Posted on July 14, 2009, at 1:37 pm .
A recent study conducted by Vanson Bourne, revealed that 65 per cent of surveyed IT departments are concerned about unauthorized users accessing data if an iPhone is lost or stolen. The same study also showed 64 per cent of IT departments not put into place security steps to protect against threats targeted at the iPhone. Most cited the fact that they aren’t widely used in business as the reason.
This study shows one of the glaring weaknesses of the iPhone to service enterprise. Because BlackBerry is by far the most secure platform in the smartphone market, many organizations have turned to it to ensure the protection of their most valuable asset: intellectual property.
While Apple deserves an incredible amount of respect for implementing a hugely successful App Store, it will forever be stuck in a consumer market. That being said, I think it’s easier to shift from enterprise to consumer, versus the other way around. RIM has the opportunity to service the consumer market with fun and innovative applications, and I would be surprised if the iPhone were ever able to position itself as a viable solution for IT managers looking to remotely manage a network of several thousand devices. In fact, a quick look at the latest iPhone 3.0 software reveals that it still can’t run applications in the background.
More interesting points revealed in the study include:
- 10 per cent of IT decision makers believe that the iPhone is not as good an email tool as the BlackBerry, and they only want to manage one form of device.
- A little more than half (52 per cent) are concerned about the threat of downloading apps to the iPhone, while 40 per cent of respondents said they are worried about the threat of users downloading company data without the IT department knowing.
- Some 14 per cent of IT departments have banned the use of smartphones altogether for work purposes.
[Via]
Posted on March 3, 2009, at 5:25 pm .
Nowadays, you’d be hard pressed to look around any public venue and not see a BlackBerry. It makes those of us that have rocked a ‘Berry since day one seem… a little less special. One solution: pimp your BlackBerry with ‘bling’ (that’s what the kids are calling it these days) to make you stand out.
Friend of the ‘Cool Al Sacco has compiled an image gallery of popular BlackBerry Bling. The bling in question ranges from the gold-and-diamond BlackBerry case above, to the ever popular ‘Pimp My Pearl‘ BlackBerry application. To see the rest, click the link below.
BlackBerry Bling: The Hottest—and Priciest—Pimped-Out BlackBerrys
Posted on February 16, 2009, at 6:27 pm .
Throughout the many stages of the BOLT BlackBerry Browser private beta, we’ve had a hard time keeping up with the demand for invites to make sure every member of the BlackBerry Nation got a chance to kick the tires, so to speak. Thankfully, Bitstream has answered the call with a public beta of BOLT Browser version .86. To download the latest version for your BlackBerry, hit the link below. Don’t forget to check out our hands-on impressions as well.
Download BOLT BlackBerry Browser
BOLT BlackBerry Browser Hands-On Impressions
Posted on February 13, 2009, at 6:18 pm .
We’ve talked about Poynt, a free local search service, quite a bit on BlackBerry Cool: as a BlackBerry Developer Challenge winner, in podcast form with developer Multiplied’s Peter Werry during BBDC and in recent releases on the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220.
Multiplied has now brought Poynt to the BlackBerry Storm and was kind enough to give us a copy early for a hands-on. After the jump you’ll find Poynt for BlackBerry Storm’s feature list, a bunch of screen captures, and impressions from our time with this nifty application. Or you could just download Poynt at the link below, considering this is one of the best applications out for the Storm right now.
Download Poynt for BlackBerry Storm
Poynt for BlackBerry Storm impression, features, screenshots
Posted on February 13, 2009, at 10:12 am .
Our fellow Canadian droogs over at MobileSyrup have uncovered a black and white image of some upcoming BlackBerrys on the Bell network. Ignore the ugly Palm device on the left and you will see Black and Pink versions of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230. The image also displays a launch date of March 6th, but no pricing information. However, I think it’s reasonable to expect a ‘less-than-$100′ pricetag, or possibly even free, with a 3-year contract.
|via Mobile Syrup|
Posted on February 9, 2009, at 5:11 pm .
Those that know me know I’m a huge fan of music and particularly a connoisseur of Canadian music. The big story of the Canadian music scene recently has been all the great bands coming out of Quebec, and Montreal in particular (sorry Toronto and Vancouver, but you know it’s true). That’s why I was immediately excited when my friends at Telus tipped me off that their Mobile Music service now has 25,000 tracks by home-grown artists, making it the largest collection of Quebec songs for mobile phones.
TELUS will continue to expand its musical library by adding new productions from Quebec-based record companies, such as TACCA Musique, Audiogram, Indica Records, Déjà Musique, Sphere Musique, Vega Musique, Dare to Care, Grosse Boîte, K.Pone.Inc Music Group, Iro Productions, Tandem.mu and Abuzive Muzik, as soon as they are released. The most avid music lovers will be able to enjoy new releases in real time, without having to wait to buy their favourite artist’s latest album.
25,000 tracks is a lot. I was strolling through the list and found composer Coeur de pirate (shown above), which I recommend because I think her name translates to “Heart of a Pirate” or potentially “Heart Pirate”. Telus customers can find their own favorite artist at www.telus.com/music. Tracks start at $0.99 each, or for $20.00 per month, music fans can also download an unlimited number of tracks from a catalogue of over one million songs. The full press release is after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Telus Mobile Music now has 25,000 tracks from Quebec artists’
Posted on February 9, 2009, at 11:35 am .
After a few months of speculation, Fido has relaunched BlackBerry service with the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. That’s right, not the BlackBerry 8120 or even the 8110, but the BlackBerry 8100. However, Fido is Rogers’ low-end consumer brand, so there must be some sort of deal involved, correct? Well, the promo image above shows that the Pearl 8100 can be purchased for $25 with a 3 year Fido agreement/data plan. Hmm, three years is a long time, so what about some sort of month to month option? $400 freaking dollars? What about the data plans?
* $15 – Unlimited personal email and IM
* $25 – 500MB
* $30 – 1GB
* $60 – 3GB
Ok, at least that’s pretty sane. For the youth demographic, though, $15 a month for email and IM (what they want the BlackBerry for anyways) and another $15 for phone service (based upon their cheapest rate) isn’t that bad. But instead of paying $400 or signing a three year contract, swing by the BBCool HQ first: we have a box of old 8100s that we’d be willing to give away, guaranteed (guarantee void in Tennessee).
Fido BlackBerry Pearl Promo
Posted on February 6, 2009, at 3:59 pm .
Late last week YouMail launched Visual Voicemail Plus, a free visual voicemail application that works on the Blackberry Pearl, Curve, Bold and Storm. I like the sound of free, and a new visual voicemail application is always worth a try, but reports are surfacing that YouMail might not yet be up to snuff. Here’s what our main man Troy had to say over at BlackBerry News:
After 24 hours it is safe to say a lot work still needs to go into the application before it is ready for prime time much like the transcription service they charge for now. Many users including myself have experienced nothing but problems with the application… Maybe with all the ad revenue from placing ads on every aspect of your messages they can now put a little more money into their projects and refine their service. Time will tell.
We’re going to give YouMail our own thorough hands-on, but we recommend that you give it a try and post a comment on your experience. If you’re not willing to take the risk, however, post a comment and let us know of your favorite visual voicemail alternative.
Posted on February 4, 2009, at 1:27 pm .
It’s Wednesday today, which means people around the world are sitting at their desks thinking about the weekend. To help you get by, we thought this photo of a tasty AT&T BlackBerry Curve cake would help numb the brain until Friday comes. If you’re into mixing and matching your smartphone flavors, there are iPhone and Helio Ocean cakes after the jump as well. A bunch more interesting cake designs can be found here.
Thanks to @JeffHunt00 for the tip!
Smartphone Cakes
Posted on February 4, 2009, at 1:00 am .
Slacker today announced the availability of the free Slacker Mobile application for the BlackBerry Storm. Slacker Radio, which is optimized for the handset’s unique touch screen, and can be used in both vertical and horizontal modes, is available as a free download by visiting Slacker.com from your BlackBerry Storm.
Slacker station caching, an exclusive feature for BlackBerry smartphones, enables listeners to store favorite stations on a memory card, allowing the Slacker Mobile application to play without a network connection, reducing battery life consumption by up to 5 times that of streaming playback and enhancing application performance. In addition, BlackBerry smartphone enthusiasts can enjoy Slacker Personal Radio while doing other tasks such as emailing, instant messaging or web browsing (sorry iPhone).
As you know, I’m a big fan of Slacker. Now, my BlackBerry Storm friends can share in the same level of excellence from Slacker Radio that I have enjoyed for weeks. The link was scheduled to go live at 8 AM ET, but it appears to already be functional. If you’re in the USA (sorry Canucks), have a BlackBerry Storm or other BlackBerry with OS 4.3 or better, head over to www.slacker.com on your BlackBerry and download the free application. Hit us up in the comments with your thoughts.
