There is no question that the big three names in smartphones, right now, are iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Head over to C-Section Comics to see not only how BlackBerry users are perceived by other smartphone users but, how everyone sees everyone else.
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In an effort to increase awareness around the the dangers of of Texting while driving, some Iowa law enforcement officers are handing out thumb bands that read “TXTING KILLS“. The bands are part of a statewide campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of texting while driving under a new law prohibiting the practice that took effect July 1.
Police are permitted to give warnings for the first year of the Texting while driving ban and hope that the TXTING KILLS thumb bans will catch on with the current fad of rubberized bracelets reminding Texters that they shouldn’t be texting while driving.
The state ordered 30,000 of the bands and plans to order another 30,000. State employees have been distributing them at events such as the Iowa State Fair, high-school football games and the Iowa-Iowa State college football game.
“A lot of people want them for their kids,” Ms. Greene said. “It’s a fun way to get across a serious message about not texting and driving.”
[Via WSJ]
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I was talking to an friend that has had the original BlackBerry Storm 9530 since the day that it came out. They are one of the many BlackBerry Storm users that stuck it out through all of the issues that the Storm had and has actually become quite fond of the device. As fond of the BlackBerry Storm as my friend is, the 9530 is over 2-years old and they are ready for an upgrade.
The problem for them, acutally, the problem for RIM, is that there isn’t a new BlackBerry Storm for folks with original BlackBerry Storm to upgrade to. The BlackBerry Storm2 is over a year old and it doesn’t support BlackBerry 6. Original BlackBerry Storm users that want a new BlackBerry, but, want to stay with the touch screen form factor are forced to either switch carriers and get the BlackBerry Torch, or upgrade to the BlackBerry Storm2 which really isn’t that much of an upgrade at all.
My friend said that they would absolutely get another BlackBerry Storm if one comes out, but, their Storm 9530 is only its last leg from wear and tear and that they can’t hold out waiting any longer without knowing that new Storm is coming. Their plan is to get either a Droid Incredible or a Droid X now, and possibly switch back to the BlackBerry if a new Storm comes out…
There are a lot of BlackBerry Storm users, myself included, in the same boat as my friend… We would get a BlackBerry Storm3 if it were offered, but, aren’t willing to wait too long after our 2-year plans are up to get a new device. A lot of people say that they will get a new phone until the Storm3 comes out and then switch back, however, that rarely happens once that 30-day return policy has passed.
If there is actually a BlackBerry Storm 9570 coming out, RIM needs to go ahead an announce it. There are millions of BlackBerry Storm 9530 users coming up on their 2-year plans and are ready to upgrade. If there isn’t going to be another touch screen BlackBerry for them to upgrade to, it could be a long winter as far as brand churn goes…
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I recently received a message via BlackBerry Messenger from a friend who could not receive any SMS messages after her boyfriend was playing with her phone. I was stumped, initially, and assumed he had installed some type of app the blocked messages, however, after a bit of poking around in the settings on my BlackBerry I found the issue. My friends boyfriend inadvertently turned on SMS blocking in the BlackBerry Firewall…
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What a difference a year makes… Last year when looking at Fortune’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies, Research in Motion topped the list. This year, however, RIM has dropped down to 33rd on the list. RIM has dropped from 1st o 9th on the Fastest Growing Technology companies as well.
Something tells me that unless we see some major changes in the direction that Research in Motion is going we will see another big drop on the 2011 list assuming RIM even makes the cut. When it comes to consumers that buy smartphones, unless you just want a BlackBerry, there are much more compelling options available. Depending on which report your read most BlackBerry users don’t even want new BlackBerry devices. That can’t bode well for RIM…
[Via CNNMoney.com]
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I felt odd sitting at the airport chatting with a group of teenagers about why they all carried BlackBerry Phones. The conversation started off with 4 kids, but, soon ballooned into a brain storming session with nearly 30 talking about how they liked BlackBerry. I was not shocked these kids liked the BlackBerry as Robb has talked about how his daughter and friends love BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) on the Simple Mobile Review Podcast. What was interesting was almost every kid had an iPod Touch, and those without an iPod touch, had an iPod for music. I suspect no one here is shocked by this fact, but, it was interesting how this fact perfectly supported the statements of Michael Gartenberg on the Engadget Podcast 195.
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We have all had that bad day where we run our mobile phone battery deep into the red zone. It is pretty much inevitable that you will get an important call right right before you recharge it, usually while on your way back to power. It is at this moment you witness the final exhausted effort of your battery before violently powers your phone off and puts you into a panic wondering how quickly you can resume the call. On my BlackBerry Storm I have had the battery die on many occasions… call it failure to plan or a bad set of events.
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As many of you have may have noticed, RIMarkable experienced an outage last evening. Thanks to everyone that emailed, sent direct Tweets, or even hit me on Facebook to let me know that the site was having problems. We are back up, but, unfortunately have lost the last few posts and the comments that went with them.
Daily backups are a beautiful thing. The only problem with them is that they are daily and not hourly. Don’t know that RIMarkable is big time enough, yet, to go with hourly snapshots, however, we have upgraded to the next higher level of managed service with our host so if we ever have another outage such as this, it should be corrected in a few minutes as compared to a few hours.
Sorry for the inconvenience to those that couldn’t get to RIMarkable while the site was down, and, once again, thanks to all of you that sent us a note letting us know that we were having issues and / or words of encouragement…
RIMarkable Robb…
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Imagine looking at a happy baby about 17 months old holding your mobile phone while sitting in the bathtub. That was the exact moment I lost my Motorola Droid and went back to the Blackberry Storm. The sound of water running in the bathtub drowns out the sound coming from the Droid’s speaker, my solution I had it next to the tub during bath time. (Note to self buy one of the recommended speakers from Brent) I was listening to Buzz out Loud (BOL) podcast and the podcast went silent. This is not abnormal on a Droid if a new message arrives but the silence was a bit too long. While rinsing the soap form the hair of one kid I looked over to see my smiling son holding my phone as the notification light rapidly flashed green. UGGGGHHHHH!
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