RIM is hosting a RIMoustache competition in the tradition of Movember to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer research. For those who aren’t aware, Movember is a campaign that asks men to shave their face November 1st, and grow a mustache to raise awareness for prostate cancer. The idea is to change your face to change the face of men’s health. Prostate cancer affects many men and in 2010, it’s estimated that 24,600 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and 4,300 will die of it. This is a worthwhile cause.
The deal seems to be that if developers create an app that fits all the criteria of an Adobe AIR app that can be sold in App World, then they’re eligible for a free PlayBook. This is a pretty sweet deal considering a major feature of the PlayBook is that development on the PlayBook is supposed to be easy. Jerome from BBerryGo developed a browser for the BlackBerry PlayBook and apparently it was pretty easy. It should be interesting to see what apps developers create for the PlayBook and hopefully the development process helps shed the stigma that developing for BlackBerry is a pain in the development ass.
There is a pretty scary deal going on in the BlackBerryCool store right now. Prices are up to 97% off on S4BB’s top selling apps. That’s the best S4BB promotion has ever done on pretty much all of their top and best-selling apps.
There’s a free Halloween Jack-O-Lantern app in App World that turns your BlackBerry into a virtual Jack-O-Lantern. Why bother carving a pumpkin when you can turn on this app and leave your BlackBerry on the porch all night? Jokes.
You can change the Jack-O-Lantern’s face by sliding in different designs for the eyes, nose and mouth from the left or the right. You can also change the back color of the design by clicking on the screen. Happy Halloween everybody!
Rogers let us know that they’ll be carrying the BlackBerry Bold 9780. This means that the Bold 9780 will be launching on virtually every Canadian carrier including Bell, TELUS and Virgin. The device looks like a small upgrade to the Bold 9700, and it would have been nice to see something with a bit of a larger leap forward. In any case, this is nothing new and it’s always been RIM’s strategy to take small incremental bumps over long leaps.
The BlackBerry Bold 9780 is official and the biggest selling feature for this device is the better camera, additional Flash memory and of course, BlackBerry 6. Considering there doesn’t seem to be much new with this device and the differentiation with the 9700 isn’t all that great, initial price points do seem a little high. Features of the device include:
Premium design and finish
Brilliant, high resolution color display (480 x 360 pixels, 2.44” diagonal measurement) with support for over 65,000 colors
HSDPA support (3.6 Mbps)
Built-in GPS and Wi-Fi with UMA support (802.11 b/g)
5 MP camera (JPEG Encoding, CMOS) with Auto focus, Image stabilization, Flash and 2X Digital Zoom.
BlackBerry 6, the new operating system for BlackBerry smartphones which includes:
Crisp, more immersive visuals, including new icons, graphics and animations
New WebKit browser; it’s high-fidelity and very efficient, with tabbed browsing
Graphical, context-sensitive pop-up menus
Redesigned core apps, plus a new multimedia UI and new apps for downloading podcasts, watching YouTube videos, and integrating RSS and social networking feeds
The Bold 9780 is going to be available from various carriers beginning in November, and we have learned already that T-Mobile will offer the device November 17 for $129.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.
