Aingaran's Tech and Biz Blog

RIM announced today they’ve released the Blackberry Presenter to public. It’s available for sale and in-stock at Blackberry’s online store (ShopBlackberry.com) for $199 USD.

Now that we know it’s available for purchase, what exactly can we do with the Blackberry Presenter?

With the Blackberry Presenter, you do not need a laptop or a desktop computer to show a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Here’s a small snippet of the product description from Blackberry’s website,

… you simply plug it into a projector or monitor, and present Microsoft® PowerPoint® files wirelessly from your BlackBerry® smartphone. While presenting, view your speaker notes or loop slides when you’re at that big convention. And, when you need to reference information on a different slide to answer that critical question, you can easily freeze your presentation on the overhead display while you search through your deck on your BlackBerry smartphone…

It’s pretty neat, but how people will actually use this?

You can buy your’s today, by visiting ShopBlackberry.com.

If you are a Blackberry owner, you may have come across JVM error messages on your device over the the course of time.

Some of these error messages can be resolved by simply re-loading your device’s OS (operating system) using Blackberry Desktop Manager.

There are some error messages where the fix is not so simple and requires additional steps.

Detailed below are step-by-step instructions  to fix the infamous JVM 102 error message, without having to wipe the contents of your device.

1.  Download and Install latest version of Blackberry Desktop Manager

2.  Download JL_Cmder and extract the files to the C: drive.

3.  Connect your phone to your PC using the USB cable that came with it.

4.  Run JL_Cmder and select option 2 (event log)

5.  Scroll to the bottom of the log and look for “JVM Error 102.”

The line before it should tell you exactly what file is causing the error.

Remember file name; you will need it later. (You may want to write it down, or copy it into a Word or Notepad file).

6. Go to Start > Run, and type “cmd” then press Enter.

7. Change directory to the JL_Cmder installation folder.

cd C:JL_Cmder

(Where C:JL_Cmder is where you extracted the files from Step 2.)

8.    Type the following command to remove the offending file:

javaloader.exe -u erase -f FILENAME

(Where FILENAME is the name of the .cod file.)

8. Disconnect your phone from your PC and restart it.

Telus is offering new clients two great incentives for their business.

New activations to Telus will receive 6 months of unlimited local calling and their $35 activation fee waived. The 6 months of unlimited local calling promotion hasn’t appear among the big 3 carriers in almost 3-4 years. In the early to mid 2000s, the 3-6 months of unlimited local calling promotion was quite common among Bell, Telus and Rogers.

The promotion is likely in response to the new wireless entrants, Wind Mobile and Public Mobile offering unlimited calling and texting as a regular plan to their clients.

Research in Motion has sent notifications recently of a major scheduled maintenance to administrators and carriers as BlackBerry Internet Service 3.0 starts to roll out.

The scheduled maintenance should take place overnight Saturday, March 27th and early morning on Sunday, March 28, 2010.

Here is a list of the scheduled maintenance windows and what is going on during the upgrade:

• There will be a scheduled network maintenance by RIM affecting BIS customers on March 28th between 02:00 EDT and 06:00 EDT.
• RIM will be performing a BlackBerry Internet Service v 2.8 upgrade to BlackBerry Internet Service v3.0.
• BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers may be unable to send or receive messages using their BlackBerry hosted email account or integrated third-party email accounts, view email attachments, activate email service, or request to see “more” text during the maintenance.
• Wireless service providers and device resellers may be unable to create subscriber accounts or provision services for subscribers.

As the outage will occur while everyone is sleeping or partying late on Saturday night, most users will not notice the outage. The maintenance will affect 100% of Blackberry Internet Service users in North America, regardless of carrier.

Public Mobile announced yesterday they’ve soft launched their new wireless network in Toronto and Montreal.

Montreal and Toronto
In the press release, Public Mobile indicated 15 retail locations were open to the public in Toronto and 10 in Montreal.

Currently, the coverage is limited to Toronto and Montreal. You can view the current coverage map here.

Official Launch Date
The “official” launch date is expected to be sometime in mid-May. With the official launch, Public Mobile’s CEO Alek Krstajic expects the number of retail locations to double in both cities.

$40 for Unlimited Talk & Text
They’re hoping to lure customers by offering a $40/month unlimited Talk and Text plan. Voicemail and Call Display with be an additional $5/month.

Public is aiming at basic talk and text customers, those who may have pay and talk services with the Big 3, and those who are looking to get rid of their home phone service.

Unlimited Canadian long distance for life
If you sign up with Public Mobile now, they will give you unlimited Canada-wide long distance calling. You will continue to receive free unlimited Canadian long distance for life as long as your account remains in good standing.

No Credit Check!
As Public Mobile will be targetting the prepaid / pay and talk market segment, they will not require a credit check to sign up fir their services.

Just two days after Google’s Nexus One phone went on sale to the masses (ATT, Rogers, Fido, Telus, Bell), Sprint announced they too will offer the Nexus One phone from Google in the very near future.

Sprint has not announced a release date or the pricing for the phone yet.

Fared Adib, Sprint vice president for product development, in a statement said,

“Nexus One is a powerful device that belongs on a powerful network. This is another step in our continued partnership of innovation with Google”

Earlier this month, there were rumours of Google releasing the NexusOne on Verizon’s network. At this point, it appears as if it’s simply that, a rumour.

If you currently in the market for a pre-paid cellphone and package, you definitely should check out Telus’s current promotion.

They’re offering 3 different handset models for only $49.99. I know what you’re saying. “Bell and Rogers offer handsets for $50 too”.

Here’s where the promotional part of the deal comes! When you purchase any one of these 3 pre-paid phones, you will also get an activation credit of $50.

There’s also a forth phone on sale for $49.99, but you will only receive an activation credit of $20 with that model.

Phones on Sale

• Samsung M540
• LG 490
• Samsung U510
• LG 285 (This phone only comes with a $20 activation credit)

You can activate the phone yourself online at www.telusmobility.com and avoid paying the $15 activation fee (when you do it at a store or over the phone with a client care rep).

Once you’ve activated the phone yourself, your prepaid account will have a credit of  $50 (what you’ve paid for the phone). Making the phone you’ve just purchase FREE! *

We live in Canada so we have to pay GST and PST (about $6.50).

Details of the promo here.

The Nexus one comes unlocked directly from Google and will support Both Quad-Band GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz) and Triband HSPA/UMTS (850, 1900 and 2100 Mhz) 3G networks. This means, the phone will work on all 4 major Canadian carriers: Rogers, Fido, Bell and Telus.

After a couple of months of exclusivity for the TMobile network in the US, Google has opened the market for its Google Nexus One.

The TMobile version will work on the Wind Mobile Network (900/AWS/2100 MHz)

You can order your phone at: http://www.google.com/phone/