Hot on the heels of the BlackBerry Bold comes the news that the company behind it is to start up its own venture capital firm. And if it’s a way of besting Apple’s iFund, then the Canadians win, by fifty million buckeroonies. The BlackBerry Partners Fund is a bunk up between RIM and Thomson Reuters, and has earmarked US$150 million for mobile applications and services for mobile platforms including BlackBerry. Full press release after the jump.
The good news: A coalition of 800 local TV stations are lobbying to get a mobile TV standard approved by the ATSC. Rather than pay Verizon or AT&T a boatload of money to get MediaFLO content, you will just buy a product with a receiver chip and tune in whatever’s on. The bad news: Broadcasters want this because TiVo, cable and that damned internet have done away with their ad revenue, and mobile TV seems like the last good place to stick inline ads that you will have to watch.
Yes, we recommend you pick up the Thomson (TMS) V888 slider—not because it supports a ton of video/file formats including Divx and .pdf. Not because it has a four-inch screen or uses inexpensive flash media for storage. And certainly not because its SNES-like control pad and vague “game emulator.”
You should get the V888 because it’s a slider. Yeah. Like a late night run to a cheap burger joint. Like the electric slide. Like 2001 all over again. The V888 will run you about $132 if you’re willing to walk to China to get it. But we recommend you slide there. Disclaimer: It’s early and we’ve had no coffee this morning. [zol via pmptoday] More »
