Posts Tagged ‘News’

New York Times Politics Notifier

Monday, March 8th, 2010

The New York Times Politics Notifier app allows you quick access to New York Times Political News Stories and the New York Times political-based Caucus Blog. You can access up-to-the minute news, analysis, and commentary and be alerted to updates by pop-ups or vibrations. This app won’t provide you any content that you couldn’t get in other fashions, but it does make it easy to get and view the latest political news. And that is generally what I’m looking for in a mobile app: anything that makes it easier to what I’d otherwise do in a more time-consuming, less-mobile way.

It’s free and available from BlackBerry App World.

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Life with Google — on your BlackBerry

Monday, March 1st, 2010

I’m one of those people who can’t imagine life without Google. I communicate with all my friends and family using Gmail and Google Talk. I do all my web searches on Google Search. I look up all my directions on Google Maps. And I keep up on all my news via Google Reader.

That’s why the first app I installed on my BlackBerry Curve was the free Google Mobile App. It has all the amazing features of Google – but it comes with me in my pocket. Here’s a few tips for maximizing your life on the go with the Google Mobile App for BlackBerry:

  • Voice search: Say you’re having a conversation with a friend and trying to figure out when the first day of spring is. It’s easy: just launch your Google Mobile app, hold down the green call button, and say “first day of spring” into it. The voice recognition software will translate what you say into a Google Search query—and return the results that the first day of spring this year is March 20.
  • Maps: Did a friend just call and offer to meet you at a restaurant you’ve never heard of in an hour? No need to get directions, just plug the restaurant name into your Google Maps app. Whether you’re walking, driving, or taking public transit, the Google Maps app will draw your route for you, and give you estimated time it’ll take to get there (and how much it’ll cost, if it’s via public transit). Or are you lost? Just call it up and wait for the blue dot to tell you where you are. I’ve used this more times than I’d like to admit when I’ve been turned around in unfamiliar neighborhoods. And it’s especially valuable to have if you’re navigating someone from the passenger seat; “turn right in two blocks” is a lot better than “turn right on Main Street, which is coming up at some point…oops, there it was…”
  • Reader: This app is by far my favorite. As a CREDO Action campaign manager, I live and breathe the news, and Google Reader is my go-to way of catching up on the latest. I use RSS feeds from all my favorite newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Rather than having to visit each publication’s site, I pull their stories into my Reader account through RSS. The Mobile Reader app pulls in the headline of the newest 10 (depending on your settings) articles. You can easily scan to see the latest news, or click through to read the full articles of the ones that pique your interest the most.
  • News: Don’t use Google Reader? You can also use the News app, which pulls in the latest from the Google News homepage.

All of these and more are available with the free Google Mobile App for BlackBerry. Just point your browser to m.google.com or visit their website to have a link texted to your phone.

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Posted in News, Political, Travel and Maps, Utilities | 1 Comment »

Off the Beaten (News) Path – Staying Informed On My Commute, Thanks to My BlackBerry

Friday, November 13th, 2009

I like to use my morning and evening SF MUNI commute as time to read – books, newspapers, magazines…sometimes even over the shoulder of my fellow streetcar riders if I’ve forgotten my own reading material (oops!). Since getting my CREDO BlackBerry Curve about six months ago, I have been opting to read the news on my smartphone – something easily enabled by the growing availability of BlackBerry RSS feed apps, mobile sites for the New York Times and BlackBerry shortcuts for NPR.org right on the homescreen of my phone. However it’s important for me to continue to seek news from less mainstream sources (no offense to the NYT) and I’m pleased that so many “alternative” press organizations have websites that are enabled for mobile phone access. Colorlines, an incredible newsmagazine about race and politics, recently launched a mobile version of their site with blog posts and articles about racial justice that I’ve since bookmarked and read regularly on my BlackBerry. Indymedia.org is a network of “collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth” whose site I have bookmarked on my home computer. While their website isn’t specifically built for mobile phone access, its structure is such that I can browse headlines or read articles easily from my phone.

In lieu of an “official” RSS feed or app, I typically use Twitter from my BlackBerry to stay on top of progressive issues and breaking independent news. Twitter is a useful one stop shop for my favorite independent news outlets, magazines and blogs like Treehugger, The Nation, Feministing, Democracy Now!, VegNews, WEND and other news sources who might not have mobile phone enabled websites or BlackBerry apps. From these groups’ Twitter feeds I can click through to both breaking news stories and in-depth features. In case you were wondering, the latest CREDO Actions are also available on the CREDO Mobile Twitter feed, twitter.com/credomobile.

Of course, staying informed on progressive issues shouldn’t be limited solely to commute times – I just happen to be able to take advantage of my 30 min train commute to stay on top of independent news from my phone.

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All The News That’s Fit for Your CREDO BlackBerry Curve

Monday, August 10th, 2009

If you are like me and can’t survive without the New York Times but don’t want to lug around the print edition, check out the New York Times App from BlackBerry. You get all of paper’s content for free, but don’t need to worry about getting newsprint on your pants.

You can find the NY Times apps in BlackBerry AppWorld. Search on “ny times”. This will get you access to a bunch of cool starting points for the best newspaper in America:

1) “The New York Times Shortcut” – this places a shortcut to the front page in your app list. Once you get to the Times, scroll to the bottom of the screen for an index of all sections and blogs.

2) “The New York Times Politics News Notifier“. This link will take you right to the Politics page of the paper. You may not like the notifier feature – this pops up on your screen whenever new news arrives. A bit too much for me. You need to disable this feature through your Options menu, “NYT Politics Options”.

3) “New York Times Dealbook” – this is another notifier geared towards Masters of the Universe in need of their daily Andrew Ross Sorkin fix. It would be great if they had more direct shortcuts and notifiers for other subjects like this.

nyt-bb-shortcut

Of course, you can also bookmark specific NYT pages or blogs through your browser. Simply navigate to your favorite page (e.g., “Most E-Mailed”), click the BlackBerry button, and then select “Add Bookmark.” Then you can access the page in your bookmark list, accessible in the browser by clicking the BlackBerry button.

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Local News on the BlackBerry Curve

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Over the holiday weekend I had the pleasure of spending a significant amount of time in the California State Parks near my home in Northern California. It’s hard to say how long this opportunity will remain possible depending on Schwarzenegger’s proposed closures.  This issue remains a hot topic in California and something that I follow in the news.

Antelope Valley California State Poppy Reserve is one of the hundreds of parks on the closure list.

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When following local stories such as the Parks closures,  I’ve found that the AP News app on my BlackBerry is one of the best sources.  The application does a great job of aggregating stories from several local publications.  By using AP News, I’m able to read stories from the SF Chronicle as well as smaller publications such as the Marin Independent Journal. These local stories combined with AP’s global coverage are yet another reason why I enjoy my BlackBerry Curve.
If you’d like to try it out simply download the FREE AP News reader to your BlackBerry handset. Start by downloading the BlackBerry App World program on your device. Go to: www.blackberry.com/appworld/download on your phone.  Once you’ve downloaded AppWorld simply select AP News, click “Download” and then select “run”.  The first time you run the application it will ask for your zip code so that it can provide local news coverage. You can EDIT the local news zipcode at anytime in order to find local news in other cities.
Are there nationwide local news applications for your BlackBerry that you like better? Let me know, I’d love to try them out as well. Hopefully, the tests will be performed while in a California State Park, BlackBerry in hand.

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Posted in News, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” on your Cell Phone

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Test your skills on the go with this free daily quiz from NPR’s popular show. Getting to the quiz via your phone is easy – guessing the correct answer might be another story.

A recent example from the NPR mobile site:
“This just in from the Canadian Athletic Marketing desk: In an effort to better promote the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Canadian officials are allegedly planning to do what?
o Hire Fashion Models as Judges
o Issue Olympic athlete lingerie calendars
o Add more macho figure skaters
o Double the potency of Canadian beer

Play along from any phone with an Internet Browser, simply type in m.npr.org into the browser’s URL box right after the http:// .

If you’re a CREDO Mobile customer getting to NPR is even faster since you can link directly from your phone’s Mobile Internet home page. Simply click the “News” then “NPR” links.

Local stations also have sites. My home station of San Francisco is found at m.kqed.npr.org .

Find your local site online at http://www.npr.org/services/mobile/mobilewebandmobilevoice.html
NPR Mobile site is loaded with local and national news, the story of the day, a station locator so you can find NPR while traveling and much more.  Check it out and let us know your favorite NPR mobile feature.

PS – still wondering about that quiz? Well… It’s hard to do a triple axel when you are crushing a beer can against your head.

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