Posted on October 21, 2010, at 1:12 PM .
It’s hard to tell if these kind of stories are planted by RIM marketing or if they’re legitimate but apparently Drake writes his lyrics on a BlackBerry and reads them off the device in the studio. “I can’t write my raps on paper,” says Drake. “The BlackBerry keys, my thumbs were made for touching them, ya know?”
Noah Shebib, a Canadian producer and engineer says, “All of Drake’s raps, for eternity, have all been written inside of a BlackBerry. I mean [it’s] to the point where if he doesn’t have a BlackBerry, we gotta go get somebody who’s got one.” He adds “I’ve even had dummy BlackBerrys around to pull out for him to write on if he needs one.”
Considering Drake has been around marketing BlackBerrys for some time, we don’t know if he was a fan before or after the money came in. Either way, it’s still funny to hear about someone writing so much on those little keys. Here at BlackBerryCool, we had someone submit a pretty lengthy article from their BlackBerry.
Posted on October 21, 2010, at 12:51 PM .
The LinkedIn app for BlackBerry is now at version 1.5, and while there weren’t any new and awesome features added (bump contact exchange please), the app now supports BlackBerry 6 devices including the Torch. The update also includes a few updates to make the app a little more detailed, including:
- Redesigned member profiles including recommendations
- View other members’ connections
- See common connections
- Detailed profile updates in Network Updates
Grab LinkedIn for BlackBerry at linkedin.com/blackberry.
Posted on October 21, 2010, at 11:57 AM .
UPDATE: This was actually an app being demo’d that was left on the screen. The screen you see isn’t actually anything from the PlayBook OS layer.
It’s pretty obvious that the QNX OS for the PlayBook isn’t ready to be handled yet, and that’s why RIM had the PlayBook behind glass cases (and still does). When something is demoed for the first time it’s almost always under very tight conditions and while it seems RIM rushed to demo, the expectations were a little low considering the PlayBook isn’t available until early 2011.
At the Gartner conference, the PlayBook was on display and big to show something like a dashboard/admin screen. It’s hard to tell if this is proof that the PlayBook OS isn’t ready, or if the demo units have some added admin software.
In any case, we’re all looking forward to getting our hands on the PlayBook and especially to get the QNX OS on BlackBerrys.
Posted on October 21, 2010, at 11:19 AM .
Sccope is a cool price comparison tool that used to be around $2 but is now free in App World for a limited time. The app has an enormous database of retail outlets and prices, allowing you to shop around for the best deal. Features of the app include:
- Identify the best possible deals from hundreds of top retailers with comprehensive product searches and barcode scanning – Enter the product name in the search bar or take a picture of the product’s barcode to compare 10 million different price points
- Make wish lists, share deals with friends, and receive special offers
- Track prices and get alerts for out-of-stock items
- Purchase products directly from your BlackBerry smartphone
Considering this app makes all its money on affiliates and consumer data, it’s sort of surprising that it’s not free forever.
Sccope US
Posted on October 20, 2010, at 1:49 PM .
Ryan sent us over a tip that could be helpful to any BlackBerry devs out there who are playing with the latest BlackBerry Java Plug-In for MacOS X. While most devs know that you can move your singing keys between PCs, it’s also possible to transfer these to a Mac. To find the files, you have to go to:
Eclipse.app > Right click > Show Package Contents
Next, navigate to:
Contents > Mac OS > Applications > BBEclipse > Plugins > net.rim.ejde > vmTools
Paste the files in here and you can now use your RIM signing keys.
Posted on October 20, 2010, at 1:35 PM .
We got confirmation that BlackBerry App World desktop commerce was coming back at the BlackBerry Developer Conference and it’s now live. The new App World site allows you to purchase and download free apps as well as sync your device so that your apps are synced with the site.
Currently, only Windows is supported and the site supports a few types of billing including PayPal, credit card or carrier billing. To get started with the new site, you’ll need to install a 1MB MSI App World installer.
Head over to App World and check it out.
