendly for sure, and take a cue in both looks and content from Skyfire's two strongest rivals. We also spotted two unfamiliar tabs at the top to show your recent searches and popular queries overall.

Also like Opera Mobile browser, Skyfire 1.5 gets a welcome Full Screen mode--for touch-screen users only--that you can access from the Options icon on the navigation bar. Tap it to enter full-screen mode, which hides the nav bar so you can see more screen. Tapping the screen again shows the single Options icon, from which you can exit full-screen mode.

Skyfire has not been idle behind the scenes, either. Version 1.5 has updated to Flash 10 and Silverlight 1.5, the latest stable versions of Adobe and Microsoft software for delivering rich media, like videos. Skyfire also introduces full native support for VGA and wVGA resolutions on Windows phones, smooth scrolling, and new behavior for the text field that keeps it visible on touch-screen phones when the virtual keyboard is engaged. Skyfire also boasts faster speeds, thanks to improvements to its server.

You can download Skyfire for free by pointing the mobile browser to get.skyfire.com, or can download Skyfire for touch-screen and non-touch phones via your desktop.

(Credit: ThinkFlood)

For $188, you can convert your iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod Touch into a universal remote control with ThinkFlood's RedEye. This nifty gizmo comprises custom software that runs on Apple gear and an infrared blaster doubling as a charging dock.

RedEye operates through Wi-Fi and offers most high-end remote functions. These include activity-based macro programming such as "watch DVD," which fires a string of commands, learning capability for added product compatibility and Web-downloadable codes that keep your RedEye applications up-to-date.

RedEye's most unique propositions, however, are its multitouch gesture and accelerometer support. Instead of just tapping the soft keys, you can rock or flip the iPhone or iPod to toggle TV channels, adjust volumes, and so on. Check out the following videos to find out more.

(Source: Crave Asia)

(Credit: Google)

Before Wednesday, you could star a map as a favorite on Google Maps online, and you could star one on Google Maps for Mobile, but you could never connect the two.

A small but significant update that Google added to Google Maps for Mobile 3.3 now syncs your starred locations between the map app on your Symbian and Windows phones, and your online account.

To start your syncing, press Menu and then Starred Items. You'll need to log into your account from the Starred Items screen to start syncing favorite maps. If you're upgrading from a previous version of the maps app, you'll be asked if you'd like to sync your favorites. Say yes.

Then, you're able to mark your favorite places in one location and have it surface in the other, as long as you remain logged in. This type of syncing is ideal for quickly locating that dinner spot you're headed to, or for pulling up driving directions to or from a starred location. Sure, it might make you lazy, but it'll also keep you from wasting precious time first looking up a location and then seeking directions or a phone number.

You can download Google Maps for Mobile by pointing your mobile browser to m.google.com/maps.

(Credit: Yelp)

Yelp is no longer a newcomer to BlackBerry smartphones (not since last August, anyway,) but the BlackBerry app has only been available outside RIM's marketplace, BlackBerry App World. Starting on Wednesday, Yelp for BlackBerry (review) will also have a presence in the BlackBerry App World, both in the downloadable storefront on the phone and in the online catalog.

Downloading Yelp via App World takes advantage of App World's My World tab, which tracks the apps you install on your BlackBerry, and which can reinstall applications on a new smartphone if you switch devices.

App World features the latest version of Yelp for BlackBerry, version 1.3, which adds a link for getting directions to a business. In addition, Yelp 1.3 for BlackBerry is now compatible with the standard BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts.

Good news for BlackBerry business users who are pinching pennies: a free version of the Gwabbit contact manager for BlackBerry is expected to surface in the BlackBerry App World--and only in the App World--on Tuesday, December 8. The current version of Gwabbit for BlackBerry costs $9.99 for a yearlong subscription.

Gwabbit (formerly Technicopia) came out with Gwabbit the BlackBerry app back in May 2009, as the mobile version of its Outlook e-mail add-on. Gwabbit scans incoming e-mail for a signature block. If it finds one, the software compares the contents to your address book contacts. If there's no previous match, or if it looks like there's been a change, Gwabbit will prompt you to add or update the contact.

We were impressed with the convenience Gwabbit gives business users who build up their contact lists from their smartphones. Moreover, we noted how effectively and quickly Gwabbit processed the e-mails, but only so long as the sender's contact details are conveniently organized in the signature block. Gwabbit lacks the sensitivity to pull possibly relevant details from elsewhere in the e-mail.

How could Gwabbit's publisher give away its $10-a-year product for free? ... Read More

Opera Mini 5 and Opera Mobile 10 betas share a Speed Dial design.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

In mid-September, Opera surprised us with a redesigned Opera Mini beta browser for Java phones, including BlackBerry. It had tabbed browsing, a first for Opera Mini, and Speed Dial, a carryover interface from Opera desktop browser (Windows|Mac) that you encounter each time you start the browser or open a new tab. Two things it didn't have: a download manager and Opera Link, the account-based tool that syncs bookmarks, Speed Dial options, and browsing history among your Opera browsers. With it, Web surfers can quickly get to favorite sites on their desktops, laptops, and smartphones.

On Wednesday, both Opera Mini 5 beta and the similar Opera Mobile 10 beta that followed it for Symbian Series 60 and Windows phones get an update that includes both Opera Link and a download manager.

These new beta builds aren't the first adjustment Opera has made to the redesigned betas. A previous tweak partially resolved a problem where Opera's mobile browsers weren't inputting the font style needed to render several Asian languages.

Plenty of other known issues still exist, including the browsers' tendency on Symbian phones to pop open a virtual onscreen keyboard when you flip the phone into landscape mode and start typing away on the phone's physical QWERTY, and the lack of support for non-touch-screen Windows phones. Opera provides a full list of known issues for Opera Mobile 10 beta here. I've also noticed that Opera Mini 5 beta rarely loads a page I've linked to from some other application on the BlackBerry I've been testing with. You may encounter the occasional bug as well in this not-quite-set beta release. If you find others, share them in the comments.

If you're curious how Opera Mini 5 beta and Opera Mobile 10 beta look and work, you can cash in on some instant gratification with this video. If you don't have a Symbian phone, don't let the fact that Opera is modeled on one in this video bother you--the builds are exceedingly similar for Java, Symbian, and Windows phones.

You can try the free cell phone browsers for yourself by pointing the mobile browser on your Java-based cell phone to http://m.opera.com/mini/next/. Download Opera Mobile 10 beta 2 for Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 phones by navigating to http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/.

RIM's BlackBerry App World is slowly but surely gaining ground as a storefront for distributing BlackBerry applications. eBay is the latest major company to forge a presence in the storefront, in the form of an eBay app for BlackBerry auctioneers in the U.S. and Canada.

The official eBay for BlackBerry application, which was co-developed by eBay and RIM, includes features to search for, track, and buy an item from the smartphone. Unsurprisingly, the eBay app accepts PayPal payments--PayPal has not only been an eBay company since 2002, it is also currently the only payment system for purchasing BlackBerry apps through the App World.

(Credit: RIM/BlackBerry)

In addition to letting users search and buy, the eBay app will notify you of your bidding status, including when you've won or lost a bid. It can also schedule auction-related reminders in the BlackBerry calendar.

eBay's app isn't the first of its kind for the BlackBerry platform. Earlier this year, Bonfire Media released U.S. and international versions of its app, Pocket Auctions for eBay. Since Pocket Auctions doesn't include hooks into the phone's native calendar, and costs $10, we're guessing that most eBay fans will easily pick the free, official app over Bonfire Media's third-party offering.

We got a brief demo of the then-under-wraps eBay app at the BlackBerry Developer Conference earlier this month. We liked the ease of the PayPal integration, but we won't really know how well the app works until we've spent some time with it. Tune back for our first impressions.

(Credit: RIM/BlackBerry)

BlackBerry Media Sync is a straightforward desktop app for Mac and Windows that has historically let you sync music from your BlackBerry smartphone using iTunes and Windows Media Player. On Tuesday, BlackBerry-maker RIM has added new functionality to give the Windows version of the syncing app access to your photo library as well.

RIM leaves the Mac version out of the photo access equation this time around.

Like other media management software, when BlackBerry Media Sync 3.0 detects your smartphone, it will scan for photos, displaying them on a separate tab within the syncing application. You can switch between your desktop and smartphone libraries.

If you're transferring photos from your computer to your smartphone, the sync manager also lets you shrink photos to take up less space on your BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Media Sync 3.0 for Windows works with XP, Vista, and Windows 7. The music sync element is compatible with iTunes 7.7.1 or later and Windows Media Player 10 and up.