TinyController: Control Your BlackBerry from Your PC or Mac via USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth

by Ronen Halevy on November 17th, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Posted in Desktop Utilities Featured News Utilities

 

Over the years there have been quite a few apps that let you control your BlackBerry from your PC. The latest to come to my attention (thanks Jaybo!) is TinyController by CompactByte. TinyController simply gives you no frills control of your BlackBerry smartphone from your PC or Mac through a USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth connection between the devices. The app is also focused on speed instead of features which is a different spin.

The best part is that TinyController offers up a 14 day free trial for you to give it a spin. This is because not all apps can work over such an app like BBM Groups so you should definitely try it out before you make the plunge. You can read more about it at www.tinycontroller.com or pick it up in App World for $9.99.

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BlackBerry OS 7.1 Mobile Hotspot Feature Caught on Video

 

The much awaited mobile Wi-Fi hotspot feature in OS 7.1 was spotted not to long ago. Now bjxiaoc.cn (via N4BB) has followed up with a video preview of the feature. Nothing crazy new to see but lots of you have been asking questions about it. Check it out below:

Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video Link

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BlackBerry OS 7.1 Wi-Fi Mobile Hotspot Feature Caught on Camera

 

We first saw the Wi-Fi mobile hotspot feature slipping into early betas of BlackBerry OS 6.1 that turned into OS 7.0. Then RIM yanked it out for the 7.0 release versions promising vaguely that it was coming later while not talking about it. Now @bjxiaoc let us know that they scored (Chinese link) pictures of the new Mobile Hotspot feature running on a BlackBerry Torch 9810 with OS 7.1. Hopefully OS 7.1 is still scheduled for release later this year and will be packing this feature and carriers won’t try to charge an arm and a leg for it.

 

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RIM Explains how to Secure Your BlackBerry PlayBook & Wi-Fi Sharing

I still remember when RIM was handing out BlackBerry PlayBook’s at BlackBerry World many of them were setup by users to share files over Wi-Fi with no passwords. While some users may be smart enough to set a device password on their PlayBook it may not be necessary for all users. On the other hand Wi-Fi sharing passwords should be turned on for 99% of use cases. If you turn on Wi-Fi sharing on your BlackBerry PlayBook to share files over Wi-Fi and don’t setup a password then anybody on the same Wi-Fi network can access your PlayBooks media files including pictures, documents, videos, etc. Not good…

RIM was kind enough to put together a simple graphical tutorial on how to setup a BlackBerry PlayBook devices password and Wi-Fi sharing password. If you need help setting one up after reading their guide on it let us know in the comments.

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My favorite feature is a new app to conserve Wi-Fi. I have been using it stand alone for months and I LOVE IT! There are other tools that turn your Wi-Fi on and off based on the cellphone tower you are connected to but Fixmo managed to get simplicity down. It simply works…

Features of Fixmo Tools v2.5 include:

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Here is what T-Mobile’s rep had to say:

A maintenance release from RIM is expected for the T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 in November 2011. That update will include Wi-Fi Calling functionality. With the update, the Bold 9900 will have Wi-Fi Calling performance and benefits similar to T-Mobile’s other Wi-Fi Calling-enabled BlackBerry devices.

Anybody else waiting for the update?

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Anybody want to take a guess at how much carriers are going to try and jack us for a “BlackBerry Hotspot” add-on to our data plans? I hear AT&T wants a bazillion dollars…

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BlackBerry Curve 9360 Also Sporting Wi-Fi Mobile Hotspot

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I know quite a few of you are waiting for RIM to release such a feature. Let us know why!

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Over the years there have been a few solutions that allow you to stream music to your BlackBerry from your PC. I am not sure what happened to the biggest player Music With Me but now there is a new solution called MusicRoom. This app lets you stream music from your music folder to your BlackBerry while you are at home. That means you can tap into your large music collection on your PC from your BlackBerry. Its a cool idea and something I am hoping gets refined to work over wireless networks too. I simply like the fact that you don’t have to use iTunes or Windows Media Player.

 

Features include:

Check out MusicRoom at www.musicroomapp.com or in App World for $5.99

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