Today I came across a list of what LaptopMag.com is calling the "top ten BlackBerry apps," and since I've been known to offer up my own occasional lists of BlackBerry software downloads—and there are a few on the list I haven't covered in the past—I decided to bring the post to your attention.
Readers of my weekly BlackBerry tips and tricks stories likely know that I tend to include only free BlackBerry apps in my mobile software download stories. And this is for good reason. I hate paying for software—both mobile and desktop apps—because I can almost always find a comparable program that doesn't require me to open my wallet. And experience has also taught me that the four-letter F-word—get your mind out of the gutter, I'm talking about "free"—inevitably attracts hordes of readers. (I'm also cheap, but that's besides the point...)
Though I've already reviewed six out of the ten applications on LaptopMag.com's list, there's a few I've purposely never included. First of all, LaptopMag.com's list, in alphabetical order:
As mentioned above, I've profiled all but four of the applications in my various free BlackBerry software articles: CellFire, EQO, Quickoffice Office Suite and ShoZu.
Because I favor free software over applications you have to pay for, I've never included any Quickoffice products in my articles. Quickoffice makes software that lets PDA and smartphone users create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, among others, directly on their handsets. BlackBerry users can by default open such documents but the inability to edit or create them has been the focus of complaints for some time.
Until recently, Quickoffice didn't offer any BlackBerry-specific products either, but its acquisition of DynoPlex reportedly changed that—though I still don't see any products for BlackBerry on the company's site. In fact, I don't see "Quickoffice Office Suite for BlackBerry" listed anywhere on the company's site…though a press release from last May suggests such a product, listed simply as eOffice for BlackBerry, is available.
Regardless, if the product cost the $70 LaptopMag.com says it does, I simply don't see myself getting my money's worth out of it. I used a Palm Treo 750 for a couple of months, and very rarely found myself creating or editing documents. So even if the product does exist—and I'm not 100 percent sure it does—it's too expensive, especially considering the fact that the upcoming release of BlackBerry OS v4.5 will supposedly include a stripped-down version of DataViz's Documents to Go to enable some document editing and creation functionality.
Next up: CellFire. This application sends "virtual coupons" to your BlackBerry device whenever you update so you can save money at such well-known establishments as McDonald's, Domino's Pizza and Sears, according to LaptopMag.com. So if you're a frequent patron of these and other chain stores, you may want to check the app out. No paper or printer is needed, as each coupon features a code that can be shown to retailers for confirmation. Unfortunately, you won't find too many local coupons, as the lineup of companies CellFire's working with is still relatively small.
I've used CellFire before in the past, and unlike the Quickoffice software, it's free. However, I just don't find it particularly useful, as
