NewsDude
09-11-2008, 10:10 PM
Research in Motion announced Thursday a raft of mobile multimedia partnerships and applications. The introduction of RIM's Blackberry Pearl 8220 Flip on Wednesday was a departure from its business-focused product line, and deals with TiVo, MySpace and others confirm its attempts to appeal to the consumer marketplace.
Consumer RIM
In a joint announcement, RIM and Microsoft said they will work to integrate Microsoft's Live Search features into the Blackberry browser and Blackberry maps. The Live Search capability, especially tied to Blackberry maps, will compete with other mobile location applications. Yahoo's Fire Eagle maps restaurant searches according to your GPS position, and Yahoo's Blueprint platform hints at geo-aware capabilities for cell phones.
The RIM-Microsoft integration is also expected to include Blackberry-based Hotmail and Internet Messenger.
MySpace will work with RIM to develop a smartphone front end its social-networking site, so Blackberry users can access their pages on the go. According to data included in the RIM announcement, eMarketer, a research and analysts firm, estimates that more than 800 million users will be signed up for social-networking sites worldwide by 2012. RIM will host a MySpace page for Blackberry users to get the latest news and updates from RIM, including the Blackberry-MySpace application.
TV and Radio
TiVo and RIM hinted at providing Blackberry users access to TiVo content. The companies said an initial application will include delivering TV schedules to TiVo subscribers on Blackberry phones, with the ability to send commands to their TiVo box for their selections. The release cryptically hints at further development that will "focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content." Sounds like TiVo-recorded content might come to a Blackberry screen, but neither company confirmed release dates.
Ticketmaster entered the Blackberry party as well, providing a smartphone interface for searching, sorting and -- of course -- buying tickets....
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61828)
Consumer RIM
In a joint announcement, RIM and Microsoft said they will work to integrate Microsoft's Live Search features into the Blackberry browser and Blackberry maps. The Live Search capability, especially tied to Blackberry maps, will compete with other mobile location applications. Yahoo's Fire Eagle maps restaurant searches according to your GPS position, and Yahoo's Blueprint platform hints at geo-aware capabilities for cell phones.
The RIM-Microsoft integration is also expected to include Blackberry-based Hotmail and Internet Messenger.
MySpace will work with RIM to develop a smartphone front end its social-networking site, so Blackberry users can access their pages on the go. According to data included in the RIM announcement, eMarketer, a research and analysts firm, estimates that more than 800 million users will be signed up for social-networking sites worldwide by 2012. RIM will host a MySpace page for Blackberry users to get the latest news and updates from RIM, including the Blackberry-MySpace application.
TV and Radio
TiVo and RIM hinted at providing Blackberry users access to TiVo content. The companies said an initial application will include delivering TV schedules to TiVo subscribers on Blackberry phones, with the ability to send commands to their TiVo box for their selections. The release cryptically hints at further development that will "focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content." Sounds like TiVo-recorded content might come to a Blackberry screen, but neither company confirmed release dates.
Ticketmaster entered the Blackberry party as well, providing a smartphone interface for searching, sorting and -- of course -- buying tickets....
More... (http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=61828)