Bloat watch: which smartphones ship with the least available free space?

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Every so often, we get to talking about how much storage is available on our phones out of the box – and not the 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB on the spec flyer, but how much is actually free for us to use, after system software, OEM add-ons, and all that pre-installed bloat is accounted for. The thing is, we only pay a lot of attention to it after we first notice it’s a problem – like how Microsoft found itself in hot water when Surface RT owners noticed their “32GB” tablets only having 16GB free. What we ...

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Mobile ad data reveals breakdown between highest traffic and most revenue

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

When we want to get a sense of the current state of the smartphone market, we often to look to various statistics of one form or another. We can examine reports of new shipments in order to tell which companies are hottest at the moment, or look at reports of device ownership to see who’s getting users to stick around the longest. The latest data set to come our way looks at smartphone (and tablet) usage through the eyes of advertisers, and the ...

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As BlackBerry attempts to find its footing, government interest looks strong

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Last week we took a look at the state of the US smartphone market. Apple, Samsung, and (to a lesser extent) LG were winners, while everyone else seemed to be on the downswing. BlackBerry, especially, showed dismal numbers, with its market share declining by more than half over the course of the previous year. We’ve been curious to see how BlackBerry tries to resurrect itself this time around, new CEO at the helm, and with a focus more on services than hardware. The ...

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BlackBerry going back to its roots: future focus to be on models with hardware keyboards

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

We’re coming up on the one year anniversary of the BlackBerry 10 launch – a year that BlackBerry probably wishes it could forget, if not just get a do-over. Neither the platform nor its hardware really resonated with the public in the way it needed to, and as a result, the company nearly ceased to exist. But now BlackBerry has found itself a second (third?) wind, got itself a new CEO, and is committed to moving forward with ...

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BlackBerry Z30: what we love and what we don’t (Video)

Posted on by Michael Fisher

“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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Pocketnow Weekly 076: inbox zero

Posted on by Michael Fisher

The end of the year in tech is already dominated by lists – best of, worst of, top 5, bottom 50 – you get the picture. So rather than foist another array of numeric bullet points upon you on ...

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BlackBerry actually makes some progress: enterprise interest up

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

One fact that’s emerged from all the events surrounding the BlackBerry buy-out deal that fell through, the decision to keep on going with its existing business, and the move to new leadership has been that BlackBerry refuses to go down without a fight. While we see OEMs on other platforms continue to dazzle us with advanced model after advanced model, pushing limits every ...

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BlackBerry graduates BBM Channels from beta, goes big-league

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

This past spring, BlackBerry announced BBM Channels, a new social extension to BlackBerry Messenger, letting users create pages of their own content – the titular Channels – that others can then subscribe to. It’s been in beta testing on BlackBerry platforms ever since, but today we finally see the company pull all the stops and go forward with plans to leave the Beta Zone, bringing BBM Channels to all its users. Actually, it hasn’t happened just yet, but it’s been confirmed for today, and availability should ...

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2014 BlackBerry lineup rumors look to quad core chips, 1080p screens

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

BlackBerry refuses to die. The company has managed to side-step the once seemingly overwhelming threat of having to sell itself off, is fixing itself up with a new CEO, and despite all the setbacks it’s faced, plans to continue on making smartphones. We just saw the BlackBerry Z30 launch in recent weeks, but what about further down the road – where might BlackBerry hardware go from here? It could be a long while before we ...

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Verizon starts exclusive US BlackBerry Z30 sales this week

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

For what seems like the hundredth time to date, the rumors of BlackBerry’s demise may have been a bit premature. Don’t get us wrong; the company seems farther away than ever from being able to recapture its former glory, but we now know it intends to solider on, rather than slicing itself up and selling off to the highest bidder. As the story of BlackBerry the company continues, so too does that of its phones, and today we get some ...

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Nexus 5 compared to other flagships

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

The Nexus 5 has arrived, and this isn’t just another flagship. As the Nexus handset of the year, this is the phone that best reflects Google’s vision for Android, both where it is now, and where it’s going form here. And as you’ve no doubt seen from our heavy coverage of rumors and leaks leading up to today’s launch, that means the Nexus 5 is finding itself simply getting a boatload of attention. There’s a lot to like about the Nexus 5, and while a solid chunk of that is thanks to the latest ...

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Verizon goes official with BlackBerry Z30 launch plans

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

BlackBerry’s future is very much uncertain at this point; who knows what will become of the company another year for now, much less who will own it? Still, as long as BlackBerry’s still around, carriers continue to show support for BlackBerry 10, and recently we’ve been looking at efforts to bring the Z30 to Verizon. Over the weekend, a press render of the smartphone for the carrier leaked, and just in time, too – today, Verizon makes things official, ...

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BlackBerry sale looks like it’s happening: $4.7B deal, intended buyer confirmed

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

BlackBerry’s been going through a real rocky time lately. While that little hiccup with the cross-platform BBM launch is embarrassing enough, it’s got nothing on the company’s financial woes. Last week, we heard about a new round of layoffs, later confirmed to slash 4,500 jobs. Sure, BlackBerry was trimming the fat, but what about those rumors of a straight-up sale, really ...

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Cross-platform BBM availability rumored, as one carrier sours to BB10?

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

The next few days will likely be big ones for Android, and Apple could be just over a week away from announcing its new iPhones. Then Windows Phone has GDR3 and all that quad-core, 1080p jazz to look forward to in the coming months… so where does this all leave BlackBerry? Today we get a couple of updates on where the company’s heading, hearing rumors both about a possible release for the Android and iOS ports of BlackBerry Messenger, as well as talk about T-Mobile showing a ...

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BlackBerry exec outlines need to trim the fat, aims to become “niche company”

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Over the past month, we’ve seen BlackBerry finally start facing some hard realities about its place in the market. While in the past, the idea of selling off parts of the company might have been solely the stuff of gossip, news that the company is now looking to “explore strategic alternatives” to the way it’s done business in the past has made it seem like anything was a possibility – that maybe desperation was beginning to rear its ugly head and force BlackBerry to admit the precarious situation ...

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