ScreamingToaster

May 31, 2010 – ScreamingToaster is proud to announce that RainOrShine for BlackBerry is now available in the BlackBerry App World – click here to go to the app.

It can also be downloaded straight from our website via OTA – click here to get the app via OTA download link.

May 31, 2010 – ScreamingToaster is proud to announce the launch of RainOrShine for BlackBerry, a real-time, location-based weather app.

RainOrShine provides real-time, current weather conditions for your current location. RainOrShine is location-aware (it knows its current latitude/longitude). It uses a host of technologies to find its location initially, and track location changes as it moves around. The user’s physical location is the starting point for all the information delivered by the RainOrShine application.

RainOrShine is the only application that provides real-time, location-based weather information that is accurate up to the minute and down to the street address. Most applications can only provide hourly/daily weather overviews for your town or city as a whole, and can’t provide weather information in real-time for your current location.

As you go about your day, whether you move around a few miles, or a few thousand miles, RainOrShine will keep you up to date with the most current weather, Wikipedia, and movie show time information that is possible.

ScreamingToaster is the leader in location-based applications and services for the BlackBerry platform. The app is a showcase of location-based services (LBS) possible on the BlackBerry platform, brought to you by ScreamingToaster.

RainOrShine was made using the Zen Application Framework

RainOrShine. The Zen Application Framework is comprised of client side, and server side technology, and can be used to build not only mobile applications (for BlackBerry and Android), but also Web and Desktop applications as well. We use Zen to overcome the many limitations of mobile & wireless of technology, and BlackBerry development.

The Zen Application Framework is free for all ScreamingToaster Consulting clients. ScreamingToaster has a commitment to open source software (OSS) and democratizing knowledge for the good of the developer community, and humanity as a whole.

The Zen Application Framework liberates BlackBerry developers from having to use RIM’s APIs, which are inconsistent and divergent across platforms.

To enhance the performance of RainOrShine, we use performance enhancement techniques such as pre-fetching, compression, and caching to deliver a high efficiency, high performance, and high availability application. These techniques allow us to build green, sustainable mobile apps like RainOrShine that work lightning fast, and perfectly every time – delivering a user experience never seen before on mobile.

RainOrShine works perfectly on a wide variety of BlackBerry devices. We used the Zen Application Framework’s advanced DPI scaling technology to build RainOrShine from a single code base for OS 4.6 and higher. We did not build separate applications (separate code bases) for each type of BlackBerry device and each OS. Our DPI scaling technology allows us to build only one RainOrShine BlackBerry application (one code base), that looks the same and works correctly on all BlackBerry devices running OS 4.6 and higher.

It does magic by overcoming the differences and incompatibles introduced by vastly disparate:

• BlackBerry operating systems (4.6.X, 4.7.X, 5.0.X)
• BlackBerry screen sizes and resolutions
• BlackBerry input methods (keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, track wheel

RainOrShine screenshots on various BlackBerry devices

Delivering location-based experiences with “up to the minute and down to the street level” accuracy

RainOrShine is location-aware (it knows its current latitude/longitude). It uses a host of technologies to find its location initially, and track location changes as it moves around. The Zen Application Framework uses a combination of location-based technologies, such as:

1. Cell-ID look up
2. Wi-Fi access point look up
3. Geo-IP lookup
4. Reverse Geo-IP lookup
5. GPS
6. etc.

We use reverse geocoding to find the actual location (country, state, city, street address) of the application in order to deliver real-time location-based information, updates, and notifications. This allows us to provide extremely relevant location-based services/information on mobile devices with“up to the minute and down to the street level” accuracy. The use of reverse geocoding in real-time, in combination with our expertise in EII, is the real magic behind RainOrShine.

We are leaders in location-based applications

RainOrShine is the perfect example of how to deliver location-based services via a mobile application. We can use this technology to build applications for you as well. We use the Zen Application Framework in all of our products and it is free for all of our consulting clients. Contact us to learn more about Zen.

We have tons of experience building applications that deliver location-based services. We have done many successful implementations of location-based services for our clients. Click here for customer case studies.

• Local businesses and service providers benefit from our technology by directly advertising to customers’ mobile devices when they are in a close proximity of their store.
• Many of our consulting clients use this technology to push information and advertisements to their customers.
• They also use it to do real-time asset tracking and supply chain management for time-sensitive deliveries.

Learn more about how ScreamingToaster can build you location-aware BlackBerry and Android applications which will allow you to deliver real-time, location-based services to your customers, such as: location-based advertising, notifications, updates, social networking, collaboration, etc.

As the year draws to a close, we are taking a step back to see the year in review. While our apps have been in the making for three years, we launched our first BlackBerry consumer product in August 2009 (Wicked). Then two more in September 2009 (MyListy Pro, DulyNoted Pro). And our web app (for MyListy Pro + DulyNoted Pro) just before BlackBerry Developer Conference in November 2009.

Here are some press accolades we have gotten for these efforts -

Finalist (of 16 total) at the BlackBerry Developer Conference

TORONTO-September 1, 2009-The BlackBerry Partners Fund today announced that Wicked Blog App (by ScreamingToaster LLC), e-Mobile Today Professional Edition (by e-Mobile Software, Inc.), Unsynced Music Player (by Unsynced Inc.) and AFP Mobile News (by Handmark — in partnership with AFP) are the third set Finalists in the 2009 BlackBerry Developer Challenge. To date, a total of 12 (of 16) Finalists have been selected by a panel of judges based on the following criteria: compelling product or service; clearly defined value proposition and technical execution.

PC World – Hottest BlackBerry Apps of the Year 2009

The lowdown: Finally! This app is a simple and easy way for users to write blog entries with their BlackBerry devices. Custom-designed for WordPress users, Wicked Blog App not only lets users update blogs with text but also gives them

ScreamingToaster Customer Testimonials

This is where we highlight just a few of our many awesome customers and how they use our technology to improve their digital lifestyles. If you are a customer, and would like to share the unique ways in which you use your ScreamingToaster apps, please contact us and we will post it here.

Gear Diary Article on our apps

You may remember our review of ScreamingToaster’s Wicked Blogging App back in September.  I recently got the chance to meet the ScreamingToaster team — Nazmul and Izabel Idris — and they’ve got some big things in store for BlackBerry and Android fans (stay tuned to Gear Diary to get a full rundown!).  One recent update has been the release of a Web Application for their popular MyListy Pro and DulyNoted Pro mobile apps.

So, you ask, what is the big deal of having a web app for two existing BlackBerry/Android apps?  The key is collaboration and usability.  Geared towards the “prosumer” customer who uses their smartphones for both business and personal use, the application can be running on multiple devices and computers simultaneously.  Your data is stored in “the cloud” so you never have to worry if you upgrade devices or end up having to reload your smartphone OS.  As soon as you log in to your account, all of your settings and information is restored.

CrackBerry Article on our apps

I’ve never heard a toaster scream, but if I did, I would make sure the event was duly noted. See what I just did there? DulyNoted is available for BlackBerry smartphones running OS 4.6 or higher, and will take up 548 KB. On DulyNoted style, I’m going to begin as the application begins:

“Starting Reactor Core…Initiating Launch Sequence…Activating Awesomeness”

CMS Wire Article on our apps

Wicked is a WordPress application for the BlackBerry, so its most basic raison d’être is pretty obvious: Blog! From your BlackBerry! Using WordPress! Post-related functionality includes using Search and Filter to navigate your way through posts or comments, Spell Check, Auto Text, Copy, Paste, etc. But as ScreamingToaster stresses, it’s more than just a mobile blogging platform.

MiBlackBerry Article on our apps

Para postear con Wordpress por ahora esta es, a mi parecer, la primera apuesta seria de un desarrollador, claro está que lo tienen mal en su camino ya que por ahí anda el desarrollo oficial del cliente de Wordpress, siendo el mismo gratuito. A su favor es que en un futuro será multipltaforma de Blogging, soportando Tumblr, Blogger, etc… y aunque es un cliente para postear incorpora otras funcionalidades sociales, como un cliente de Twitter, podemos compartir nuestra ubicación, una lista de tareas, etc…

BlackBerry Rocks Article on our apps

Compared to the official WordPress app, Wicked is ahead with its features and stability. Of course, the official WordPress app is still in beta testing so we could see a lot of improvement on their end as well. The good thing about there being two WordPress apps is that they’ll both be working to be better than the other, improving the experience for the end-users (everyone else) along the way.

Cell Phone Reviews Blog Article on our apps

Best BlackBerry Apps

While we didn’t win the dev challenge, we met some companies at the event who really like our developerlife.com BB training programs.

In fact, we are going to expand our training programs to Android, and GWT very soon.

We also had some interest in consulting services, so that’s promising as well.

However, most of the visibility for our training and consulting services come from our own marketing efforts and the dev con was terribly underwhelming. There were just a handful of companies who produce BB software present at the conference. It’s not even close to being a vibrant ecosystem. The BB platform has a long way to go, when compared to iPhone and Android. Now given that BB has been around for so long when compared to these newcomers, it becomes clear that growing/nurturing this ecosystem is not even close to being a priority for them and it really truly shows. RIM is free to move in whatever direction they want without acknowledging the impact on ISVs that currently produce BB software. There is no “BlackBerry” platform. Its so fragmented across 4.2, 4.6, 5.0 that you really have to qualify which device and which os/software platform. This fragmentation makes creating BB apps very expensive for ISVs targetting the consumer space. For the enterprise, where supported devices can be mandated by policy, this isn’t that much of an issue. So RIM is going strong in the enterprise space, but their consumer market efforts are laughable at best.

Btw, I’m writing this post on Wicked on a Virgin America flight back from SFO. Very cool .

This post was created at this location.

The Developer Challenge is over, and we didn’t win. We put a lot of work into it, and it sucks that we didn’t win, but life goes on. We are going to enter the Navteq Developer Challenge, and we are also going to seek funding proactively. Judges and audience responded very positively to our story and message, despite being given a crippling 5 minutes to present our case and show our demo. Izzy did a great job presenting! She’s a champ!

Here are some pics of her presenting –

Despite our valiant efforts, we were not selected as winners. The judges were looking for media apps and games. Not interested in utility + productivity apps, it seems. On the flip side, we found some incredible restaurants in San Francisco . And our strategy was validated, in a very big kind of way. Not that we doubted it one bit, but it’s always nice to have validation, to confirm that the timing is spot on .

Our plans for the expansion of our training + consulting business are well underway. And we have our sights set on investing heavily in Android, and making ALL our apps available as native Android apps in 2010. Android, here we come!!! DROID does indeed!

We are at the VIP area of bb devcon looking at all the new innovations that RIM has been up to. Its quite exciting to see so many new things coming from this company. A couple of quick thoughts:

* its great to see validation of the path that ScreamingToaster is on, with the ONE platform and web, mobile, dekstop connected experiences powered by our cloud.

* the new apis and functionality that are part of bb 5.0 break backward compatibiility. This is a double edged sword. This alienates the majority of existing bb devices out there (30 something million). It takes between 3 and 5 yrs to get the new platform today become prevalent (from a market size pespective). So for new development, an ISV must ask “should I support 5.0 or just switch to android?”. The bb browser is still not on webkit and 5.0 will not run on the bulk of existing devices and these new apis + services will require new skills/knowledge. So why not switch to android? Its been around for a while now and its got lots of awesome apis and tooling and capabilities.

* rim’s strength is really b2b. And these new apis and services will definitely help that segment. However, b2c, to me, seems to be a really difficult battle for this company, given apple, google, and next year microsoft’s presence (with win7 mobile and their own hardware).

More thoughts to come upon further reflection . We are excited about the demo later on tonight!!! I hope all the right people will be watching.

This post was created at this location.

We got here safe . There are 1200 people in the conference this year, which is up from 700 registrants last year.

Here are some pics of the event.

Welcome -

This is where the Dev Challenge will be held –

Lots of floors dedicated to the event –

Registration desk –

Bean bags everywhere –

Hydration stations everywhere –

Cyber zones with bean bags -

This post was created at this location.