I’ve been writing about the cloud lately and remotely hosted files. Quite a few Blackberry users already use the cloud to backup contacts and calendars either with Google Sync or mIQ. I recently discovered two new Blackberry cloud apps that have significant potential… one for managing cloud hosted files and another for streaming your Mp3s or discovering new music.
Glide Engage
Glide Engage v. 1.0 is a free app for the Storm, Tour and Bold 9700 (as well as an Android flavor). It is intended to operate somewhat like Twitter but with a much higher character limit and the ability to post multimedia (a la Google Buzz). Frankly, I wasn’t interested at all in the “engage” element of the app. Instead, I noticed that you can browse the 30 free gigs of cloud storage they give each user that I wrote about four days ago. This is nifty…
…but you can’t seem to do anything with your files through the Blackberry. I thought I’d be able to download, attach, delete and rename files. Nope. You can view thumbnails of the documents that are too small to be legible on the Blackberry screen. Maybe someone can figure this out and comment on this blog post because I’m really curious why these features aren’t baked into the app. I assume that they’re in development.
To create a Glide account and claim your 30 free gigs of cloud storage, visit http://glideos.com/. To download the free Blackberry app, point your Blackberry’s browser to http://glideos.com/download/glideengage.jad.
GrooveShark Mobile
GrooveShark mobile requires a premium GrooveShark account ($3/month, discussed below) and allows Blackberries to tap into GrooveShark’s music library and a user’s own cloud-hosted music library. It streams the music with high sound quality and creating playlists is a breeze. (I’m listening to Roger Waters’ Radio Waves as I type this.) You can also create your playlists on the computer and launch them with the app. Also, this app, like the desktop web version I wrote about yesterday, allows you to play a “Radio” mode similar to the Pandora and Slacker apps. GrooveShark mobile allows unlimited skips.
The GrooveShark mobile app is well designed and easy to use. It is much more polished than the Glide Engage app. Where I think GrooveShark is going wrong is the “pay $3/month to play music you already own” model. Frankly, most Blackberry owners can accommodate their music libraries on their MicroSD cards and preserve battery life by not streaming data. For this app to take off, I think GrooveShark should follow the UberTwitter and IM+ app model and have visual advertisements in the app and drop the monthly charge.
To get started with GrooveShark, visit http://grooveshark.com.
Closing Remarks
These apps have the potential to be really cool. Even without the apps, I recommend both services even if you only intend to use them on the computer. If you have any opinions on the Glide Engage or GrooveShark apps, leave a comment. I’ll see if I can get the developers’ attention.
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Jon Mallin
Founder of Tech Bottle Blog. Attorney & Amateur Blogger. B.A. University of Michigan 1997 and J.D. NYU School of Law 2000.
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