In the tablet world right now, there’s the iPad and then there’s everyone else. Sorry, Xoom, despite your hype, you just don’t cut it yet. But a new challenger is just about to take the stage and it comes from a somewhat unlikely player: RIM.
People have been talking about the BlackBerry PlayBook for months now following its initial unveiling last September and a buzz-worthy showcase at CES back in January. But at the time, RIM noted that there was much work still to do before it would be released. And that work is continuing right up to the April 19 launch next week. But the product is complete enough now that RIM felt comfortable giving out review units. We got one of them and have had a chance to use the device extensively over the past week or so. So how is it? → Read More
DARPA has put out a request for full-disk encryption for iOS and Android-based devices. The deal is that the Defense Advances Research Projects Agency wants to have greater choice when it comes to smartphone selection, having used the BlackBerry for years without complaint. That’s because it was only the BlackBerry that met the agency’s encryption requirements. → Read More
How long can Apple hold onto its dominance of the tablet market with the iPad? There no question that the iPad is leaps and bounds ahead of all other tablets, including the latest Android tablets running Honeycomb, in terms of market share, apps, design and overall experience. With the recently released iPad 2, it is maintaining its lead. But how long can that last? After all, Android caught up in smartphone market share pretty fast.
Today, Gartner released some estimates that take a stab at guessing what will happen to tablet market share through 2015. Last year, Apple’s iOS held an estimated 84 percent share, compared to 14 percent for Android. The iPad’s share of the tablet market is expected to drop to 69 percent this year, 64 percent next year, and keep falling to 47 percent by 2015. It will still have the largest share, but during the same period Android is expected to grow to 39 percent share. → Read More
I was originally going to write something like “Weekend Giveaway: An iPod Classic Case Plus Something Else” and then make you guys read the whole post to find out that I was going to include a Blackberry Playbook in the prize and then you’d be angry and come to my house and stuff and nobody wanted that. So here goes: we’re going to give you one lucky reader a Blackberry Playbook. It won’t ship until the official release date – April 19 – but it will be one of the first Playbooks to roll off the assembly lines. Entering, as you probably know by now, is simple. → Read More
RIM’s doing their damnedest to keep their BlackBerry World announcements a secret, but it just doesn’t seem to be working. Just last week, a photo gallery of their next full touchscreen device (don’t call it a Storm) leaked out. This week, it’s something even more exciting: the BlackBerry Bold Touch got pawed at. → Read More
As hard as they tried, RIM just couldn’t find a fanbase with the BlackBerry Storm. Between a mild critical reception, a handful of hardware issues in the first batches, and the super wonky SurePress touchscreen that people came to know it for, the “Storm” name has been… tainted, in a way.
Seems like RIM agrees. A handful of mega clear shots of the next full touchscreen BlackBerry device, currently codenamed “Monza” (or “Monaco”, if we’re talking about the Verizon version) just leaked out, and word on the street is that it might not carry the Storm name. → Read More
It looks like earlier speculation regarding Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook was correct. Today, RIM officially announced Android app support for the BlackBerry PlayBook. This was made possible by what RIM calls a “high degree of API compatibility,” making it easy for Android developers to port apps to the PlayBook. But there is one slight catch. → Read More
Hey, BlackBerry owners: Are you bummed about the whole Javascript exploit ordeal? RIM’s got something that might cheer you up. Maybe. If you’re really into Facebook. Or if you just like having things earlier than most people. After releasing their first Facebook for BlackBerry app roughly three years ago, RIM’s Facebook App team is back with another swing, and it’s available in Beta form to anyone running BlackBerry OS 6.0. So, what’s new here? → Read More
On day 1 of Pwn2Own we saw both Safari and IE8 fall victim to attacks by hackers. Today, iPhone 4 and the Blackberry Torch 9800 followed a similar fate. Pwn2Own is an annual security competition that allows hackers to win systems they successfully hack, in turn they provide valuable feedback to the company’s security teams. → Read More
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion this morning announced that it will launch its PlayBook tablet computer with 7digital‘s music store pre-installed.
The music store will come installed on the tablet at its launch in the United States and Canada, with further international roll out in 2011, the companies said. → Read More
Strange things are afoot in my hometown of Waterloo, Canada, which doubles as Research In Motion’s headquarters. ShopSavvy says that someone there has been running their Android app — on BlackBerry devices. Separately, Bloomberg has reported that RIM’s forthcoming PlayBook tablet will run Android apps. A video from the Mobile World Congress allegedly shows a BlackBerry employee confirming “We’ll also support Android apps.” Their UK managing director refuses to comment on the subject. And if rumours of the mountain en route to Mohammed aren’t enough, there are also reports of Mohammed travelling to the mountain: BGR claims that RIM will soon release their prized BlackBerry Messenger as an Android/iOS app.
Thus far it’s all just smoke and rumors, no confirmed fire … which is also how one could describe the PlayBook itself. RIM first announced the device back in September. My very first TechCrunch post in November was in part about how RIM should embrace Android, he said slightly smugly. Since then, Samsung has released the Galaxy Tab, Dell the Streak 7, and Motorola the Xoom; next week, the iPad 2 will emerge — and yet the PlayBook still has no firm ship date. But at least RIM have been busy on the BlackBerry front, right? I mean, in the last four months, they have announced or released … er … exactly zero new handsets. (They have, however, announced three new VaporBooks. I’m sorry, PlayBooks.) Perhaps they were focused on shoring up their inferior app-development tools? Ask this developer, whose caustic and hilarious rant about RIM’s extreme developer-unfriendliness went viral in the hacker community last week. → Read More
If you haven’t heard of the PlayBook yet, it’s basically another tablet coming out this year. The main difference is that it doesn’t run Android or iOS, instead it runs RIM’s BlackBerry Tablet OS. The downside to the operating system is that there’s only 4,000 apps out and not much of a developer base. Not wanting to suffer sales for lack of apps, RIM is trying to get Android apps to run on the PlayBook. → Read More
We heard a while back that RIM was aiming at undercutting the iPad by putting the upcoming Playbook at less than $500. If this pricing leak is true, it looks like they decided price parity was acceptable. The version shown is the 16GB wi-fi only version, meaning it would likely have price tiering similar to the iPad’s, starting at $500 and working upwards at ~$100 increments. → Read More
China is a win/lose situation for most consumer electronic’s companies as it’s an efficient labor force, but trade secrets spread like STDs in nursing homes. That’s why RIM is reportable requiring Quanta to manufacture the PlayBook outside of China and in Taiwan. The goal is to eliminate white-box makers from copying the tablet, although if the PlayBook hits the big time, OEMs makers will find a way to clone it. Of course there’s something to be said about the attention being a bit complimentary, but RIM probably doesn’t want to hear that. → Read More
Last week we heard that Motorola is aiming to ship 800,000 or more of its Xoom tablet in Q1. Aren’t we like halfway through Q1 already? But I digress. Now RIM is showing its manufacturing volume cards. All one million of ‘em! Yes, RIM has placed its orders with manufacturers, and is hoping to ship a million Playbooks in Q1, according to Digitimes. That’s a lot! But as we’ve seen, the Playbook is actually quite a compelling device, and with other options on the market, consumers might actually be shopping around instead of driving straight to the Apple store. → Read More
Good morning, CrackBerrians! Oh gosh. Is that the politically correct term these days? BlackBerry Junkies? Research In Motion BlackBerry handset owners? I never know.
Either way, Good Morning! You’ve got a duo of new handsets to check out, both compliments of one big ol’ leak. → Read More
Another day, another example of RIM having to buckle to governmental pressure in order to stay in business. It has emerged that RIM has agreed to filter pornographic content on Indonesian BlackBerrys as a direct result of a government request. While this isn’t the first time that RIM has had to accommodate various government requests, it does represent the first time that RIM has greed to filter content from reaching users’ BlackBerrys. → Read More
Last year, the world went app crazy. If anything, 2010 was the year of the mobile App Store—not only for Apple, but also for Android, Blackberry, and even Nokia. App store analytics firm Distimo has a new report looking at Great Mobile App Store Boom of 2010. While Apple ended the year with roughly 300,000 apps in iTunes, the Android Market grew to about 130,000, while Nokia’s Ovi Store got to 25,000 apps and BlackBerry App World reached 18,000. The number of apps in iTunes doubled, but the smaller app stores grew even faster, with the number of Android apps up 544 percent, Blackberry apps up 268 percent, and Nokia apps up 258 percent.
Angry Birds is the most popular app across all mobile platforms, while Facebook is the most popular non-game app. Distimo also found that the categories with the strongest growth on the iPhone were serious business apps (up 186 percent) and medical apps (up 156 percent), whereas the fastest-growing categories on Android were more frivolous: comics (up 802 percent), card and casino games (up 644 percent), and entertainment (up 589 percent). Go figure. → Read More
During a recent earnings call with RIM, several executives made comments suggesting that the PlayBook tablet has been delayed until after March. This could be a serious setback for RIM given the momentum that Apple has already gained with the iPad, and the possible announcement of the iPad 2 come January. → Read More
It’s now a little bit easier to use Amazon MP3 with your BlackBerry. A new app, Amazon MP3 for BlackBerry, has gone into public beta and gives users access to Amazon’s entire library of 14+ million MP3s. → Read More
