Hi #TeamBlackBerry! This week’s Five Tip Mondays, focuses on using multimedia on your BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet – for example, playing music or using the BlackBerry® Podcasts app to watch your favorite channels (one of my favorite things!).
Let’s get started:
The current state of retail applications
Retail-oriented mobile activities have increased dramatically as handheld technology has advanced, and as our use of smartphones has increased globally. Concurrently, I would argue that social media use has increased alongside this – two potentially related trends that, as I’ll touch upon shortly, mix quite well. The bottom line is that we have begun to turn to our mobile devices as primary sources of information about the world around us and the activities that we engage in, be it when I’m texting a friend, looking up an address on BlackBerry® Maps, or finding a restaurant nearby.
The retail experience should be no different, and huge strides are indeed being taken in this area. Today we see several branded retail apps, and many retail giants who are heavily involved in social media. When these two concepts mix, the end result is as interesting as it is complex and scalable. Take, for example, the idea of businesses using foursquare check-ins to drive promotions – and ultimately, traffic -to their physical location. Here we have a variety of forces and trends at work – and the good news is that they’re converging to provide consumers with a better experience and businesses with higher levels of engagement.
Research firm Ofcom recently released its annual Communications Market Report that surveyed 2,073 adults and 512 teenagers in the United Kingdom. The results revealed that 32% of adults preferred using the iPhone as their primary handset while 37% percent of teens chose to carry a BlackBerry smartphone. Ofcom didn’t reveal whether it was cost or feature sets that drove the preference, however. The firm also found that 37% of adults considered themselves “addicted” to their smartphones while 60% of teenagers admitted being addicted. What was the most visited website on a smartphone? Facebook clocked in 43 million hours of usage in December 2010 alone, according to the firm.
AT&T isn’t the only major U.S. carrier getting in on the action today. Sprint on Wednesday confirmed that it too will soon launch a pair of Research In Motion’s latest smartphones. The touch-and-type BlackBerry Bold 9930 and the full touchscreen BlackBerry Torch 9850 will both become available to Sprint subscribers later this fall. Sprint neglected to specify a launch date or pricing, but we likely won’t have long to wait until these sleek new BlackBerry 7 phones find their way to store shelves. “Sprint’s incredibly loyal BlackBerry customers will appreciate the benefits of the BlackBerry 7 user experience on these two new smartphones – BlackBerry Bold 9930 and BlackBerry Torch 9850,” said Sprint’s product boss Fared Adib in a statement. “BlackBerry 7 is an evolution that extends the ability to support our customers domestically and internationally as they juggle their busy personal and professional lives with one easy-to-use device. We are excited to continue our strong relationship with RIM through these new powerful devices.”
Sprint’s full press release follows below.
Continue reading Sprint announces BlackBerry Bold 9930 and Torch 9850, coming this fall
I’m happy to tell you about two new BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones announced today, the all-touch BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 and 9860 smartphones. #TeamBlackBerry members in North America will be able to purchase the BlackBerry Torch 9860 smartphone from AT&T, Rogers, Telus and Bell, and the BlackBerry Torch 9850 smartphone from Sprint and U.S. Cellular. For more details on pricing and international availability, make sure to check out our BlackBerry Torch product page or contact your local carrier.
To ensure you have our patented Inside BlackBerry insight into these sweet all-touch BlackBerry 7 OS smartphones, I tapped Product Managers Sangita and Troy to list the 5 things you need to know about the BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860. Take it away, Sangita and Troy!
Continue reading BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860: 5 things you should know
Here they are folks. Months after we first got our hands on pre-release Torch and Bold Touch handsets, RIM is finally ready to show off its latest hardware. They’re all powered by a 1.2GHz processor, have 768MB of on-board RAM and — most importantly — run the latest operating system BB OS7.
RIM claims its new OS is 40 percent faster at browsing compared to OS6-based smartphones, and 100 percent faster than OS5 handsets. It also supports RIM’s Liquid Graphics technology, which uses a dedicated graphics processor for smoother scrolling, zooming and panning.
http://www.viddler.com/player/a921ec46/0/ <!–
Hands-on impressions and video follow after the break.
Continue reading RIM launches Blackberry Torch 9810, Torch 9860 and Bold 9900, we go hands-on!
What’s a BlackBerry launch without a bit of love for RIM’s CDMA partners? Infinite sadness, that’s what. While the outfit (understandably) couldn’t showcase the BlackBerry Torch 9850 at its London launch event this morning, the CDMA sibling to the Torch 9860 is making its official debut in the US of A. Destined for US Cellular and Sprint here in the States, it’ll ship with a 3.7-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchpanel, BlackBerry 7 OS, a “waterfall” screen design that tickles the edges ever-so-slightly, and not one inkling of a physical keyboard. As with the 9850 — which is destined for AT&T, Rogers, Telus and Bell — you’ll get a five megapixel “zero-shutter lag” camera, 720p movie mode, inbuilt GPS and a 1.2GHz processor. There’s no mention yet of a price or release for the SIM-less duo, but you can bet that we’ll keep you posted as we hear more.
Continue reading RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9850 goes official for Sprint and US Cellular
We all know BlackBerry’s marketing department isn’t the greatest, specially when it comes to commercials. We all know how long it took for a PlayBook commercial to finally hit the airways and truth be told these commercials have left lots to be desired when compared to other competitors’ tablets’ commercials. Well there’s a new commercial that’s making its way on TV. This time, RIM highlights the awesome BlackBerry Bridge benefit of owning both a PlayBook and BlackBerry smartphone. About time too as this should’ve been one of the top selling points to drive current BlackBerry owners to not only buy the RIM tablet but also stay with their BlackBerry smartphones as a whole.
Check out the video above and let us know your thoughts the COMMENTS below..
via: cb
Recently the Twitter® for BlackBerry® smartphones 2.0 app was updated with several changes and new features based on customer feedback. Today I’d like to provide an overview of the Trends feature, since it’s changed slightly in this latest update – not to mention it’s a favorite that I use a lot. I’ll also show you a bunch of useful shortcuts that you can take advantage of while using the Twitter app.
Continue reading Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones 2.0 – Trends and Shortcuts!
The BlackBerry PlayBook was the first tablet to earn FIPS 140-2 certification in the US, then Russia started looking into using the tablet for its government officials. Now the PlayBook has been approved by the Defense Signals Directorate (DSD) of the Australian Government for use in government agencies, when using the BlackBerry Bridge application and connected to an approved BlackBerry smartphone.
“RIM continues to set the benchmark for government security and now with DSD approval the BlackBerry PlayBook is the first tablet to be certified for deployment in Australian government departments. This again demonstrates our leadership in the government sector and our commitment and investment in secure mobile technology,” said Scott Deacon, Manager Security Certifications, Asia Pacific BlackBerry Security, RIM.
The Australian government has strict security standards, and the PlayBook is the first tablet they have certified to secure information with a classification of restricted or protected, which represents the majority of the government’s day-to-day operational communications.
Source: cfoworld
via: cb
Night Hawk Computers Blackberry Alliance 