Posts tagged blackberry
The Confusion Behind Choosing An OS
Jul 26th
With my job I meet people all the time who come from different walks of the cellphone world.
Some refuse to take the data plunge being fully content with their lack of connectivity outside of just voice calls, while others can’t (and sometimes won’t) live without it. But a huge similarity that I have found is that most have no idea why they use the phone they do. Sure, there are the respected fanboys that follow each platform religiously, who can list you 25 reasons off their heads why they use the phone they do, but I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about the average users who bought their phone because they were influenced by peers to do so, NOT because they researched the platform and decided based on personal needs. You would be surprised to find out how many people fall into the latter category, those are the ones who don’t really know the given devices full potential, live vicariously through other people’s apps of choice, and won’t “explore” the device out of fear of “bricking” (rendering the device useless) it.
And how could I forget, the device users who are itching to switch, but don’t know why. They get a Blackberry for BBM, than switch to iPhone for the apps, now, are itching to switch to Android for the customization because all of their friends are doing it. All the while not really taking the time to feel the OS out and find out what makes it unique and popular. These users don’t really do personal research, they ask friends vague questions and decide on a whim, making it very hard to develop or maintain any sort of brand/OS loyalty.
I for one use a Blackberry 9700 as my primary device for communication because hands down it is arguably the best for this, RIM knows this and leverages it every chance they get. I used to use an iPhone 3G S as a secondary line for time-wasting and music, but as of recent have switched to Android for the simple reason of trying something new. My friends know me as a simplistic user who rarely uses day to day apps, focusing more on twitter, IM, e-mail and voice calls (yes, people still make them). Which is why OS isn’t as important to me as functionality.
Recently I had a discussion with a friend in regards to Android and the strides it is taking in the smart phone world. She is a devout Blackberry user with an itch for something more and speaks candidly on how limited she is with the aging Blackberry OS. Only recently did she cave with Android, borrowing an HTC Legend running Android 2.1 (which is arguably the hottest Android device available in the Canadian market, available exclusively through Bell Mobility) from a friend to give the ever popular platform a whirl. She points out that yes it is an amazing device for customization, functionality and form factor, but that the ease of customization can get to be overwhelming at times, which may be actually be a deterring factor in her and others decision process. iPhone and Blackberry OS are two established platforms that despite being somewhat customizable, still offer a sense of mobile structure in a world full of uneducated mobile users. Other than cosmetic changes, there is only so much that can be done with them in terms of true OS customization, allowing users to get comfortable faster.
Could this be why users love them so much, because they love the structure that is provided? Or have they grown so accustomed to the two notorious OS’s that they are simply afraid of change.
It doesn’t matter who you ask, most answers won’t be alike. People choose what they choose for what ever reason personal preference or not, but there always seems to be that confused moment at decision time where they are left asking: “Do I venture into the world of a new OS and retrain myself? Or Do I stick to the comfort of what I’ve grown to know and love so much”?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Follow me on twitterThis Week In BlackBerry 7/18-7/24
Jul 25th
So there’s been a lot of BlackBerry rumors this week including the possibility of upcoming successors to the Storm 2 and Bold 9700. We thought we already had the answer to this, but now we are again wondering which current BlackBerry devices will be getting BlackBerry 6. Have devices with 512MB RAM become the new standard for the BlackBerry 6 OS? It seems like that might now be the case, but we really don’t know for sure as of yet. If that’s what it is, then all of this BlackBerry 6 hype will be just a tease to most BlackBerry subscribers who are early on in their contracts, except the Bold 9650 owners. Does that mean the Curve 3G will only support OS 5? How will you feel if u end up having to wait 6 to 8 months to upgrade to a new BlackBerry, just to get BlackBerry 6? Let’s hope this doesn’t end up being the case. Hit the jump to see what you may have missed this week in BlackBerry>>
News, rumors & leaks
First Image of BlackBerry 9780 Appears
BlackBerry Bold 9700 sequel coming!?
inPulse Blackberry Watch Launching Soon?
Verizon’s BlackBerry Storm 2 won’t see BlackBerry 6?
BlackBerry Storm 3 to be released this year?
BlackBerry 9800 Hitting AT&T on the 15th of August?
Inside BlackBerry Teases Us With BlackBerry 6 Multimedia Screenshots!
Blackberry Curve 9300 3G Headed To Rogers
Blackberry Curve 9300 Headed To Bell Mobility
Apps
Übertwitter Beta-8/v0.98 Officially Released!
Foursquare for Blackberry V1.9 Now Available
BlackBerry App Review: BerryReader
editorial
News, rumors & leaks
First Image of BlackBerry 9780 Appears
BlackBerry Bold 9700 sequel coming!?
inPulse Blackberry Watch Launching Soon?
Verizon’s BlackBerry Storm 2 won’t see BlackBerry 6?
BlackBerry Storm 3 to be released this year?
BlackBerry 9800 Hitting AT&T on the 15th of August?
Inside BlackBerry Teases Us With BlackBerry 6 Multimedia Screenshots!
Blackberry Curve 9300 3G Headed To Rogers
Blackberry Curve 9300 Headed To Bell Mobility
Apps
Übertwitter Beta-8/v0.98 Officially Released!
Foursquare for Blackberry V1.9 Now Available
BlackBerry App Review: BerryReader
editorial
BlackBerry App Review: BerryReader
Jul 24th
For the longest time I had used Unread for all my RSS needs on my BlackBerry. It does a great job syncing with Google Reader and was generally very good at displaying feeds accurately. However, problems with scrolling jumpiness always left something to be desired so I have been keeping an eye out for other comprable applications.
Recently Bellshare introduced the application BerryReader to BlackBerry users. I immediately picked up the trial version of the application to give it a go and compare it to Unread. Read on for my full review of BerryReader for BlackBerry smartphones.
In the feed view all articles flood in chronologically. Each article has it’s own thumbnail which shows the main image in the article if there is one, otherwise the thumbnail will show up blank. Bellshare has done a great job with picture loading by including a circular loading animation to give users a little feedback as to whether or not the picture is loading. There is also the option to preload images which is great for offline viewing.
If you want you can set up BerryReader to update in the background and notify you whenever there are stories to be read via an alert, homescreen badge, or via message app integration.
For those looking for Google Reader on the go this is hands down, the best option for reading feeds on your BlackBerry. BerryReader is extremely eye-pleasing and interface-consistent and it makes reading RSS feeds on BlackBerry a pleasure.
Features
- Access your All Items, Starred Items, Shared Items, a single feed or a single folder for reading
- Automatically update in the background every 15, 30, 45 minutes, 1 or 3 hours
- Manage (add/remove) subscriptions from your device
- Quickly toggle an article’s Starred, Like, Unread and Shared labels or edit the article’s tags for later filtering.
- Read the current list even while offline, changes to labels and tags will be cached and automatically synced when network coverage is regained
- Get notified whenever new articles are available (Includes custom LED color support through BerryBuzz)
- Integrates into the device’s messages list showing a BerryReader item whenever new articles are available
- Easily switch between viewing of all or unread items only
- Choose between compact and full article list layout and black on white or white on black color scheme
- Automatically load thumbnails and full images for every article (Fully preload for offline viewing or when needed to conserve bandwidth)
- Load 10, 20, 35, 50 or 75 items at once into the list. Load more items into the list by clicking the ‘more’ link at the end of the list.
- Articles are automatically marked as read when opened
- Mark all items in the current list as read with a single command
- Swipe left/right on an article header to mark read/star the article (touchscreen devices only)
- Hover over an article to open a shortcut popup for easy changing star/like/tag of an article (touchscreen devices only)
- Fully optimized and compressed synchronization to keep your data usage at a minimum
- Optimized for minimum memory and battery usage
BerryReader is available from Bellshare for $9.95. I understand that for many of you this may sound pricey. While I’d love to see this app ring in at $5 instead of $10, if you love Google Reader it’s a small price to pay for great integration.
Head over to Bellshare and take the 10-day trial for a spin.
First Image of BlackBerry 9780 Appears
Jul 23rd
Hot on the heels of news of a Bold 9700 successor, we now have what appears to be the first image of the device courtesy of Salomondrin. It looks exactly like a Bold 9700 except that the chrome bezel is darker. As far as the internals go, the BlackBerry 9780 is supposedly packing the same 512MB of flash memory as the Bold 9650 and the upcoming 9800 slider. The 9780 is also said to be running BlackBerry 6 which begs the question as to whether or not current 9700s will get OS 6.
I gotta admit, this device makes me nervous for current Bold 9700 owners and their hopes of getting BlackBerry 6. If the only difference between this and the current Bold is the extra memory, I’ve got to wonder if OS 6 will run on anything with less than 512MB of memory. Either way, I know I’m not the only one to be excited to see BlackBerry 6 hitting a non-touchscreen BlackBerry and hopefully Salomondrin will get his hands on some footage of this thing running. We’ll keep you posted.
[Via Salomondrin]
BlackBerry Bold 9700 sequel coming!?
Jul 23rd

A UAProf doc has been spotted showing a BlackBerry 9780. If anyone had to make an educated guess, the 9780 will be the Onyx 2. Any 97xx will be the same form factor as the 9700 that we all know and love. We spoke about a UAProf doc showing a 9700a in the past, but that type of model # didn’t make much sense. Since we’ve seen the Tour replaced with the Bold 9650 and there are currently some rumors floating around about a refresh of the Storm 2, it would be the right time for RIM to be working on a newer Onyx device. It seems RIM is going to push all flagship devices out with 512MB Ram, possibly to ready them for BlackBerry 6. The last we heard, the 9700 will be getting BlackBerry 6 but it is possible that things have changed. Stay tuned for more details as time unfolds.
[Via: CrackBerry]
inPulse Blackberry Watch Launching Soon?
Jul 23rd
There is so much secrecy around this watch, I want it just to say I have it. What was once a rumor has turned into a reality: a watch that connects and functions with your beloved Blackberry device. And for all those who opted into the pre-order a few months ago, that time could be just around the corner.
inPulse posted a teaser on their blog, showing the first round of watches being received for final assembly and testing. Still no exact launch date is given, but based on this post it could be hopefully by the end of the summer! More details to follow.
[via inPulse]
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Übertwitter Beta-8/v0.98 Officially Released!
Jul 23rd
ÜberTwitter Beta-8/v0.98 has been released. I haven’t used ÜberTwitter in several months now and the changelog isn’t yet available, so I really can’t comment on the changes as of yet. There does seem to be some hype on Twitter right now, so if you happen to notice any changes please drop a comment. See the official word from ÜberTwitter below..
Beta-8 has been released!
We will post the details of the new version shortly, in the mean time, please download it and give it a spin!
Thu, 07/22/2010 – 23:44 — CodeWardenBeta-8 is now available for download! This release includes a completely new user interface, along with substantial new features and capabilities.
Beta-8 can be downloaded here: http://www.ubertwitter.com/bb/download.php
Verizon’s BlackBerry Storm 2 won’t see BlackBerry 6?
Jul 21st
Gizmofusion got word today from one of their informants that Verizon stopped testing BlackBerry 6 on the Storm 2. If this information is true, likely reasons are the Storm 2′s 256MB of RAM and or the Storm 3 possibly coming this year, which we’ve been hearing rumors about. There’s no word yet if other Storm 2 carriers have stopped testing BlackBerry 6, so we’ll have to sit tight and see what happens.
[Via: BBLeaks, Gizmofusion]
BlackBerry 9800 Hitting AT&T on the 15th of August?
Jul 21st
It’s no secret that the BlackBerry 9800 slider is coming fast for an official launch on AT&T, but VentureBeat has come up with a date to set your sights on. That date is August 15th, and it comes from John Albright of the BlackBerry Partners Fund who mentioned the date of a new BlackBerry’s release. Later he confirmed our suspicions of the device being the 9800 by naming off features such as a touchscreen with slide-out keyboard.
The biggest news that Albright revealed is that the 9800 has already been distributed to developers, hopefully giving them the tools they need to have their apps ready for the official launch of BlackBerry 6. RIM hasn’t been very good at getting devices out to developers in the past, but if this is true it looks like things are changing on that front.
[Via VentureBeat]
Inside BlackBerry Teases Us With BlackBerry 6 Multimedia Screenshots!
Jul 20th
The Official BlackBerry Blog has posted up some screenshots of BlackBerry 6′s media center showing some great new features and add-ons. For one thing, BlackBerry 6 will come with a YouTube app which I know we’ve all been waiting for. There is also the addition of a podcast app which is nice, but I’m still thinking about the YouTube app, as there are already decent podcast apps out for BlackBerry. The camera also has some new controls, and photo organization & sharing has been made much easier. Inside BlackBerry says, “BlackBerry 6 will also allow you to select groups of pictures to share, copy, paste or delete.” I sure hope you can select groups of pictures and move them into a selected folder as well.
RIM has now gone more in-depth with features of BlackBerry 6 than recent leaks have. Seems to me like RIM is trying to hold onto their customer base, especially with the recent release of the iPhone 4. Ok RIM, we know #BB6iscoming, but when?
For more details and pics of BlackBerry 6′s media capabilities, click on over to Inside BlackBerry.
[Source, Inside BlackBerry, CrackBerry]











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