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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

PocketMac Leads Parade of MacBerry Themes

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Software developer Information Appliance Associates (IAA) leaps to the head of a line of design entrepreneurs helping Blackberry smartphone users “Macintoshify” their handhelds with the release of PocketMac Mac Themes for Blackberry. Counting on the likelihood that there are many, many Mac users who have and intend to keep using Blackberry mobile phones, the San Diego-based software maker is selling what the company claims is the first tool to transform the look and feel of a BlackBerry into a miniature Macintosh.

Available for a number of models of the Research in Motion (RIM) smartphone (with support for the Blackberry Bold on the way), PocketMac replaces the standard icons and images of the BlackBerry with those of original, yet very familiar Mac-like icons, complete with familiar colors and backgrounds, to create what some are calling a MacBerry.

“I’m a passionate Mac user. I love my Mac and I love my BlackBerry,” says IAA CTO Terrence Goggin. “We created the PocketMac MacTheme [because] all of our customers love the BlackBerry but they preferred something that reminded them of home… their Mac.”

Primarily a developer of Mac-oriented solutions, IAA’s first product, PocketMac Pro, accomplished what at the time was thought impossible-connecting a Mac to a Pocket PC. IAA then expanded into other areas of connectivity with a Microsoft Smartphone product, an iPod product and now the BlackBerry sync solution. PocketMac Mac Themes retail for $9.95.

Investigating the company’s claim to have made the “first tool” for Mac-ifying a Blackberry, we turned up a number of other products on the market, though none with the breadth of model coverage offered by PocketMac. Asked about the claim to have been “first” in this field, IAA spokesman Tim Goggin said, “We actually developed our themes over a year ago, but when we heard Apple legal was going after people who were using icons that were too close to the Mac’s we pulled the product and re-desigened our icons. The PocketMac icons are “Mac-like, but totally original.”

Below is a picture of how the PocketMac theme looks on a Blackberry handheld:

pocketmac_device

We did a survey of some of the Mac themes for Blackberry and turned up several that go for both a Macintosh look and an iPhone-style look. The screenshot below is a Mac theme for Blackberry v4.2 models and higher, available for $8.80 through ClickApps.

aaa

A developer with the handle dr_devious has offered a Leopard emulating theme for 81xx model Blackberrys at Pinstack since March.

leopard_berry

Blackberry Theme Central has a host of iPhone-style themes they call iBerrys.

iberry-7100iberry-8700

Blackberry Accessories offers iPhone themes for the 7100 and 8700 models.

Developer RojersMJ has bPhone themes available for the 8700, Pearl, Curve and 8800 model Blackberrys.

bphone

And Leopard-like themes for the Pearl and Curve can be had at Berry Review.

leopard-curvemainleopard-pearl

Here’s the full parade:

pocketmac_devicepocket_macMacBerry71leopard-pearlbb_thm_cntrlbb_thm_ctrl2iberry-7100iberry-8700leopard-curvemainleopard_berryaaabphone

About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer, musician, web designer attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

Email the author | Read more posts by Lonnie Lazar.

One comment

    I’ve tried a couple of those and can tell you that the bPhone is far and away the best set of icons and the best overall look for your Blackberry if you want it to look like a Mac. And it’s free!

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