I know that there are a lot of BlackBerry users that are huge Apple fans.  The iPad is now available for pre-order…  Will you get one?

Poll: You Can Now Pre-Order The Apple iPad — Will You Get One? is a post from: RIMarkable

There have been rumors floating around that RIM was going to start building BlackBerry devices in Brazil.  Looks like those rumors were true.

A senior editor from BerryReview.com was attending a RIM development seminar in Brazil where the rumor was confirmed.

They plan on working with Flextronics to manufacture the BlackBerry Curve 8520 in Brazil. It looks like RIM is planning on making an even bigger play into Latin America with Brazil combined with their current plant in Mexico

[Source]

RIM Confirms Plans To Bring Manufacturing Plant To Brazil is a post from: RIMarkable

Formula 1 season is now upon us and Formula1.com has released the FREE, official Forumula1.com Live Timing App for BlackBerry.

Features Include:

• Live Timing: The main timing screen lets you track the progress of every driver, from their position and best lap time to their latest sector times and lap count. Other features include a track status indicator, informing you of yellow/red flags and safety car phases, plus straight-line speeds and text commentary.
• Circuit Data: The circuit data screen lets you know what conditions the drivers are facing out on the circuit, with the current air and track temperatures, rainfall, air pressure and humidity levels, plus wind speed and direction. Graphs also allow you to see how conditions have changed throughout the session.
• Additional Features: The Official Live Timing Application isn’t just about the current race. Other features include results for every session of the current season, the season calendar, timetables for every Grand Prix and the current championship standings.

You can pick up Formula1.com Live Timing App for BlackBerry simply by pointing your devices browser over to mobile.formula1.com.

[Via CrackBerry.com]

Forumla 1 Season Starts Today — Free, Official Forumula1.com Live Timing App For BlackBerry Released is a post from: RIMarkable

Zenprise has a pretty cool competition running where you could win a trip to WES 2010.  All you have to do is become a fan on the Zenprise Facebook page, write a funny end-user BlackBerry support story to post on their wall, and get people to notice your submission.  You must enter by March 26th and Zenprise will select a winner on March 29th.  If you create a video, Zenprise will even kick in $500 for a plane ticket to Orlando.

Become A Fan Of Zenprise On Facebook, Write A Funny BlackBerry Support Story, Get A Chance To Win A Trip To WES 2010 is a post from: RIMarkable

Just a few days ago a tweet went out stating that all three clients for Foursquare would be getting an update before SXSW.  Well, it looks like Foursquare for BlackBerry has been updated to version 1.7.

BlackBerry Storm and Storm2 users may want to hold off for a bit…  Lots of reports, myself included, that there are API issues on Touchscreen BlackBerry devices.

Foursquare for BlackBerry 1.7 is now working for me after re-downloading again this morning.  I am, however, still hearing, that some BlackBerry Storm and Storm2 users are having issues.

Foursquare for BlackBerry Beta Updated To Version 1.7 is a post from: RIMarkable

Episode #10 of the Simple Mobile Review Podcast is up.

Leo Laporte, Conan O’brian, Kevin Rose…  Feel free to tell people to follow @RIMarkable and @SimpleMobileRev at any time…

Subscribe via iTunes

Show Topics

Conan and Leo On Twitter

• The unbelievable power they have to affect Twitter

Social Networking and GPS

• Facebook and Twitter adding geo-location to their apps
• Chris says this is not good for people who owe money.
• Robb says it’s a good way to run from family.

Windows Phone Market Share going to Android

• Chris’ feelings are hurt
• Rod and Robb expected it
• Motorola BackFlip Flap
• Root your Droid no need for the Nexus One

HTC HD2 Will anybody buy this phone?

• Rod says no
• Robb says Yes.
• Chris is considering it.

Picks of the Week

• Heil PR40 Mic / www.DroidMod.org (Microphone / Root your Droid!) – Rod Simmons (SimpleMobileReview)
• MyMobiler (Connect your Phone to your PC) – Chris Ashley (SimpleMobileReview)
• PodTrapper – (Podcast APP for Blackberry) – Robb Dunewood (RIMarkable)

Special Thanks to Ty from Legion Steel for the Music

The song we used in this podcast was Know You Better.

Find out more information about Legion

Contact Info

Booking: Ty at ChamberMasters dot com

Simple Mobile Review Podcast #10: Pardon The Dust During Construction is a post from: RIMarkable

We just read over on Inside BlackBerry that myBlackBerry, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry social networking site, has a new look and new features.

There were a bunch of small tweaks that needed to be made so that people could easily navigate their way through the site. One of the biggest improvements here is staying in the discussion window when you are replying; the previous version of MyBlackBerry took you to a whole new window, so replying to messages is now much more efficient!

And we’re not even done yet! Here are some other things we’re working on:

• An app/mobile friendly version (yes, it is coming)
• Ability to display your BlackBerry smartphone PIN in your profile
• Badges for our super friends who make the site spectacular
• Easier ways to make friends

If you don’t already have a my BlackBerry account, head over to http://my.blackberry.com to sign one up.

myBlackBerry Gets A Site Make Over is a post from: RIMarkable

If you listen to the hype machine that is Apple as well as the drones with a voice that hang on every word that comes out of the mouth of Steve Jobs, you might think that the iPhone is every other smartphone’s tail so royally, that they should just pack it up and not even try anymore.

That being said, comScore just released a report for U.S. smartphone market share growth during the 3 month period between October and January, and, once again, the BlackBerry has outpaced the iPhone…  Significantly so…

As you can see for the chart, Apple stayed almost flat with just 0.3% growth in their iPhone subscribers base.  RIM had over 5, almost 6 times the growth of Apple increasing its BlackBerry subscribers by 1.7%.

Google is actually the most impressive in list growing its subscriber base from 2.8% to 7.1% while both Palm and Microsoft lost share dropping 2.1% and 4% respectfully.

[Source comScore via Gizmodo]

BlackBerry Still Outpacing iPhone In Market Share Growth… iPhone 4 Can’t Come Soon Enough is a post from: RIMarkable

In 2001, faced with a 70-100 minute commute to work each way, every single day, I figured I needed to do something to make that time worthwhile. Remembering back to an account that I was given to test the usability of Audible audiobooks on the Compaq iPaq, I renewed the account, joined the Platinum Listener Club at Audible.com and have never looked back.

I was just a little bit shocked last night to see that I have 588 purchased books in my account all these years later. And no, I have not yet listened to them all, but between my wife and I, we have. This retrospect came about because my wife carries a Blackberry Tour 9630, and is trying to figure out ways to un-complicate her life, and not having to carry an iPod for Audible content would really help. In fact, I am in the same sort of situation myself, because there is not yet an application that allows me to listen to Audible content on the Android platform. It’s coming, and soon, I believe, but not yet.

Blackberry Support

While support for Windows Mobile and iPod/iPhone/Touch has existed forever, support for the Blackberry platform has not. It was released in 2009, while I was still carrying the Blackberry Storm. Invited to beta test the solution and then after initial release, I was not impress. The app was buggy, inconsistent, and unreliable. It was essentially impossible to download audiobooks directly to the device (remember the Storm has no Wi-Fi), and even when you got them on the SD Card, the player was prone to jump, skip, and forget where you were, if you stopped and came back later. In essence, unusable.

Trying It Out

It was with some trepidation that I went to www.audible.com/bb on the Tour and downloaded version 1.45 of the Audible Player for Blackberry. It loaded quickly, and in just a moment, I was able to enter in my user name and password. A little bit of clock spinning, and I was presented with a screen offering access to my Online Library or the Online Store. Checking out my Online Library, I was very please to note that all 588 books appears (in groups of 25, I believe) and I was offered the ability to sort by date, by title, or to just search. One of the things I detested about the previous version is that it always came up sorted by oldest purchase first, which is backwards for how we read books. The new version correctly sort for newest first. So far, so good.

Downloading

The Blackberry Tour 9630 also lacks Wi-Fi support. In the previous version, it was impossible to actually download a audiobook OTA. This isn’t so surprising, since using the Audible Format 4 (the level supported on the Blackberry platform and the one I prefer), each part of an audiobook will be between 80-120MB in size and in a large unabridged book, it is not uncommon to see 4 or 5 parts to an entire book. All that being said, it was supposed to be possible. I think it is a waste of bandwidth, as I prefer to just move the audiobooks to the device using USB, but I can imagine myself purchasing a new audiobook and wanting to get it immediately. To test it out, I downloaded the two parts of a recent audiobook purchase OTA (a total of 185MB in two files) and while it did take about 10 minutes, they transferred without incident and were then immediately available to play locally. I will also note that it is possible to stream a book direct from your personal Library at Audible.com, without downloading locally, and the player will also remember where you left off. That’s a nice feature, but a little hard to use on an airplane.

Listening

After testing the player repeatedly, stopping, starting and changing books, I am very pleased that the previous issues with skipping, jumping, and losing the bookmark seem resolved. My wife especially likes the ability to listen to the audiobook without having to have headphones plugged in. The speaker on her Blackberry Tour was very capable of playing an audiobook at an acceptable level. The only real issue I see now is that the 8 GB MicroSD in the Tour is just not going to be enough. Happily, that is easy to resolve.

Support

There are actually quite a number of Blackberry devices now supported with the Audible for Blackberry application:

• Bold™ Series: 9000, 9700
• Curve™ Series: 8300, 8310, 8320, 8330, 8520, 8900>
• Pearl™ Series: 8100, 8110, 8120, 8130
• Pearl™ Flip Series: 8220
• Storm™ Series: 9530, 9550
• Tour™: 9630
• 8800 Series: 8800, 8820, 8830

I have a renewed hope now that I will soon see an Audible for Android application, and frankly, I can hardly wait. I had decided to stop carrying my iPod Touch in anticipation of this happening, and frankly, the books are backing up. If you haven’t tried Audible before, give it a try. Audible.com is currently offering a free copy of Thomas Friedman’s excellent book ‘Hot, Flat, and Crowded’ for new customers. I highly recommend it as a good place to start. Enjoy!

If you’d like to check Audible for BlackBerry out you can download it from http://audible.com/bb.

Review: Audible For BlackBerry is a post from: RIMarkable