In this week’s update we have added 24 hour time formatting to Viira capabilities. Appointments, both when edited and when displayed in Viira’s Day View will display in 24hr time format for all of you using Viira in countries that traditionally use 24 hour time format (or all of you who have set your device to 24hr mode). For example instead of appearing as “2:00pm-3:00pm” your appointments will now show as “14:00-15:00″.

The 24hr time formatting kicks in automatically when Viira detects that your device is set to display times in 24hr format. Otherwise the familiar 12 hour time format is used as before.

As always, this update is a free upgrade to all buyers of the full version and can be downloaded OTA by pointing you BlackBerry to our BlackBerry site www.kartamobile.com/bb.

Are you trying to download Viira OTA and seeing a “500 Internal Server Error” right after you click the link to install Viira? Turns out this cryptic error is caused by a security setting on the BES server that manages your BlackBerry device. In effect this setting ends up preventing 3rd party apps like Viira or the Viira Outlook Suite BlackBerry client to be installed over-the-air directly from our site.

For all of you using a corporate BlackBerry and seeing this error message, here are a few ways to get around this:

1. Install via BlackBerry Desktop Software. Both Viira and the Viira Outlook Suite provide a ZIPed installer which you can download and easily install by using the BlackBerry Desktop Software that comes with your device.  Just click on the Download tab above for a list of download options.
2. Add kartamobile.com to your TLS. Under Options->Security Options->Advanced Security Options->TLS, add kartamobile.com and www.kartamobile.com to the list of trusted hosts. Then go to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb from your BlackBerry and perform the download again.
3. Use an alternative BlackBerry browser to download and install. On OS 5.0 and earlier BlackBerry devices like the Bold 9700 for instance, you have a choice of different browser configurations that you can use. Open your browser, select Options->General Properties and then select a different option under Default Browser. A good option would be “<Your carrier name> browser” or the Hotspot browser. Click save, close your browser then open it again and attempt to download OTA again.

We hope you find these tips helpful!

We strive to constantly update Viira’s feature set and bring the most powerful set of tools and constructs at your fingertips so you can stay productive and get things done in your day-to-day life. The freshly released Viira 2.2.3, while not a major upgrade, contains a handful of small improvements that you just might find useful.

Here is what’s new in the Viira 2.2.3 mini-update:

• Email summary of up to 300 characters. You requested it, and we added it. You can increase the email summary in email tasks by going to Settings->Email Tasks.
• Intelligent startup view selector: the 15 minute rule.  Sometimes you want to leave Viira and come back right away to exactly where you left things off. A good example of this is when you want to do a quick copy and paste from another application on your BlackBerry. In other cases you want Viira to start in your favourite view, as specified in Settings->General Settings. Viira’s new intelligent startup view selector strikes a smart balance between the two by introducint the 15 minute rule: if you have left Viira for more than 15 minutes, it starts in your preferred view as selected in the Settings. Otherwise, it opens up exactly where you left things off, ensuring a smooth transition to those moments when you want to leave Viira for a moment or two and come right back to where you were.
• Day View starts in Today.  Due to certain performance optimizations we did in Viira 2.2, sometimes Viira’s Day View opened in the last day you viewed before closing Viira. In Viira 2.2.3, we fixed this and Day View starts in today, unless your have left Viira for less than 15 minutes (see 15 minute rule above) in which case Day View will be where you left it off before leaving Viira. Remember, You can always navigate to today’s Day View by selecting “Today” from the context menu.

You can download the latest version 2.2.3 OTA by pointing your BlackBerry’s browser to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb or by clicking on the Download tab above.

This article describes what to do in order to make sure your Viira data is transitioned successfully when you upgrade the device software (OS) on your BlackBerry.

Many of you are “taking the plunge” and upgrading the OS on your BlackBerry devices. While there are many benefits from doing this, the steps below will ensure that your Viira data follows you along on your freshly-upgraded BlackBerry.

It is important to keep in mind that upgrading the OS on your BlackBerry starts with erasing all data from your device . A new OS version is essentially a fresh start, and the new OS versions require a clean blank slate to start from. This is why it is critical to perform a full device backup before upgrading your OS. Otherwise, your old data may simply be lost forever.

Here are the steps to take in order to ensure your Viira data is restored correctly on your upgraded device:

1. Backup Your Viira Data. The BlackBerry Desktop Software performs a quick, one-click back up of all your device data which will automaticlly back up your Viira data in the process as well. More information can be found from our Backup/Restore How-To Article.

Note that data backup/restore is only avaialable on the full version of Viira.

2. Perform the OS upgrade. We won’t provide much details here. You know what you are doing here.

3. Re-install Viira. After your OS upgrade is complete you will need to install Viira on your newly-upgraded device. The backup file contains only application data and not the applications themselves, so performing a data restore will not re-install Viira.

Restoring your Viira data (step 4) requires that Viira is properly installed on your device, otherwise the restore will not take effect.

You can download the latest version of Viira by pointing your BlackBerry to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb, or by visiting the downloads section on our site.

4. Restore your Viira data. At this point your can either perform a full restore all of of your pre-upgrade device’s data, or select only to restore Viira’s data. It really depends on what makes most sense in your case. You can select to to restore only Viira’s data by using the advanced backup/restore tips we describe in our Backup/Restore How-To.

As version 6.0 of the BlackBerry Deskopt Software introduced significant changes to the backup/restore UI and workflow, below is a screenshot that should give you a good visual idea of how to perform selective, Viira data-only restore on BlackBerry Desktop Software 6.0:

With your BlackBerry plugged in to your computer via USB, open the backup file you created in step 2, clicking “Select device data and settings” then click on “Viira 2″.  Pressing Restore will restore your Viira data to your BlackBerry.

We always strive to find new ways to help you stay on top of your schedule, make the most of your BlackBerry and have the most comprehensive, portable GTD system at your fingertips. With that in mind, we are excited to bring another powerful feature to help you get things done - action links.

Action links allow you to easily embed actionable chunks of information, such as phone numbers, email addresses and website links inside any task in Viira. Simply enter the phone number, email or URL in a task and Viira will automatically detect it and highlight it for you. Calling, sending an email or viewing the website link is then just a click away!

Action links are available in Viira 2.2.2, which can be downloaded OTA from our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb.

Viira 2.2 has been released and is ready for download. This update is chock-full of productivity enhancements more than any point update in Viira’s history, so make sure to check it out!

You can download Viira 2.2 from your computer, or point your BlackBerry’s browser to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb and download Viira 2.2 OTA.

Here is what is new in Viira 2.2:

• SMS Tasks. Add text messages to your portable GTD system directly from your BlackBerry’s Inbox and don’t let important information sent over SMS ever slip through the cracks. Quickly reply or pull the sender’s contact information with a click of a button!
• Enhanced UI. We have enhanced Viira’s UI to make it even more intuitive and added a navigation tabs for quicker transitions between Viira’s views. Some screenshots here, here and here.
• Fast Startup. Our engineers have drastically improved Viira’s startup time to make Viira available almost instantly after you start it!
• Touchscreen navigation. Owners of a BlackBerry Torch or Storm can now quickly switch between Viira’s views by tapping on Viira’s new navigation tabs.
• View Contact. Quickly view the full contact information of the sender of an email task with a click of a button. (OS 5.0 or later)
• Delegate a task. You requested it, we listened! In addition to being able to delegate an entire project or context, Viira now lets you delegate a single task.
• Quick link to “Today” in Day View. Quickly navigate back to your today’s commitments by selecting “Today” from the context menu in Viira’s Day View.

We have also included several small updates:

• Removed italics for Calendar appointments. Previously, Viira’s Day View displayed all calendar appointments that weren’t included in your GTD system (e.g. by giving them a project or context) in italics. We don’t feel this distinction is adding any value, so now all appointments appear the same.
• Overdue tasks do not appear in the future. Let’s face it, no one likes to be reminded of things they forgot or didn’t get to do in the past. And being reminded of what you didn’t get to complete yesterday when you are looking in the future is somewhat counterproductive. Starting with Viira 2.2, overdue tasks only appear in the Day View for today or days in the past.

As always, Viira 2.2 comes as free upgrade to all buyers of Viira 2.0 and Viira 2.1. Viira 2.2 also offers a free trial so give it a try and see for yourself how Viira can help you get things done in your day-to-day life!

Download the Viira 2.2 Free Trial

Viira 2.2 is supported on all modern BlackBerries all the way back to OS 4.6. Older versions of Viira that support OS 4.5 and earlier devices will be available for download through our mobile site, though any future feature additions will not be ported back.

We recently received our much anticipated BlackBerry Torch 9800 through our partnership with RIM, and got fast at work at making Viira available on the Torch.

The most recent version of Viira, version 2.1.2 is now available for OTA download directly from our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb. And here are some screenshots of Viira live on our Torch:

Viira 2.1.2 is also compatible with the newly-released BlackBerry Curve 9300, also known as the BlackBerry Curve 3G.

While we normally don’t comment on new devices and the excitement surrounding them, our entire dev team has been absolutely wowed by the Torch 9800. Everyone feels like it is an incredible additional to the BlackBerry roster, nothing short of a game-changer. What makes it so remarkable? In addition to much of the OS 6 goodness, we found the ability to type with precision with the pull-out QWERTY while at the same time reaching in and “working” the touchscreen makes doing almost anything incredibly fast.

To all of you migrating to a BlackBerry Torch or just joining the BlackBerry world with it, congratulations on a great acquisition. The Torch looks like an incredible platform for getting things done!

Jeff Goldman, the editor of Mobile Enterprise Magazine’s BlackBerry Central (mobileenterprisemag.com/blackberrycentral) is doing a piece on Viira and would like to feature someone who has put Viira to use in a business environment.

So drop us a line to let us know how you use Viira to stay organized and make a difference in your business for a chance to be featured in Jeff’s magazine! We will pass one of the testimonials we receive on to Jeff who will follow up and conduct a brief, 15-minute phone case-study interview with the author.

For those of you interested in being featured in Mobile Enterprise’s BlackBerry Central, you can either email us your testimonials at feedback _at_ kartamobile dot com, or just post them in the comments sections below.

We know many of you are running businesses or are high up in your organizations` hierarchies, and this could be a great opportunity to bring extra publicity (and a backlink!) to what you are doing.

The moment many of you have anxiously been awayting is now just around the corner. After months of tirelessly working on the Viira Outlook Suite and being burried in Outlook and BlackBerry OS development work, we are finally ready to launch the Outlook Suite beta.

Combined Outlook-BlackBerry environments can differ widely between installations though: some people rely on Exchange and a BES-powered company BlackBerry, while others are content with just having BIS and standalone MS Outlook. While the Viira Outlook Suite works without a problem in both cases (and actually doesn’t even need a BlackBerry data plan), we are still looking to extend the testing period for the Viira Outlook Suite in order to make sure the 1.0 version works smoothly out-of-the-box for everyone.

With that in mind, we are launching the Viira Outlook Suite Beta program. Are you comfortable playing with beta software on your computer and on your BlackBerry? Are you interested in making your opinion count in guiding the direction and feature set of the growing Viira Outlook Suite?

If your answer is yes to both, you should go ahead and give the Viira Outlook Suite beta a try. We would love to hear your thoughts on it as that would give us an idea of what works for you and what you think we can improve so that we can solidify the Viira Outlook Suite as the ultimate GTD solution out there.

Here is a quick glimpse of what the Viira Outlook Suite looks like:

Today has been a day of big announcements in the BlackBerry world. On the first day of the 2009 BlackBerry Developer Conference, RIM announced a slew of new technologies, APIs and partnerships designed to make even richer and more powerful applications a possibility on the BlackBerry platform.

Against this backdrop, we are very excited to be making our own big announcement: the public availabiity of Viira 2.0. Viira 2.0 contains many game-changing improvements that we are delighted to be bringing to you because we know that they will help you do even more with your BlackBerry and help you get things done in your day-to-day life.

Without further ado, here are the key new features in Viira 2.0:

• Next Actions. You can select the next task that needs addressing for any given project, context, in Tasks View and even for a particular day. Simply use the VolumeUp key to promote any of tasks for the project, context or day to the top position
• Email Tasks. Create a task from incoming messages so that you never forget to reply to important emails. Instantly add it to your trusted GTD system by classifying it by project, context or day. The email task will contain an embedded preview of the email to remind you what the email was all about.
• Priorities. Organize the task order for any project, context and day. Use the VolumeUp and VolumeDown key to specify which tasks come ahead of others.
• Overdue Tasks Display. A new area in the Day View displays in red tasks from previous days that have not been completed yet.
• Multiple Calendar Support. A unique, Viira-only feature is the inclusion of appointments to your GTD organizational system. Viira 2.0 seamlessly integrates with all calendar accounts on your BlackBerry (BlackBerries maintain one calendar for each configured email address) and appointments from all calendars will appear in your Day View.

We always provide a free trial, and Viira 2.0 is not an exception. For those of you who purchased Viira 1.x, Viira 2.0 will optionally import your Viira 1.x data when launched for the first time as well.

Buyers of the previous version also get special upgrade pricing - a tradition that we will continue with future releases. Buyers of Viira 1.x can buy an upgrade for $19.99.

So give Viira 2.0 a try and see for yourself what it can bring to your day-to-day life!