How Best to Use Your $100 BlackBerry Gift?

 

 

RIM is offering a selection of ‘premium apps’, but you may have limited access

HITESH RAJ BHAGAT NEW DELHI

    BlackBerry plans to win back some of its lost goodwill and placate irate customers who minced no words in chiding the Canada-based smartphone maker Research In Motion when its services went on the blink for three continuous days. RIM, facing angry calls for compensation from its customers, has responded by handing out paid apps worth $100 for free.
RIM has on offer a selection of ‘premium apps’. Available free of charge to all BlackBerry subscribers, these apps will be available during the promotion period – October 20 (today) through December 31, 2011.
On offer are five games: SIMS 3, Bejeweled, N.O.V.A., Texas Hold ‘Em Poker and Bubble Bash. For multimedia fans, Photo Editor Ultimate (an advanced image editor with many effects and image tweaks), Nobex Radio Premium (internet radio) and Shazam Encore (music discovery) are on offer. Collectively, these apps are worth roughly $20.
But most interesting are the productivity apps such as Drive Safe.ly Pro and Enterprise, iSpeech Translator pro and Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant, which can inject your BlackBerry device with some much-needed vitality. Collectively, these apps are worth about $80. Drive Safe.ly can read text messages and emails out loud when looking at the screen puts you at risk (such as when driving). Plus, you can response to a text using just your voice. It’s a boon for those with visual impairments too.
iSpeech Translator lets you speak or type a word or phrase and ‘speaks’ out a translation in a language of your choice. A total of seven languages are currently available, with the developers promising that more are on the way.
Finally, Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant puts a voice activated personal assistant on your phone – a service similar to Siri, which debuted on the Apple iPhone 4S just last week. You can use the virtual assistant to find directions, update your social networks or search the web. Vlingo claims that their technology includes an ‘intent engine’ – which uses intelligence to figure out what you’re trying to say rather than just recognising the words – again, similar to Siri.
Word to the wise – RIM’s official press release on the matter clearly states that “availability of this offer will depend on the type of device, operating system version, access to BlackBerry App World and local conditions and/or restrictions.” Translated, it means that not all apps will be available for everyone. To check if the apps are available on your device, access the Black-Berry App World from your device and search for these apps or simply look for the section marked ‘compliments of BlackBerry’.