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Apple Closing in on RIM in U.S. Market Share

Written on October 29, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

A new survey by research firm ChangeWave has Apple’s iPhone on course to eventually best BlackBerry as the U.S. device of choice when it comes to smartphone options. It also reflects good news for the smartphone industry in general, since overall ownership of the data-hungry cellular devices is up to 39 percent of respondents, which [...]

BlackBerry Desktop Manager Hitting the Mac Oct. 2

Written on September 30, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 5 people have commented

We reported earlier that BlackBerry would be delivering its Desktop Manager software for Mac in September of this year. Keen readers will note that, in fact, that was not the case, since it is now the last possible day for that software to appear, and that software isn’t coming.
It is, however, going to arrive just [...]

RIM Buys Torch Mobile: Closing the Gap on Mobile Safari?

Written on August 24, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 4 people have commented

Canadian company Research In Motion, maker of the ubiquitous BlackBerry, has bought software developers (and webkit aficionados) Torch Mobile, according to a report today over on Engadget.
No, I’ve never heard of Torch Mobile, either.
But according to the company’s web site, it is “excited to announce” that the company has been acquired by RIM, “one [...]

Apple and RIM Share Small but Lucrative Piece of Cell Phone Pie

Written on July 21, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 2 people have commented

Apple commands a relatively paltry share of the worldwide cell phone market, despite the success of their iPhone. That’s because, regardless of appearances, the field is overwhelmingly dominated by regular old dumbphones, which still outsell smartphones by a wide margin. In fact, Apple and RIM still only command three percent of global cell phone sales [...]

Official BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac Coming in September

Written on July 20, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 14 people have commented

Many, many months ago, it looked like an official solution for syncing BlackBerry devices with the Mac (including media and iTunes playlists) was right around the corner. Now, almost a year later, RIM is finally making it official. But don’t get too excited. You still have to wait until September before the new software will [...]

How-To: Tether Your BlackBerry to Your Mac

Written on June 24, 2009 by Jenny Kortina and 15 people have commented

One of the big, new features of the iPhone is its ability to tether. BlackBerrys have had this ability for a while, so below I have outlined how to tether your BlackBerry with your Mac to use your Internet connection to browse the web with your computer.
Some Things to Note

This tutorial is for Leopard.
I have [...]

How-To: Sync iTunes Playlists With a BlackBerry

Written on June 23, 2009 by Jenny Kortina and 11 people have commented

I recently switched from an iPhone to a BlackBerry. As I mentioned before, one of my BlackBerry dislikes is that it simply does not sync as nicely as the iPhone. Until recently, I thought I could only drag certain songs onto my BlackBerry and that there was no way to sync playlists. Turns out I [...]

How-To: Transfer Files Between Your Blackberry & OS X Via Bluetooth

Written on June 18, 2009 by Jenny Kortina and 13 people have commented

I recently switched from my iPhone to a BlackBerry. A few weeks after the transition, I have discovered my likes and dislikes between phones, and by far the most frustrating difference is the “syncing with computer” feature. An iPhone is literally plug and play, whereas a BlackBerry requires tons of configuration, even for the simplest [...]

Yahoo Going All-In With iPhone App, Abandons Other Platforms (For Now)

Written on May 20, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 6 people have commented

I admit I was surprisingly impressed with Yahoo for iPhone when it first came out, and an update within the last week brought even more improvements, but I’m not sure the app is so spectacular that Yahoo should pour all its effort into it at the expense of other platforms. But that’s what it’s thinking, [...]

Apple Takes It On the Chin: BlackBerry Curve Surpasses iPhone in Popularity

Written on May 04, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 13 people have commented

Lower prices and wider availability are likely responsible, but whatever the reason, Apple probably isn’t super pleased with the news today that Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Curve has surpassed the iPhone as the No. 1 most popular smartphone in the U.S.
Apple’s handset slips to No. 2, followed, a bit surprisingly considering the reviews I’ve read, [...]

BlackBerry App World Revealed: How Does it Stack Up Against the App Store?

Written on March 05, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 27 people have commented

Well, right away, “App World” doesn’t win any points in the name category. It sounds like a bargain basement retailer of remainder App Store stock. What it actually is, though, is BlackBerry’s new application store, the details of which were just unveiled last night. Perhaps not coincidentally, they announced their official plans on the same [...]

Missing Sync 2.0 Brings Apple Users and Their BlackBerrys Closer Together

Written on February 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 17 people have commented

Once upon a time, RIM appeared to be on the verge of joining this century and offering native Mac syncing support for Apple-friendly users of the BlackBerry smartphone devices. Unfortunately, nothing has yet come to pass with regards to this tantalizing release, so BlackBerry owners are stuck, for better or for worse, with third-party solutions for the [...]

How the iPhone Should Have Made the Blackberry Storm Launch Easier

Written on November 24, 2008 by Tom Reestman and 20 people have commented

There have been a lot of reviews lately regarding the new Blackberry Storm. I summarized a few myself, but things haven’t improved much. While there are some bright spots, the overall tone of the reviews is that the Storm is a disappointment.
Still, as a Blackberry on the Verizon network I suspect it’ll do fine regardless. [...]

The Storm Arrives: Is It Just A Drizzle?

Written on November 20, 2008 by Tom Reestman and 9 people have commented

The Blackberry Storm will be available on 11/21 in the U.S. It’s getting some early reviews and they’re a mixed bag. Will this be an “iPhone killer”, will it have similar problems that the Bold encountered, or at the end of the day is it just another Blackberry (not that that’s a bad thing)? 
A [...]

Study: iPhone More Reliable Than BlackBerry, Palm

Written on November 11, 2008 by Darrell Etherington and 2 people have commented

A new study published Nov. 8 by independent warranty provider SquareTrade has shown that over the course of the first year of ownership, the iPhone is more reliable than both BlackBerry and Palm handsets.
The study dealt with failure rates for a sample pool of over 15,000 new phones covered by SquareTrade warranties, which are after-market [...]

RIM’s Blackberry Bold Pulled From Market: No One Cares

Written on October 16, 2008 by Tom Reestman and 13 people have commented

If something like this was even hinted at for the iPhone, the tech pundits and analysts would be pulling their hair out claiming it’s the end of the world. Heck, I’m sure Thurrott would have written a few articles on all his Windows sites about it by now. Yet here is RIM having a serious [...]

BlackBerry Media Sync for Mac, Storm Announced Stateside

Written on October 08, 2008 by Darrell Etherington and 21 people have commented

The Boy Genius Report brings word of relief in sight for Mac users with BlackBerry.  The official Research In Motion (RIM) application BlackBerry Media Sync for Mac will bring all the functionality of BlackBerry Desktop Manager to OS X users.
Third party solutions like PocketMac for BlackBerry have filled the void left by RIM’s lack of [...]