If you search around the internet based on the images in this post you will find loads of prognostication – Android fans calling it meaningless (despite foretelling the death of iOS with each percentage Android gains at the expense of RIM), iOS fans calling it the ‘Android plummet’ (in spite of arguing that short term shifts are meaningless), and so on.

What I see – particularly when I look at the next image – is a market that is moving more rapidly than ever before. Smartphones accounted for over TWO THIRDS of all mobile phone sales in October and November of 2011!

Last night Francis shared a link with the rest of the GearDiary crew, to the BlackBerry store Playbook page. At first it looks reasonable, then you check out pricing at which point you think it must be a mistake, but alas … you can go all the way through to check-out without any errors!

Regardless of whether you think that the Blackberry Playbook is WORTH $300, plenty of the devices were sold at retail for $200 over the holiday season … although I talked with several people who had no idea WHY they were buying them. But those devices were the 16GB version – and now you can get the full… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

image courtesy of BerryReporter 

Clinton recently wrote an opinion piece entitled, “As RIM Writes Off The Playbook, The Pressure is on Microsoft to Make a Complete Windows 8 Tablet“, in which he says:

This morning the Wall Street Journal reported that RIM is taking a $485 million charge for their lackluster tablet, the Playbook.  The charge comes by way of a markdown in the value of the massive inventor that RIM still has of the devices.  It is a brutal and costly reminder that if you kinda-sorta-maybe-woulda-shoulda your tablet strategy, the price can be steep.  Very steep.

and

The challenge facing Microsoft is that they are behind when it comes to a tablet strategy.  Regardless of what

Picture from Jewish Journal

A few years ago I received a picture from friends in my congregation. They were in Jerusalem for their daughter’s Bat Mitzvah. The the picture their daughter was standing on the Southern Steps of the Temple Mount wearing a tallit (prayer shawl) and holding a BlackBerry. It seems she left her speech in the hotel room in Jerusalem. Luckily, her mom had it on her Blackberry for safe keeping. Yes, a BlackBerry saved the day and her Bat Mitzvah.

Fast forward to last week. It seems when it comes to a smartphone saving the day during a Bat Mitzvah BlackBerries are out and iPhones are in. Here is the, slightly redacted for privacy… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Google’s Gmail app for BlackBerry is coming to an abrupt end on the 22nd of this month. (via The Verge) We thought we would let two videos provide the commentary. (Note: The relevant commentary comes at the end, not in the refrain.)

And here’s the musical version…

Bad news for Blackberry and B&N fans; you’ll have to pick sides soon. B&N is notifying Blackberry users that effective January 1st, they’re dropping all support for their eReader app. Of course, if you want to go through contortions, you can always sideload your books via USB. Or you could switch to Kobo or Amazon, both of whom offer fully supported ebook apps for Blackberry.

According to Crackberry, this is the email B&N has sent to affected users:

We are writing to inform you about important changes being made to the BN eReader software for BlackBerry. Changes to the BN eReader software will directly affect how you purchase and access your digital

We have a winner in the first round of our huge 5th Anniversary giveaway. And the BlackBerry PlayBook goes to…

Not so fast! Before we get there we wanted to remind you that we are giving away both the Orbino Padova for iPad 2 and the Aranex Kangaroo Leather Folio today.

Note: This contest has ended.

What better way to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Gear Diary than to do a series of awesome giveaways?!?!? Those giveaways start today, so keep reading.

The contests will cover the next two weeks leading us to September 30th, the actual anniversary of Gear Diary. This week we will be giving away a ton of review items. Almost all of them have been opened and lightly used for review, but all are in perfect working order without any significant cosmetic blemishes. Most have original packaging and any accompanying paperwork.

Each contest will last no more than two days with some taking far less time than that. To enter… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I attended RIM’s rollout of the BlackBerry PlayBook and they were kind enough to give each of us in attendee one to take home and use. Since that time I have taken the device out of its box every week or so to play with it a bit. Unfortunately, after using it for a brief time back into the box it goes. Time and again this is what happens.

It makes me sad. I love the hardware. The 7″ form factor is fantastic, the design of the tablet is quite nice and the OS is great. The screen is gorgeous and the speakers are probably the best speakers I have heard on a tablet yet… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Well would you look at this… the BlackBerry PlayBook just got a whole lot more useful! YEAH!!! Evernote just announced the release of an Evernote app for the PlayBook.

Rather than simply port the tablet app from iOS or Android the Evernote team thought about the PlayBook, its 7″ size and its overall form factor when designing the app. The result was a decision to use a two-column approach for notes with “a Snippet-filled note list along the left and the selected note on the right.”

When selecting a note the user has a choice of either viewing it in the two-column view or going into full-screen mode with the simple tap of the screen… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

image courtesy of BlackBerry Smartphones Week

If you live in North America or the UK, and if you have a BlackBerry, you have no doubt heard about the new BlackBerry Music service that we mentioned earlier this week. $5 per month gets you 50 songs that you can share with your friends … but only if you own a BlackBerry and they own one, too. And this service is not available to the general BlackBerry population yet.

According to Digital Music News, the plan details are:

(1) $5 a month.
(2) User chooses 50 songs to access anytime, on-demand.
(3) User then invites other ‘BBM’ friends to download the app and join the circle

Imagine if back in 2006 someone told you that RIM was offering a music plan for the Blackberry that would allow you to get 50 songs per month, share them with all of your friends who also have a Blackberry, unlimited and on-demand. And that it would have cost $5 a month!

You would likely have lamented that you couldn’t also get them on your PC or iPod … but would otherwise been pretty thrilled and signed up immediately!

This was the time before the iPhone, before Spotify and Slacker, and when RIM ruled the enterprise phone market. This was before RIM was bleeding market share … well, because of moves like… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

RIM has just announced three new BlackBerry Curve smartphones: the BlackBerry Curve 9350, the BlackBerry Curve 9360 and the BlackBerry Curve 9370. Those of you who love BlackBerry and have been chomping at the bit for a Curve upgrade will be glad to see features which include:

•  Slim, sleek design
• GPS and Wi-Fi support
• MP camera with flash and video recording
• MicroSD/SDHC slot supporting up to 32 GB memory cards
• New BlackBerry 7 Operating System – Featuring:

1. Faster, more fluid web browsing
2.  Voice activated universal search
3.  Smoother navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for gaming and video
4.  Pre-loaded premium version of Documents To Go
5.  BlackBerry Balance

I hate being predictable. I hate being statistic. But Telenav’s new survey basically suggests that I, and I suspect many of you, fall right in line with the data when it comes to out smartphone dependence (read: addiction). The question asked in the survey was, “How willing are you to give up… your smartphone, coffee, shoes etc.”. For example,

54% of all respondents would be more willing to give up exercise for a week than their mobile phone.

55% of respondents would be more willing to give up caffeine for a week than their mobile phone,

63% would be more willing to give up chocolate

70% would be willing to forego

Last week  I wrote a post entitled “The iPod touch Effect”, or Why RIM Could Have Been a Contender… but Isn’t. In it I argued that even it Apple does not currently own the market they are positioned well for the long-term thanks to a little device known as the iPod touch. The Touch, I said, is now used by a huge number of kids who do not yet have a cell phone. Their love of the Touch, not to mention their having invested in apps and ringing up game scores, makes it more likely that they will go for an iPhone when the time comes for them to get a phone… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...