TamsBlackBerry – the BlackBerry blog

MobiHand has just informed me of an important change in company policy which will allow their developers to compete more effectively in ultra-low-price markets. Their move comes at a crucial time as credit crunch and iPhone push application prices down – enjoy:

We are happy to announce a change of price limits intended to allow you greater pricing flexibility.

The current $3.95 minimum product price in the MobiHand Catalog is changed to a minimum selling price of $0.99 in MobiHand network stores and $2.95 in developer shopping carts.

Please do not set any product price less than $0.99 for sale in any MobiHand store.

If you use a MobiHand shopping cart in your website or application, please do not offer any price or discount that results in a net selling price in the shopping cart that is less than $2.95. If you need to sell any product for less than this amount, please contact us to arrange a modified shopping cart fee that allows us to meet your needs without incurring losses on individual transactions.

Even though I am not too motivated to lower my products prices as of this writing, the added flexibility definitely is nice to have. Congratulations to MobiHand…

This is NOT an April Fool’s joke!
Dear Readers,
Our recent growth has caused major issues for our host Brainsware: there are now so many of you that our server architrcture needs to be changed in order to allow us to serve all of you as good as we aspire to do.

In order to do this, a maintenance downtime will take place on the 1st of April, from 22h to 23h local time. This translates to 13h00 in San Francisco or 16h in New York. During this time span, the following web sites may not be accessible:

• TamsPalm – the Palm OS / Web OS blog
• TamsPPC – the PocketPC blog
• TamsS60 – the S60 blog
• TamsWMS – the Windows Mobile Smartphone blog
• TamsIJungle – the iPhone / iPod touch blog
• TamsBlackBerry – the BlackBerry blog
• TamsPalm Germany

Afterwards, the Tamoggemon Content team will be honoured to welcome you again on our news services!

All the best
Tam Hanna for the Tamoggemon Content Team

I have no idea why handset designers keep playing around with their handset’s keyboards…the latest victim is a device designed by Samsung for Verizon (who will peddle it as Alias2):

The image above hits us via PhoneArena, with Engadget Mobile claiming that the keys are “identified” via an underlying E-Ink display.

As of now, no tests have been performed to determine the usability of this new input method. While I personally fear that the usability will be bad due to sub-par materials (this is said to be a cheap handset), I dare to say that this is the first keyboard idea which has impressed me.

Future devices using this technology could allow customers to dynamically adapt the keyboard layout of their devices, for example by replacing unpopular special characters with others he needs more often (I’d love to ditch some weird chars on my XPERIA’s keyboard for < and >, for example).

What do you think?

AT&T apparently has a nice bunch of BlackBerry Bold’s laying around – their web site has just been updated to include a free refurbished package:

Further information can be had here, use the ZIP code 60002 to get past their useless ZIP barrier…

The quote below hits us via BusinessWeek:

On Apr. 1, Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIMM), is expected to take the stage at the wireless industry’s annual trade show in Las Vegas and open the virtual doors to a much anticipated new online store. BlackBerry App World will be chock-full of software programs created by outside developers that visitors will be able to download to their RIM phones.
…

Their article spans two pages, but does not contain anything newsworthy – stay tuned for further info as we get it!

Even though Krusell does not have the strong online presence of other case manufacturers, they can easily be considered one of the largest case makers currently on the market.

As their products are mainly sold in brick-and-mortar stores, I am a fan of their monthly sales stats as they provide an insight into what “normal customers” (aka folks who don’t read pages such as this one ) buy.

Enjoy:

• 1. (1) Samsung SGH-i900/i910 Omnia
• 2. (7) Nokia 3109
• 3. (3) Nokia 6300
• 4. (2) HTC Touch HD
• 5. (8) Nokia E71
• 6. (4) Nokia E51
• 7. (10) Nokia 3120
• 8. (8) Nokia 5800
• 9. (5) Blackberry Storm
• 10. (-) Samsung M8800
   () = Last month’s position.

The top selling list for March reflects the growing trend where we see an increased demand for a well designed protection for smart phones, says Ulf Sandberg CEO at Krusell. The Omnia as well as Touch HD and the E-series from Nokia are good examples of precious devices that the user is anxious to protect, and to do it with style. The consumers are becoming more demanding and they don’t except solutions that doesn’t combine protection, user-friendliness and good design.
 
The Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, Krusell, releases its “Top 10″-list for March 2009. The list is based on number of pieces of model specific mobile and smart phone cases ordered from Krusell during March 2009. Krusell’s list is unique due to the fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 50 countries around the globe.

The BBC reports that the rumored plans for a next mandatory price cut will be decided upon in a full session of the EU Parliament April 24th the latest. Should the legislation pass, roaming mobile phone users can look forward to the following benefits:

by July 2009
Roaming costs, outgoing call: 43 cents/minute
Data: 1Euro/MB

by July 2010
Roaming costs, outgoing call: 39 cents/minute
Data: 0.80 Euro/MB

by July 2011
Roaming costs, outgoing call: 35 cents/minute
Data: 0.50 Euro/MB

Furthermore, SMS costs will be capped at just 11 cents for a single SMS transmitted all over Europe. Call billing will be per second, with an initial 30sec charge permitted.

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Lars Aronsson

The folks at AdMob’s have just released this month’s Mobile Metrics report, which can be downloaded here (PDF file). RIM has started to loose market share for the first time in its history:

When looking at handsets, we see that BlackBerry Pearl devices are getting phased out slowly but surely:

OS-version-wise, version 4.2 can now be considered the lowest common denominator:

Even though the Storm IMHO is not too good a BlackBerry, it nevertheless makes up for 38 percent of Verizon’s BlackBerry population:

The Wall Street Journal reports that China has censored various US video sharing sites including our video host blip.tv and Google’s YouTube. The reason for the ban is short and sweet:

…
The latest YouTube ban coincides with the March 20 release by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile of a video allegedly showing Chinese forces beating Tibetans during protests that occurred in March 2008.

The video was also posted on Blip.tv, a U.S. video-sharing site that was also blocked Tuesday in China. The site urged the Chinese government to “embrace the openness of the Internet.
…

As the Tamoggemon Content Network is to remain free of political statements due to corporate policy, this post ends here.

Image: Wikimedia Commons, lightboxing by Tam Hanna

Carriers all over the world are suffering from an ever-increasing amount of data traffic on their 3.5G networks: the proliferation of high-end smartphones and (especially) netbooks has led to data usage increasing in an almost-exponential fashion. As an example, I used to use about 90MB a month when on my Treo…and currently burn over 1500MB a month with the MSI Wind (love these Windows Updates) and the XPERIA X1

MocoNews reports that carriers may soon start to charge more for data traffic caused at “rush hour”:

A majority of mobile executives agree that as networks struggle to keep up with data traffic over the next few years, carriers will start charging different rates depending on the time of day, according to a global report that surveyed 228 senior execs across the industry. … and more than half of all respondents agreed that “an important revenues source for operators” was that carriers would start charging variable prices for bandwidth consumption at different times of the day.

Even though I personally see little benefit from this (as users will “flee” from rush hours, thereby creating overload before and/or afterwards), it nevertheless remains a possibility which overloaded carriers could try out of desperation. What do you think?

Image (c): abc texte/Dr. Kohrs – no reproduction permitted

The Boy Genius finally completed his review of the 9630, and made a very interesting statement in the process:

…
You can literally think of the BlackBerry 9630 as a BlackBerry Storm with a QWERTY keyboard. It’s that exact. From the cell radios (quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, single band UMTS/HSDPA, 1X/EVDO) to even the layout of the keys on the side, it’s almost identical. It definitely follows RIM’s styling cues from the Curve 8900 and obviously the Storm as well.
…

The rest of the review can better be described as a rave with pictures – further information at the link below:
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/03/24/blackberry-9630-review-part-1/

Pandora’s long-awaited client for BlackBerry has just been released – the image on the left hits us via the official Pandora for BlackBerry web site.

All BlackBerries running firmware 4.3 or better could theoretically be supported – the FAQ currently lists the following devices:

The Bold, Curve and Pearl are supported for the Sprint, AT&T and Verizon networks. An updated list is always available on our Pandora for Blackberry page.

As this blog is run from Austria, further testing is not possible for us…

The folks at the Boy Genius got their hands onto an unbranded BlackBerry Niagara – and loved what they saw:

* Best BlackBerry keyboard. Ever.
* Best BlackBerry speakers. Ever.
* Best screen. Ever. (It looks more like glass than crappy plastic)
* Best size/feel. Ever.

They then went on to create a video showing the device running on AT&T (yes, AT&T) – it is below:

As of now, no further information is available…

RIM’s latest BlackBerry Niagara has been leaked all over the web in the last few weeks. However, next to no information has been made available on carrier partners and release dates – a fact which thestreet.com has now corrected.

They claim that the device will hit Verizon in May, which is ideal as Storm sales are expected to reach a minimum by that time.

Furthermore, the box will be a world phone:

Like the BlackBerry Storm, Niagara is a 3G world phone, meaning that it works on Verizon’s U.S. EVDO network and on Europe’s GSM systems.

As of now, no further information is available – stay tuned!