Anyone familiar with SlingPlayer should be chomping very excited that it will soon be available for BlackBerry. That’s right, Sling Media announced late last night that SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will enter public beta beginning December 30th. The public beta will be available to BlackBerry users in the US, Canada and UK initially. Here’s a list of supported BlackBerrys for the public beta:
Samsung has made a play to improve their enterprise market share today, naming former RIM executive Marcus Stone as the head of Smartphones UK and Ireland. Stone had held several sales and marketing positions during his seven years at RIM. Derek Williamson, Samsung’s general manager, while announcing the new hire, also addressed the need to specifically target the enterprise market.
Williamson said: ‘As we grow more rapidly within the UK smartphone market, it is critical that we assign more time and focus on this sector. We already have an exciting smartphone portfolio with an extensive range, and we have plenty more to come with some incredible products planned for next year.’
I guess there is more than one reason why RIM is hiring.
With all the BlackBerry Storm launch news overtaking Canada, BlackBerry Cool has sadly neglected BlackBerry launches in the rest of the world. No longer! Expect this to be the first of many launch posts.
Carphone Warehouse and RIM announced that the BlackBerry Curve 8900 will go on sale on December 20th in UK stores nationwide and on their website, www.carphonewarehouse.com.
Ross Yealland, Head of New Propositions at The Carphone Warehouse said “The new BlackBerry Curve 8900 is destined to become a stylish must have phone. We predict both new and existing customers will be fighting to get their hands on one from launch.”
Our UK friends will be able to get the BlackBerry Curve 8900 for free on an 18 month contract and £35.00 line rental. Sounds like a great price for the next-gen Curve.
While most Verizon Storm users are wondering why they would receive a text message telling them to upgrade to an OS that isn’t available yet, Vodafone Germany did the smart thing and just posted OS 4.7.0.78 on their website! You can click the link below to download and get updating – OS 4.7.0.78 should give Storm 9500 users quite a boost in stability.
We’ve got some great news from one of our BlackBerry Cool 15 presenters, ExSafe. ExSafe takes control of the Microsoft Office application suite, storing documents away from vulnerable local disks and servers in a highly secure online storage environment. ExSafe is now officially available for public consumption, and has been successfully tested on Vodafone, O2 and AT&T networks (with more to come shortly).
You can purchase ExSafe or download a one week free trial by clicking the links below. A word of warning: we’ve been told that ExSafe gets a little glitchy if your BlackBerry is attached to a computer via USB, but simply unplugging the device will eliminate any problems.
Wow, Vodafone is on a roll this week. First, the BlackBerry Storm in the UK, the BlackBerry Bold in Malta and now a bevvy of BlackBerrys in the Channel Islands. Airtel-Vodafone and RIM jointly announced the launch of the BlackBerry Curve 8310 and BlackBerry Pearl 8110, both of which include GPS.
“We are thrilled to be bringing this product to customers in the Channel Islands,” says Iain Williams, CEO of Airtel-Vodafone. “The BlackBerry smartphone is no longer just a business must-have but it is increasingly becoming a lifestyle device as well. The more digital the world becomes the more people live their lives online. BlackBerry smartphones accommodate the modern way of life and, in combination with the additional services of the Vodafone network, we are confident that the BlackBerry solution will be well received by customers in the Channel Islands.”
For more information about Airtel-Vodafone’s BlackBerry releases, visit their website below.
Considering the current state of the global economy, expect more news of this sad nature in the coming weeks. Carrier Vodafone is expected this week to announce a substantial job cut of its European workforce aimed at generating savings of £1 billion (US$1.6 billion). This news comes in addition to previous warnings from Vodafone that their sales have remained difficult in its UK and Spanish markets. Vodafone is expected Tuesday to post a half-year operating profit of £5.7 billion on sales of £19.8 billion.
“Whether they set a target now or in May, there will have to be a cost plan,” Terence Sinclair, telecoms analyst at Citigroup told the Sunday Times newspaper. “£1 billion is just 3% of sales.”
Hopefully big sales of the BlackBerry Storm 9500 following its launch on the 14th will help to save a few jobs for our European friends.
I’m sure this will make all of our UK readers happy. Yesterday we published Vodafone UK’s official launch date for the BlackBerry Storm 9500, November 14th, but noticed that their Storm pre-order page contained a November 18th date. After contacting Vodafone for clarification, we received this timely response:
Hello,
You will be able to go to store and buy a BlackBerry Storm on 14th November. The pre-order phones – and there are 1000s – will be despatched next week and we expect customers will have their pre-order by next weekend. The 18th is just a precaution in case customers are not in to take delivery of the phone at the weekend and delivery needs to be attempted again the following week.
Notice to UK BlackBerry Cool readers: stay at home to make sure you get your BlackBerry Storm!
UPDATE: Umm, make that five new videos. We’ve just added videos from CNN and Stuff.tv after the jump.
It looks like everyone and their dog has gotten their hands on a Vodafone BlackBerry Storm 9500, which launches in the UK on November 14th. Following the 4 minutes of BlackBerry Storm video heaven we posted about yesterday, no less than three other UK mobile sites — KnowYourMobile, MegaWhat and T3 — have posted their own videos. Of the three, MegaWhat’s is probably the most informative, while KnowYourMobile’s demonstrates what purchasing music through Vodafone’s store will look like. We’ve put T3’s first, however, for two reasons: it features a super cute British tech nerd, and she calls the Storm a “stunning piece of kit.” Bloody brilliant. You can see the other two videos after the jump.
Vodafone UK officially announced the launch date of the BlackBerry Storm 9500 today via press release. However, while the press release announcement states that the Storm will be available November 14th, Vodafone’s BlackBerry Storm pre-order page puts the date as the 18th. Is this a simple typo or the sign of a delay?
For what it’s worth, Verizon also published a new Storm release, containing new data plans for ‘world travelers’. The Global Value Plan offers discounted roaming charges on calls made to and from 130 countries for $4.99 a month, while the GlobalEmail Data Plans are available for $69.99 a month data-only or $64.99 a month with a voice plan. You can read both press releases below.
Samsung has made a play to improve their enterprise market share today, naming former RIM executive Marcus Stone as the head of Smartphones UK and Ireland. Stone had held several sales and marketing positions during his seven years at RIM. Derek Williamson, Samsung’s general manager, while announcing the new hire, also addressed the need to specifically target the enterprise market.
Considering the current state of the global economy, expect more news of this sad nature in the coming weeks. Carrier Vodafone is expected this week to announce a substantial job cut of its European workforce aimed at generating savings of £1 billion (US$1.6 billion). This news comes in addition to previous warnings from Vodafone that their sales have remained difficult in its UK and Spanish markets. Vodafone is expected Tuesday to post a half-year operating profit of £5.7 billion on sales of £19.8 billion.
