If you checked out Kevin's Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry Review and have concluded you need to own one, the next step is to track one down. Unlike other BlackBerry Smartphones you have purchased in the past, this one isn't available from your local carrier. Rather, you can pick up the P'9981 exclusively from Porsche Design stores around the globe (just make sure you walk in with $2,000). 

You can use the dealer locator on the Porsche Design website to hunt through and find retailers, but to make it a little easier we've rounded up all the current store locations in one post. So if a Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry is indeed in your future, then what are you waiting for? Keep reading for the location nearest you and get one! If you do, make sure you head over to the CrackBerry forums and spread the love.

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We have seen quite a number of top level changes happening at RIM recently, from the new CEO Thorsten Heins, to the departure of Jim Balsillie, and we have two more to add to that. RIM has confirmed to Bloomberg that Alan Brenner, RIM's Senior Vice President, and Alistair Mitchell, Vice President of BlackBerry Messenger will be departing from their jobs at RIM. After reporting their recent earnings information, and being open to possible purchasing, it appears as though not everyone at RIM is on board with the plan.

The loss of these two execs opens the door to some fresh blood, some hungry individuals who are on board with RIM's plans to turn things around and regain what they have lost.

Source: Bloomberg 

Are you in the US or Canada and looking for a shot at winning a free BlackBerry Bold 9900? The BlackBerry Twitter team announced they are running a contest, giving away a Bold 9900 every day until May 31, 2012. Yes that's right, there are 70 BlackBerry Bold 9900s up for grabs! All you have to do to enter is either scan the barcode at the link below to add the contest as a BBM friend, or send a PIN message to 296446FA making sure to reference “BeBold” and confirm your intention to enter the Contest in your message. Not a current BlackBerry owner? You can still enter by mailing in an entry. (Full details can be found at the link below.) They will choose one winner per day and notify them via BBM or phone. Be sure to read the full rules and regulations, then get to adding!

My only question is, how is the device they are using holding up under the stress of all those adds? We all remember what happened awhile back when Kevin did the BBM Stress Test. Hopefully whatever BlackBerry they are using can handle the pressure.

More information on the contest

We all know that having the latest and greatest tech is something that most of us strive to achieve. But we need to be real sometimes; we just can’t always afford the cost of the upgrade, and this is where TELUS plans to help you with their new trade-up program. The new program will allow you to trade in your old smartphone, whether it is a TELUS, Bell, or Rogers device, and get a credit toward upgrading to that latest BlackBerry (or any smartphone). In my opinion this is actually really good timing seeing the launch of BlackBerry 10 is right around the corner.

Of course there are a few details to note in the program, like your phone needs to be in working condition and the screen needs to power on. But if there’s a small scratch or two you should still be able to receive that credit. TELUS also let us know that they will be implementing a limit to the number of handsets that you will be allowed to turn in, and the magic number will be three. So if you have a box of BlackBerry smartphones you can only trade in three, but if you have a few accounts and will be upgrading them all to BlackBerry 10 feel free to bring them in. A little part of the program that I wanted to toss in is that TELUS will be refurbishing the phones you hand in and reselling them to developing countries. But for those devices that have a zero dollar value TELUS will be planting a tree for you, and starting something new to rebuild our planet. The full press release on the new program can be found after the break.

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The Messaging app in PlayBook 2.0 is one of the most welcomed new features. From one, central location, you can check, respond and compose messages. Both Email and Social Networking messages can now be handled in one app.

When you see that blinking red light, a simple touch of the Messages icon will allow to you to see your new Email, Twitter Direct Messages, LinkedIn messages and Facebook messages. We will show you how to check your messages, read them, reply and start a new message for any one of your connected accounts right from the Messages app. Read on for all the answers to your Messaging questions! 

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If you do so happen to be at Mobile World Congress and stop by the BlackBerry booth, you'll notice there is plenty of NFC powered like stations around. All together, there is five stations set up where folks can check in using NFC and share content directly from their BlackBerry Smartphones using Twitter, Facebook and if you don't have a NFC powered device, you can use an RFID tag instead.

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

Having options is something that just about everyone loves, options of wallpapers, ringtones, but how about having more than just the default options for unlocking and locking your device? Last week Adam took a look at Easy Lock Pro and while it is a great option for many, we wanted some more variety, right? Luckily for us another great option that is feature loaded is Unlock Pro by the folks at MMMOOO, and it is a great alternative lock option for your device. Featuring three different lock screen options, the ability to customize what is displayed, and what wallpaper is shown, allows for it to fit the needs of a wide user base.

Whether you want a lock screen that allows you to slide to unlock, or pull down to unlock or if you want the ability to quickly launch into camera and other options, Unlock Pro is a great choice for you. The developers have put a ton of time and hard work into making the application well polished, and while there are still a few minor display kinks to work out, they are ready for feedback and willing to listen to ideas. There is a free version which offers just one of the three lock screens, but the paid version which unlocks the other two and all the other features will only run you $1.99. Be sure to hit the link below and check it out for yourself!

Contest: The fine folks at MMMOOO have offered up 25 copies of the full application, featuring all three lock screen options and all the features. All you have to do is simply leave a comment on this post. Contest ends Sunday, limit one entry per person.

More information / download of Unlock Pro by MMMOOO 

If you're looking to get in on the latest OS leak for your device, you'll want to check the links below. As posted today in the CrackBerry forums, OS' for most compatible BlackBerry 7.1 devices have shown up and are now available for download. These are unofficial (leaked) OS', so while it's mostly safe to install, remember to use caution when updating your device. If you need help along the way, you can head into our help forums or check out some of our BlackBerry 101 articles including How to Install or Upgrade to a new OS or How to Upgrade Your BlackBerry OS Using App Loader. If you do install this OS, hit up the CrackBerry leaked OS forums for findings, fixes and more discussion. Jump past the break for a full list of the available OS'.

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A recent announcement from Kayak, a site for travellers founded by the cofounders of Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz has got me thinking about some of the trends we're seeing as of late. It's the trend of developers dropping support for BlackBerry services after having years of success on the platform. Recently, Kayak made a post letting their users know they would no longer be supporting their BlackBerry mobile app:

By dropping active support, we won't be launching any new features, updates or fixes to problems that may arise on the KAYAK BlackBerry app as our system changes.

They go on to note that the cost of continued development on the BlackBerry platform is a reason for their discontinuing of the service, yet they'll provide the app for free to other platforms. Really Kayak?

You recently celebrated over 100 million user requests for travel information along with being the number one travel app with over 12 Million downloads in January and you're going to drop support for your BlackBerry app. Do you think you became the number one downloaded travel app without BlackBerry user support? I personally have used your app to plan trips, so I'm quite certain a percentage of the 75 Million BlackBerry users out there have downloaded and used your app to lay out their travel plans as well.

No matter Kayak, if your app is no longer going to be supported on BlackBerry then I'll no longer support you directly by using your services. Plenty of other apps exist on the BlackBerry platform such as BlackBerry Travel, World Mate, TripIt, iSpeedy and countless other apps from the airlines and hotels themselves - who do think their customers are worth the time it takes.

You're not the only ball game in town, something each and every company who has had success on the BlackBerry platform should consider before they decide to drop support for the services.

We're big fans of BlackBerry and PlayBook sightings in shows, but this is a little different. ¡Q’Viva! The Chosen is a new show starring Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, and Jamie King that is sponsored by BlackBerry. These celebrities are on a mission to find the most inspiring performers in Latin America, traveling all over looking for talented performers across 20 countries. The most talented artists will be chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to appear in a live celebration of music, dance and performance.

I watched a couple of previews and Youtube videos for ¡Q’Viva! The Chosen, and was really pleased to see how much screen time the BlackBerry PlayBook seems to have in the show! They use it for everything, from watching videos of potential candidates, to recording video, and playing it back via HDMI to flat screen TV. What a perfect device to take on such a journey, since they can use the BlackBerry Bridge for internet access while on the road and in villages without modern technology.

You can find out more details about the show as well as how to submit your own videos for consideration and watch more behind-the-scenes footage of the show at the link below, and check out the show's official trailer after the break. The show premiered January 28th on Univision. Thanks for sending this in Chango_BB!!

More information on ¡Q’Viva! The Chosen

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It should come as no surprise that many people out there like to have their favorite BlackBerry device to be available in multiple colors, especially white. We have already seen most of the current BlackBerry 7 devices launch in white (like the Torch 9810 and Kevin's beloved white BlackBerry Bold 9900) and now they are adding two more devices. Set to launch in the second quarter of 2012, RIM is bringing both the BlackBerry Curve 9380 and the BlackBerry Bold 9790 out in all of their white glory as well. Choice is always a good thing, but so many white devices can't be so good for CrackBerry Kevin's pockets :-)

Source: BGR 

Running through this morning's conference call again, Research In Motion's shiny new CEO, Thorsten Heins, had a lot to say about about BlackBerry's large-scale strategic direction, particularly previous hints that they would be willing to license the operating system to other manufacturers.

"Now, on the licensing piece, I'm absolutely confident that BlackBerry 10 will prove itself as a platform. If there is requests coming towards Research In Motion to talk about licensing that platform to other companies, I will entertain those discussions, I will listen, I will assess the business opportunity for RIM, and if it makes sense strategically and tactically to go down that path, then I will make the decision together with the board. It's not my focus one. My focus one is strengthen RIM's business based on their integrated approach because there's not many companies out there that have this. One is the other fruit company that has it, and one is us, and I want to leverage this. This is a very, very strong asset to have. A former colleague of mine once said 'trust you're successful in business when you're in the nervous system of your customers'. You can translate this into 'you're successful when you have the biggest value contribution to your customer's business', and this is where BlackBerry is, and this is where I want to stay, and this is what I want to build upon."

It's certainly not news that RIM is willing to flirt with cross-platform arrangements, what with the Android player running on the BlackBerry PlayBook, and iOS support on the way in RIM's enterprise management console. Historically, RIM had even shoehorned most of the OS into Windows Mobile, and with the relatively recent Bing partnership, it wouldn't be surprising to see another cross-over emerge for Windows Phone. 

Still, Thorsten made a point to say that this isn't a high priority, and that he has a ton of confidence in BlackBerry 10 to be able to stand on its own, thankyewverymuch. What do you guys think - is there a chance at a BlackBerry Connect revival?

RIM introduced their new CEO, Thorsten Heins, in a video tonight, and he had some interesting things to say about the future of BlackBerry. Here are some of the key takeaways.

Heins starts off by talking about how grateful he is for the opportunity. He says RIM's "journey isn't over yet", and sees BlackBerry being among the top 3 wireless players worldwide if they keep doing what they're doing, and they do it well. This is a view shared by RIM's new chair of the board, Barbara Stymiest, and might not be what shareholders want to hear - at least the ones who have been clamouring for dramatic change at the company, and not just a leadership shuffle.

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RIM just posted this video of their new President and CEO, Thorsten Heins. You might have heard the news earlier tonight.

With CES 2012 just days away, we are all anxious to see what Research In Motion has planned, and hoping to see some some good things come out of the event for BlackBerry. Adding to the excitement, a post on the BlackBerry Facebook account reminds everyone to stay tuned to the feed there as well as the @BlackBerry Twitter account.

What happens in Vegas... is going to be broadcast RIGHT HERE and on Twitter (@BlackBerry) next week during the Consumer Electronics Show. Even if you're not at the event, you'll get all of the details, so stay tuned for live updates and more from CES 2012. We have some tricks up our sleeves…

What does it mean? Well, we don't know any details, but as soon as we know, you'll know. The Crack Team in Las Vegas for CES will have all the coverage you can handle, so keep your eye on the blogs for all the news! What do you think or hope will be announced?