We have two more gifts from RIM’s outage gift in their Thank You category. The latest are coming from Electronics Arts with two Sims games. They both seem to be for a nice range of devices but let us know if you run into any issues. Kudos to @rr_yy for spotting them!
“Charming, whimsical and fun.” Those are the words from Todd Wood, Senior VP of Industrial Design at RIM. It is really hard to take away exactly what that means, but if it helps with the up hill battle RIM seems to be facing, then so be it. We have seen great improvements on the classic BlackBerry keyboard on the 99xx series. With the leaked specs of the QNX ‘London’ lets hope they are in the right direction.
Ronen had mentioned some of Todd’s comments the other day here and the original article is from Pocket Lint
So what do you think a ”Charming, whimsical and fun” BlackBerry will look like?
RIM has been slowly getting more into design over the last few years talking about it more and more. They even briefed the media on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 design when it was announced along with sacrificing the autofocus camera for the sleek thin design. That is what I was very interested to read this new interview of RIM Senior VP for Industrial Design Todd Wood by Pocket-Lint out in London. They sat down with Todd to talk about the latest in BlackBerry design and got some interesting new tidbits out of him.
Todd interestingly compares the RIM product line to a small menu because “I like restaurants with small menus because it shows they are good at those things. Too many choices mean they aren’t good for anything.” he continued describing the main Torch, Pearl, Curve, and Bold lines saying “Someone has to say that’s enough salt or pepper,” Wood continues with his culinary analogy, “but it’s not just about saying ‘no’.”
The most interesting part of the whole interview is that Todd says that the BlackBerry design team heads to a different location around the world to get inspiration for every device. For the latest BlackBerry 7 devices that was Bellagio, Italy. The latest design for 2012 BlackBerrys is from Malmo, Sweden which is supposed to be “Charming, Whimsical, and Fun” which are not words I would use to describe the rumored BlackBerry London leaked picture.
According to Todd “Products should wear in rather than wear out” and I have to totally agree with him on that one though it should include the OS and not just the design. I highly recommend checking out the full interview over at Pocket-Lint.
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I am not sure what to make of this latest statement by Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors Inc Hedge Fund. His fund bought a 1.43 million share stake in RIM stock last quarter so he is obviously making a big bet here. Bloomberg got him on record saying some pretty interesting things:
“People think it’s a melting ice cube,” Cooperman, whose Omega Advisors Inc. hedge fund purchased a stake in RIM last quarter, said today in an interview. “We think the new operating system is going to surprise people” and that RIM is going to meet its projections.
That is a pretty solid investor for RIM. RIM has sometimes tipped its future hand showing off devices to key customers and even investors so it could be that Cooperman knows something we don’t or has seen the new BBX devices. It could be he is even talking about the rumored BBX powered BlackBerry London we saw yesterday.
What do you think?
BTW anybody else notice that the BlackBerry London dummy screenshot seems to be sporting the iTunes music logo?
First I want to say, like all other information about the BBX/QNX BlackBerry’s that this is purely speculation. But it does look like if this is true, we could see some great hardware! The looks are too much like the Porsche P9981 for my liking. This device is suspected to have a TI-OMAP dual-core CPU running at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of on-board storage, dual camera’s 8MP rear and 2MP front facing. Codenamed London and is reportedly “thinner than the iPhone 4″ and roughly the same size as a Samsung Galaxy SII. No word on screen resolution, NFC or battery.
More will be added as it comes to the surface, and please remember this is all rumour mill and speculation at this point.
Back in August I got a chance to sit down with Mike Kirkup who was then the Senior Director of Global Developer Relations at RIM. Since then Mike has left and Alec Saunders has made a big splash as the new Vice President of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development at RIM even posting his email address publicly. This week we got a chance to sit down with him and pick his brain on a few of the issues developers want to know about the current BlackBerry Platforms, initiatives, and future goals. Read on for the details!
What is the main message that you are trying to convey to current and potential BlackBerry developers?
Alec clarified his message to developers as a three pronged approach that he sort of hit upon at DevCon.
What is your main goal or measure for success? Or simply what is your departments mission statement for developer relations?
Alec summed it all up into two words: “More Apps.” Though he did say the whole mission statement was to “Educate, support, and inspire developers to create new, better, and more apps for BlackBerry.”
So what are some of your goals to improve the experience of current and new BlackBerry developers?
There are three main areas that we are focusing on to improve the development experience for developers both new and experienced:
We also measure success based on many metrics but you can boil it down to the number of apps available and the satisfaction of developers. We then base our strategy on beta feedback, developer surveys, and other information points like the support forums. If they see an issue escalated in the forums by multiple devs they will escalate it further as a priority.
Tell us a little bit about some of the new initiatives for the developer relations team?
I am a firm believer of having “boots on the ground” and reaching directly to developer communities. For example, a few companies came to us saying that they were confused about what RIM’s future BBX plans were for peripherals (think stuff like card swipers, printers, etc). We ended up organizing a whole Meetup in Waterloo where these companies interfaced directly with the teams developing the peripherals, BBX strategy and groundwork.
On top of that the Developer Relations team is a growing team around the world. We have people in many growing markets which is an area of large growth for RIM. They are also reaching out to developers in the support forums and Twitter @BlackBerryDev where developers can reach out directly to RIM’s team. You can even simply email Alec directly and he will try to delegate it.
What is your team doing in terms of recruiting new developers for BBX (HTML5, WebWorks, Flash, Native, Android) and the current BlackBerry ecosystem (Java, WebWorks)?
With BBX and even WebWorks we are reaching out to communities of developers to help them bring their expertise and catalog of apps to the BBX platform or WebWorks on both platforms. For example, we did this with game engines on the PlayBook along with web developer communities like Sencha and jQuery. We are also working on different opensource tools for the BBX platform which we have posted on our GitHub repositories to help native BBX developers. This goal is to help attract communities to the platform by making it enticing.
What about differentiating factors of the BBX and PlayBook platform? For example, currently it is not possible to create what RIM calls a “Super App” for the BlackBerry PlayBook. When is that functionality coming?
This is something that is definitely in the works. We have these “Super App” APIs in the works now for everything from notifications to deep system integration. Definitely more on this in the future as we keep on improving the PlayBook 2.0 OS with some of the features possibly being exposed to developers to test in beta.
What about more powerful integration into the core OS such as developers building their own Bluetooth, Bridge, NFC, USB, or other integrations into the hardware?
This is also coming. As long as it does not compromise the security and reliability of the OS then we are working on it. It might include some sort of extra certifications for Bluetooth stacks or drivers.
Does BBX allow RIM to be more agile in dealing with the development environment and updates? Until now RIM has worked in a 2 year cycle where they release a product and then they get feedback during the lifecycle throughout the release and then a year later provide the improvement. Is BBX going to finally change this?
BBX definitely allows us to be more agile. For example, with BBX the carrier only certifies the radio stack allowing RIM to update the rest of the OS without needing carrier certification every time. I (Alec) personally love working with developers and I plan on making it a much more effective feedback loop. Talking directly to developers and then taking that feedback back to the appropriate teams at RIM to take action. This will allow us to do continuous improvements to developer API’s and functionality instead of simply trying to ship the whole kitchen sink.
What about App World? How does that fit into the developer relations sphere?
App World is an integral story of the BlackBerry experience. Downloads are growing like crazy with 90 million in August to 140 million in October. They also noticed that 200 BBM connected apps account for 10% of downloads which just shows how much of a differentiator the BBM Social Platform SDK is.
What about for BBX? Will App World remain the only place to find apps for BBX just like the PlayBook? Is there a reason RIM is deviating from the current BlackBerry model to a more Apple-like walled garden of app markets?
The PlayBook and BBX app store experience is an “unapologetically curated experience. “ RIM is maintaining this control for a few reasons including the fact that we have found customers prefer to go to one place for apps. This also gives RIM the ability to exclude malicious apps and have editorial control so we don’t have an abundance of irrelevant or unnecessary apps.
This is important for devs too because it increases discoverability. I used to work at a startup and the hardest part was dealing with payments and transactions especially with carriers wanting a large portion of deals. App World handles all of that and offers 16 countries with carrier billing. This is critical in developing markets and places where users do not have credit cards, a key growth market for RIM.
What about the current limitations of App World such as a lack of discount codes, coupons, beta testing ability, slow approval times and release times, small pictures, no video trailers, and gift cards?
Stay tuned! Many of those are coming! I cannot speak directly to that but the App World team is working hard on adding those features after a successful App World 3.0 release.
What about HTML5 and WebWorks? Now that Adobe has killed their mobile Flash development to focus on HTML5 does that play well into RIM’s strategy.
HTML5 and WebWorks allows us to recruit new devs that weren’t previously mobile to easily make their applications mobile. It is also a key piece for devs to create enterprise apps that use HTML5 for easier deployment. RIM is following the standards and continues to expand on them. Our Torch team is blazing the trail by adhering to the latest standards and implementing things like WebGL.
What about PlayBook functions and BBX functions and API’s beyond the standards? Say for example the desktop notification API in HTML5?
The Torch team is planning on staying pretty close to the standards but exposing capabilities of the BBX platform. I cannot speak directly to the notifications API but we plan on exposing the BBX APIs to WebWorks developers and changing them to HTML5 standards if it expands to cover it. This is a way for developers to move away from proprietary and the current push by other ecosystems to native development.
Well it was a pleasure to speak to you Alec. We wish you, your team, and RIM the best of luck!
If you have any more questions you want us to ask Alec let us know in the comments!
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I have been having a field day reading all of the articles readers have sent in today about Adobe getting out of the mobile browser Flash game. Read some of the titles and you will see what I mean:
All of these bloggers are harping on the fact that RIM immediately reassured Flash developers who have spent time developing for QNX and the PlayBook that they would not be left in the cold. Andry Gryc from QNX nicely points out that these bloggers seem to have missed what Adobe and RIM actually said. Adobe essentially said that it will be no longer developing Flash plugins for mobile devices for use in their browsers including Android and the PlayBook while still pushing Adobe AIR as a way to package mobile apps. What RIM responded is that they are not going to suddenly dump all of their Flash developers in the cold.
This essentially means that Flash on mobile will continue to be useful since Adobe admits that they are going to continue pushing it for desktops. That means if you want to browse on your tablet just like you do on your desktop you will need some sort of Flash. HTML5 is a strong promise and RIM CLEARLY states that:
We are excited to see Adobe focusing their efforts on HTML5, and on bringing their world class development and design expertise to HTML5 and mobile. As many of you noted, at BlackBerry DevCon Americas this year we strongly emphasized HTML5 development, and all of our platforms include best-in-breed HTML5 browsing capability, based on the WebKit engine. We believe that HTML5 is the future of mobile, and are delighted to be aligned with Adobe on this.
RIM has invested a ton of effort in HTML5 and it is a key building block of BBX. RIM is just saying that Flash will continue to be supported in its current form. All of the future improvements Adobe has planned for Flash in v12 are not intended for mobile devices. On top of that there is the Adobe AIR side of Flash that Adobe clearly says they are going to continue driving:
Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook. We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations. We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations.
So are these bloggers just taking a cheap shot at RIM for essentially supporting developers and saying the same thing as Adobe? Let us know what you think in the comments!
lol, and if RIM dumped flash, they’d be ALL over that as well!
I’m happy with RIMs decision.
It is not like RIM is really going out of their way to continue to support flash. All of the work of putting flash onto the browser is already done. Continuing to support bug fixes and security updates is just common sense, and takes very minimal effort.
You can criticize RIM’s actions a year ago for making a big deal out of supporting a feature that honestly no one cares about. But at this point why should RIM remove a feature from its browser without any good reason to do so? If having flash support really annoys you that much, you can just disable it.
Yeh its insane… The biggest complain with iPad is flash.. here RIM promises to keep flash on the PlayBook which works great.. all the blogs are hammering RIM. Wow.
they’ll never do anything right in the eyes of the media
Amen… I’m sick and tired of the damned RIM bashing… The iLemmings are annoying… Just wait and see what they say when OS 2 finally arrives and the Colt is finally released… Its going to be the best phone on the market and all you’ll hear is “Day late? Dollar short?” Comments all over the place… QNX is going to be the biggest power player around… These morons just don’t know it yet
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You have to love analysts! The latest spotted by AllThingsD is Jeff Kvall of Barclays Capital. He just downgraded RIM’s stock from $40 to $23 because RIM’s products including QNX phones are seeing continued delays. They have him quoted:
“We believe QNX smartphones are delayed beyond management’s last public statements of a 1Q12 release,” says Kvaal. “RIM’s preference to hold the launch until fully ready is the correct decision in our view, though it does imply that management is anticipating delays in the launch. The company has recently shied away from any reaffirmation of the timeline and have had several public forums to do so. … Putting this aside, our math on carrier certification timelines which require at least six months in the US suggests a late 1Q12 launch at best. … However, we believe technical challenges are high as we have seen with the delay of Playbook 2.0, and we therefore consider a mid-year launch more likely and our checks across the distribution channel support this view.”
I have heard a similar rumor that since RIM turned the Colt into a dev only device they are working on a Q2 2012 launch for QNX BBX phones with all of the features carriers want. The thing is even Kvaal admits that its the right decision for RIM to wait until the device is fully ready. RIM was even giving the same Q2 2012 on the side at DevCon though I don’t remember it being said officially.
The PlayBook is set to get its OS update before BBX but I know I am waiting for the BBX phones! Hopefully RIM manages to spin on a dime and bring it back into Q1 2012. I want a BBX phone in my hands before BlackBerry World!
Really? RIM has missed every target for that last 2 year! Have you tried 2.0 for the playbook? There some weird F@#$ stuff going on with 2.0, and I really don’t see how the they are going to get anything done, now with Xmas almost hear!
My buddy Josep pointed out to me that RIM has posted up a nice microsite that shows all of their upcoming developer events. These are events hosted by RIM or ones where RIM will have a presence which is nice. All in all a good resource to find where you can meet up with RIM and pick their brains including Hackathons and other events.
The OS7 officials keep on coming. The latest comes to us from U.S. Cellular which has released OS7.0.0.464 for the Torch 9850. You can download it directly from the BlackBerry Software page for U.S. Cellular.
Another ninja release by Wind as they release 7.0.0.474. No reports of any change yet but anyone eager to install a new OS on their 9900, can find the link here Wind BlackBerry Software.
Its been awhile since RIM made a point of mentioning when it was recognized for being essential in emergency or critical situations. They are back at it with the International Medical Corps recognizing BlackBerry and RIM during its 2011 Annual Awards Celebration in Los Angeles next week. They are awarding BlackBerry for its critical role in assisting disaster relief efforts around the world including the earthquake in Haiti and the tsunami in Japan along with other disasters. Here are some of the quotes from the the IMC included in the announcement:
"We are recognizing Research In Motion with the Global Impact Award for the role of BlackBerry smartphones in our operations on the front lines," said Nancy A. Aossey, International Medical Corps President and CEO. "I can tell you that our use of BlackBerry smartphones literally saves lives."
As a first-responder following the earthquake in Haiti, International Medical Corps was on the ground within 22 hours treating patients and coordinating medical personnel, supplies and providing other relief.
"You just don’t know what kind of a setting you’re going to arrive in," said Dr. Neil Joyce, who has worked with International Medical Corps in Angola, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, among many others, and helped lead its Emergency Response Team in Haiti. "As we arrived in Port-au-Prince, the cell phones were not working, but I was able to send messages with my BlackBerry smartphone."
As part of the disaster relief efforts following the earthquake in Haiti and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Dr. Joyce arrived with a BlackBerry device in hand. He used it to coordinate the setup of mobile medical centers, organize physicians, communicate with the central hospital, and direct material and equipment to where it was needed. On several occasions in Haiti, the team used their BlackBerry smartphones to coordinate with pilots flying in relief supplies, and help direct them to functioning airstrips.
"In doing humanitarian aid, we need to make contact with relevant people who can help, like DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team), the military, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and other agencies, as well as the media," said Dr. Joyce. "BlackBerry puts you in contact with the people on the ground and the people on the outside who can help. We really could not have done aid work in the modern setting without a BlackBerry smartphone. It made a huge difference."
Margaret Aguirre, Director of Global Communications, was on International Medical Corps’ first Emergency Response Team that arrived in Haiti hours after the earthquake, also with a BlackBerry smartphone in hand.
"It is not only the device of choice, but the device of need," said Aguirre. "Doctors and nurses treating patients amid rubble and under trees were able to communicate with each other about patients needing immediate surgery and to coordinate the urgent transport of blood supplies. BlackBerry helps us communicate to get the materials to where they’re needed and to find out where things are in the moment of an emergency."
In Haiti, Aguirre used her BlackBerry handset to take photos and send updates to headquarters, as well as post images and information to Facebook and Twitter.
"Being able to upload pictures to social media was really important," she said. "Our social media posts in the early days enabled military personnel to know the needs of various humanitarian groups on the ground and where to direct assets."
Aguirre says, "It’s my personal lifeline, not just to be able to protect myself but to know I can get help right away if I need it. I can communicate with my family and let them know I’m alright. I did that after the second earthquake hit Haiti to let them know I was ok."
As a first-responder following the earthquake in Haiti, International Medical Corps was on the ground within 22 hours treating patients and coordinating medical personnel, supplies and providing other relief.
"You just don’t know what kind of a setting you’re going to arrive in," said Dr. Neil Joyce, who has worked with International Medical Corps in Angola, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, among many others, and helped lead its Emergency Response Team in Haiti. "As we arrived in Port-au-Prince, the cell phones were not working, but I was able to send messages with my BlackBerry smartphone."
As part of the disaster relief efforts following the earthquake in Haiti and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Dr. Joyce arrived with a BlackBerry device in hand. He used it to coordinate the setup of mobile medical centers, organize physicians, communicate with the central hospital, and direct material and equipment to where it was needed. On several occasions in Haiti, the team used their BlackBerry smartphones to coordinate with pilots flying in relief supplies, and help direct them to functioning airstrips.
"In doing humanitarian aid, we need to make contact with relevant people who can help, like DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team), the military, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and other agencies, as well as the media," said Dr. Joyce. "BlackBerry puts you in contact with the people on the ground and the people on the outside who can help. We really could not have done aid work in the modern setting without a BlackBerry smartphone. It made a huge difference."
Margaret Aguirre, Director of Global Communications, was on International Medical Corps’ first Emergency Response Team that arrived in Haiti hours after the earthquake, also with a BlackBerry smartphone in hand.
"It is not only the device of choice, but the device of need," said Aguirre. "Doctors and nurses treating patients amid rubble and under trees were able to communicate with each other about patients needing immediate surgery and to coordinate the urgent transport of blood supplies. BlackBerry helps us communicate to get the materials to where they’re needed and to find out where things are in the moment of an emergency."
In Haiti, Aguirre used her BlackBerry handset to take photos and send updates to headquarters, as well as post images and information to Facebook and Twitter.
"Being able to upload pictures to social media was really important," she said. "Our social media posts in the early days enabled military personnel to know the needs of various humanitarian groups on the ground and where to direct assets."
Aguirre says, "It’s my personal lifeline, not just to be able to protect myself but to know I can get help right away if I need it. I can communicate with my family and let them know I’m alright. I did that after the second earthquake hit Haiti to let them know I was ok."
RIM sent us an official video of the new Porsche Design P’9981 by BlackBerry that we have been telling you about today. It is not a hands on video or anything but it does the classic RIM sliding image thing. Its nice and short to the point if you want to check it out. If you want something more hands on check out a hands on video done by TBreak below the official video.
Until now all we have been hearing about the Porsche Design P’9981 has been coming second hand. Now we have an official press release from RIM about the Porsche Design Smartphone P’9981 from BlackBerry and the details are in along with tons of pictures. RIM has also confirmed the Knight codename in the names of the images on the sites below. You can check them out below or simply see the whole deal over at the two local sites RIM setup for the device:
Introducing the Porsche Design P’9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry
Engineered Luxury Meets High-Powered Performance
STUTTGART, GERMANY and WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Oct. 27, 2011) – Editors Note: There are three photos accompanying this press release. Today, Porsche Design and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) announced the elite new Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry(R). Designed by Porsche Design, in collaboration with RIM, the luxury brand’s first smartphone delivers engineered luxury and performance.
The Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry is instantly identifiable as a Porsche Design product. The exclusive material choices for this unique smartphone include a forged stainless steel frame, hand-wrapped leather back cover, sculpted QWERTY keyboard, and crystal clear touch display. This customized Porsche Design P’9981 comes with an exclusive Porsche Design UI and a bespoke Wikitude World Browser augmented reality app experience. It also includes premium, exclusive PINs that help easily identify another P’9981 smartphone user.
"Since 1972 Porsche Design has presented milestone products with iconic style, and the P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry will be our next landmark," said Dr. Juergen Gessler, CEO Porsche Design Group. "The pure and distinctive design, coupled with authentic materials and an emphasis on the manufacturing process, perfectly match our philosophy and complement the Porsche Design product assortment."
"This collaboration stems from a shared belief that form equals function," said Todd Wood, SVP for Industrial Design, Research In Motion. "The Porsche Design P’9981 is a truly modern luxury smartphone, where the timeless style of Porsche Design meets the unmatched mobile experience provided by BlackBerry."
Powerful hardware and software
The Porsche Design P’9981 is built on a performance driven platform that features a 1.2 GHz processor, HD video recording, 24-bit high resolution graphics, and advanced sensors enabling new augmented reality applications. It comes with 8GB of on-board memory, expandable up to 40GB with a micro SD card.
BlackBerry(R) 7, the operating system for the new Porsche Design P’9981, includes a next generation BlackBerry(R) browser with a fast, fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry. It also features Liquid Graphics(TM) technology, which delivers a highly responsive touch experience with incredibly fast and smooth graphics.
The Porsche Design P’9981 includes built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), which will enable many new and exciting capabilities.
The Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry will be available from Porsche Design stores later this year.
About Porsche Design Porsche Design is a luxury brand with a special focus on products that are technically inspired. The brand Porsche Design was founded in 1972 by Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. The products are the embodiment of functionality, timelessness and purist design. They impress by the technical innovations they incorporate. The product portfolio includes watches, sunglasses, luggage, electronic products, a line of fragrances for men as well as a sport and fashion collection. All products of the brand are designed at the Porsche Design Studio in Zell am See, Austria, and are sold worldwide in the brand’s own stores, in franchise stores, shop-in-shops, quality department stores and exclusive retailers. About Research In Motion Research In Motion (RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry(R) solution in 1999. Today, BlackBerry products and services are used by millions of customers around the world to stay connected to the people and content that matter most throughout their day. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. RIM is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ:RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:RIM).
Well that Porsche Design BlackBerry finally has a name. It looks like RIM is calling it the BlackBerry Porsche P’9981. It is similar to the BlackBerry Bold 9900 but is built with stainless steel keypad and front and a leather back. They also get a unique PIN number starting with 2AA along with a custom Porsche font and redesigned icons. We have not spotted anything official on RIM’s website yet but CNews Russia and BB.in managed to score some details and pictures.
Supposedly the Porsche Design P’9981 will be available at Porsche Design Stores before the end of the year. Are you going to pick one up? Anybody want to guess how much one of these will set you back?
The device was announced at a special event in Dubai and @ajafarali snagged two shots:
We have been hearing about RIM’s collaboration with Microsoft for a RIM hosted cloud BES since BlackBerry World. That product is finally starting to come together in the form of BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365. It is a RIM hosted BlackBerry Management Service for Microsoft Office 365 hosted Exchange. RIM is saying that a number of Fortune 500 customers and several government agencies have been testing the system out for a bit now and it is now ready for public beta. The best part is that BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is available for no extra charge to Microsoft Office 365 Midsized Businesses and Enterprise Plan subscribers and works on both BES and BIS BlackBerry data plans.
Update: It looks like RIM has gotten around to releasing the updates to Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger bringing them to v2.5.108.
RIM usually updates their native IM clients in one batch so this is a bit odd. Josh pointed out to us that Windows Live Messenger for BlackBerry has been updated to v2.5.108 through App World. The thing is that Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger seem to still be sitting pretty at v2.5.85. My guess is that maybe RIM rolled out the Windows Live Messenger update early or the others are stuck in App World cache limbo… Or it could be simply that RIM is breaking tradition and just updating Windows Live Messenger by itself.
Either way you can download Windows Live Messenger at the link below:
If the other also get updated they should be here:
RIM usually updates their native IM clients in one batch so this is a bit odd. Josh pointed out to us that Windows Live Messenger for BlackBerry has been updated to v2.5.108 through App World. The thing is that Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger seem to still be sitting pretty at v2.5.85. My guess is that maybe RIM rolled out the Windows Live Messenger update early or the others are stuck in App World cache limbo… Or it could be simply that RIM is breaking tradition and just updating Windows Live Messenger by itself.
Either way you can download Windows Live Messenger at the link below:
If the other also get updated they should be here:
We told you before about the BBM Generation Protégé challenge that RIM was sponsoring to connect youth with celebrity influencers. Well the results are in for the first challenge that the celebrity influencers put out and I the responses are pretty cool. The results for the first challenge in the six categories come in both text and video form and you can find them on the BBM Challenge homepage by click on the celeb influencer and then selecting to view their protégés. Let us know what your favorites are! Voting starts in a little over 6 days so stay tuned…
Tyler Lessard left RIM not to long ago and it looks like he has jumped ship to the other side of the platform game. Tyler was formerly the VP of BlackBerry Global Alliances and Developer Relations at RIM. Now he is on the development side working at Fixmo as their Chief Marketing Officer. Fixmo makes a handful of BlackBerry apps but their bread and butter is Fixmo Sentinel which is a cross platform management system for mobile devices.
Its nice to see that Tyler will be sticking around in the mobile ecosystem. Kudos to the Fixmo team and the best of luck to Tyler.
