Google Mobile App for BlackBerry: faster, stronger, better

Today we're pleased to launch Google Mobile App for BlackBerry. It's a free download and it looks like this:

To download the App, visit m.google.com on your BlackBerry device.

Once it's installed you'll have faster search and easy access to Maps, Gmail, News, and more from Google.

So what exactly will you get?

• Fast Google search - enter queries without waiting for a browser to load
  
• Search history - easily access and amend your previous queries
  
• Google Suggest - complete queries with less typing
  
• Easy access to Google products for your phone - click once to download and install our applications for BlackBerry, and get immediate access to our web-based services
  
• Google Apps support - get direct links to your Google Apps Calendar and Documents/Spreadsheets (select Menu, Options, Use Google Apps Domain: yes, and then enter your domain name)
  
• Update alerts - learn about new versions of downloadable Google mobile applications and upgrade with just one click (Google Mobile App replaces Google Updater for BlackBerry)
  

We hope you'll enjoy using Google Mobile App.

A final tip - you can make it even easier to get all of this whenever you need it... just assign Google Mobile App to a convenience key using these instructions.

Posted by Terry Van Belle and Tim Cox, Software Engineers, Google mobile team

Wilmington, N.C. - the first major city to permanently switch TV broadcasts from analog to digital.

Wilmington, N.C., has become the first major city to permanently switch TV broadcasts from analog to digital. Most of the country will make the transition to digital TV on Feb. 17.

A crowd of media, elected officials and curious residents packed Wilmington's City Hall on Monday to watch the mayor and the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission flip a 7-foot mock switch.

The change from analog to digital jump-starts the FCC's campaign for the national transition in February. The commission is now focusing on cities with more than 15 percent of the population watching over-the-air television signals.

Over the past four months, the FCC has been at senior centers, retail outlets, festivals and farmers markets with booths touting the transition. The local airwaves were blanketed with public service announcements, but still people weren't ready.

College students were at local television stations trying to help confused viewers who started calling minutes after the switch at noon Monday. According to reports, the switch over did not go without incident for a number of television viewers. The main objective of the excercise was to identify likely problems for average viewers when the switch occurs. Based on this "experiment", a certain amount of confusion is to be expected. Hopefully, the glitches can be worked out in time for the nationwide switch.