Good news out there for the handful of you that are using the iOS BBM client. BlackBerry has announced that it is working on a major update for the app that is going to add a number new features and improvements.
Among the new features are BBM Voice, which will let you make free voice calls to any contact, anywhere in the world, and something called Channels, which are like little mini chatrooms. More details after the fold...
Apple gave physical keyboards the finger (literally) when it introduced the all-touchscreen iPhone back in 2007. Skeptics were quick to dismiss the device, saying a touchscreen could never replace a physical keyboard, but it has since become the norm.
But for the folks who still long for a physical keyboard, there are several options to choose from that allow you to keep your iPhone. And today we're adding a new one to the stack for all of you BlackBerry fans: the Typo Keyboard case for the iPhone 5/5s...
Earlier this month, BlackBerry announced plans to receive an investment worth over $1 billion in the form of a debt sale and to fire its CEO Thorsten Heins. Instead of sell out, the company has decided to try and rebuild.
Of course, that's much easier said than done. Not only has BlackBerry lost nearly all of its consumer marketshare, it's also lost most of its major enterprise accounts, and word has it that another one—Pfizer—is on the way out...
Although tech titans Apple and Microsoft both sought to buy parts of BlackBerry, the board shied away from breaking up the company, according to a report Friday by Reuters. The ailing smartphone pioneer has determined that selling the company in pieces isn't in its best interests, despite bids from Apple, Microsoft, Lenovo and others.
I'm not sure the board has necessarily made a wise choice. First and foremost, a full-blown instant comeback is literally impossible this late in the game. And while still profitable, BlackBerry is burning through its cash fast, unit sales are falling off the cliff, users are defecting to other platforms in droves and, worst of all, there are no cool new products on the horizon to be excited about.
And with the iOS-Android duopoly and Microsoft competing for the #3 slot, it's indeed too late to turn BlackBerry's fortunes around. Seems to me they should have just sold off parts of the company to become a competitive niche player, as one analyst suggested in August...
As a long-time competitor of, and what many believe to be a casualty of, the iPhone, we've been keeping a close eye on BlackBerry's situation over the past several months. The last we heard, the company had agreed to sell itself to Fairfax Financial Holdings for $4.7 billion.
But apparently that's no longer the plan. In a bit of a surprise move, BlackBerry announced this morning that it has given up on its effort to sell itself to a large investor, and that it will be replacing Thorsten Heins with former Sybase chief John Chen as interim CEO...
Less than eight hours after officially hitting Apple's App Store and Google's Play store, the BlackBerry Messenger app (free download) has seen more than five million active downloads on iOS and Android combined, BlackBerry announced in a tweet.
The messaging application is a staggered rollout which employs a reservation system to prevent the kind of a server strain seen after the Android build had leaked out prematurely. According to some repots, there's a workaround that could let you use the app without waiting...
After months-long back and forth, the horribly embattled Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion, has announced that its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) software has finally rolled out to iOS and Android devices today.
Announced as a staggered roll-out for Apple's App Store and Google's Play store, the secure instant messaging software employs a reservation system.
That's bad news for those who haven't signed up early at BBM.com as they will be forced to wait in line before they can use the app. On September 22, BlackBerry was forced to halt the planned roll-out of BBM for iOS after a leaked Android build had caused its servers to fold...
You can tell the end is nigh when a company buys full-page print ads to post an open letter making the case for its future. In the case of Canada's BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion, the writing has been on the wall ever since Steve Jobs took the stage at the January 2007 MacWorld Expo to introduce the world to the iPhone.
Given its former co-CEO's state of denial and just plain stubbornness, I'd written off BlackBerry in my book long before first signs of trouble became public knowledge. Of course, BlackBerry continues to defy critics by insisting that it'll find a way out of the hole it'd dug for itself.
Starting tomorrow, the BlackBerry feel-good aimed at customers, developers and investors will appear in over 30 major print newspapers across nine countries, including The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal in the United States.
Here's the crux...
With the future of BlackBerry up in the air, it's no surprise that the company's more talented employees have begun looking for a new home. And apparently, Apple is hoping that at least some of them find their new home in Cupertino.
According to a new report, the iPad-maker has begun poaching BlackBerry talent via a recruitment drive near the BlackBerry offices in Ontario. And it's offering up both relocation and immigration assistance to hirable candidates...
Breaking all of the preconceived notions about the cyclicality of the iPhone, a new survey shows Apple's iOS gaining on Google's Android and the embattled BlackBerry during a three-month period ended August 2013. The iPhone gained 1.3 percentage points ranking as the top smartphone vendor in the United States with a cool 40.7 percent share of the nation's smartphone subscribers.
Although Google's Android  led with a dominating 51.6 percent share, its slice of the smartphone platform market actually shrank by 0.8 percentage points. What's really interesting about Apple's growth is that iOS outsold Android without the new iPhones. The full breakdown is after the break...
Canadian phone maker BlackBerry - once the undisputed enterprise giant that used to be synonymous with smartphones and whose iconic BlackBerry handsets with their clickety-clack keyboards and real-time, secure push email were considered the real work machines - is now entertaining a $4.7 billion offer from its largest shareholder, a move that would take the free-falling phone company private.
Fairfax Financial Holdings, which already owns 9.9 percent of the Waterloo, Ontario firm, would pay $9 per share, a 3.1 percent premium over last week's share price. According to a statement by Fairfax CEO Prem Watsa, the private company will "focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world."...
Last week, BlackBerry confirmed via its Twitter account that it would be launching BBM for iPhone this weekend—today in fact, September 22. But as you've probably noticed, it's nowhere to be found.
So what happened? Well the app actually landed in the New Zealand App Store, and a handful of other countries yesterday. But it appears that a leaked version of the Android app halted the rollout...