Sabtu, 31 Maret 2012

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community


RIM is NOT Abandoning The Consumer Market, Despite What You’ve Heard

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 01:08 PM PDT

All those Chicken Littles out there doing the Muppet Run in frantic circles about how RIM is “abandoning the consumer market” need to calm down and have some dip. That is NOT what was said, nor was it implied. Financial earnings calls are open to a lot of interpretation, and it seems like a lot of doom-seeking RIM bashers are leaping to two hugely-mistaken conclusions. Let’s address them, shall we?

Mistaken conclusion #1: RIM is abandoning the consumer market.

Simply not true. Thorsten stated that BlackBerry cannot succeed and be everything to all people. Their customer base still tends to prioritize security, efficiency, and productivity over more “mainstream” consumer needs like media consumption and entertainment, and it makes sense for RIM to refocus on winning back the ground they’ve lost in their strongest market. RIM makes their money primarily from their infrastructure and service offerings, not handset sales. The business world has become very media-centric and mobile-minded, people. The lines between the “traditional” BlackBerry business user’s needs and the “average” consumer’s needs has become quite narrow and blurred. They are much more closely-related now than they were even just 4 years ago.

That being said, RIM will also be focusing on bringing current feature-phone users into the smartphone age by releasing more entry-level BB7 devices in the coming months. This will expand the BlackBerry brand’s market presence and boost consumer brand awareness worldwide. Indonesia has been a key market for RIM the past few years, and RIM continues to perform well in that market. RIM’s goal is to get these new users to increase their tech savvy and become advanced users who want to upgrade to a top-tier device. (“PSSST. Hey. Kid. Want a BlackBerry? The first one’s free cuz I like ya….”) Hey – it worked on me. I started on an 8300, went to the 9700, and now I’m on the 9900. Flagship all the way, baby!

Heins admitted in his address that RIM was late to the “Bring Your Own Device” game, having depended on corporate IT departments to require the use of BlackBerries as their employees’ only option. They aim to regain ground in this area by making BB10 devices the devices people WANT to bring. The point that many panic-mongers are completely missing is that BYOD sits squarely astride the fence between the enterprise and individual consumer markets. People want to to carry a single device, be it for work or personal use. RIM wants BB10 to make people choose BlackBerry as their daily driver at work and at play. Service solutions like BlackBerry Balance make it an easier choice for both employees and IT departments to choose BlackBerry, and Mobile Fusion makes it easier for companies to support iOS and Android devices while still retaining their BES infrastructure (and keep paying RIM for the pleasure).

Heins also understands that RIM cannot do this alone; it needs help from major partners to offer the consumer and supplemental enterprise applications and services customers are clamoring for. *COUGH*COUGH*NETFLIX*SKYPE*COUGH* RIM is making a lot of progress getting developers to sign up, giving out BB10 development alpha devices and free PlayBooks to encourage participation. Over 6,000 new devs had signed on recently when Thorsten spoke at DevCon Asia, and RIM is going to focus on bringing more major partners on board with BB10.

How anyone gets “RIM is abandoning consumers” from this I can’t quite figure. People hear what they want to hear, I guess, and it seems like lots of people just want RIM to fail.

RIM Under Fire

Mistaken conclusion #2: Thorsten Heins is considering selling RIM.

Thorsten Heins is in his tenth week as the new RIM CEO, and it is pretty clear that the “new office” smell has faded. Thor has ordered an extensive review of the company, and is not pleased with some of the things he’s found so far. Lack of accountability for poor performance, especially at the management level, grossly inefficient processes and behaviors, to name a few, have opened Thorsten’s eyes to the true scope of the vision quest he has embarked upon. “We are committed to turning the company around”, he stated, in direct response to the question of selling company. He went on to say that should the review process point towards that as the best option for the company, all options will be considered, “but that’s not the direction we’re going.”He hasn’t ruled it out completely, but neither has he posted a “For Sale” sign on the lawn. Heins admitted that the company “was on the road to fragmentation”. He understands that RIM has a lot of work to do before they get to that point, and they’re going to give it everything they’ve got.

“We will leave no stone unturned and make the best decision for RIM and stakeholders.” Watch your back, people; Thor’s cleaning house. Expect the bad elements in RIM’s workforce and processes to be scurrying away like roaches when the lights come on.

So, for the nonce, RIM is not for sale. It’s a “charming little fixer-upper” in dire need of some TLC from TH.

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Posted by rrrebo for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 4:08 pm. | RIM is NOT Abandoning The Consumer Market, Despite What You’ve Heard | Leave a comment |


Free All In One Remote Controls Your PC From Your PlayBook (Android)

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 01:02 PM PDT

All in One Remote All in One Remote2 All in One Remote3

Its nice to see some decent Android ports coming to PlayBook OS 2.0. The latest brought to my attention is All In One Remote by Hisham Hassan Bakr. He ported the media controlling app that works for Windows, Mac, and even Linux to the PlayBook and works over Wi-Fi and supposedly Bluetooth too. It offers you a touchscreen mouse to control your PC and keyboard along with things like a gamepad and other perks. It is not the most refined app and it is a port but it is also free which is a nice break!

Check out All In One Remote free in App World. You will also need the server app which you can download here.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 4:02 pm. | Free All In One Remote Controls Your PC From Your PlayBook (Android) | Leave a comment |


Free PhotoFunia Lets You Have Fun With Pictures

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 10:58 AM PDT

PhotoFunia4 PhotoFunia2 PhotoFunia3

John let us know about PhotoFunia which has been around for a bit and recently got an update. The app lets you put your face on over 150 different scenes like the mona lisa or an astronaut. The app seems to send your pictures to their servers to find your face which is why it needs an internet connection to work. Its definitely fun to play with especially for a free app.

Check out PhotoFunia in App World

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 1:58 pm. | Free PhotoFunia Lets You Have Fun With Pictures | Leave a comment |


BlackBerry Messenger v6.2.0.33 Released in Beta Zone

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:11 AM PDT

BBM on Bold 9900

The Beta Zone updates keep on coming. The latest to get some love is BBM which has been updated to v6.2.0.33. This update is mostly bug fixes which you can see below:

  • Missing BBM icon on OS 5.0
  • Issues scrolling up through older messages on OS 6.0
  • Issue selecting all the text by scrolling up/down in the inline display name and personal message fields
  • Scrolling quickly in the inline edit view allowed the focus to move out onto your avatar
  • Pressing the Enter key while the focus is on your avatar initiated the inline edit view
  • In the inline display name or personal message field, smileys were highlighted when added via the "Add Smiley" menu option
  • Unable to scroll in certain directions within the inline display name and personal message field
  • No "Save" menu option or prompt dialog when the inline display name or personal message field only contains smileys
  • No red splat on the BBM icon after deleting a group icon from the Home Screen and receiving a group notification
  • Notification view/today view does not show BBM Messages

You can find the update in the beta zone here

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 12:11 pm. | BlackBerry Messenger v6.2.0.33 Released in Beta Zone | Leave a comment |


Cubyrinth 3D Puzzle Game Brought to the BlackBerry PlayBook

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:05 AM PDT

Cubyrinth Cubyrinth2

Cubyrinth is a fun puzzle game that has recently been ported from iOS to the BlackBerry PlayBook. The game is a very intuitive but complex set of puzzles that you have to navigate to make your way through the Cubyrinth. It is essentially a 3D labyrinth that you have to rotate like a rubik's cube. There are 28 different Cubyrinths with 70 goals in 3 difficulty levels for loads of fun.

Check out Cubyrinth in App World for $2.99, on their website, and through their demo trailer below:


Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video Link

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 12:05 pm. | Cubyrinth 3D Puzzle Game Brought to the BlackBerry PlayBook | Leave a comment |


Pesktop Brings Many Desktop Features to your PlayBook

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 08:20 AM PDT

 Pesktop2

Keeper let us know about his latest PlayBook project called Pesktop that was just released in App World. The new app brings lots of utilities to the PlayBook which Keeper is hoping to improve to emulate desktop utilities. For example, there are sticky notes, file exporer, calculator, image viewer, and more.

Pesktop3 Pesktop

Features include:

  • Sticky Notes:
    • Create New Note
    • Manage Notes such as Edit Note, Delete Note.
    • You can move your note around the screen or hide it.
    • Note’s content is auto saved with created/modified time.
  • Audio Player: Immediately display the Player and your Music folder, touch on the song and here you go. You can also move the Audio Player up or down for your convenience.
  • Video Player: Immediately display the Player and your Video folder, touch on the video and enjoy. You can also move the Video Player up or down for your convenience.
  • Calculator: Immediately display integrated basic Calculator.
  • Image Viewer: Invoke BlackBerry® PlayBook™ Photo Gallery within 2 seconds.
  • Taking Photo: Turn on Camera immediately right within Pesktop.
  • Record Video: Turn on Video Recorder immediately right within Pesktop.
  • App World: Invoke App World from Pesktop within 3 seconds.
  • File Explorer:
    • Immediately display your Home folder, from here you can browse Camera folder, Documents folder, Music folder…
    • Anytime you click on a file, Pesktop will handle it automatically such as displaying images, playing audios, playing videos, opening Word/Excel/PDF documents and so on…
    • Copy/Cut/Paste/Delete/Rename your File, show File’s properties such as file size, date created…
    • Create New/Copy/Cut/Paste/Delete/Rename your Folder.
  • Quick New Stuff Button allows you to create quickly new Notes, new Word document, new Excel document.

Check out Pesktop in App World for $1.99 or let Keeper know what you think about the app in the forums!

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 11:20 am. | Pesktop Brings Many Desktop Features to your PlayBook | 2 comments |


Access Your SkyDrive Files with Cloud Explorer for Microsoft SkyDrive

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 07:55 AM PDT

Skydrive Skydrive2

While most people I know use SugarSync or DropBox there are still a good number of people using Microsoft's SkyDrive solution. David pointed out to us that AlefSoft has released an app called Cloud Explorer for SkyDrive that gives you the ability to download and upload your SkyDrive files from your BlackBerry smartphone.

Skydrive3 Skydrive4

Features include:

  • Downloads and uploads multiple files and nested folders in one batch.
  • Copy, move, rename files and folders.
  • Create new folders and albums.
  • View photos and videos thumbnails, so you know which files you want.
  • Access the folders and files shared by your friends.
  • Open SkyDrive documents and folders in the browser, very handy when you need to view excel sheets or powerpoint presentaions.
  • Open the local files from the application (If you have the file viewer or editor installed).

Check out Cloud Explorer for Microsoft SkyDrive for $1.99 in App World

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 10:55 am. | Access Your SkyDrive Files with Cloud Explorer for Microsoft SkyDrive | One comment |


IronPlane HD Arcade Shooter Game for BlackBerry Smartphones

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 07:04 AM PDT

IronPlane HD IronPlane HD3

IronPlane HD by Swanangel has actually been available for awhile but RIM recently put it in the featured app carousel which reminded me of it. IronPlane HD is a fun and surprisingly good arcade shooter style game that has you navigating your spacecraft through waves of aliens using lasers and more.

Check out IronPlane HD for $2.99 in App World

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, March 30, 2012, 10:04 am. | IronPlane HD Arcade Shooter Game for BlackBerry Smartphones | Leave a comment |