For the past few years we've been blogging about the results of the annual Milward Brown BrandZ survey, which through magic and voodoo and (we're assuming some science since they apparently conducted 2 million interviews), places a value and rank on the world's top brands.

The BlackBerry brand has faired pretty well in previous years. In 2009 BlackBerry ranked #16 on the Top 100. And we're talking Top 100 of all companies and brands here, not just in the tech category. In 2010 the BlackBerry brand climbed up to #14 on the Top 100. 2011 saw a drop to the #25, which arguably was still pretty awesome.

We all know BlackBerry has taken it's fair share of beatings over the past year, especially in the USA, so I expected to see the BlackBerry brand drop down the list this year. What I wasn't so sure on would be how much. Maybe #50? Maybe #75? With the 2012 report now available for download, it's no longer something to think about.

According to the Brandz survey for 2012, BlackBerry is off the Top 100 list altogether, and on the Tech Category list dropped to position 20 (we're guessing they must be ranking close to 101 on the list). The report says the value of the brand dropped 75%, down to just over $6 Billion from $24.6 billion a year before. That's a big drop. Bigger than I expected.

End of the day, I'm not sure the results mean that much for BlackBerry. There's brand value and then there's brand awareness. With 77 million subscribers and BlackBerry a household name, even though the value may have taken a hit this year I think awareness of the BlackBerry brand is at an all time high. And awareness equals the ability to impact value very quickly. This is why we saw the brand drop in value a lot in 2012. BlackBerry fell behind and quickly got punished. And it's why I predict we'll see BlackBerry climb way up the list next year, after we see a successful launch of BlackBerry 10. Let's getter done!

SwiftKey and Mobile Nations are giving you the chance to win a phone or tablet of your choice. SwiftKey is one of the leading aftermarket keyboard for Android, and in return for letting the SwiftKey guys know how you use your phones and tablets, you could bag the device of your choice, up to a value of $800.

Head over to swiftkey.com/survey to begin, complete the survey. If you're one of the lucky three (yes, three) winners, you could get your hands on your dream phone or tablet, even if it doesn't run Android. In fact, even if you don't currently own a device that supports their kick-ass keyboard, SwiftKey still wants to hear from you, and you could still be a winner.

The survey is open internationally for smartphone and tablet owners aged 18 and over, and it runs until midnight on Wednesday, June 6. Be sure to check SwiftKey's site for the full terms and conditions.

Head over to SwiftKey's survey page to get started!

I saw a few comments suggesting the Porsche Design BlackBerry that I gave away to a lucky reader might end up on Ebay, but that couldn't be further from reality. Thankfully, it found a great home with a deserving BlackBerry fan who appreciates it.

I shipped my P'9981 off to Toronto to CrackBerry member Houshinto, and he followed up with some photos of his P'9981, including a photo of it in its daily charging spot, next to its "protector". Gotta love it! I asked Houshinto for some background info on himself that I could share with CrackBerry Nation.

Turns out it's a really small world - Houshinto actually used to live in the same city I'm in (heck, his parents used to own a Chinese restaurant I've been to *many* times). CRAZY. Keep reading for a couple more photos and a bit more info on this lucky CrackBerry contest winner!

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Don't be sad... it'll be more fun to upgrade to a new BlackBerry 10 phone anyway!

In the past 24 hours I've literally received three emails and twice as many tweets from readers asking me if they'll be able to upgrade their BlackBerry 7 phone to BlackBerry 10 when it comes out later this year. 

The answer is still no. Seriously. This isn't news. There should be no surprise here. It's been *crystal clear* since Research In Motion unveiled the BlackBerry PlayBook on September 27th, 2010 at BlackBerry DevCon that devices on the existing BlackBerry OS would not be upgradeable to the new QNX-based platform. It is a new platform. A fresh start. Period.

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We've had a hunch for a long time now that the first BlackBerry 10 phone to hit the market later this year will feature a full touchscreen design, lacking the physical keyboard that BlackBerry is traditionally known for. This was confirmed earlier this month at BlackBerry World, when we got our first preview of BlackBerry 10, running on a full touchscreen Dev Alpha device.

Some media outlets took the BlackBerry 10 touchscreen typing demonstration to mean that Research In Motion would be abandoning the physical keyboard on future phones.  CEO Thorsten Heins quickly squashed that misinformation the next day, when he confirmed during a press session that there would definitely be phones in the BlackBerry 10 portfolio that offer a physical keyboard.

Phew. This confirmation led to a big *sigh* of relief from CrackBerry Nation, including your's truly. Despite this good news, however, I've observed a lot of comments and discussions in the forums among users arguing that it's a mistake for BlackBerry 10 to launch with a full touchscreen device. For many BlackBerry users, it's precisely the love for the physical keyboard that has kept them from defecting to the competition, and it's these users who have been waiting the longest for a major operating system revamp to BlackBerry phones.

As of now we're not sure how long it will be after the launch of the first BlackBerry 10 phone before a variant with a physical keyboard will be released. For the sake of the BlackBerry faithful who want it, I hope that the wait will be a short one. But I will reason that RIM is absolutely making the right decision to launch a full touchscreen BlackBerry 10 phone first. Keep reading for my reasons why.

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It's a holiday weekend in Canada. Victoria Day. That means no work on Monday. Hopefully our BlackBerry making friends in Waterloo, Ottawa (QNX's hometown), Toronto (the Torch team) and elsewhere in Canada are getting a short break from their busy work schedules and are enjoying some R&R.

As RIM's CEO Thorsten Heins would say, Research In Motion is "laser focused" on bringing BlackBerry 10 to market. I know all of RIM is 100% committed to making sure the launch of BB10 is a success and I *know* everybody at RIM is working their butts off to make sure they follow through on that goal.

But everybody needs to recharge their batteries once in a while, so on that note I'll keep this FtED short and just say cheers to #TEAMBLACKBERRY this weekend!

Here's the deal. When BlackBerry 10 launches later this year, it's critically important that there is no major app gap on the platform. We don't need 500,000 apps (of which 400,000 are crapps), but we do need to have all the major ones there in good functioning order.

Two of the biggies that we still do not have confirmation on are Netflix and Skype. CrackBerry Nation has been very vocal in wanting these two services on the PlayBook/BB10. Heck, we've even done an email petition campaign to the CEO of Skype.

There are lots of good theories as to why Skype and Netflix are not committed to BB10 yet (will save those for another post), but a few days ago RIM's VP of Developer Relations Alec Saunders took to twitter in addressing a question which clarified that it's not RIM holding up the Netflix train. If Netflix asked... RIM would have a team of BlackBerry developers at Netflix's door within 24 hours to get the app built. I'm sure the same would hold true for Skype.

So Netflix... and Skype... let's get with it here and confirm you're coming to BlackBerry 10. Just do it.. or else I'm going to have to start getting desperate and sacrifice myself for the cause . And that's blood (and bad PR) that you don't want on your hands. CrackBerry Kevin to go on a Hunger Strike for Skype and Netflix?? You know I would do it. Don't make me.

Last week when we posted version 1.0 of the BlackBerry Avengers, we had Hawkeye taking the photo and out of frame. This week he's in with the rest of the BBAvengers... played by QNX Founder and RIM's lead BlackBerry 10 software architect, Dan Dodge. Now we just need to figure out who to add as Nick Fury into next week's version... leave your suggestions in the comments!

Coming Soon... The BlackBerry Avengers starring:

• BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins as Thor
• CrackBerry Kevin as The Hulk
• Bla1ze as Iron Man
• Adam Zeis as Captain America
• Michelle Haag as Black Widow
• QNX Founder Dan Dodge as Hawkeye
• Nick Fury... TBA!

* Update:  As was quickly pointed out by the CrackBerry community... it looked like the Windows Phone 7 on PlayBook fun was being done through the web browser. Ding, ding. It was. The original prankster posted an update video above. Lol. Lame... but ya know, still kinda cool while it lasted. *

*Update #2: Looks like he has now made the above video private. Sorry folks! (it's still a fake, hahaha)*

A video demo of Windows Phone 7 running in the PlayBook web browser? That's what it seems to be. We wouldn't doubt that it's doable to run WP on the QNX platform, afterall, we've seen Android running on the PlayBook in an emulator, but somehow this one doesn't come across as the real deal to the CrackBerry community. Whether fake or legit, it's kind of neat to see. Though does anybody care about Windows Phone? BlackBerry 10 FTW! Sound off in the comments on this one...

OK CrackBerry Nation. This is it. Today is my birthday... I just hit the big THREE TWO... and this year, instead of me getting a birthday present I wanted to give an awesome gift to one of our readers. The present? My slightly used but never abused $2,000 Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry. It's exclusive. It's expensive. It's hawt. Heck, it even won an award this past weekend for 2012 Smartphone of the Year. 

We gave everybody three ways to enter in the Win CrackBerry Kevin's Porsche Design BlackBerry Contest - you could either leave a comment to that blog post, follow @crackberrykevin on twitter, or follow +Kevin Michaluk on Google Plus. The lucky winner was chosen at random from over 5,000 comments, 29,000 twitter followers and over 4,000 people on Google Plus. So that's it... Let's get to it...

And the Winner of CrackBerry Kevin's Porsche Design BlackBerry is....

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3 Ways To Win: Leave a comment to this post or follow @crackberrykevin on twitter and add +Kevin Michaluk to your circles on Google+. Do all three for three chances to win!

* Update - May 15th, 2012: OK folks, this is it. Today is the final day to get entered to win my Porsche Design BlackBerry! If you're not in on the contest yet, what are you waiting for?! I'll be announcing the winner here tomorrow on CrackBerry! *

Original Post - April 27th, 2012: As the world's #1 BlackBerry Fanboy, I take pride in always having the latest and greatest BlackBerry. So when the $2,000 Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry went on sale in North America, I just had to have it. The P'9981 is an exclusive (and expensive!) smartphone that gets a *lot* of attention thanks to its distinct styling and limited availability. As I mentioned in my P'9981 Review, you kind of feel like a celebrity just owning one.

And as much I enjoy using the P'9981 and being a member of the newly-formed Club P'9981 owners group, I've decided it's time to pay my P'9981 forward to a lucky member of the CrackBerry community. As was pointed out to me in an email I received from a reader earlier this week, the Fearless Leader of CrackBerry Nation should rock a BB more representative of the 99% of CrackBerry Nation, not the < 1%. I couldn't agree more. So I'm back on my white Bold 9900 and my P'9981 is up for grabs! 

How to Win Kevin's P'9981: So this is it... your chance to win my slightly used but not abused Porsche Design BlackBerry. And because this contest prize is so awesome, I'm going to give you three ways and three chances to win:

• Chance #1 - Leave a single comment to this post (tell me why you want my P'9981!)
• Chance #2 - Follow me on twitter: @crackberrykevin
• Chance #3 - Add me to your circles on Google+: +Kevin Michaluk

That's it. Do any of the above and you're entered. This contest is open worldwide. Contest ends May 15th at Midnight PST. The winner will be announced May 16th (my birthday!). Best of luck! And let's hope OS 7.1 is available for the P'9981 by the time you get my P'9981! :)

The app tray - swipe right to get back to open apps

Vivek Bhardwaj wowed us on stage at BlackBerry World when he provided our first glance of BlackBerry 10 alongside RIM CEO Thorsten Heins. Today it appears that Vivek is following up his on stage demos with some more personal press briefings, as we're seeing some new photos and BlackBerry 10 preview stories pop up on the net (CNet Crave, KnowYourMobile).

For the most part the demos appear to be the same as what we saw at BlackBerry World, showing off the flow experience and new keyboard, but looking at the stories we have gained some additional intelligence as to exactly the homescreen layout will work.

The big question that wasn't addressed at BlackBerry World was the app icon tray. The traditional homescreen view that has the dump of all the application shortcuts installed on the device. At BBWorld we saw the multitasking view, which has the "minimized" version of running apps, but we never saw a way to access the application tray.

But now we know. From the title/glance view, you only need to swipe left to enter the app icon tray, from which you can launch closed apps. Beautiful. You can grab a gander below at a couple more BB10 homescreen photos. I am especially in love with the ability to swipe into the message inbox from within any app with the hooking gesture (swipe up from the bottom right corner to get a notification preview, then over to the left to slide into messages). 

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Help Us Help You! In our ongoing quest to better serve our community, we want to gain a better understanding into your phone buying habits. Are you buying your next phone in store or online? On contract, off contract or pay as you go? Those are the kinds of questions we're asking on this one.

The survey will only take you two minutes or less. Thanks!

Take the Survey!

In case you missed last week's inaugural From the Editor's Desk, I'll reiterate the premise behind this new series of editorial one more time. Think of it this way... if CrackBerry were a weekly magazine, this would be the Letter from the Editor at the start of each issue. It's a dialog between me and you, sounding off on the week that was and looking ahead to the future. More or less I'll get it posted every Sunday. We'll talk BlackBerry, CrackBerry, mobile and more. Let's get to it!

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During the keynote presentation at BlackBerry World 2012, RIM gave us a sneak peek of some of the cool new features coming to BlackBerry 10 phones. One of the features shown off that got us salivating was the touchscreen keyboard, which takes an extremely innovative approach to predictive text. Instead of placing suggested words above the keyboard, which diverts your attention from the keyboard keys while typing, the BlackBerry 10 keyboard layers its suggestions on the frets between the rows, above the key you're about to tap for your next word. From there you can easily swipe a word up or ignore it. Watching the demonstration at BlackBerry World, it really is brilliant. We're **excited** for it.

What we're less excited about is the youtube video that popped up today showing off an iPhone version of the BlackBerry 10 Keyboard. Dubbed the Octopus keyboard and available as early as next week to iPhone users that have jailbroken their device, the Octopus keyboard is a pretty clear iRIPOFF of the BB10 keyboard. Check out the video above to see it in action. The implementation isn't quite as clean as the BlackBerry version, but the premise is there.

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