Greg’s Blog
Review Tech21 Impact Snap Case for BlackBerry Z10
MobileFun.co.uk was kind enough to send me the Tech21 Impact Snap Case with Cover for BlackBerry L-Series. I cracked the box open and slid my Tmobile Z10 inside to see how the case would work in my life. I spent more than a week with it embracing my new beloved Z10. In short, it does what it’s supposed to do, but I found that it got in the way more often than I’d like. Read on for all the details.
Features
•Designed for the Blackberry Z10
•Shock absorbent material will protect your phone
•Slim line design
•Easily clips onto the back of your Blackberry to provide comprehensive protection to your device
•Access to all ports and features of the Blackberry Z10
Another Edition of Greg’s Blog:
I watched the Oscars for the first time in a long time last night. I was entertained. I was also bombarded with Samsung ads. (Apparently that was a USA thing. I read via Twitter from Chris Parsons, aka Bla1ze, that BlackBerry had ads in Canada and not Sammy.) What was really interesting to me was not the commercials themselves, but rather how Samsung used another large venue to continue a commercial started at the Super Bowl. In the Superbowl ads, Sammy showed a fake mobile game being setup, Unicorn Apocalypse, that had 4 weeks to launch. They must have done well, because they “launched” during the Oscars with a commercial AND captured the interest of Tim Burton who, in another commercial, met with them regarding a movie deal which turned out to be too weird for Mr. Burton.
Now, the Superbowl took place on Sunday, February 3rd. It was the first time that BlackBerry bought ad time. They had a colorful, interesting commercial. Today is Monday, February 25th. No carrier commercials, no BlackBerry ad during the Oscars, and I still can’t walk in to a store and purchase a Z10. In the meantime, Samsung will be unveiling the Galaxy S IV (4) on March 14th.
If the Galaxy S4 hits shelves in the USA before the BlackBerry Z10, that could be a major issue. Even if Samsung simply starts advertising the S4 before the Z10 can regrab attention, BlackBerry could have issues. (Attention spans are short. I haven’t done research, but try asking people on the street which Superbowl ads they remember. BlackBerry probably won’t make that list. Then ask them which Oscars ads they recall.)
I don’t have the answer of whom to blame. BlackBerry says it’s the carriers and carriers don’t say anything. The big problem is, the BlackBerry Z10 needed to be in stores no later than 2 weeks after the launch event in the USA. BlackBerry had a small window all to itself. Post-Christmas, pre- MWC and GS4. Now Samsung has the chance to take the spotlight away. BlackBerry needs the carriers to firm up dates and start advertising. Time is slipping away. The value of the Superbowl ad is diminishing at a rapid rate. (I haven’t seen it since the Superbowl. Anyone else in the USA?)
It’s time to get the Z10 out in the USA. As Elvis sang, “Tomorrow could be too late. It’s now or never.” The USA won’t wait, they don’t’ do that anymore. They move onto the next big thing.
Written by Greg Wesson (@lombaki)
Author’s Note: This post is entirely my own sentiment on today’s launch. It does not reflect Berryfication.com nor anyone affiliated Berryfication.com.
I watched the live feed. I re-watched it. There’s some nice stuff in there. Most of it I saw at BlackBerryJam Americas in San Jose. What about what I haven’t seen? Or what’s more, what about what I have seen but am not seeing? What am I talking about? Read on for what could have been or maybe what will be.
Written exclusively for Berryfication.com by Greg Wesson (@lombaki)
I confess; my intent upon graduating college was to go into marketing and create full ad campaigns. I just love the creative world. That said, I graduated in marketing, not computer graphics. I still however, enjoy writing and now work in marketing for a vacation rental company. On that note, I wondered what I would have come up with for a BlackBerry10 Super Bowl ad. So, I sat down and wrote it up. Here’s my version:
A root cellar door opens. Thorsten Heins (CEO) leads out the BlackBerry 10 team. They’re all shielding eyes and blinking from the sun. “How long do you think we were down there?” “Uh, according to my BlackBerry (show an 8800 in hand), it’s February, 2013.” “2 years, huh? Wow.”. “Well, let’s go show what we’ve been doing.” (Drop 8800 in a slow-mo, pull out Z10.). Voice over: “BlackBerry10 is here. And if you thought we were dead…. Welcome to the zombie-polcolypse.” And the guys walk zombie-esque into a sunrise:
So there you have it! This is why they don’t let me do commercials. 
. If you were in charge, what would you do for the Super Bowl spot? Sound off in the comments!
The Future of Mobile Computing
***Editor’s Note*** RIM is really big on pushing the concept of mobile computing. So much so in fact, that the author of this post, @Lombaki, has been requested by RIM to allow the use of a tweet he composed regarding mobile computing and BlackBerry 10. With permission, here is the tweet RIM will be using during the launch events January 30th.
“A phone is not a phone anymore; it’s a portal to social networks, media and work. That is the future of #mobilecomputing. @BlackBerry #BB10″
The Future of Mobile Computing, by Greg Wesson (@Lombaki)
Those words have been spoken by BlackBerry reps all over the world for about a year now. What does the phrase mean? Where does it lead to? My thoughts:
I thought about this about a year ago myself while I was holding my PlayBook one day. What if I had a dock at home and one at work? A dock where I drop my PlayBook in and it connects to a monitor, a keyboard, and multiple drives via cloud. The documents I need are on my PB. The apps I need are on the cloud. I create and edit on the monitor and save the docs back to my BlackBerry tablet.
I can do the same work at home. All I carry around is my BlackBerry PlayBook. Well, it sounds like RIM is going one farther and suggesting the same idea with the BB10 handheld device. It will be your work and personal device, being so multi-faceted that it carries all of your necessary information for work. Then, of course via Balance, it’s your personal device as well.
BlackBerry is well onto the future here; it’s mobile computing. I still see value in tablets simply for the screen space on the go. Laptops and desktops will be gone though. Servers will handle all the big applications and information creating small, company clouds (as they already often do).
It’s pushing reality now, but BlackBerry10 will make it a big step closer to reality on January 30th, 2013. Mobile computing is the future and BlackBerry is leading the way. Well done, RIM.
BB10 Bridge – Will you love this experience?
So- I was talking to one of my BBM groups today, and we started discussing our love for BlackBerry Bridge, but how we weren’t super thrilled with BB7. It does have that strained feel to it, as if they have truly maxed out the legacy OS. Bridge, however, feels like it is fresh and has lots of room to grow. Yet we haven’t heard a peep from RIM on Bridge in BB10.
Well, the big show is coming to a close today and it’s been one heck of a ride. I’ll admit to being a bit “star-struck” as I walked among the ranks of Alec Saunders, Alex Kinsella, Anders Jeppsson, and Victoria Berry among others. There was also no shortage of fellow BlackBerry website press on hand with whom I was able to talk. The event was massive. From the keynote to meeting halls, breakout rooms, round tables, and, of course, the appreciation party. I met independent developers and leaders of application companies. The whole experience was a tad overwhelming and entirely amazing.
So what did RIM show us to advance the BB10 platform? Remembering that BBJam is for developers, they showed us a lot of what was needed to be heard. Major app developers are on board: Facebook and Foursquare were both demonstrated. Twitter and LinkedIn were mentioned. The Peek and Flow concepts were more fully demonstrated. More importantly, BlackBerry revealed The BlackBerry Hub which will be the core of the BB10 experience. While the DevAlphas are not currently set up to use the Hub, the live demo given at the keynote showed precisely how it all works together for the good.
Lastly, RIM mentioned that the new AppWorld will contain multiple forms of media: Movies, TV, and music. While that will help, what wasn’t mentioned will be critical- from where are they getting said media and how vast of a collection will it be? Of ten I hear about how Netfilx doesn’t have this and Google Play doesn’t carry that… Can RIM best the competition in media availability? We’ll find out in a few months.
In the meantime, today is RIM’s financial statement day. The analysts weren’t expecting much and it seems that they may have set their sights too low. A lot of buzz is saying that RIM have not have lost as much as previously proposed. It’s always interesting to see how the masses react to things. For example, Alex Kinsella had an OOO (out of office) message that TechCrunch wrote and entire rant on. Don’t favor them with a site visit; it’s not worth it. The fact is, it was a simply an OOO and the blogosphere and Twitter universe blew up about it. On the converse, even if RIM does post better than expected numbers, it will somehow be construed to make RIM look like they are shutting their doors tomorrow.
I expect a rough set of financials today and again in three months and then again three months later. That takes us to late March, 2013. The chances that a Q1 release of BB10 will affect a March earnings report is highly unlikey. It’ll be June, 2013 before we hear any real, honest BB10 figures. The only change would be if RIM decided to release information early based on the success of BB10. If BB10 were to make major financial strides for RIM during that time, they might announce some numbers earlier – might.
I leave San Jose in four hours and hope to attend BlackBerryWorld with Ryan in May. With two of us, we can cause double the trouble and cover twice the info. For now, keep it locked here for some follow up posts on what I saw and learned here at BBJam2012. Another shoutout to RIM and Berryfication for the opportunity and incredible experience.
Bringing BlackBerry Back – How Do We Do It?
As my first RIM event, this has been incredible. It’s massive and opulent. I have met people from multiple websites, several companies, and from RIM. I’ve talked to devs who are hacking away on their upcoming apps. I’ve worked on my own app. I have seen thousands of people who are, simply put, ecstatic to see BlackBerry come to fruition (pun intended) with the new OS and hardware.
The people who are here have buy in. They will all own a BlackBerry 10 device. The people who are not here- they are the goal. The million-dollar question that has been asked here over and over is: How does RIM return to the market full force? What will it take? What would make Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe walk in to a carrier or retail store and buy a BlackBerry10 device over the plethora of others?
Greg’s Personal PlayBook Wallpaper Collection
All right, for those of you who don’t know me well yet, photography is a hobby of mine. I love light and water landscapes because they are ever changing. No two pictures of a waterfall will ever be the same. The water moves differently (think chaos theory example in Jurassic Park) and the Earth is always moving around the sun causing the light to reflect differently.
In order to be a better member of the BlackBerry community, I am posting some of my pictures in 1024×1024 PNG format for download as PlayBook Wallpapers. Our dear friend Pootermobile is hosting them for me. Make sure to access our site from a laptop or desktop, open the walls in a new tab, save them to your computer and copy them over to your PlayBook in your photos folder to ensure quality.
Here are the first four new walls:
I hope you enjoy the pictures and my goal is to have more up in the near future. Keep Calm and Jam On!
-Image hosting by http://www.theworldofpootermobile.com
Written Exclusively for Berryfication.com by Greg Wesson [@lombaki]
Rumor has held for a while now that the upcoming BB10 phones would utilize a QualComm SnapDragon S4 Pro processor. What I didn’t realize until today is that there are actually two versions of the S4 Pro They are both SnapDragon S4 Pro series. Both are 1.7MHz. But as you can see here one is dual-core and one is quad-core! The dual-core is called the MSM8960T. The quad-core is called the APQ8064. Did RIM go big for the BB10? We’ll hopefully find out at BBJam Americas. That, or else the wait is going to be the realllly hard part.
Sources: Qualcomm, Android an Me
Written exclusively for Berryfication.com by Greg Wesson (@lombaki)
***UPDATE*** I am in fact attending BBJam Amercias! I’m honored and beyond excited to be representing Berryfication.com. Thanks to Ryan and RIM for allowing me this great opportunity!!
Ladies and gentlemen, I recently crossed a bucket list item off my, well, bucket list. I bought a 1994 Subaru SVX LSi. Call me crazy, but I love the design. Not many people pine for an almost 20 year-old car that isn’t considered a classic or collectible. Yet I fell in love with them at first look over 10 years ago and now I have my own to drive; and drive it I do. It’s a driving machine. That’s what it was built for and that’s what I use it for. I still have my Forester for daily driving, but for trips and pleasure, I take my beauty out and let the 3.3L 230HP engine do some damage.
How does this relate to BlackBerry? Well, I may… MAY… have the opportunity to attend the new BlackBerry DevCon: BlackBerry Jam Americas, San Jose. Ninety-nine percent of the pieces are in place. Attending would be another bucket list item.
So, the point of this post: IF I get to attend, what the heck do I do? Where do I eat? How do I meet up with the muckety-mucks of BlackBerry blogging geekdom? Can I talk about the app I want to develop without fear of the idea being taken? LIterally, I’d be a fish out of water… Okay, not literally; much more figuratively than literally. Literally figuratively.
Basically, I’ll really be overwhelmed with all the goings-on and afraid I miss something important. So, if you have an tips, tricks, hints, info, etc, about what to do, where to go while I’m there, etc, I’d love to hear your two-cents, four-cents, heck even your buck fifty-nine. Sound off in the comments and I’ll update this post when I can confirm my attendance.
I’m All In by Greg [@lombaki]
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am BlackBerry by choice. I can’t say that I’ve spent a whole lot of time with iOS nor Android. The time I have spent with them, however, hasn’t impressed me. It could be that I simply haven’t given them a fair chance, but here’s the thing: My BlackBerrys do what I need, do what I want, and do those things well.
On top of those facts, I’m a loyal individual. I find something that works well for me and I stick with it. Some brands to which I am personally loyal: BlackBerry, Subaru, Outback Steakhouse, Deschutes Brewery, and most anything sold by Costco because I trust Costco as a retailer. Now, I could spout my verbal praise for my favorite companies all day and while via a small version of trickle-down economics might make a difference to the sellers, I am the type who follows the old adage: Put your money where your mouth is. As of last week, I am the proud owner of share in Research in Motion.
