This all goes back to what RIM has been touting in its ad campaigns lately. The message is “I’m about action, not distraction.” Now, there are many other reasons why startups don’t first flock to BlackBerry first and a lack of a Silicon Valley presence is just one. There’s also a perception that BlackBerry isn’t a good starting point due to low download rates and a small North American user base. Whatever the reasons may be, it’s sometimes nice to know that your platform isn’t going to get a startup until it has mass appeal and is actually useful.

This will probably change with BlackBerry 10. Currently, we’re seeing a ton of Android and iOS games flock to the PlayBook and it looks like this will continue until the BlackBerry 10 smartphones come out. Unless there’s differentiation in the platform that we don’t know about yet, BlackBerry 10 smartphones will eventually become indistinguishable from an Android device in terms of available apps. Until then, BlackBerry users can continue to use great productivity apps like ASAP Pro while iPhone users Oink away.

For a good discussion about Oink, check out Untether.tv’s “Where’s the Money?”.

Download the Command Line Tools and check the Apk2Bar_compatibility_excepts.xml file to see the compatibility restrictions for Android apps.

Here are some features that you can’t use for an Android app:

Bluetooth
Camera
Sensor
Telephony
Multitouch (Jazzhand/5 points)
Android vending (might have some issues with games and in-app purchases unless App World can handle)
Native Google Maps

Here are 5 Android games we’d love to see on the PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 smartphones at launch.

1. Defender

Waves of monsters are attacking your castle. They move fast, strike hard, and never give up. It’s time to equip your BOW to fight! Can you defend your castle against intruders with your archery?

2. Frontline Commando

As the sole surviving Commando of a renegade attack against a ruthless dictator, you are stranded on the frontline and hell-bent on payback. You must use all of your specialized skills to survive the onslaught of the enemy forces and avenge your fallen soldiers.

3. Zynga Poker

Zynga’s top downloaded poker game that is available on multiple platforms. This company is making a huge push into mobile and we’d love to see them make BlackBerry central to its growth strategy.

4. Papaya Farm 2011

Create the coolest farm by growing fruits and exploring with your friends! Build and tend your very own farm, now with even lusher and more vibrant graphics. Join the millions of Papaya Farmers living out their rural dreams by planting and harvesting a bumper crop, helping your friends reap a bounty, or sneakily stealing what you want.

5. Minecraft Pocket Edition

Imagine it, build it. Create worlds on the go with Minecraft – Pocket Edition. The new Minecraft – Pocket Edition allows you to build on the go. Use blocks to create masterpieces as you travel, hangout with friends, sit at the park, the possibilities are endless. Move beyond the limits of your computer and play Minecraft everywhere you go.

What Android titles would you like to see on PlayBook and BlackBerry 10?

QNX, Ottawa and BlackBerry 10 are the future of RIM.

RIM has a great hardware business but the hardware industry is moving abroad and RIM is capitalizing on lower costs and fewer product offerings. This isn’t something that RIM faces alone. All mobile companies are realizing that hardware is limited and software is increasingly driving revenues. RIM makes a great piece of hardware with a superior keyboard and a battery that is unparalleled. What we want is softare that is comprised of very entertaining games and apps that make us more efficient.

In an article in the Ottawa Citizen, the new CEO Thorsten Heins, recently pointed to the fact that “almost all development for the company’s upcoming flagship BlackBerry 10 device is being done in the nation’s capital. [OTTAWA]“ BlackBerry 10 is the future of RIM and Ottawa is going to play a central role in the company’s future. If RIM’s success is in some way tied to the success of Ottawa, there are benefits and challenges ahead.

Benefits

Ottawa is incredibly proud of the technology industry that its created. We were once called “Silicon Valley North” and created many millionaires with employers like Nortel, Mitel and JDS Uniphase. Ottawa is a city bursting with talent too, 1/4 of the City has a University Degree and there’s plenty of opportunities for an educated workforce. Ottawa also has some great mobile startups and entrepreneurs with very healthy exits under their belt. Companies like Shopify are also putting this city on the map in terms of attracting investment. So Ottawa has talent, money, community and culture, but it could be doing better.

Challenges

Ottawa needs to make itself more attractive in terms of both city culture and tech sector investment. Recently, a local paper called The Ottawa Xpress ran a cover with the headline “Ottawa Sucks” and a story that points out the need for frank discussion about how to revitalize the city.

Ottawa has also been having issues with the tech investment community. The software industry in Ottawa is having issues as entrepreneurs are finding it dificult to raise capital in this city. These issues are highlighted in a recent article by the Ottawa Business Journal at this link.

As someone who lives in Ottawa and whose livelihood depends on the tech sector, I’m hoping that this move will help revitalize RIM and the local economy. There is a long history of great tech entrepreneurs in Ottawa, and RIM moving its software industry to Ottawa will give the company a competitive advantage. At this same time, Ottawa, like RIM, needs to change itself and make some “Bold” moves.

Ottawa and RIM have a lot in common. The two have great foundations but are seen as needing to revitalize themselves and in need of a cool-over. The good news is that everyone agrees that change is needed and it’s coming.

This shouldn’t happen at Google.

Currently, OS 7 is probably only around 10% of the BlackBerry market. But, BlackBerry 7 devices have better browsers and its users demand a better web experience. Google could capitalize on the BlackBerry 7 user base’s increased web usage and simply optimize the site for BlackBerry. To simply put an error message on the page and ask the user to leave the mobile experience is a lazy engineering decision.

Supporting the latest OS 7 devices isn’t hard and it’s bad for Google’s business to not optimize their mobile products for new devices. Around 10% of BB users are on 7 but that’s not the point. The point is that OS 7 isn’t hard to accomodate and you’re making a bad business out of not supporting the latest mobile devices.

The above comes from the experience of trying to “+1″ the following article:

“A call for angels” – Ottawa Citizen.

1. Secure BlackBerry 10- One of RIM’s core strengths is security. The media almost always underplays the value of enterprise, security and the monopoly that RIM has in government but it’s essential. No other mobile platform is making a dent in this market, regardless of what iOS and Android blogs will tell you. With the news that the PlayBook has been rooted, there’s obvious concerns for the stability and security of BlackBerry 10. Heins needs to make sure that when BlackBerry 10 hits the market, the security teams are always one step ahead of those trying to break the platform.

2. Get top tier apps – The PlayBook is already on a great start getting top tier apps to the platform. Games like Cut the Rope, Angry Birds, Roboto, and Machinarium are proof that BlackBerry 10 will be able to attract high-end, graphically intense games. The missing piece right now is what RIM has always called Super Apps and BlackBerry smartphone users will be expecting the best of the best in productivity for BlackBerry 10. Thorsten needs to make sure all hands are on deck to steer the platform in this direction.

3. Launch world-class hardware – We’re not all that clear about the first set of BlackBerry 10 smartphones. We’ve heard the Colt, essentially a smaller tablet, touchscreen phone, is going to be the first to launch. Rumor has it that RIM is cutting down the number of devices they’ll be typically shipping in a year to focus on a few form factors. It’s crucial that when these form factors are announced, that developers and consumers are all crystal clear on the hardware strategy. It’s also important for that hardware to leave nothing for the critics to harp on. We want product announcements that blow away even the harshest of critics.

4. Align QNX and RIM Marketing – There is a hidden weapon in the RIM arsenal that the company hasn’t really been discussing and that’s BlackBerry 10 integration. Through QNX, the BlackBerry 10 platform is more than just smartphones and tablets. QNX and BlackBerry 10 is about automotive and home too. Who knows what’s beyond that too; possibly desktops and laptops. At CES 2012, there seemed to be 2 separate companies. There was QNX that won Best of Show and BlackBerry, that was showing off a new PlayBook OS that was great, but didn’t exactly blow away the media. Bringing these two companies together for a cohesive vision and platform is going to be an important marketing decision that needs to be clear. We’re looking forward to seeing Thorsten oversee this transition and bringing these two great companies together under one message.

5. Make Bold moves – There’s a lot of rebuilding to do at RIM. Confidence has been shaken in the company and Heins is going to need to make some really Bold moves to inspire consumers and shareholders. Whether it’s giving away free PlayBooks with BlackBerry 10 smartphones, free apps, negotiating special carrier deals, or launching big marketing campaigns, these moves need to be more Bold than what we’ve seen before. RIM needs a CEO that’s making moves that are interpreted as intelligent, calculated and far reaching. These moves will bring confidence back to the market and consumers alike.

UPDATE: This screenshot is from the Ron Paul Wallpaper app for Android. I was talking to the developer of the app which became the impetus for this article. I was also inspired to write this based on Alex Kinsella’s article about tips to monetize and market your app.

If you’re looking to build an app to microfinance a charitable cause or political campaign, here are some tips:

1. Make it free – Raising awareness requires you get the app in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Making the app free lowers all barriers to entry and lets you circulate the app as much as possible. If you’re a developer that is looking to get the costs of the app covered, find other ways to monetize the application such as in-app advertising or white labeling it to a charity/campaign.

2. Donations must be verifiable and efficient – On BlackBerry, there are several apps out there that are raising money for charities. Many of them are themes promising to donate the profits or a percentage of sales to the cause. The problem with these apps, is that the donations aren’t verifiable and the definition of “profit” is relative. Also, these apps are not exempt from the manufacturer’s 30% cut so the money is very inefficient. The BBC Children in Need theme is a good example of how to create a charitable theme, as it simply provided a link to the donate page.

S4BB uses a service called Mobile Giving to ensure the funds are properly donated through the application. Funds are donated via SMS messages to the appropriate charity and S4BB just created the pipe. The Help Haiti Now app by S4BB can be downloaded in App World at this link. Before you donate, you should also do some research yourself into the charity and make sure it’s efficient with its donations. For example, Wyclef Jean’s charity Yele only gave less than a third of its donations to relief efforts and $1 million was paid to a Florida firm that doesn’t seem to exist.

3. Keep the user engaged – Polar Mobile made an app for WWF Canada and it does a great job of connecting the user with the cause. The app provides news feeds such as media releases, blog posts, and Twitter. By updating someone and keeping them informed, you’re more likely to receive donations. You can download the WWF Canada app for your smartphone at this link.

4. Make it social – Social is a good way to spread word about your app virally. By including links to a facebook page, twitter account and updating them frequently, you’re giving your userbase a chance to share the message. Social is also a good way to aggressively tap into networks. Presidential candidate Rick Perry uses a rewards platform called CALYP to leverage the social networks of its users. There are other ways of tapping social networks, such as integrating with facebook’s Open Graph. The platform has worked very well with digital content, and could work for charities or political campaigns as well.

5. Make sure it’s approved – Apple has a policy against apps that raise donations but you can get around this by taking the donation out of the app onto a website. It should be clear to the smartphone manufacturer and the user that the money is going through a verified and trusted source. If you’re taking donations with in-app payments, you could see your app denied from iTunes.

If you’ve got any tips of your own, feel free to share.

Something that has been making us feel positive about the future of BlackBerry is all the games we’ve seen that previously avoided the platform and are now on the PlayBook.

Games that are very popular on other platforms have been popping up on the PlayBook recently. Popular games such as: Angry BIrds, Roboto, Machinarium, Spiderman HD, Cut the Rope and more, are all now on PlayBook. These games are from both large publishers and small game studios.

The reason these games are now flocking to BlackBerry is because with BlackBerry 10 and QNX, RIM has made the right partnerships and technical decisions so there’s very little barrier to entry for bringing your code to the platform. Support for Unity and Marmalade means that studios like Fenix Fire that use Unity can bring their games to BlackBerry quickly and with little investment. We have spoken with other studios such as Robot Invader that have told us they’re considering BlackBerry because of this support as well.

Games are a great beginning for BlackBerry 10 but we have yet to see much movement in the utility category of apps. RIM has a lot of work to do to make all the Java APIs that were available to legacy BlackBerry developers and created interesting “gap-filling” apps like the ones you see from emacberry, the Jared Company and S4BB.

With the newest BlackBerry 10 smartphones launching this year, RIM is on a tight deadline to deliver the APIs needed for developers to make “Super Apps” to complement those smartphones.

Oh, and just so you realize how far we’ve come,this is what BlackBerry games have looked like until now:

Dead Space

In no particular order, here are your must-have games:

1. Roboto – Roboto is a beautiful game that is simple and fun to play. You control a little robot on a surf board as you blast your way through levels and bosses. This is true casual gaming.

2. Star Front: Collision HD – If you liked Starcraft then you’ll like this game. Gameloft has created a great RTS game that mimics the Starcraft series and even allows for multiplayer.

3. Eternal Legacy – Eternal Legacy is a lot like the Final Fantasy series. The story line could be a lot better but the gameplay is still really fun. Upgrade your characters and discover a world of enemies, weapons and magic.

4. Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus HD – This game is a lot like Call of Duty Modern Warfare and the controls are really decent. There is a multiplayer option but it’s a little difficult considering the controls aren’t amazing. The single player mode still gives you hours of fun.

5. Spiderman: Total Mayhem HD – Spiderman has some excellent gameplay and is visually really great to look at. The game puts you against all the usual comic book villains and lets you websling around a map and beat up bad guys.

6. Machinarium – Machinarium is incredibly unique in its artwork and gameplay. The game has you following a storyline of a robot who seems to be just trying to get by but needs to solve a myriad of small puzzles along the way. Discover this creative world and push your mind to solve the puzzles.

7. SimCity Deluxe – If you liked the PC version of SimCity then you’ll surely enjoy this. Sometimes placing units can be a bit awkward but generally the game has everything you would expect of a SimCity game for PlayBook.

8. MADDEN NFL 12 – Football fans are going to enjoy the smooth gameplay and great graphics. With a ton of seasons at your disposal this game definitely has value.

9. Dead Space – This game is a great example of how games on the PlayBook can be visually stunning. The gameplay is fun and there is plenty of hours packed into the price.

10. NYT Crosswords – For those crossword puzzle fans the golden standard of crosswords is available on PlayBook. The NYT Crosswords app has a daily puzzle and subscription service.

Honorable mentions:

Assembler Mobile 2 HD – Assembler is a fun puzzle game that uses the PlayBook’s accelerometer. Tilt your PlayBook and place the boxes on the marked squares to solve the puzzle. It’s a lot of fun.

PopcornRush – This free game is really basic but it’s a fun intro game for people on the PlayBook. Try it as a first time download.

Sling Golf – Sling Golf has some really awesome cartoon graphics and lots of character and course options. With a free trial that gives you a taste for the game, you can’t go wrong.

GRave Defense HD – Tower defense fans will definitely get a kick out of this game by Marmalade. The graphics are great and the gameplay is fun.

Duke Nukem 3D – The controls need a lot of work but they’re also customizable. It’s just like the original PC version so get ready for nostalgia.

A good example of this is with the BlackBerry Curve 9380 which has already launched on carriers such as TELUS and O2. Here are some first party apps that by RIM that aren’t available for the Curve 9380:

BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing
BlackBerry Travel
BlackBerry Traffic
BlackBerry News

The Tungle app for the Bold 9900 has been set to available in App World but it comes with a big white bar along the right hand side. After emailing Tungle, we got a message back saying that the app is not compatible for the Bold 9900. Then why would they have it listed as supported? This company has been acquired by RIM and the whole device support listing is messed up.

Whenever I think of apps that I’d like to see updated for OS 7 such as LinkedIn, I can’t help but think that maybe if RIM took the time to make sure its own apps were updated, it would encourage third parties to do the same.

Here is a transcript of some of the questions from the event where we learned about the PIM apps on PlayBook.

Q: If the BES server sits behind the firewall, and you’re concerned about security, are the two email accounts (the personal and the corporate) still separate? In the sense that if I want to send myself a note to my personal account it still goes through the Exchange Server outside the firewall, right?

A: Yeah, so the question was about security within the multiple emails. With this setup, if I send a message from my corporate account to my personal, is it still going back behind the firewall? Absolutely. The infrastructure is the exact same and we’re not doing anything to compromise security. When we get into the BlackBerry Balance portion of the presentation, we’ll talk about resonant data on the device how that is segmented off and protected. Even locally on the device you can’t copy and paste things from one perimeter into another. In that sense, yes, it would go back through the infrastructure, to your Exchange Server, and then follow the guidelines that you have set within your organization.

Q: What do you do about S/MIME?

A: S/MIME on the first iteration of the 2.0 software will not be available initially but will available shortly after.

Q: Will PlayBook 2.0 have the ability to color code the messages?

A: So the question is about setting a border color to denote whether it’s corporate or personal. I have not seen that on the PlayBook but granted I’m not on the final build. We’ll have to get back to that.

Q: Can you edit and spell check on the native email app?

A: Yes, absolutely. The logic we have on the BlackBerry in terms of type ahead and word prediction is all in the 2.0 code. You will have the spell check capabilities.

Q: How fast do the native PIM apps sync with your BlackBerry? Is there a delay?

A: It’s all relatively the same time. I haven’t noticed any delay on messages getting delivered to the PlayBook versus my BlackBerry. Most of the time it’s device, then shortly after PlayBook.

Followup Q: And it’s all the same Push infrastructure?

A: Yes. The infrastructure is essentially the same. The way it works on your BlackBerry is essentially the same as it works on your PlayBook. So the same secure, push channel that you’re accustomed to on your BlackBerry.

Q: Any difference in the ressource requirements on the server side?

A: We’re actually doing those tests now. One of the things that we’re improving is that today on BES you have a 2,000 user limit, with the new infrastructure we’re actually increasing that to several thousand more. We’re reducing the size of your infrastructure including unnecessary load and resources. While I don’t have final numbers on load balancing, the numbers that are coming in are next to nothing. So the normal 1 to 1 correlation to what you have.

Q: What about PIN messaging? As in PIN-to-PIN messaging. We didn’t see that.

A: Yes, and I won’t show you. I don’t believe PIN-to-PIN messaging is in the first iteration but I’ll have to check.

Q: What about Bridge?

A: In version 2.0 there are improvements to the speed of Bridge. There’s not many UI changes, just mostly improvement and small functionality. We’re not abandoning Bridge. While the 2.0 will have performance improvements there will be some updates down the road.

Q: Version 2.0 won’t have cellular connectivity?

A: So 2.0 is just software. The cellular devices or the “4G PlayBooks” will be available roughly around the 2.0 software release. The 2.0 software is designed to run on your current, WiFi only PlayBooks, but we will have 4G PlayBooks around the same time as that 2.0 software.

Q: In many government organizations we don’t have WiFi access. Everything is land based. So I rely on the Bridge for my functionality and we love the video chat but the problem is we can’t use it. Is there a way for us to get access to more of those apps through Bridge?

A: We’ve seen that already. The last update to Bridge allows some applications to use the connection to get out to the Internet. We’re going to of course increase the functionality of core apps to utilize Bridge.

Q: Is the PlayBook 4G being delayed?

A: We have been in testing for several months on 4G devices and on multiple carriers. Several groups are actively testing them and I have not heard of any delays. As of today (November 22nd), I have not heard anything that would put us off schedule from our early 2012 release.

Q: Will the PlayBook come in other sizes?

A: Of course we’re obviously investigating sizes and what makes sense for a larger screen. So yes, I don’t know the exact size and I can’t show you anything, but we’re looking at other sizes.

Q: Does the 4G capability imply voice functionality?

A: Not at first, besides the video chat. There is no ability to make a call from PlayBook to landline call. That’s not the final answer though. Initial release will be strictly data and video chat. There are also third party apps that will let you make a call from PlayBook to landline but not from RIM.

Q: Current video chat – can it be extended from PlayBook to something else?

A: We have teams that are working right now to make it an endpoint to a corporate video chat solution. So we’re in discussions about how that’s going to work. There’s definitely a roadmap for video chat that lets it do more than just device to device.

Q: What about segregating the Address Book by corporate and personal?

A: From a group perspective? The contacts are in one general list and there’s no way to see if they’re a personal or business contact. The device will know based on the service it’s pulling from. Any new contact will be corporate by default (I believe).

Q: What about synchronizing multiple Address Books into one?

A: I have not tried it so I can’t give you a definite answer just yet. I imagine it would still just dump it as one Address Book but I’d have to verify.

Be sure to read our post with screenshots of the upcoming PlayBook PIM apps.

Not from the actual event

If you’re in a room full of Computer Science students and coders, you’re probably going to get away with simply talking about the APIs and features around developing for a Windows Phone device or for Samsung products. Okay, your latest device has a barometer, that’s cool. Maybe a developer is sitting there thinking of some app they’d like to hack together that takes advantage of that, just to see how it works. But there are more just coders that make up these events. A Mobile Monday isn’t just a room of programmers. It’s largely a room of company decision makers that want to know if your platform is a viable business. Both Samsung and Microsoft’s evangelists were lacking on their ability to pitch the platforms as businesses.

When it comes to Windows Phone and Bada, the same question came up: “what is the unique value proposition for developing for these platforms?” Both Bada and Windows Phone don’t really have the numbers to justify mass market apps, so why should a company take the time to code apps for them? Sure, Bada probably has around 20 million users, but how many of them are actually buying apps seeing as though these devices are hitting the low-end feature phone market? Even the Samsung Android store apparently only has 250 million downloads compared to RIM’s nearly 2 billion.

Here are two obvious business cases for Windows Phone and Samsung that were not even discussed by the respective evangelist:

Windows Phone: When you code a game for Windows Phone, you can use the same code base to deploy your game on Xbox Live and vice versa (although it may not be so easy at the moment). Considering Xbox sold a million consoles during Black Friday alone, this is a very significant user base. Take that plus the 3 million or so Windows Phone devices in market and you have a nice beginning for a premium game.

Samsung: Just like with Windows Phone, there’s a cross-platform opportunity allowing you to take your Android apps that are Samsung approved over to the Samsung Smart TV sets. Again, this kind of opportunity allows you to get your application in front of a premium viewership that will pay good money for a solid application or game. At the Samsung event, this was briefly mentioned and took up about 2 seconds compared to the 20 minutes the speaker took showing us the specs of devices we’d already read about.

A quick note about Bada: why hasn’t Samsung killed it? There’s no cost associated with Android so why bother? You’re just splitting your user base and providing less devices/users for developers to get access to. The features of Bada are really lacking too. The Samsung evangelist was promoting “push notifications” and “multitasking” in all seriousness. The Microsoft evangelist was no better and went as far as saying that a cool feature of Windows Phone is that when you close and app, it remembers where you were. Amazing.

Samsung and Microsoft could learn a lot from the approach RIM is taking with the PlayBook. Personally, I have spent about $40 already on premium games for the PlayBook and I couldn’t be happier. RIM has made it easy for premium game publishers such as Gameloft and EA to port their games to the device by integrating with platforms such as Unity and Marmalade. When you make it easy for a developer to port their code and slap a relatively high price tag on the app, it makes it easier to justify the development cost and move your game to that platform, especially in light of small unit sales. In the end, developers want the least amount of effort for the greatest potential payout. It’s more about money than it is about whether or not your app can utilize the “tiles” feature.

This is also a good time to mention the value proposition of BlackBerry:

70 million BlackBerry subscribers
Nearly 2 billion app downloads
Over 3 million app downloads per day
Available in 113 countries
3 payment options: carrier billing, PayPal and credit card

As a developer evangelist, you should finish with a slide like that and say “if you can’t make money on those numbers, you’re not doing it right.”

UPDATE: Speaking to the point of how it’s important to cater to a developer’s business sense, I highly recommend reading “BlackBerry PlayBook App Development: Surprising Opportunities“. It’s a great article that gives some insight into the revenue considerations of developing an app.

This is how people are starting to see the smartphone debate.

There’s a wide variety of reasons why someone may choose an iPhone over a BlackBerry over an Android device. I would hazard to guess that the vast majority of people who are buying smartphones aren’t like the people who are reading this blog or any other tech blog. They’re buying smartphones for very pragmatic reasons rather than high level ideologies about the platform or particular features unique to one platform over the other.

Here are some reasons why your average person would buy a smartphone (majority of population):

The price point was within budget.
Their company is paying for it.
They’re on a family plan that allows for this smartphone.
Their wife/husband/family/friend bought it for them.
They like the color/shape/keyboard.

Here is why a tech-informed person may buy a smartphone (minority of population):

It has a unified platform and/or specific apps they enjoy.
The hardware specs are powerful.
They write applications for it or their business is involved with it.
They support the company’s vision.

From a tech blog perspective, it’s fun to have well-rounded debates about the various smatphone platforms because we’re all pretty well informed about what’s going on in the tech industry. If you’re reading about tech companies online, you have at least some reasonable perspective on the debate and should be encouraged to participate. The point is that everyone has a pretty good idea of why they bought a particular smartphone so you can stop prying at their decision like it has some relevance to your life.

The reason someone chose a particular smartphone is most likely for reasons that don’t make for interesting conversation. So next time someone starts a smartphone debate on a negative note, just ask to change the topic.

Also, TechCrunch, could you please stop posting boring articles like this?

1. NFC - With the latest BlackBerry 7 devices, RIM has made a firm commitment to NFC. There are several devices in RIM’s current portfolio that have support for NFC and the company has been put on record saying there will be many more. In order for all of us to take advantage of mobile payments, merchants need to know that there are enough users out there to warrant the cost and effort of implementing. If smartphone manufacturers don’t invest and bet on this technology, it will never happen. NFC is a chicken and the egg type of problem and RIM is the chicken. I’m not sure if that makes sense but you get what I’m saying.

2. Enterprise - There is a major change in the way enterprise views mobile. It’s called employee liable versus corporate liable devices and there is a growing number of the former entering the workplace. RIM sees this shift and has created a unique BES feature called BlackBerry balance that extends to both the smartphone and tablet. Because of RIM, employees can download apps and be a part of the mobile scene, without compromising the company’s data.

3. Efficiency - You can write an email to someone faster from a BlackBerry than other smartphones. With keyboard shortcuts, universal search and the best keyboard on the planet, a BlackBerry is hands-down the most efficient smartphone. There’s a lot RIM needs to be doing but with regards to making our lives more productive RIM needs not change anything.

4. Openness - RIM has made some great commitments to open source projects and even has a github page over at GitHub.com/blackberry. There are several ways to make apps for BlackBerry these days including HTHML5, Adobe Flash, Java and C.

5. First Party Apps – BlackBerry Traffic, Twitter, Protect and Maps are all great applications. RIM is unique in its ability to own the hardware and churn out a suite of apps that set the bar high for not just other developers, but for the industry.

Size, Weight and Feel

The Blackberry Torch 9850/9860 has a really sleek design and a refined look. When you first pick it up it immediately feels great in your hands, especially being held horizontally as it has new curved ends for an all new feel for gaming and typing with the full screen keyboard. It’s a very respectable screen size at 3.7” and the solid design make the phone feel like it was well made and not with cheap plastics. The battery door is made of metal and gives it a nice solid feel however, it does add a little to the weight. Weighing in at 4.76oz it weighs 1oz or about 20% less than the Torch 9810.

I’ve put this device in the hands of several people (including my wife who has a Style 9670) and asked them what they thought of the size, weight and feel. I received very positive feedback from them and they all seemed to really like the weight. They commented on the fact that it felt like a really solid phone. Even my wife said that she doesn’t like touchscreen devices but she really enjoys the styling and the placement of the buttons; especially the full lock key on the top of the device.

Compass

It really makes me happy to see that RIM is finally putting useful technology into their phones and listening to what people want. The Torch 9850/9860 comes fully loaded with a digital compass that enables the use of applications like Wikitude’s augmented reality application.

As great as this feature is, I really don’t think that it’s been perfected yet as I found myself getting quite frustrated having to calibrate the compass several times when trying to use it. I found myself flipping and rotating the phone while walking down the street. I was getting very weird looks from people wondering what the heck I was doing to my phone.

Hardware

RIM has finally upgraded the processor family in the new lineup of blackberrys. In the last generation of phones the fastest processor was 624Mhz and now the slowest processor is 800Mhz, while the higher end phones (Torch, Bold) run a beefed up 1.2Ghz chip. They’ve also added more memory to the new phones, actually the Bold 9900 and Torch 9810 come with 8GB of internal memory, however, the Torch 9850 only comes with 4GB of internal memory. I know it supports up to a 32GB card but come on. Why give one of the higher end BlackBerrys only 4GB of internal memory? Especially when recording HD video takes up so much space, this just doesn’t make any sense to me with memory being so cheap these days.

Screen

I’ll be the first to admit that touchscreen devices for RIM haven’t always been great. I’m very confident in saying that the Torch “Touch” 9850 is by far the best full touchscreen device that they’ve ever made. It finally all comes together, having the new 1.2Ghz processor with OS 7 and Liquid Graphics makes this phone a joy to use and the quality is finally up to much higher standards. It has a large, High-Res 3.7” 800×480 WVGA Transmissive TFT LCD display that produces an extremely crisp and clear picture that will make it hard to put this device down. Rocking out 252ppi (pixels per inch) adds a whole new dimension of clarity that really brings this phone up to standards with the current cell phone market. Sliding through menus and pinching & zooming is a very pleasant experience which I really enjoy showing off to my friends and family. Using the Torch 9800 for scrolling through pictures, menus or anything that would require fluidity is almost painful after using this phone. All in all a great screen that is a huge step up from any previous device.

Input (Virtual Keyboard)

RIM said that they’ve improved the touch keyboard for a better experience and more accuracy. I haven’t really experienced this. The keyboard is still really great and I don’t really have a lot of bad things to say about it but I really don’t think it’s that much improved over previous ones. The Torch 9850 being a full screen device the on-screen keyboard is larger and does feel more accurate. Overall, it’s still missing that refined touch. I still find myself making spelling mistakes and auto-correct just isn’t good enough to know what I’m trying to say. Having a bigger on-screen keyboard and larger device that is conformed to your hands for quick to thumb typing is still a better experience than typing on my Torch 9800.

I did have one major issue with the keyboard that I really hope they fix. In the middle of a text message I would get an error that said “device input error, restarting device”. I thought that it was a one time thing however, it happened to me a few times and OS updates never fixed it. I hope in the next version of the OS RIM get this issue resolved.

Battery Door

Keeping with the theme of full touch screen devices having a metal battery door the Torch 9850 doesn’t change things up. The door is made of a strong, but thin metal that really gives the device a nice feel with a coating that almost feels like satin. The metal door is very easy to remove with the simple push of a button and just as easy to replace. Sporting a polished chrome BlackBerry logo on the back, this battery door really does give it a more refined feel and makes it feel more solid. I’m definitely a fan.

Blackberry OS 7

When I first got my Torch 9800 with OS 6 I had really high expectations and was hoping for a really great device with a much needed update to outdated software that was falling behind the pack.

Unfortunately to say, I wasn’t super impressed with OS 6. The dpi on the screen was low, the motions were choppy and loading applications seems to take a lot longer than expected. I’m very happy to say that all of those issues are a thing of the past and OS 7 has really impressed me and given me some insight of great things to come from BlackBerry.

When I tested the new Torch 9860 at the BlackBerry OS 7 release event in downtown Toronto the representative told me that the web browsing experience was about 40% faster compared to OS 6. I disagree. I thought it was about 80-100% faster, depending on what I was loading. Finally a much improved and better experience browsing on a BlackBerry, as this one probably one of the biggest complaints for BB fans. Also, with HTML 5 support you really can’t go wrong.

The icons while similar to the previous ones have been refreshed with a new feel and new design. Full of detail and color they work hand in hand with the high res and high DPI screen to bring a more refined look.

The voice search is a great new feature in OS 7 giving a “hands free” option for fast searching on your device. Press the microphone icon in the search and you’ll be prompted to say a search word or phrase, Only about a second later your results will be on the screen. Testing this several times I must say that I’m actually really impressed. If there’s little to no background noise this feature was 100% accurate and about 90% with medium to high background noise. Very respectable. What’s needed is for RIM to make the voice a little more user friendly and connect actions. See more about this from this article on BlackBerryCool.

Internal Specifications

Screen/Sensors

TFT capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors
480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches (252 ppi)
Optical trackpad
Multi-touch input method
Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
Magetometer (Digital Compass)

Communication

CDMA 800 / 1900 / CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / HSDPA 2100 (EDGE ONLY in Canada)
v2.1 with A2DP + EDR
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz)
Full GPS + A-GPS

Media

5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus
Geo-tagging, continuous auto-focus, image stabilization, face detection
720p HD Video recording

Battery

Li-Ion 1230 mAh
Talk Time – up to 6 h 50 min
Music playback – up to 50 hours

Memory

4GB of Storage (This should be 8GB like other OS7 Devices)
768MB of RAM
Up to 32GB with microSD card

Processor

1.2GHz processor, Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon

Media

This device is truly a media powerhouse with an upgraded 5mp camera with autofocus, HD 720p video recording and a refreshed music player. It has all of the bells and whistles to keep you entertained for hours. I’ll start with the camera. The Torch 9800 took good pictures however the 9850 takes better pictures. I find the lighting better and the pictures are just slightly better quality all together.

When I heard that the new OS7 devices were going to have 720p HD video I was very excited because the standard 640 x 480 video was sort of terrible. The video quality is finally clear and smooth along with decent sound getting slightly distorted when what you’re recording is very loud, like at at a concert. For an HD camera built into a cell phone you really can’t go wrong.

The built in music player has also been refreshed and has a much more fluid feel and is incredibly smooth when scrolling through music. Loading up the album covers still takes a second to load initially but once it’s up its good to go. One thing I really like is fact that when you are listening to a song you can scroll through the album covers while still listening to your first song. If you like what you see more than what’s playing just click on it then it begins to play. A new feature in the music player that I found is when your playing a song the artist name and album are now clickable buttons. When you click on artist it shows all songs by that artist, same with the album, it brings up all of the songs you have in that particular album. I find this makes searching for your favorite songs much easier.

General use

Phone quality is very good. I think this is the first phone I’ve had that people don’t complain about not hearing me clearly or asking me to repeat myself several times (which I hate). The speakerphone is quite good as well. I’ve noticed that there is some type of sound amplification that kicks in after the first ring and I’ll have to turn the volume down or it gets distorted and sounds terrible.

SMS and MMS are still very easy to use, which I believe is why a lot of people use BlackBerry. Big buttons on the bottom of the texting screen allow you to add attachment easily, view contact info or even move on to the next unread item in your SMS inbox. BBM 6 is very cool with OS 7 and with Wikitude, you now you can see your BBM contacts that are in your vicinity.

BlackBerry is trying very hard to integrate BBM more into people’s lives, and with the recent release of apps like BBM Music, it’s proof that they are going in the right direction. One massive thing that was fixed with BBM 6 is scrolling in your contact list when it’s expanded used to be incredibly choppy and laggy. I’m happy to say that this has been 100% resolved with the new version of BBM, Liquid Graphics and the new hardware.

Conclusions

Pros:

New design, great feel
OS 7 + New hardware = All around better experience
HD Video recording
Auto focus camera
Digital compass

Cons:

Only 512MB Storage, other OS7 phones have 768MB
No NFC
Digital Compass need calibrating constantly
Battery life – Lower capacity battery than previous phones
Only runs EDGE on GSM Mode (9850 Only)
Tiny mute button

Final thoughts

All in all this is a great addition to the OS 7 line up. Though there are a few things that could be improved upon before the BBX phones come out. I think they could have a better quality chrome bezel around the phone as mine started to peel up within a couple of weeks with regular use.

Launching applications on the Torch 9850 is much better than any previous BlackBerry. The lag between clicking the icon and the launch of the app is now a fraction of a second. RIM is still catching up with the Android / iPhone competition in this department. Until BBX comes out, we’re still stuck with J2ME-based phones that don’t handle the whole app experience very well.

RIM has been judged pretty harshly since the release of these phones and people claim to be let down by RIM. I disagree. I think this is a small leap forward into what we will see from RIM in the near future: a great device with a solid OS. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best full touchscreen device that RIM has released and I’m excited to see the next generation BlackBerrys.

Fine tuning with the new technology will be key if RIM ever wants people actually using these features. I eventually gave up on having to calibrate the compass and it was very frustrating. I still see the hour glass every now and again, and I still need to pull the battery about every 4-5 days. App World bogs down the device, and there is minor checkerboarding in the web browser. I’ve learned to accept these quirks as I really love the whole BlackBerry experience. These are all things that I hope RIM has solved in the new, highly anticipated BBX platform.

I would definitely recommend this device to anyone looking for a little more touchscreen experience from their current Torch 9800.

The Bold 9790 is exactly what we love about RIM and BlackBerry. It combines the fast, super-efficient qualities of a QWERTY BlackBerry, and provides a touchscreen experience that comes in handy when navigating apps and menu structures. The fact that this powerful device will also come at a lower price point means that even those on a budget will be able to afford it.

There isn’t much to say about this BlackBerry without going into a full review. A brief experience with the keyboard was very pleasant and while it had a bit of a different feel to it than the Bold 9900 (more of a Curve experience reminiscent of the chicklit keys), it was still awesome.

The fact that you get a Bold 9900-style experience in a smaller form factor at a cheaper price point is incredible. Developers and some industry analysts may complain that it’s continually fragmenting the market, but from a consumer standpoint that doesn’t matter if developers are porting their apps. BlackBerry OS 7 will still have a significant lifespan regardless of BBX, and we expect most developers to make their apps compatible. Many OS 6 apps work just fine in OS 7 and require no extra development work. In the end, the Bold Touch 9790 will surely be a hit in Asian markets, as well as in North America where consumers want a great BlackBerry experience at a lower price point.

NOTE: We claim that the price will be lower but nothing has been announced. We’re simply making the assumption based on the fact that RIM has said during our hands-on that it expects them to be cheaper, but in the end it’s up to the carriers.

What sticks out most about a touchscreen BlackBerry is the fact that RIM is making a device that does not have a keyboard, something that is a core advantage of BlackBerry devices. One would think that a company that specializes in keyboards would be an industry leader when it comes to virtual keyboards, but this hasn’t been the case. The first Storm had a frustrating screen that wouldn’t let you type as fast as you wanted. The Storm2 tried to improve on the device by having multiple contact points, but it didn’t really help. Now, with the Storm3 and Curve Touch, RIM has an all touch device with nothing that really differentiates it from the competition. It’s almost as though RIM has given up on the virtual keyboard experience but its simply making all touch devices because market research dictates they should. This doesn’t seem like a good way to run a company.

The virtual keyboard experience on the Curve Touch and all modern BlackBerry virtual keyboards simply isn’t good enough for anyone that is serious about being fast and efficient with their device. The experience feels much slower for someone that is used to leveraging the power of the keyboard to get things done faster. Here are some simple ways a virtual keyboard makes the BlackBerry slower:

You can’t use Universal Search without first pressing the Search icon. With a physical keyboard, you simply start typing from the homescreen. This isn’t the case with a touchscreen and searching in general is much slower with the keyboard.

When you’re inside an app, you can’t navigate as fast. To navigate 200 BBM contacts, you have to be able to just press the first letter of their name. In Twitter, you may find yourself pressing ‘t’ to get to the top of the stream. You can’t do this with a touch device without first accessing the keyboard in the menu. Even then, it’s slower.

For someone who does a lot of typing on their device, my brief experience with the Curve Touch was really disappointing. There are constant headaches such as the fact that the virtual keyboard doesn’t change based on what fields you are filling out. The keyboard should know you’re in an email field and put the @ symbol front and center; but it doesn’t. That being said, if you don’t use the keyboard then the added screen real estate is wonderful. This is probably the target market of the device but as someone who is clearly not the target market, it’s hard for my first impressions to be anything but negative. If I could somehow just look at this device from the perspective of someone who purely consumes content, I would probably be really happy with the layout and design.

The one positive thing I can say about the virtual keyboard software is that RIM gives you the option to enter text in either full keyboard, reduced keyboard (think Pearl) or T9 (double tap). This is helpful as a reduced keyboard is pretty good for entering common text. The problem is when you try and type something like “Narnia” in reduced text, it’s nearly impossible and you have to switch to full keyboard. This shouldn’t happen.

We’ll have a full review eventually, but until then, my first impressions of the device have less to do with the Curve Touch itself, but more to do with a beef with RIM’s disappointing virtual keyboards. The company has been working on virtual keyboard technology since the launch of the first Storm over 3 years ago. RIM seems to have not made enough progress in the virtual keyboard software department.

Image from Verge

The biggest question right now is around the Super App experience. RIM has spent years developing the APIs necessary to create apps that access all the PIM information as well as things like the BlackBerry Menu. The fact that a BlackBerry app can customize the device and fill gaps is one of the reasons we love the platform so much. It will probably take RIM some time to roll out these APIs and create a smartphone experience that addresses the mobile workforce needs in the way that its predecessors have.

Matthias at emacberry made a good point about the time it might take to release these APIs. The BBM API has been around for about 9 months and it took RIM quite a while to offer a stable API. If that’s the sort of time frame we’re looking at for BBX, it could mean the first devices won’t have an app experience on par with BlackBerry 7 devices. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a gaming device, BBX looks like it will be a great experience. The games that are appearing these days for the PlayBook look stunning, but we have yet to see anything on the PlayBook that could be deemed a “Super App”.

I think what’s going to happen is that RIM’s first BBX device will be a full touchscreen device and it will be a brilliant gaming device, but not a “get things done” device. RIM certainly has plans for QWERTY based devices, and the APIs that make for a Super App experience will definitely get there in time, but it looks like the first BBX devices will be more play and less work. It’s still way too early to tell but it’s just a gut feeling from what we’ve seen so far – especially at DevCon.

Mobihand traffic

According to developer at Mobile Stream, the money owed dates back to July, and attempts at collecting the money have not been fruitful. Mobile Stream has told us that Mobihand’s response has been simply to tell the company to keep quiet, writing them emails saying “it would be helpful if you would not make this information publicly available. Publicity about this could damage our ability to resolve the problems and generate cash.” When asked specifically about the royalties and if a payment schedule can be negotiated, Mobihand replied saying “We don’t know when or how much. We don’t know if the complete amount will be paid before the end of the year. We hope so.”

We have written before that Mobihand is likely having cashflow issues as the company changed its pay schedule with developers and publishers. If a company is pushing back the dates at which it has to pay out, it’s a clear indication that something is going wrong.

After pinging a few other developers to see if this is an isolated incident, we got some troubling feedback from a popular BlackBerry app developer who said their August payment was delayed and they needed to ask for their money. In the end it was paid, but probably because this company is one of the few keeping Mobihand alive.

This same scenario happened with Handango before it went belly-up. First, the company raised their take on apps, then a few months later they changed the payment schedule. After that, the company started missing payments and shortly after the company went bankrupt.

We’ve also heard that some big developers are seeing tremendous drops in their royalties from Mobihand. Some big titles are seeing a drop of 40% per month. In the end, all signs point to the company being on a path to bankruptcy.

UPDATE: Just came across something interesting and I’m not sure what to make of it yet. It looks like the same person who emailed us, Anastassiya from Mobile-Stream, also emailed a Palm/Web OS blog back in the day with a nearly identical problem. Apparently, Mobile-Stream hadn’t received payments from MyTreo.net and complained. The developer received payment and MyTreo.net was bought by Mobihand.

Click here to read about Mobile-Stream’s issues with MyTreo.net.

We’re still pretty confident that something isn’t right with Mobihand’s cashflow, but it’s curious that this is a common problem with Anastassiya.

UPDATE #2: Here is an update from Anastassiya regarding the MyTreo.net issue:

The issue with MyTreo.net was three years ago. It concerned not only me, but other developers as well. Maybe the debt to me was more that the debt to other developers, that’s why my apps and my name are mentioned more often. 3 years ago Card Reader and USB Modem were two best-selling Palm apps at MyTreo.net, that’s why those financial difficulties hurt me more than other developers.

By the way, this issue with MobiHand has happened not only to me, but also to many other developers, including some popular BlackBerry developers, just read this:

Several developers such as nikkisoft, bellshare and others have already pulled their apps from MobiHand completely.

UPDATE #3: Mobihand has confirmed they are experiencing financial troubles.

Dear BlackBerryCool,

I was an iPhone guy for a couple years. I loved it. I told anyone who would listen that I wouldn’t ever have a different type of phone. But then one day my iPhone broke and I was forced to borrow a spare BlackBerry from one of my friends and now I will never go back. While BBM is great, it isn’t what makes it for me. It’s the fact that I can really work on my phone.

With my iPhone, I played games and read emails, but that was it. I never responded to emails since I hated the touchscreen keypad and I couldn’t ever edit documents when they were sent to me. Instead, I saw what was sent and then put it off until I was at my computer. This meant that when I was finally at my desk in the morning, I had a massive pile of email to deal with. Now, I’m able to quickly respond to emails no matter how much needs to be written and I can work on documents when I’m on the bus or waiting for someone. RIM really gets business. Both the calendar and the blinky red light are clearly made by people who understand the needs of a mobile workforce. These simple features make me a more efficient person and allow me to figure out what is going on as quickly as possible.

Someone asked me how I could live without my iPhone after I had been practically fused to it for so long. It got me thinking about what I truly miss about it. I realized that when I broke it down there were really only a few apps that I missed. I miss my iFitness app which tracks my progress at the gym, my poker odds calculator and I miss the Ottawa Public Library app. That being said, the reality is that I rarely have time to read for pleasure or play poker these days and while I still go to the gym, I’m now forced to track my progress on an Excel spreadsheet that i created on my BlackBerry.

The sad truth is that at some point we all need to grow up and I realized that the iPhone was my childhood and now that I’m a grownup I need a BlackBerry.

-Micah

EDITOR NOTE: We suggested to Micah that he try Gym Technik for his BlackBerry fitness tracking needs.

RIM is definitely going in the right direction with the NDk, and at DevCon 2011 RIM made note that the tools for native development wouldn’t require registration. This was a small change but definitely welcome. Now, RIM needs to focus on how it can bring the tools together in a single, easy to setup environment. Lowering barriers to development should be a top priority and Jeff’s post points out a few common headaches that RIM could easily do away with.

Head over to Jeff Bacon’s blog to read the full criticism about the NDK setup.

Read posts written by Jeff at this link and stories about him marked with this tag.