Author: Kyle McInnes

If you’re an iPhone 5 user, there’s a few things about BlackBerry 10 that you’ll find interesting. Granted, there’s definitely some things that you would miss if you switched, such as the obvious app gap with Netflix, Instagram and more missing from the app list. But there are also some really great features about BlackBerry 10 such as the unparalleled typing experience that you’ll really appreciate. We’ve put together 5 cool BlackBerry Z10 features that may get you to switch.

1. Typing Experience – The iOS keyboard still sucks. Autocorrect is still an issue and my friends with iPhones are consistently sending me emails with typos. Personally, I’ve always hated BlackBerry’s virtual keyboards but this one is completely different. The spelling correction is great and it only gets better with time.

2. Standard Connections – Aren’t you tired of how Apple constantly changes its connections and renders all accessories useless? If you’re an iPhone 5 user, how often have you asked someone “do you have a spare charger?” only for them to pull out the non-Lightning charger. With the BlackBerry Z10, you’ve got a standard Micro-USB charger that’s compatible with even Android devices.

3. Multiple Screens – As mentioned above, one of the great things about BB10 is standard connections, including HDMI. You can not only share your screen with the standard HDMI, but you can even share your mobile screen over BBM. This is going to have some really interesting implications for business and consumers.

4. Maps – The new BlackBerry 10 maps are powered by Tom Tom and they’re impressive. The map app comes with the ability to view traffic as well as set favorites for easy and quick navigation. If you’re tired of your crApple Maps and easy navigation is important to you, consider switching to BlackBerry 10.

5. Bigger Screen – If you’re an iPhone 5 user, you’ll definitely appreciate the bigger screen as it was probably one of the reasons you upgraded. The BlackBerry Z10 has an even bigger screen, but not ridiculously big like the Samsung Note. It’s still manageable but gives you more space to do the things you love.

The BlackBerry Z10 went on sale with Rogers yesterday with a launch event in Toronto. If you’ve picked up a Z10 and you’re looking for accessories, we highly recommend the extra battery pack. After using the device since launch, it looks like the device only gets about a half to 3/4 day as a Power User. With the extra battery pack, the Power User should be able to consistently get full days.

Check out the BlackBerry Charger Bundle and more accessories at this link.

When Thorsten Heins introduced Alicia Keys, I know a lot of people were pretty confused. Why is RIM hiring someone with no tech experience to be the company’s Creative Director? Well, it’s probably just an advertising move and it’s not like she’s going to be telling engineers how to do their jobs. Regardless, I thought about it for a while and it dawned on me, Alicia Keys is so on brand it’s crazy. Here are 3 ways you didn’t realize Alicia Keys fits the BlackBerry brand.

1. Her last name is Keys! Get it?

Blackberry hires Alicia Keys as Global Creative Director. KEYS. GET IT? #OnBrand

— David Hicks (@ALL_CAPS) January 30, 2013

2. Keys was raised by her white, Scotch Irish mother since the age of 2. Get it? Okay, this joke takes a little more explaining. Here it goes: the BLACKBerry grew up on Wall Street, with its predominantly WHITE investors. Get it? Yes, I know there are minorities on Wall Street but when you think of Wall Street you typically think of “rich white men” types.

3. New York City is where BlackBerry 10 launched because the company has an Empire State of Mind.

This was all way funnier in my head. I’m done.

Well this is funny. A few weeks ago at CES, the CBC was at CES 2013 and interviewed the President of ooVoo with this statement:

Then, exactly 3 weeks later, ooVoo announces a BlackBerry 10 app and support that seems to go way beyond just BBM integration. Also, if they’re such a niche market, why are you now so excited? Either the CBC misinterpreted the President, or RIM’s dev relations team are amazing at changing companies’ minds about the platform. Either way, it’s a win for upcoming BlackBerry 10 users. Keep reading for the press release.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and WATERLOO, ONTARIO – ooVoo, one of the largest independent social video chat provider with 66 million registered subscribers, and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced that ooVoo will bring its next-generation HD video communications service to the BlackBerry® 10 platform.

The BlackBerry 10 platform allows the ooVoo service to easily integrate with voice, video and the remarkably fast BlackBerry 10 browser, which will give BlackBerry 10 customers a multiplatform solution for video chat and instant messaging with friends, family and colleagues. With ooVoo, up to 12 contacts can connect at the same time, allowing customers to stay connected and share experiences.

“ooVoo serves more than one billion minutes of video each month to subscribers. By bringing ooVoo HD video chat to the BlackBerry 10 platform BlackBerry 10 customers will be able to video chat and share videos anytime with the millions of ooVoo’s daily active users on virtually any mobile or desktop platform,” said Jay Samit, President of ooVoo.

ooVoo will be integrated into the basic calling functionality in BlackBerry 10, making it easy for customers to flow directly from a voice call to an ooVoo video call. ooVoo’s cloud-based service provides remarkable video quality. BlackBerry 10 customers will be able to chat cross-platform, and take advantage of the social features that ooVoo provides, for free*.

“As a leader in communications, we understand the importance of bringing people together in an innovative way that is easy to use,” said Martyn Mallick, Vice President Global Alliances and Business Development at Research In Motion. “ooVoo will be a fantastic choice for BlackBerry 10 customers looking for a multi-user video communications service that can connect them to their contacts on virtually any computer or mobile device, and we are pleased to work with ooVoo to help bring their service to our customers.”

ooVoo’s innovative Watch Together™ feature allows customers to have group video viewing experiences within video calls. ooVoo’s customers can incorporate video calling with friends and family into their daily lives by, for example, bringing friends along on shopping trips through ooVoo to get real-time opinions on choices, or mommy group members showing the latest happenings – whether milestone or mysterious spots – for opinions in real-time.
Pricing and Availability

ooVoo is a free service, and will be offered for BlackBerry 10 smartphones on the BlackBerry® World™ storefront later this year.

I recently attended the recruiting tour for the Nike+ Accelerator powered by TechStars NYC and I thought it might be beneficial to write up some info and thoughts for those interested in the program. For those who don’t know, Nike has launched a startup accelerator in partnership with TechStars NYC to find startups that can leverage access to the Nike+ Fuel data to build a startup or complement a startups data. The goal is to get some initial seed money, go through the TechStars program and build a business that may be acquired by Nike or simply exist as its own business. Read on for more details.

After a couple demos from some people in the personal health and analytics space, Nike came out to present. The company did a great job of explaining Nike’s mission which is to inspire athletes*. The term “athletes” at Nike always comes with an asterix because the company defines an athlete as every human. To drive this point home, they showed a series of videos from the Nike Fuel and “Find Your Greatness” campaigns. Check out the videos:

After some inspirational videos from Nike, TechStars came out to talk a little about what they bring to the table and some of the finer details of the program. According to Dave Drach, VP of Business Development at TechStars, the deal is that Nike provides unique access to the Nike+ data and TechStars is in it for $20K and 6% on the cap table. It’s Nike’s money so it’s an amazing deal for TechStars. In order to get accepted to the program, you go through the same process of applying to the Nike+ Accelerator as you would for TechStars. So it’s a pretty competitive process. If you’re accepted to the program, you’ll be working out of Portland, Oregon, a short drive from the Nike World Headquarters.

Overall, it looks like a great program for any startups looking to work closely with Nike on a health industry startup. TechStars brings their network to the table and Nike brings the API. All you have to do is figure out how to build a billion dollar business from there. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Read more about the Nike+ Accelerator from the TechStars site.

Here are the official details about the accelerator from Nike on their site.

The Librarian of Congress, though the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) has decided that unauthorized unlocking of cellphones would be illegal and provided a 90-day window for compliance. The window closes tomorrow and with that, we’re curious about the implications for not only consumers, but the unlocking industry. There’s potentially thousands of jobs that are affected by an attempt on the part of the government to shut down the unlocking industry. Is this legislation good for the economy in the long run? We reached out to our friends at unlockcodes.com to get their reaction. Read on for more.

Here is the official legislation:

“Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable a wireless telephone handset originally acquired from the operator of a wireless telecommunications network or retailer no later than ninety days after the effective date of this exemption to connect to a different wireless telecommunications network, if the operator of the wireless communications network to which the handset is locked has failed to unlock it within a reasonable period of time following a request by the owner of the wireless telephone handset, and when circumvention is initiated by the owner, an individual consumer, who is also the owner of the copy of the computer program in such wireless telephone handset, solely in order to connect to a different wireless telecommunications network, and such access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.”

It’s pretty convoluted but it seems like you still have the right to request it to be unlocked and that might help your case if they don’t respond but the government tries to come after you. But all this is legal speak wrapped in so many “ifs” that it makes your eyes cross.

For comment, we reached out to our friends at unlockscodes.com to see what they thought. Here’s their response:

“After reading that unlocking cell phones is becoming illegal in the US, I’m absolutely baffled. It’s like saying after you’ve bought a house can’t redecorate. If you buy a mobile phone, then you’ree the rightful owner. If you want to switch carriers for cheaper service then you should have the option to take yourself to an independent unlocking website such as ours and purchase an unlocking code.

Now, we undertand the carrier’s position that if you opt into a contract with them, you’re getting a deal and you have no option but to stick with the carrier until the contract is up. But what happens if you want to go away on holiday and the plan that the service provider offers is too expensive? It’s important that the consumer be able to use an independent travel SIM with companies that specialize in cheap roaming calls and SMS. To do this, you’ll need to unlock the phone, but this legislation is at odds with this scenario. Even if the carrier is able to compete with independent service providers, this legislation seems bad for the economy as it would make thousands of small businesses illegal.

If you buy a phone you should have the right to tamper with it as you rightfully own that cell phone. Making cell phone unlocking illegal would put thousands of unlocking websites out of business. I the owner of unlockscodes.com and would really struggle as this is my only source of income and I’m not trained in any other sector. The government really needs to rethink the implications of this legislation.”

So like an email, we’ll sign off on this post with “thoughts?”.

The past 2 hackathons have been amazing successes for RIM from an app quantity perspective. The first hackathon generated 15,000 apps and the second has generated over 19,000 apps. With 34,000 apps from just 2 hackathons, RIM could keep this up throughout the lifetime of the platform and potentially surpass the competition just from this type of developer support. One would assume that the platform would also attract a base level of developer support and the hackathons are just icing on the cake. But are these apps really doing anything for the typical user? In some ways, the hackathons are not on-message with what Alec Saunders and RIM have said in the past. Saunders once said that RIM’s strength is quality over quantity but a quick look at the apps being submitted at these hackathons don’t seem to follow this mantra.

#bbdevs Last Chance Portathon is still going strong… 6 hours left, and already over 15K apps submitted.Join here: cgs.adobeconnect.com/_a829239487/r8…

— Alec Saunders (@asaunders) January 19, 2013

Wow!Congrats to the hard working RIM developer relations team.Another 19,071 apps added to the #blackberry10 catalog since Friday noon.

— Alec Saunders (@asaunders) January 20, 2013

Remember when Alec said at BlackBerry DevCon Europe: “If we fill App World with garbage, then we’ve done ourselves and our users a disservice.”

The very nature of a hackathon dictates that your app will be small in scope and not as polished as it could be. It’s great if these hackathons are producing beta versions of apps that will be much bigger in scope and polished, but considering the incentive system RIM has in place, it’s likely that developers are just dipping their toes in the water and producing many small, unpolished apps.

Take for example, the developers AshishKumar.Org and Rudi Suriyanto that both come up in the “Recently Added” section of BlackBerry World. Both developers have submitted apps that could really be combined into a single app. We don’t know if these apps were submitted during a hackathon, but they’re definitely indicative of hackathon-style apps.

It’s hard to get a better idea of what apps have been submitted lately because RIM’s BlackBerry World doesn’t seem working the way it normally does. It’s not easy to browse to the “Newest Apps” section because it keeps directing users in a loop to the “Top Apps” section. Maybe RIM is trying to hide the latest submissions? Or perhaps it stems from the latest web bug we uncovered in BlackBerry World.

While the hackathons are a great idea and an excellent way to engage the users, it remains unclear whether it’s the best strategy for getting quality apps in the door. Perhaps the only way to do that is to sell millions of devices and convince the AAA development studios that the business case is there.

Untappd is an awesome app that combines a social network, beer guide and venue checkins. In short, the app lets you tell your friends what beers you’re drinking and where. The location element allows you to discover venues that offer the best beers and the beer guide is constantly expanding as it’s crowdsourced. The good people at Untappd have officially announced that a native BlackBerry 10 Untappd app is now available and come January 30th, you’ll be able to use it on your new BlackBerry 10 device, along with features that are exclusive to the platform. Read on for more details.

Here is the official blog post from the Untappd team:

“We’re always working hard to bring Untappd to as many devices as possible and it’s our goal to get as many people drinking socially as possible. In keeping with this goal, we’re excited to announce that Untappd is officially available on BlackBerry 10 as a native app. Blackberry 10 is set to launch on January 30th, 2013.

Featuring the latest updates (many of which haven’t even hit iPhone or Android yet… don’t worry, they’re coming soon) the BlackBerry version of Untappd is sure to delight those of you that continue to stand by our friends at RIM. You will now be able to add photos to your check-ins, gain better GPS accuracy, and enjoy all that a native app has to offer in terms of performance and reliability.

So when you get your BlackBerry 10 device on January 30th, be sure to go download Untappd for BlackBerry and drink socially. While you’re at it, please leave a review!”

Check out Untappd for BlackBerry (available for all devices) at this link.

The BlackBerry World site has been recently revamped but as far as we can tell it seems broken. Now, it could just be our browser but it’s the only site that seems to have these problems. Yesterday, RIM’s PR messaged out to say the site had received a redesign and it’s very likely that this redesign has some bugs in it. Here at BlackBerryCool, we know that redesigns can cause huge headaches. We’ve been through them. Keep reading to see the errors we’re getting.

Clicking on the Apps section results in the CSS breaking.

This is what happens when you click on the Newest Apps section.

Here’s a screenshot from this link.

A group of BlackBerry developers are currently climbing to the summit of Kilimanjaro and will be developing a charity app for BB10 in “the most strenuous hackathon ever”. It’s an awesome idea that’s raising money for a good cause – Doctors Without Borders. Check out the pics and follow along with the Twitter hashtag.

Donate to “Reaching New Heights with BB10″ at this link.

Check out pictures from Luca Sale after the break.

Getting closer… #BB10AppVenture twitter.com/blackberryluca…

— Luca Sale (@blackberryluca) January 21, 2013

As high as the clouds twitter.com/blackberryluca…

— Luca Sale (@blackberryluca) January 21, 2013

As high as the clouds twitter.com/blackberryluca…

— Luca Sale (@blackberryluca) January 21, 2013

“You remember the 80′s?” @alexbowker #BB10AppVenture twitter.com/blackberryluca…

— Luca Sale (@blackberryluca) January 20, 2013

Donate to “Reaching New Heights with BB10″ at this link.

One of the most critical elements of creating a great app or game is the ability to analyse what your users are doing, and be able to respond and iterate accordingly. Are a lot of users getting stuck with a particular UI element? Time to recode it and make it easier. Are your players finding a particular level too easy? Time to make it harder. It’s through a variety of analytics tools that developers are able to do this. Companies such as Flurry, Google and Kontagent are all available to developers on iOS and Android, but what will BlackBerry 10 developers use? If you’re a developer making apps or games for BlackBerry 10, tell us what tools you’re using or considering. Keep reading for more details.

As far as we can tell, there seems to be only one solution for Native BlackBerry 10 developers and that solution is offered by Localytics. The company has a solution because one of their customers implemented Localytics on BlackBerry 10 and since there’s no official support for BB10, the client open sourced it.

Here is the official response from the Localytics team:

“Hello,

At this point Localytics does not have a native BB10 SDK built but as all of our SDKs are provided in source code one of our customers created their own BB10 SDK. As this is not an SDK written by Localytics we cannot assure that it will work 100% flawlessly but it would certainly be worth testing. If you have any feedback about the SDK please feel free to share it with the developer as well as us.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.”

Flurry has responded to a request about BlackBerry 10 support and the company has said that it doesn’t have any plans to support BlackBerry 10. Now, that doesn’t mean they won’t support it down the road, it just means that at this exact time it doesn’t look like they’re working on it.

Since BlackBerry 10 supports a wide range of code bases, there are some apps that will be able to leverage analytics on BB10. For example, Flurry’s Android SDK will work with Android apps that are ported using the Android Player. Also, there’s Adobe AIR support with Flurry so any AIR apps on BB10 will be able to leverage the SDK.

Also of note, RIM doesn’t even have support for BlackBerry 10 with its own analytics service.

So we’re curious, if you’re a BlackBerry 10 developer, what are you going to use for analytics?

We’re going to have people on the ground at both the New York and Toronto BlackBerry 10 launch events so stay tuned for some great coverage. We’re not exactly sure if the two events will be the same or have different content, but we’ll have both covered regardless. If we had to guess, the Toronto event might be a little more “corporate” with RIM executives on hand, and the New York event would probably be more carrier and partner centric, with execs from AT&T being present. We’ll find out in 12 days.

The NHL GameCenter app provides live scores, stats, and video on demand for free, as well as live, out-of-market streams for those who have purchased a $49.99 subscription. The app allows fans to watch live and archived games featuring teams outside a fan’s local market across multiple screens, including smartphones, tablets, computers and connected devices. Burried in the press release for the app was a cool tidbit for BlackBerry users: the NHL GameCenter app will be coming to BlackBerry 10 “later this season”.

Features include:

NHL GameCenterTM (free):

• Live scores and stats for every team and player
• Live game simulation with near real-time shift changes, boxscores and play-by-play (new this season)
• Post-game video highlights (new this season)
• Video on-demand content featuring the best selections from NHL editors
• Full-season schedule and standings
• Customized game alerts
• Player profiles with headshots, bios and stats for all active NHL players
• Customizable settings for up to five favorite teams (new this season)

Upgrade to NHL GameCenter™ Premium** ($4.99 or free for Verizon tablet and 4G LTE smartphone customers):

• Live radio broadcasts (home and away)
• In-game video highlights
• Condensed game replays

Upgrade to NHL GameCenter LIVETM ($49.99 or free with broadband subscription):

• Live out-of-market game video (home and away)
• Access across multiple devices
• All NHL GameCenter™ Premium content

As soon as the app is live, we’ll provide a download link.

BlackBerry 10 is coming soon. There’s just over a couple weeks left until the global launch of RIM’s new OS and the company is making a big push to make sure the device has plenty of applications available on launch. To do this, RIM held a #BB10Portathon over the weekend and developers submitted over 15,000 apps to BlackBerry World. It’s not clear how many of those apps are Android ports versus native, but the number alone is impressive.

In Case You Missed It: More than 15,000 apps were submitted during this weekend’s #BB10Portathon!RT if you submitted an app! ^PB

— Research In Motion (@BlackBerryDev) January 14, 2013