RIM Boils Down their BlackBerry Smartphone Core Values for Us

A friend of mine pointed out something interesting about the slide deck RIM put up during their BlackBerry 7 device launch in the UK and Canada. RIM kindly posted the slide deck on SlideShare and it really boils down RIM’s smartphone core values, strategy, and even ethos into two slides. The first highlights how “BlackBerry Just Works” and I think if you take those 5 examples RIM puts out of how it “Just Works” you clearly see how the BlackBerry 7 portfolio improves on it.

Perfecto Mobile for BlackBerry allows developers remote access to BlackBerry 7 smartphones for app testing

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While RIM offers developers access to BlackBerry smartphone simulators, for some developers out there testing their apps on real devices offers a much better analysis. For this, Perfecto Mobile has launched MobileCloud for BlackBerry. A service that offers developers remote access to any number of BlackBerry 7 devices on different carriers for which they can test out BlackBerry 7 applications on.

“Real world testing can make all the difference for application developers. MobileCloud for BlackBerry will enable our application development community to quickly and easily test their apps on live BlackBerry 7 smartphones on different networks around the world from the convenience of their web browser,” said Tyler Lessard, Vice President of Global Alliances & Developer Relations, Research In Motion.

The service offers you a free 2 hour testing trial period, after that — it will cost $4 USD plus tax per hour. However, having your app work as expected when finally released is priceless compared the amount of time you’d spend on support emails and other issues that arise with having not test an app fully. If you’re interested in learning more, you’ll find the full press release past the break.

DirectFix tears down a Blackberry Bold 9900 for the greater good

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Device tear down videos are as common practice as device boxings however, tear down videos serve a greater good. That of course being, should you ever happen to need to fix your device or replace parts, you can do so with a visual guide for reference. The folks over at Directfix have taken apart a BlackBerry Bold 9900 for us all, though — we hope you never need to make use of it. But either way, good to know it’s there should you ever need it.

via:cb

BBM Music Feature & Functionality Walkthrough in Screenshots

As I mentioned before I have really been enjoying BBM Music. I am not ready to do a full review but I thought I would share a ton of screenshots of the app since very few people have access so far. Let us know if you have any questions about the features shown off in the screenshots and I will have somebody answer to the best of our knowledge.

Android Copyright Notice Now in Latest BlackBerry OS 7.0.0.353 Leak?

Here is a new head scratcher. Amir pointed out to us that the latest leak of OS 7.0.0.353 on the BlackBerry Torch 9810 includes an interesting new copyright notice in the “About Device Versions” settings page. If you go to the 4th page of that you will see a new copyright notice that was not there before crediting the “Android Open Source Project” with all their rights reserved. We have seen RIM add in these sorts of copyright notices before for WebKit, fonts, and even the new Qualcomm snapdragon processor but where does Android come in? Maybe RIM is using some of their source code in some part of BlackBerry 7? If so why start putting the notice in later builds?

Some might even take it far enough to speculate that some part of Android might be making its way to BlackBerry 7 but who knows… Let us know if you spot anything else or if you have some fun speculation (or conspiracy theories) to add!

PSA – T-Mobile seems to think the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is dual-core, it's not!

Being a consumer these days is already hard enough with all this HSPA+ / 4G nonsense we have to deal with. Having to deal with inaccurate packaging and inaccurate information does nothing to help this situation. We’re sure this is just a slip up, but realistically these days these things shouldn’t happen. How this ever got approved for store shelves we’re not sure — but one thing is for certain, and as much as it hurts to say it, T-Mobile will need to pull these devices or at minimum the boxes off the shelves.

What’s with the Kiddish BlackBerry 7 Icons RIM?

It’s been a couple of days now since I got my BlackBerry 9900 and it’s truly every die hard BlackBerry fan’s dream phone. While I could go on about all the vast improvement I have seen considering I was still rocking my old Bold, I will opt to sum up the entire improvements with two words, NO LAG!  RIM has kept its word on improving the overall performance of these new BlackBerry smartphones and customers will show their appreciation by buying these new phones. But one thing seems to be bugging me about my new BlackBerry 9900.

Quick Review: Amazon Cloud Reader on the BlackBerry PlayBook

Last week Amazon introduced a cloud reader solution for the Amazon Kindle. The motivation for this development was specifically for the Apple iPad due to Apple’s new money hungry in-app purchase rules, Amazon need to find a solution outside the Apple App Store. Since Apple has a hate-on for Flash and directing all of their effort to move the world to HTML5, Amazon took advantage of this and developed the HTML5 Kindle Cloud Reader.  The big news for us BlackBerry people is that the PlayBook fully supports the HTML5, therefore the Kindle Cloud Reader works quite nicely with the BlackBerry Playbook.

Editorial: Why the BlackBerry Curve series will be on top again

The Curve series has been around for a long time. It’s not like the Style, Torch, or even Tour series that have only a couple of phones to show. The Curve series has had four different phones out already (about 10 Curves if you count different carrier versions like 8310 and 8330) with two more in the works. While the BlackBerry Curve 9360, and the Curve Touch 9380 have been overshadowed, and rightly so, by the new BlackBerry 7 devices, we’ve still heard so much news about them. While neither one of these phones have been officially announced yet, many are excited for these devices, myself included. My first BlackBerry ever was a Curve 8310 so this series definitely holds a special place in my heart. Personally, I feel that if RIM can make this device as solid as the Torch 9850/9860, it will be one of the hottest selling phones out there and here’s why.

The Curve series has always been the most popular of all the BlackBerry devices for many reasons. Since the introduction of the Bold series, which has taken the “flagship” device role, the Curve series has gained the reputation as a solid yet affordable BlackBerry. People who want a BlackBerry but simply don’t want to pony up $250+ can usually afford to get a Curve. That attracts many people including teens, a huge demographic for any cellphone manufacturer, to buy their phones. Also the Curve series is the most popular BlackBerry among prepaid devices. Carriers usually don’t like to give their customers expensive devices when they’re on a pay-as-you-go type of plan for obvious reasons. This has made the BlackBerry Curve such an appealing device for those carriers to offer. Most of them can’t offer high end Android devices nor can they offer the iPhone. If their customers want a smartphone, BlackBerry will always have a great representative.

Unfortunately though, after the Curve 8900, the Curve series has felt too cheap. Lacking even a flash for the camera, RIM needed to put out a solid version of popular device.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 debuts in its very own silent film

A few days ago one of from a forum members we were lucky enough to show off some pictures of the BlackBerry Curve 9380 for us all to see, and now the folks at MacBerry.de have taken it in-front of the camcorder to show it off a little bit more. The video shows off just how small the device is in comparison to some other devices, and while we are still boggled by the naming scheme that RIM has chosen, the device does look like one that will interest quite a number of you. The 3.25″ display is powered by a 800MHz processor with 1GB of flash memory and 512MB of RAM on board. Hit the break to take a glance at some more pictures.

Source: MacBerry.de