BlackBerry Priv

As we approach Christmas let's all take a minute to recognise that the BlackBerry Priv is a reminder that miracles do happen! Yes folks, the BlackBerry Priv is something we never thought we'd see; a BlackBerry-made device running on Google's Android software. That's a promising combo, teasing excellent hardware with one of the biggest and best software platofrms and content ecosystems on the market today - access to all the things you know and love from Google's catalogue of apps and services, but right there on a physical-keyboard toting BlackBerry! Part of the reason BlackBerry adopted Android is to do with developers. Most have now migrated to either iOS and Android. This is where the money is. Developing for BlackBerry 10 or Windows Phone, for instance, isn’t likely to yield much of a return as the number of users simply isn’t big enough. Like all businesses, developers go where the users are and, by proxy, the potential for money is greatest. BlackBerry cannot adopt iOS and Windows 10 Mobile is in a similar position to BB10, so this just leaves one option: Android. This has irked a lot of hardcore BlackBerry users, those loyal to BB10 — and there is a lot of them out there. But from a business perspective this move does make sense. BlackBerry doesn’t have anymore cards to play, so the move to Android, with a renewed focus on creating secure applications for the platform, is the best case scenario for the company as we move towards 2016. In this respect, the PRIV needs to be viewed as the start of a new direction for the company, one that could bring it from bit-player to major contender inside the next 12-18 months. Does this tempting combination deliver the goods? We aim to answer that vital question... BlackBerry PRIV Review: Design I’d seen the leaks and read the reports and knew ALL about the specs and hardware before my briefing with BlackBerry. I had a pretty solid idea about what the PRIV would look and function like. At least I thought I did, but once I sat down and looked at the handset I realised it was VERY different looking in real life -- the pictures really do not do it justice. The PRIV is bigger and has a lot more presence than I had anticipated. The first thing I noticed about the handset was its display; the curved QHD panel looks utterly stunning. The finish and gait of the handset is pure BlackBerry, with its traditional silver-on-black livery, but it also looks completely unlike anything the company has ever produced, sort of like the bastard child of the Galaxy S6 EDGE and the Passport.

Got a Z10? Here are great BlackBerry 10 apps for you start with!

Hunting down the best BlackBerry 10 apps can be a real chore and BlackBerry World is far from the most user friendly app store. Don’t worry because we’ve started on a new roundup of the must-have BB10 apps that you’ll want to install on your shiny new Z10 today. We’ve got BlackBerry 10 apps covering music, sports, weather, and a whole lot more. Stuck on an older BlackBerry? Read our Best BlackBerry apps and Best BlackBerry games roundups. We’ve also got the Best iPhone apps, Best Android apps. And rest assured, we’ll continue to update this list of BlackBerry 10 apps as great new apps are released. Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-blackberry-10-apps/#ixzz3r4xol53x Follow on: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook Popcornflix (Free) We’ve discussed the Popcornflix movie-streaming service before here at DT, but now it has a BB10 app. It basically offers free, full length movies which you can stream directly on your BlackBerry. There are over 700 to choose from, and the service is completely free because it’s ad-supported. Films are categorized into genres, and new titles are being added daily. You aren’t going to find the latest blockbusters, but it’s worth a look for some decent indies and b-movies. Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-blackberry-10-apps/#ixzz3r4xyP1Wk Follow on: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook MyAccountant ($2) Convert your BlackBerry into a pocket accountant with this detailed financial tracker that will help you manage your budget (and avoid destitution). It’s not wildly exciting, but MyAccountant is very useful for expense tracking. It’s nicely laid out with a gentle learning curve, and the ability to export reports and data is very handy. Staying on top of your money is vital and this is the app to do it with on BB10. Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-blackberry-10-apps/#ixzz3r4y5YFRG Follow on: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook for the rest of these...read the remaining on....and you would be glad you did!

Navita Translator (Free) With support for 60 languages and counting, Navita Translator is a very handy app. You type in the text you want to translate, or you can grab it from an email, a website, or a text message. Select your language and tap the Translate button to get a text translation. You can also tap the loudspeaker icon to have your translation read aloud, which is especially handy when you’re not confident about the pronunciation. The interface is really basic, but it’s easy to use and it’s fairly accurate. Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-blackberry-10-apps/#ixzz3r4yYg6Rb Follow us: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook

You can read the rest on: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-blackberry-10-apps/

Browsing Free with Airtel Nigeria

1GB Weekend Data Plan on Airtel NG for just N100...to me this is just tantamount to free browsing with Airtel... Dear AIRTEL users, AIRTEL Nigeria has just introduced weekend data bundle capped at 1024mb (1gb) for just #100 only.. Dial *474*1# to activate! Dial *140# to check data. It can be use only on weekends (Friday – Sunday). For me I saw the details on 8th Sunday 2015, 8:30pm. I rushed...scattered around for an airtel sim (which I found in my cousins old bag), bought hundred naira airtel and wala! They gave me 1gb...I put on my generator by 11pm and started downloading with it...WARNING: Immediately it is twelve midnight...they would switch off the service.

16 Reasons why you should love the blackberry passport :)

Bored of Android? Sick iPhones? Maybe it’s time you tried something a little different –– something like the BlackBerry Passport BlackBerry’s 2015 was pretty quiet, by and large. The company released a mid-range handset in the form of the BlackBerry Leap and drilled down on its BB10 software, adding in new features and refining the overall experience. However, things began heating up BIG TIME in Q2/Q3 once word got out about the company’s plans to release an Android-powered handset called the BlackBerry PRIV. That handset is now official and available inside the UK and it is EASILY one of the most exciting releases of the year. BlackBerry’s John Chen recently detailed why his company had chosen to move to Google’s Android platform: “At the same time, we are focused on making faster progress to achieve profitability in our handset business. Today, I am confirming our plans to launch Priv, an Android device named after BlackBerry’s heritage and core mission of protecting our customers’ privacy. Priv combines the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform.” BlackBerry still has a long way to go before it is in the clear, however, and a recent note from investment firm Morgan Stanley doesn’t paint a particularly pretty picture for the firm’s current hardware lineup. Sales of the Passport and Classic, although no solid numbers were noted, are apparently way below expected levels –– BlackBerry needs to sell between 2 and 3 million before the close of 2016. The company also plans to generate $500 million from software in the same period. Morgan Stanley is not confident it will achieve either. There are still a few issues to be ironed out here and there but progress is very much underway. BlackBerry 10.3 is a great platform, replete with excellent features and a much-needed new look that makes it instantly more appealing than previous builds seen on the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10. I really enjoyed getting reacquainted with BlackBerry 10 and a keyboard and, generally speaking, had pretty much all my expectations blown out of the water by the Passport. Prior reviews I’d read had simply lampooned the handset, which made me start to question my judgement –– was I even reviewing the same device? Turns out I was, but that as they say is another story entirely, so we’ll just put that down to different strokes for different folks. The Passport is not perfect by any stretch, but it is a solid, reliable and very intriguing proposition that has helped BlackBerry mount something of a comeback in the latter part of 2014. Now, we’re not talking iPhone-levels of sales here, nowhere near that level, but the Passport has sold well and breathed some much needed confidence into a company that, just six months ago, had been all but written off. Battery Life’s Great The BlackBerry Passport is in the top 1% of smartphones in this regard. With medium use you’re looking at a good couple of days. Heavy usage, which, lets face it most of us do, will see you through a full charge in just over 24 hours. No other handset –– including the excellent iPhone 6 Plus –– can hold a candle to the BlackBerry Passport in this context. Awesome Specs AND Hardware BlackBerry handsets of old often lacked a lot of the hardware and spec capabilities found inside their Android and iOS-powered counterparts. The BlackBerry Passport bucks that trend completely and features a raft of high-end spec and hardware, including a Snapdragon 801 CPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage AND an updated 13MP camera with Optical Image Stabilisation. It RUNS Android Apps With BlackBerry 10.3 it is EVEN easier to install Android applications on your BlackBerry Passport because all the .BAR converting is done on device, saving you oodles of time. This is a brand new feature of BB10.3 and the long and short of this new ability is this: access to Google Play. I know, amazing! All you need to do is download SNAP and you’re away. That’s it. Simple –– and it also pretty much solves the whole app-gap problem, too. BB10 Native Apps Are Actually Really, Really Nice But let’s not forget just how nice native BB10 applications can actually be. Just look at this one for USA Today. It’s easy to use, looks great and takes advantage of all that wonderful screen real estate you have at your disposal. Now all we need is more! Need to know about it...check on the website below.

http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-phones/blackberry-passport/22959/16-reasons-why-you-should-love-blackberry-passport

Blackberry's First Android Phone...

Rather than announcing its first Android phone, BlackBerry has taken the odd strategy of just letting every detail about the device leak out and then casually referencing it in an official capacity every now and then. The latest detail to leak out is the phone's pricing, which apparently comes in at $749. The information was published along with the phone's specs on a preorder page that went up prematurely on BlackBerry's site last night. Android Central caught the listing while it was live, and it says that $749 is the phone's US price, with its Canadian price coming in at $949. That would make the BlackBerry Priv one very expensive phone, putting it up there with top flagship devices. BlackBerry's reasoning would likely be that it's offering a similarly high-end experience — Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 5.4-inch Quad HD display, and basically the only smartphone keyboard anyone has ever wanted to use — but that's a hard sell when you're coming from so far behind. No one has used a BlackBerry Android device before, and that's a price range that very few companies — really just Apple and sometimes Samsung — have managed to succeed in. For context, the iPhone starts at $649, the Galaxy Note 5 originally sold for anywhere from $696 to $739, and the Nexus 6P — the best Android phone out there — sells for $499. BlackBerry hasn't set a release date for the Priv just yet, but Android Central reports seeing ads that suggest it could be available for preorder as soon as Friday. It's supposed to go on sale by the end of the year, so BlackBerry ought to announce something soon. Although, at this point, it's entirely possible that the Priv will just appear in a store one day. BlackBerry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

culled from: http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/22/9593774/blackberry-priv-pricing-leak

The Blackberry Phone 8830

General 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / CDMA2000 1x EV-DO SIM Mini-SIM Announced 2007, April Status Discontinued Body Dimensions 114 x 66 x 14 mm (4.49 x 2.60 x 0.55 in) Weight 132 g (4.66 oz) Keyboard QWERTY Display Type TFT, 65K colors Size 320 x 240 pixels, 2.5 inches (~160 ppi pixel density) - Trackball navigation Sound Alert types Vibration; Polyphonic, MP3 ringtones Loudspeaker Yes 3.5mm jack No Memory Card slot microSD Internal 64 MB storage, 16 MB RAM Data GPRS Yes EDGE Yes WLAN No Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 USB Yes, miniUSB Camera No Features OS BlackBerry OS Chipset Qualcomm MSM6550 Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging Browser HTML Radio No GPS Yes Java Yes Colors Black - BlackBerry maps - Media player - Organizer - Organizer - Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Voice dial Battery Li-Ion 1400 mAh battery Stand-by Talk time Misc SAR EU 0.86 W/kg (head) 0.51 W/kg (body)

Advantages and Disadvantages of Blackberry

BlackBerry Messenger can be a definite asset, if you want to exchange messages with other Blackberry users. With it, you can: Carry on a real-time conversation with friends and colleagues in several different locations -- or carry on several conversations simultaneously. Chat with a group. Send and receive an unlimited number of messages worldwide for free with no per-message charge. Get messages without filling up your inbox. Know whether a buddy is online, available or busy. Let your contacts know your own availability for instant messaging. Manage log-in and contacts as you would if you were using an IM program from your PC. Continue using other programs and send and receive e-mails while BlackBerry Messenger is running. Invite someone to join your buddy list and start communicating without setting up a separate IM account. Be notified by a specific ringtone or vibration setting each time a message arrives from a particular person. [sources: BlackBerry Connection, BlackBerry Messenger User Guide and CrackBerry] One disadvantage of BlackBerry Messenger is that you can't send an instant message to someone unless you know his or her PIN code, the eight-digit letter-and-number code assigned to that particular Blackberry device. However, the biggest disadvantage of BlackBerry Messenger may be that it only allows you to exchange instant messages with other BlackBerry users. Introduced in early 2006 as a feature of BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1, BlackBerry Messenger isn't compatible with popular IMing programs. That's because it works differently. With most instant messaging services, you download software that becomes the client on your computer or smartphone. That client connects to the provider's server, using a proprietary protocol for communication. Once you've logged on, the client sends the server your connection information (IP address), your computer port number and the names of everyone on your contact list. The server creates a temporary file with connection information for you and your contacts. Then the server determines which contacts are logged on and sends that information to your client, as well as letting the contacts know you're available. After that, the server is no longer involved, and all communication is between your client and that of your message recipient. With BlackBerry Messenger, however, the server stays involved as it would if you were sending e-mails. All communications go through parent-company Research in Motion's servers as you continue to exchange messages. That also means you can't use BlackBerry Messenger unless you have a BlackBerry Internet plan, or data plan [source: CrackBerry]. Next, let's explore what else you'll need to get started with BlackBerry Messenger and its basic functions.