Industry coverage, news, original feature articles, how to guides, videos, podcasts and reviews of BlackBerry service providers, software, accessories, hosted exchange providers and more

If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my feed or subscribe to us on Twitter!

We’re heading into a holiday weekend, so happy 4th of July to everyone in America, and a happy belated Canada Day to those north of the border. We keep it brief again this week, though there’s plenty to talk about. A new BlackBerry Bold rumor, a Javelin rumor, and talks of another iDEN model.

So click on over here to hear the BBGeekcast (6 min, 37 sec)

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss future episodes!

Highlights include:
Read the rest of BBGeekcast: July 3, 2008 - Episode 19…

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about BlackBerry instant messaging on BBGeeks. We did have a deal on the IM+ messenger an all in one service. Problem is, it costs a cool $50, and most people, at least the ones I know, aren’t willing to drop that on an IM client. That, and there are reports out there of the client crashing BlackBerry devices left and right. So we’re still looking for another quality client. Some prefer EQO, but let’s look at another: Palringo.

Read the rest of Add Palringo to list of free all in one IM services…

Just yesterday we talked about Vlingo’s speech recognition software for BlackBerry. It’s strange, really, how many services are displaying voicemails, which you usually hear, in text form, while taking text functions and making them voice-activated. Anyway, Google has made their Maps application available with voice search. Just download the app, and you can say a business, a location, anything into Google Maps. Like Vlingo, it is activated with the convenience key.

A while back we introduced you all to a series of feed readers that are available for use on your BlackBerry. We provided detailed reviews of each RSS reader and gave each of them a rating to indicate which were the strongest of the group. When the available list of BlackBerry RSS readers was exhausted, we went ahead and ranked each feed reader for you in order of best to worst.

The clear winner in our testing was in fact the Viigo RSS Reader. With it’s ease of use, slick look and feel, comprehensive feature set, simple navigation and great content freshness, Viigo came out head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.

Read the rest of Geek Guide: How To Download and Use the New BBGeeks Co-Branded Viigo RSS Reader…

Nearly three months ago, we first heard word that a new iDEN BlackBerry was coming. With plenty of rumors that Sprint is looking to spin off the Nextel network, this comes as something of a surprise. BlackBerry News has some additional information on the device, including its name: The iDEN Curve, or the BlackBerry 8350. As originally reported, it will feature WiFi. Word is that it will drop later this year or early next year We’ll keep our eyes peeled. Hey…Sprint might even be bought out by that point.

When we talked about Vlingo’s voice-controlled BlackBerry application last week, I promised to take it for a test spin. Since then, we found out that there are some issues with the software, and that for some users it does not work as advertised. This was later to be found by Vlingo to be mainly with T-Mobile and Rogers users. I’m a CDMA faithful, though, so let’s see if I can get through this test drive without issue. The goal is to prove or disprove Vlingo’s hype that this will change the way we use the BlackBerry forever.

Read the rest of Taking Vlingo speech recognition for a spin…

It is not our intention on BBGeeks to be a rumor clearing house. However, when something comes along that we think is fairly accurate, we will pass it along to readers. When I first heard that Rogers would be dropping the BlackBerry Bold on July 25, I paused for a moment. Not that I don’t trust CrackBerry. It’s just that we’ve heard so many rumors, and so many of them have been nothing but bunk. This one seems to have legs, though. Kevin has an insider source from Rogers on this one, plus the 25th is just a week after the last release party. So everything seems to line up. We’ll let you know when this gets official, but I’m beginning to think that this is the real deal.

Nearly two months ago, we heard about BlackBerry Unite! launching on Bell Mobility in Canada. Dave talked about it in a podcast episode, and was very excited at the prospect of it hitting the U.S. in due time. Well, that time has come. We’ll save a discussion of the benefits of BlackBerry Unite! for the BBGeekcast on Friday, but you can listen to Dave’s bit on the above-linked podcast. To download Unite!, just follow this link.

An interesting tidbit comes our way from BlackBerry News. It appears that the BlackBerry Javelin’s API was found to have T-Mobile WLAN error codes. This isn’t to say that it will be exclusive. But it appears that T-Mo customers will see the device. As Boy Genius Report said last month, it will have WiFi, so it would be a good fit with T-Mo.

Google has been making a heavy mobile push of late, especially with BlackBerry. Their latest development is the enhancement of their basic search function. Instead of having search results separated by news, images, products, blogs, etc., they are now blended and ranked by relevancy. So if you’re searching for, say, Scarlett Johansson, an image result might pop up first, followed by a news block regarding her recent film. They’ve also elongated the blurbs on the main search results page, so you might not even have to click through to the new page. And finally, they’ve added related searches to the bottom, in case you can find something more relevant to what you’re seeking. Video demo after the jump.

Read the rest of Google revamps search feature for BlackBerry…