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Joe

BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 6/8/2009

Posted by Joe on June 11, 2009

Feeling overloaded with BlackBerry news and rumors? We know the feeling. We hear new things almost every day, and it can be tough to keep up with it all. that’s why we’re bringing you BlackBerry News from the Wire every Thursday.

We’ll catch you up on everything ‘Berry that happened over the course of the week. Not only that, but we’ll rank ‘em by importance, so you can more easily skim the items and read the ones of most significance. If you only have time to read one article, for instance, you might want to head down to our 5-star section. It’s All the BlackBerry News Fit to Geek.

BlackBerry Tour to Bell in mid-July
We’ve been waiting quite long for the BlackBerry Tour to finally make an official appearance. While we haven’t gotten that yet, we do have word from Mobile Syrup that the Tour will hit Bell in mid-July. Given the way the Storm launch went, we can probably expect this on U.S. carriers around the same time if not before. RIM asked Mobile Syrup to take down the images and spec sheets, but BGR still has them if you want to check it out. Also, it looks like Telus will get the Tour too. Good news for CDMA Canadians.

Bloggers love BlackBerry
It wasn’t the busiest week in terms of device news and rumors, but we did learn something about our fellow BlackBerry bloggers. According to social media analyst Nilesh Bansal, there are roughly 5,000 daily posts about BlackBerry from blogs. Wow. When you have a gander at our linkroll, you’ll see that there are a number of outlets, and that doesn’t even cover them all. It’s definitely a hot topic because it encompasses the gadget types and the business types. One admires the device, the other its usability. All of this has added up to a robust BlackBerry blogosphere that we’re proud to be a part of.



Palm Pre, iPhone could help RIM
RIM has the BlackBerry Tour on tap for a near-future release, but there are two competing devices which have received considerable attention: the new iPhone and the Palm Pre. Will these two devices overshadow RIM’s offering? Perhaps not, says UBS analyst Maynard Um. “Although perhaps a little counter-intuitive, we believe the launch of the Palm Pre and Apple iPhone will benefit RIM due to increased carrier competition. We believe Verizon will continue to promote BlackBerry and think RIM can also benefit from potential renegotiations between AT&T and Apple. We believe RIM’s guidance for the August quarter is likely to exceed our [estimates and Wall Street estimates], driven by new device launches as well as increased operator competition in the quarter.” That’s good news for our favorite device manufacturer. RIM is riding some serious momentum right now, and the Tour could help bolster that, despite the competition.

T-Mobile on security breach: all is well
Late last week we got word that T-Mobile’s servers had been hacked, and that customer data might have been compromised. This week, they not only claimed that customer data was safe, but that all counter reports are erroneous. They say: “the company is conducting a thorough investigation and at this time has found no evidence that customer information, or other company information, has been compromised. Reports to the contrary are inaccurate and should be corrected.” Of course, they could find evidence later, so those stories could need re-correcting. It’s tough to believe this 100 percent, given the amount of corporate speak we’re inundated with daily. Approach this statement with caution.

Keep your radio on when the battery is too low
One of the worst feelings is when you need your phone, but see the dreaded “Battery too low for radio use” message. D’oh! So you’ll have to find some kind of charger before you make and receive calls, nevermind using the data connection. There’s an app, though, called ForceRadioOn, which will keep the radio running. Sure, it’ll finish off your battery a whole lot quicker, but you can at least use it for a few more minutes. Thanks to CB for the find. You can get ForceRadioOn at the BBGeeks store for free.

How to crop images on your BlackBerry
Honestly, I don’t use my BlackBerry camera much, and when I do it’s for observational things. This means I have no use for advanced features like pitcure cropping. However, I’m sure many of you do. To that end, BerryReview has assembled a quick guide to BlackBerry picture cropping. If this is something you’ve wanted to do, make sure to check it out.



Facebook 1.6 now available. This provides a few updates that Facebook users will appreciate.

The different types of BlackBerry themes. In case you don’t now what “Zen” and “Custom L” means next to a theme, here’s a quick reference.

Customize your BlackBerry themes. You might see the term “customizable icons” when looking at a BlackBerry theme. Here’s what it means. Spoiler: it’s not as cool as it sounds.

The complete guide to Pandora for BlackBerry. I’m a huge Pandora fan, and take a walk-through of the BlackBerry app.

Walk-through of BlackBerry Messenger. Got some pretty good comments on this post, and we’re definitely going to beef it up.

Access websites quicker with Launchers. Instead of typing in Web addresses, you can add a bunch of quick launch icons. Now there’s a site dedicated to making and distributing them.

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