Blackberry Bulletin

Bold Launch!.... In Germany

2008-08-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

RIM announced today in a press release that the Blackberry Bold is now available through T-Mobile in the Deutschland. The phone sells for 39.95 EUR ($61.66 USD) with a two year plan. It will also sell for 459.95 EUR ($709.75 USD) without a contract.

The entire press release is located on RIM's Website

Update: They also have released the Bold in Austria

Verizon Lowers Blackberry Prices

2008-08-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Verizon has lowered the prices of their Blackberries. Verizon Blackberries are now $79.99 for the Perl 8130 (Both Silver and Pink), $99.99 for the Curve 8330, and $149.99 for the World Edition (Also in Silver and Pink). Of course all of these prices are with two year contracts. There are however no mail-in rebates so the discounts are instant.

Not sure which is the stronger reason for the drop: sell more phones to sell more data plans or clear out inventory for the Blackberry Thunder.

Blackberry Thunder Launching in October

2008-07-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

That is the rumor posted by several other Blackberry sites today. Verizon Wireless is rumored to release the Blackberry Thunder on October 8th. Without an official announcement from the people in Waterloo who knows how much truth is in the rumor.

Perhaps this new release date is part of the increase in development and testing that was reported a few weeks ago. I believe the date is possible but not very likely. After push packs of the Bold and no annoucment about the Thunder from RIM the date feels a little rushed.

I hope it doesn't come out that quickly unless RIM has a good market strategy behind it. They have done OK with the curve in my opinion but it's pitiful to Apple's Marketing machine.

Kickstart 8820 Video Tour/Review

2008-07-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Kevin over at Crackberry.com posted a very detailed video review/tour of the upcoming Blackberry Kickstart. RIM's first Flip-phone. He compares to the phone to other Blackberry phones and the iPhone.

Enjoy the video

Overtime and Blackberries

2008-07-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Recently (OK a few weeks back, but I'm just getting to write about it) there has been some controversy in the United States and in the UK regarding after work hours of blackberries. Workers at ABC and a telecom in the UK were threatening strike if they were not compensated for using their Blackberries after normal work hours.

Speaking as a Blackberry user I would say with out a doubt I am more productive during and after work because of my blackberry. It is hard to say if I agree if blackberry users should be paid more. After all I use one and I would love to get paid more. If the user is a hourly employee, which I assume many would not be, they certainly should be paid for the time they use a Blackberry after normal working hours. If a user is a salary based employee things change...

I see the Blackberry as a tool to help a employee do his/her job better. So if the Blackberry helps the employee do their job better, faster, etc. (which I'm convinced it does) they should definitely be compensated via a merit-based raise or benefit.

Myself and others are Blackberry abusers and we are constantly checking email and using our crack-berries. I feel that my company shouldn't compensate me for my obsession unless I am doing my job better than I previously was without it (which I am, wink, wink)

Maybe I'll touch on the subject later but I need to head to bed.

Long time... more posts coming.

2008-07-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

It has been so long since I posted. I guess I have been busy and a little lazy. I will try to post more often as I do enjoy it.

Blackberry Thunder photos posted

2008-07-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

The fine people over at Blackberry Sync received pictures from an anonymous tipster of the upcoming Blackberry Thunder. It is certainly designed to compete with the iPhone. It will have a music store where you can buy music directly from the phone

Some Thunder info:

Model: 9500
Carrier: Verizon to start, others to possibly follow
OS: 4.7
Screen: 360 x 480 Touchscreen
CDMA

Google adds voice services to Maps

2008-07-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

Google announced today on their Official Mobile Blog that they have added voice search to Google Mobile Maps. Currently it is only available on the Pearl 8110, 8120, and 8130.

You can search for businesses by speaking clearly into your phone. It uses the same speech recognition database as the GOOG-411 service. You can download the app from the Google Mobile site

I'll look forward to when they Mobile Maps teams adds support for the curve.

BIS 2.5 Upgrade

2008-06-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

The big news this past weekend was that RIM upgraded thier BIS service to version 2.5. This will allow for HTML emails to be viewed, but not sent.

The HUGE bummer is that you need a Blackberry runing an OS of 4.5 or higher. Some newer phones has been see with it on, but the OS is not available from any carriers in the US yet. Boy genius leaked a powerpoint that states the OS 4.5 should be available by Septmeber. At that point I think I will have a Bold with OS 4.6!

Bold due out in US in August

2008-06-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

It was confirmed today by the Boy Genius via two high level sources that AT&T will release the bold today in August. The delay is related to battery life issues. This makes me wonder if the same will exist when Rogers wireless from Canada releases the Bold in July.

New Blackberry Bold video

2008-06-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

If you signed up for the Bold updates via the Blackberry website, you should have recieved an email. For those of you who didn't Click the image below to view the website

The view the entire email which contains links to reviewers thoughs on the bold click here.

Blackberry Media Sync Unofficially

2008-06-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Others have found the new standalone Blackberry Media Sync app available for download. While nothing has been officially the download is available.

With Blackberry Sync you can sync you iTunes play-lists your Blackberry. It will only allow the Non-DRM music to be synced but hey it's a start. I myself don't use iTunes but this may start me. I plan on doing a review at a later time.

UPDATE: The download is no longer available

You can download it here

Blackberry Connect

2008-06-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

One cool piece of software I haven't see too much press about is Blackberry Connect. I think one reason is because the software does not run on many phones. Blackberry Connect allows non-Blackberry phones to connect to and use an organization's Blackberry Enterprise Server. Speaking as a BES admin when I heard of this software I was excited because of so many users without blackberry devices at my organization. The lack of phone support was more than disappointing.

If you'd like to learn more about blackbery connect go here: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/enabled/

RIM Financial Reports

2008-06-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

If anyone is interested in RIM's financial reports they have them posted on their website for the past 10 years. Their annual revenue has grew to over 6 billion. That's double since last year and triple since 2006.

I have included an except from the statement. The total subscribers are on the left and revenue on the right.

To view the entire report foe 2008 and others years Follow the link to their website.
http://www.rim.com/investors/reports/index.shtml

Desktop Manager 4.5 released

2008-06-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

RIM officially released thier Blackberry Desktop Manger 4.5 this weekend. While the version doesn't added much of anything great it does gives hopes that the OS version 4.5 will be available on US provider websites soon

You can download the the software from the Blackberry website.
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/#tab_tab_desktop

Blackberry Bold on UK's Vodafone website

2008-06-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

The cell phone carrier phone has posted the Bold on their website. It is marked as coming soon and expected to be Launch in July.

Hopefully this means the Bold will be arriving soon here in the states.

Blackberry Addiction

2008-06-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

There have been many items in the news over recent years about people being addicted to their Blackberries. It has been dubbed a crackberry because of users' reliance on it. I have been finding that I have been using mine more and more in recent weeks.

I suppose it may have started when I went on a recent business trip to San Antonio. I had my blackberry with me all the time. My berry had a 101 uses while I was gone. I used it to check the flight times before takoff, it was my music player which I listened to while on the plane, and my news reader in the airport terminal. Those reasons plus many others had me chained to my Blackberry.

The thing is that most of these fucntions are accomplished with other smartphones. So why so much emphasis on Blackberry addiction. Some reasons I came up with:

The play on words of crackberry/blackberry was a no brainer

Market Share, with 45% of the smartphone market of course empahsis will be on them

More and more these days because of the internet people are connected to others. It's not just Blackberries and smartphones, all cell phones are keeping people connected everyday. I know I have seen teenagers texting to their hearts content and thir phones.

Maybe some people are addicted. I know I was, while in San Antonio I using my Blackberry all the time. I don't travel often, in fact it was the first time I was on airplane in over 10 years. My Blackberry was a little piece of normal that was on some level of comfort that I needed while I traveled. It helped me keep in touch with family and news from home. My wife came with me on the trip and we would PIN message all day. It was a great tool to plan the day and to let her know when I had breaks.

I think most people feel that they are emotially attached to thier phone. The phont helps them feel connected to family and friends even when they can't be with them. After the jump is a youtube video of an NBC today news segment on Blackberry and Internet accidtion. As you can see by the guy feature in the story it is an emotional thing.

Curve 8300 take apart

2008-06-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

I have read many posts on blackberry forums and such about dust underneath the screen. My curve 8300 is no exception. I get dust underneath the screen in the upper right all the time. I use to carry my curve in a holster but after breaking my third one I gave up on that. Anyway with or without a holster I always get dust.

Now about every month or so I take my phone apart for it's cleaning. I was intimidated at first but found this handy video on youtube that explained the entire thing. All you need is a small flat head screwdriver and a can of compressed air.

The video was also handy when I want to change the faceplate for a different color blackberry. Now the wife and I can tell each other's curves apart.

Here is the video. I hope it is helpful to other curve users with this common problem.