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 Joseph |
 Brittany |
 Dave |
 Kerri |
 Aloha Joe |
The Round 2 voting is done and we're one step closer to crowning our CrackBerry Idol 2010 winner. Moving on to the final round (in no particular order) are Joseph, Brittany, Dave, Kerri and Aloha Joe. Big congrats go to the final five! The voting was tight on this on this, so Tim, Josh, Alicia, Dan and Shankeith can all walk away with their heads held high. To the winners, we'll be following up soon with final round instructions. To those not moving on, we'll be in touch soon too with some awesome parting gifts.
What's to come in the Final Round: The final round of CrackBerry Idol is the oh so important BlackBerry device review. To keep the content interesting for our readers and fair yet challenging for our competitors, here's what we're planning to do. Each finalist is going to receive a brand new BlackBerry Torch 9800 (that they'll get to keep) and will be assigned a particular usage profile from which to review the device. I've already done the full-out CrackBerry BlackBerry Torch Review, so these will be follow-up reviews that assess the Torch's performance based on how a person would use the device given a particular set of needs. For example, we'll see the BlackBerry Torch 9800 reviewed from the perspective of a business professional, a first time smartphone owner, a social user, etc. We'll put a word cap on the reviews (1500 words) so it'll be a big challenge to pack a lot of punch into not a lot of space. If all goes according to plan, you'll be able to see the the first review hit CrackBerry starting August 30th. Stay tuned for the finals!!
Reader comments
CrackBerry Idol Round 2 winners announced; Stay tuned for the Final Round - the BlackBerry device review!
I'll be done after this because those of you that have made up your minds that it's okay to just vote based on looks and screw over another person that had a better review but wasn't better looking are not going to change your minds.
This competition was about who had the better quality reviews, not whom was better looking. If that was the case, we should've just had a beautiful people competition.
If Brit does win, it will go to show that this whole competition was pointless because the people voting for her have admitted that they voted for her because of her looks and not her reviews.
And what's worse is that I know a couple people she knows and she's telling them that she's going to win because she has enough of a fan club based on how cute she is. And she's prob. right and she'll be laughing all the way to the bank because she'll end up with a job based on her looks.
Yup...she'll end up with a job based on her looks. Wouldn't that be awesome if you were skipped over for a position because someone was better looking?
Why do I care? Because stuff like this in general pisses me off. Just like people that park in handicap spots and people that wait for those people to get in their cars at Walmart and make everyone behind them wait because they're too lazy to walk a few more steps.
And the other thing I don't get is where some of y'all live. Brit is cute; however, descriptions like gorgeous? Beautiful? Alyssa Milano is beautiful. Some of you guys must live around very ugly women to think that Brit qualifies for descriptions like gorgeous.
Just look at her photo...any girl who has her blackberry so close to her chest deserves to win :-) ... besides shes gorgeous!
I want her PIN! lol
1. I guarantee you that 50 percent of those complaining about britneys "uhm's" and what ever's could not do any better when filming your own reviews.
2. Face it kids, the girls cute. If she can back it up in her device review by knowing what she's talking about, then the girl did a good job.
3. Any "idol" competition is going to have someone that you don't like. Those who make it their number one goal in life to berate and bash the one contestant that in their opinion should not have made it through, shows the rest of the population that you guys have nothing better to do in your lives then bash a chick who's cute?
4. Its not people like Britney and Aloha Joe that are going to cause people to quit crackberry. Its the ungodly amount of pompus jerks that do nothing but complain about useless junk that I've seen people in crackberry complain about.
So guess what, who ever wins, is gonna win. If it's britney, awesome. If its anyone else. Also awesome. All of you guys who have a problem? Get over yourself!
Brittany - we know you are reading these comments don't pretend you aren't. No one respects you as a mobile expert/columnist/reviewer. The only reason you made it this far is becasue you are a young female and there a lot of perverted voters. You will fast find your looks won't get you very far once the reviews don't involve pictures of blackberries in your tits or shower scenes. Even if you win this you will not last long. True talent will always win.
I just started paying attention to the idol drama lol
Just curious what the ladies out there in crackberry land think do they think Britneys got the goods
(no pun intended) or no? Are just pervs voting? is she sexting with judges lol
I think id vote for Joseph or Dave
congrats to the top 5, and well done to all the other contestants too
I called it when it barely started, and I'm still calling it hahaha
I absolutely agree with you. Regardless of what anyone on here says everyone worked extremely hard to put together their review and video. It's not as easy as it looks and it did take late nights and a really long weekend to pull it off and just about a million rewrites. Kevin and his team are miracle workers because they do this on a daily basis multiple times per day whereas we had more time to compose ours. This is a great contest and I am happy to have been a part of it.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my friends and co-workers who helped and supported me throughout this competition. My co-workers found out about this contest (a few are members) and all of a sudden my video is being shown at the last company meeting with everyone pledging their support. They followed the contest, offered suggestions for what to do on the latest video (too bad I didn't have time to use them), and took my phone calls as I tested the headsets. When I was nervous about doing the accessory video one of them said just go out and film which I did and you saw the final result with Alex. I am grateful to work with such wonderful people and to have a great network of friends who voted for me.
Congratulations to the top 5! You all deserved it. I can't wait to see what comes next. Alicia
Congrats to the Top 5! It's definitely a bummer being on the other side but I'm happy to join my new friends, DJ, Dan, Shankeith and Josh in cheering them on!
I know from experience that every one of these people put in their best effort and worked their butts off, staying up some late nights getting these reviews done while still working normal jobs, going to school and making time for their families. All of them worked with significant obstacles in the way as well. So whether or not the person we voted for made it, lets all agree to encourage the people at the top, give them all a fair chance and vote for the best!
Congratulations Dave, Kerri, Joseph, Brittany and Joe!
so your saying britney skewed the voting process? I vote for Britney to get kicked from the contest for tampering with votes. We take our IDOL very seriously here on CB.
Some of you need to take a deep breath and calm down... Brittany most likely has advanced this far because she is cute, which is why I gave her my last vote this past time around... But when it comes to the finals she has no shot. Joseph and Dave for example have had great video reviews and outstanding written reviews.
Once whoever it is wins the Crackberry Idol they will not really ever show up in the videos, I mean other than Kevin occasionally, how often do we see anyone else in the review videos? Thus, when it comes to the finals the people will vote for whoever can deliver the best content... For me the finals comes down to Joseph and Dave in no particular order...
Actually, Tabpilot, the reason why people are so upset is because of voters like you that voted for Brittany because she's cute rather than because she had a good video reviews. So what happens is you vote for Brit and who knows how many others voted for her because she's cute and then someone gets bumped off that was better than her but just not as cute.
Why wouldn't she have a shot in the finals? People like you are going to vote for her because she's cute. I wish people like you just wouldn't vote...it makes this whole competition a waste of time for people getting bumped off for no reason other than they don't look as good as Brit.
Maybe one day you'll be competing in something and they'll say, "Oh, I'm sorry. You had a great run at this competition but you're just not as good looking as that idiot bimbo over there."
Thing is she knew she could get this far by her looks. And you guys are doing well to prove her right.
Good job to all of you that voted for Brit because you think she looks good. How about not voting next time. I hope all of y'all that voted for Brit based on her looks gets screwed over by someone better looking than you one day and you'll have no one to blame but karma (yourself).
See this is another example of you and other people getting way to worked up over this. Crackberry Idol is a pretty interesting and cool thing as it adds some excitement to the site which of late has been getting kind of "crusty".
Thus, having Brittany in the competition really isn't that bad of an idea. Based on her last review are you sure she was one of the best contestants in the very beginning or did the Crackbeery team think a little more like I did? If you honestly believe she is in the competition because she deserved to be and not because the Crackberry team wanted her there like I do now, then why doesn't she deserve to be in the finals? Maybe you should have considered that fact...
As far as why she will not win, did you read my original post about how people will not actually see here ever if she wins, so her cute-ness doesn't matter? Thus people shouldn't vote for her. Or how about how I said she isn't as good as some others?
I did vote for her because she is cute but I also voted for her because I knew a bunch of other people would and if she got to the finals and my logic was right, which I am confident it will be, then the contenders I like have a better chance of winning. This is voting 101, if you want your person to win, you prefer the weaker candidates/opponents to be in the election/contest with them...
I read everything you wrote. However, it doesn't matter if you say she won't win in the finals; you are giving her a shot at winning in the finals by voting on her. Numerous people voted for Brit based on her looks and not her ability...it's become a running joke.
And what's worse is you have contender Bob or Mary that if Brit wouldn't have gotten a few "cute votes" they would have gone onto the next round. But instead they're screwed out of a chance because of voters like you. This isn't a reality TV show, we don't need added drama. Why not actually vote for those that did good, quality reviews?
What you and others are doing is not voting 101. It's voting on the cute girl because she's nice to look at. The girl that stuck her phone down her shirt to bring attention to her breasts and then calls everyone "pervs". The girl that got her review in late because she was getting her nails down and too concerned with going to concerts intead of actually putting effort into this contest. And voters like you by voting for her are saying, "Looks matter more than quality and it's okay not to be held accountable to the stipulations of the contest like everyone else."
It doesn't matter if you think something is stale. It doesn't matter if you want a bit of drama added. This is really bad comedy. And a lot of voters are pissed that there are the other voters out there voting on someone like Brit whom isn't even taking this thing seriously and is just getting pushed through because people think she's cute.
Wow, at this point I kind of hope she does win just to make all of the people like you even more upset and unhappy. In all reality it doesn't matter. You know if she wins it may actually be a good thing, maybe a little less good-ole-boys time on the podcasts which have been becoming more and more repetitive of late... If she doesn't win, great everyone can relax, but then what will you complain about? That it was skewed and the real winner may never be known. Who cares? I will go on record and say I voted for Brittany because she was cute and I thought her air-head-ish approach would actually help the CrackBerry team, so there... If you remember Kevin did make a point to say some of the other finalists may also be contributors, so thus winning isn't really the end all be all for everyone. Isn't there something better you could spend your time on other than complaining about this contest, which in reality doesn't affect your life on a real grand scale? I mean I'm on vacation this week and checking this between golf rounds and flight lessons...
This makes sense completely.
also i demand a vote recount due to possible tampering by the contestants
Would you like to explain how on Earth a contestant tampered with the vote count? lol
it's sickening to see the worst person get a spot.... Britney do everyone a favour and just gracefully drop out. If you win many will just quick CB all together then deal with any possible review with you.
Its stupid that she gets all these votes even though a lot of us are clearly legitimate haters. Britney no one likes you as a reviewer. Some pervs like your blackberries with a phone inbetween that's all
Brittany and Kerri ftw!
But it doesn't mean that it's over!
Kevin never said he'd pick people just from the top 5 so you guys could still get one of the other spots.
Hey CrackBerry Nation,
I would like to thank EVERYONE who took the time out of their busy schedule(s) to read and vote on OUR reviews (whether you voted for me or not). Even with all the "Hater-a-tion", I'd like to throw out a warm, heart felt Congratulation (to ALL of the CrackBerry Idol Contestants).
ALL the contestants put forth their best efforts, and should be congratulated...thus...I tip my hat off to ALL that participated in the CrackBerry Idol Contest.
Now to Joseph, Brittany, Dave, & Kerri: Congrats on making it to "the final table". I enjoyed each and everyone of your reviews, and look forward to reading your Torch review. Congratulations again!
-Aloha Joe
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Follow me on twitter @CB_AlohaJoe
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God I hope you don't win..
Win??? Too late, I already did! By "throwing my hat in the ring" and simply participating in this competition...I have already won! I learned a lot, made new friends, and gained great mentors! I'd say that's a WIN!
Tranerek, perhaps one day, you will have the same opportunity. When and if that day comes...I wish you Good Luck! Thank you for your input.
-Aloha Joe
I loathe you Aloha Joe.
I actually laughed when I read your final response Tranerek. While I didn't vote for Aloha Joe (I only voted for one person each round), I do think he's more qualified than what's her face with the BB in her chest.
Tell us how you really feel :)
I wouldn't have put it in those words but....many thought it, you wrote it.
Here's to round 3!
Oh, I am going to love choosing the winner in this group!!!
Wow. Well, at least David and Joseph made it. They give us serious Crackberrians hope that the blog won't go to heck on a hand basket! I am shocked to see Josh and Alicia didn't make it, but I guess what would a summer contest be without a bikini chick and a surfer, huh? Throw in a CB Fitness Challenger and we got quite a summer flavored selection of candidates to choose a winner from. This final vote ought to be real interesting, since I think we can only vote for one person. Oooh, will Brittany and Aloha Joe outlast David and Joseph? Or will Kerri pull of the double treat and win both the Idol and CB Fitness Challenge? Will Canada prevail or will Detroit win the Gold? Drama, thrilling finish.. aww, can't wait to see who wins this contest!
I am confident that, in the end, we will be able to say, "yeah, that person deserved to win."
Yeah, I think Josh and a few others in our Fitness challenge are way ahead of me in pulling that win off. I know you put a lot of thought into your comments and I lost favor last round but I still love ya lol.
I'm glad I made it but agree that there were those who were better. I'm thankful to all who voted for me and I will strive to meet a higher standard on the final round.
To Alicia - I'm sorry, you did a fantastic job!
To Dan, Tim, Josh & Shankeith - You guys totally rock! I've enjoyed getting to know all of you in our BBM group and still think the voters goofed.
:( DAN!?!??!?! NOOOOOO
I admit to being suprised when I saw the winners, but most belong there and everyone of them worked hard. Voting was difficult for me and I think some major talent got voted off, but there was no way to avoid it. HOWEVER, it is not like you woke up from surgery to discover the wrong leg was amputated, so relax. What does it mean when people start frothing at the mouth over a contest? One of the key characteristics about CB and why we all enjoy it so much is the tone in which information is delivered. This is a fun, friendly, information-rich site where the assumption is that people are basically doing their best and are willing to help each other. In the real world where a person needs to write an article or do a podcast and move on, "ums" and typos happen. Whenever I see complaints about trivia I know it is by a person who has either never operated under real deadlines or leans toward OCD issues. So be nice everyone. Enjoy, state opionions respectfully and leave the meaness on the 4th grade playground. It just doesn't fit well with CB culture.
I take it you haven't been on the CB Forums lately? Awww, our reactions fit perfect with the CB culture! Haha!
If you enter a major Crackberry contest where community gets to give feedback, you're going to get some negative criticism from people who don't like your entry. As for your other commentary, Techno, I have ready many a blog that has had user feedback criticize the professional writer for typos and other errors. That's not a Crackberry exclusive complaint. It's done all over, but if you're a proven talent, like Noah from PhoneDog.Com or Kevin Michaluk from Crackberry, your fan base will ignore it. These CB Idol finalists are not proven talents in this environment. They are amateurs wanting to do a professional's job. As they get faced with the real world challenges of the job, their final presentation is meeting the full weight of the community feedback, so they learn what to expect when it's their turn. User feedback criticism comes with the job. As does user feedback compliments when deemed appropiate.
Because this is a contest, we the community, need to choose a winner. Kevin and the CrackBerry Team, do not need to choose one winner. But we do. So, we need to nitpick on trivial crap like ahs and ums. Or use of the camera, typos, skits, etc. At least we are not doing to the professional, like so many on the blogosphere do. We're just doing it to help pick a winner of a contest.
My favs so far are Joseph and Brittany...I'm hoping their next reviews are just as good as their past ones...
Ill take an 8 ball of what ever you are smoking if you think britney is one of the best
8 balls don't come smokable ya know...If your looking for a QP or OZ, then that would make better sense.
An 8 ball is 3.5 grams. You are telling me you can't get 3.5 grams of hard downtown if you wanted?
Loser tech perverts - stop voting for Britney. I can send you guys a list of websites to meet the needs you are seeking to meet by voting for her. She's not even that good anyway.. A 6.5 tops
In true Idol fashion, a group of not-fans should now get together to decide who would be the worst candidate, and vote for that person, multiple times if possible.
This is the real world, and anybody who is voted in who doesn't have the chops won't last in any case. They'll get fired for poor quality output.
I have similar thoughts JimIllinois. The title of (being the first) CrackBerry Idol may be special, but this is a long term gig. The true winners here are those interested in and talented enough to engage the BlackBerry community and share their knowledge and passion for smartphones.
If Brittany wins I hope she has an off button on the site somewhere.
I'm not defending the ums and likes BUT next time you see a review by an already CB staff member, count the ums in their review. The video that showed a comparison between the bold 9700 browser and the 9800 browser was full of ums.
No one pointed out those ums. I know its a contest but really.
I couldn't agree with your important point "I know it's a contest" - a contest where the BEST should win.
If this was a wet t-shirt contest she'd get my vote, but it isn't. An no, I don't think I'm being a jerk. She is the one who played up the bubbly air-head person in her first video and stuck the BlackBerry in between her tits.
Nobody made her do that, her choice.
-->Shall we play a game?
Nobody made her put her phone there. Just like nobody made those who are running this contest use that photo of her to show who she was. They chose to use it for....??
I saw more technical info from her obviously home made/edited videos than other high quality videos showing shots of tropical places (where I will never get to go :( ), lawn chairs and beer, and other filler that was not necessary.
Whoever wins this contest will get guidance, tips and other CB know how from the CB Staff to guide the winner in their writings and video reviews.
Yikes do I "um" a lot too? I'll have to watch the video and see. I'll check myself next time :)
To be honest Adam, I've never noticed. But that's mostly because you're actually entertaining to listen to.
I love how you said I do it "too", therefore acknowledging that she says it too much without even having malicious intent. You are awesome man.
I was shocked when I listened to a video of my favorite smartphone video reviewer, Noah from PhoneDog.Com. I couldn't believe my ears. He sounded almost as bad as Brittany! Now granted, Noah is now an editor-in-chief at PhoneDog.Com, so he may be too busy and just throws these videos up quick because he has a large fan base. But I don't ever recall hearing so many uhs and ums from him as I did for his Droid 2 review. Though, that Droid 2 review was the first video of his I have watched since I starting evaluating this CB contest. So, maybe my ears are more prone to notice those ahs and ums.
DAVE! I voted you in by pressing my nipples against the keyboard!! OH YEAH!! Rock on buddy!!
LOL! Love it!
That Brittany girl is gonna win because she is a good looking girl. She shouldn't of even been in the last round and somehow she makes it through. Even the judges thought she was bad. Just watch she will get the most votes in the end and we will be stuck with having to listen to "UM" and "Like" every other word. Wise up people.
people aren't even following most of this. they are just going to vote based off the pictures. in the final round they should just supply the names & not the pics. that'd be interesting...just sayin.
Did the voters even read the judges remarks? Seriously is an airhead really got a chance to win this thing???
Quality is what should win. Come on people!!! She's not going to do her reviews naked so stop wasting votes.
--> Shall we play a game??
Thank you to everyone who decidedly gave me a vote.
Congrats to all those who put in the time and deserve further recognition (you know who you are).
And welcome to the Final Round - Joseph, Brittany, Kerri, and Aloha Joe.
Crack on!
I've voted for you all the way! Glad you're still here Dave!!!
You were the only one who got my vote last round. Keep up the great work! If this thing works out the way it should we will be reading your blogs for many weeks to come.
You're the only one who got my vote as well, and I'm glad that at least 1 decent person (as well as one at least half decent one) has been left off on the 2nd round. I really hope you do make it all the way through, and you more than deserve the Torch you're going to be playing with :-D
Truth be told, the other so called competitors are more like clowns compared to Dave.
I'm talking with reference to every aspect one looks for a reviewer.
Its sad to see the list of the 5 finalists.
No offence to any of them but I was under the assumption that CB Idol was to select the best amongst the best.
As far as I can it see, its far from the truth.
Its like its more like a competition of who can be more popular by doing various gimmicks and what not (I choose not to comment any further on this).
Popularity is just for high school kids and yadi yada ...
This is CrackBerry (for those who forgot) where serious addicts dwell as well as the novice users.
Its a place where my addiction for BlackBerry was cultivated and to see this happening to this site is extremely disheartening!
So I'm going to be rooting for the most serious person in the bunch of finalists (i.e., Dave).
Im sure the rest of the community wakes up and realises the pile of sh*t we all are in and support the person worthy enough to carry the 'CB Idol' title.
Thats just my two cents.
Don't like it?
Well no-one said truth was easy to digest!
Get back into reality folks.
Congrats dave
Thank you all so very much for your votes. So very excited to make it this far, my hands are even a little shakey. I can assure you that the CrackBerry Idol-ers take this contest very seriously. All of us have been anxious this last weekend (and today) as we waited for the results.
Thank you again.
Congratulations all especially Kerry!
Okay, well at least it's clear that this is just a popularity contest rather than a talent contest. Shame it's all becoming a bit of a joke as I rather enjoyed the CB idol idea.
Agreed, only two of them deserve to be this far...
Or any other competition where you ask for votes? Sorry your contestant didn't make it.
Good luck to everyone in the finals!
Umm both folks I wanted to be here are...
Same here
Totally agree its just a popularity contest. It actually sickens me that Britney has made it this far. The credibility of this website will go down the shitter if Britney wins and the other tech sites will surely joke about her vast knowledge of mobile technology.
She was by far the worst reviewer of all of them. Had the worst written review and the video review was just brutal (I couldn't even watch the entire thing). I think Kevin and all the other contributers to CB should vote on the final winner. I just cant get my mind around it, I'm just sitting here shaking my head.
I hate to jump on the bashing bandwagon, but these people are right. This is just a sad popularity contest. I'm sure Britney is a sweet girl, but she has virtually zero talent when it comes to reviewing. Reviews like hers are not what I want to watch/read when I visit Crackberry. Having the judges vote for the final winner would be the best option at this point.
I said from day one that the only reason that brittany is here, and will likely win, is because of her "rackberry" picture. nothing about this will be talent when there are horndog nerdy men voting.
Agreed! Brittany only made it because she's attractive. She doesn't even use a BlackBerry anymore! She uses a Droid X!
Congrats to the winner's of Round 2. I'm excited to see who will officially win it all.
I'll be first to say that I had a great time competing and if you voted for me, thank you! Enjoy your new device guys!