I am curious as to how many corporate BlackBerry users out there had to buy their own device? I know of many organizations that rely heavily on the ability of their mobile workforce to receive email and take calls while on the road, however, these very organizations don’t supply the hardware to their users that makes this possible. At least not directly anyway.
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Fox News correspondent and ‘Weekend Live‘ host Brian Wilson confesses that he is a BlackBerry Addict.
This may come as a surprise to many of you who believe that I am a rather clean-living individual whose worst vices include the regular consumption of steak and the occasional utterance of a familiar barnyard epithet. No folks, I am here today to tell you that I am addicted to a small device that hangs on my belt every hour that I am awake. I am addicted to my BlackBerry (a.k.a. CrackBerry)
Brian Wilson won’t be the first nor the last person to suffer for BlackBerryism. I wonder if he gets nauseous on those days that he has on pants without a belt and he absentmindedly forgets his BlackBerry on the nightstand next to the bed. I hate when that happens.
Brian Wilson, Weekend Live, FoxNews.com
We first told you that the Financial Times, Friend of the Honest Financier and the Respectable Broker, was coming to the BlackBerry back at the end of last summer. Well, it took 6 months, however, the Financial Times for BlackBerry is finally here.
The Financial Times for BlackBerry can be downloaded to you BlackBerry over the air by visiting http://mobile.blackberry.com/mss/bf on your device’s browser.
Financial Times, FT.com, Financial Times for BlackBerry
According to Research in Motion co-Ceo Jim Balsillie, RIM is looking to make “a couple” of acquisitions to help the BlackBerry maker pick up the pace in the professional consumer and everyday user markets. Balsillie stated that these acquisitions wouldn’t be “blockbuster” deals , but would be “technology tuck unders”
Via Reuters
Yahoo! and Research in motion have inked a deal to significantly expand access to Yahoo! services via your BlackBerry. From the sounds of it Yahoo! Go for Mobile will integrate a full range of Yahoo!’s products such as Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Messenger into a singe interface accessible via a single Yahoo! Go for Mobile icon.
One of the really cool things here is that BlackBerry users will be able to get real time Yahoo! Mail on their BlackBerries. I have personally had a Yahoo! account since it was RocketMail so this will be a welcome addition to my 7130e.
As of right now, Yahoo! Search works on all BlackBerries, Yahoo! Mail works on all carries less T-Mobile and will come to other carries soon, and Yahoo! Messenger works on Sprint (US), Rogers (CA), 02 (UK), 3 (HK), and CSL (HK). Mail will come to T-Mobile shortly and Messenger will eventually rolled out to other carriers.
You can download Yahoo! Go for Mobile to your BlackBerry over the air by visiting http://www.blackberry.com/yahoodownload on your device.
Get more information here…
Yahoo!, Yahoo! Go for Mobile, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger
Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie will testify this Wednesday in front of Congress in an Oversight Hearing entitled Patent Quality Enhancement in the Information Based Economy. The hearing is being held by the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.
The NTP vs. RIM patent case really exposed just how messed up the entire patent system is. I am generally for the little guy, however, patents are given way too generously and often times in error. This appears to be the case in with the NTP patents that all, eventually, will be overturned.
This Oversight Hearing will look at several issues within the USPTO including how Congress can improve administrative proceedings at the back end and whether or not Congress should create a special “patent courts” system to adjudicate disputes.
Read more…
Jim Balsillie, NTP, Patent, Congress, Patent Quality Enhancement in the Information Based Economy
It looks like the Hyatt chain of spa and resorts is branching out their BlackBerry Thumb Massage treatments that first appeared at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa. According to a post on the BlackBerry Cool website, the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort and Spa in Indian Wells, 125 miles east of Los Angeles, is offering the BlackBerry Thumb Massage as well.
BlackBerry Thumb, Hyatt, Hand Massage
Steve Rubel has an interesting post about how the gadget to newspaper ratio is slowly but surely starting to tip the scales in favor devices like the BlackBerry and the iPod. He has noticed in his seven years of commuting to and from work on the nations largest commuter rail that people spend far more time “fiddling with their iPods and BlackBerries” than they do reading the newspaper.
Rubel points out that unlike the iPod, BlackBerries, even though one can surf the internet or play a game of Sudoku, are viewed primarily as business devices. He admits, however, that the BlackBerry is a fertile marketing ground if a way can be found to get around making people wait for interstitial advertising as the news they are interested in loads. Rubel goes as far as to say that real estate on the BlackBerry is more valuable than the back page of the Wall Street Journal.
Via Micro Persuasion
Micro Persuasion, Steve Rubel, BlackBerry, Commuting