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- Free AP Mobile World Adds Speed Improvements & BBM Integration
- Rumor: BBM for Android Caught on Camera Again…
- RIM Had Highest Retention Rate (69.9%) During July in the UK
- RIM Confirms Pink Telus BlackBerry Curve 9360 – Available Now
- T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 Getting UMA Wi-Fi Calling in November
- Russian Hackers Discover The Obvious – Weak BlackBerry Passwords Can Be Brute Forced
- RIM Remembers to Announce SharePoint Client for Enterprise Users
- Staples US Now Offering BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB for $299 Without Rebates
- BBM Generation Young Influencers Talk Out on YouTube
- Free TOMPlayer Beta is a Simply Playlist Media App Ideal for AudioBooks
- Rumor: T-Mobile BlackBerry Torch 9810 Coming November 9th?
| Free AP Mobile World Adds Speed Improvements & BBM Integration Posted: 05 Oct 2011 12:52 AM PDT
Shane let me know that AP News has updated their AP Mobile World app to v3.4.4 this week with some nice new updates. The new version brings BBM integration with the ability to share your stories via BBM or post them in your BBM profile box. On top of that they also brought welcome yet unspecified "speed and performance improvements." In the reviews on App World you can see the new version is causing some issues for certain users but if you are willing to take the plunge… You can pick up AP Mobile World free in App World If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 5, 2011, 3:52 am. | Free AP Mobile World Adds Speed Improvements & BBM Integration | Leave a comment |
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| Rumor: BBM for Android Caught on Camera Again… Posted: 04 Oct 2011 06:52 PM PDT
The saga continues with yet another set of pictures showing BBM running on Android. The last set were quite grainy and looked suspicious since they used a screenshot that RIM had posted previously. Now we have yet another set coming from TechnoBuffalo coming from a tipster who claims to work at RIM. Here is what he had to say as commentary about the current and previous images:
The tipster also said that the previous screenshots that were suspicous due to using a default screen were because "the Nicole account in the previous photos is the default account for BBM Testing." The tipster also said that an iOS variant is under consideration and this BBM for Android might be coming as early as DevCon this month. This is definitely still in totally unconfirmed rumor land for now but hey it is fun to speculate. I am undecided on if BBM on Android would help or hurt RIM's brand but they definitely would immediately become the largest cross platform mobile IM service. That could give them some serious pull on other platforms. On the other hand it might be a segway for users to leave their BlackBerrys. On the other hand RIM's former Director of Developer Relations, Mike Kirkup, clearly told us along with quite a few others that BBM for other platforms was not on the roadmap at BlackBerry World. Maybe things have changed since May? PS: Anybody else finding the stuck on buttons on the Android device a bit odd? Something just seems fishy here. Why wouldn't RIM be testing on an actually available Android device. If you know your Android phones let us know what you think the device looks like in the comments! If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 9:52 pm. | Rumor: BBM for Android Caught on Camera Again… | 2 comments |
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| RIM Had Highest Retention Rate (69.9%) During July in the UK Posted: 04 Oct 2011 02:24 PM PDT
With all the doom and gloom analysts have been predicting for RIM its always nice to see the numbers adding up to a different story. ComScore just posted up a study they did on retention in the UK during July of this year. They found that RIM BlackBerry users had the highest retention rate of 69.9% when compared to others. That means that almost 70% of BlackBerry users remained loyal to BlackBerry. That is in comparison with Apple's 65.5% and HTC with 48.1%. The crazy part about this study is that it was done in a three month average ending in July which means this was before the launch of the latest BlackBerry 7 devices. I sort of want to see the stats for the current 3 month average… Thanks to everyone that sent this in! If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 5:24 pm. | RIM Had Highest Retention Rate (69.9%) During July in the UK | 4 comments |
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| RIM Confirms Pink Telus BlackBerry Curve 9360 – Available Now Posted: 04 Oct 2011 12:42 PM PDT
RIM let us know that Telus is launching a BlackBerry Curve 9360 in pink and it seems to be confirmed on the TELUS Website. Previous rumors had it launching this month for Breast Cancer Awareness month. According to RIM the Pink 9360 will be selling for $49.99 with a 3 year contract and $25 (maximum of $250,000) will be donated to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation for each device sold. Select pink accessories for the phone will also donate $5 to the Foundation. For more info on the Telus Go Pink campaign and the pink 9360 check out www.telusmobility.com/gopink If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 3:42 pm. | RIM Confirms Pink Telus BlackBerry Curve 9360 – Available Now | Leave a comment |
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| T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 Getting UMA Wi-Fi Calling in November Posted: 04 Oct 2011 09:38 AM PDT
One of the annoying parts for T-Mobile customers who picked up the sweet BlackBerry Bold 9900 was the lack of UMA Wi-Fi calling. It led to a few thinking that T-Mobile was discontinuing the service. According to T-Mobile (confirmed by CIO.com) that is not the case. T-Mobile plans on putting out a maintenance release for the Bold 9900 in November 2011 to enable Wi-Fi Calling functionality. Here is what T-Mobile's rep had to say:
Anybody else waiting for the update? If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 12:38 pm. | T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 Getting UMA Wi-Fi Calling in November | Leave a comment |
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| Russian Hackers Discover The Obvious – Weak BlackBerry Passwords Can Be Brute Forced Posted: 04 Oct 2011 08:40 AM PDT I remember when I was a kid I discovered that those amazing Master Locks could be "Hacked" if you had enough time on your hands to guess passwords. A Russian firm Elcomsoft has made a business model out of doing just that. They perform attacks called "Brute Force Attacks" which essentially means guessing every possible password and just announced that encrypted BlackBerry Media Cards are susceptible to such an attack. I am surprised they did not "discover" this ages ago since it is pretty rudimentary and the most unsophisticated form of "hacking" but they have made it much simpler to perform which is very useful. On the other hand its not really a "run for the hills the sky is falling" issue. The difference is between "Cracking" encryption and simply brute forcing a weak password. Here is why… Elcomsoft announced (via CIO.com) that their new software can break and recover the password of a BlackBerry through its encrypted memory card. They claim their brute force attacks are achieving 1.8 million passwords per second in wordlist mode, and about 5.9 million passwords per second in bruteforce mode. The way this works is because they are targeting one file info.mkf on the BlackBerry memory card file system which they can replicate exponentially and then try to crack it by guessing passwords over and over. Since it is not attached to BlackBerry hardware and can easily be replicated then eventually you will succeed in brute forcing it. The only limitation is how easy it is to replicate the keyfile.
The thing is this has been a known factor for years in cryptography with practically any password based encryption on a replicate-able file. Especially considering the fact that passwords on mobile phones are usually only 4-6 characters. ElcomSoft learned that the lowest possible encryption option for BlackBerry smartphones "device password" is guessable. If you look at a password brute forcing chart like LockDown.co.uk and examine their class D (10 million password guesses per second) you will see how it breaks down. A password with mixed lower case, upper case, and numbers (62 possible characters) should take about a second or two to crack a 4 character password since there are only 15 million possible combinations. A 5 character password with 916 million combinations would take a minute and a half. A 6 character password would take an hour and a half. All the way up to an 8 character password which would take 253 days… So in other words if you can keep trying different keys in the lock you will eventually succeed especially with passwords with less than 8 characters. The thing is for years RIM has provided multiple solutions that alleviate this problem significantly for corporations or users who are that paranoid and are willing to sacrifice usability. Users have the option to encrypt their memory card with either the "Device Password" which is brute force-able or what RIM calls the "Device Key" which would encrypt the data with a cryptographic key that is built into the device. The problem is then that if the device no longer works then the data is as good as gone… It also makes things like USB Mass Storage mode more complicated. In other words there are options with better security that better stand up against brute force attacks but every defense only protected with a password and no other controls will eventually fail to a brute force attack. RIM offers solutions for government use like two factor authentication with a bluetooth smartcard or simply using the device key to encrypt the media card but what I have seen most paranoid companies do is simply disable backups and mass storage mode and encrypt the media card with both the device key and password. Alternatively you could try using a stronger password that will stand up to brute force attacks better. For example, a annoying password like B33r&Mug would take Elcomsofts solution about 23 years to crack using the Class D hardware they were recommending though a supercomputer could do it in 83.5 days. At the end of the day the question is how secure is enough? My friend used to say that the ultimate encryption was to write the information on a piece of paper and burn it and then soak the ashes in bleach… VERY secure but totally impractical. The goal is to find the balance that fits your needs. Hopefully RIM also works on finding a way to beef up their on device encryption options to be harder to brute force with a few tricks. On the other hand additional encryption protection usually leads to slower performance… PS: If you are interested in this sort of stuff read up on "password entropy" or "Brute Force Search" If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 11:40 am. | Russian Hackers Discover The Obvious – Weak BlackBerry Passwords Can Be Brute Forced | 2 comments |
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| RIM Remembers to Announce SharePoint Client for Enterprise Users Posted: 04 Oct 2011 08:06 AM PDT We told you on August 17th that RIM was selling their SharePoint client for BlackBerry that ties into BES for enterprise users. Now a few weeks later RIM remembers that they launched the client and has finally gotten around to announcing it officially. They hope to tap the 100 million licensed SharePoint users around the world with the product though I really wish it was a free client and did not require a company to tie it into their BES. Here is how RIM describes it:
Features include:
Still now that it is official you can read more about it on their blog or on their SharePoint for BlackBerry landing page. RIM Mobilizes Microsoft SharePoint on BlackBerry WATERLOO, ONTARIO, Oct 03, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX News Network) — Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM)(TSX: RIM) announced today the BlackBerry(R) Client for Microsoft SharePoint, delivering the most advanced mobile SharePoint solution on the market. The BlackBerry Client app provides a deeply integrated and intuitive mobile experience for users together with the market-leading manageability and security of BlackBerry(R) Enterprise Server, providing a secure and cost-effective solution for businesses and government organizations. "Our enterprise and government customers asked us to bring a highly refined mobile experience to SharePoint and we are delivering that today with the BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint," said Alan Panezic, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management and Marketing at Research In Motion. Connectivity between BlackBerry(R) smartphones and SharePoint servers is made possible with the market-leading BlackBerry(R) Enterprise Server software. The complete solution features: -- Client app integration with core BlackBerry features and functions such as email, calendar, browser, and Universal Search providing an intuitive user experience-- Check-out, check-in, and versioning of files reflected on the SharePoint server-- Microsoft Office document editing using Documents To Go(R) (pre- installed on BlackBerry smartphones) to download, create, revise and upload documents-- Access to Blogs, Wikis and Lists and the ability to update from a BlackBerry smartphone-- Content searches across multiple SharePoint sites from a BlackBerry smartphone In addition to user benefits, the complete solution also comes with many benefits for organizations and their IT departments. Application management and over-the-air provisioning of the Client app is made easy for IT departments with BlackBerry(R) Enterprise Server. The DataSmart(TM) efficiency of the BlackBerry solution transmits more data with less monthly data plan usage, allowing organizations to consider smaller or more budget-friendly plans. And CIOs will welcome the fact that confidential company information is being transmitted securely over the wireless network between BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry smartphones. "In a world of continuous connectivity, businesses and governments require products, services and information faster and more reliably than ever before," said Victor Garcia, Chief Technology Officer at HP Canada. "The BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint helps to address the needs of today’s mobile workforce with new tools and mobile applications to enable collaboration and productivity." A number of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies plan to roll out the BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint in the coming weeks. The BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint is available today in over six languages and more than 25 countries. For more information, visit www.blackberry.com/sharepoint. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 11:06 am. | RIM Remembers to Announce SharePoint Client for Enterprise Users | Leave a comment |
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| Staples US Now Offering BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB for $299 Without Rebates Posted: 04 Oct 2011 07:51 AM PDT
Late last month Staples started carrying the BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB model for $299 after mail in rebates. Now following the lead of Best Buy, Staples US is offering the BlackBerry PlayBook for $299 sans any sort of rebate since the discount is now "Instant." The 32GB PlayBook model and 64GB PlayBook model are also now selling without rebates for $399 and $499 respectively. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 10:51 am. | Staples US Now Offering BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB for $299 Without Rebates | 4 comments |
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| BBM Generation Young Influencers Talk Out on YouTube Posted: 04 Oct 2011 07:01 AM PDT
We told you yesterday about RIM's new BBM Generation initiative for youth and twenty somethings. RIM has a contest going where you can compete to be the protégé for one of six up and coming youth influencers which they call "Movers and shakers." They now posted up YouTube videos from each of the influencers talking about what they think about the BBM Generation. Check them out below: Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video LinkDesktop Video Link | Mobile Video LinkDesktop Video Link | Mobile Video LinkDesktop Video Link | Mobile Video LinkDesktop Video Link | Mobile Video LinkDesktop Video Link | Mobile Video LinkIf you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 10:01 am. | BBM Generation Young Influencers Talk Out on YouTube | Leave a comment |
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| Free TOMPlayer Beta is a Simply Playlist Media App Ideal for AudioBooks Posted: 04 Oct 2011 05:35 AM PDT
Matthias from EmacBerry let us know about his latest project called TOMPlayer (TheOtherMediaPlayer). Matthias started using his BlackBerry as his main MP3 player and ran into a few shortcomings that really annoyed him. Instead of giving up he created TOMPlayer to better manage his playlists. For example, he did not like that the native player did not manage large playlists well or remember where you were in the playlist or even where you were in the current track you were listening to. This is especially important for AudioBooks. That is where TOMPlayer comes in. TOMPlayer always stores the last active playlist, the last active track and even the position in the track. This is handy for longer playlists that you don't complete regularly especially since TOMPlayer even remembers the last shuffle of your playlist. Currently TOMPlayer is in functional beta and works just fine but does not have a sexy GUI yet and just the basic functionality. It also cannot create new playlists but you can use Matthias's FileScout app for that or a desktop app. Check out TOMPlayer for yourself on EmacBerry and don't forget to give Matthias feedback here or a donation if you like TOMPlayer. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 8:35 am. | Free TOMPlayer Beta is a Simply Playlist Media App Ideal for AudioBooks | One comment |
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| Rumor: T-Mobile BlackBerry Torch 9810 Coming November 9th? Posted: 04 Oct 2011 04:38 AM PDT
I thought that the BlackBerry Torch 9810 was an exclusive for AT&T but it looks like that exclusivity has a time limit unlike the original Torch. TmoNews scored a supposed leaked roadmap for T-Mobile showing a RIM BlackBerry "Dumoine" coming on November 11th. Sadly they don't have an HSPA+ PlayBook listed but hopefully that is coming soon too. I didn't think that T-Mobile would be getting the Torch 9810 but last time I checked it has the compatible AWS frequency bands. Would you pick one up when it launches if this pans out? Thanks Sam for sending this one in! If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 4, 2011, 7:38 am. | Rumor: T-Mobile BlackBerry Torch 9810 Coming November 9th? | One comment |
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