Nan Palmero, the man behind our recent Nan the Power User editorial series, just got married. While on his honeymoon, Nan took the time to email me a photo of his wedding cake, which should bring a tear to the eye of every member of the BlackBerry Nation. It seems that for his wedding, Nan wanted to do something special to honor his better half — the Sprint BlackBerry 8830.
Post a comment and wish Nan the Power User well on his honeymoon! No, I don’t know how he convinced her, either.
I almost missed this last week with all the BlackBerry Developer Conference madness last week, but it’s too good not to post. Our fellow Canucks over at MobileSyrup have found a YouTube clip from the Rick Mercer Report (think the Canadian Daily Show) lampooning a fairly well known Rogers commercial. In the Rogers commercial, two businessmen are stuck in an elevator, with only one able to maintain their cell call, leaving the other in awe.
You can watch the original commercial after the jump, but please watch the one above first. It makes you wonder whether or not having the ‘fewest dropped calls’ is a good thing or not.
In case you missed it, local Ottawa A-list celebrity and local A-list BlackBerry game developer Magmic’s VP of Business Development, Phil Giroux, was interviewed by CBC National Radio a few weeks ago about BlackBerry addiction.
Although the interview is brief and mostly an excuse for the uninformed interviewer to play sound bites, it’s worth checking out to hear Phil deftly respond to dumb questions with comedic gold. Oh, he also discusses sharing drinks with RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie and whether or not it’s polite to pull out your BlackBerry during a meeting with RIM. Enjoy.
As a Canadian mobile industry blog, we tend to shy away from discussing American politics on the site (that’s what conventions are for). However, we feel that for many members of the BlackBerry Nation, what we are about to tell you could be the deciding factor in whom you vote for this November. Essentially, a McCain staffer has claimed that the Republican nominee helped create the BlackBerry. We’re going to let CNN do the heavy lifting on this story while we pull ourselves up from the floor:
He added, though, that McCain — who has struggled to stress his economic credentials this cycle — did have experience dealing with the economy, pointing to his time on the Senate Commerce Committee. Pressed to provide an example of what McCain had accomplished on that committee, Holtz-Eakin said the senator did not have jurisdiction over financial markets — then held up his Blackberry, telling reporters: “He did this.”
“Telecommunications of the United States, the premiere innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create,” said Holtz-Eakin. “And that’s what he did. He both regulated and de-regulated the industry.”
It’s funny, I didn’t realize that the United States Commerce Committee had jurisdiction over Canadian companies and their products.
The Obama campaign has already weighed in, with spokesman Bill Burton stating, “If John McCain hadn’t said that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ on the day of one of our nation’s worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week.”
Please feel free to post a comment. Seriously, go nuts. The BlackBerry Cool staff really wants to hear your thoughts on this one.
We’re not going to show you the rest of the comic (for that, you’ll have to head to The Joy of Tech, which is a must-read anyways), but the snippet presented above does raise an interesting question: how big of a factor is Apple’s Apps Store in the ongoing smartphone wars? Would it benefit the RIM ecosystem to have a all-in-one shop for productivity, lifestyle and entertainment applications? Post a comment and let us know what you think.
Last month our current writer for Windows Mobile Cool, Bambi Blue, was down at North by Northeast in Toronto covering some news for Trans Canada Radio. While enjoying lunch at a quiet, chic restaurant, one of these BlackBerry guys flung themselves violently against the front window overlooking the street – face-first, arms wide open. This was a fairly upscale place, so everyone there was stunned and aghast when the guy reached down to his scrollball and started rubbing it in a less-than-wholesome way. After doing a sexy little dance, BlackBerry guy number two came crashing in, doing all sorts of things to the first that kept the diners well and truly shocked. Unfortunately, they ran off before she could grab any pictures, but Bambi still learned a valuable lesson: BlackBerry guys are possibly the coolest mascots on the planet.
“I waited in line for 15 hours and all I got were unicorns and this lousy tee shirt!”
Some of you might not know about QuicklyBored, our sister site that covers all things mobile entertainment. Yesterday, QB Editor in Chief, Kyle McInnes, stayed up all night in line to buy an iPhone 3G, braving a storm that hit the Ottawa area, only to come back to work and blog about it. We’d like to give props to our resident Apple fanboy co-worker by pointing you to some of the more interesting pieces of content about his journey.
I’m heading to Toronto today, and Simon is still on vacation, so news will unfortunately be light. But it’s Friday, so enjoy photos of the new BlackBerry KickStart and a video made by our friends at BBGeeks. It’s a little NSFW, but I feel it aptly depicts the trials and tribulations of the BlackBerry Nation.
Boy, is this a chilling thought. Apparently, C|net has compiled a list of various BlackBerry models in terms of their radiation emission levels. Checking the list, I was surprised to find that my very own BlackBerry 8330 is the king of the hill at a 1.54 W/kg SAR rating. It should be noted that the cut-off point allowed by the FTC is 1.6. Eep. The lowest emitting BlackBerrys? The good old 7100r and the 8830.
Check out the list below and find out whether or not your BlackBerry will help you “go smash now!” or prevent you from having children. Thanks Phea for the tip (I think).
So how are your thumbs feeling today? Newsmax is reporting that in 2007, the average cellphone user sent 188 text messages per month, which equals roughly 2,256 texts a year. Sweet mama! Now, obviously this study refers to cellphone users and not smartphone users, which I would assume text far more often.
Does anyone have a rough estimate of how many texts and emails they fire off a month from their BlackBerry? Post a comment and let us know. Also, stay tuned for an upcoming interview with a medical specialist about the hazards of BlackBerry thumb. Seriously.
So how are your thumbs feeling today? Newsmax is 
