Posted on April 7, 2011, at 2:07 PM .
The BlackBerry Beta zone has reached over 100,000 users which is a pretty decent benchmark. The program is a year old and has grown to support over 35 beta programs across multiple regions. To celebrate the occasion, from Monday April 11-12, 2011 RIM will be giving out prizes to randomly-selected BlackBerry Beta Zone testers who have completed their User Profiles. Here are some instructions on how to enter, it seems like RIM will be contacting winners via PIN message:
Continue reading ‘BlackBerry Beta Zone Hits 100,000 Users and Giving Away Prizes’
Posted on April 7, 2011, at 12:33 PM .
OverDrive Media Console is an app that lets you direct download EPUB eBooks and audiobooks and gives you access to more than 13,000 libraries worldwide. The app features a “Get Books” function that makes it easy to find a local library, browse for titles, check them out with a library card, and download directly to BlackBerry. Digital books from the library will automatically expire in the app, so there are never late fees. The app also features an orientation lock and custom bookmarks.
BlackBerry users can download the app from our store.
Other platforms should head over to the OverDrive site to download.
Posted on April 7, 2011, at 12:07 PM .
In a recent blog post, RIM’s Jim Tobin, SVP of the Software, Services & Enterprise Markets business unit, goes into a little bit of the reasoning about why RIM is supporting Android apps on the PlayBook. The explanation is sort of how you would have guessed it would be, as the company is just reiterating its belief that open standards and more development tools make for a more vibrant platform. Specifically, Tobin says:
For both consumer and business customers, this announcement reinforces our commitment to providing choice while bolstering our platform. Our customers will benefit from having access to highly optimized and integrated apps developed specifically for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using BlackBerry tools, as well as a much bigger catalog of apps drawing from multiple other sources, such as the Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR, HTML5 and JavaScript developer communities (as previously announced) – and now the Android developer community. And this is all being done through our BlackBerry App World storefront to manage the app discovery and download processes for consumers.
Continue reading ‘More Background on BlackBerry PlayBook Running Android Apps’
Posted on April 7, 2011, at 9:12 AM .
As a general rule, I tend to have at least two books on the go at any given time. Before I went in to marketing and copywriting, I worked in a large bookstore. The walls of my living room are lined with bookshelves that are overflowing with works of fantasy, biographies, cookbooks, atlases, encyclopedias, you name it. In short, I love books. They are and have been the cornerstone of society for many, many centuries.
But apparently it’s all changing. Last year, Amazon said that eBooks were outselling hardcovers. During my 45 minute bus commute to work every day, I see at least five people with their eyes glued to some form of eReader. I do still see people reading books the old fashioned way, but it seems that more and more often, I’m seeing electronic books.
I’ve been toying with the idea of purchasing some form of eBook reader or downloading eBooks for my BlackBerry for a couple of months now, but I’m still on the fence about it. Here’s what I know about eBooks:
Continue reading ‘The Reader’s Medium – The Pros and Cons of eBooks’
Posted on April 6, 2011, at 2:15 PM .
The above shows some of the marketing requirements needed to submit to AT&T
Anyone who has a portfolio of apps and multiple sales channels knows the pain of submitting marketing assets. Whether it’s App World, Mobihand, AT&T, VCast or Rogers Mall, they all ask for their own ridiculous banner, splash and screenshot sizes. Many industries have benefited from clear standards, and the various app stores around the world need to come to an understanding of marketing standards as well. The computer peripheral market has benefited tremendously from adopting standards, so lets get the app stores on board with a set of standards as well; for everyone’s sake.
Continue reading ‘The Need for Marketing Standards Across App Stores’
Posted on April 6, 2011, at 9:30 AM .
It seems RIM doesn’t want developers making apps for anything before OS 5. With OS 5, developers can take advantage of the newer APIs that make for more elegant and engaging applications. As pointed out by Ebscer, RIM likes to point out that 90% of paid applications were downloaded by users running OS 5.0 or higher, and therefore there is really no reason to have your app running on any OS lower than 5.0. There is also a bit of a hidden agenda in telling this to developers, as RIM is trying to shed the notion that there’s fragmentation in the platform.
But should you follow and forget about old OS versions? There are still a few developers who choose to make their apps available for OS 4.5 and 4.6. Take Foursquare for example – the Foursquare app runs on devices as old as the 8700 and 8100. Ebscer on the other hand says he’s moving on and recent applications only run on OS 5.0+.
I recently got out of a meeting where we talked about what browsers to optimize for on our site. Our site gets most of its traffic from browsers with a Safari user agent, which could mean OS 6 devices as well as Mac, iPhone and Android. But there is also a heavy amount of traffic from older devices going as far back as the 8330. This got me thinking that while the vast majority of paid applications come from OS 5 devices, free apps and websites probably need to consider much older operating systems. If selling an app and making revenue is your primary goal, then consider only OS 5 and above. If building a user base and gaining critical mass is your objective, then consider older OS versions.
Do you have an app or a website? What OS versions do you take into consideration?
