Tag Archives: BLACKBERRY

Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM, asked a pertinent question in an interview last week- “Why is it that people don’t appreciate our profits?”

He has a point. The results continue to head upwards, but analyst after analyst (don’t you just hate them all) continue to forecast doom for the Canadian company that until recently could do no wrong. Yes, there are some worrying signs, but the folks at RIM are no mugs and it seems to me as if some ‘want’ RIM to struggle and are thus forcing the issue.

The default BlackBerry address book is quite basic to say the least, but there are options out there to improve things a little. Super Address Book – PRO is one such option and at under $2 seems to offer a lot for the money.

Effortless address book management and search. Xobni Pro for BlackBerry – the ultimate address book for busy professionals.
“Xobni offers a smart solution for automatically organizing all of your contacts into one place.” – Wall Street Journal, Katie Boehret (3/16/10)

Professional Contact Management
- Automatically created profiles for every person with whomyou’ve ever communicated. Complete with photos, contact info, recent emails, calls, texts, info from LinkedIn/Facebook and more.
- Ranked by importance. The people you communicate with most are at the top.
- Instant access to all your Xobni Contacts in the BlackBerry® compose screen.
- Share Xobni Contacts with a single click.
- Export Xobni Contacts to the BlackBerry address book with one click – The #1 requested feature.

RIM is pushing the PlayBook pretty hard these days with a series of features highlighted that take the bravado straight to the competition. Here are some quotes from this page-

“Web without limits: Ideal for games, media, apps and everything the real Internet offers Full Adobe® Flash® 10.1 enabled, Built-in support for HTML 5, No-compromise rendering of text, graphics and video and 1.6 Million Flash sites and climbing.”

“Amplified BlackBerry experience: Wirelessly connect to your BlackBerry® smartphone1 for real time access to: Email, calendar, address book, task list and BBM™.”

“Powerful, user-friendly QNX technology: It’s what the World Wide Web runs on. Multi-processing for true multitasking. Proven mission critical reliability.”

It is very good marketing and I kind of like the ‘web without limits’ dig because I am one of those people who is on the Adobe side when it comes to Flash. All in all, the PlayBook is shaping up to be the best of the rest in the tablet market and the only one that looks as good as the iPad on paper, if not better. The proof will be in the using though…

RIM has been rummaging around in its box of spare smartphone parts and come up with yet another smartphone that looks almost identical to the previous one. The BlackBerry Touch has been spotted by BGR and will be running OS 6.1 and using a BlackBerry ID instead of a PIN for cloud backups etc.

Wakeful for BlackBerry is the kind of solution I would like to wake me up every single day. Highly informative, highly personal and a productive start to the day. Check out the video below for a demo.

Tether just turned two! And to celebrate our second birthday we’ve decided to give away a brand new PlayBook and lots of other goodies.  We’re also discounting our software by 50% on our website and throughout the Mobihand Network.

The contest includes daily giveaways for the next 30 days, top prizes being a Blackberry Playbook and one of three chances to win your choice of Blackberry smartphone. Participants can enter our contest once per day, and entering is really pretty easy.  To see the details simply visit: http://tether.com/contest.

Following the news of malware hidden in a selection of Android apps, we now have the announcment that the Zeus Trogan is infecting some BlackBerry devices. The short answer to avoiding this appears to be not installing any software via SMS.

“A Zeus Trojan designed specifically to run on the Blackberry operating system has been detected by researchers at Trend Micro.

The malware allows remote access of infected Blackberry devices by the attacker, who can then change the SMS message default number, add a new device administrator, control blocked call lists, and even turn the device on and off.

The Trojan also removes itself from the list of installed applications to avoid scanning and detection by antivirus software.”

BlackBerry Protect is now available to download from the App World. It is of course free and potentially a useful addition.

BlackBerry® Protect is a free application designed to keep your information secure if your BlackBerry® smartphone goes missing. Download BlackBerry Protect then log into the website and you can lock, locate or wipe your smartphone from wherever you are. You can also choose to have your crucial data backed up wirelessly, and automatically, as often as you choose (daily, weekly, or monthly).

Can’t find your BlackBerry? Go to www.blackberry.com/protect to
-Locate it on a map
-Set a password and lock it to protect your information
-Wipe all the contents
-Make your BlackBerry ring loudly to help find it
-Display a message on the homescreen instructing whoever finds it on how to return it

Wireless Backup and Restore
-Wirelessly back up  contacts, calendar, memos, tasks, browser bookmarks, and text messages
-Automatically back up daily, weekly, or monthly
-Wirelessly restore your backed up data when switching to a new BlackBerry
-Save on data usage by:
-Only backing up information that has changed from the previous backup (incremental backups)
-Only backing up over WiFi
-Preventing backup while roaming

BlackBerry OS6 should not be available for Bold 9700 users (via BGR) which makes for a compelling combination. I believe that the 9700 is the best BlackBerry yet and using OS6 without a touch screen actually work better than with one. If you are on T-Mobile and have a 9700 it is time to connect to your desktop and enjoy the upgrade.