ArsTechnica wrote up an interesting piece that examines the future plans, and loyalty, of BlackBerry owners. The article, which cites a Crowd Science survey, found that 2 out of every 5 BlackBerry users surveyed indicated having plans to switch out their BlackBerry for an iPhone when their service contracts expire. Ars goes onto cite some fun stats in the study:

• 33% of iPhone owners and 16% of BlackBerry owners use their device exclusively for personal use, not work
• 1% of iPhone owners and 7% of BlackBerry owners use their device exclusively for business purposes
• 66% of iPhone owners and 77% of BlackBerry owners are using their device for both business and personal purposes

Is the 40% number accurate? We think it is probably a little high. A combination of Apple’s brand awareness and the iPhone advertising machine is likely responsible for some of the yay responses. But say the survey’s margin of error is +/-10; the fact that even 30% of RIM’s customer base is thinking of abandoning ship is bleak.

RIM’s title of communicator extraordinaire and business companion is unparalleled at the moment, but as users begin to demand a greater mix of work and personal uses from their phone, RIM may find itself in a tough spot. Oh, the study also mentioned… 90% of Android and iPhone owners plan to stay loyal to their respective device operating systems when the time comes to upgrade.

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And just like that, today we have the third photo leak of the mysterious BlackBerry slider. Unlike the first time we saw it but much like the second, the device has been placed next to a Curve 8900 for the sake of a size comparison. On its side the slider is noticeably thicker than the 8900 , but today it has been turned on its side in order to let us know exactly how thick this sucker is. What this device is actually called is anyone’s guess, but the general consensus is that this is not the Storm3. So what then is it? Lately a rumor has been floating around that it is actually a Bold owing to its identical styling queues to the current Bold 9700. Adding to this rumor is a UAProf found on RIM’s website for a 9700a that lists a portrait HVGA+ display (as opposed to the Bold 9700’s landscape HVGA+ display) and this all seems rather possible. Of course dealing with prototypes things can and will change as needed, so it looks like we’re going to have to twiddle our thumbs a little while longer until some more information comes to light. Hit the jump for a pic of device’s rear sans battery cover showing off its brand new F-S1 battery.

[via CrackBerry]

Read [9700a pics]

Read [UAProf]

A lot happened in the US smartphone market from October 2009 to January 2010, but thankfully there are companies like comScore kicking about to help us make sense of just which platforms were the biggest winners and losers during this period. The biggest platform was not surprisingly Google’s Android which saw an uptick of 4.3% to a total of 7.1% thanks in part to the successful launches of handsets like the DROID, DROID ERIS and Hero. RIM’s BlackBerry OS, which faired second best with a gain of 1.7% continued to dominate the total smartphone market at 43%, but one has to wonder if RIM could have done just a little bit more. After all, it did launch the BlackBerry Bold 9700, Curve 8530 and Storm2 during these months. Apple’s iPhone didn’t do as well as many would have guessed, but its 0.3% increase makes quite a bit of sense when you consider the tradition of people holding out on iPhone purchases in the six months leading up the summer release of the devices later iteration. Nonetheless, it does hold a 25.1% stake in the US smartphone market. When it comes to market share, one’s success is another’s misfortune. Not exactly a stranger to losing ground, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile managed to shed 4.0% thanks in part to what can be politely summed up as a general indifference to its current platform (how things will change). After this, we saw Palm with a loss of 2.1%. In Palm’s defence a lot of this can be attributed to people finally getting around to ditching Palm OS, but the fact remains that thing’s aren’t going to well for a company that many felt was on the path to recovery just 15 months ago.

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Remember that BlackBerry slider? BBLeaks got a hold of some higher resolution pics, and there’s even a BlackBerry 8900 thrown in next to it for size comparisons. Hit the break for one more picture and to jump on over for the rest of the shots! Have these new pictures changed what you think of what’s said to be pretty early hardware?

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BerryReview is reporting that one of its solid connections has confirmed the arrival of BIS 3.0 sometime in the next week. We’ve already told you about some of the leaked features of BIS 3.0, but here is a quick recap:

• True two-way synchronization with Gmail
• Ability to create Gmail labels with Advanced Gmail Plugin
• Support for Windows Media Audio files
• Support of OpenOffice files
• Carrier specific error messages with relevant contact information

Not exactly a blow-your-socks-off type upgrade but a few niceties for those Gmail, WMA, and OpenOffice lovers out there. Now, bring on the WebKit browser…

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Over the past several years Klausner Technologies, Inc. has been making headlines by suing large mobile companies, notably Apple and RIM, over alleged visual voicemail patent infringement on iPhone and BlackBerry devices. The company was founded by Judah Klausner — whose name sits atop the first PDA patent from 1978 (you can read more about him here). In 2009, Klausner Technologies named RIM in a lawsuit claiming ownership of several visual voicemail patents that RIM has filed and is now, obviously, making money from. Here is where the story takes a turn for the obscure…

RIM sent a letter to a small App World vendor — who asked to be kept anonymous  — claiming that the App World vendor may be responsible for the damages Klausner is seeking under Section 12 of the App World Vendor Agreement. A quick summation of Section 12:

Vendor shall indemnify, and if requested by RIM defend, and hold harmless RIM…from any third party claims, costs, damages, losses, settlement fees, and expenses…incurred directly or indirectly by a RIM Indemnified Party as a result of Vendor’s breach of this Agreement and/or as a result of any claim, suit, judgment, settlement, or cause of action…

The App World vendor in question provides a third-party visual voicemail service that is not native to BlackBerry OS, but rather a standalone service that one must sign-up for prior to downloading the application in App World. Now, to be clear: RIM was the sole company named in the suit filed by Klausner, and the suit covers RIM’s visual voicemail patent as applied and used in newer BlackBerry devices. Seems odd that a $38 billion company would try and drag a small software/service vendor into this legal battle where the patent in question has nothing to do with their product, no? We’ve reached out to RIM for comment and will update this when we hear back.

It was threatened, and thus now available. Hit up the BlackBerry App World to download the free Kindle app now—but only if you live in the US. And are happy paying up to a tenner to read a book on a 2.44" screen. [THINQ]

When Verizon Wireless and Skype announced a joint press conference at MWC, VZW users knew what they wanted to hear…and today, they got it. The two companies announced a partnership that will bring Skype calling and messaging to Verizon handsets in the coming months. The benefits to Verizon customers include:

• The ability to make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network;
• The ability to call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates;
• The ability to send and receive instant messages to other Skype users; and
• Remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence.

Skype Mobile will initially be available for the Motorola DROID, Motorola DROID Eris, BlackBerry 8530, BlackBerry 9530, BlackBerry 9550, and BlackBerry 9630. Great news for those rocking Big Red. Hit the read link for the official press release.

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Yesterday we reported Verizon was going to kick off an Android and webOS  BOGO sale today, but we missed a pretty big point — the BOGO sale also includes all BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphones as well as Verizon’s entire line-up of 3G multimedia phones and 3G internet devices. Yessir, this is one darn big sale. The question is, do you really need that new phone?

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Today, RIM co-CEO, Mike Lazaridis, and Director of Developer Relations, Mike Kirkup, gave us a little taste of what the future of browsing on a BlackBerry will look like…and it’s much better. While the UI is familiar, the rendering accuracy is what really shines through. The browser, which uses the WebKit rendering engine, fully supports HTML 5, still uses RIM’s compression schema for data efficiency, and gets an impressive 100/100 on the Acid 3 browser test. Now, we’re not 100% sure,but…we do see a web ad at about 0:41 in the video that appears to be running in Flash; if you go to live4soccer.com, you’ll see that only Flash advertisements seem to run on that particular spot in the page (middle left). Will the BlackBerry WebKit browser deliver Flash support? We sure hope so. No word from RIM on a release timeline or supported devices, but our connects tell us it is coming relatively soon. We’ve got a video of the browser in action set up for you after the break.

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We kid, we kid. There are many excellent reasons to choose a BlackBerry as your main handset in the year 2010, but we've got a brand new item to add to the list: bullet stoppage. A woman in Ohio was sitting with her gun-handling boyfriend at a restuarant when the gun went off and hit her leg. Lucky for the both of them, the BlackBerry in her pocket intercepted the bullet -- rather sufficiently, though to the considerable demise of the handset. It seems as if it was helped along by a neoprene case of some sort, but it's still pretty impressive for such a point blank attack. Love is a battlefield, folks.

[Thanks, Tommy G.]

BlackBerry stops bullet, at last proves itself useful beyond BBM originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been able to independently confirm the following details, though we don’t believe we have all of the information surrounding this announcement yet.

With that said, according to multiple RIM employees, RIM’s co-CEO Mike Lazaridis will be making a “huge” announcement on Tuesday in Barcelona. The announcement is said to be about (at least in part) BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express. We’re told this will be relaunched as a free and unlimited user BlackBerry Enterprise Server. You heard that right — a completely free and unlimited user BlackBerry Enterprise Server. We are under the impression BESX will use a user’s existing BIS data plan and not require the more expensive data feature, though this isn’t confirmed. Hit the jump for more!

Additionally, we’ve been told that “BlackBerry Shield for BIS “might get a shout out, too.” I don’t know what that service is, but maybe it’s a remote lock/remote wipe feature for BIS subscribers, or possibly ties into what we describe below? RIM employees have been touting this new BESX offering as an “ActiveSync killer” and while we’re sure it will help small businesses and other users hooked on ActiveSync, this might not help all that much if you still need that second server for the BES. The thing is, that’s kind of why we feel we don’t have the full story at this point — what if RIM is going to do something like a BES in the cloud for BIS users? Give them full OTA syncing, backups, remote wipe/lock, all while not requiring a dedicated BES server? That seems much more sexy to our ears and eyes, but again, that’s just speculation based on the limited amount of information RIM employees have shared with us.

We actually had a RIM employee go on record and give us a quote. When asked about thoughts on the announcement, the employee said, “Internally we are pumped about it. Perfect for SME, and people who are looking at using ActiveSync with other smartphones. It’s not quite RIM-like, giving software with unlimited users away, but a great move.”

Look for this new service (or services) to launch March 1st. More info as we get it!

Look, we know it’s an early beta and we’re extremely greatful to RIM for letting us try out this app before the masses load it onto their devices, but we’re not exactly impressed with Twitter for BlackBerry. We were intially planning to go all out and review the hell out of this app because a lot of people have been begging us for information on this app, but having tinkered with it this morning we’re ultimately concluded that we’re going to do this point-form style:

• To our eye, the app is cluttered in that so much stuff is packed into a small amount of space. We have to be honest and say it’s actually a bit overwhelming to look at after a while. Less is more. Less is more.
• There are no keyboard shortcuts we can find except for “R” for reply, “C” for direct message (umm…) and “L” for all. Okay, fine. There’s also “T” for top and “B” for bottom.
• Tweets are not cached, meaning each time you open up the app you have to sit tight while your timeline is populated.
• Since installing the app, our device has been randomly locked up no fewer than 5 times. Each instance lasts  up for 5 to 10 seconds at a go.
• Loading tweets is slow in terms of the app itself lagging and the pulling of data. Running the app with Wi-Fi honestly offers no advantage over 3G.
• You can search for people, keywords (and narrow them down by location), view trending topics
• Have we mentioned this app is laggy?
• You can compose tweets and DMs from the standard Messages app, but it’s actually a bit of a pain in the ass because you have to hit Menu, scroll down and select Twitter and then pick either Direct Message or Tweet.
• Lag.

Okay, that’s enough talk because for the life of us we can’t think of anything else worth noting. We’re going to duck out for a few and grab some coffee, but make sure that all of you make like good BlackBerry addicts and hit the jump for some screenies.

 

Blackberry users who have been frustrated by their phone's inability to properly sync Gmail can unclench their fists. Documents detailing the new features of the upcoming BIS 3.0 show Gmail syncing and WMA support are on the way.

RIM is finally updating BIS so that Gmail will accurately sync read and unread status of your mail. It's about time.

The update will also add support for Windows Media Audio attachments as well as OpenOffice documents. BIS 3.0 will also include the decidedly less exciting updates of a reconfigured, more secure E-mail setup application and more accurate error messages that will direct users to their specific carrier. I'm not kidding.

Carriers are themselves responsible to roll out the new Blackberry Internet Service so it's hard to say exactly when it should be popping up on your Blackberry. But just be glad that Gmail syncing and more exacting error messages are on their way. [BBLeaks via Crackberry]

You don't need that rumored Toshiba phone that "acts like a secretary," or even Maggie Gyllenhaal (though that would be nice), to have help when organizing your social life. Siri uses "speech recognition with a brain," according to its CEO.

To use the iPhone app, you just have to say aloud a command like "Book a table for six at 7pm at McDonalds" (I'm sure you're classier than that, but let's stick with it for now), and then using speech-recognition technology and the iPhone's GPS capabilities, your command is translated and processed by the app, responding with confirmation of booking—or lack of availability.

Siri, which has ties with Stanford Research Institude and DARPA, has collaborated with OpenTable, MovieTickets, StubHub, CitySearch and TaxiMagic to help with bookings and information, which pretty much wipes out the reason why you'd want to download any of those services' apps individually.

It's free to download on the iPhone now, but fear not, Android and BlackBerry users of the world—Siri plans on giving you a little phone secretary of your very own at some point. [Siri via NY Times]

Kind of went for an opposite color vibe on this one. Maybe we’ll give it away in a bit, or something… what do you think? Pictures are in the gallery if you’d like to see some more shots. Also, special thanks to Colorware for the hook up!

Click on over to our Colorware BlackBerry 9700 Gallery!

Virgin Mobile Canada lights up HSPA+ network, iPhone 3GS, Bold 9700 in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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