Posted on August 26, 2008, at 8:38 am .
MTN has launched the BlackBerry 8320 and BlackBerry 8120 to South African customers, expanding on their existing GPS versions of the Curve and the Pearl. It’s been awhile since we had heard from MTN, but it’s good to see the African market is still getting some of the newer devices, but will they be getting the BlackBerry Bold any time soon? RIM’s COO Don Morrison has high hopes for their progress into Africa, and a BlackBerry 9000 launch there could go a long ways. Find more info on the MTN BlackBerry 8320 here (available in gold and black) and the BlackBerry 8120 here (available in titanium and black).
(via ITNewsAfrica)
Posted on August 26, 2008, at 8:04 am .
The latest report from mobile advertising agency AdMob ran through some numbers based on the four billion ads they’ve served up. As you can see, Nokia remains top dog in mobile browsing activity, capturing a solid 34% of the global share thanks primarily to heavy adoption in Africa and Asia, followed up closely by Openwave (AKA WAP) at 29%. BlackBerry took a sad little 3% slice of the pie, right along side Motorola, Palm’s and Apple’s browsers. The BlackBerry 8300 and BlackBerry 8100 are still on the American Top Ten handsets list, though the top four spots are taken by Motorola. Even internationally, the Pearl does alright, getting 9th. place. In terms of geography, Indonesia has seen about ten times more traffic than last year, and Asia on the whole has seen a significant increase in activity.
(AdMob via Electronista)
Posted on August 25, 2008, at 4:10 pm .
I just got wind of this free new service from Positive Networks which authenticates log-ins by calling the user’s phone number. Just answer your phone after logging-in and hit the pound key to finish the process. PhoneFactor has just partnered up with LogMeIn to get this service out there for free to existing subscribers, who already enjoy secure remote desktop access. This is a dead simple and easy way for enterprises to ensure only the right people are getting into the network, and nice little bonus to folks who are already using LogMeIn. Try out PhoneFactor for free here.
(via BusinessWire)
Posted on August 25, 2008, at 3:08 pm .
QuickBooks, a financial app that had previously been anchored to the desktop, is now going mobile with BlackBerry and the iPhone. Financial data fed in through their service will now be available via web on your BlackBerry at IntuitLabs.com. Using the mobile site, users will be able to review accounts receivable and payable, vendor and customer locations through Google Maps, profit and loss numbers, and lots more. For an initial foray into mobilizing software, a website seems like a sound way to go.
(via MarketWatch)
Posted on August 25, 2008, at 11:44 am .
If you weren’t already keeping tabs on the U.S. elections news through Viigo, Google now has a mobile site to help you keep up to date. The site’s not much to look at but there’s plenty there, including links to McCain and Obama’s YouTube video channels, check out what they’re reading through Google Reader, the latest election news items, and even mobile maps around convention centres. Head on over to m.google.com/elections on your BlackBerry to get all the latest coverage and info.
(via Official Google Mobile Blog)
Posted on August 25, 2008, at 11:14 am .
Telstra’s been trickling out their BlackBerry Bold to enterprise customers for a few weeks now, but it looks like they’re holding off on giving out any more until the next software upgrade which should fix some streaming video issues.
“RIM is developing a software upgrade to optimize media streaming on the device,” Telstra spokesman Peter Taylor said. “This free firmware upgrade is around the corner and a handful of customers have chosen to wait for this before rolling out the new BlackBerry Bold to their teams. … “The BlackBerry Bold has not experienced any issues with bugs at all. All four local carriers will be launching the product, Telstra and Optus both currently have the product available in the marketplace,” a RIM Australia spokesperson said. “It’s very common for different carriers and networks to have specific requirements for software. Handset manufacturers then tailor software specifically for a network or a carrier.”
AT&T customers are still glaring at us Canadians and our shiny new toys, as they’re dealing with the exact same kind of of software delays. Optus has had the Bold publicly available for some time now, without any issues to report whatsoever. Obviously different carriers will have different requirements, which accounts for the different launch dates internationally. We can only hope that American customers won’t also have to wait until September for the first big patch before the Bold is released.
(via Australian IT)
Posted on August 25, 2008, at 8:22 am .
Back in 1991, the National Association of Broadcasters attempted to lobby the FCC against pay-to-use news services over cellular networks, which would have been bad news for BlackBerry if it had gone through.
The NAB said that the cellular operators are misusing their spectrum. “Cellular spectrum should be reserved for the two-way communication for which it is designed,” said the NAB. “One-way transmission of news, sports, weather and traffic would be a misuse of this spectrum and a needless duplication of broadcast services.”
Yep, the NAB didn’t want any data services sent over cell networks, which would include that handy push e-mail we all know and love today. Too bad for them that one didn’t pan out, eh? Think they would have smartened up over the last decade? Guess again. They’re still combating the use of wireless white space by Google, Dell Microsoft and others for data services for fear of its interference with existing broadcasting in the spectrum – essentially the same premise as back in ‘91. Good luck with that one, guys.
Thanks Josep!
(BNET via Saschameinrath)
Posted on August 25, 2008, at 7:35 am .
A new BlackBerry theme came out today for the Pearl, Curve and 8800-series which will tickle pink any nostalgic gamers out there. Every icon is an animated sprite from a certain game involving certain Italian plumbers stomping on certain turtles attempting to rescue a certain princess. While “Classic Video Game Theme” might be a thinly-veiled attempt to evade IP lawyers, it’s still a slick looking theme. As far as I’m concerned, it’s only a matter of time before Nintendo’s legal banhammer comes down on this one, so pick it up while you can!
Zen style
Today style
Icon style
Posted on August 25, 2008, at 7:03 am .
RBC’s Michael Abramsky is encouraging investors to look beyond the BlackBerry Bold as an indicator of RIM’s future progress, citing the BlackBerry 8200 (Kickstart) and BlackBerry 9500 (Thunder) as the big things to be looking forward to.
Abramsky considers ‘concerns over BlackBerry Bold’s pricing, features vs. iPhone 3G as overdone,’ arguing that the Bold is ‘an evolutionary 3G Blackberry targeted at upgraders and prosumers/business users while the iPhone 3G is a consumer-focused device targeted at media-centric
Smartphone consumers.’
The ongoing iPhone 3G comparison is a little bit off – we definitely felt more at home putting the BlackBerry 9000 against the Nokia E71. The real head-butting won’t come between Apple and RIM, Abarmsky argues, but rather between the two of them and Nokia and Motorola. They are the bigger fish in the consumer pond, and could easily become targets as RIM and Apple gain traction in that market. Abramsky’s holding an ‘outperform’ rating for RIM’s stock with a $165 price target.
(via Barron’s)
