Kamis, 29 September 2011

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

RIM Celebrates 70+ Million Global BlackBerry Users With Tribute Video

Posted: 29 Sep 2011 02:45 AM PDT

 

RIM's YouTube team has been doing user testimonial videos for awhile now but they made a mash up of quite a few to celebrate their 70+ million global BlackBerry subscribers milestone. This short video gives us snapshots of 11 BlackBerry users and how they use BlackBerrys to enhance their individual, business, government, startup, and charity activities. Congrats to #TeamBlackBerry on reaching the milestone. I hope to be celebrating 100 million soon!

Here are the participants in the video:

Desert Chill – the ice-cream van in the desert, sending out fun facts and information blasts by BBM to its loyal customers

UPMC Mercy – the medical facility using BlackBerry smartphone alerts to improve patient care

Jakarta Dog Rescue – using BBM for dog rescue

Button & Bean – an entrepreneur running a successful business and being a mum

Shelli Henderson – used the BlackBerry LIVESTRONG.COM Calorie Counter app to take control of her life and lose 7 st (98 lbs)

Jonathan Field, Horsemen – using BlackBerry smartphones to access the global equestrian community to offer help and advice

Chicago Children's Choir – using the BlackBerry smartphone browser and multi-tabs to search and share music

Herrle's Country Farm Market – using BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook to encourage customers to enjoy local and seasonal fresh produce

South Yorkshire Police, UK – providing more efficient and effective visible policing using BlackBerry smartphones

Hyatt Regency, Johannesburg – creating a community for Hyatt users using BlackBerry smartphones

Caris Foundation – using BlackBerry smartphones and BBM to support aid efforts around the world

Check out the video below:


Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video Link

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 29, 2011, 5:45 am. | RIM Celebrates 70+ Million Global BlackBerry Users With Tribute Video | Leave a comment |


Two Days Left to Win One of 8 Plantronics BackBeat 903+ Bluetooth Stereo Headphones!

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 03:08 PM PDT

 Plantronics BackBeat 903 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones Plantronics BackBeat 903 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones 2

There are only two days left in September which means that our BerryReview September Rewards Contest is coming to an end! If you were living under a rock the whole month you may have missed our announcement that we are giving away EIGHT of my favorite Bluetooth Stereo Headphones in September! Those headphones could be yours and here are the details…

These Plantronics BackBeat 903+ Bluetooth stereo headphones (Plantronics | Amazon) are sweet cans that work seamlessly with your BlackBerry for any music of video app like Slacker or BBM Music along with handling calls. They are still hands down the best Bluetooth headphones I have found and you can win one of eight pairs from your favorite BlackBerry news site in our September Rewards Contest! If Bluetooth headphone are not your thing you can swap them for a $50 Amazon or PayPal gift certificate for the prize of your choice!

Read on for the details!

All you have to do to enter the BerryReview Rewards Contest for September is simply leave a comment, forum post, and/or tip submission during the month of September 2011. We are also including all "Retweets" of BerryReview articles on Twitter as extra entries to win! The selection process involves us choosing a finalist from each of the categories (comments, forum posts, tips, Retweets) and then having our judge select the winner out of those four. Every comment, forum post, Retweet, and/or tip submission counts as another entry so get cracking!

You must be registered and logged in to BerryReview when leaving comments for them to be included in the contest and the winner will be chosen by the BerryReview staff in the beginning of October 2011. You can check out all the details and official rules in the announcement post. If you have any questions comments leave a comment on that post.

Start a New Forum Discussion Visit the forums

So what are you waiting for? Get cracking!

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 6:08 pm. | Two Days Left to Win One of 8 Plantronics BackBeat 903+ Bluetooth Stereo Headphones! | 8 comments |


BlackBerry Curve 9360 Now on T-Mobiles Website With UMA – Currently Out of Stock…

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 09:23 AM PDT

T-Mobile 9360

Today is the day T-Mobile told us they would officially be selling the BlackBerry Curve 9360 and true to their word the phone is now live on their website. The only catch is that it is currently out of stock… I am not sure what to make of that but at least the website confirms that it is $79.99 after a $50 mail in rebate. The other interesting thing is that the product description clearly specifies that it has both Mobile AND Wi-Fi calling which would mean it has UMA support. That is something that as far as I know is not included on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 from T-Mobile.

Check out the Black BlackBerry Curve 9360 on T-Mobile's website or you can wait for the Merlot version that is coming soon on October 12th.

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 12:23 pm. | BlackBerry Curve 9360 Now on T-Mobiles Website With UMA – Currently Out of Stock… | 3 comments |


Twitter 2.1 Screenshot – Coming Next Week With Multiple Account Support!

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 08:57 AM PDT

twitter for BlackBerry 2.1 screenshot

RIM gave Twitter for BlackBerry a nice overhaul in v2.0 but there is one feature I have been waiting for. I simply use @BerryReview as my Twitter account because I cannot be signed into both @RonenHalevy and @BerryReview at the same time. The latest screenshot scored by N4BB shows the new Twitter for BlackBerry v2.1 that is coming. Also rumored to be included in the v2.1 update are:

  • Multiple account support
  • Last tweet preview no longer available
  • Slight UI change
  • Releasing next week in Beta Zone

I am excited to try out the new multiple account support soon!

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 11:57 am. | Twitter 2.1 Screenshot – Coming Next Week With Multiple Account Support! | One comment |


RIM Hiring Developer Evangelists – Alec Saunders Wants to Win Devs Back

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 08:47 AM PDT

kidsuperman

We just let you know about Alec Saunders joining RIM as their Vice President of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development. Alec went into a bit more detail about his new gig on his blog. It turns out that he joined RIM's QNX subsidiary on July 25th as Vice President of Developer Relations and now he Vice President of Developer Relations for all of RIM. He truly sums up his job in one paragraph:

Over the last few days I've been in San Francisco at the Mobilize conference, and speaking with developers.   It's clear from those conversations that the primary problem we face is lack of support from application developers.  My team's job is to correct that – to win the hearts and minds of mobile developers again.

As we said before we wish Alec and his team the best of luck and will help in any way we can! Alec also mentioned that RIM is hiring Developer Evangelists which he describes as "technical articulate people with a passion for mobile platforms" which sorts of describes many of our readers including me. :) Contact Alec at alec dot saunders at rim dot com or on his blog if you are interested!

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 11:47 am. | RIM Hiring Developer Evangelists – Alec Saunders Wants to Win Devs Back | 7 comments |


RIM’s New VP of Developer Relations Alec Saunders Talks Out!

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 08:23 AM PDT

ITEXPO East 2010 - Alec Saunders

With Mike Kirkup leaving RIM as Director of Developer Relations there was a void RIM needed to fill. That void seems to have been filled by Alec Saunders, RIM's new VP of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development. Alec took some time to talk to the official BlackBerry Developer Blog about what he sees for the future of RIM's BlackBerry OS on QNX and BlackBerry 7. His mandate is to drive growth for RIM's BlackBerry OS QNX powered BlackBerry platforms which is exactly what we want to hear.

I am loving the fact that Alec Saunders is prolifically involved online and you can find out quite a bit by Google-ing his name. He comes with a history from Microsoft and QNX and has been through a string of companies since. Check out the full details on Alec Saunders on the BlackBerry DevBlog or follow him on Twitter.

Welcome to #TeamBlackBerry Alec! We wish you the best of luck and are rooting for your success!

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 11:23 am. | RIM’s New VP of Developer Relations Alec Saunders Talks Out! | 2 comments |


Latest PlayBook Android Player Details Confirm What RIM Has Shown

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 07:36 AM PDT

 IMG_00000263

We know that RIM is launching the BlackBerry PlayBook Android Player shortly after DevCon in October but details around the Player are limited. Thing.co.uk got some details from DroidCon at the Easter European Mobile Monday Developer Summit in Romania and they show some of the limitations of the Android Player. Some publications are saying these limitations will be off putting but they sort of make sense for a virtualized player that is divorced from Google's proprietary Android apps and services.

The thing is the whole purpose of the Android Player for the PlayBook is to bring the HUGE chunk of apps that would run just fine and make them super easy to port to QNX. I remember at BlackBerry World they were showing off 10+ apps that they didn't even need the source code to run on the PlayBook. These are a majority of apps that are created for Android like the WordPress app I want or the IMDB app. The list could continue of apps that don't use these API's like: Twitter, Weather Apps, Amazon.com shopping, Radio streaming apps, sports apps, eBay, eBook readers, and much much more! Most of these apps would run just fine or would require small tweaks. I am truly hoping RIM creates a 1 click port and submit to App World app for Android devs… :)

Here are the details of what wont work:

  • Live Wallpapers
    • This seems sort of obvious since they cannot give the Android Player control of the wallpaper
  • SIP and SIP VoIP
    • This one is a shame but I doubted that RIM would allow it. I am hoping RIM adds their own SIP API. These API's are simply helper API's on Android for creating a SIP application which hopefully RIM can find a way to replicate.
  • Anything built using the Android Native Development Kit (NDK)
    • The whole idea of the PlayBook NDK is to allow developers to port games and such NDK C++ apps to the PlayBook. They would lose the performance of the Android NDK and low level hardware access if it was virtualized.
  • Apps containing only App Widgets 
    • Another relatively obvious one since the whole idea of the Android Player is to keep it segregated and not core to the homescreen.
  • Apps containing more than one activity to the Android Launcher
    • I have been trying to dig into this more but it seems that these are apps that try to change how Android acts natively which is not something you can easily virtualize.
  • Any apps that rely on Google Maps, Google Marketplace in-app billing, Google Android text to speech engine, or the Android cloud to device messaging system
    • These are value added services that Google adds to Android only on their Google Powered Android devices. There is no way RIM could include them without a deal with Google. Hopefully RIM will at least give developers an easy way to tie into App World in app billing.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 10:36 am. | Latest PlayBook Android Player Details Confirm What RIM Has Shown | 7 comments |


RIM Says PlayBook Price is Holiday Promotion Not Price Reduction

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 07:08 AM PDT

playbook_02 

With select retailers in Canada and the US discounting the BlackBerry PlayBook many are wondering if this will be done across the board. Right now RIM's key launch partner, Best Buy in the US, has not discounted the device which makes many of us wonder what the story is. Turns out RIM told the BoyGenius that this is just a holiday promotion "intended to drive sell-through and increased adoption of the BlackBerry PlayBook."

Full wording from RIM below:


The official retail price of BlackBerry PlayBook has not changed.  However, as mentioned on the Q2 earnings call on Sept. 15th,  we have a number promotional plans in place for the fall with our retail partners that are intended to drive sell-through and increased adoption of the BlackBerry PlayBook.  We are already starting to see some of these promotions being implemented in the form of instant rebates and gift cards within the consumer channel, and expect these promotions to continue into the holiday season.  The BlackBerry PlayBook has established itself as a high-performance tablet, and we are confident that these activities, along with the upcoming software upgrade, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, will help to generate an increase in demand and sell through of the BlackBerry PlayBook over the upcoming months.

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 10:08 am. | RIM Says PlayBook Price is Holiday Promotion Not Price Reduction | 4 comments |


BlackBerry PlayBook $299+$5 Shipping at 1SaleADay Today Only

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 06:42 AM PDT

1saleaday blackberry PlayBook

This is nowhere near the usually discounted sale deals you find on 1SaleADay but it is competitive with the pricing from Staples and Office Depot. I got an email this morning from 1SaleADay that they are carrying the BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB model for $299 with $4.99 shipping. Not a bad deal if you wanted to get it online though you might be better off just going to a Staples.

Check it out at 1SaleADay

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 9:42 am. | BlackBerry PlayBook $299+$5 Shipping at 1SaleADay Today Only | Leave a comment |


PlayBook Twitter Client Blaq Updated to v1.5 Packed with Goodies

Posted: 28 Sep 2011 05:48 AM PDT

Blaq

Blaq has updated their self named Twitter client for the BlackBerry PlayBook with loads of new features. The new version 1.5 add a new indicator that tells you when you have a notification pending which is new. I don't know of any other third party app that does that which is slick though I wish RIM would open up the notification system to developers.

You can pick up Blaq v1.5 in App World for $2.99 here.

Here is the change log for Blaq v1.5 thanks to Kal @PocketBerry


Application

  • Refreshing new icon – Crisp lines, bold colors. Baselime has done it again.
  • Native notifications – Native notifications provide an easy way of knowing when you need to get back to Blaq. It's also configurable. More on that later.

Main View

  • Real-time Indicator – To make it easy to understand if your tweets are updating in real time, we've added a convenient indicator.
  • Read without interruption – Timelines (Home, Mentions and Direct Messages) now pause once you being scrolling so you have a chance to catch up without new tweets pushing you down.

Tweets

  • Link Bar Code – now you can scan a bar code of a link in a tweet with two taps.
  • Translate – Sometimes you just need to know what was said by another user in another language.
  • Solid states for retweet and favorite – Now you'll know for sure.

View Tweets, Followers, Listed and Following

  • Now you can tap on tweets, followers or following for any user. Just click a user's name or search for it and tap on the tweet count, follower count or following count to check it out!

Options

  • General
    • Keep screen on – It is now possible to keep the screen on while reading tweets. Don't forget to charge, though.
  • Notifications
    • Toggle all – Turn native notifications on or off with one tap or toggle the following:
      • New Tweets
      • New Mentions
      • New Direct Messages
      • New Followers – Yep, notification of new followers – right within Blaq
  • Accounts
  • Add a new account
  • Set the current account (account switch)
  • Delete account

Appearance

  • Font – Make Blaq yours. Customize your font to change things up a bit.
  • Font Size – Default font too small? Make it bigger? It's that simple.

Bug Fixes

  • White screen encountered when device time is incorrect (DST workaround)
  • User can only tweet 139 characters instead of 140
  • Increase tweet count in lists (now at 75 tweets)
  • WebView pops up when no link in tweet
  • Convo view height not restored after pull down on tweet card
  • Performance sluggish when scrolling timelines
  • Times on display and in timelines are not updated
  • Search results are cleared and public timeline shows. Previous results are kept and updated.
  • Compose Tweet character count inaccurate
  • Report and Block buttons sometimes not functional
  • Friend picker shows below tweet card when composing a new tweet
  • Direct Message icon showing as new for direct messages sent outside of application
  • Tweet card pulls down for compose when scrolling convo list
  • Keyboard disappears when selecting a friend from friend picker
  • Timelines randomly scroll to the bottom
  • Application does not reorient itself when device is upside down
  • Conversation view takes a long time to load
  • Minor internal issues

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 28, 2011, 8:48 am. | PlayBook Twitter Client Blaq Updated to v1.5 Packed with Goodies | One comment |


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