Sometimes it’s nice to get a break from the startup world. It seems Silicon Valley churns out the next “game changing” startup about once a month and the vast majority of these companies are a waste of everybody’s time. Take Kevin Rose’s Oink for example. It’s not a bad a idea, it’s just a waste of your time. No offence to Rose because Oink would be awesome if everyone in your city used it, but that’s incredibly unlikely. What’s more likely is that this idea will pivot about six times until it’s something very different than what it started, or the idea will simply fade into oblivion. In the meantime, if you’re an iPhone user and your friends are into trying every free app that hits the App Store, you will likely get bombarded with friend requests for each of these startups.
Continue reading ‘Sometimes It’s Great That Startups Ignore BlackBerry’
Editorials
The BlackBerry Dev Blog has recently reached out to developers and asked them to get their Android apps ready for the PlayBook OS 2 launch. The Android app grab makes a lot of sense for RIM’s platform, especially because BlackBerry 10 is going to launch with far fewer apps than a legacy BlackBerry user would have access to. How do you think people will react when they realize that their BlackBerry 10 smartphone won’t have all the apps they paid for, and the catalog of available apps could be 10,000 versus 60,000? RIM is going to have to grab a significant number of new developers and apps as well as convert many of its Java developers in order to create a solid app ecosystem at launch.
Continue reading ’5 Android Games We Want Ported to BlackBerry 10′
RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins said that the city of Ottawa is “central to its software strategy” and that has implications for both the city and the company. Ottawa is a city with a long history of tech and culture that can bring a lot of value to RIM. But there some obstacles ahead.
Continue reading ‘Ottawa is the Future of Research in Motion’
This has surely happened to you: you’ve tried to “Plus1″ an article for Google Plus but your BlackBerry is not supported. Currently, a Bold 9900 OS 7.1 device gets an error message if you try and +1 an article or website. For a company the size of Google, with its engineer-heavy staff, support for OS 7 should be trivial.
Continue reading ‘Google Plus Would Benefit From More BlackBerry Support’
The news of RIM promoting its COO Thorsten Heins to the position of CEO seems like its a good move from a shareholder perspective, but we won’t know its affect on the company for some time. Shareholders have been demanding a change in leadership for some time now, and if the Co-CEOs stepping down will instill more confidence in the company, then it had to happen sooner rather than later. We’re going to hold off on any judgements about Heins and his ability to lead until he’s had some time to get comfortable in the role. There’s a lot at stake here and the company is going through a major transition. Here are 5 key milestones that we see on the near horizon for Thorsten Heins.
Continue reading ’5 Key Milestones of Success for the New CEO Thorsten Heins’
There’s an interesting trend in the mobile industry right now of using apps to microfinance political campaigns and charitable donations. The idea is that you launch an app that gets your message and donation button in front of as many mobile eyeballs as possible. Mobile is a great market for conspicuous consumption and apps are a good way to tap into the market. So how do you best campaign on mobile, raise awareness and solicit donations?
Continue reading ‘Using Apps to Help Microfinance Political Campaigns and Charities’
