ThinkPad X300 vs. MacBook Air

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This humorous video shows Lenovo's opinion on the MacBook Air manila envelope commercial. Basically they claim that they provide an ultra-portable without Apple's compromises. Once you add to the MacBook Air all the extensions you need (like optical drive, USB hub etc) it is a little difficult to fit it back in that envelope Winking.

Free MacBerry Zen Theme

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MacBerry Zen is a free theme for BlackBerry 8300, 8700 and 8800 devices. The custom icons and top bar give this theme a nice look-and-feel just like the Mac OS. You can download the right version according to your device and install via the Desktop Manager: 8300, 8700, 8800 OS 4.2.1 or 8800 OS 4.2.2.

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Everything You Should Know About BlackBerry 9000

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image The Boy Genius does it again! BGR is well known for getting his hands on internal information from RIM before anything is released, and now he was able to obtain an internal RIM document that describes the features of OS 4.6 that will be available in the BlackBerry 9xxx. Check his post for the complete image gallery of the internal document and learn what is new in the upcoming device including screenshots.

And the Freddie Goes To...

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image The 20th Freddies Award took place at the Wyndham Phoenix last week. The Freddie award was named after the late Sir Freddie Laker who pioneered discount travel across the Atlantic. For the America's awards, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan won the "Frequent Flyer Program - Best Elite Level Program"and the Intercontinental Hotels Group Priority Club Rewards won the "Frequent Guest Program - Best Elite Level Program". You can see here the full transcript of the event and learn about the other winners.

Continental Will not Merge

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Continental is trying to put to rest the expectations that they will merge with another airline to reposition against Delta and Northwest. Continental's Chairman and CEO, Larry Kellner released the following message to their 45,000 employees:

Dear Co-worker,

We want you to know that our Board of Directors met today and has unanimously supported management’s recommendation that, in the current industry environment, the best course for Continental is to not merge with another airline at this time. 

Our recommendation, and the Board’s careful and considered decision, followed a comprehensive review of our strategic alternatives, assisted by our senior officers and advised by Continental’s outside financial and legal advisors.  The Board very carefully considered all the risks and benefits of a merger with another airline, and determined that the risks of a merger at this time outweigh the potential rewards, as compared to Continental’s prospects on a standalone basis.

[more]

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Microsoft Virtual Launch

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Cannot attend a launch or educational event? Don't worry - Microsoft introduces the "Virtual Events". This great Silverlight application is built like a real conference and gives you the opportunity to see and download all the content of one of the launch events around the world to learn about Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 without leaving your office.

What's Your Route?

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The human mind just cannot stop thinking about ways to make money. The latest is the example of Hubwear. This web site gives the traveler geek the latest in travel chic. For $35 you can create a T-shirt showing your latest travel route.

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COMING SOON: CO + UA?

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It is not new that after the Delta / Northwest merger everyone is expecting for Continental to merge with United. What most of the people forget (or don't know) is that Northwest held for a long time a "golden share" in Continental that gave them the power to veto any attempt for Continental to merge or sell its operations to another carrier. MSNBC published today that this golden share was sold back to Continental for (only) $100. This opens the door for Continental to start considering any merger options it wishes to pursue.

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Top 10 Signs You're a BlackBerry Addict

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Test yourself to see if you are addicted to that little vibrating thing on your belt!

Laptop Magazine provides a nice post about this topic and the top 10 signs you are addicted to your BlackBerry.

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Tellme for BlackBerry

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Move over Yahoo! oneSearch, Tellme (A Microsoft Subsidiary) released their voice search application for BlackBerry! Using Tellme you can easily use your voice to get GPS directions, traffic information, maps, businesses, movies, weather and more all on your BlackBerry. Unlike Yahoo! oneSearch (where you need to configure you location), Tellme actually uses the GPS in your BlackBerry to acquire your location and give you relevant search results.

Browse from your BlackBerry to http://m.tellme.com

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AirTranica

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In case you didn't hear any news today, Danica Patrick became the first female to win an IndyCar Series after she won the Bridgestone Indy Japan 300 race in Montegi Japan. AirTran, decided to transform one of their Boeing 717 to the "AirTranica" in her honor .The plan took off from Orlando this morning heading to Pittsburgh and expected to continue to Atlanta. AirTran is also giving the A+ Rewards members an option to be a guest of her pit crew in one of the upcoming races.

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Over 170 Free Games for your BlackBerry

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The good friends from BBGeeks compiled a list of over 170 free games for your BlackBerry so you can enjoy some down time if you don't have emails to read or you are on the plane and cannot get emails (yet Winking).

Microsoft Surface in Action

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I had a chance to see the Microsoft Surface in action while I visited Microsoft's booth in CES this year. This product provides an innovative and interactive experience for a user to find information about products and a chance to customize the product before purchasing it. The first retail store to showcase their merchandise using this product is the AT&T. AT&T will start a pilot in some of the wireless retails stores in the major cities and depending on the success will expand the usage to the rest of their 2,200 U.S. retails stores.

You can see in this short clip the Microsoft Surface in action in one of the AT&T retails stores:

More on Readius

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I posted before about Readius from Polymer Vision. Now you can see here a video of this little eBook to see that this is not just concept but actually a working product:

Windows Server 2008 Unleashed

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Microsoft is ramping the marketing efforts to push enterprises to the  new Windows Server 2008. They created a very nice Web site build with Silverlight with all the information you need and some cool movies that show what the server looks like Big Grin

Videos: Windows Server 2008 Unleashed (.wmv) Crouching Robot (.wmv) | Exerciser (.wmv)

A World Without Internet

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"One day the citizens of South Park wake up and find the Internet is gone. When Randy hears there may still be some Internet out in California, he packs up his family and heads west."

This was last night's episode on South Park. On the episode titled "Over Logging", the world almost ends after no one can connect to the Internet. The brave Kyle comes to the rescue and saves the Internet in a genius move. I don't want to spoil how it goes so just watch the whole episode for yourself Big Grin or preview this short clip from the episode:

Viigo Releases Teaser for Project Tango

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image Viigo the creator of the most popular RSS reader for the BlackBerry has been working for the last 18 months on "Project Tango". This project is targeted to be released in a couple of months but you can see today a teaser of what is expected and also register in the same page for the beta (the beta will be released mid-may).

Project Tango will be a portal to all the information you need on your BlackBerry. In addition to the RSS feeds you will be able to access: Audio Podcasts, Live sports scores & standings, weather, flight status, hotel ratings and conference information.

Meet Mr. DoNotReply

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image Have you ever replied to an email from a company even though the email specifically said something like: "Please do not reply to this email. This is an unattended mailbox"? Many companies send such emails with a reply-to address that contains the domain "donotreply.com" thinking that this is a fake domain and the mail will just bounce back to whoever decided to respond. The problem is that this is a real domain and is owned by a guy called Chet Faliszek. This guy is receiving millions of emails from people that decide to respond and these emails contain a lot of interesting information like bank account data, contracts and more.

You can read the full article about this that was published by the Washington Post. You can also check Chet's blog to read about the interesting emails that he gets.

Free - OANDA FXConverter

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OANDA FXConverter Mobile provides a free real-time currency conversions for 164 currencies right on your BlackBerry.

To download OTA, browse to http://m.fxconverter.com.

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WHERE Widgets for your BlackBerry

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WHERE provides a lot of GPS powered widgets. These widgets provide you different services that are powered by the GPS in your BlackBerry. The application is easy to install (and free) and you can add widgets to your view either from their web page or directly from the application on your BlackBerry. Here's a few examples of the available widgets:

  • GasBuddy - Find cheap gas around your location.
  • Zipcar - Find Zipcar locations near you.
  • Eventful - Discover different events in your area.
  • Brewery Finder - Find the closest brewery to your location.
  • More and more...

There are also nice and useless widgets like "Digging to China". This widget will show you where you will end up if you start digging a hole in your current location Big Grin. The WHERE Developer Program allows the developers among you to create your own widgets and add them to their directory.

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American Airlines Joins the Blogosphere

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American Airlines follows Delta and opens their own blog in order to provide news to their passengers. The blog is titled "AA Conversations", and not surprisingly the first post had to apologize for the 3,000 flights they had to cancel during April due to maintenance of their MD-80 fleet. Another web site that shows internal news and stories from American Airlines is "Tell Your AA Story", which was created by "a group of concerned American Airlines employees".

The State of the Air

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The air travel industry went through a lot of changes in the last month or so: Companies closing, going bankrupt and one merger (so far...). The good people from The Consumerist published this nice cheat sheet to help you remember who works with who and who does not fly anymore.

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Mergermania

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A few months  ago, when Delta and Northwest started discussing the option to merge the rumors were that 30-60 days after that happen Continental will announce a merger with United. So now that this merger is announced we will have to wait and see if this will actually happen. Another thing that you can do is use this nice flash application available from Bloomberg and see how different mergers could look like. It is very interesting to use the facts available there and see how it affects the market.

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FINAL! Delta and Northwest to Merge

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After long discussions that collapsed due to disagreement between the two pilot unions on seniority and ranking, Delta and Northwest reached an agreement on their all stock merge to become the biggest airline. The new company will be called Delta and the Delta CEO will be the new CEO, keeping the company headquarters in Atlanta. The company announced that no hubs will be closed which means that the direct flight possibilities with the merged company will be great. This page can show you what this means to you. It gives a great breakdown by state and airport showing all the direct destinations you will have. Check the New Global Airline web site that they created with all the relevant info and FAQ.

Maybe it is time to abandon Continental and ask Delta to match my status? Thinking

The Lighter Side of TSA

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imageIt is funny to see that Playmobil created this toy to educate the kids on what the travel experience looks like today. For only $8.99, the "Playmobil Security Check Point" will teach your kids what they need to do when they need to fly the next time. The even funnier part is reading the comments on this product on Amazon (although the product is no longer available through them):

"I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5 year old son pointed out that the passenger's shoes cannot be removed. Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger's scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up. My son said "that's the worst security ever!"."

"This toy would be a lot more realistic with about 350 people standing in line for an average of an hour. It still makes a nice set with the interrogation room."

Free "Poker Blast" from Magmic

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image Magmic is offering Poker Blast for free for all BlackBerry users. Poker Blast is a mash of Poker and Tetris: As the cards fall down you need to place them and create the highest poker hand you can either horizontally or vertically. Once the winning hand is creating the cards will "explode" and you will get points. It can be a little confusing in the beginning, but highly addictive as it makes you use your poker skills fast.

From Magmic: Everything you thought you knew about poker is exploding in this high-pressure puzzle game.
Test and hone your ability to quickly size up poker situations in this game of falling and sorting cards. Position the falling card pieces into rows or columns to make poker hands. After scoring some cash by making hands, the minimum winning hand will increase. You’ll need to make stronger and stronger hands to survive. Only a keen eye and quick reflexes will keep you from cracking under the pressure.
In “Beat the Dealer” mode, you need to beat the dealer’s hand with the fewest number of cards. The tougher the dealer’s hand is, and the less cards you use to beat it, the bigger the payout. Too many cards and you may lose money, even though you’ve still beaten the dealer.
"

To download the game OTA, just browse to: http://www.bplay.com/dl/promo/esk/PokerBlast from your BlackBerry browser.

How to Dial Phone Numbers with Letters

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image Many companies advertise their 800 numbers using letters instead of numbers. The problem is that BlackBerry users do not have the traditional 3 letters per number key like a regular cellular so it makes it a little confusing when you need to call the CO Platinum desk to reschedule your canceled flight Winking.

This problem is solved by simply holding the ALT key down while typing the letters in the phone application. You can even add numbers to your address book this way for speed dialing!

You can read more information about this in the RIM knowledgeable.

Bookmark This!

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I find myself browsing the Internet from my BlackBerry more and more. Although it is not as perfect as the Internet experience on the iPhone, it still gives you access to what you need on the road. Cellular phones are now becoming portals to information and more Web sites are creating a mobile version of their content for the smartphone users. Here's a list of mobile Web sites I compiled form different sources that you can use to create your mobile bookmarks:

Business

Technology

Reference

Search

Entertainment

Travel

Shopping

Portal

Information

Weather

Sports

News

A great directory site that keeps on updating is http://cantoni.mobi/ and can be used as a home page to access anything you want from your mobile browser.

The Human Footprint

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The first human shuttle went to space on October 4th 1957 and half a century later, hearths orbit looks like a junk yard. The European Space Agency (ESA) released some amazing simulation pictures of what our planet looks like from space. It is estimated that "only" 800 satellites are currently operational out of the 6,000 that were launched and still circle our planet.

You can see here all the rest of the images.

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What Kind of Traveler Are You?

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image The TSA is constantly looking for ways to expedite the security lanes and they are  expending a pilot program that started in Salt Lake City to  more and more airports. Last week they started this program in terminal C in RDU.

The idea is to divide the travelers to 3 different types of groups to expedite the checkpoint:

1. Families and Special Assistance - This is for families traveling with children or passengers that needs special assistance.

2. Casual Traveler - This lane is for travelers who are somewhat familiar with the procedures and have multiple carry-ons.

3. Expert Traveler - This is for the business travelers that fly almost every week and arrive ready to the checkpoint with all required items removed in advance.

So you are probably saying to yourself that everyone will just go to the "Black Diamond" lane. According to the piloted airports this program works great and the travelers actually go to the right lanes in most cases leading to a faster security checkups and shorter lines.

Yahoo's oneSearch with Voice Input!

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Yahoo! unveiled today a new version of their mobile application. The main enhancement in this version is the ability to initiate a search faster using text or voice. This version is available for BlackBerry devices like 88xx, Curve and Pearl.

So how does this work? Just hold your "Talk" button and say what you are searching for and oneSearch will display the relevant results according to your location. For example say "Sushi" and you'll get the Zagat search results for sushi restaurants next to you, relevant categories and web search results. You can also search for other things such as flight numbers, locations, web sites and more!

To download over the air, browse to http://m.yahoo.com/voice

Free TV Guide for your BlackBerry

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 Handmark decided to change their pricing model for the TV Guide and now it is offering it completely free (supported by ads in the application). After the short installation, you just need to setup your zip code and service provider and you have your TV lineup @ your fingertips...

Full features:

  • Access personalized enhanced listings with familiar TV-like interface
  • Set program reminders by episode or series, all delivered as an SMS text message right to your phone
  • Daily recommendations picked by TV Guide®
  • Home and away options, see schedules for locations wherever you go
  • Share a show with friends or family by forwarding listings Stay up to date with Hollywood news, and popular TV Guide® editorial columns

To download over the air, browse from your BlackBerry to: http://tvguide.handmark.com

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Speed Trap Alerts on your BlackBerry

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image Trapster found another use to your BlackBerry GPS. Their little applications allows you to report via your BlackBerry (using the location of the GPS) when you spot a police car, red light camera, speed camera and a hiding police space. The information from all the users is stored in their database so when you are driving and use their application, it will alert if you are in the area of one of speed traps reported by other users of the community.

Sync Facebook Pics with Caller ID

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The BlackBerry allows you to associate a picture with your contacts so that picture pops up when they call. This is a nice feature but it's painful to manually set all these pictures and match them to your contacts.

Vringo offers a cool Facebook application that offers  to automate this task. A "pre-release" version is available for early adopters to evaluate. Go to their site and register to get an email with instructions. Basically you need to add their Facebook application to your account and then download the client to your BlackBerry (or your Windows Mobile). Their Facebook application is easy to use. After configuring your phone number, you can upload your contacts and then they are matched to your Facebook friends in order to link their profile picture. Run the client on your BlackBerry and it will download the pictures to your BlackBerry and you are done. Next time one of your friends calls you will see their profile picture on your BlackBerry!

The BlackBerry client doesn't actually update the image of your contact, instead it just displays the image (from the Vringo application) when there's an incoming call (causing a little delay). I think it would be better to actually update the image instead but this is also nice for now.

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Free Theme: Wu's Special Blend

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Here is another nice free theme for your BlackBerry. It is available for both 83xx and 88xx BlackBerries. No OTA link, so you will need to download and install using your Desktop Manager.

Enjoy!

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