blackberry
Why I Haven’t Been Waiting for the @BlackBerry #Mercury But Will Buy It
Ok, ok. I guess I have been waiting for the BlackBerry Mercury. You can read a great article by E. Over @utbblog as to why she waited for the mercury (http://utbblogs.com/wait-mercury/). My reasons differ.
Full disclosure. I am a BlackBerry fanboy. Have been since the days of the BlackBerry Bold 9000. I have owned the 9000,9900,torch, Q10,Classic and now the Passport SE. I have also messed with (but not personally owned) a Z30 and Z10. As you can see, the phones I have owned all have a PKB. If I were angry about the things that have happened since the release of BB10 I would have left and gone to another brand a long time ago.
As a company BlackBerry had to do whatever they had to in order to survive. They are no different than any other company. What that means is that what they discuss behind closed doors doesn’t get conveyed to the public the same way. Meaning that what they deliver to the public are half truths. They claim to continue to support BB10 and in fact they are doing so. However, I feel like they are doing so in a sort of ‘buying time’ kind of way. I mean all u have to do is look at how long the update of 10.3.3 took. And some are still waiting to get it. BlackBerry is simply buying time and I am not even convinced that they will actually release 10.3.4. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just put out the same 10.3.3 update by simply just changing the last 3 to a 4 ;).
Here’s my opinion of what has transpired since the arrival of John Chen.
John Chen comes on and assesses the situation
In short order he sets BlackBerry on the path of #Android
The release of the #Priv signs the death warrant of BB10
The release of the Dtek50 and Dtek60 had the grave being dug for BB10.
The impending release of the Mercury or shortly thereafter; Funeral arrangements (and eventual burial) for BB10.
See where I am going with this? BlackBerry has been buying time because I think they have android where they want it or very close to it. This is the reason why I am buying the Mercury. The writing for BB10 has been on the wall forever so it’s time to move on and embrace #Blackdroid. Of course the Mercury has a physical keyboard so that too 🙂 !!
The Many Faces of #FaceBook in @BlackBerry World
For those of us not living in a bubble, we know that @BlackBerry 10 is going away. The writing has been on the wall for some time now. There are some that still refuse to accept it but the reality is that at some point the hardware that is housing BB10 will need replacing and well… there won’t be any for us to choose from come that time. Anyway, i digress. Even with this impending end of life for BB10 (rumor has it that @BlackBerry will announce this May 30), I still periodically check BlackBerry World for “new arrivals” in the “social apps” category.. and quite frankly  i am surprised that apps continue to show up. One popular one is #FaceBook. Get a load of this:
The only native app out of all the ones listed is #Face10 from NemoryStudios. In the early days of BB10 when there was a native BlackBerry FB app i of course used it exclusively. When #Face10 made an appearance i purchased it to support the dev. When support for the native FaceBook ended, i actually started to use FB off the browser and found the user experience better than #Face10. #Face10 as is the case with most of Nemory’s apps is bloated. He tends to throw everything but the kitchen sink into his apps and that’s not always a good thing. Sometimes, less is more and i think he should have taken this approach. I got tired of a few things with #Face10 like pictures not loading, hanging that from time to time locks up the phone so i started to look at other options and recently downloaded 2 FaceBook apps that are free;FaceSlim and Feisbook.
FaceSlim
Have been using it for a little over a month and i am pretty pleased with it. It gives me everything i need. Obviously, at times it isn’t smooth since it isn’t native but it’s the exception to the rule.
Feisbook
I’ve had this app for a few days now and i think i got lucky as when i downloaded it, it was free. Now it’s not. Anyway, same impressions as FaceSlim. I do like the skin better and it offers more options (settings). It has some little quirks but it’s so new that i assume with time these quirks will be ironed out.
Right now, if we count the browser, i have 4 apps for FaceBook. i will give it about another month then will bring it down to two. The browser and one other. Most likely, Feisbook. Yes, i will opt for a non-native version and not Face10. For one, and as mentioned, i get annoyed by the issues Face10 has and as well, although i appreciate his effort, Oliver, aka NemoryStudios could do some growing up/maturing. He has a habit of doing this quite a bit.. and trust me this is not the first time:
It’s too bad that apps like twitter and instagram don’t get the same attention FB gets.
Anyway, reluctantly I have made the decision that I will move on from BlackBerry 10 and will buy the BlackBerry Mercury. In past posts I wrote that I would wait until May/June but I don’t think I will wait after all. I will buy it within a month or so after it gets officially announced Feb 25th.
@BlackBerry #Mercury, #DTEK70, #Press…
I will get this imPRESSive phone regardless of what name it ends up with. Apparently it will be released after MWC so we are looking at February /March. I won’t buy it day one but maybe around the summer time I will. Look, I have said it plenty of times. I am not a fan of Android. And It really has zero to do with security or lack of it. We are all supposed to be weary of this but let’s face it we are all way beyond this. I have a google account. I have facebook, instagram, youtube so it’s already too late to talk privacy. I don’t like android for the simple and superficial reason that I don’t like the user interface. I am a visual guy. On the hardware side, outside the samsung galaxy series, in my opinion, I don’t think there is an android phone out there that is actually good looking. You cannot say that when it comes to BlackBerry phones. I also think that the user experience is overly done. Of course, the latter is based on what I see second hand and so I guess I am just as hypocritical as someone who critiques BlackBerry without having tried it but whatever.
I have decided that I will buy the DTEK70 because it’s gorgeous looking and already with all the videos out there it’s clear it’s a well built and solid phone. I saw a tweet out in the wild that the Mercury is ‘an eye sore’. An eye sore. Holy fucking shit this person must have the worse taste on the planet. The other reason I will have to embrace #Blackdroid and purchase the PRESS is that it’s clear that there is no future for BlackBerry 10. The fact is, the writing has been on the wall for some time now. There is a BlackBerry fan site out there that, god bless them, always tries to put a positive spin on it but the fact is BB10 is going away. Even as recently as this past week Brad put out a piece as to why BB10 is not dead.. however, if u pay close attention to his writing style it has changed from a while back when he put out other ‘BB10 is not dead’ posts. You don’t have to read between the lines. He too isn’t sold on it either anymore. That confidence that used to be there isn’t so much anymore. Sure, John Chen a while ago said there were no plans for BlackBerry 10 and that only after 10.3.4 was released that he would re-evaluate things. Translation; BlackBerry 10 is going the way of the dodo bird. During CES2017, when asked TCL re-confirmed that there are no plans and apparently BlackBerry 10 was actually referred to as a legacy OS during this conference. Imagine, an OS that is four years old referred to as legacy. If that isn’t a sign that it’s EOL I don’t know what is. To boot, over the x-mas holidays I read a post from a BlackBerry fan site out of italy that rumor has it that BlackBerry will announce EOL for BlackBerry 10 at the end of May. The site did stress it’s only a rumor but rumors are just that until they are fact. I tweeted Marty Beard on it and to no surprise he didn’t reply because u know, he’s tired of answering these types of questions. Maybe Brad should invest some time and research this rumor ;). Also think about the fact that Whatsapp originally planned to end support for BlackBerry 10 in december then had a ‘change of heart’ and pushed it to June 2017.. so maybe some conversations took place between the two parties behind closed doors.. BlackBerry tells Whatsapp to throw us a bone and go until June since the plan is to EOL BlackBerry 10 at the end of May. I wouldn’t be surprised if BlackBerry already has all the social media articles/posts/tweets at the ready and scheduled for publishing May 31st as to why it was time to EOL BlackBerry 10 with all the ‘logical’ reasons it had ‘no choice’. Anyway, it is what it is. Time to assimilate and since I will never go #Apple, #BlackDroid it is.
Embracing #Blackdroid
This here is apparently, supposedly,possibly,maybe the next BlackBerry phone code named ‘Mercury’. It will be an Android or as its been dubbed; Blackdroid. I started to save up so I can purchase it. Is it because I have decided to embrace android? No. Not at all. Apparently it will be the last BlackBerry in-house built phone. That’s why I want it. I mean look at it. How gorgeous is it? It also looks very similar to my Passport SE. A slimmer version. I can tell you that I cringe at the thought of having to go android at some point. As you may know I detest #Apple and will never get an iPhone. This past weekend I found myself having to handle an iphone more than I wanted to and it was annoying and frustrating !! I understand it was only one weekend but the user experience is lousy!!! It’s horrible. Anyone complaining that BB10 is not intuitive is a bloody liar and obviously iphone brain washed. Most of my friends and colleagues are android users… so I see plenty of android. Here’s the thing… I don’t like the OS look at all. I just don’t find the look appealing. That’s important to me. BlackBerry 10s OS look is simply beautiful… a small sample of three of my most used apps…
Beautiful ! It saddens me to think that this OS will eventually go away.
Apparently mercury will be out in February… I don’t think I will purchase it right away.. will wait until April or May… we shall see.
Today The Unthinkable Happened
I recently started to wear a new hoodie and today during my lunch I wore it as I went to run an errand. As I was walking to my car, I noticed the hoodie has an inside pocket so I proceeded to put my BlackBerry Passport SE in it. Turns out it isn’t a pocket so my precious hit the ground. My heart stopped! Seriously. It did. Thankfully for the grace of God and the fact that BlackBerry make such amazing phones I escaped the heartache and without a doubt tears. I don’t have a case for my PassportSE but I do have carbon fiber applied to the it so I think that too played a role in saving my precious. THANK YOU LORD JESUS!!!
On a side note I hope that the unthinkable doesn’t happen tonight in the good old US of A.
@BlackBerry 10’s future: Will I Need Shades?
I’d like to think I am a pretty positive guy. I’d be lying if I wrote that I always am but I try to be. We’re now halfway through October and still no sign of 10.3.3. In a recent interview Thurber was quoted as saying not to read anything into the delay.
What caught my eye initially was the part I have underlined. If we are not supposed to read anything into the delay what are we supposed to think about his comment? ‘.. support the product until some future date?’ that kinda sorta implies that BlackBerry 10 will/could go away at some future date. When will that be then? Will that be in 2017 when they get their android phone NIAP certified ? Will it be in 2 years, maybe 5, 10? Who knows. I emailed someone I well refer to a ‘E’ about his comment. Essentially she came back with the same thoughts.
‘I wish I could say I know exactly how to interpret it. Honestly, I read it as “It’s our plan to continue, but that plan may change.” So, they’re committed to bringing us OS support for 10 as long as it is feasible for them to do so.’
It’s hard to predict the future but i’ve said It in the past… it’s easy for BlackBerry to say BB10 isn’t going anywhere because that’s their truth now but in the future when it does go away they will have their reason and noone can accuse them of lying.
The other thing that caught my eye was Thurber’s comment that there have been external and internal reasons for the delay of 10.3.3. I understand the ‘external’ part. You can’t control how quickly another entity gets things done but what about the ‘internal’ reasons? What’s that about? This OS release is supposed to only be about NIAP certification. What internal issue could exist? Unless of course there will be more included in the OS after all! That quite frankly would be awesome. I mean it’s the least they could do for us patient BB10 users.
Anyway – I do want to believe that the future for BlackBerry 10 is so bright that I will have to wear shades but I don’t see it. This wonderful OS never caught on. Never got the support it deserves. From the carriers to the devs and consumers too.
Even a dev like Nemory has slowed down his development quite a bit… his apps are good but need updating and the only thing you get out of him when u inquire on anything is ‘maybe’ and a lot of ‘bro’. To this day his #Inst10 app doesn’t allow for video uploading or regramming. Recently he tweeted out that he’s been working on a year long project app that clearly will not be for BB10. Interestingly enough after that announcement he put out an update to a couple BB10 apps; bug fixes. I don’t buy that anything was fixed. I am a software developer. I could add a line of nothing in code and say I fixed a bug. The dev for @iGrann. Same story. I think his last 3 updates have been to fix performance issues. I haven’t seen any improvements. Just the other day @Blaq one of the best twitter apps around put out a small minor update. I was so shocked by the update. This dev jumped ship over a year ago. Actually the last tweet on Blaq was a year ago yesterday.
This is the reality that is BB10.
I will end this with my usual… I hope I am wrong. I want to be wrong.
@BlackBerry licensing #BB10
I was supposed to write about this last week but then got distracted with other things. I had this clear path I was going to take with this post but then I listened to the usual weekly BlackBerry related podcast and got enlightened. They touched on the subject of BB10 licensing and the potential and now I don’t know that my path is clear anymore.
Anyway, here goes nothing. I was excited for a split second over the thought of BB10 being licensed. Then after that full split second I started to think about who the target audience would be? It can’t possibly be the consumer. Sadly BB10 didn’t catch on like it should have so how would licensing it out be any different ? However, through different articles and this podcast I came to understand that I have to look past the handset and that BB10 may and can be reincarnated in other areas. One such area is IOT. Well let’s hope this path BlackBerry has taken is clearer than this post’s path!! I still feel that we are getting mixed signals though…
So? Support for BB10 will continue until some future date? Doesn’t that imply that at one point that support will end? Maybe this future date is sooner than we expect?
On a side note.. kind of… BlackBerry will also be licensing out their physical keyboard. I saw this photo in one of the channels I follow… it was captioned ‘makes sense?’
Maybe this is just some mock up or bad photoshop job but nonetheless this could be the future of the BlackBerry pkb on other devices. Basically, the gorgeous pkb that is BlackBerry on ugly handsets. Let’s hope not.
BlackBerry’s Alex Thurber discusses upcoming handsets and company future | CrackBerry.com
I, for one, am excited to see what’s in store for the future!!!
via BlackBerry’s Alex Thurber discusses upcoming handsets and company future | CrackBerry.com
The Future of BlackBerry Devices | Inside BlackBerry
It’s all very promising and of course right after i wrote my post on 10.3.3 this article (https://www.wired.com/2016/10/blackberrys-not-going-disappear/) from wired has Pini talking about potential licensing of BB10 to others.. go figure.
@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.
My Random Thoughts 