President Obama dropped his BlackBerry — somewhat against his will (and to his liking) — and so will plenty of Capitol Hill staffers.Specifically, employees of the Senate will no longer be issued BlackBerry phones. Why? BlackBerry has stopped the factories and AT&T and Verizon are clinging onto little inventory.In a notice sent to Senate administration, the Sergeant at Arms ...
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There’s something ineffable about using a BlackBerry in 2014. Some of it is pure nostalgia, the kind of unavoidable reminiscence that comes with using a device bearing a 15-year-old brand. But the bigger part is the software: BlackBerry 10 is a blend of old and new, a kind of hodgepodge of traditional successes alongside
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Last week, BlackBerry broke into the fast-and-furious MWC news cycle with a few announcements of its own: not only would the company be keeping the door open for another tablet in the coming years, but it would also be releasing new smartphone hardware in the form of the Z3 and Q20. The former device was less than interesting, destined as it was for Indonesia, but the Q20 seemed like a BlackBerry fan’s NSFW fantasy. As ...
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“The BlackBerry Z10 isn’t the strongest reboot the RIM of old could have delivered,” we wrote back in February in our Z10 review, “but it gets an awful lot right about the smartphone experience.” We continued: “In a broader sense, it has accomplished something not many products out of Waterloo have managed in recent years: it’s made us excited for the next BlackBerry.” The next BlackBerry to cross our desks turned out to be the Q10, the ...
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So you’ve decided to spring for a special gift this holiday season – either for a romantic partner, a family member, or yourself (you heel). Shunning more mainstream ideas like a quadrocopter or that perennial snooze-fest, the necktie, you’ve opted to give the gift of communication this year. You’re buying a smartphone, despite how many hassles you’re bound to run into when altering a wireless contract that’s not in your name, and dealing with sales reps who
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With so many questions day by day about viewers still considering alternatives to the popular flagships in the market, it’s always good to know what’s worth your money, and what’s not. We don’t blame you for wanting to try some of the new products in the market at the moment, but for their price, it’s not like if it’s inexpensive to just try something new. We know a lot of you are still on the ropes trying to decide what to buy this holiday season if you’re close to being eligible for a phone-swap, or if you’re wanting a tablet upgrade as well. ...
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The mobile space is full of profound juxtapositions this week as Apple can’t make enough iPhones to meet demand, while BlackBerry can’t keep its head above water long enough to sell existing stock. Meanwhile, Microsoft announces its second round of Surface products, while soon to be-acquired hardware maker Nokia (allegedly) prepares its own Windows tablet – and the horrible marriage of smartphone maker HTC and audio baron Beats finally, mercifully, dissolves. That’s the big news for the week ending September 27, 2013, and all of it -plus iOS 7 literally making ...
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We already have a series here at Pocketnow lamenting the choices of smartphone and tablet manufacturers, and trying to learn something from their most visible mistakes. It’s called Worst Gadgets Ever, and it’s a fun little video series that you should check out. But sometimes, a broader look at the industry’s development is useful – and given the right attitude, it can also be fun. Earlier this year, our own Taylor Martin took you on a tour of
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Normally, when we tell you about some crazy expensive boutique smartphone, it’s largely due to curiosity or a desire for completeness, rather than suggesting that it’s actually a model any of us will go out and purchase. That’s what makes the Porsche Design BlackBerry P’9981 so interesting: it’s actually managed to sell respectably and establish a high profile for itself – if ...
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Sprint finally showed up to the Windows Phone 8 party about a month ago, announcing both the HTC 8XT and the Samsung ATIV S Neo. At the time, the carrier wasn’t ready to divulge just when each of these phones would become available. In the time since, we’ve seen the carrier announce a date for the 8XT, and even get started with sales. All the while, the situation’s been quiet for the ATIV S Neo. We still don’t have any official word, ...
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It’s weird when holidays fall in the middle of the week, because either you’re kicking off a long weekend with the special celebration, or you’re returning to work the next day with a fuzzy brain, a sunburn, and sand in your hair. We’re in the latter situation this week at Pocketnow, the American portion of the team coming down from a day of BBQ and a night of fireworks … but in our case, it’s a good thing. Because today’s the day for our weekly mobile tech podcast, and we love us some mobile-tech podcasting. We hope you do, too, because ...
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Let me preface by saying I got my start in the tech industry by being a die-hard BlackBerry fan. And the last thing I wanted to do when I got my hands on the latest batch of BlackBerrys was write another “end of BlackBerry” article. As I explained in my Pocketnow Insider bio, I ate, slept, and breathed BlackBerry back in the day. I wrote about BlackBerrys between and even during my classes and two other jobs. And even after trying webOS, iOS, and Android, it was hard to cut ties and ...
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I openly admit I was unmoved by the Q10 and Z10 announcement from BlackBerry in January. Maybe it was, as they say, too little too late. Or maybe the Q10 was just too “old BlackBerry” for my refined tastes in smartphones. Whatever the real reason, I had no desire to pick up a BlackBerry 10 device, even as a former BlackBerry fanatic. I have history with the platform and a special place in my heart for the company, a deep-seeded desire for the company to pull itself out of this rut and rival the ...
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In the food service industry, when you’re a server who’s been slammed with too many customers and can’t keep up with the demand, you’re said to be “in the weeds.” On a podcast, that same expression means something quite different. It means you’ve wandered so far from your intended topic (in this case, mobile technology) that you’ve found yourself in the far-flung wilderness talking about anything but (in this case, sports cars, British accents, and the adult film industry). But while we do spend a fair amount of time in OT land on ...
The post Pocketnow Weekly 049: Samsung keeps making stuff, we keep squawking about it (Samsung Premiere 2013) appeared first on Pocketnow.
It’s been six years since the popularization of the touchscreen keyboard began in earnest, an eternity in the fast-paced world of mobile technology. But in contrast to -and maybe in defiance of- that breakneck pace, many less-cutting-edge consumers still cling to the more tactile artifacts of yesteryear. Even in 2013, these folks will settle for nothing less than a true physical keyboard on their smartphone. And though the options in that space have dwindled dramatically in recent years, some solid contenders remain. The BlackBerry Q10 is one of them. We glimpsed it briefly during ...
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