While investors in the US and Canada have been rather rough on RIM lately, they all seemingly forgot that RIM is still continuing to grow globally. Most recently, over 1 Million new subscribers have been added to the BlackBerry services in less then 3 weeks across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Needless to say, the numbers speak for themselves -- RIM isn't dead, they just need to maintain momentum in their transition period and get new devices out to the masses.

Selected by an independent panel of eleven judges, each of the winners in the seven categories may feel special, as they delivered innovation and excellence in one package, demonstrating the possibilities of the BlackBerry platform. This year, collaboration amongst application developers was also honored, proving that working together to further enhance the customer experience is a key and vital part of the development business as a whole. Now, let us meet the seven category winners!

• In the first category, Accelerating Innovation for Entrepreneurs (SME), Internalia Group takes the crown. "A digital signature application that allows workers to sign office documents remotely anytime, anywhere, without the need to install separate or specialized accessories on a BlackBerry® smartphone"
• Schad GmbH on the other hand, ups the ante in the Transforming Enterprise Business Performance (Large Enterprise) category; "Enables secure mobile access to Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) via a BlackBerry smartphone using public mobile networks."
• Delivering Service Excellence is CommuniTake Technologies Ltd, enabling technical experts to remotely control a BlackBerry smartphone through an Internet connection.
• Neosistec came up in the Driving Innovation in the Public Sector category, providing Cruz Roja (Spanish Red Cross) workers with a tool that keeps them connected with the central station, allowing the station to monitor the location and status of volunteers in real-time.
• In the fifth category, Life On BlackBerry, Interchange Group and BskyB delivered with an application that brings Sky Sports Football Centre to BlackBerry smartphones.
• Entertainment on BlackBerry? Better turn to Nobex Technologies, as their application allows users to listen to almost 7,000 radio stations from more than 100 countries around the world and see playlist information for over 2,700 stations.
• Last, but not least are Bighand and Rekoop, who Love Working Together. "Allows dictation time to be captured automatically. Rekoop works with BigHand and auto populates the time and narrative information."

But, what about you? Does the winner pack outlined above influence you as a consumer or developer in any way? To me - as a part-time application developer - this means the kind of developers I can look up to and learn from. I for one, am looking forward to the next Innovation Awards in 2011!

See the full press release

Over the weekend a lot of users within Europe have been confirming that they have BIS 3.2. One of the main updates of BIS 3.2 is the option to sync your Gmail calendar with your BlackBerry calendar.

Automatic Login Enhancement has also been introduced. This means that you no longer have to enter your Username and Password in order to access the BlackBerry Internet Service when on your BlackBerry. Of course when logging in online then you'd still need to enter those details.

Other changes that BIS 3.2 brings are:

• Show and Hide Password Option - Subscribers can choose to show or hide the passwords for all email addresses that need to be validated by clicking the Show password or Hide password options.
• New Password Criteria - Newly created passwords for BlackBerry Internet Service accounts and BlackBerry email addresses must meet new criteria.
  • Must include 8 to 16 characters
  • Must include at least one letter and one number
  • Cannot include the word "password"
  • Cannot include the user name of the BlackBerry Internet Service account or BlackBerry email address that the password is associated with

Source: BerryReview

Our pal Ewan over at MobileDeveloper.tv keeps pumping out the BlackBerry Alliance Summit video interviews on a daily basis. We're going to do a little roundup soon, but in the meantime I wanted to bring you this one asap that he posted interviewing Mike Kirkup.

Mike Kirkup is no stranger to the CrackBerry blogs, though this is his first time being here in video. As Director of Developer Relations for Research in Motion, we've now had the honor of having Mike join us on three CrackBerry podcasts (one, two, three), including our most recent one recorded at the same event this video was recorded. In this clip Mike talks a little bit about the recent BlackBerry Developer Conference and the big announcements made. Check it out!

[ video source ]

Next up in our string of BlackBerry EMEA Alliance Summit videos courtesy of MobileDeveloper.tv is one about a realllly interesting application/service from Handheld-PCS called Hand-e-Pix.  Hand-e-pix takes advantage of the camera and GPS functionality of the BlackBerry and allows users to share photographs which are time and date stamped and geotagged. Other contextual information and free text can also be added to the images which are sent in real time to a securely hosted back office database the 'hand-e-pix media manager' here the information can be sorted, searched and shared. Images and incident information can also be viewed in a GIS system and online maps, such as Google Maps.

So with Hand-e-Pix we are not talking about consumer use here - this isn't about sharing photos with your friends and family. We're talking about enterprise and government use, for example, police officers being able to now use their BlackBerry to take photos and submit them directly into a force's evidence database. There are loads of applications here. Check out the video - very interesting stuff!!

[ video source ]

We first reviewed Nobex Radio Companion just over a year ago now and it has proven to be a must-install BlackBerry app for music lovers, allowing you to listen to over 3000 radio stations around the world and see the playlist of over 2700 radio stations. If you've never downloaded it before, be sure to give it a go. The odds are good you'll be glad you did.

In the video above, Gadi Mazor, CEO of Nobex Technologies, spends the first few minutes giving the low down on Nobex Radio Companion, but at ~3m44s the interview shifts gears a little bit. There's some really interesting stuff in here not related to the Nobex app that you won't want to miss! Gadi gives his thoughts comparing development for BlackBerry to iPhone and Android, takes a stroll down memory lane (Gadi was among the first ISVs developing for BlackBerry) and shares his feelings on touchscreen smartphones (which sounds a lot like CrackBerry Kevin each year when the Smartphone Round Robin rolls around). Definitely a great interview!

Download Nobex Radio Companion: You can download Nobex Radio Companion from the CrackBerry App Store (monthly subscription) or App World (free trial | annual subscription). 

[ mobiledeveloper.tv ]

Following up our on-location live blog and podcast last week from the 2009 BlackBerry Alliance Summit in Rome, Italy, this week we'll be posting up some video interviews captured at the event by our friend Ewan MacLeod of MobileIndustryReview.com and MobileDeveloper.tv. Be sure to check both sites out!

First up is an interview with Tony Bristol of Multiplied Media, developers of the popular Poynt application for BlackBerry Smartphones. Poynt is an award-winning, all-in-one, local search service and is currently available on BlackBerry smartphones in Canada, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. At the 2009 Innovation Awards ceremony held at the event, Poynt went home as the winner of the Life on BlackBerry category. Congrats!

Download Poynt: You can download Poynt for free from the CrackBerry App Store, App World or by visiting http://m.mypoynt.com from your BlackBerry's web browser.

[ vid source ]