BerryManiacs

This has absolutely nothing to do with BlackBerry, but I’m a space nut so I figured I’d throw this out here.  In about 30 minutes (11:26AM EDT), the space shuttle Atlantis will lift off for STS-135, and it will be the final launch in the 30 years of NASA’s shuttle program.  If you would like to watch the live video feeds, I have included them below.

UPDATE: The launch was flawless this morning and Atlantis is currently on its way to its final rendezvous with the International Space Station.  Godspeed guys!

Official NASA TV Feed >>
SpaceVidCast Coverage >>

This has to be one of the coolest things that I’ve seen with the PlayBook so far.  Mobile Innovations, a Canadian company that specializes in using BlackBerry devices to enable law enforcement to be more mobile while still remaining connected to the tools they use, has released a demo of a police cruiser with a PlayBook replacing the laptops that have become popular with police departments in the last decade.  They have rigged up a mount in the center console for the PlayBook and the yet-to-be released BlackBerry Bluetooth Keyboard.  In this cruiser, the PlayBook is capable of controlling the lightbar on the top of the car, as well as the other lights and sirens onboard.  I assume that it does this over Bluetooth because there is no connectors hooked up to the PlayBook other than the charging connector.  In addition to controlling the car, this PlayBook is also running software that allows officers to communicate with dispatch as well as look up people and vehicles.

In general, I find stuff like this to be really cool, and I hope it takes off.  Imagine how this technology will progress once the 3G/4G PlayBooks come out and officers can use these outside of the car.  The PlayBook could notify dispatch as soon as the car’s lights and sirens are activated.  The possibilities here really are endless, and way more helpful than watching Tekzilla on my dashboard.

[CrackBerry]

As you may have noticed, I’ve been posting a lot less frequently lately.  A big part of that, aside from working my full-time job, is that I’ve been having a sort of crisis of faith with BlackBerry.  It’s less about all of the recent doom and gloom about RIM’s future, and more about my friends with BlackBerrys leaving for iPhones and Android phones.

I’ve been using BlackBerrys since before there was an iPhone or Android phones out there.  While I love BlackBerry, I’ve never really used anything else.  Today is my new-every-two with Verizon Wireless, so I’m going to try an Android phone.  Verizon gives me 2 weeks to see how I like it, so I’m going to try this out.  While I’ve been contemplating this, I thought about all of the other people in my same situation, so I’ve decided that I’m going to blog my experiences here.  Therefore, I present to you the Android Project:

I’ve been doing the research on this for a week now, and here are the specs that are different between the two.  I’m bearing in mind that the Thunderbolt is almost 2 years newer than my 9550, and I’m focusing mostly on the dimensions and battery life.  You can check out the important stats below:

Obviously, the Thunderbolt is larger than the Storm2 in all stats.  That’s to be expected because the Thunderbolt is one of those Android phones with the ridiculously large screens.  What did surprise me is the battery life numbers.  From all of the reviews that I’ve been going through, the biggest consistent knock on the Thunderbolt has been battery life, and I’ve been worried of having to need to charge my phone every 4-5 hours.  While that is feasible on my normal days (between home, work, and my car I’m rarely more than arm’s reach from a charger), that is certainly not a workable solution when I’m on a trip.  Imagine my shock when I saw that VZW says that the Thunderbolt gets better battery life than the 9550!  I was so surprised that I had to go onto RIM’s site to confirm that the numbers lined up with the official specs (Note: HTC’s site does not list battery life specs for the Thunderbolt, so I had to take VZW’s word for it).  Now, I know that the Thunderbolt’s life numbers are probably in “ideal conditions” with almost everything turned off, but so are RIM’s I assume, so I’ll be very interested to test this out in my real-world scenario.  As for the extra ounce of weight and size, I played with my dad’s Tbolt and it didn’t seem too crazy, but we’ll see how it goes when it’s in my pocket all the time.

Here’s what I am excited about: Verizon’s 4G LTE network.  All recent independent speed tests have rated Verizon’s network as faster than all of the other carriers.  It’s even been rated faster than many people’s home internet connections.  I am fortunate enough that my apartment and my office in NJ are both covered in LTE zones, so I’m looking forward to seeing how fast this thing really is.  I’m also excited about trying Android and playing with all of its UI elements that BlackBerry does not have.

How do I expect this to end?  I honestly have no idea.  There are so many little things in BlackBerry that I take for granted that could completely turn me off Android just because they’re not there.  I already know I’m going to need to get used to not holding down a letter to capitalize it.  I could go the whole two weeks and love the Thunderbolt, or I could take it back in a week and hold out for the Monaco.  Either way, I expect to gain a better appreciation for the options out there.  I’m not going to turn into a BlackBerry-hater because I still like them and still believe that they fulfill a need.  I still have my PlayBook, and I’m still planning to write about the latest BlackBerry news.  Whenever people at work ask me what phone they should get, I always tell them to try them all out and see what they like best, so I’m simply taking my own advice.

OK… I feel like I’ve stumbled through this post enough.  Would you believe that I’ve been trying to get this written down all week?  Stay tuned here for more updates on where this will take me.  If you have any questions about using Android that you’d like me to try out, please leave a comment here or email me at drew@berrymaniacs.com.  Also, if you know anybody who is thinking about Android, tell them to swing by here and see if my experiences can’t help them make up their mind.  As I said, I’m still planning to make normal news posts, so stay tuned for that here as well.

Just ahead of their quarterly call to investors, RIM released a press release with their results.  The big positive note in this release is that they have shipped approximately 500,000 PlayBook tablets since they released it almost two months ago.  No word on if this relates to how many PlayBooks are actually in customers’ hands or if these are just devices that are in the retail channel.  Hopefully, now that the PlayBook is available in the UK and in in 16 other markets in the next month, we’ll see a lot more adoption of the PlayBook.  There’s some good news and some bad news in this press release, and we’ll have more coverage later tonight after the earnings call.  You can read the full press release at the source link below.

[MarketWire]

It seems that RIM has been on a real acquisition-spree of late, but this recent move may have started as a potential acquisition, but is now a partnership.  According to GigaOM, RIM is looking at hiring Ontario-based company YOU i Labs to help build the next BlackBerry user experience.  While YOU i Labs worked with Teknision to build the UI for the PlayBook, they are best known for designing the Sense UI that has become so popular on HTC phones (shown above).  They will reportedly work alongside The Astonishing Tribe to build the UI for the next generation of BlackBerry devices.

This makes sense to me.  If YOU i Labs helped design the PlayBook UI, then it sounds like a great idea to get them involved in scaling it down to the smaller size of handsets.  I also think that TAT builds a great UI, but they tend to skew towards funky “fantastical” designs that may intimidate new and current users if it ran the whole device.  Perhaps YOU i Labs is there to bring a functional balance to the table.  Either way, I’m excited to see what comes out of all this.  Check out a video below of YOU i Labs founder talking about “The Era of Intimate User Interface.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=u9FmOjQ4wVQ

What do you guys think?  Does this make you more excited for BlackBerry 8?

[GigaOM]

Over this past weekend, RIM released 1.5.0.2342 of their Tablet OS.  There is nothing really in this update except that it fixes a critical vulnerability in Flash that affect all systems that currently use it, not just the PlayBook.  The thing that I love about this update is that Adobe published this security advisory on June 5, which means that RIM found out about the vulnerability, patched it, and rolled it out to every PlayBook in about a week.  I think it’s great that RIM can turn updates around so quickly, and I hope that they’ll be able to continue doing this even after carriers get involved.

Looking forward to the next version, RIM has made Tablet OS v1.0.6 available to select developers in the BlackBerry Beta Zone.  Several developers on the Internet are reporting receiving an email about the upcoming release of 1.0.6:

On behalf of Research In Motion®, we are pleased to tell you about an exclusive Preview Program focused on providing developers a chance to test their applications on BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.6. The goal of this program is to ensure that your AIR 2.7 and Flash 10.3 applications are optimized and ready for the BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.6 release. Please read this entire notice, as it contains key information about your participation in this program.

This program is only available to a select group of BlackBerry PlayBook developers; as such we are very interested in hearing your comments and experiences. Since the program will remain open for approximately 1 week, it is crucial to submit all issues and feedback in a timely manner. Please use the programs discussion boards and share your experiences with us. RIM moderators will review.

Looks like the major changes are to the AIR and Flash versions that are baked into the OS.  There may be other features available in this new version, but I’m willing to bet that any really significant changes or new features will not be added to this developer beta.  The interesting thing to read here is that the beta program will remain open for about 1 week, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll see the update come out publicly next Monday.  It’s a lot more likely that this beta is solely just to make sure that apps don’t blow up on Flash 10.3 and AIR 2.7, and then spend another week or 2 (or 3) to finish the update.

What features do you want to see in the new PlayBook OS?  Sound off in the comments!

[Inside BlackBerry Blog and N4BB]

Last night, RIM released a new version of BlackBerry News Feeds for their handhelds, and today they have released BlackBerry News for the PlayBook.  I’m not sure if they’re related or if the BlackBerry News team has just been buring the midnight oil recently.  Either way, both apps let you stay current with your news feeds while on-the-go.  While the handheld version is more in the style of displaying a list of headlines that you need to open to read, the PlayBook version takes advantage of the extra space to make a more newspaper-esque layout.  As you can see in the image above, BlackBerry News pulls an image and the beginning of the posts so it can make a much more visual layout.  Personally, I think it looks great and puts my Maniacs Reader app to shame.

As for the things that everybody will mention: While it does connect with my BlackBerry ID and pulls all of my feeds that I’m already subscribed to, there is no Google Reader integration here.  I also wish that this app were “bridgeable” and get new feeds content off my BlackBerry while I’m not covered by Wi-Fi.  Overall, it’s a great app, but it’s not taking me away from GeeReader for my PlayBook news yet.  You can check out the latest versions of BlackBerry News at the links below and let us know what you think in the comments.

More Information on BlackBerry News for PlayBook >>
More Information on BlackBerry News Feeds for Handhelds>>

[Inside BlackBerry]

Early this morning, RIM released version 1.0.5.2304 of their QNX-based BlackBerry Tablet OS.  In rare fashio, RIM has released a list of updates and changes in the new release:

• Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook — The first Facebook app optimized for tablets now comes preloaded and introduces new features including video uploading, message deletion, Facebook search enhancements and more.
• In-App Payments Support — Enables developers to create apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook using the BlackBerry Payment Service, which will allow users to purchase enhancements within apps such as another level in a game or a new edition of a magazine.
• Additional Language Support – Updates language support to include: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch and UK English.
• BlackBerry PlayBook Charging Enhancements — By simply touching the battery indicator on the BlackBerry PlayBook home screen users can easily adjust the screen brightness or choose to restart, turn off, or put the tablet into standby mode. Other charging improvements include the ability to charge the PlayBook while it is turned off, as well as an on-screen alert to notify users if they accidentally have plugged in an incorrect charger into their BlackBerry PlayBook.
• Video Chat Connectivity — Adds support for the TURN (Traversal Using Relay NAT) protocol, which enhances Video Chat connections between users on home, public and enterprise Wi-Fi networks.
• Wi-Fi Hotspot Detection — Automatic Wi-Fi hotspot detection in the BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.5 makes it easier to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot (at a coffee shop or an airport, for example).

I also noticed that the App World is also sending notifications for app updates, which is great because I’m not in the App World every day but would still like to know when my apps are updated.

The most popular feature will probably be the greatly-enhanced Facebook app, but my favorite is the new popup when you tap the battery indicator (shown below).  Where previously it would only show you the charge level, it now lets you quickly adjust the brightness, turn off, restart, and place your tablet into standby.  Although the 16GB PlayBook that RIM gave out in April had no issue with the power button, my 32GB does and the convertible case makes the power button pretty worthless, so I like the ability to quickly put my PlayBook into standby mode here.

You can update your PlayBook to the latest OS by going to the Software Update options screen, or by plugging it into your computer with Desktop Software installed.  Let us know what your favorite new feature is in the comments!

[Inside BlackBerry]

This morning, RIM welcomed Scoreloop to the family.  For those of you who have never heard of Scoreloop before (myself included), they are a company that creates an SDK that allows for social gaming across iPhone and Android platforms.  Check out the description from their site and a quick video demo of Scoreloop in action below:

Scoreloop provides everything you need to add social elements to any game. From developers to brands, operators and OEMs, Scoreloop’s social gaming ecosystem and SDK creates instant communities and connections, and new ways to generate revenues from mobile games.

Unlike other social mobile gaming platforms Scoreloop is customizable and cross-platform, meaning that developers can add as many or as few Scoreloop features as they want. From simple social network connections to in-app purchases and virtual currency, Scoreloop makes mobile games more social and profitable.

Currently, Scoreloop’s SDKs work on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7, but I think it’s a safe bet that they’ll be supporting games on BlackBerry as well soon.  We can also expect that Scoreloop will be integrating their services into the BBM social platform.  I don’t think that they’ll be discontinuing support for other platforms, like RIM did with Viigo, because cross-platform seems to be part of the draw of Scoreloop in the first place.  Hopefully we’ll see some cool gaming features from them soon on the BlackBerry 7 devices.

Learn more about Scoreloop at their website >>

[BlackBerry Developer Blog]

Back in March, when I first got hands-on with the PlayBook, Ryan Bidan said to me that 7″ will not be the only size that RIM will make tablets in.  RIM has never been a one-size-fits-all device manufacturer, so it comes as no surprise that BGR is reporting that a 10-inch version of the PlayBook is currently in the works with a possible launch in the fall.  I don’t want to make it sound too simple, but I imagine that with the specs already competitive, and the software already being refined on the PlayBook, that a larger tablet shouldn’t need more than some OS tweaks and a bigger chassis/screen.  In addition to this tip, a CrackBerry reader says that they saw somebody using a 10-inch PlayBook a few weeks ago on a plane:

Today, On a flight from Dallas to Toronto I sat across the aisle from someone who had BOTH a 7″ Blackberry playbook and what looked like a 10″ Blackberry playbook as well. The 10″ unit looked identical to the 7″ unit and had the telltale vertical slotted speaker slits on the right and left side, forward facing camera (top middle) and some type of round sensor to the left of the camera sensor.

The larger unit had visibly better screen image quality than the 7″unit, significantly better contrast, brightness and viewing angle. I had a Xoom with me and it looked about the same size. I was able to see the menus/screens and it looked very similar to to the 7″ screens. Additionally, the person who had this larger playbook was playing Need For Speed.

Now it looks like N4BB has some more information on what they are calling the PlayBook 2.

• Black & white colored models
• SIM card slot
• 4G/WiFi only, no 3G version
• Thinner frame around screen
• Able to connect to BES without BlackBerry Bridge

The ability to connect to the BES directly is likely going to be added to the OS on the current PlayBook as well.  We’ll see how this all turns out.  Will you be lining up for a 10-inch PlayBook?

[BGR and CrackBerry and N4BB]