All Articles Tagged crackberry

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?

Our public frenemy number 1, CrackBerry Kevin, tipped us to RIM revealing details of their latest “innovation”, the BlackBerry App Store (and no, we’re not jaded that the company that once said touchscreens were a non-starter is now high-five’ing themselves silly over winning the self-awarded “breakthrough” prize for the Storm’s SurePress at Mobile World Congress — iSigh).

Them new CrackBerry App Store details? (And no, we’re not going to call it the CrApp Store, thanks you very much!) No themes allowed, which are apparently quite popular (not that we non-Jailbroken iPhone owners have any idea what they are, right Apple?). WebApps will be showcased alongside native apps, which is interesting given how WebApps on the iPhone have languished in terms of the Apple spotlight since the iPhone App Store launched.

Unlike Apple’s free SDK or $99 registered SDK with tethering, RIM will charge devs $200 per 10 apps submitted to the store. How the effects free apps (or rejected/re-submitted apps?) is unknown. Like the iPhone App Store, support will be the responsibility of the developer, which some hope will encourage more stable code (and not just less supportive developers).

Also important to remember in all this, however, is that while an iPhone can hold up to almost 16GB of Apps, BlackBerry’s are severely limited — only onboard app storage can be used, after the OS takes its share. We’re talking a 30-100MB at most (and single iPhone Apps can be bigger than that).

So what do we think? Dieter wanted Apple to copy-back the Ovi Store’s recommendation engine. Anything Apple should copy-back from RIM? WebApp category?

With our editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn off in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, the inmates site editors are left running Around SPE this week. So, while he’ll be breaking news and giving us some hands-on observations on all the new software and hardware on display, we’ll be keeping you covered here at home, starting with a quick recap of where we are right now:

CrackBerry.com

In the world of BlackBerry, T-Mobile customers were happy to see the official roll out of the next-generation BlackBerry Curve 8900 this week. With AT&T said to be dropping support for 2G phones, there has been some worry that this new Curve wouldn’t come to AT&T, but with the 8900 SKU now showing up on AT&T systems, it’s likely the device will launch there in the next month.

The BIG new this week comes from the CrackBerry Podcast. Kevin was in NYC on for a RIM Business Solutions Press Preview. While there, him and Craig recorded a podcast and for the first time had an employee from Research in Motion on the show. Joined by Mike Kirkup, Manager of Developer Relations, they tackle a bunch of topics from the upcoming App Store to OS 5.0 and whether or not Flash support will appear in a BlackBerry browser and more! Listen Here.

More after the break!

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