Here it is CrackBerry Podcast fans... our BlackBerry World 2012 Super Podcast! There's 90 minutes of BlackBerry goodness to listen to right here, with Adam, Bla1ze, Umi and myself covering all of the events of the last three days. The BlackBerry 10 preview. The keynote session. The BlackBerry 10 Alpha Device. BlackBerry Jam. The awesome press session with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins. We cover it all and more on this one, so be sure to listen. Note - Craig couldn't join us for this one, so next week we'll follow up with another video podcast so we can get deeper into Mobile Fusion and all of the enterprise stuff. Enjoy the show!
BlackBerry World 2012 hasn't quite kicked off officially just yet, but that didn't stop us from firing things up for a pre-BBWC podcast Sunday night. Bla1ze, Adam, Chris Umi and myself kept things to a short and sweet 20 minutes for this one, and we touch upon some of the things we might see (and hope to see) this week. We also sound off on those BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha photos that popped over the weekend.
Enjoy the show and be sure to tune into our next BlackBerry World special. Tuesday will be the BIG day, with the keynote taking place at 9am ET. We'lll be live blogging that one, and then will likely follow up with another podcast that night or Wednesday. Keep it locked to CrackBerry!
It's been a while since we've had the whole Mobile Nations team together. This time around we talk BlackBerry 10, HTC One, Nokia Lumia 900, the new iPad, something something webOS, and Google Drive. Sit back, relax and enjoy!
As promised, we recorded a CrackBerry podcast today to discuss all of the news and fallout surrounding yesterday's Q4 earnings announcement by RIM. We've seen a lot of straight up bad news reporting over the last 24 hours since CEO Thorsten Heins spoke on the investors call which took a lot of statements at partial value (no, RIM is not abandoning the consumer market and no, the company is not getting sold off tomorrow - reporters need to learn to wait until a call is done before writing their stories). We've also seen a mix of reactions on the blogosphere today at both extremes, with titles ranging from RIM is Dead to It's Time to Believe in RIM Again. Fun stuff. On CrackBerry we gave a straight up assessment of RIM's weak results, and appreciated Heins' matter of fact way in speaking about them and the challenges ahead.
We spend the first half of the show talking about why RIM isn't dead just yet. Between yesterday and today nothing has really changed for RIM. The challenges and work to be done are the same as they have been for the past several months. They need to keep the RIM boat afloat on BlackBerry 7 and service revenue streams for a couple more wavy quarters while they bring BlackBerry 10 to market. With cash in the bank, despite slowing sales they still have time to execute on their already in motion plans. BlackBerry 10 phones are going to need rock solid hardware, software, apps and some carrier love to make a splash and set things up for a comeback, but even if things don't go quite to plan we think RIM's Plan B can keep them fighting in the mobile space. You'll definitely want to listen in.
Following up all the State of BlackBerry discussion, I give my podcast review of the Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry, and from there I "WIN THE INTERNET" by guessing at how RIM is going to incorporate "tiles/widgets" into BlackBerry 10. We start looking forward to BlackBerry World and BlackBerry Jam as well, and talk about that sexy BlackBerry 10 alpha hardware that RIM is going to give out (guess who's already touched it?!).
Adam, Chris Umi and Craig join me for this one. Hit play and let's Rock & Roll This! Enjoy the show.
Phil, Simon, and Alex have splashed down in Barcelona and are ready to assault Mobile World Congress 2012, Mobile Nations style, and bring you back absolutely everything Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, (and even iPhone and iPad if they can find it!). Listen in!
We're barely through 30 hours of use following yesterday's 5am EST release of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, but we figured given all the PlayBook 2.0 craziness on the site and in our PlayBook forums that it was time for us to check in with a quick owner's poll.
When we originally reviewed the BlackBerry PlayBook, the two biggest strikes against it were the lack of native email, calendar and contacts along with a lack of compelling apps in BlackBerry Word. PlayBook 2.0 addresses the native messaging and information management gap in a big way, with what I think is a pretty awesomely-implemented solution, including oodles of social integration. And with more time to get apps on the platform and the introduction of the Android App Player in 2.0, the app gap is closing too (of course there are still some big titles like Skype, Netflix and Kindle that we're waiting to see appear in App World).
OS 2.0 brought with it a lot more than the above -- our full walk through is coming soon -- and overall I'm pretty happy with the update (I voted Loving It! Go #TeamBlackBerry). Yes, there are still plenty of things I'd like to see (which I'll point out in my full review coming next week once I have spent more quality time on 2.0), but knowing 2.0 isn't the end game but part of the bigger journey into BlackBerry 10 puts it into perspective. As was discussed in our interview with Michael Clewley from RIM's PlayBook team yesterday, PlayBook OS 2 provides the foundation for BlackBerry 10, which is an entirely new platform that RIM is migrating over to. There are a lot of services that RIM still has to bring over from BBOS to the PlayBook OS/BlackBerry 10 and we know there's a lot more still to come (like native BBM on the PlayBook).
Putting aside the fact we know there's more to come, we want to see what you think of PlayBook OS 2.0 as it stands right now. Vote on the poll above and let us kow in the comments! Oh yeah, and if you don't yet own a PlayBook, be sure to enter here for your chance to win one!
It's been a while since we've had a "regular" CrackBerry Podcast, so this week we got Back on Track and fired things up Thursday morning to talk about the world of BlackBerry. We rewind to CES 2012, and dive into our thoughts on BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. From there we move into some discussion on RIM's new CEO, and talk about BlackBerry DevCon Europe and the latest news and rumors around BlackBerry 10 phones.
Adam, Bla1ze and Chris join me for this one. Hit play and let's Rock & Roll This! Enjoy the show.
Excluding our audio-only podcast at CES last month, this is our first cross-site, cross-platform Mobile Nations Podcast of 2012. On this show Phil, Derek, Daniel, Rene and myself discuss RIM's new CEO and what it means for BlackBerry in 2012, the unstoppable Android, iPad 3 vs. Windows 8 tablets, Chinese working conditions, and apps and your privacy. This is Mobile Nations!
RIM's new CEO, Thorsten Heins, has been a busy guy doing media interviews over the last couple of weeks. But yesterday he took some time to chat with Bay Street sell-side analysts in Toronto who cover the stock.
What did he say? We've had a chance to read through some notes from analysts who attended and here are the big points:
Georgia and Rene are joined by CrackBerry Kevin Michaluk to kickoff Mobile Nations Fitness Month. We break down how best to get started, set attainable goals, and get results, and address some of the most common questions and misconceptions. This is ZEN and TECH!
Winding down what was an absolutely an insanely busy week (seriously, I bet I gave almost as many interviews last week as RIM's new CEO did), I jumped on the Engadget Mobile Podcast with Myriam, Brad and Sean to talk BlackBerry. The Engadget Mobile crew was upfront about their disagreement and disappointment with most of the actions RIM has been taking as of late, so I knew what I was walking into. Heck, lots of CrackBerry readers warned me in advance to get ready for an ambush. Lol.
What followed was a GREAT discussion on BlackBerry. We covered a LOT of material on this show. Mistakes made, current challenges, strengths and opportunities ahead. It was good times and by the time the show wound down I think we even made a BlackBerry champion out of Sean (yay!).
Working on getting this blog post prepped for CrackBerry, I noticed some reader comments on Engadget's post that looked like the podcast went over pretty well, including "This is probably the most thought-provoking podcast I've ever listened to" and "Kevin was insightful and well spoken. RIM really should hire him." So if you haven't listened yet, do yourself a favor and give it a listen. I think this is one you'll want to hear. And be sure to sound off in the comments with your feedback. Enjoy the show!!
As of 21 hours ago we had no plans to record a CrackBerry Podcast today, but with news yesterday evening that Research In Motion has a new CEO we just had to. We got up early this morning for the RIM Conference call featuring Thorsten Heins, our new Fearless Leader of BlackBerry Nation. We kick things off above listening in to the call.... the visuals here are a little boring on the video (you can watch Kevin, Adam, Chris Umi and Simon in our early morning states), but the audio is solid and interesting. Thorsten did a great job on the call.
After the call at 28m35s we jump into our standard CrackBerry podcast and talk about the management changes at RIM and what it all means. Definitely a historic podcast and one to watch!
Mobile Nations editors Kevin Michaluk, Phil Nickinson, Rene Ritchie, Daniel Rubino, Derek Kessler, Simon Sage and Jared DiPane join Mickey and Joey of The Cell Phone Junkie to wrap-up the biggest events of the 2012 CES. Listen in!
Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!
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