When it comes to a well built, well designed smart phone BlackBerry has always presented a beautiful device. One of my most favorite designs was the BlackBerry Bold 9900. That device just had luxury all over the build of the phone and still to this day I marvel at how beautifully built the 9900 was and still is.

With the release of BlackBerry 10 along came the Z10, this design was smooth and basic. All black with a  with nice rounded edges and as an introductory phone for BB10 it proved to be one that would catch the eye and have people saying things like, “that’s a BlackBerry?”  [Read more...]

Take full advantage of the Amazon Prime Music app on BlackBerry 10. If you are a current Amazon Prime account holder you now have access to over 1 million songs add free. Amazon Prime Music is a nice streaming music application and offers a wide variety of options and settings in order for users to take full advantage of what Prime Music has to offer. Build your ultimate playlist, browse different genres, check out the best sellers, new releases and top singles all on your BlackBerry 10 device.

Now this is not a native built BlackBerry 10 application as Prime Music can be downloaded via the Amazon App Store. If you are currently on BlackBerry OS 10.2, you have the option to download and install the Amazon App Store on your device.

I have installed Prime Music and have been pretty impressed with the selection of music available. I will say that since the application is not native and is depending on BlackBerry’s Android Runtime, the application at times can be a little sluggish and not as smooth that I would like it to be compared to a native built BlackBerry 10 application.

BlackBerry has plans to improve the all-around performance of its run time application especially since the latest news of the BlackBerry Amazon deal. Word from CEO John Chen is that a maintenance update is coming for all BlackBerry 10 devices running OS 10.2. This update will bring some stabilization to Android Runtime on BB10.

I have out together a quick demo of Amazon Prime Music in action running on the BlackBerry z30 with OS 10.2. Check out the link below for more detailed information on Amazon Prime Music. Enjoy!

Amazon Prime Music

There was so much news from BlackBerry today it’s almost overwhelming. Today BlackBerry had their quarterly financial earnings call which brought some much needed good news for a company that many had left for dead. In no way shape or form is BlackBerry dead or dying but yet the company, under the guidance of CEO John Chen, has shown that it’s ready to go the entire 12 rounds if need be.

Not only did today earnings call bring a positive response from Wall Street, there was also the announcement of 2 new BlackBerry 10 devices set to be released before the end of the year. The BlackBerry Classic and the BlackBerry Passport are the names of the two new devices that BlackBerry will have to offer.

All these announcements and activity are fresh off the heels of a blockbuster to deal announced yesterday with Amazon to bring the Amazon App Store to BlackBerry 10 this fall. I am very excited to see BlackBerry make some strategic and well thought moves in order to position themselves to be in a much better place to help increase there value among consumers and enterprise customers alike.

I haven’t been this excited over BlackBerry news since the release of BlackBerry 10 just close to two years ago. I have much faith in the direction of the company and would hope that they stay true to the game and remain BlackBerry all around.

I have provided some links to some articles below detailing the earnings call and the new BlackBerry 10 devices. Enjoy and have a wonderful day!

Earnings Report via NY Times

BlackBerry Classic and Passport via Mobile Syrup

Today MarketWatch posted an article that BlackBerry and Amazon are expected to announce a deal that would give BlackBerry exclusive rights to Amazon’s ecommerce app store. This would be huge news as BlackBerry has not had the developer love it had hoped for from big time app developers and companies to bring native built apps over to BlackBerry World.

The writing has been on the wall for some time now as current BB10 users, who have OS 10.2 running on their devices, can actually down load and install the Amazon App store directly on the BlackBerry 10 devices. Thanks to the beautiful built BlackBerry 10 operating system and the implementation of the Android Runtime feature, this allows BlackBerry users to download and install .apk files directly and run them on BlackBerry 10 devices.

Now if this deal goes through, this could be the leading way to BlackBerry having full access to Google Play services which most of the applications that are in Amazon App store require to run. Who knows what’s in store for BlackBerry assuming this deal goes through.

I get questions all the time about what happens to native BlackBerry App development and how would having access to Android apps play a role with BlackBerry World?

Well my thoughts are this, the runtime feature BlackBerry has built into OS 10 will continue to improve. There are no apps built specifically for Android devices that will run as smooth as a native built BlackBerry application. I welcome the access and understand the positioning, but I am in full support of the continued development of native BlackBerry Built applications.

Let’s see how this plays out and what the future holds for BlackBerry 10. Let us know your thought’s.

Source

Today I put together a quick demo video of the BlackBerry 10 OS in action. Enjoy!

Today I launched the official BlackBerry Hank BBM Fitness Channel. This channel will feature a variety of health and fitness content for your enjoyment including;

• Pictures of Healthy Meals
• Healthy Recipes
• Success Stories
• Health & Fitness Articles
• Motivational Support
• Run Tracker
• The Best BlackBerry Fitness Apps
• And much more

Please join me and support the Channel C004E2AEE.

In order to join BBM Channels you will need to have BBM installed on your current BlackBerry, IOS or Android device. To learn more about BBM & BBM Channels please see links provided below. Thanks for the support!

BBM Channels

BlackBerry Messenger

Today a good friend blessed me with some images of what could possibly be from the much talked about BlackBerry Q30. The images above showcase some of what is possibly some nice new heat from BlackBerry. Coming in at 1400*1400 this is evident that this is most likely a QWERTY device. We shall see what the future holds for the Q30.