It's been a while since we've spotted a good fake BlackBerry, but this time around all the work was done for us. Forums member Superfly_FR posted up this Photoshop of the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha sporting a full QWERTY keyboard. As noted in the forums post, there is certainly enough room for a standard BlackBerry keyboard (I'm down with a Bold 9900 keyboard on this baby). As RIM CEO Thorstein Heins said at BlackBerry World, we'll still see BlackBerry devices with a physical keyboard, so maybe down the road this won't be too far fetched.
What do you think of this design? Is it good? Bad? Ugly? Sound off in the comments!
Welcome to CrackBerry Kevin's Mock School of Smartphone Economic Theory. Today's class... the effects of iPhone sales on the US economy. Examine the two charts above. The chart on the left plots the USA Index of Economic Freedom from 2006 to 2012. The chart on the right plots iPhone sales in the USA from 2007 to 2012. Notice how ever since the iPhone went on sale in 2007 that the US economy has progressively gone downhill?
Sure, iPhone sales are great for the people who own shares of Apple's skyrocketing stock, but the overall result of Apple's success on the US economy is actually a net loss of hundreds of millions of distracted man-hours spent playing Angry Birds and Cut the Rope. More iPhones = Less Productivity = Economic Downturn. It's a scary correlation people, and if Apple's sales continue to grow, things *could* get worse.
The solution? I propose it's time for BlackBerry to make a comeback in the USA. Put productivity first, games second! Let's all buy BlackBerry 10 phones when they hit the market, get our priorities straight and get America back on track!!
If you saw our post on the BlackBerry Challenge Council's multitasking project but didn't click through to watch the video, you missed out. So here it is again for your viewing pleasure... a good and funny video that puts the focus on one of the biggest strengths of the traditional BlackBerry experience, the physical keyboard!
For a lot of BlackBerry loyalists, the one thing more than anything that keeps them on a BB is the physical keyboard. When it comes to pounding out emails, texts, tweets, facebook status message and mores, it can't be beat. Sure, people can learn to type fast on touchscreens too, but the touchscreen typing experience falls apart as soon as you're not standing/sitting still and focused on the task at hand. A little bump or shake and your typing goes to hell. But as you'll see in the video, with a physical keyboard you can keep on typing even in extreme conditions.
Just yesterday I was in the back of a bumpy taxi cab heading from the airport to hotel and I was typing like crazy on my 9900's keyboard and thinking about how with a touchscreen I'd be struggling trying to do the same thing. Heck, I even tweeted:
All Smartphone keyboard comparisons should be conducted while riding in the back of a taxi cab. Guess who'd win every time?
BlackBerry is the answer to that question of course. Sure, a physical keyboard takes up some of the real estate that can go towards a bigger display, but if communication is a priority for you in your mobile device, and for a lot of us it is, the physical keyboard trumps all.
Check out the video above and confess your love for the physical keyboard in the comments! Oh, and PS. the keyboard on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the best smartphone keyboard ever made. Period.
Seeing celebrities using BlackBerry devices is nothing new really as we have seen them hundreds of times, but this instance is rather humerous. On Saturday Nokia had a big event in NYC for the launch of the Lumia 900, during which they had Nicki Minaj perform on stage. Following her performance, she tweeted out how exhausted she was and how much fun she had during the event. Being that the folks at Nokia brought her in, one would expect to see her tweeting from something along the lines of Twitter for Windows Phone, but instead she was caught tweeting from Ubersocial for BlackBerry. We don't mind one bit that's she's a BlackBerry user. Keep showing your support over there Ms. Minaj!
We've seen several fan made BlackBerry music videos in the past. Who can forget classic hits like She Did Me Shady on the BBM, Textual Healing, and Ping Me Baby? Today the crew at M Crown Productions sent in their latest music video, a parody dealing with BlackBerry addiction, called I Turn My BlackBerry Off. Check it out!
It's going to take great products and real effort for BlackBerry to win back the love in the USA. But I believe it will happen. Step 1 is of course building great products. Those are in development now.
We outlined Step 2 this week with our plan to build a more direct relationship with the media, Wall Street and consumers by setting up a BlackBerry USA division complete with its own President.
Step 3 is getting those great products to market. We'll see the first BlackBerry 10 phones hit this year, and hopefully through 2013 we'll see BlackBerry sales continue to rise with support coming from carriers and lots of happy customers. Hopefully we'll see some awesome BlackBerry advertising too.
And by 2014 we should be onto BlackBerry 11 (or maybe 12 or 13 or 14?!), and by then I'm betting the love for BlackBerry in the USA will be soo huge again that people will want to erect statues in honor of the awesomeness of BlackBerry. Or, at least make a modification to an existing one. ;)
It seems like just about everyone has weighed in on what's best for Research In Motion, and how they can turn their current situation around. Analysts have analyzed, bloggers have blogged, and everyone else has tweeted, commented, or Facebooked their feelings on the future of the BlackBerry maker. It only makes sense that celebrity chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsey would have an opinion on the matter and share it directly with new CEO Thorsten Heins. Watch the video above to see just how it all went down.
Of course this is a spoof, that's not really Gordon Ramsey or Thorsten Heins. This clip appeared recently on CBC's "This Hour has 22 Minutes". Thanks for posting it in the forums AWDragon200!
I'm still in Amsterdam winding down BlackBerry DevCon Europe, but I just couldn't wait to get home to call my broker to place an order to double up my investment in Research In Motion. Readers of CrackBerry will remember I bought my first "symbolic" share of RIMM stock leading up to the company's Annual General Meeting of Shareholders this past June at a price of $27.75. With that share now trading below $17, I've decided as a gesture of my growing faith in RIM it's time to double up on the original investment and buy TWO more shares of RIM stock (see the execution order above). :)
There was no specific piece of news or information or technical analysis that prompted me to take this action. More so, I just woke up this morning with a gut feeling and had to roll with my instincts. I'm feeling bullish on BlackBerry. Between the new CEO Thorsten Heins, my experience on the Engadget Mobile Podcast playing BlackBerry defender, the look of that first BB10 phone (which I'm sure will evolve by launch to be even awesomer), the positive vibe at BlackBerry DevCon Europe.... it just all feels like the stars are starting to align. Yes, there are plenty of challenges still and lots of work to be done, but I think RIM employees really are jacked up to Rock & Roll their way through it. I'm feeing good.
So there you have it. Full disclosure. I doubled my investment and tripled my shares in Research In Motion. :-)
Well that didn't take long. Less than a month ago back at CES 2012 we got our hands (literally) on the original BlackBerry Glove. No, this isn't a product RIM is actually selling, but rather was given away as free swag at the BlackBerry booth to those who asked nicely. And while the intent behind version one of the BlackBerry Glove was nice, it was a little low-tech, with the tips cut off of the index and finger and thumb, allowing for your actual hands to still touch the device. Technically it worked, but it also resulted in frozen finger tips if you actually put them to use in cold weather (plus they looked a little too fashion forward/risky for some).
Enter the BlackBerry Glove 2.0. Picked up as a freebie at a BlackBerry DevCon Europe party I attended, version 2.0 of the BlackBerry Glove has gone high tech, featuring finger tips on the index and finger and thumb that work with capacitive touchscreens. With greyed out tips, the style is sexy, and the gloves just work. It's a nice improvement.
In true CrackBerry fashion we had some fun with this one... check out the video above for the Infomercial for the BlackBerry Glove 2.0! I'm not sure we'll ever see these go on sale so I don't have a price or release date, but if you think RIM should sell some BlackBerry Gloves, express your interest in the comments! You never know what'll happen...
RIM's new VP of Developer Relations, Alec Saunders, took the stage at BlackBerry Devcon Europe after new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins to discuss the new BlackBerry Developer website, BlackBerry Jam, and a ton of other improvements and additions coming to BlackBerry developers.
Presentation aside, the first thing we noticed was Alec's awesome t-shirt. Bright red with white lettering, the slogan reads "Keep Calm and Be Bold". Longtime readers of CrackBerry know we have a thing around here with wearing custom made BlackBerry shirts. We're loving that Alec is following the CrackBerry lead here. And like CrackBerry Kevin and his Sexy and You Know it Workout, RIM's VP of Developer Relations is leading by example and Being Bold, as demonstrated by his DevCon Keynote shirt! Keep it up Alec! #BeBold
I am fond of saying there is no perfect Smartphone; there is only the Smartphone that is perfect for you. Whether your beloved device runs Android; BlackBerry; iOS; webOS; or Windows Phone, we're all just part of the larger Mobile Nations family (do you like how I worked that in there?).
Still, when a story like this comes along, I can't help but feel a little sympathy for our iPhone brethren. Last Tuesday, Mahler's Symphony No. 9 came to a halt at the New York Philharmonic after a new iPhone user had trouble silencing his phone's alarm. Sitting in the front row, the patron's iPhone Marimba ring was easily heard by the conductor, Alan Gilbert, who actually stopped the performance until the ring was silenced.
The iPhone's owner, a long-time subscriber to the orchestra, made sure to silence his phone before the concert - as we all should do before movies, concerts, shows, and other such events - but an alarm set on his Smartphone sounded anyway. The day before the concert, the man's company had switched from BlackBerry to iPhone, and the poor gentleman had not yet become familiar with his new device. He didn't know his phone's alarm was set; when it sounded, he had trouble figuring out how to make it stop.
On Thursday, he had a chance to apologize by phone to the conductor who graciously accepted the apology. Like the iPhone, selecting the "All Alerts Off" or "Silent" sound profile on a BlackBerry effectively silences any and all alert sounds on the Smartphone - except for the daily alarm. Silencing that alarm seems to be a bit easier on a BlackBerry than on an iPhone, though, as pressing just about any button on the RIM device will cancel that sound. Methinks the unfortunate iPhone user at the symphony found things a bit more complicated when his iDevice stopped the show.
Alicia and I were in awe here at CES2012, this being our first one and all, and were a bit intimidated (it’s not every day you get to meet big celebrities like CrackBerry Kevin). We decided to see if we could have a bit of fun with the folks over at BlackBerry by commandeering the BlackBerry Bold limo. Unbeknownst to our fellow BlackBerry users who were waiting in line for the limo, Alicia and I concocted our plan and set it forth in motion.
The BlackBerry crew were outstanding and we had a blast on our little adventure even with the airport detour. Yes, we would have loved to see more BlackBerry related products and such but it was very nice to have the BlackBerry team show us dedicated fans some appreciation with the limo rides, water and snacks as well as the charged batteries (boy did those come in handy!) and all the free goodies. Thanks RIM!
While our good friends Isaac and Joseph were busy shuttling off without us (just kidding guys, we still love you) in the BlackBerry #BeBold limo, we were hard at work making this amusing video of our experience with the #BeBold limo. Full disclosure here - we had a bit of trouble finding the limo pickup so we had to run around a bit and wait for the limo to make its return trip. In the end we found the limo, made some new friends and had a great trip back to the hotel. Thanks RIM!
Back at BlackBerry DevCon this past fall, our own CrackBerry Adam caught the attention of the smartphone world with his discoveryinvention of the BlackBerry Kickstand. Using the battery door in the correct manner to prop up the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is a trick that has been used by many a Bold 9900 owner since.
Not to be outdone again by CrackBerry at CES2012, BlackBerry upped their game with the introduction of the BlackBerry Glove. Talk about an engineering triumph! While gloves with capactiive threading that allow you to wear them and still use touchscreen devices is a fairly big trend in the market, RIM had the brilliant idea to go simpler and better by simply cutting the tip of the glove off of the index finger and thumb. Check out the video above to see the BlackBerry Glove in action.
Simple. Effective. And it makes a fashion statement. Best yet? If you swing by the BlackBerry booth (#30326) at CES and are nice to the right people, you might be able to snag yourself a pair. Tell them CrackBerry sent you.
The BlackBerry Glove... the new hottest fashion trend in mobile handwear! :)
The names RIM and BlackBerry are registered Trademarks of Research in Motion Limited.
CrackBerry.com is in No Way Affiliated with Research in Motion Limited.
We take pride in our unbiased content, however do occasionally receive free product from vendors that we review or discuss. For more info click here.
