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.

How BlackBerry Users Are Perceived By Other Smartphone Users is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

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]

Iowa Law Enforcement Officers Handing Out “TXTING KILLS” Thumb Bands is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

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…

Is There Still Hope For The BlackBerry Storm 9570 Refresh? is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

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…

Many people forget or just don’t know the BlackBerry comes with a built-in firewall.  To find it go to Options | Security Options | Firewall.

The BlackBerry Firewall is an awesome utility for those times when you really need to focus, or, just want to relax.  Say, for example, you get really tempted to read emails as they come in while you are driving.  You  can use the BlackBerry Firewall to block both Enterprise email and BIS.  If your issue is SMS, you can turn this of as well, which,  was the issue my friend was having.  You can also restrict SMS, MMS, and BBM messages to be delivered only if the sender’s contact information is in your address book.

The best use of the firewall I can think of is when you go on vacation.  If you are like many BlackBerry users your spouse hates the device as you are glued to it and constantly responding to email.  On vacation the last thing you want is to deal with work email or a spouse getting annoyed with your inability to shut down.  You don’t have to get crazy and power off your BlackBerry, leave it at home, or have IT disable your BES service you can simply enable the firewall on enterprise email and enjoy your vacation.  Even better if you know you may get an email from someone that is urgent add them to the exemption list and all is well.

The BlackBerry Firewall is one of those built-in features that not a lot of BlackBerry users know about, but, trust me when I tell you that is sure can be useful during those times that you need it.

Check Out The BlackBerry Firewall: You Can Block All Kinds Of Stuff… is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

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]

RIM Drops From Fastest Growing Company In 2009 To 33rd In 2010 is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

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.

Josh Topolsky, on the Engadget Podcast, was obviously bothered when Michael explained how his kids wanted Microsoft Kin + iPod Touch over having an iPhone. As I was sitting with all of these kids I had to wonder how Josh would respond to 30 kids all using BlackBerry and holding iPod Touches. This paradigm is not different from choosing a Microsoft Kin as your phone and iPod Touch as your game device.

I asked if anyone wanted the iPhone and almost all of them said, “No, I have an iPod Touch”.  I tried to argue that with the iPhone you would carry only one device, but, quickly schooled on how the BlackBerry is better and faster for messaging. I pushed on talking about one device for doing everything, but in the end it was clear having an extra 10 oz – 20 oz device was not critical when you carry a purse or backpack everywhere.

Adults say that kids use devices differently from way most of us do and this fact was completely reinforced  when a single kid, the group Tech King, showed me all his auto text shortcuts that he created on the BlackBerry to save time when typing. I was not floored by the concept of BlackBerry Auto Text as I have written an article about how I used this feature. What was shocking, however, was that he appeared to have hundreds of shortcuts. It looked like acronym soup, but he said is saves him having to use special keys 90% of the time which slows his typing. He showed my how he can type a time without using numbers.

One kid commented getting a BlackBerry got his dad off his back about sending too many text messages. Confused, I asked how he slowed his messaging habits down due to the BlackBerry and he explained that BBM messages are displayed on his mobile bill thus all his dad knows is the number of SMS messages has drastically gone down. Most kids admitted to sending between 400 and upwards of 1000 messages via BBM daily and that was on top of SMS messages.

I did wonder if a group of kids would be a dedicated to BBM, or put another way tied to the BlackBerry because of a single feature. Most talked about using BBM for group conversations over SMS. BBM group talk seemed to be the biggest use for most of the kids. I tried to talk about IM (instant message), but quickly got schooled. The real value of BBM was unlimited, unrecorded communication.  No one really cared how they talked as they all had each others mobile numbers and BlackBerry PIN.  No matter how you look at it BBM rocks the house.

BlackBerry Wins As A Phone But iPod Touch Is Tagging Along is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

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.

To make things worse, RIM seems to want to punish BlackBerry users who let their batteries go completely dead.  Why does a BlackBerry plugged into a power source require the battery to get some level of an initial charge before you can start to use it again?  Every time it happens I imagined Mike Lazaridis (RIM Co-CEO) shaking his finger at me saying, “Go sit in timeout and next time don’t let your battery run down so low!”

Here is my thing, I have no issue that the phone powers off when the battery dies. This is an earned result of my failure to charge in a timely fashion. My issue, however,  is that once I plug my BlackBerry in it, it refuses to power on.  It makes me wait until the batter reaches a minimum level of charge first.  Keep in mind we are talking about the slowest booting mobile phone known to man. No other phone that I have owned refuses to boot when plugged in to power because the battery is too low.

I assume there is a logical reason to require the battery to reach a specific charge level prior to power on, but, why is the BlackBerry the only smartphone that seems like it hasn’t gotten past this hurdle?  Regardless of the situation, on any other phone, you can quickly get to a power source, power on, and return the call if your battery dies.  The pain and frustration of having my BlackBerry refusing, like a whinny bit##, to power on is enough to ignite your temper. But, to add insult to injury, the slow boot time on the BlackBerry assures a 15 min break in your important call pushing you over the edge.

I know, I know… I should just break down and buy a  portable battery pack.  There really is no reason, though, that your BlackBerry won’t power on as soon as you plug it it.

Rant: Punishment If You Let Your BlackBerry Battery Die is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

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…

We Had A Server Outage, But, We Are Back! is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

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!

That is the last sign of life I have seen from my Droid. My iPhone and Blackberry Storms are active again. What a moment of utter shock. I just got my Droid replaced due to a microphone issue. The phone was in PERFECT working condition and did not have a single scratch.

I honestly felt I had fallen through the gates of hell having to go back to the Blackberry Storm. I will GRAVELY miss the navigation app on my Android phone but to be honest I forgot all the things I really like about the Storm.

Enterprise Blackberry Activation

I change my corporate email password frequently, about ever 21 days. Being a Blackberry user you forget you never have to enter a network password.

Responsiveness

Let me be clear I ran Shrink-OS on my blackberry install to remove thing like languages, IM Clients, Documents-to-go, Event Log view, Help Files, Default Videos, password keeper, setup wizard, VCast Music, VCast Rhapsody, VZNavigator, Games and a couple other minor things. This frees up and amazing amount of memory to make the device functional. Brent wrote a great Step-by-Step called Get More Memory to Install Blackberry Apps

Filtering Contacts

On my Droid I was a slave to the favorite list but it took several clicks to get there. One to get the home screen, Two to click the phone dialer, three to get the favorite available. On the Blackberry I click talk then contacts to type and filter. The filtering on the Blackberry is actually better then the universal search on Android.

Call Quality

I have been trying to switch from using a traditional phone line to using my mobile phone in my office. It is shocking how much better the call quality is on the Blackberry. I use headsets 95% of the time but I can still notices the call is more clear on the Storm than my Motorola Droid.

There are many things I am going to miss about my Droid. I rooted my Droid and Installed a WiFi tethering app that worked like magic. I also had multi-touch in the web browser. Heck I had a decent web browser but no point in kicking a known issue.

Needless to say I have many applications to update so I am back on top of my Blackberry Game, at least until the Nexus One hits Verizon. I do look forward to trying out the 30 trial of that PrivacyStar app Robb was telling me about. CallerID on my mobile phone is a feature I have wanted for a while. Next I am buying a copy of Tether for Blackberry. And last but not least Blackberry Storm Defender Series Case for bath time. I have no plans to lose another phone to water.

Motorola Droid + Bath Time = Using Blackberry Storm is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...