After a few setbacks and delays (damn you, CTIA), the BlackBerry Cool Podcast is back! It’s also our 40th podcast, which is some sort of milestone, I guess, and a good place to implement changes. We’ve fiddled with the format a little, added some music and a new weekly podcast guest: Fake Ted Rogers. The BlackBerry Cool Podcast will also now be released on Mondays (apologies to all those who enjoy listening to podcasts while raking leaves on the weekend).
This week’s podcast is a bit of a catchup, as we discuss the major news of the past month: the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 and BlackBerry Storm, and Rogers new BES/BIS plans and BlackBerry Bold price drop. Coincidentally, we also discuss why RIM will never make a BlackBerry app store. Whoops. In fairness, the BlackBerry Application Center is the perfect compromise between what we said RIM needs and what they would never do, so give us partial credit. We also attempted to talk about RIM’s stock and the economy, but cut it because we had nothing significant to contribute on either subject.
Downloading/streaming options for the BlackBerry Cool Podcast can be found after the jump, as well as links to all the relevant news stories. Enjoy!
October is here and that means we’re only a few weeks away from the BlackBerry Developer Conference, which is running from October 20-22nd. Not only is the BlackBerry Cool staff excited to make time with all the BlackBerry Developers out there, we’re also participating in an official capacity.
Our boy Kevin from CrackBerry also broke some exciting news yesterday when he reported that the BlackBerry Developer Conference is going to be littered with free BlackBerrys for attendees! I know for a fact that BlackBerry Developers are always in need of a few extra BlackBerrys for testing, so this should make everyone happy (oh please let them be BlackBerry Storms!). I’ve also heard a rumor floating around that the two Best of Show $150,000 Developer Grand Prizes might be doubled!! That’s over half a million in prizes, folks, and that doesn’t even include the prize money for the individual Developer Challenge categories!
UPDATE: Just got an email from Rick Segal of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. He loves the idea, and is going to sponsor us!! Still not sure about the name (post some suggestions, please), but for now the BLACKBERRY COOL 15 IS ON! More info to come!
There’s one more thing I wanted to float by you, though. Even though the BBDC is all about developers, with so many of them at the show, it’s going to be hard for many to get the exposure they need. BlackBerry Cool has been thinking about running an event during the BlackBerry Developer Conference… an event (maybe) called the BlackBerry Cool 15. Here’s the idea:
We get about 15 registered developers all in one room with an audience.
We’ll give them 1-2 minutes to pitch their idea or application, followed by 2-3 minutes of questioning by a judges panel.
After all the developers have made their pitch, the audience members vote on what was the best BlackBerry application.
We’ll film the whole thing and give all the developers great exposure, and some cool prizes to the winner.
What do you think BlackBerry Nation? Does it sound like a (ahem) ‘cool’ idea? Post a comment and let us know. We’ll see you in Santa Clara!
A recent survey of US consumers by Ad-Ology research shows that wireless blogs like BlackBerry Cool have far more power over what device you’ll buy than ever before. 60% of those surveyed stated that their mobile phone purchase had been influenced by online product reviews and user comments, while 30% said that blogs have the same level of influence.
“This is the modern day version of ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising,” said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “Advertisers have always known the immense value of positive ‘word-of-mouth’. Now consumers have a whole world of opinions and reviews available online, and this survey shows how much they value that kind of information.”
Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. BlackBerry Cool promises to always give you the straight goods on which BlackBerry you should purchase. Post a comment and let us know which factors influence your purchasing decisions and whom you trust the most.
A few months ago we started a BlackBerry Cool group on LinkedIn, to connect BlackBerry power users with colleagues in the wireless industry. We then promptly forgot about it. Despite our total disregard, however, the BlackBerry Cool LinkedIn Group has slowly gained a larger membership, passing the 500 user milestone earlier this week.
We thought it was time to remind everyone about the group and to promise some interesting things to come in the near future, thanks to new LinkedIn features. Let’s fill ‘er up to 1000!
The market is eerily quiet today in Ottawa, as the citizens of our nation’s capital have packed up the Winnebego and headed to the cottage for some well-deserved long weekend RandR. Except for me, of course. So If you go out in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise: no, not that, but rather 7′ tall BBCool Simon, slinging cold ones and continuing to field test his SideWinder for BlackBerry.
So having drawn the short straw (you always draw the short straw against Simon), you’re stuck with me today. Keeping with the holiday flavor, BBCool will be a little light on posts today, focusing on fun stuff and catching up on some news we’ve missed recently. For those in need of their hardcore BlackBerry fix, however, don’t worry: we have a special interview going up today that you won’t want to miss.
So sit down, relax, and stay awhile. And pass a cold one, will ya?
You might have noticed BBCool being a little wonky over the last day or two – it was all a part of a server upgrade that we seem to have settled down from. Sorry for the lapse, but we’re now rocking some new hardware which should let us serve up the latest BlackBerry news lickitty-split from here on in.
RIM jobs! Get your RIM jobs! Get ‘em while they’re hot! 7 fresh positions at Research in Motion have been posted on BlackBerryJobs.com, including Mobile Application Architect, Infrastructure Solutions Architect, and Operations Analyst. Exciting titles as they may be, there are no doubt plenty of readers out there who can fill those shoes and wear those hats. If you’re an employer with some holes to fill, go on and post a job! Oh, we’re also selling those shirts for any recruiters in Waterloo…
It’s gonna be pretty hectic here in the National Capital today, and the BBCool staffers aren’t ones to miss out. No news today, but we’ll be playing catch up tomorrow. For those Canadians out there reading, have a good one, and Americans, your day off is just around the corner.
BBCool is all about the Web 2.0 bandwagons, and LinkedIn is no exception. For those who haven’t heard, it’s a place where professionals can network, list qualifications, get recommendations, and generally get all the jollies of Facebook while still pretending to work. We’ve got a BBCool group set up so you can get in touch with all the other hep industry types that read BBCool. Of course, you can still hook up with other readers through our Facebook fan page.
You already heard what the people have chosen, and now to announce what the supposed experts have to say. Like we mentioned in last week’s podcast, it’s a tough call to make with such a wide range of products being shown off at WES. The judges for each category had their own set of standards (as you can see), so the results are bound to be highly subjective. The fact of the matter is every exhibitor at WES had something worth showing off, and these were just some of the few that stuck out in our judge’s minds.
It’s gonna be pretty hectic here in the National Capital today, and the BBCool staffers aren’t ones to miss out. No news today, but we’ll be playing catch up tomorrow. For those Canadians out there reading, have a good one, and Americans, your day off is just around the corner. 
