The voice of the BlackBerry community.
After replying to Mark’s comment about BlackBerry needing an app store, it occurred to me that there are some resources right on RIM’s site that not everyone might know about. While they might not be widely publicized, there’s still a lot of info out there ripe for the picking – you just have to know where to look. Even if you’re not a noobie to the BlackBerry scene, there might be some spots here you haven’t checked out before…
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.
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)
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)
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!
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)
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