The Jared Company, a leading creator of smartphone apps, has released what may be the most useful free app for the forgetful Blackberry® user—Last Ditch Beacon sends an email with the last-known location of the Blackberry, when the battery is down to 10 percent.
According to JaredCo, 30 percent of lost or misplaced Blackberry smartphones have dead batteries. Most tracking apps need to communicate with the device in order to find them, which is impossible once the battery is drained.
Using the Blackberry GPS, Last Ditch Beacon sends an email with the last known location of the device, even if it’s low on juice—complete with a Google map link showing the approximate location.
Other features of Last Ditch Beacon:
We just released results of a survey of nearly 6,000 customers using our apps for BlackBerry® smartphones. The responses show a high degree of loyalty to the BlackBerry brand.
Those surveyed include customers who have downloaded and purchased one or more of his company’s apps for BlackBerry smartphones and are subscribed to the JaredCo mailing list. Most are from the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as other countries where the BlackBerry App World™ storefront is available.
“At The Jared Company we design apps to make BlackBerry and other smartphones more powerful, indispensable tools in people’s lives,” said JaredCo founder and CEO Steven Kader said. “We believe the results of this survey of our customers demonstrate we’ve been on target in creating BlackBerry apps that provide BlackBerry customers improved functionality, productivity and utility in their devices.”
Nearly 70 percent of the 5,732 survey respondents said they plan to buy a BlackBerry® 10 smartphone when they are ready to replace their current BlackBerry smartphone.
About 54 percent of those who said they plan to buy a BlackBerry 10 smartphone when they are ready for a new phone said they prefer BlackBerry over other platforms, and another 19.5 percent said they would buy a BlackBerry 10 smartphone because of “appealing features.”
Of the respondents, 39.74 percent have been using a BlackBerry smartphone for the past three to five years, and 27.41 percent for more than five years.
A great majority – 68.3 percent – of those completing the survey said they prefer using a keyboard to an all-touch device, and 88.03 percent said they expect that their current apps will be available on the BlackBerry 10 platform.
Survey respondents said the most valued features of BlackBerry smartphones are email/short message service (25.01 percent), BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) (23.09 percent) and ease of use (20.05 percent).
The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.
We just returned from the Blackberry World Conference in Orlando where the new Bold 9900 / 9930 was introduced. This new Bold is based on the original Bold 9000, which at the time was my favorite device since it had a wide screen and great keyboard.
I had an opportunity to test the new Bold with the new OS 7 and I was very impressed with it. Like the old Bold 9000 it has a wider screen and great keyboard, but it is now much thinner, with a high resolution screen that is a touch screen. The touch screen and full keyboard are a great combination…the best of both worlds. This new Bold records and plays high definition video, and is just loaded with excellent features. The new OS 7, which is a step up from OS 6, is a clean looking interface and operated very well. This new Bold is fantastic and will make existing and new BlackBerry users very happy. Here are some of the features on the Bold 9900 / 9930:
Let us know if you plan on getting this new Bold 9900/9930.