THE Tech Scoop » Blackberry

RIM Wants To #BeBold in 2012

James Hicks — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:16:22 +0000

I can honestly say I feel a bit sorry for RIM users and employees (not for their “leadership” team). It’s the users who love their BlackBerry devices and who sincerely want a quality product.

But when you have an executive team that has been caught up in all the nonsense they have as of late, and a new executive team running marketing campaigns such as this #BeBold one – man it hurts.

I do like the pretty colors in the infographic though.

Your thoughts?

James Hicks

James is the Founder and Chief Technologist of HicksNewMedia, a technology consulting and digital publishing firm providing effective and relevant solutions to individuals and businesses looking to utilize all things on the interweb. Follow him on Twitter | about.me | Facebook | Google+

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RIM Buys Tungle

James Hicks — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:23:29 +0000

Tungle is one of the best and most impressive online calendar and meeting organization apps available.

I use it on many occasions and have recommended it to a number of colleagues.

It was surprising to get a message this morning from Tungle CEO and founder Marc Gingras stating that his team was recently acquired by RIM.

This is great news for Blackberry users, obviously because now there will be serious focus on integration of a scalable and user-friendly group calendaring application.

What, however, does this mean to us iOS device users? Hopefully the iPhone/iPod application will continue to get development and attention otherwise many of us will have to look to a mediocre alternative.

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James Hicks

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The Queen Gets a New Blackberry

James Hicks — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:50:11 +0000

OTTAWA (AFP) – Queen Elizabeth II received a BlackBerry handset as a gift on Monday while touring the Canadian headquarters of its maker, Research in Motion.

The monarch is said to be a fan of the popular smartphones, ever since her her son, Prince Andrew, introduced her to them a few years ago.

Company co-founder Mike Lazaridis presented queen with the most current model, the BlackBerry Bold 9700, personalized with an image of area school children offering her flowers.

Dressed in a creme-colored hat and a white smock, Elizabeth was also given a rare glimpse inside the Waterloo, Ontario factory where the devices are made.

The site was described in pool reports as a cavernous, white room dotted with spotless workstations and large automated machines.

The polished floors are marked with yellow stickers warning people that they are entering an “electrostatic sensitive” area. The smocks worn by the queen and her entourage, including by a red-clad Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer over his uniform, guard against electrostatic shocks.

Canada’s titular head of state was greeted inside by dozens of workers in blue smocks who would normally be busy on their computers designing and making the latest smartphones.

According to a spokeswoman for RIM, it was the first time media have been allowed on RIM’s workfloor.

[via]

James Hicks

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Blackberry Bold 9700

James Hicks — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:57:15 +0000

BlackBerry by RIM (Research In Motion) recently announced its latest smartphone. It is called the Bold 9700, or more commonly known as Onyx.

The new Bold 9700 by BlackBerry smartphone is quite stylish and includes many impressive features.

Bold 9700 comes equipped with a hi-resolution 480×320 screen that can display over 65,000 different colors. The Onyx is smaller than its predecessor, and luckily not as bulky as the first generation Bold.

Onyx comes with an optical trackpad for improved navigation. The trackball that annoyed many users is thankfully gone.

Similar to the BlackBerry Curve, the 9700 has a stylish shape with beveled edges. The keyboard is powder coated and there’s a leather back cover.

What will be a nice benefit for frequent travelers, the Bold 9700 allow calls to be received and placed over Wi-Fi connection and 3G network connectivity.

The camera feature has also been upgraded with a 3.2 megapixel, image stabilization and auto focus.

Always a concern, the Onyx battery life of the Onyx now can last up to 6hrs for talk time, and about 21 days in standby mode.

For more information on the new BlackBerry Bold 9700 Onyx click here.

James Hicks

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Google Buzz – Social Integration via Gmail

James Hicks — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:30:22 +0000

At today’s announcement Google said, Today, we’re launching Google Buzz, a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there’s nothing to set up — you’re automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.

You can choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a small group of friends each time you post. And you can connect other sites you use, today there’s Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, and Twitter, so your friends can keep up with what you’re doing around the web — all in one place.

To make sure you don’t miss out on the best part of sharing, Buzz sends responses to your posts straight to your inbox. Unlike static email messages, buzz messages in your inbox are live conversations where comments appear in real time.

You can follow the specific people whose posts you want to see, but Buzz also recommends posts from people you’re not directly following, often ones where your friends are having a lively conversation in the comments. If you’re not interested in a particular recommendation, just click the “Not interested” link and your feedback will help improve the recommendations system. Buzz also weeds out uninteresting posts from the people you follow — collapsing inactive posts and short status messages like “brb.”

There will also be integration with your html-capable mobile phone, so Blackberry, iPhone and Android users will be able interact with their friends and followers.

Now, where does this leave Twitter? Obviously, Twitter still dominates the world and for the foreseeable future will continue to reign supreme. But, Google is really making strides to take over all aspects of our online communication experiences. Think about it; email, office suite, phone, search, shopping, now social.

Per Google, they should be rolling this functionality out in the coming days.

Chime in folks

James Hicks

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