All Articles Tagged BlackBerry

In a write up nonchalantly titled “Lies, damn lies, statistics, and Apple…“, our good friend Phil Nickinson over at sister-site WMExperts rightly points out that Apple gave Windows Mobile a full on shunning during the WWDC 2009 keynote:

Windows Mobile isn’t even mentioned. Sure, Microsoft hasn’t yet launched its dedicated app store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t stores from which to buy apps – ahem, here’s one – and it’s an insult to all of the developers of the 20,000 Windows Mobile applications available.

Windows 7 did get a mention (and a ribbing, as usual, from OS X head Bertrand Serlet), but in the smartphone space…?

Nothing.

That might seem callous from Apple’s part — but here’s the worse problem for Microsoft: Windows Mobile was missing from a lot of post-WWDC analyst and media commentary as well.

Apple still owns significant smartphone mind-share and the Palm Pre has captured the attention of the blogsphere and, since RIM is holding fast, that’s coming at the expense of Microsoft (and maybe Android, which was last year’s next big thing).

Realistically, with so many platforms now, when someone writes “Apple iPhone and…” “BlackBerry and…” and now “Palm Pre and…” there’s only room for so many others in the sentence, and those places are becoming increasingly competitive.

With Windows Mobile 7 pushed out until 2010, and 6.5 not in consumer hands yet either, and with iPhone 3G S about to hit, things might not be changing any time soon either…

While the iPhone vs. Palm Pre is the current darling of the blogerati (we’re not sure anyone in the mainstream is even aware of it…), we can’t forget that most iconic of rivalries: iPhone vs. BlackBerry. Not when Infoworld has written up the provocatively titled: “Deathmatch: BlackBerry versus iPhone — It’s time for us to bury the BlackBerry and move on to modern mobile — even for e-mail”.

In the massive, 8-page-jump article, the author contends that while the BlackBerry still scores points for security, non-Exchange email, hardware keyboard, and lack of good web browsing (for bosses who don’t want their employees using WebApps), the summation states:

For everyone else, the BlackBerry is yesterday’s mobile messenger, way past its prime and heading toward retirement. The iPhone is light-years ahead of the BlackBerry on almost every count. RIM should be ashamed.

Ouch. We’re sure our friends over at CrackBerry.com would beg to differ, but… ouch.

Can RIM fight back with new devices like the BlackBerry Tour and impending Storm 2, or — like Palm with the Pre and Microsoft with Windows Mobile 7 — will RIM have to “spend time in the desert” and come out with a rebuilt, revamped, new BlackBerry OS for the next wave of mobile computers?

[Thanks to Matt and everyone who sent this in!]

Digital Trends was gracious enough to invite CrackBerry Kevin, editor-in-chief Dieter, and yours TiPb-truly to:

Smartphone Wars: iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Palm pre vs. Android - Our panel of smartphone experts from all different corners of the Web duke it out over some of the most contentious issues facing the smartphone industry today.

• Listen now (MP3 download)

Our sibling sites, WMExperts and CrackBerry.com have both, coincidentally, just put up posts that show how to make your Windows Phone or BlackBerry “slide to unlock” just exactly like the iPhone. This may be nothing new, as themes and indeed the ability to theme other platforms is almost as longstanding as it is popular in some circles. iPhone Jailbreakers can even get in on the action with WinterBoard. But here’s the thing, if you’re running a Windows Phone or a BlackBerry, why would you want it to look or behave more like an iPhone? (and yes, the same holds true if you hack your iPhone to look/act like something else).

Do you love the iPhone UI but need functionality it doesn’t offer? Are you locked to a non-iPhone carrier and can’t get the iPhone, so will make do with a skin until your contract expires? Do you just love to be able to configure your phone, your way, and change it up as the mood strikes you?

Personally, I re-install and restore stuff so often, I’ve just gotten used to leaving almost everything I can in its default look and with its default settings, so I’m curious as to how the other side rolls.

Those of you with iPhones, any desire to skin it up like a WinPho or a BBerry? Maybe a Palm Pre? (Have you already?) And to those rocking other smartphones and going for an iPhone-look, how’s it working for you?

No, we’re not talking about Bono. Sigh. We’re talking about Don Lindsay, who was, according to Apple Insider:

Design Director of the Mac OS User Experience Group, he led what was called the “Mac OS X interface concept project” and directed the design team responsible for the user experience of Mac OS X 10.0 “Cheetah” through Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther,” which included the company’s first-generation of iLife digital lifestyle applications.

From there he was hired away by Microsoft to create — wait for it! — Vista. More specifically, AERO Glass, Flip3D, and Windows Calendar. Redmond start your copiers, indeed.

So what do you get if you copy a copy? Aside from artifacts and banding galore, RIM’s new VP of user experience, it seems. There’s only one problem with this, of course, and it should be obvious to RIM or to anyone who’s seen Vista or the Star Wars prequels.

Great artists need great editors. The best kindergarten teachers know when to pull the paper away from the kids. Steve Jobs is a great editor, a great kindergarten teacher. Word is he would scrutinize the UI down to the pixel level.

Hiring the guy who was already hired away by the other guy doesn’t give you the iPhone. It gives you the Storm. And RIM already learned how that worked out. Vista on the Storm… Good luck with that.

If you’d like a better idea, instead of trying to get the guy Microsoft got from Apple, and trying to dupe the dupe that is Vista, find someone new. Find something new…

Think different!

We previously mentioned that RIM was picking up Apple’s leftovers and sponsoring U2’s next tour under the BlackBerry brand. Seems even that wasn’t enough for Bono. Not considering this quote he dumped on Canada’s Globe & Mail (via BGR):

“I’m very excited about this. Research In Motion is going to give us what Apple wouldn’t — access to their labs and their people so we can do something really spectacular.”

Memo to Bono: you are not a product engineer. While you may also have a pseudo-Britannic accent, you’re certainly not Jonathan Ive. You’re a singer; and just lucky enough to live in a time when singers make tons of money rather than getting spoiled fruit thrown at them. Let’s try putting this in a context you might better understand:

“Steve Jobs said U2 is letting him do what John Mayer never would: go into the recording studio and solo on their new album…”

And RIM, what are you thinking? Bono pretty much owns most of Palm these days, and even they won’t let him in the labs. You’re making tons of money. Leave the cheap celebrity debacles to LG…

Remember that rejected — and highly physically impossible — video a few weeks back that CrackBerry.com was preening over? The one where a BlackBerry “bullet” tore through what was obviously a fake, tranquilized, like Waterloo fabricated Apple in a bizarre attempt to make the BlackBerry Storm less… Apple pwnd?

Well, now someone has found the real video, and likely the reason RIM never launched the fake one (Oliver Stone would have found it and humiliated them, ‘natch) and we bring it to you in full embedded glory above.

APPLE SMASH? Indeed.

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Last night’s iPhone Live! was pretty darn good — so good, in fact, that it created a cross-border, pan-dimensional bug that kept us from recording the first 20 minutes properly. We recapped it a bit, but those who it hit it up live got a special treat. Rest assured, though, we have more than enough to talk about with the new Kindle iPhone App, what it means for Apple, Amazon, and when it might go international - so if you missed iPhone Live!, go ahead and check out this here podcast.

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So, RIM has made their big App Store — sorry — App World announcement and the big news from over on CrackBerry.com is that it will have regulated pricing tiers. What does that mean?

Apple, who is often (and often rightly) accused of being near-fascist in the control they exercise on the App Store still lets developers charge what they want for an App, be it free, $0.99, $2.99, $9,99 or whatever. RIM on the other hand, has created a menu of prices from which developers have to choose. Most surprisingly — and upsettingly it seems to the CrackBerry Nation — is that after free, the next cheapest tier is $2.99. Yup, no $0.99 apps for the BlackBerry, fart fueled or otherwise.

So here’s the question: is that a Good Thing? Will forcing developers to choose between free and $2.99 make them put more work into making better apps to warrant the higher price point? Will it clear out the shoddy, quicky, apps that glut up Apple’s App store? Or will it mean all $0.99 apps just go free and take the ad-supported route?

If Apple decided turn about was fair play and iCloned RIMs apparent ban on $0.99 apps, would that make the App Store better or worse? Would it make you happy, or just [redacted] you off?

CrackBerry.com is reporting that BlackBerry maker RIM has finally settled on a name for their version of the App Store: App World.

See, it’s not a place to buy applications, it’s a planetary system where apps spawn and live SIM lives, and… argh. Who knows?

RIM is expected to spin it ’round their sun some time tonight. Given that BlackBerry’s can only store applications on the tiny sliver of internal RAM left after the OS and filesystem have taken their share (estimated to be 50-100 megs as opposed to 7-15GB on the iPhone), it’s likely to be a small, small App World after all.

To be fair (not that we want to remove our tongue from our cheek any time soon), RIM has to respond to the App Store, just like Google did with Android Market, Nokia is doing with the Ovi Store and Microsoft is doing with SkyMarket, and Palm will do with the Pre. Apple has again changed the game, and if the other players can’t out-innovate, to keep up they must at least replicate.

So, anyone going trade in their iPhone Apps and run back to RIM come launch time?