Goal.com, the world’s largest football website owned by sports media group PERFORM, recently announced that Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry® smartphones and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets, will be promoting the company’s products across the Goal.com web and mobile sites in the Middle East and Africa (MEA).

The Goal.com sites reach over 14 million football fans across the MEA region, including specific local editions for the Nigerian, Ghanaian and Kenyan markets, as well as an Arabic edition for the Middle East and North Africa. The deal will cover the Nigerian, Ghanaian, Kenyan, Egyptian, South African, Qatar, UAE and Jordanian markets, in the first pan-regional marketing partnership for Goal.com in these territories. Read more »

If you, like me, got the first version of the BlackBerry Dev Alpha from RIM then you most probably have gotten this error by now. It comes up when you manage to drain your device of power completely.

See the image above to find what this screen looks like.

So there fix is quite simple really:

Just restart your device. Not once; not twice; but 4 times minimum.

I hear from a reliable source that RIM actually put in an error reporting mechanism that sends back information to RIM Dev team on ways to improve the BB 10 Dev Alpha.

I have restarted mine 4 times. It is finally back up J

Ok Gang, back As You Were.

image courtesy, Crackberry

Samsung recently toppled Nokia as the best seller on the planet and word on the street is that this surprise attack and win has been fueled by Samsung’s rigorous marketing campaign and evident cutting edge technology. With the new Galaxy, Samsung could have potentially set another benchmark. They are huge on community which is a crucial driving force behind a successful product. Essentially, if you don’t have the numbers, you have nothing.

Well, what about BlackBerry? Blackberry could potentially be onto something new with BlackBerry 10.

Many are saying that this is BBs last great hope (lol). Others keep at it that BlackBerry is deader than alive (Even more LOL although I doubt that Grammar makes any sense). Point is, they couldn’t be more wrong. Developers and top brands alike are already beginning to commit to BB 10 platform for their (MAB) Mobile Application Development. Recently at BlackBerry World, RIM  revealed relevant endorsements who have already confirmed their excitement for the upcoming launch of the BlackBerry 10 platform. Read more »

So I recently upgraded my BlackBerry. Or my BlackBerry got an upgrade.

I also saw a couple of my friends get upgraded on their hardware. Some were (and still are legacy Android and Symbian users) so this is a relatively new experience for them.

For one, Blackberry is a very super-user tool. In between sending emails, sharing pictures and updates on the social networks, chatting with other BB users who are on BBM and generally flossing, I would generally say they are enjoying their new devices.

I’ve been a BB user for quite a while now. I used to operate on the Bold 9000, arguably one of the best devices that ever came out of RIM; Superior battery life, good computing power, security and the enviable list of BBM contacts who sort of give a more personalized feel around it. Oh! And the good manly look and feel. It served me very well.

At a glance, the screen on the Torch 2 is bigger than on the first Torch 1 (640×480 against the previous weigh in at 480×360.) so BAM! Larger screen! The 9810 is also a tad bit easier to operate as compared to the 9800. Read more »

BlackBerry today announced they would have an update to enable ‘tap sharing’ on their devices.

During his keynote presentation at the GITEX conference in Dubai, Research In Motion Co-CEO Jim Balsillie unveiled a new way for BlackBerry® smart-phone users to connect with one another and share multimedia content.

The announcement comes just weeks after the Smartphone manufacturer released their latest Operating System, BB OS7, and made it available on the newer BlackBerry smart-phones. Read more »

It’s official.

Tomorrow, 29^th September 2011, will see the first ever developer’s mini conference in sub Saharan Africa.

The event is scheduled to be hosted at the Laico Regency Hotel.

This particular meet-up, a first in the region, will be attended by Waldi Wepener, Head of RIM (Research in Motion) for East, Central and Southern Africa, who is speak on the new Operating System (BB OS 7) among other key points during the event.

The rest of the RIM Team, Colin Abouchabki who heads business development in Africa, and Michael Weitzel, Technical manager will talk about the BlackBerry OS and fundamentals of developing for BlackBerry and tackle any questions you may have on their devices and systems.

Colin is here to train developers on how to code for BlackBerry and its App World platform.

The event starts promptly at 8:30 to 5:30.

Meals will be catered for during the event so plan to attend.

NB: Registration is on a ‘first come first serve’ basis and the team has already received numerous registration requests which have ended confirmed attendance RSVP with Mukami Muriuki on 20-2396898 or email Mukami from Africa Practice to book a slot.

Today, RIM announced the beta availability of BBM Music service in BlackBerry Beta Zone.

BBM Music lets you share, discover, play, and grow your music collections with your BBM friends.

With BBM Music, you can discover and share music with your friends through an evolving community-based music library. The size of your library continues to grow as you add new friends, and you can select music from a catalog with millions of songs.

Key features include:

• >Ability to build a music profile (up to 50 songs) from a catalogue of millions of tracks
• >Invite friends to BBM Music from your BBM contacts
• >Share playlists or single songs with BBM Music friends
• >Create multiple playlists by combining your profile songs plus your BBM Music friends’ profile songs
• >See what new songs your BBM friends have added, view comments, or start up a BBM chat about     favorite bands

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) announced today that the BlackBerry Smart Card Reader™ has achieved FIPS 140-2 certification level 3 – the highest certification achieved by any wireless smart card reader on the market. Smart cards support security programs like the U.S. Department of Defense’s Common Access Card (CAC) program and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12)which calls for a mandatory, government-wide standard for secure and reliable forms of identification issued by the federal government to its employees and to the employees of federal contractors. FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) certifications are assigned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of theU.S. Department of Commerce.

“Our customers value the robust security provided with BlackBerry products and services and smart card readers are particularly important within the government sector,” said Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security at Research In Motion. “This advanced certification of the BlackBerry Smart Card Reader for the U.S. Federal Government demonstrates our ongoing commitment to meet and exceed the expectations of our government customers.” Read more »

Waterloo, On – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced plans to launch 5 new BlackBerry® smartphones based on the BlackBerry® 7 Operating System (OS).  RIM, in conjunction with carriers and distribution partners around the world, is rolling out two new BlackBerry® Bold™ models and three new BlackBerry® Torch™ models, all running the powerful new BlackBerry® 7 OS.

The launch of this family of handsets will be RIM’s largest global launch ever and more than 225 carriers and distribution partners have already commenced or completed over 500 certification programs for these 5 new handsets.

Featuring RIM’s next generation of hardware and software platforms, these five new BlackBerry 7 based smartphones offer users a variety of designs to choose from and deliver the ultimate in communications, multimedia and productivity.

The new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 and 9930 are RIM’s thinnest smartphones ever, each offering a large keyboard and brilliant touch display. The new BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810 smartphone builds on the popularity of the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 and combines a large touch display with a convenient slide-out keyboard. The BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 and 9860 introduce an all-new, all-touch design featuring the largest display on a BlackBerry® smartphone to date.

Read more »

We have a winner!!

The BlackBerry Playbook becomes the first ever tablet to be certified by the U.S. Government as a good quality of service and data security capable device.

In a statement release, RIM announced that:

“RIM is pleased to announce that the BlackBerry PlayBook is the first tablet approved under FIPS for use within the U.S. federal government,” said Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security at Research In Motion. “This certification demonstrates our continued commitment to meeting the needs of security-conscious organizations and enables the U.S. federal government to buy with confidence knowing that the PlayBook meets their computing policy requirements for protecting sensitive information.

More to follow.