Why phones with real keyboards still exist
Touchscreen keyboards are the de facto standard on smartphones now - so what's with the diehards that won't let go of their old-school BlackBerry devices?
Touchscreen keyboards are the de facto standard on smartphones now - so what's with the diehards that won't let go of their old-school BlackBerry devices?
After a short exclusivity period, now Rogers isn't the only one in Canada with the BlackBerry Q10 in white. Both TELUS and Bell now offer the white Q10, TELUS has theirs front and center in the online store, as does Bell. Both are $199 on a three-year term, or $700 up-front. It looks like there's no love for WIND just yet. Even though I tend to favor classic black devices, it was really...
A quick video of BlackBerry 10.2 in action has surfaced, showing the much-anticipated actionable toast notifications, marking contacts and groups as high priority, dark theme in settings, and many more nice little tweaks. Apparently level 1 notifications will be easily accessible with a pinch gesture. Lock screen previews aren't working just yet, but this is still very much still a...
We examined cross-platform apps during our last Talk Mobile week, and specifically the Android app player in BB10, but now that we’re looking at social apps, I want to zoom in on BlackBerry Messenger’s impending move to Android and iOS. I’ll be honest: my BBM usage is relatively low because being able to communicate cross-platform has nudged me in the direction of Google Talk in most...
Rogers has just announced their First Rewards program for Canadian subscribers, which aims to award points for using Rogers services, which can in turn be traded in for stuff like long-distance calling packs, upgraded internet packages, TV content, and plenty of other stuff. At the starting Silver tier, customers get one point for every dollar they spend at Rogers, which can be bumped...
The Dirty R is the little green icon in BlackBerry Messenger that shows your message has been read, but you never get a reply. It’s easy to take this personally, depending on the message; “Why are you ignoring me? Was what I said not important? Not interesting? Are you too busy to deal with me? What is it that takes precedent over me?” Sure, those questions might seem like clingy and...
Cross-platform messaging client WhatsApp has had a beefy update just in time for Talk Mobile's social week. Here's a run-down of the changelog for version v2.10.89455.1 of WhatsApp. Group Info Screen content is now fully scrollable, for better usability Account Info screen now looks nicer and has direct payment buttons Added basic media thumbnail browser to Group Info and...
In a recent interview, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom was prodded about getting their photo (and now video) sharing app onto Google Glass. His response? "We're not yet on Blackberry or Windows Phone, so I think those will come before Google Glass. ... I'm not saying those will come anytime soon. I’m just saying that in order of priority, the way we evaluate where to expand to is really...
We're kicking off social week on Talk Mobile, and alongside that we'll have some discussions about the particular aspects of BlackBerry Messenger. Today, we're digging into PIN numbers and how that frames the BBM proposition.
Following the disappointing BlackBerry quarterly financial results, the CrackBerry community has been positively buzzing with feedback for the company. Call it being an armchair CEO, but no doubt you'll find a few common threads among those discussing what BlackBerry needs to do next. One forum member, Deckard79 kicked off the debate with six bullet points outlining where he thinks...
BlackBerry investors may be sharpening their pitchforks after hearing today's Q1 F2014 results, but good luck getting that thing on the plane to Kitchener-Waterloo for the annual general meeting on July 9. In less than two weeks, shareholders will have a chance to voice their concerns about the company, and our own Fearless Leader, Kevin Michaluk, will be in attendance. No doubt he'll...
If you missed the live webcast, you can now tune in to the audio replay. If you can't sit down and listen in reliably or would just rather read everything, there's also a fine transcription that's been done up. I'm having a second listen-through now just to soak it all in, but we've covered all of the major news this morning already. Aside from the disappointing results, what do you...
One key metric that was left out of the BlackBerry Q1 2014 results press release was how many BlackBerry 10 devices were sold. On the conference call, it was mentioned that 2.72 million BB10 devices were shipped in Q1, which is a bit on the light side of what many expected. That's about 40% of BlackBerry's total shipments this quarter. We've also got subscribers down 4 million to 72...
Today on the quarterly conference call, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins announced that BlackBerry 10 would not be coming to the PlayBook as previously expected. Apparently the performance wasn't up to snuff, and Heins want the focus back onto core products. It was definitely something they had been working on - we'd seen glimpses of it here and there. It's worth noting that BlackBerry...
As a part of BlackBerry's quarterly conference call, they announced their intention to have at most six new devices on the market at a time. This should avoid a deluge and keep the product lineup focused. More news coming soon! What do you guys think about limiting their selection to six new devices? Sensible?
Windows Phone product manager Larry Lieberman happily announced Windows Phone's success over BlackBerry during an interview Microsoft's Build conference recently. "We think we're solidly the third ecosystem right now. That's a huge announcement in some respects... I don't think [BlackBerry] can bring to the table some of the things we have. The fact like we're delivering across such...
Earlier in the BlackBerry Z10 launch we had heard from some of our community members that they were experiencing odd random reboots. These have been isolated incidents for the most part, but for those affected, you'll be happy to hear about a recent Knowledge Base article that confirms the issue should be fixed with an update to BlackBerry 10.1.2050 or higher. Apparently this can be...
Alright T-Mobile fans, a lot of you have already gone and picked up the BlackBerry Q10, but for those that haven't, here's a peek at what you get. The two notable things about the unboxing here is that there aren't any headphones included, and you've got branding on the front face. The T-Mobile Q10 we saw at BlackBerry Live was still a pre-launch model, complete with engraved serial...
Last week, AT&T cut short the rollout of a 10.1 update to the BlackBerry Z10. This is no doubt frustrating for AT&T customers who only have to glance sideways to their Z10-toting buddies on T-Mobile who are enjoying a generous batch of new features. So what’s the deal? The short answer is that BlackBerry had pushed out the update before AT&T had completed their technical...