If you have a BlackBerry and don’t want to pay for a separate mobile broadband aircard or the additional fees charged by your carrier to use your BlackBerry as a modem this app will do the trick.  The new app Tether (formerly TetherBerry), is now available on the BlackBerry App World.  Even better, the software is on sale for $19.99, 60% off its normal price of $50.  It’s currently the number 1 paid app and they even offer a free trial.

Install

The install of Tether is simple, download the app on your BlackBerry and the software on your computer.  The PC software install is simple, and requires the BlackBerry desktop software, which the Tether installer will prompt you to install.  The install on a Mac is just as easy, simple mount the installer and click next until it’s done.  The Tether software for both Mac and PC creates a virtual network card, so do be alarmed if you see a new one in your network connections.

Connecting

Once everything is installed, simply open the Tether app on the BlackBerry and on your computer.  You’ll choose USB or Bluetooth and off you go.  It’s that simple.  You can move the Tether app to run in the background of the BlackBerry so you can continue to use it.

Speed and Data

You can expect the same speeds using Tether  that an aircard from your cell provider would give.  I’m using a Verizon Tour 9630 and SpeedTest.net gave me about 1 mbps download and 300 kbps upload.

For those that don’t have an unlimited data plan, the Tether software on the computer side will keep track of your data usage.  You can even set a range of dates, so you can see how much you’ve used that month.

Conclusion

Tether is deal at $50 compared to the monthly fees of $60 or more for a mobile broadband aircard, and at the limited time cost of $20 it’s a steal.  With a simple, clean, and intuitive interface it makes Tethering your blackberry a quick and easy and it’s a must have app for any Connected Commuter.

After checking out the Bolt browser for BlackBerry I wanted to see if there were any other worthy BlackBerry browser replacements so I decided to check Opera’s browser.  I had previously tried the Opera Mini 4 browser and liked it , but when I saw the download for Mini 5 beta, I decided to give it a shot.  I’ll give a quick review of some of the new features that make this the best mobile browser that I have used to date.  It’s available for download from here and can be installed over the air on your phone.

User Interface

From the loading screen to the options menus, this browser looks great. The color scheme of charcoal and red really pops on the Bold’s vivid screen and the fonts are extremely legible.  Another great feature of the Opera Mini 5 are the animated menus.  Switching between tabs moves fluidly and the drop down options menu looks great.  The title bar has easy text entry and a built in Google and Wikipedia search.  Web page rendering looks great as well.  When you load a site, the initial view lets you see the whole site, then you can zoom in closer to read full text.

Speed Dial

Speed dial is the default start screen when you open Opera Mini 5 beta.  It is a wall of 9 squares, each for you to put your favorite any most accessed sites.  It’s very similar to Apple Safari’s top sites page, less the 3D look.   To add a site to the Speed Dial screen, simply click on one of the unused tiles and add the address and it will put a thumbnail view of the site in the tile.

Tabbed Browsing

Tabbed browsing is by far the most impressive feature of this new browser.  It’s such a huge improvement of the built in BlackBerry browser, you won’t want to go back.  Press the BlackBerry button and up pops the navigation buttons.  To add a new tab, you simply click the plus button next to the farthest right tab.

Switching between tabs works great too.  When you bring up the navigation menu and scroll over the tab title it shows a preview of the tab before you select it.  Once you choose the tab, select it and your good to go.

Conclusion

Opera Mini 5 sets the standard for mobile browsing on the BlackBerry.  Since it’s still in beta, it can only get better from here.

Install and Setup

It’s an easy download from directly on you BlackBerry’s mobile browser from blackberry.wordpress.org.  Once installed and running you are presented with the WordPress app home screen which is blank until you add your first blog.  From the home screen you simply click the BlackBerry button and select add blog.

You are presented with a few simple text boxes which ask for your site, user name and password.  The first time I tried to add this site, I recieved an error prompting me to enable remote publishing.  It’s a simple fix by logging into your WordPress site and going to Settings > Writing > Check the “XML-RPC” box.  Once thats done, you should be able to add your site.

User Interface and Posting

The user interface of the app is high res and definitely seems designed for the newer BlackBerries such as the Bold, Tour and Curve 8900.  The fonts and menus are easy to read and even easier to navigate.   Once your blog has been added you simply select it from the app’s home screen.  Once in, you’re presented with the main functions that are available on the BlackBerry.  It gives you quick access to your Posts, Pages, and Comments.

Adding a post gives you all of the most important info so you can add the Title, Tags, Categories and Status of the post.  I started this review on the WordPress app and was able to easily able to upload it by clicking the BlackBerry button and select Submit.  The post gets published immediately or as a draft depending on what status you select before submitting it.  You also have the option to add Photos to each post.  You can choose to pull them from the devices memory or directly from the phone’s built in camera.  Editing Pages works the same way as editing Posts.  The comments section allows you to read or delete user comments on you posts.

Conclusion

Overall the WordPress app for the BlackBerry gets the job done and does it well.  The mobile platform definitely lends itself to a quick post rather than a longer one, but if you want to post to your blog in a place where you don’t have access to a computer this is works great.

The BlackBerry is most commuters connection to the outside world for the few hours during the daily trip to and from work.  Besides checking email and listening to music, surfing the web can help pass the time.  The newer BlackBerries (Bold, Storm, Curve 8900) have the most advanced browser in the BlackBerry family but they leave something to be desired.  The browsers are slow to render web pages and wont load many sites at all.  The folks over at BoltBrowser.com are working to fix this.  They are developing the Bolt Browser which is aimed to work on most cell phones.  The version we’re reviewing today is the Beta 2 version for the BlackBerry installed a BlackBerry Bold.

You can download the software onto your BlackBerry directly from their site and it installs like any other BlackBerry app.  Once the app is installed you get an icon onf a yellow circle with a black lightning bolt.  Click on the icon and you’ll see the main start page.

From the start you get an address bar and a list of your favorites.  From here you can start surfing.  One of the main differences between the Bolt and standard BlackBerry browser is the way they render web pages.  The Blackberry browser typically renders the mobile version of the site, but Bolt renders it as a full web site.  Check out Digg.com as rendered by the Bolt:

You get the full version of the page and it is FAST.  The Bolt browser even supports sites with AJAX and will render pop-ups.  The text can sometimes be a little small for some people when the site is being viewed on such a small screen.  This can easily be changed  at the preferences screen.

One other great thing is that it supports viewing YouTube videos by transcoding them and streaming them to the BlackBerry Media Player.  You simple choose the video you want to view.  When the video page loads you’ll see a black box where the video normally would be and you simple click play.  Bolt will pop up with a message saying that it is going to begin transcoding the video for viewing on the media player.

The Bad

Now for the bad parts of the browser.  Let me remind you that this is the beta version of the browser so some of these bugs could be fixed in future releases.  The first thing I noticed about the browser is the fact that it doesn’t do font smoothing when rendering web pages.  The built in BlackBerry browser does use font smoothing so it’s easier on the eyes when viewing sites.

The next issue is filling out text forms.  When filling out text boxes in the browser, you cannot type directly in the box.  You need to click on the text entry area and a text editing screen pops up and you fill in the request info.  This can get quite tedious after filling out a few boxes.  Also once the form has been filled out, you have to wait for the Bolt browser to send the info to the web server.  I think that has to do with the browsers support for AJAX so I can render results from text input.

The Bolt browser is fast, but it’s not without its issues. One thing that bugs me across all devices is when the information bar gives you incorrect info about the time remaining or percent complete. Many times with the Bolt browser (usually due to lack of service) the device will almost instantly get to 20% and just hang.

The Bolt doesn’t like it when your phone loses service. Usually I open Bolt and surf for a bit and put it in the background without actually killing it.  If you try to click a link on the current page, and you’ve lost service, it has to completely reload the page before you can click the link.

Conclusion

Overall the Bolt browser is a great alternative and much more functional that the built in BlackBerry browser.  And for the price of FREE it’s a must download for any BlackBerry user.

Sometimes it’s hard to find something to keep you occupied the train during that long commute home at night. Like many commuters I see on the train everyday, some like to keep themselves occupied with handheld games such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Well, today’s review is about a product that can help you save time and space with your Nintendo DS. It’s a great little system that can fit in your pants or jacket pocket, but bringing around a bunch of games to play, can be a hassle. Enter the CycloDS Evolution, a device that will allow you to carry all of your games on one cartridge as well a perform a few other neat tasks.

The CycloDS Evolution is a device that allows you to use a MicroSD memory card to play game backups, look at pictures, listen to music and even read e-books. It can be purchased from a variety of online retailers for around $55. It doesn’t come with the MicroSD memory card, but one can easily be purchased online from Newegg and they are relatively inexpensive. So lets jump right into it. Let me also preface this review with the fact that every game image file for that is used

Unboxing

The unit comes in a small aluminum tin with the product logo, which is better packing than I expected. In the tin are two things, the CycloDS Evolution cartridge which looks identical to any other Nintendo DS game, and the USB MicroSD card reader, which was a nice surprise even though the 8GB card I purchased came with a reader. The downside, there are no manuals or instructions on how to use the unit at all (before I notice the MicroSD slot on the USB adapter, I though it was a flash drive.)

Setup

Here comes the most difficult part, getting the CyclosDS setup to actually start playing games. When you insert the cartridge into the DS and power it on, the systems thinks that its just a game called CyclosDS Evolution and you simply select it to get started. If you insert the cartridge without a MicroSD card, the software will simply tell you to power down and install the memory card.

Once the software finishes loading you are presented with three icons, representing games, media, and settings. This screen is skinnable, and you can find more themes to download from a site called NDSthemes. I personally chose what I thought was a cleaner interface called Minima Black. Without having added any files to the MicroSD memory card, the system is still pretty useless. The only thing you can do is change a few options in the settings screen.

Next comes getting the games from your PC onto the CycloDS. The game images come in a thoughful file extension .NDS, and they can be obtained in various places on the internet. All game images I used were titles that I already legally purchased and still have. Well here’s where the lack of documentation comes in to play. Being an advanced PC user (who probably wouldn’t have read the manual anyway,) I figured I would just hook the MicroSD card up to my PC and drag the files into the root directory and they would load the next time I booted the CyclosDS up. Wrong. After many failed attempts in which the software just wouldn’t see any games as being installed, I decided to go to the CycloDS support page. It turns out you need to patch each .NDS file using their CycloDS ROM patcher. Once you download and install the patcher, you run the software and tell it which .NDS files you would like to patch. Once complete you have have 2 additional files with the same file name as the .NDS with different extensions. You will need to drag all three files for each game onto your MicroSD card before the CyclosDS software will recognize there is a game installed.

Now you’re all set, and you can start playing games.