TweetGenius for BlackBerry - Must Get App!

BlackBerry users know that stellar Twitter clients have been hard to come by, so whenever a major new release hits the streets, it's something that makes the BlackBerry-carrying Twitter addicts out there -- and there are many of them, rest assured -- sit up and take notice. The latest app is called TweetGenius, and if you've been keeping an eye on our Twitter accounts, you'd know that we've been pretty excited about this app since we first had the opportunity to check it out over a month ago. In that short period of time, it's gone through one hell of a metamorphosis, and it looks like the bar is being raised for future apps -- Twitter and non-Twitter alike -- on the BlackBerry front. Read on for a closer look at what makes this app tick -- and more importantly, to find out whether it'll be replacing your current Twitter client.

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Streaming Orange TV app is now rolling to the Apple iPhone

Orange offers the new "TV from Orange" application for download from the Apple Apps Store, provide to iPhone owners with live streaming of more than 60 TV channels live in what they claim as "high-def mobile quality". The application "TV from Orange" is ready to stream on EDGE, 3G and Wi-Fi networks from Orange.

The streaming TV service from Orange has started on 7 April along with a new range of 5 monthly plans called "Origami Star for the iPhone", starting at 42 euro.

Unlimited access (up to 1GB/month) to a bundle of 20 TV channels will be included free of charge in the new range of plans. The other plans offer unlimited internet access, unlimited email, plus unlimited SMS and calls with some restrictions. They will also include unlimited Wi-Fi in mainland France across the 30,000 Orange Wi-Fi access hotspots.

Customers who prefer to keep their current data plan can also take advantage of the TV from Orange app. All they have to do is to subscribe to the TV option at the expense of 6 or 9 euro monthly for the TV max or watch TV on their iPhones on a pay-as-you-go basis billed either by volume (1 cents/10KB) or per session (50 cents/20 minutes).

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Nokia releases Point & Find, Updates Nokia Messaging

Nokia launched their new Point & Find service into beta today and updated Nokia Messaging to support Windows Live Hotmail. Point & Find allows you to snap a photo of something and be directed to relevant information and content.

The beta of Point & Find is available in the UK and US and is focused on movies but the service will expand into other fields and countries. Nokia see this as a way for stores and companies to launch campaigns and promotions by giving easy access to information on products and services.

Nokia has offered support for embedding data into barcodes for a while now - Nokia Mobile Codes lets you generate either a Datamatrix or QR code with link, text or business card info embedded into it.

Point & Find takes this a step further. With it you can shoot a photo of a movie poster and be directed to content like the trailer, reviews and even info on the closest theaters showing the movie, taking advantage of the GPS capabilities of the phones.As a fallback, there's a category specific text search in case you have nothing handy to photograph. It can also recognize barcodes so you can scan the barcode of a product and get product reviews and other info. The other bit of news that came out of Espoo is that Nokia's push email service - Nokia Messaging - has added support for Windows Live Hotmail in addition to the already supported Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and AOL Mail.

Nokia Messaging push email service is currently free and supports 19 Nokia devices and gives you access to up to 10 email accounts. Nokia 5800 is not supported yet, that will happen in May. Nokia E75 will become the first device with the application preinstalled and it will probably be found on future devices as well.

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Skype arrives to Apple iPhone, Screen Shots Included....

Skype kept to its promise and released the long awaited official Skype application for the iPhone. One of the most popular IM clients is available for free from the App Store as of today. Having several iPhones at hand we were quite happy to give this newbie a spin and share with you our first impressions.

The most important thing to note seems to be that the Skype app is a no-go for jailbroken iPhones. When installed on one it constantly crashes, becoming virtually useless.

Also calling through 3G is impossible at this stage (both SkypeOut to other phones and regular Skype to Skype calls). We read several reports suggesting that iPhones running on the OS 3.0 beta but than again the application is pretty unstable on this version too.

On the other hand using the application the way it is meant to be used (or rather the way Apple meant for it to be used) - over Wi-Fi on non-beta firmware - is a very positive experience indeed. It launches very fast and is generally really responsive with audio quality way better than what the third party apps for the iPhone can offer.

The Skype app itself consists of five tabs for contacts, chats, call, history and my info.

Contacts are sorted in alphabetic order with blocked ones sent to the end of the list. The search option is very effective, as it looks throughout the names much like on the desktop computer version of the app. In case you have too long a contact list you may also opt for seeing the online users only.

Contacts tab • viewing a profile • skype call are not supported over 3G but only with Wi-Fi connection

The chat section lists all chats chronologically with the newest on top of the list. When a single chat is selected a profile image appears next to each message which helps a lot for the visual perception but takes more space on the screen with less room for text. The date and time of sending of each message also appear here. Unlike the desktop version however older chats cannot be deleted from the chat list.

Chat tab

The call tab needs no further explanation as it is quite simple - access to the contacts, green/red call key and the correction key.

The SkypeOut call pad • talking via the speakerphone is also available

The history tab reveals the call history with dialed, missed and received calls. Again calls are listed chronologically with the newest on top. Pressing a name from the log gives direct access to the caller profile with call and chat shortcuts. You can easily clear the entire call history should you find the need to do so.

My info tab allows the user to edit their entire profile, change their status, buy Skype credit, online number or voice mail. Changing a picture of your profile is as easy as it gets - make a new one with the camera or choose existing photo from the ones available in the photo albums.

My info tab • changing the online status

Some nice touches to the application allow the user to use the loudspeaker or the headphones for making a Skype call.

While we certainly find the official Skype application quite nice we simply cannot let trough its drawbacks. First of all, it somehow manages to drain the battery even faster than using the GPS. About two hours of keeping Skype online with the display switched off for the most part, except for two short voice calls via Wi-Fi network used almost half the battery.

Another great disadvantage is the lack of a landscape keyboard. You shouldn't also look for smilies - there isn't any. There is no incoming message alert too so if the display is switched off, you will be only be signaled of incoming calls. Quite strangely incoming calls are not signaled when you are using Skype through 3G no matter if the display is on or off.

The final shortcoming of the Skype app we noticed is that an incoming SMS message or call (regular network one that is) turns off the Skype. At least after a call the app logs back in automatically.

The settings menu is quite bare with the only configurable option being whether you want or not Skype to log in automatically once started.

So that's about as much as we can tell you at this stage. The rest is left for you to find out by downloading the app from the App store - it's not like it's going to cost you anything after all.

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