The BlackBerry Partners Fund has announced the 12 Regional Finalists in this year’s BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge, where participants have been competing for a total prize package valued at over US$1.5 million. Here is how the finalists broke down in terms of region.
North American Finalists:
Dictionary and Thesaurus – Dictionary.com
Poynt
Vayyoo
Latin America Finalists:
Navita Sports
Vlingo Plus – Voice App
Waze (LATAM)
Europe / Middle East / Africa Finalists
CamCard(Business Card Reader)
n-tv mobil
UbiNav EU
Asia Pacific Finalists:
Forum for BlackBerry
Love Indonesia
Ramadhan Pocket Guide
It’s a shame this group who have a BlackBerry PlayBook weren’t able to record a better video of the PlayBook in action. Currently, the PlayBook has gone out to select enterprise customers and this is when the leaks start to occur. Whoever has the PlayBook right now is probably pretty worried about getting pinched as it would cost their business a relationship with RIM. In any case, the team have put together some impressions in a writeup which is worth checking out. Highlights include:
UI is very appealing and fluid with no noticeable hang-ups or delays (even running the currently installed Beta QNX OS, which typically has more bugs than final releases).
Opened 12 applications and it didn’t miss a beat.
The PlayBook is very light (.9 LBS), yet feels solid and well built.
Feels better than the iPad in the sense that you can type in horizontal mode comfortably with thumbs, not feeling like you need to set it down.
Pairing your BlackBerry will allow mirroring of your device data (Email, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Tasks, etc) on the Playbook without physically storing any data.
Your Playbook will also be able to share the data plan you already have on your BlackBerry
PlayBook was used very heavily for a full day only starting with slightly over half a charge and it ran the distance.
Jim Balsillie gave a brief hands on demo of the BlackBerry PlayBook at the Web 2.0 Summit and the multitasking looks incredible. As Jim browsed through multiple tabs, he really showed off the power of the QNX operating system and how it can handle multiple processes that include high definition video. Another great feature of this brief demo was the way gestures were used. Jim browsed through multiple cards and flicked them away with ease. This brief demo just gave the PlayBook +1000 in the awesome department.
Were you away last week on vacation? Were you busy at work and didn’t have time to check the latest BlackBerry news? Well you’ve probably missed out on something cool. We have a ton of news surrounding the PlayBook, new apps and rumors about what to expect in the coming months/year from RIM. Hit the jump and catch up! Continue reading ‘Some BlackBerry News You May Have Missed Last Week’
The Web 2.0 Summit interview with Jim Balsillie wasn’t great because it seemed like John Battelle, the interviewer, wasn’t totally educated about BlackBerry and seems like he isn’t much of a BlackBerry user. Battelle had questions such as whether the PlayBook will be available to enterprise users which we all know because the fact that the tablet is BES-ready was a central part of the PlayBook announcement.
Speaking of the PlayBook, Jim dropped that the BlackBerry tablet has an open module and there is a lot of potential for the device. It would be strange if the module he was speaking of was the radio for carrier connectivity, because this has already been announced by RIM. So what else could this module be?
One of the cooler parts of the interview came when Balsillie came to the subject of NFC chips. During the interview, he said “We’d be fools to not integrate an NFC chip. And we’re not fools.” For those who don’t know, an NFC chip is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology that allows data exchange between devices at a range of about 10 centimeters. The chip is great for mobile payments which will open up BlackBerrys to more BlackBerry Wallet potential. I can’t wait for the days when I can completely ditch my wallet and keys for my BlackBerry.
On another note, it’s great to hear Jim Balsillie talk about the possibility of a quad-core, QNX OS BlackBerry that renders the web just as well as the PlayBook.
The Web 2.0 Summit is a conference in San Francisco that brings innovators and executives together to discuss the web and its future. The conference talks about business models on the web, and how business is being transformed by the web. Coming up at 2:40PM, there is a discussion on BlackBerry and mobile with Jim Balsillie will be speaking along with John Battelle (Federated Media Publishing).
