I waited last Thursday. News From The Wire was done, but I wanted to see if RIM would make their quarterly earnings announcement, so I could slip that in and have the full report. But no. The announcement didn’t come until later, and eventually I decided to just toss up the post. RIM did announced their second quarter earnings. Since most aren’t interested in the technicals, here are the highlights. RIM shipped 8.3 million devices. This led to 3.8 million net adds, bringing the total subscriber base to 32 million. Revenue was up 3 percent from the first quarter and 37 percent from the second quarter last year. Since wireless tends to slump mid-year, those are good numbers.
Weekly roundup of new devices: Storm 2, 9700, Atlas
The closer we get to the Storm 2 release, the more it looks like we’ll see it in late October. This was, if you’ll remember, right around the original release date for the first Storm. But, like a few RIM models in 2008, it hit a delay and was released in November. There don’t appear to be any such snags this time, and we see this week that Best Buy will get dummy units on October 25. Real models apparently come out around the same time, so a late October, early November release is in the cards. Word is that it will be $599 sans contract, but those looking for a subsidy will almost certainly pay $199.
That’s the BlackBerry Atlas pictured on the left, next to the 9700. The photo comes courtesy of Salomondrin, the self-proclaimed “ultimate BlackBerry ninja,” by way of CrackBerry. Warning: his site slowed my computer to a near halt — got the damn rainbow pinwheel multiple times. Anyway, according to BGR, the Atlas was supposed to be a CDMA device for Verizon, but that appears to not be the case. The Atlas was previously known as the Driftwood, and is slated for markets in China and East Asia. Sorry, Verizon fans. It looks like just the Storm 2, Curve 8530, and Essex for you.
Finally, the 9700 has shown up in AT&T’s systems. This doesn’t give us any idea of a release date, but we do know that it will come in a charcoal finish. To contrast it, it appears a white Bold 9000 is in the system as well. Does anyone really want a white BlackBerry?
BlackBerry issue: RIM recently revealed a security issue with the way its browser handles security certificate discrepancies. These discrepancies usually stem from a phishing scam, and it’s recommended that when seeing such a security dialog pop up that you close the connection. Problem is, the dialog in this case looks benign. Check out the whole BBGeeks post to find out how to protect yourself from this flaw.
Apps of the week: Desktop manager and more
Glory, glory, hallelujah! RIM will release Desktop Manager for Mac tomorrow, which, if you’re not reading this when posted, is Friday October 2. A leaked version appeared a few weeks ago, though there appear to be some updates in the official release. We looked at the Mac app a while back, and I’ve bee using it since the leak. It definitely satisfied the BlackBerry needs of Mac users.
Does anyone still use TiVo? I remember back in 2004, there was nothing I wanted more. I’m a sports fan who has many other interests, and the ability it afford to condense games is beyond awesome. For instance, if I want to get some serious reading or writing done in the evening, I can just DVR the Yankees game and then watch it at, say, 10:00. I’d be done before 11. Anyway, TiVo kind of fell out of favor once cable companies started supplying DVRs to their subscribers at a lower cost than TiVo, and with no initial equipment purchase.
If you’re still loyal to the TiVo brand, you can check out the TiVo BlackBerry app. It lets you schedule recordings wherever you are. You might have seen this feature advertised with DirecTV, and I’d expect to see it with most major cable companies in due time. Those with TiVo and a BlackBerry have no reason to not head to http://www.blackberry.com/tivo and download the app.
At CIO, Al Sacco walks through 10 BlackBerry productivity apps. There are surely many more, but Al touches on 10 particularly useful ones. The BlackBerry is an incredibly productivity device — you might even call it a productivity panacea. However, when it comes to productivity, I choose to read just one site.
HulloMail is the latest visual voicemail service to hit BlackBerry, and it very well could be the best. Not only does it take over voicemail duties from your carrier, emailing you audio files of your messages, but it also introduces an app to the fray. This allows you to take advantage of visual voicemail’s greatest advantage: skipping messages without even listening to them. Listen to what you need, delete the rest. If they add transcription, even for a fee, HulloMail will go right to the top.
Tip of the week: Clean up your BlackBerry’s memory. Not only will you have more room to store stuff, but more free memory means a smoother running BlackBerry.
Audio-Visual Club: mSpot, FlyCast, and 7digital
This week marked the release of two amazing multimedia services. First is 7digital’s music store, pictured to the right. This has tons of titles, more than Thumbplay’s music store. Not only that, but it features a built-in media player which reportedly trumps RIM’s native player. You can import your library from your media card and go to town. If they integrate a streaming audio channel, they could dominate the market.
Speaking of streaming radio, make sure to check out FlyCast. It offers over 1,500 channels of free streaming radio. If you’re out of cell range frequently enough, you can buy a caching plan, which stores music ahead of time so you can retrieve it whenever.
Pictured to the left is mSpot Mobile Movies. It’s the next logical step in video rental. Just choose from their 350 titles, pay the $4.99 fee, and you’re streaming a movie right on your BlackBerry. If you like it, you can sign up for a Movie Club pass, which gives you a discount on movie rentals if you watch many per month. You’ll never have a boring commute again.
In brief: OS 5.0 for the Curve, native Twitter client
OS 5.0 is nearing a release — it should come with the 9700 and Storm 2. But what about other devices? RIM said they’d release it by the end of the year, but we haven’t heard much that signals it’s around the bend, other than some leaked versions. One of those leaks, we found this week, is OS 5.0 for the 8330. This is quite odd, because the old Curves didn’t even get a 4.6 upgrade. You can find the leaked file here, and install it by following the OS upgrade instructions. Please note that this is an unofficial release, and may destroy your BlackBerry. This is the risk you take with unvetted software. Proceed at your own risk.
Finally, there’s word that RIM is working on a native Twitter client. Why they’d waste the time and money I’m not sure. There are tons of third party BlackBerry Twitter clients. Why doesn’t RIM just gobble up one of them if they want their own?
