android
@BlackBerry 10.3.3 is coming. Soon.
It was good to see @BlackBerry put out a small blurb about the state of 10.3.3.
Finally. I think the silence on this topic was deafening to many. I guess BlackBerry wanted a little distraction from all the hoopla that was caused after their ‘exiting hardware’ announcement. It’s great to read that it’s in the ‘final stages’ but does that even mean anything? Final stages? That could still be months away! Lol. I don’t know how to feel about it. I mean, we were all told from day one that this update was strictly security based. Last I read there would be some update to the browser but that’s about it. Or is it? This little gem cropped up a few days ago…
https://tun-technologie.blogspot.com/2016/09/blackberry-1033-what-is-new_27.html?m=1
Could it be possible that even though we were told that the update is strictly security that we will get surprised with all the changes mentioned on this site post? Could it be? Maybe this is the real reason behind the delay? I think it’s wishful thinking on my part. Some folk in the BlackBerry community are already calling bullshit on the post. Some are saying that it’s a wish list and not what will be in the update. I tend to agree. I love BlackBerry 10 but as difficult as it is to write I know it’s going away. Guys like UTB ‘I will never use a BlackBerry android’ Brad while sporting his #Priv Android device preaches that if BlackBerry 10 does go away the fault will rest on the shoulders of the BlackBerry community. Those black sheep of the community that are creating FUD, trashing on John, whining over the lack of anything on the BlackBerry 10 side, etc that are going to be responsible for the potential demise of BlackBerry 10. I don’t know. Should I even put any weight on anything this guy says? On the flip side of things Brad keeps reiterating that BlackBerry 10 isn’t going anywhere…It’s easy to preach that BlackBerry 10 isn’t going anywhere. I agree, it isn’t going anywhere. NOW. Because it can’t now. U just can’t drop an OS that is being used by very important and crucial entities.. but everything that seems to be happening around BlackBerry 10 tells me that the plan is to phase it out eventually.
Here’s what I think BlackBerry’s game plan was once they made the decision to go to the dark side and embrace Android.
1) get former BlackBerry enthusiasts who left the brand and are now androidians to come back with the android offering
2) get newbies who are android enthusiasts to embrace BlackBerry by hopping on their offering of a more secure Android.
3) get BB10ers to convert and embrace the dark side that is Android. You know, assimilate.
Of course all three are risky business but I think it was a risk they obviously decided was worth taking. My take is that they know very well that some of the BlackBerry loyalists will not buy into item 3 but the hope Is that the combination of 1 and 2 with some of 3 will greatly outnumber the portion of 3 that will leave the brand because of their utter disgust over BlackBerry’s choice to embrace Android. I know my view seems to be on the simplistic side but why not? Right? I mean how many times did John Chen say that he would let the market dictate what happens. If you put very little effort on an OS at one point something is going to give. Those of us that make up item 3 will get fed up and will make a decision. I think that is what John is counting on. Good or bad.
Anyway – I truly hope I am wrong. I simply love BlackBerry 10. It’s so amazing. It’s really a shame it never got traction like it should have. I love my Passport SE. Just love it. Having written all this though I have decided that I will start to save up and I will target the purchase of this here:
According to the photo ‘mercury’ will be out in January of 2017.. I will not make the purchase then but rather wait until April or May of 2017. That’s how I am feeling right now. Time will tell if I will assimilate or I will continue to fight the good fight with BlackBerry 10. Stay tuned.
Italy: #Android is King
Obviously it’s not a news flash.. we all know that #Android is king pretty much everywhere. Given I am into gadgets and tech I decided to pay close attention to what people are using while in italy. Android it is… and mostly #Samsung. Even the tablets used by the police force are Samsung. Waiters used android phones to take your order. My family members as well are mostly android users with the exception of a few that had #apple. To my sadness and dismay they had no clue what a @BlackBerry is. Not good.
Is your phone infected with Chinese malware? – Yahoo Finance Canada
.. and you wonder why i stick to BlackBerry and specifically BlackBerry 10…
Yes, BlackBerry also makes an android but apparently the only way to get this malware is by gaining root access.. which as of now BB has yet to be rooted…BlackBerry for the WIN!! 🙂
via Is your phone infected with Chinese malware? – Yahoo Finance Canada
How to enable the swipe to type feature on the BlackBerry Priv keyboard | CrackBerry.com
via How to enable the swipe to type feature on the BlackBerry Priv keyboard | CrackBerry.com
awesome new feature… way to go @BlackBerry !!
PS: i watched the video and i still have no clue how it works!! lol.
Chen: Two More Phones Definitely Coming Out This Year
via Chen: Two More Phones Definitely Coming Out This Year
This is obviously great news… regardless of the fact that the two phones will be android. John Chen clearly seems confident that hardware will be profitable and i believe that he believes it. I will continue to hold out hope that BB10 does not go away and that @BlackBerry is working on more BB10 goodness along with, at some point, a new phone. #TeamBlackBerry
@BlackBerry 10: My #Android App Library
One of the many great things about @BlackBerry 10 is that it also allows you to run #Android apps. How great and impressive is that ! Typically I only download an android app if there isn’t an equivalent native app.. with the exception of twitter and instagram which offer features the native BlackBerry 10 apps don’t… yet.
You will notice from the screen grab above that I do in fact also have #Google Playstore installed. That’s right… this is thanks to the BlackBerry community of devs that help out when it’s needed… so a shout out to BlackBerry Exclusive for this great post that helped walk me through the steps of installing these apps.
Outside of the two android apps I mentioned in my post https://capparelli.ca/2016/04/03/most-used-apps/ that I use regularly, the others are used when needed. I just recently started to use @SnapChat. I have this love/hate relationship with it. I love to hate it but it pulls me in all the time. The other app that is interesting/intriguing is Stre.am… I was toying with the idea of using it for streaming some of our soccer team’s activity over the summer. However, what I have noticed from using it a few times is that it pushes the boundaries of voyeurism… it’s almost borderline inappropriate at times.. you get the impression there are a lot of people that need validation of sorts. In the end it may not be the right solution for what I am looking for.
My Most Used Apps On My @BlackBerry 10: @Blaq, @Nemory
I thought i’d write a post on the apps I use on my @BlackBerry on a daily basis. You will quickly understand why I don’t really care for the other ecosystems. It’s fantastic that they offer millions of apps but how many of these apps are quality and how many of these apps does a person really actually use?
I do have apps on my phone that I use from time to time but the following three I use daily.. so here we go from most used to least (daily):
@Blaq
The best native @BlackBerry 10 app for twitter out there. The interface is so clean and up until recently updates were coming in at a pretty good pace and the updates were always great. The ease of which you can switch from account to account is amazing. In general anything u want to do from composing a tweet to re-tweeting to liking etc is a breeze. Just an awesome app. Unfortunately updates to this app have been scarce recently…I should probably say non-existent… my guess is that Jerome has abandoned it.. I recall him tweeting about the uncertainty of BB10 as being the reason. It’s a shame.
#Inst10
This native app created by @Nemory is an instagram client and it too is a pretty awesome app… very clean and smooth. The only thing it’s missing right now is the ability to post videos and also re-gram videos. Neither work. I inquired a few times from the developer if there is an ETA and I never really get a straight answer. Oliver says instagram changed the APIS and he’s working on it. The only thing I question is why @iGrann, another native instagram app was able to figure it out. Right now when I want to post a video I use @iGrann instead. It doesn’t make sense to have to do that. I think with Oliver it’s more about the fact that when he moves on to another app he tends to abandon the previous ones. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate all the work he’s done. He is the only one showing continued effort towards BB10. Although I realize he’s a one man shop and there are so many hours in a day at the same time I feel that he needs to be sure to provide what is needed. His apps are not free nor on the cheap end of the spectrum.
A good example is his scope10 for periscope.. $2.99 for an app that I would consider useless in its current state. Nothing new from it since Nov 2015. This is an app I would certainly buy if it offered what it should.. which is a lot more than it does now.
#Face10
This is another app written by @Nemory and as u may have guessed it’s a native facebook app. I don’t spend a lot of time on FB but when I do I opt for this app most times and not the now html5 browser version BlackBerry put out.
The one thing I noticed though about apps written by @Nemory is that initially when u install the apps.. for a period of time after you get the desired notifications sent to the hub but then with time they just stop. Installing his headless stabilizer app does nothing to help the situation. I don’t have that pblm with @Blaq so I have to assume the issue is with his coding and not the OS. Another thing that happens is that with time when u launch his apps they lag and actually lock up the phone for a significant amount of seconds but I noticed that clearing the cache helps this situation.
As for #Android apps I use daily and this just recently… these two games… to keep my mind sharp 🙂
A shout out to these other apps I use but not daily: #QuickPost, Enpass, cloudvert, screen recorder, fancytran, gasbuddy, iShrink, photostudio, dropbox and box.
As you can see though I don’t have nor need much.
Things That Make You Go Hmmm: Case of the flip-flops and not the kind you wear.
When you are heavily invested in something or someone it is very difficult to be completely objective.. it’s only normal. Being a @BlackBerry enthusiast I am no different. I love what @BlackBerry 10 offers but there are times when I wish that it did and offered things that it currently doesn’t. I am not oblivious to that. Outside of @BlackBerry I have not had first hand experience with any other mobile OS… atleast extensively. A lot of times we form opinions based on hearsay or 3rd hand information… and I am certainly guilty of that as well. Having written that and not having had extensive hands on with iphones I can still say without any hesitation that my hatred for #Apple runs deep. Well ‘hatred’ is a harsh word. But ya, hatred. It really has nothing to do with their products but more with what they do and who they are as a corporation. In my opinion they’re just bullies… force stuff down your throat as how things should be and when things go wrong (and there’s been plenty) make no mistake it is always the consumers fault.. or the classic spin they put on everything and just sweep stuff under the rug. No doubt having the cash flow allows them that luxury.
Olivia Munn has a great perspective on Apple.. her answer to the second question is spot on..
http://www.cnet.com/special-reports/olivia-munn/interview
So where am I going with this? I’m not sure yet. Lol. As with other areas of my life I believe in loyalty. And from recent personal experience I can tell you that loyalty to some means shit! Loyalty is why I continue to support @BlackBerry, not only because it’s a Canadian company but also because I like what they stand for and last but not least their phones have always been impeccable in design. I am a visual guy. U need to grab my attention that way. Sounds shallow but c’est la vie. As for the BB10 operating system? An amazing, smooth, multitasking, get things done quickly operating system almost noone in the world knows about. A tragedy. When the iPhone first came out, innovation wise, no denying it was a wow!!! But hardware? Ugly and boring as hell… over the years no doubt the look of the iPhone has improved with great strides and dare I say it, a good looking phone…but innovation? What’s that? It’s like #Apple can’t handle both at the same time. It’s so bad that after the recent iphone SE announcement the iphonians and ifanboys are left being excited about the apple band!!! The band!!! Lol. Seriously.
When it comes to having an open mind I try my best to be as open as possible… I don’t always succeed.. have there been times when I re-tweet an article that is anti apple? Of course. Do I get passionate about things I hear that are hypocritical on any side of the OS spectrum? Sure I do. Hypocrisy hit home recently and hard… Does all of the hypocrisy that comes out of #Apple rile me up? Yes it does. Do I lose sleep over it? No I don’t.. am I someone who flip flops like a fish out of water on things? No i’m not. I’m not perfect by any stretch but I try to have convictions. This brings me finally to my point. Through @BlackBerry and its community I have met a significant amount of people through various @BBM groups and @BBM chats. One such character was a huge and I mean huge @BlackBerry advocate and up until very recently would bash #Apple like it was going out of style. From group discussions, to private, to @twitter.. it went on and on and on. Recently things changed; for one his wife works at apple, has for many years but given he owns a business he found himself in a situation where all his vendors transitioned to using iOS only built apps (which is disturbing to say the least) so that ruled out BlackBerry 10 (since it can run android apps). Interestingly enough as he’s been using the iPhone for some time now his tune has changed. He certainly still promotes BlackBerry but not necessarily with that passion he once had but at the same time what has changed is his attitude towards #Apple, to the point that if someone else shits on #Apple he takes offense. Remember this is the guy that was shitting on them not too long ago and would join in on the shitfest when others started the ‘shit on #Apple’ party. Don’t get me wrong, there is no place for shitting on anyone or anything. I try to be objective when I have discussions re apple and android for that matter and the only place I take a dump in is the toilet but stuff like this gets me and it doesn’t go unnoticed. So what’s changed now? Apple hasn’t changed its ways and how it operates and he couldn’t digest that stuff before and now all of a sudden? I don’t get it. Anyway, we’re all entitled to change our minds and attitude towards things. It’s our right. But he should keep in mind that what goes on the Internet stays there forevah!!! Hope he atleast went back to his old tweets and cleaned house.
Maybe down the road that will happen with me; you know, sporting an iphone. Haha. I kid. That will never happen… i’ve said it before if @BlackBerry (God forbid) goes the way of the dodo bird I will begrudgingly go #Android if there isn’t any other option. #Android isn’t any better but they annoy me less. I guess.
I used the word ‘shit’ or a variation quite a bit in this post. Oh well, shit happens! 😉
Amazing How BlackBerry Continues to Polarize
*UPDATED* boy I feel silly… the Dave in my screen grab isn’t Dave from UTB after all because UTB Dave is Dave Mathews.
I don’t really follow other story lines like I do BlackBerry. It’s amazing what this company is able to create in terms of reaction and emotion. We basically have the die hard,loyal,purists that can always find the positive in any news that comes out regarding BlackBerry. You have of course the trolls that just live on bad news.. and finally you have those that support BlackBerry but worry and don’t know who to believe. Right now I am in that last group.
It’s been an interesting week for BlackBerry to say the least. We had some project manager quoted as saying that the future for BlackBerry is Android… and bam… the storm it caused was unreal. Hand it to BlackBerry to quickly put out a post on ‘Inside BlackBerry ‘ to once again reiterate their commitment to BlackBerry 10. Here’s though what I thought could have been done differently. They reiterated their commitment in a post that was dedicated to the release of the Priv in India.. so the article was 99% about the Priv with a few words about their commitment to BlackBerry 10. The better option should have been to separate the two even if it meant that the article about BlackBerry 10 was a repeat of what they wrote a few months back. The other concern I have is that at no time has BlackBerry mentioned that their commitment to BlackBerry 10 will go beyond 2016. I tried to voice this on a channel and I got this from a Dave…. which I assume is Dave from UTBBlogs..
Now don’t get me wrong.. I admire the positive spin these guys put on everything BlackBerry. I listen to their blogcast religiously every Saturday morning. However, I personally could have done without the ‘pssst’.. what are u ‘Pssst’ing me about? I don’t know that I wrote anything that is far fetched and incorrect. Of course I absolutely want to be wrong. Let’s face it if come 2017 BlackBerry pulls the plug on BlackBerry 10 noone can accuse them of lying because they have not shown any roadmap for BlackBerry 10 beyond 2016. Chen can easily fall back on the fact that their commitment was only for 2016. Anyway only time will tell.
Yesterday news came out about layoffs and that Gary Mr BBM himself was leaving BlackBerry as well. One need not imagine what stir that caused. And every time news like yesterday happens u have guys like @JT_Teran putting out his ‘if people can’t realize that BlackBerry 10 is dead I don’t know what else to say’ tweet. Tweet it enough times and I guess JT at some point you will be right… and then you can tell everyone I told you so. Oh brother.
I recently saw a tweet that predicted BlackBerry 10 disappearing in about three years which is the time he thinks will take to get Android enterprise ready. We’ll see… the fact is that we can twist and turn information the way we want to.. spin it.. deny.. whatever… in the end only Mr Chen knows what he has planned. *le sigh*
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