Posted on October 3, 2008, at 1:24 pm .
Boy has it been a trying time for the BlackBerry Nation. The economy is in the tank, the BlackBerry Bold has yet to arrive on AT&T and one of our most intensely debated Weekly Contests came when we asked if RIM was going to be okay. We need some fun!
Earlier in the week, you guys tore Gary Krakow a new one over a complaint about BlackBerrys that was easily corrected. However, I liked his style – he had an issue and he vented in the hopes of solving the problem. I think we need to get it all out, all those nagging issues that don’t stop us from loving our BlackBerrys, but maybe cause us to curse the smartphone gods every once in awhile. Issues like a BlackBerry Bold price drop six weeks after launch, or the inability to get OS updates for your BlackBerry. Perhaps you have a long-running hardware concern, or maybe you’re just tired of seeing unreleased BlackBerry teaser videos before you can get the Bold on AT&T.
Whatever the reason, post your most inspiring argument in the comments section about how you could make BlackBerrys even better with just a few minor tweaks. Maybe the smartphone gods will answer our prayers!
The two posters that come up with the best BlackBerry fix will win a FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO WORLDMATE LIVE‘S GOLD SERVICE!
View Last Week’s Weekly Contest Winner
Posted on September 26, 2008, at 3:10 pm .
RIM’s recent financial statement makes it clear that it’s time to put things into perspective about what’s going on with our favorite company from Waterloo. The market has completely soured on RIM’s stock due to missed targets and shaky guidance for coming quarters. However, RIM CEO Jim Balsillie would tell you otherwise, stating that RIM is aggressively investing now to win later. And we can’t forget just how excited we are for upcoming BlackBerrys.
So post a comment and let us know which is the dominant RIM perspective right now: slow and steady to win the race, or financial freefall? The person who posts the best comment will receive a BlackBerry Bluetooth Stereo Gateway!!
Posted on August 15, 2008, at 4:21 pm .
So the news has finally broken on Rogers’ pricing for the BlackBerry Bold, due out next week on the 19th: $399 on a three year plan. I’d like to say it’s a surprise, but honestly at this point, we should be expecting this from Big Red, right? Andy Brown of Strategy Analytics already told us that enterprises won’t be taking the Bold, except as perhaps executive candy. And after the dirt-cheap Pearl and the mid-ranged iPhone 3G, Rogers has a gap in their “high-end prestige” demographic, which the Bold fills nicely.
The question then becomes: what do the rest of us do? Are we really willing to shell out $400 on a three year contract for the BlackBerry Bold? Has the wait been so unbearable that we’re willing to do anything for BlackBerry goodness at this point? Or do we have the guts to hold out until Christmas, hoping they drop the price a little? Maybe we should follow the advice of reader Jack Frost:
The trick is for people to complain and hold-out on buying the Bold. If demand is low, then they will lower their prices. Soon it will be cheaper to get a plan in the USA and pay roaming in Canada rather than sign a 3 year deal with Rogers.
Post a comment and let us know if you’re still planning to buy the BlackBerry Bold or if $50 for the Pearl 8220 sounds a lot more enticing. The person with the best comment will win THREE FREE GAMES FROM MAGMIC.
Posted on July 11, 2008, at 2:06 pm .
After seeing Gizmodo’s video of MobileMe’s push e-mail in action, we definitely got a little spooked as to how much of a dent the iPhone 3G could put into BlackBerry. If you take into account Exchange support, aggressive marketing, developer love through the new iTunes app store, it’s pretty much impossible to keep pretending that the iPhone and BlackBerry are mutually exclusive. The only real question left is where will the iPhone hit hardest? The easy answer is the consumer market, but there’s lots of room for enterprise to start adopting. RIM still has mad seniority, and the BlackBerry Bold will easily match the iPhone 3G feature point for feature point – will that be enough for RIM to maintain smartphone dominance, or is Apple going to start getting a bigger a slice of the pie? Drop a comment with the best damage assessment and get not only an extra-spiffy BlackBerry Cool T-Shirt, but also a year of SugarSync – let’s just hope they don’t make an iPhone app anytime soon.
Last week’s winner behind the jump!
Posted on July 4, 2008, at 12:35 pm .
Right now our friends to the south are celebrating their independence, while the Canadian contingent of the BlackBerry Nation is recovering from the celebration of ours. Still, I’m sure the intense summertime revelry hasn’t stopped us from using our beloved BlackBerrys.
So BlackBerry Cool HQ wants you to display your pride for the BlackBerry Nation. Whether it’s an embarrassing story of getting caught using your BlackBerry somewhere you shouldn’t (the shower comes to mind), climbing the Lincoln Memorial to get better wireless reception, or a link to a photo/video displaying your intense love of BlackBerry, we want it.
The person with the best post will win A SWEET BLACKBERRY COOL TEE-SHIRT and a FREE COPY OF MAGMIC’S TEXAS HOLD’EM KING 3: CONNECTED. Everyone have a safe and happy holiday!
Click here for Last week’s Weekly Contest winner
Posted on June 27, 2008, at 10:14 am .
I believe it was Mark Twain BBCool Simon who once said, “If you own the tracks and the trains, you own the passengers.” In Canada, if there was ever a modern day version of the great train barons, it would be the telecoms: 3 year contracts, expensive data plans compared to our U.S. counterparts, lizards selling phones… it’s terrible.
Yesterday Simon had a great interview with Canadian MP David McGuinty, who has introduced a bill to eliminate extraneous wireless costs like data overages and system access fees and unlock all phones. However, we want to do one better and bestow the BlackBerry Nation with the (hypothetical) power to regulate carriers any way you see fit. What will you do?
The person who posts the best comment will win a FREE YEAR-LONG 30G SUBSCRIPTION TO SUGARSYNC and a sweet BLACKBERRY COOL TEE SHIRT.
Click here to see last week’s Weekly Contest winner!
Posted on June 20, 2008, at 11:37 am .
Choices, choices: so many choices for BlackBerry lovers to make this year. Do you choose the high-end 3G BlackBerry Bold that will be here in mid-July, or wait for a smaller, sleaker, 3G-less BlackBerry Javelin (aka, the BlackBerry Curve successor with better battery life than the Bold)? For our CDMA carrier subscribers out there, does the thought of the touchscreen BlackBerry Thunder give you shivers of excitement, or are you holding out hope that the Bold-clone BlackBerry Niagara is worth the May ‘09 wait? Are you planning on picking up a BlackBerry KickStart for the kids?
Post a comment and let us know which BlackBerry you’ve set your heart on. Hell, considering the response to last week’s Weekly Contest, you can even let us know if you’re leaving the BlackBerry Nation altogether for an iPhone 3G. The person with the best comment will win a nifty BLACKBERRY COOL TEE SHIRT and a free copy of MAGMIC’S TEXAS HOLD’EM KING 3: CONNECTED.
Click here to see last week’s winners
Posted on June 6, 2008, at 11:04 am .
The BlackBerry Bold is coming (someday. Sigh.) All the latest rumors seem to indicate that a 3G iPhone could be announced as early as next Monday. But the question remains: why do you want 3G?
Is it for faster web-browsing? Multiplayer gaming? MP3 and other media downloads? Because EDGE’s 2.5G seems so 2005? Post a comment and let us know how a 3G BlackBerry is going to change your life, and if it gives you pause for concern in any way. For example, while an entirely different technology than what will be in the Bold, my EV-DO BlackBerry 8330 is balls for battery life. Do you believe RIM’s battery life assurances?
Post a comment and let us know. The person with the best answer will receive a FREE COPY OF MAGMIC’S THK3: CONNECTED and a slick BLACKBERRY COOL TEE SHIRT, just because we like you so much.
Last Week’s Winner after the jump
Posted on May 23, 2008, at 11:17 am .
We survived John Mayer. We ran around like wild men. We live blogged Mikey and the Jim-Dog. We podcasted with carriers, industry analysts, and AAA BlackBerry developers. Simon interviewed every company, ever. We were the most visible BlackBerry news site at WES. Everybody wanted one of our tee shirts and an invite to our exclusive poker game (next time, we promise). We even freaking blogged while walking. Essentially, we kicked butt to provide the BlackBerry Nation with the best WES coverage and established BlackBerry Cool as the #1 BlackBerry news site on the web. Period.
Now, we want to hear from you, our readers. What was the WES experience for you? What piece of news, editorial, or video defined the show? If you were there, who did you meet or what did you see (cough, BlackBerry Bold, cough) that made it all worth while? Post a comment and let us know. The person who best describes the WES experience will win a Viigo WES ‘08 bag jam-packed with some special schwag, including one of those popular BBCool tee shirts everyone has been raving about.
