So we decided to break our silence; we are busy with something that would really interest the internet and mobile userbase at the same time, we had a few client consultancies that we are wrapping up sooner to get set for our next move.  am in a position not to reveal more of our plans, but announcements will follow shortly.

We are also in the process of building our infrastructure to accomodate a larger team to serve you better - once set - will catch you all with good news and some goodies. Till then Happy Halloween

The links to the downloads:

OTA install: http://www.dollars5.com/OTA/mediaPlayer.jad

Files for desktop manager install:
ZIP: http://www.dollars5.com/downloads/blackberry/mediaPlayer/mediaPlayer.zip
COD: http://www.dollars5.com/downloads/blackberry/mediaPlayer/mediaPlayer.cod
ALX: http://www.dollars5.com/downloads/blackberry/mediaPlayer/mediaPlayer.alx

The following improvements are done:

1] Radio streaming - fully Blackberry friendly, with background playback. Can also play media located on web (example mp3 shared over http - no delay - plays instantly) - default two sample stations are added (a) Nation Radio - a streaming internet radio station, (b) Dollars5 sample audio - mp3 located on server streamed instantly unlike Blackberry player which downloads and plays.
2] ID3 tags in playlists
3] Crossfade between songs (beta implementation)
4] Quick find for searching in the playlist
5] Keyboard navigation in playlist (8800 and 8300 only - requires QWERTY keyboard)
6] Advanced speaker modes (requires 4.2.1 OS) - stream audio to phone speaker, handsfree speaker, headset, both (headset and handsfree) and bluetooth headset (no A2DP support in Blackberries atp)
7] UI enhancements for better selection
8] Optimizations for improved performance in background mode and while playing songs
9] Improved shuffle logic for media player
10] Better search logic for files search and UI indications
11] Minor bug fixes.

To test more Internet radio stations, we have compiled a list with contributions from our beta testers at http://dollars5.com/munity/viewtopic.php?t=56 If you get many statios to work - please help us build the list.

You can also trysteraming podcasts - for example you can Stream the TwiT podcast from

http://aolradio.podcast.aol.com/twit/TWiT0102H.mp3

With your valuable feedback - we can get more iprovements.

Thanks.

Thanks all for your support and continued use of our products and services.

To clear off some doubts:

• Your personal information that we might have gathered through forums, blog and other points will not be disclosed to any party for any reason what so ever
• Existing Mobile service/product customers will experience the same customer support and free life long updates as already announced
• Teh development on existing products will continue
• Current consulting or contract services will continue without any delay or compromise in quality (applies to both web and mobile consulting services)
• Existing partners will remain as partners till the agreed period and we look forward for continued relationship further too

What to expect from now:

• Exciting, new, improved products and services for mobile as well as web technologies
• We have been doing web development on contract basis only of direct inquiries, soon there will be a professional service launched to handle such contracts
• The people at Great Innovus are bringing us their expertise with them and help us improve on the quality we deliver through our products and services
• More mobile Open Source Software, Open web designs and Web Open Source Software. Yep, we all love Open Source. The primary driving force for this acquisition is our quality work on Meme or Lame Magazine site for Great Innovus Solutions Private Limited, India. It is a Pligg CMS based project stressing on citizen mediaship.

Sure this is a good move for our company and a beneficiary present to our customers.

We have some channel partners discussiong to feature the products to sell at their online store, sooner this should be finalized, facilitating clients to make purchase from various popular stores.

Sooner you can expect v1.1 for the other products too.

The source PSD file is available from the Forums as ZIP archive.

Realted post at Pligg Forums: http://forums.pligg.com/showthread.php?t=5469

The major additions to the new versions are the change in the Licensing system where the key will be all caps alpha-numeric and all problems that were caused with the license system are now fixed. Also in-order to reduce the delay in obtaining the key we have come-up with a new License system where user after his purchase can get the key immediately through e-mail after redirected from PayPal.

Hope the existing customers and prospective customers will like the new improvements. Suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

Thanks all for your contributions.

Free Software Magazine’s Editor In Chief Tony Mobily interviews Eric about the C&D letter and gets to the bottom of what is happening with this copyright battle

It seems like FSM is recommending this issue to popular OSS pundits and ringing a warning bell to such events, EFF is also been contacted related to support for this issue if it requires any legal intervention. Eric in his interview with FSM editor, has detailed the history and the inner happenings of the issue and they all clearly point to the direction that legally Pligg has many evidances supporting them. Also noted is that many supporters of Pligg are trying to file an opposition to the SuperGu’s copyright application, we will keep this blog entry updated in the events following. Also noted is many generous people have poured their promisses for providing monetary support if it requires legal intervention. There is also a rumor that a popular OSS advocate is looking into this issue - but no official confirmation yet (clue: SCO vs IBM lawsuit)

You too can show your support by blogging about this issue, calling EFF offices and reporting on such things or conveying this issue and license violations to your local FSF chapters.

read more | digg story

More details available from the Digg story at http://digg.com/tech_news/SuperGu_Copyrights_Open_Source_Pligg_Code_Sends_C_D and the original Pligg Forum post at http://www.pligg.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5023 or from the Pligg Blog at http://pligg.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8080/

We have already brought up the issue of SuperGu author trying to defame Pligg by bad-mouthing about this noble project at Digg through his inaccurate submissions, more details available from Pligg forum at http://www.pligg.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4637

The most funny part is that he seems to claim copyright for the “Powered by” phrase and RSS icon is his own invention - what a retard!!!

We hope EFF, FSF and other OSS supporters show their support to Pligg and get them out of trouble.

read more | digg story

A blogger - Crackberry Addict; has written a detailed review titled “Voice memo software roundup” - the blog post compares Send Voice note that is bundled with Blackberry Pearl, Voice Recorder+ from SHAPE services - a notable software publisher for mobiles and vNotes. The author has presented a feature by feature comparison, also have compared various other factors of customer support options, upgrades of features, involvement of publisher etc to rank these software. Fortunately we had been awarded 8.5/10 and declared Winner and the runner up falling short whole 2 points - Thanks for the rewards - it is totally refreshing and motivating to us as a relatively new mobile software publisher starting operations just 2 months back. We would love to know the reason why we lost that 1.5 points too and if suggestions are provided - we are sure to improve to get 100% customer satisfaction with our products.

The best reward to us are the kind words of praise that we hear from our customers during support sessions with them, at forums and recommendation that they provide to their friends - thanks all for the faith you have in our products and us.

Thanks again.