Archive for the ‘News’ Category

New York Times for Android

Monday, June 21st, 2010

The New York Times app for the Android phone is a great way to keep up on all the news that’s fit to print.  The interface is straightforward.  The app opens on the Latest News tab (or on the last article or section you’ve viewed), with other sections selectable by pulling down the menu “curtain” -  including a Latest Video section that makes great use of the Hero’s media capability.  And once you’re reading an article in a section, you can swipe left or right to move to the previous or next article in that section.

When you open a section, the app will update the latest articles and download them to your phone.  This is a great feature, since it means I can read articles even when I don’t have a data connection (for example, if I’m on BART or the Muni Metro).  One of my quibbles though is that there is no way to save an article to the phone for future reading – when articles are refreshed, you’ll lose any you haven’t read.  A “save” feature would be really useful, especially for some of the Times’ longer articles.

One of the best features for me is that the font size of the articles is adjustable – meaning I can read the news while on a crowded bus without having to dig out my reading glasses. You can also share articles a bunch of different ways – via email or SMS, on Twitter or Facebook.  All in all, a well-designed app that I use every day.

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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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The Mobile Web — Not Just for Smartphones

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

I’m a big fan of my BlackBerry Curve smartphone from CREDO…but of course I recognize that not everyone wants or needs a smartphone.

However, what a lot of people may not know is that there’s a whole lot of web content out there for mobile phones that aren’t smartphones — and it’s great stuff that’s rather easy to access.

I picked up my wife’s Katana LX today (which is one of our most popular phones here at CREDO) and used the menu key to get to the “Web” section. That took me to our mobile WAP home page at m.credomobile.com, and from there I was just a few clicks away from:

  • News sites like NPR.org and the Huffington Post
  • Progressive commentary from Alternet.org — optimized for, and readable on, this phone
  • Great humor from The Onion (access through Section 8, “Entertainment”)
  • Sports scores on ESPN Mobile
  • Current activism opportunities from CREDO Action, including phone numbers to call to make a difference on important issues like health care reform and climate change legislation

And while we don’t have a link to it currently on our WAP site, one of my favorite mobile sites of all time is the NextBus.com site (as I explained in this post a few months back). It definitely takes the majority of the waiting & guessing out of public transportation.

So if you don’t have a smartphone but still want to get the best out of the mobile web, don’t despair — there’s a world of content out there waiting for you.

(Do make sure, however, that you have a data plan on your account to allow for web browsing, and that the plan is right-sized for the amount of browsing you’ll be doing. If you’re a CREDO Mobile customer, you can add or change your data plans at any time here on our member services site, or by calling one of our friendly customer service agents at 800.411.0848.)

What other cool mobile web sites have you found that are accessible from a non-smartphone handset?

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Sign Up for SMS Alerts to Save the Dolphins

Monday, August 24th, 2009

“The Cove” is a documentary that brings to attention the atrocious killing of dolphins in Japan to sell in markets as “whale meat.” Being Japanese, I am appalled that this goes on in my home country. I never knew that there was such a tradition of killing dolphins or that they were sold into the market as food with toxic levels of mercury.

It’s not showing in every city, but it looks like it’s worth going out of the way to see. I plan to see it at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.

To help stop the Japanese fishermen from slaughtering these dolphins, sign up for SMS alerts on this issue by texting DOLPHIN to 44144.  The first text message is a link to a form that you can fill out on your mobile phone to send a letter to President Obama, urging him to address this issue.

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Posted in Green, Messaging, News, Political | 4 Comments »

Viigo: Top Rated RSS/Newsreader for BlackBerry

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Viigo is a free RSS or Newsreader for BlackBerry.  It gets a five star rating from CNET and is by far the most downloaded app in its class.  Viigo aggregates news feeds from various sources (sports, weather, stock quotes, etc.) into an elegant reader application.  You can select from various preselected feeds (Huffington Post, whitehouse.gov blog, The Onion) or add your own.  With Viigo, there is no need to launch your browser or sort through bookmarks – all of your content is located in one place.  The application even integrates with aggregators (Google Reader), social network sites (Facebook and Twitter), and search engines.

Search on “Viigo” in the Blackberry App Store to find and download the app.a

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Grist and “Scientists”–two eco news sources on your BlackBerry

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

For me, riding the bus is a perfect time to catch up on my “priorty B” news. So on my BlackBerry, I’ve been checking out two of CREDO’s 2009 environmental donation recipients websites, Grist and Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS):

http://www.grist.org/

http://www.ucsusa.org/

Grist looks great on my BlackBerry default web browser and UCS isn’t bad. (But they may not be compatible with your browser if you have a non-smartphone, unless you are using Opera Mini,)

While they cover a lot of the same topics—from climate and energy to food and agriculture–they definitely have different personalities. Right off the bat, Grist sets the tone with their “A beacon in the smog” tagline.

And while Grist is focused more on personal living stuff and opinion, UCS’s site gives you their measured, highly credible slant on public/policy kinds of news. A few examples:

50px-grist-logo1

Grist serves it up with a little ‘tude.

  • Debunking the meat/climate change myth—The farmer-author says eating grass-raised cows isn’t the problem. Industrial animal practices— from corn, fertilizer/ feedlot/ transportation, etc.—are the real culprits.
  • Songs about climate change that don’t suck–Ranks eco songs from “most to least cringeworthy.” We definitely need a better enviro soundtrack, but hey, I still love Melissa Etheridge’s “I need to wake up.”

175px-ucslogo

On the other hand, UCS gets down to business.

  • Factcheck: Contrarians Promote Study That Masks Warming Trend–examines in-depth why a new study released July 23 is full of hot air. Great baseball analogy makes this article very accessible.

So now it’s your turn. What’s your favorite eco news source that you check out on your cell phone?

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Posted in Fun and Games, Green, News, Political, Reference, Uncategorized, voicemail | 2 Comments »

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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GoodGuide on my BlackBerry: Is aluminum zirconium good for me?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Well, this is a little personal. I’m at Trader Joe’s the other day and trying to figure out what deodorant/antiperspirant to buy.

I’m worried my old Mennon Speed Stick–with aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex–is really vile stuff. But is it? This is where a free, mobile-ready site called http://www.goodguide.com comes in handy. The site worked great on my BlackBerry Curve, but the Curve does have a powerful browser. It may not be compatible with a browser on a non-smartphone, unless you are using Opera Mini ( see this blog entry on Opera Mini )

It helps you figure out not only whether the product you’re about to buy is healthy for you–but also healthy for the planet and our society. In fact, GoodGuide is all about safe, healthy and green.

It has a some great features:

  • Browse ratings for 70,000 food, personal care, “household chemicals” and toy items. Check out just the overall ranking, or get really informed with the 3-part breakdown (health, environmental, social performance).
  • Learn about issues such as the ins and outs of buying organic food, latest news, recalls and tons more.

So where did I end up with my deodorant dilemma? Surprisingly, the GG showed my Speed Stick was actually OK with a 7.8 rating. But I’m still going to switch to Axe with its 8.2 rating, not too far off top-scoring Tom’s of Maine’s 9.4 (but it’s deodorant only).

Other categories have ratings that vary more. One example: Chips and Pretzels. Top-scoring Kettle “Bakes” has an 8.0 rating. Bottom of the barrel SunChips (hey, I eat these!) could only muster 5.0

My rating for GoodGuide itself: 8 out of 10.

I’d like to see categories added such as electronics, banks and other stuff in the Better World Shopping Guide . But the basic structure and depth of info is great. Readable, simple, actually useful right in the store.

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Posted in Green, News, Political, Reference, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

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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