The year is drawing to a close and it’s a good time to reflect on the more important technology, hardware, software and news stories of 2012. It’s been something of a mixed bag…
Oh, how you have fallen. You were the tablet that was going to challenge the 90%+ market share of the iPad. You were going to link from an existing Blackberry to create a secure, bigger kind of Blackberry. You were going to be the promise of accessing a bazillion applications from two different App Stores all running on your sleek, thin easy-to-multitask package. You the promise of so much, Playbook, what happened to you?
Across the web, this story was picked up and amplified, yet a basic Google search of the source company turned up zero information on the survey itself. Was this stuff hidden to the general public? Was anyone going to actually cite the source? How many reporting blogs appear to have read this survey?
RIM is quickly becoming the kind of company we talk about when we think of what could be a great innovator. There was a time when RIM made products early adopters wanted for great features like BBM and “Push” email. Now, many have walked away from the platform and sales have gone cold for the Blackberry platform. With revenue down 19%, the fourth quarter results from RIM (read here) were quite brutal by anyone’s measure. But, what makes RIM the company of what could have been? Let’s look at some great things that could have been, shall we?
Recently, new evidence has arisen that RIM is testing Android
applications on the Blackberry platform. The implications of being able
to run Android apps on the Playbook are pretty far reaching – but, to
see the Android apps runnable on the millions of RIM devices would be a major coup. Not only that, Research in Motion (RIM) plays this correctly, they could have a huge hit on their hands. Here’s why this is important, and what RIM needs to do.
I have long used a blackberry address (@rogers.blackberry.net) that connected to my phone directly and then forwarded email messages to the phone from the various accounts that I held. Since moving to Google Apps more than a year ago I have noticed a number of improvements to the Blackberry Internet Server(BIS) and Google Apps Servers. I have decided today I would make the switch and show you how it goes.
One of the most amazing things about technology is how easy it can make our everyday lives easier. This is apparent in everything from tablet computers to smart phones. But, one of the most under appreciated things I see every day with technology, is when all sorts of things are used in unconventional ways to make tasks easier.
I had been hearing (for some time) about this new offering from Blackberry and subsequently Bell called Blackberry Unite. It is essentially a scaled back version of the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) targeted at home users.
Welcome to this new device are features like a camera, a gps device and the inclusion of media players as well as memory expandability. Some features not so welcome are the new keyboard layout, removal of the spinning wheel and addition of the track ball. Along the way, some unexpected surprises