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- RIM is NOT Abandoning The Consumer Market, Despite What You’ve Heard
- Free All In One Remote Controls Your PC From Your PlayBook (Android)
- Free PhotoFunia Lets You Have Fun With Pictures
- BlackBerry Messenger v6.2.0.33 Released in Beta Zone
- Cubyrinth 3D Puzzle Game Brought to the BlackBerry PlayBook
- Pesktop Brings Many Desktop Features to your PlayBook
- Access Your SkyDrive Files with Cloud Explorer for Microsoft SkyDrive
- IronPlane HD Arcade Shooter Game for BlackBerry Smartphones
| RIM is NOT Abandoning The Consumer Market, Despite What You’ve Heard Posted: 30 Mar 2012 01:08 PM PDT All those Chicken Littles out there doing the Muppet Run in frantic circles about how RIM is “abandoning the consumer market” need to calm down and have some dip. That is NOT what was said, nor was it implied. Financial earnings calls are open to a lot of interpretation, and it seems like a lot of doom-seeking RIM bashers are leaping to two hugely-mistaken conclusions. Let’s address them, shall we? Mistaken conclusion #1: RIM is abandoning the consumer market. Simply not true. Thorsten stated that BlackBerry cannot succeed and be everything to all people. Their customer base still tends to prioritize security, efficiency, and productivity over more “mainstream” consumer needs like media consumption and entertainment, and it makes sense for RIM to refocus on winning back the ground they’ve lost in their strongest market. RIM makes their money primarily from their infrastructure and service offerings, not handset sales. The business world has become very media-centric and mobile-minded, people. The lines between the “traditional” BlackBerry business user’s needs and the “average” consumer’s needs has become quite narrow and blurred. They are much more closely-related now than they were even just 4 years ago. That being said, RIM will also be focusing on bringing current feature-phone users into the smartphone age by releasing more entry-level BB7 devices in the coming months. This will expand the BlackBerry brand’s market presence and boost consumer brand awareness worldwide. Indonesia has been a key market for RIM the past few years, and RIM continues to perform well in that market. RIM’s goal is to get these new users to increase their tech savvy and become advanced users who want to upgrade to a top-tier device. (“PSSST. Hey. Kid. Want a BlackBerry? The first one’s free cuz I like ya….”) Hey – it worked on me. I started on an 8300, went to the 9700, and now I’m on the 9900. Flagship all the way, baby! Heins admitted in his address that RIM was late to the “Bring Your Own Device” game, having depended on corporate IT departments to require the use of BlackBerries as their employees’ only option. They aim to regain ground in this area by making BB10 devices the devices people WANT to bring. The point that many panic-mongers are completely missing is that BYOD sits squarely astride the fence between the enterprise and individual consumer markets. People want to to carry a single device, be it for work or personal use. RIM wants BB10 to make people choose BlackBerry as their daily driver at work and at play. Service solutions like BlackBerry Balance make it an easier choice for both employees and IT departments to choose BlackBerry, and Mobile Fusion makes it easier for companies to support iOS and Android devices while still retaining their BES infrastructure (and keep paying RIM for the pleasure). Heins also understands that RIM cannot do this alone; it needs help from major partners to offer the consumer and supplemental enterprise applications and services customers are clamoring for. *COUGH*COUGH*NETFLIX*SKYPE*COUGH* RIM is making a lot of progress getting developers to sign up, giving out BB10 development alpha devices and free PlayBooks to encourage participation. Over 6,000 new devs had signed on recently when Thorsten spoke at DevCon Asia, and RIM is going to focus on bringing more major partners on board with BB10. How anyone gets “RIM is abandoning consumers” from this I can’t quite figure. People hear what they want to hear, I guess, and it seems like lots of people just want RIM to fail.  RIM Under Fire Mistaken conclusion #2: Thorsten Heins is considering selling RIM. Thorsten Heins is in his tenth week as the new RIM CEO, and it is pretty clear that the “new office” smell has faded. Thor has ordered an extensive review of the company, and is not pleased with some of the things he’s found so far. Lack of accountability for poor performance, especially at the management level, grossly inefficient processes and behaviors, to name a few, have opened Thorsten’s eyes to the true scope of the vision quest he has embarked upon. “We are committed to turning the company around”, he stated, in direct response to the question of selling company. He went on to say that should the review process point towards that as the best option for the company, all options will be considered, “but that’s not the direction we’re going.”He hasn’t ruled it out completely, but neither has he posted a “For Sale” sign on the lawn. Heins admitted that the company “was on the road to fragmentation”. He understands that RIM has a lot of work to do before they get to that point, and they’re going to give it everything they’ve got. “We will leave no stone unturned and make the best decision for RIM and stakeholders.” Watch your back, people; Thor’s cleaning house. Expect the bad elements in RIM’s workforce and processes to be scurrying away like roaches when the lights come on. So, for the nonce, RIM is not for sale. It’s a “charming little fixer-upper” in dire need of some TLC from TH. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by rrrebo for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 4:08 pm. | RIM is NOT Abandoning The Consumer Market, Despite What You’ve Heard | Leave a comment |
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| Free All In One Remote Controls Your PC From Your PlayBook (Android) Posted: 30 Mar 2012 01:02 PM PDT
Its nice to see some decent Android ports coming to PlayBook OS 2.0. The latest brought to my attention is All In One Remote by Hisham Hassan Bakr. He ported the media controlling app that works for Windows, Mac, and even Linux to the PlayBook and works over Wi-Fi and supposedly Bluetooth too. It offers you a touchscreen mouse to control your PC and keyboard along with things like a gamepad and other perks. It is not the most refined app and it is a port but it is also free which is a nice break! Check out All In One Remote free in App World. You will also need the server app which you can download here. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 4:02 pm. | Free All In One Remote Controls Your PC From Your PlayBook (Android) | Leave a comment |
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| Free PhotoFunia Lets You Have Fun With Pictures Posted: 30 Mar 2012 10:58 AM PDT
John let us know about PhotoFunia which has been around for a bit and recently got an update. The app lets you put your face on over 150 different scenes like the mona lisa or an astronaut. The app seems to send your pictures to their servers to find your face which is why it needs an internet connection to work. Its definitely fun to play with especially for a free app. Check out PhotoFunia in App World If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 1:58 pm. | Free PhotoFunia Lets You Have Fun With Pictures | Leave a comment |
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| BlackBerry Messenger v6.2.0.33 Released in Beta Zone Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:11 AM PDT
The Beta Zone updates keep on coming. The latest to get some love is BBM which has been updated to v6.2.0.33. This update is mostly bug fixes which you can see below:
You can find the update in the beta zone here If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 12:11 pm. | BlackBerry Messenger v6.2.0.33 Released in Beta Zone | Leave a comment |
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| Cubyrinth 3D Puzzle Game Brought to the BlackBerry PlayBook Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:05 AM PDT
Cubyrinth is a fun puzzle game that has recently been ported from iOS to the BlackBerry PlayBook. The game is a very intuitive but complex set of puzzles that you have to navigate to make your way through the Cubyrinth. It is essentially a 3D labyrinth that you have to rotate like a rubik's cube. There are 28 different Cubyrinths with 70 goals in 3 difficulty levels for loads of fun. Check out Cubyrinth in App World for $2.99, on their website, and through their demo trailer below: Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video LinkIf you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 12:05 pm. | Cubyrinth 3D Puzzle Game Brought to the BlackBerry PlayBook | Leave a comment |
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| Pesktop Brings Many Desktop Features to your PlayBook Posted: 30 Mar 2012 08:20 AM PDT Keeper let us know about his latest PlayBook project called Pesktop that was just released in App World. The new app brings lots of utilities to the PlayBook which Keeper is hoping to improve to emulate desktop utilities. For example, there are sticky notes, file exporer, calculator, image viewer, and more.
Features include:
Check out Pesktop in App World for $1.99 or let Keeper know what you think about the app in the forums! If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 11:20 am. | Pesktop Brings Many Desktop Features to your PlayBook | 2 comments |
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| Access Your SkyDrive Files with Cloud Explorer for Microsoft SkyDrive Posted: 30 Mar 2012 07:55 AM PDT
While most people I know use SugarSync or DropBox there are still a good number of people using Microsoft's SkyDrive solution. David pointed out to us that AlefSoft has released an app called Cloud Explorer for SkyDrive that gives you the ability to download and upload your SkyDrive files from your BlackBerry smartphone.
Features include:
Check out Cloud Explorer for Microsoft SkyDrive for $1.99 in App World If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 10:55 am. | Access Your SkyDrive Files with Cloud Explorer for Microsoft SkyDrive | One comment |
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| IronPlane HD Arcade Shooter Game for BlackBerry Smartphones Posted: 30 Mar 2012 07:04 AM PDT
IronPlane HD by Swanangel has actually been available for awhile but RIM recently put it in the featured app carousel which reminded me of it. IronPlane HD is a fun and surprisingly good arcade shooter style game that has you navigating your spacecraft through waves of aliens using lasers and more. Check out IronPlane HD for $2.99 in App World If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 10:04 am. | IronPlane HD Arcade Shooter Game for BlackBerry Smartphones | Leave a comment |
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