Zumobi Comes to Blackberry

No iPhone 2.0 yet? Me neither. I’m sticking with my Blackberry Pearl until January when my T-Mobile contract runs out. (I’m nothing if not practical.) The iPhone news is killing me though, so I thought I would spread a little love for the other smartphone for a change:

Zumobi has come to the Blackberry at last.

I’ve been interested in Zumobi for some time and have been blogging about it on Channel 10 for awhile now. (I tried it on RWW, too, but I think that audience is more wrapped up in the iPhone, so it fizzled.) So, of course when I saw the news today, I was darned excited.

Why care about Zumobi? Well, despite what you hear in the blogosphere, the entire world does not have an iPhone yet. Yes, iPhone is important; yes it’s amazing; yes, it’s game changing…but that doesn’t mean that innovation should stop for the other platforms.

If you’re unfamiliar with Zumobi, this demo will give you the idea:

Basically, the software gives you a unique way to browse the web – through the use of tiles. This format, ideal for small screens, displays websites as widgetized small squares which you “browse” by zooming in on them. From the app’s configuration menu, you can choose which tiles you want from a gallery of choices and you can also make your own from any RSS feed.

How does Zumobi fare now that it’s been ported to Blackberry? Well CNet complained that loading Twitter and Facebook apps were slow – I’m installing it now, so I’ll get back with you on this later today as to whether this is true or not.

To get Zumobi for your Blackberry, you need to go to get.zumobi.com from your Blackberry’s browser. Signing up for the service via the website will not work – you’ll receive the SMS message, but clicking the link will give you the message that your phone is not supported.

Zumobi currently only supports Blackberry models 8100, 8300, and 8800.