Posted on January 30, 2009, at 2:05 pm .
Tomorrow is January 31st, or 31/01, if you prefer. Why is this day important? Well, if you’re a BES admin, it means that you have a new home on the Internet: Port3101.org. Port3101 is a forum community built by BES admins, for BES admins. And we’re not talking about just any BES admins, but industry luminaries (and occasionally BBCool contributers) like Jibi (give him a shout out for the great logo he designed! Based off of BBCool’s WES cards, true story) and NJ BlackBerry.
We’ve spent some time tooling around on Port3101, and we’re pretty impressed considering it doesn’t officially launch until tomorrow. There’s already a healthy following of contributors, and the Knowledge Base and 3101 sections are stacking up threads. It’s a little weird that the off-topic discussion area has the most posts by far, but we expect that to even out post-launch.
So check out Port3101.org and tell us what you think; we’ll be keeping a close eye on how it develops. Oh yeah, and for the newbs, Port 3101 is for outbound connections initiated by the BES to RIM’s SRP infrastructure – act like you know.
Posted on January 30, 2009, at 12:23 pm .
2009 is barely out of swaddling clothes, but it’s already time to talk about WES 2009, which takes place in sunny Orlando, Florida, from May 5th to 7th. Maybe that’s because WES 2008 was such a great show, with tonnes of people, energy and enthusiasm. Our friends in Waterloo are already banging the drum for registrations, and while I would normally ignore such requests until the last possible minute (no offense meant guys, I also have this mindset with movie rentals and filing taxes), RIM has sweetened the pot with a fairly hefty discount. If you register for WES 2009 before March 6th, you can save $400, not exactly chump change in these troubling times. We’ve included the WES registration link below, as well as links for hotel registration and a list of keynote speakers (Mikey L. and Malcolm Gladwell, yes!). See you at WES 2009!
WES 2009 Registration Page
WES 2009 Hotel Registration Page
WES 2009 Keynote Speakers List
Posted on January 30, 2009, at 11:51 am .
Press Release
Johannesburg, South Africa and Waterloo, ON – Vodacom South Africa and Research In Motion today announced the availability of the BlackBerry Storm smartphone in the South African market. The BlackBerry Storm will be available from Vodacom on January 28.
“The BlackBerry Storm is a next-generation smartphone designed to meet the communication and multimedia needs of the most demanding customers. With its renowned communications capabilities, rich multimedia features and stylish design, the BlackBerry Storm allows customers to make the most of their time on the go with a fashionable and lifestyle-friendly smartphone,” says Shameel Joosub, Managing Director, Vodacom South Africa.
The BlackBerry Storm will be available to both Vodacom’s Prepaid and Contract customers from participating Vodacom outlets, across South Africa. Customers can also call Vodacom Direct 0860 123 123 or go to www.vodacomdirect.co.za for the best deals and have the smartphone delivered to their door. Payments start as low as R59.00 per month for the BlackBerry Internet Service (Prepaid and Contract) and R98.00 for BlackBerry Enterprise Service (excluding device).
BlackBerry Storm Specifications and Preloaded Applications
Posted on January 30, 2009, at 11:29 am .
Press Release
Milan, Italy and Waterloo, Canada – Vodafone Italia and Research In Motion today announced the availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone in Italy. The new BlackBerry Curve 8900 makes keeping in touch with the office, family, and friends easy thanks to the smartphone’s extensive set of features, including: built-in Wi-Fi, a fast processor (512Mhz), GPS, and an astounding high resolution display.
The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is available now from Vodafone Italia retail stores and online at www.vodafone.it for the price of 429€. Tariff information is available after the jump.
BlackBerry Curve 8900 Tariff Information and Specifications
Posted on January 29, 2009, at 2:28 pm .
Sometimes it pays to keep a close eye on your Twitter friends. I follow BlackBerry entertainment company Blay’s Twitter feed, just to stay in the know about the latest in fun stuff for your BlackBerry. Bplay has just tweeted that they’re offering everything in the Bplay store — BlackBerry themes, BlackBerry games, and BlackBerry realtunes — for 20% off! To get the discount, you must use the coupon code ‘EMAIL20′. To help get you started, here are a few of our favorite recent Bplay offerings:
If you don’t like our suggestions, you can always head to Bplay’s website for some more BlackBerry goodness!
Posted on January 29, 2009, at 1:33 pm .
Some great, if not belated news, for all the BlackBerry Developer Conference attendees that were given an IOU for a free BlackBerry Storm during the show. One of the developers at the show has informed us that those near-forgotten devices are in the home stretch of their Odyssian journey:
We are happy to tell you that your BlackBerry Storm smartphone from the device giveaway at the BlackBerry Developer Conference has been shipped!
We hope to see you again at next year’s conference.
Sincerely,
The BlackBerry Developer Conference Team
For those keeping score at home, this post indicates an almost 3-month turnaround. But I guess you can’t look a free Storm in the mouth, especially since RIM just sold 1 million of them.
Special thanks to my main man, Rob K., for the tip!
Posted on January 28, 2009, at 4:39 pm .
It seems that Slacker has really been a hit for the BlackBerry kids out there! We received an astounding 144 responses to Monday’s post giving away a one month subscription to Slacker Radio Plus. Due to the overwhelming response, we took a little extra time to talk to our friends over at Slacker and FortyThree to ask for more licenses. Guess what? They doubled up, so now twenty of you will be receiving a one month subscription to Slacker Radio Plus! So here are your twenty winners, congratulations!
Matt
Piano123
Clint
JerryD
Al
Marty
brayndeded
MaDGirL
skelzer
Kevin Stephenson
Dean G.
conedude13
mischaka
Stacey
Angie C
Chad D
Leena
ATLcrackberry
Jerry H Browning
Corey
Each winner will be contacted by BlackBerryCool and/or Slacker; if not, please post a comment to let us know. Thanks to everyone who participated, and a big thanks again to Slacker and FortyThree, for helping us take care of our music junkies!
Posted on January 28, 2009, at 3:22 pm .
Orange UK has confirmed that the Blackberry Pearl 8120 will be available on a Pay As You Go plan. From early February, Orange will be the first operator in the UK to offer Blackberry on Pay As You Go. The handset will cost £145, and the monthly BlackBerry Internet Service will cost £5. There will also be a color exclusive to the Pearl – indigo! Depending on how this launch goes, Orange UK will consider extending the offer to other Blackberry models in the not too distant future.
Stay tuned to Orange UK’s official site for the press release tomorrow.
Posted on January 28, 2009, at 3:00 pm .
Did you make a new year’s resolution to go to the gym more? If so, you should check out Gym Technik for BlackBerry. The app has just been upgraded and features many additions recommended by Gym Technik users. The upgrade is automatic and free so all you have to do is just login and continue using Gym Technik as normal and you will see all the new changes.
Click through to read about specific updates and changes to Gym Technik
Posted on January 28, 2009, at 2:43 pm .
The WSJ is reporting that sales of the BlackBerry Storm are not as impressive as they were expecting and are blaming “clunky software” that crippled the user experience and performance at launch only to be (partially) corrected later via software updates. This is especially interesting considering that Verizon is reporting great numbers with over 1 million Storms sold on their network. WSJ sources say sold some 500,000 units in the first month following its global release. Jim Balsillie does not seem phased by these accusations and believes that the post-launch chaos to fix bugs is part of the “new reality” of making complex smartphones in large volumes.
[Via WSJ]
