Because Verizon decided to be greedy with the GPS in the Blackberry Pearl (which, along with many other reasons, has made me suspicious of their recent “Any App, Any Device” announcement), users must pay for Verizon’s own VZ Navigator if they want any map positioning functionality. Yesterday, Google decided to save the day and announced a new triangulation location feature in Google Maps beta that can pin-point your location to within 10 city blocks, even if you don’t have GPS in your mobile phone (or your GPS has been crippled by the carrier). This can be very helpful when looking for nearby business and restaurants. Thanks for making up for Verizon’s shortfalls, Google.
Looks like IMAP is making it’s way into Gmail, which is exciting and long overdue. Great news for those who use desktop apps to manage their Gmail. Now changes you make in your desktop app are reflected in your Gmail account.
Although, still no love for it’s Google Apps for Your Domain (GAFYD) accounts. Which, actually, is not surprising. Google Calendar and Gmail have great mobile interfaces, but the business app users, who arguably need it more (and pay for it), get nothing beyond the standard Gmail BlackBerry app. Google seems to have it’s priorities backwards. They update their free consumer accounts before their paid business accounts.
Yesterday, Google launched a new version of its mobile search. Now from your phone’s browser, you can view news, local movie times and weather, right from your homepage. This is very handy considering browsing through a sub par mobile phone browser is never enjoyable (enter iPhone, I hope).
The real improvements of the new Google service come into play when actually performing a mobile search.
We realize that when you’re on the go, you usually just want an answer to your query, rather than everything and the kitchen sink. So we’re continually refining our algorithm-based search to intelligently produce the results you want. You won’t need to sift through both mobile and regular web results, or specify your search type—local, image, web, etc.—as our new search experience will offer you results based on the nature of the query itself. So if you search for [bbc] on your device, you’ll get a link to the mobile-friendly BBC website. Search for [us post office], and you’ll get listings for the branches that are closest to your set location, and so on. No extra stuff that gets between you and the information you need.
Official Google Blog
Accessing this new mobile browser on my Blackberry, took a few steps:
Navigate to google.com in your mobile browser
Choose Mobile from “View Google in: Mobile | Classic” near the bottom of the page
Choose “Try our new mobile search”
Select info you would like displayed on your homepage
Today Google announced the launch of GMail Mobile. A few months ago I wrote about Google Maps for the BlackBerry and how it has made me love my BB that much more. Now, all cell phone users that have a java-enabled phone (and preferably a data plan) can have access to GMail without using a phone’s Internet browser.
Now, since I am using a BlackBerry, I already had my GMail messages redirected to my BB inbox. What is nice about using the GMail Mobile interface instead, is that I can now Star messages, Archive Messages and Label my messages just as I would in GMail. And, when you make a change on the mobile device, that change is also made in GMail simultaneously (Not used to this, as I am not connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server).
To download, just point your phone’s Internet browser to gmail.com/app
I recently downloaded Google Maps Mobile (GMM) for my 7130e BlackBerry. This is Google Maps ported over for use on the BlackBerry. It is very easy to use and is wicked fast when you are in an EVDO high speed area.
Some of the features include the ability to save your favorite location, satellite views (similar to Google Earth), step-by-step directions, detailed business info, and the newly added real-time traffic (I have yet to try this feature).
The program downloads to your Blackberry desktop and launches very quickly when you call it up. The only real downfall to this app is that you need to know where you are in order to get directions. For instance, it is hard to track yourself down when you are on the interstate and not at a named intersection. Since most new phones all have built in GPS for e911, can’t this be used with applications like GMM to pinpoint our exact location? This would save time and allow users to get directions from wherever you are instead of a close location.
To get GMM, just type in www.google.com/gmm in your BlackBerry browser. From there you can initiate the free download.
