Smart Holiday Gift Ideas for BlackBerry Smartphone

Dec. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- Holiday gift giving is supposed to be fun. But with the pressures of less time, less money and certainly less patience for crowed malls and the endless online options, appsFX suggests an alternative to the traditional gift this year -- apps for your BlackBerry.

Smartphones have outgrown those so called “vanilla phones.” In fact, Park Associates, an industry research company, expects the number of Smartphones to reach 1.1 billion by 2013.

Given those numbers, you’re sure to know someone who’s using a BlackBerry Smartphone.  And for $20 or less, you can get some really cool and functional stocking stuffer applications.

Concerned about Distracted Driving?

Asking your loved one not to text, email, or even talk on the phone while driving should be on the top of everyone’s mind this holiday season.  Distracted driving as a result of cell-phone use has become an epidemic.

LifeSaver is the first BlackBerry® Distracted Driving (DD) application to take a zero‒tolerance approach to texting, emailing, and making phone calls while driving.  LifeSaver detects when the vehicle is in motion, as well as what speed the vehicle is traveling and based on user defined speed limits, the LifeSaver application is activated and the phone is locked down.  

AutoResponder is another application that can be used while driving or anytime you want to respond automatically to an incoming call or text message.

Is your teen’s texting out of control?

Texting among teens, as well as younger children is on the rise. According to Nielson, the average teen sends/receives approximately 3,000 texts per month.  That’s a lot of texting.  And since texting is a real-time, one–on–one medium, what’s being said can be private.  As parents you should be concerned.  Endless newspaper and news reports have shown how texting that has gotten out of hand, resulting in a tragic event.  As concerned parents, appsFX created this new app called TextNanny.

TextNanny monitors, reports, and restricts phone access for kids and teens.  TextNanny allows parents the flexibility to schedule when their child can and cannot use their BlackBerry smartphone such as during school hours, study time or after bed-time hours.  Yet even during restricted use periods, your child will always be allowed to make an important call: such as to you, 911 or other defined emergency numbers.

Parents also have the option to monitor unacceptable behavior, conversations and language being sent via text messaging.  For parents concerned about inappropriate text messaging related to drugs, sex or “sexting,” TextNanny will cross references all incoming/outgoing messages against urban phrase dictionaries to alert against improper content.

Hate pulling your battery?

BlackBerry users know about “pulling” their battery in order to reboot and free up valuable memory and increase performance.

HotFix allows users to restart their BlackBerry through the click of a button, without pulling their battery.  HotFix not only allows users to restart when they need to, but schedule a reboot at more convenient times such as while their sleeping.

Never miss an important text or email message again!

Have you ever missed that important text or email from your spouse or child?  Sometimes the standard alerts are just not enough.

Text911 and Mail911 are real-time alert applications that allow you to set key monitoring criterion that trigger alerts when an important message arrives so you never miss an important text or email.  

These apps allow you to add as many profiles as you like for family, friends or business contacts.  Based on your defined pre-set triggers, when you receive a text or email with the key word(s), phrase or phone number, a combination of alerts will notify you.  Most importantly, these alerts will continue to notify you until you actually address the alert.

911 Notification at your finger tip

Accidents happen.  Or, sometimes you’re just in an uncomfortable situation where you feel your safety is at risk.  With a push of a button, Rescue911 will automatically broadcast an urgent/emergency text, email, and your GPS location directly to a pre-defined contacts list, as well as dial 911 or an alternative emergency number.  This app truly provides you with a “Panic Button” on their BlackBerry.

These apps and others can be found on Blackberry App World, Mobihand, Crackberry and other app stores that sell BlackBerry applications. Or, to test drive these or any of the appsFX products, send an email to: trials1@appsfx.com.

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appsFX is a leading developer of innovative BlackBerry applications that enhances the productivity, efficiency and utility of personal and professional Smartphones.