Skydeck now supports the official releases of OS 5.0 for the BlackBerry.
What does that mean? If you have a brand new Storm, or an old Storm that just got upgraded to OS 5.0, go to m.skydeck.com on your phone and download the latest version of Skydeck.
If you downloaded one of the “unofficial” releases of OS 5.0 for your Curve/Tour/Bold/etc., we’re sorry, but Skydeck may not work for you yet.
UPDATE: The version in BlackBerry Appworld right now does not work on OS5.0. We’ve submitted the latest release to but it takes some time to get approval. The latest version of Skydeck is always available at m.skydeck.com.
Today T-Mobile became the first carrier in the US to offer customers the following choice: sign a new 2 year contract and get a cheap phone, or bring your own phone to the network and get the same plan for a lower monthly fee, with no commitment.
This is really interesting. Bear with me.
For years, US carriers have locked customers into long-term contracts by offering them a ‘cheap’ new phone. It seems like a great deal, until you realize that the carrier has crippled the phone. Some features don’t work at all. Some require you to pay the carrier an extra fee. And there are lots of restrictions on third-party apps (like Skydeck).
So why don’t more people pay up for the unlocked, uncensored version of their phone? (more…)
What do you do when you get a call from a number that you don’t recognize? At best it’s annoying, and it can be much much worse.
Do you answer and sometimes wish you hadn’t? Or do you let it go to voicemail and hope they leave a message?
Starting today on Blackberry smartphones, Skydeck gives you another option: ignore the call and Skydeck will tell you who rang. (If you have the right phone and carrier, we’ll let you know while the phone is still ringing.) (more…)
There’s a battle brewing for control of your mobile address book. Don’t be surprised. Tap Tap Revolution or Twitterberry may get the love, but the address book is the most valuable app on your phone.
Phone numbers are not like email addresses. Those are often sensible or have a display name attached, and the message itself may have a signature. Xobni has shown that you can build an address book on the fly in Outlook by mining the headers and content of your email. Phone numbers are almost random. Area codes are losing their meaning thanks to virtual numbers and number portability; no major mobile operator supports Caller Name Display; there is no (official) directory of cell phone numbers; and you can’t sign a phone call. Unless you have a gift for memorizing 10-digit numbers, you have to maintain your own little routing table.
It’s tedious enough to stop some people from switching carrier if they can’t take their address book with them. In the US, most phones do not have swappable SIM cards. Until recently, few allowed third-party apps to access the address book, and almost none support SyncML out of the box. (This is why popular European services like Zyb, Soocial, and Funambol are not well known in the US – they were all originally based on SyncML.) Some carriers offer wireless backup and restore, but only between their own phones. Some even block you from sharing contacts one a time over Bluetooth. To transfer your address book, you have to hack your phone with BitPim or buy a $40 gizmo like Backup-Pal or CellStik.
But there’s much more at stake than “churn.” (more…)
Today we’re announcing a mashup of Skydeck and Google Voice that gives you the core features of both for free.
First, in case you don’t know, what is Skydeck and what is Google Voice?
Skydeck is your cell phone online. All your calls, text messages, voicemails and contacts are backed up on Skydeck.com and you can search, read, and reply to your messages (by voice or by text) from Skydeck as if it were your cell phone.
There’s no change to your phone number or the way you use your phone. The Skydeck app on your phone backs up all of your contacts, calls and texts to Skydeck.com. If you don’t answer a call, Skydeck takes a voicemail, converts the speech to text, and sends you an email. If you are at your desk, you can call or text people from Skydeck. The call appears to come from your cell phone, so your friends will know who it is. (more…)
Today Skydeck is announcing full support for phones powered by Windows Mobile 6.0 or later.
If you have a Verizon Touch, a Sprint Mogul or Treo 800w, a T-Mobile Dash, an AT&T Q or Blackjack or any other recent Windows Mobile phone, you can now enjoy all the features of Skydeck. All of your calls, all of your text messages, and all your cell phone contacts will be mirrored on skydeck.com as they happen, and you can search, read, and reply to your messages from Skydeck as if it were your cell phone.
Some features of Skydeck like voicemail transcription and Internet calling are compatible with almost every cell phone in the US, but before now you needed a Blackberry or Android smartphone to get the works.
Current users can download the new Windows Mobile Sync Client under ‘My Account’, and first-timers can get Skydeck at http://skydeck.com/signup.
At Skydeck we’ve been playing around with Google Latitude, the new feature of Google Maps for mobile phones that allows you to share your location with friends.
The Latitude idea has been floating around for years, but … it’s very hard to do well on one model of cell phone; there are actually hundreds of different kinds; there is no obvious revenue model; cell phone and Internet companies cannot agree on how to split the non-obvious revenue; and privacy advocates think the whole idea is insane. Google has cut through all of this by ignoring revenue for now, spending a fortune to build clients for many different kinds of phones as well as systems that can figure out the location of those phones without the help of cell phone companies, and promising to do no evil.
It works really well. If you connect to me, I can see where you are at all times. No more “I’m here – where are you?” phone calls. At a sprawling conference in Barcelona, the Skydeck team were able to keep track of each other and co-ordinate meetings. And my wife knows when I am on my way home. (more…)
A few weeks ago, Skydeck went to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. MWC is the largest trade show devoted to our industry and we were there to meet with several companies interested in working with us to launch Skydeck outside the US.
I wish we could say that we saw lots of cool new phones and applications at MWC, but they were few and far between. As many people have pointed out, some of the most interesting companies in the industry were not exhibiting in Barcelona at all (Apple), or doing invitation-only demos (Palm), or making cameo appearances in the booths of other companies (Google).
Most conspicuously absent? You, the consumer – someone who might actually want to buy a cool new phone or application. (more…)
We’ve had lots of great responses to Skydeck’s new features (check out the reviews) and lots of feature suggestions! Please keep them coming.
We’ve also been testing multiple price plans and combinations, including free trials, free and premium versions of the service, and gated access. For now we’ve settled on a 30-day free trial with unlimited access – that’s unlimited domestic calling in the US and unlimited voicemail transcription – so tell all your friends. (If you were not offered a free trial during the last two weeks of testing, we’ll be sending you an email to offer you one month free.)
If there’s one thing we hate more than dialing voicemail, it’s figuring out voicemail menus. We’ve just added a section to the ‘My Account’ page to let you manage your voicemail preferences from the web. You can choose text message alerts, email, or both, and you can even turn off transcription if you wish.
Skydeck now supports the official releases of OS 5.0 for the BlackBerry. 
Today T-Mobile became the first carrier in the US to offer customers the following choice: sign a new 2 year contract and get a cheap phone, or bring your own phone to the network and get the same plan for a lower monthly fee, with no commitment.
What do you do when you get a call from a number that you don’t recognize? At best it’s annoying, and it can be much much worse.