RIM's new VP of Developer Relations, Alec Saunders, took the stage at BlackBerry Devcon Europe after new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins to discuss the new BlackBerry Developer website, BlackBerry Jam, and a ton of other improvements and additions coming to BlackBerry developers.
Presentation aside, the first thing we noticed was Alec's awesome t-shirt. Bright red with white lettering, the slogan reads "Keep Calm and Be Bold". Longtime readers of CrackBerry know we have a thing around here with wearing custom made BlackBerry shirts. We're loving that Alec is following the CrackBerry lead here. And like CrackBerry Kevin and his Sexy and You Know it Workout, RIM's VP of Developer Relations is leading by example and Being Bold, as demonstrated by his DevCon Keynote shirt! Keep it up Alec! #BeBold
mikelcal Feb 7, 2012 at 5:36 am
I LOVE IT!!! :P Couldn't sleep, so I stayed up to listen to the keynote
Thunderbuck Feb 7, 2012 at 5:39 am
Me too... I want that shirt Alec had! Very cool!
bilalqwarriach Feb 7, 2012 at 5:43 am
is that his phone in his hand?! :s
Kevin Michaluk Feb 7, 2012 at 5:44 am
Nope, that's his presentation slide clicker. Not a BB10 phone :)
bilalqwarriach Feb 7, 2012 at 8:21 am
dammit, thought i spotted a BB10 with a yellow case! :p
Kiddo2050 Feb 7, 2012 at 8:52 am
A yellow and black phone would be cool. They should follow up Porche with design team-ups with Lotus, Aston Martin, and ferrari.
Steltz Feb 7, 2012 at 5:46 am
Love the shirt!
21064a01 Feb 7, 2012 at 6:07 am
I can't buy all these nonsense until Blackberry start selling phones unlocked. I can't believe I have to pay for this bull#$# charge. On top of that, I bought this crap from a local store who told me he already unlocked it. Instead of taking care of the mistake, I was told to go deal with it through through some website for 16 bucks.
Kevin Michaluk Feb 7, 2012 at 6:14 am
Lol. I think you need to read what the shirt says and Keep Calm and Be Bold :)
Would be sweet if you could more easily buy unlocked BBs. Obviously carriers that are locking you in on contracts would prefer it's not easy to unlock (and prefer that it wouldn't come unlock.) RIM does make it super easy to unlock a BB once you have the unlock code at least.
bharyour Feb 7, 2012 at 6:16 am
@21064a01: I bought mine unlocked. Depends on where you live. Those of us from the "rest of the world" where no carrier discounts exist get retails stores selling unlocked BBs as a standard.
------------------------------
BB 9900 + 32GB PlayBook
(where's my QNX phone?!)
ekafara Feb 7, 2012 at 9:54 am
Mine came unlocked as well. I was expecting it to be locked and was thinking I would have to buy an unlock code for when I came back to Canada. Luckily Optus in Australia sold it to me unlocked. When I cam down to Australia I called Bell to see how much they wanted for a code to unlock it(I knew that you could get codes on the internet for a range of prices but heard that some companies give the code for free). It turns out Bell wanted $75 from me to unlock it. People shouldn't get mad at RIM for this but the carriers.
BB_Bmore Feb 7, 2012 at 6:33 am
Alec did a great job. He lived up to the shirt!
Petroucho Feb 7, 2012 at 7:03 am
I like Alec Saunders, he's the most charismatic person within RIM. Just one bundle of positive energy. I have watched the entire presentation today and it was quite good, they had couple of demo glitches but overall everything was very good. And Mr. Saunders was the star of the show )
rickgainsmith Feb 7, 2012 at 7:15 am
Be calm? Hmmm, not sure I would use that wording. Are you worried? What's wrong? It's leads you down a negative path.
mousii Feb 7, 2012 at 8:42 am
The brits understand it very well. This is a message that was distributed by the British government in the second world war to calm their citizen. The msg was starting with the crown followed by "keep calm and carry on" - I am sure it was never "be bold :)". Maybe they should have said that...
kevinnugent Feb 7, 2012 at 7:33 am
I wonder if they'll get sued by the "Keep calm and carry on" british owner of that design?
They copied the crown, layout and colour and everything but just changed two words.
lnichols Feb 7, 2012 at 8:06 am
They ripped off the idea from thechive.com. The shirt from there is green and says Keep calm and chive on and looks identical otherwise. I think they want to get sued again.
kyopo Feb 7, 2012 at 8:18 am
That's based on a 1939 WWII government poster from the UK. And is now in the public domain. The chive has absolutely no claim to it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On
bankersbanter Feb 7, 2012 at 8:28 am
+1
Mastajeet Feb 7, 2012 at 8:30 am
Nice a MEME shirt hahhaa
bb.pl Feb 7, 2012 at 8:46 am
Wow..does RIM have anything original ? This is fail in so many levels.
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/keep+calm+and+be+bold
mousii Feb 7, 2012 at 8:55 am
Actually bb.pl this msg is very original. "Original" doesn't mean to come up with something new necessarily - new msgs can lead to confusion and people do not recognize it. This msg blends in an original way an extremely familiar and british msg with the RIM msg. It puts the two msg side by side to create a new customized msg for britain.
Kiddo2050 Feb 7, 2012 at 4:29 pm
I didn't think it was possible for someone to know less about marketing than RIM, but here you are.
shredney Feb 7, 2012 at 8:14 pm
And you received your degree in marketing from where?
Livin Large on the friendly East Coast.
Kiddo2050 Feb 7, 2012 at 8:49 am
Where can we see the keynote and other presentations. Would like to see TH in action.
donnation Feb 7, 2012 at 9:15 am
I really wish they would get rid of the "Bold" marketing scheme. It just seems so played out to me, but I'm not a marketer so what do I know.
mousii Feb 7, 2012 at 9:34 am
I have the feeling that they are pushing it out there more and more. For a BB fan this might seem like old news but for the grand majority of people out there that hardly heard of BB or even bold I think it is very catchy. The great thing is that they are pushing only one phone model not 10 and this is what everybody has been asking for.
Kiddo2050 Feb 7, 2012 at 4:30 pm
I'm lovin' it! ;-)
willm Feb 7, 2012 at 9:39 am
KEVIN! MICHELLE! SOMEONE WHOS'S THERE! -
Find out what the "microprint" line is at the bottom of that shirt!
Kevin Michaluk Feb 7, 2012 at 9:56 am
ha. ok.will do my best.
Xopher Feb 7, 2012 at 10:20 am
Is it me, or does RIM look like they are filling in rolls with Kevin look-a-likes?
Elyssa_38 Feb 7, 2012 at 11:58 am
LOL they do look like Kevin hahaha
barkomatic Feb 7, 2012 at 10:23 am
Blackberry/RIM has been anything but "Bold" for the past several years --so the "Be Bold" commercials fall flat. What's bold about checking your emails and text messages on a smartphone these days? They need to get out in front of Android and Apple with some breakout new features but instead I just see this as a catch up to what both of those platforms had 2 years ago. BB10 is the absolute last chance this company has before it is broken up and sold.
RojoYoda Feb 7, 2012 at 11:41 am
Everybody who's saying that RIM'll get sued again for the use of the slogan..you can buy your own personalised t-shirts.
http://www.tshirt-town.com/guys/funny/keep-calm-and-carry-on/personalise...
White9900 Feb 7, 2012 at 3:00 pm
Its a great message love it!
Here in the UK we understand it perhaps it does not means as much globally but for us Brits its bang on the money.
As for being sued, no chance it is in the public domain plus the Queen uses a Blackberry so she will approve.
So Stay Calm and Be Bold!
lkveggie Feb 8, 2012 at 2:14 pm
I want that shirt!!! I'm definitely going to make one like that. Love it!! #BeBold