Walmart Canada has just introduced a new mobile site for this holiday season. The mobile site has been optimized for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Others (such as Palm Pre). You can access the new mobile site by pointing your browser to www.walmart.ca. The new mobile site will allow Canadians to find local stores, view promotions, and even browse flyers. It’s a great idea to get quick and easy information on the go.

Get more details here.

[via MobileSyrup]

Zach from Boy Genius Report, posted a story about Palm. As it restates that BlackBerry Loves U2, there’s a different story concerning Palm and the lead vocalist of U2. It seems that while BlackBerry is sponsoring U2’s 360 Tour, Palm announced its secondary stock offering and along with that news was that Elevation Partners took up another 2.2 million shares of Palm.

Now Elevation Partners is already Palm’s largest investor, owning 67.8 million common shares and 376,000 preferred shares, it adds up to about 42% of the company. Elevation Partner’s Managing Director and Co Founder is Paul David Hewson, aka Bono. Here’s a little information on Bono and Elevation Partners. Bono has been more than just U2’s lead vocalist. In 1992 he purchased a hotel in Dublin named the Clarence Hotel and turned it from a two star to a five star hotel. In 2005 Time Magazine listed Bono and Bill Gates and his wife as Person of the Year. He is known for his humanitarian contributions especially with Africa, and best known for his Product Red initiative. Elevations Partners attempted to purchase Eidos Interactive back in 2005 which was not successful, and they have invested in other entertainment businesses. Bono, through Elevation Partners, has also invested in Forbes Media Group. They have a small minority stake in Forbes Media LLC.

Bono has become a successful vocalist, lyricist (only the 54th most successful song writer), and activist, but he’s also a successful businessman.

It’s interesting how at first Bono and U2 were pitching Apple just prior to being sponsored by BlackBerry, in fact in 2004 Steve Jobs dedicated in 2004 the first special-edition iPod in U2’s honor and they also agreed to making some of the songs exclusively available on iTunes. Bono was quoted as saying that Apple and U2 shared the same creative spirit.  There are some other sites which are considering this venture a conflict of interest as though he’s torn in two. But as the entertainer he’s being sponsored by RIM, and as the businessman he has invested more into a company whose shares have gone up 170% in the last twelve months.

You have to wonder what smartphone lies in Bono’s hand? The iPhone, the BlackBerry, or the Palm?

[via: The Boy Genius Report]

I must admit I’m usually not one for posting stuff about other products, such as the iPhone, but this video was just too sweet. It seems a very angry iPhone user decided to take his Beretta 9mm handgun and shoot his iPhone 3 times, then burn it to ensure its dead. The iPhone owner appears to be angry over Apple denying the Google Voice app in their app store. All we can say is get a BlackBerry…

Here’s what the poster wrote:

Dear apple, We are sick and tired of your dictatorship. We refuse to be suffocated by your iron fist. Google Voice was the last straw. From now on I am a PC where I have my freedom.”

Enjoy the video (It’s also available in HD)…

[via MobileSyrup]

Seeking Alpha posted an interesting article written by Anton Wahlman entitled “BlackBerry’s 26 Advantages Over iPhone“. The point being made that while you are woowed and wowed with the iPhone’s flamboyant looks and word of die hard iPhone advocates, don’t over look tried, true, and stable. BlackBerry is the tortoise who will win the race by it’s reliability and ability.

So let’s go through the 26 and see what you think.

The article tells about how the iPhone is the flamboyant candidate to the consumer, while BlackBerry has the behind the scene advantages, like the intellectual candidate. The article lists 26 advantages the iPhone has.

1. BlackBerry smartphones can be used on almost every carrier in the world ( over 475 of them), the iPhone in the US, AT&T only. That gives RIM a great advantage. I can go to any carrier in the US and get a BlackBerry.

2. The BlackBerry smartphone is available in five forms. The small keyboard (Pearl), Large Keyboard (Curve, Bold, 8900, Tour), no keyboard (Storm), flip (the new Flip Pearl), and candy bar. The iPhone, well…it’s an iPhone. I love the full keyboard of my Tour but miss the suretype of the Pearl.

3. Most BlackBerry smartphones have keyboards that allow you to easily type while on the go, walking, using one hand, carrying items, what have you. I know I can be answering while carrying groceries, walking, and waking up half asleep.  The iPhone….okay, next!

4. BlackBerry uses the standardized micro and mini usb connectors that you can find anywhere in the world inexpensively. You can always find a cable anywhere and in any store or wireless carrier. The iPhone has a larger 30-pin PROPRIETARY connector.

5. Sprint and Verizon Wireless (amongst others) offer international BlackBerry data roaming for $40 or less a month. iPhone does not. This can save you money when you’re traveling out of the county.

6. T-Mobile offers unlimited wi-fi calling with your BlackBerry, with no special steps to take.  Same number and no new number necessary. iPhone can’t do this (only T-Mobile).

7. BlackBerry has expandable memory with a microsd or micro sdhc card, the iPhone is fixed with 8, 16, or 32 gigs. I love being able to keep my music on my card and not worry about how much I’m using.

8. Somewhat of the same take. BlackBerry has expandable and removable battery. iPhone is still fixed. We know where to go for our battery power.

9. BlackBerry allows programs to multitask. iPhone is limited with multitasking.

10. The newest BlackBerry screen is 480×360. The iPhone’s resolution is 480×320. Bigger screen for finer details.

11. With BlackBerry you can communicate peer-to-peer via PIN, going right past the email system. iPhone doesn’t have anything similar. I like the advantage of being able to pin someone if it’s important. Most people hand out their number, we BlackBerry owners can hand out our pin.

12. Skype (EBAY) on the BlackBerry? Yes from anywhere to anywhere. Skype on the iPhone? Only if you’re on wi-fi. I know there’s a lot of Skype users out there.

13. Sling for the BlackBerry is available and FREE, Sling for the iPhone is $30.

14. Google Voice on the BlackBerry is possible and FREE, Google Voice for the iPhone…ok next!

15. If you have multiple computers, BlackBerry can be synchronized to all of them. So you can have them at home like your desktop and laptop and even your netbook.

16. If you have more than one BlackBerry, they can receive the same email feeds simultaneously. Shared email accounts are no problem.

17. BlackBerry can sort your contact book by the company names. The iPhone can take several seconds to search your address book.

18. BlackBerry runs the same with 10.000 or 100.00 contacts in the contact book. Try running your iPhone with 10,000 addresses.

19. All major messengers are available for the BlackBerry. But let’s not forget the most favored one, the BlackBerry Messenger that we use to communicate with one another.

20. BlackBerry is available with various browsers from different suppliers, such as the BlackBerry internet browser, Opera Mini, amongst others. The iPhone has the standard safari browser.

21. BlackBerry synchronizes with iTunes, and other music management programs.

22. The BlackBerry smartphones that have 480 pixel resolution and Wi-Fi offer PrimeTime2Go. It’s an $8 a month service that acts like a DVR.

23. BlackBerry will fit as many emails into the inbox as there is memory. iPhone is limited to 200. iPhone does have a remote lookup capability, but you can’t use that when you’re in a remote area or a plane.

24. Unlimited voice/data with unlimited SMS for the iPhone is around $150 a month. The service for a BlackBerry can be cheaper. Unlimited BlackBerry for Sprint is around $100 a month. T-Mobile has the service for around $125. Metro/PCS around $50 a month for BlackBerry, AT&T and Verizon match at $150 a month.

25. Prepaid service for BlackBerry or no contract. AT&T does not allow a noncontract plan for the iPhone though they did at one time if you paid around $899 for the phone. T-Mobile does do prepaid no contract BlackBerry service on any old or new BlackBerry handset for $65 a month (600 mins, unlimited BlackBerry service, no SMS text). You can have unlimited everything from MetroPCS for $50 though there is a limited handset selection and limited coverage area.

26. BlackBerry is an encrypted military-grade security platform, 100% market share at FBI, CIA, the White House, Congress, Department of Defense, major consulting firms and agencies, and major investment banks. iPhone has security vulnerabilities.

27. Thanks to one of our readers, and my oversight (and I live in the US, I’m really embarrassed to have forgotten this one!), Our President of the US, President Obama held to his guns and would not give up his beloved BlackBerry, as our leader that says ALOT!!!

28. Thanks to our readers again for reminding me, RIM is releasing BlackBerry Desktop Manager for the OS X, so OS X is no longer iPhone exclusive.

29. My favorite one, try getting phone insurance for the iPhone. It won’t happen, but we can insure our BlackBerry smartphones, no questions asked! That’s a huge one for me….

Feel free to read the article, though I listed all of them. I know we love our BlackBerry and the things we do with it. I would never entertain the thought of settling for an iPhone ever. We’re curious to know what you think. We welcome your thoughts and like to know which number is your favorite. I personally can’t decide between 11 and 19.

[via: Seeking Alpha]

The Research and Consulting firm, IDC, listed the top-selling smartphone models in the US. It lists vendor sales to carriers and channels as well. So far it’s going on preliminary data. The actual numbers won’t be available till the end of the month. So let’s see what the firm says so far.

No 10 is the HTC Touch from Sprint, Nextel, and Verizon Wireless.

No 9 is the HTC Touch Pro from Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and others.

No 8 is the Palm Pre from Sprint.

No 7 is the T-Mobile G1 by HTC from T-Mobile USA.

No 6 is the Research In Motion BlackBerry Storm from Verizon Wireless.

No 5 is the Research In Motion BlackBerry Bold from AT&T.

No 4 is the Apple iPhone 3G (both versions) from AT&T.

No 3 is the Research In Motion BlackBerry Pearl (all 81xx series, excluding the Flip) from AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and others.

No 2 is the Apple iPhone 3GS (both versions) from AT&T.

No 1 is the Research In Motion BlackBerry Curve (83xx series and 8900) from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and others.

So what does that say? Research In Motion rules the smartphone world, and the BlackBerry Curve is still holding the number one position. I’m not surprised, though I’m very curious to see how the numbers change with the BlackBerry Tour 9630 entering the smartphone scene. I really like the Tour, it’s been very reliable, and I’m curious to see if it will rise to the top or come pretty close.

Anyone have any thoughts to share?

[via: FierceWireless]

July 7th we brought you the news about an upcoming app for the BlackBerry that gives the BlackBerry an iPhone look. It’s nice and easy to use, giving your BlackBerry two interfaces. The app is the MyPhone. We were given the honor to check out the app/theme before it was finished and it really is neat. It moves just as the iPhone does, and it’s impressive.

The app is available now for download, and is $12.99 in the BlackBerry Sync Store. Some of the features it lists are:

• 1. Fully emulate MyPhone UI in outlook, move icons, changes icons
• 2. Worldwide Weather
• 3. Inbuilt in system tools: memory clean tool, radio tool, system testing and mobile torch
• 4. Stand by interface, customized wallpapers
• 5. Call notifier
• 6. Fully functional, all operations can be done via MyPhone
• 7. You can switch ‘i’Phone UI into S60 UI and the other way round seamlessly
• 8. Compatible with 9500 series touch screen models

You can download the MyPhone v1.0 for $12.99 from the BlackBerry Sync Store here >

Compatible with OS: 4.3, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7

Compatible with BlackBerry handsets:�: 83xx Curve series, �9630 Tour, 9000 Bold, 89xx series, 9530 Storm

There’s a new app coming to the BlackBerry. MyPhone by MMMOOO has been available to the iPhone, but there’s a version coming to the BlackBerry as well. In case you’re wondering what the MyPhone app is, I’m going to explain. The MyPhone is like a theme you can navigate, somewhat similar to a LiveScreen, but very different.

I had the honor of trying out the app, prior to the help portion. The app makes your BlackBerry resemble in iPhone and has side to side navigation through pages. It installed quickly and easily on my Curve 8330, and after restarting my phone, I found the little blue square icon with a white circle surrounding a white smiley face. The app opens to a black screen with the bars of service on the very top left corner, the name of the wireless carrier on the top center, and the battery life remaining on the top right. Then it has a black battery with a neon green color displaying the amount of battery life and on the very bottom it says Enter to unlock� with a white and grey arrow. Clicking on the trackball moves the arrow from left to right and the app opens to its icons. They all display in front of the black background except for the bottom row which displays on the bottom in front of a grey dotted row, these constant icons that don’t move are Lock, Call, Messages, and Contacts. The other icons move, and all the icons are brightly colored. I really love the brightness of the app. There are some dots above the grey bar of icons, these dots show which page of icons you are on. Q and P�are the navigating keys for the app.

The first page displays Weather, Calendar, Web, Camera, Alarm, Maps, Settings, and Help. The Weather icon is really neat. When you click the trackball next to it, it has a place for city name, you click the trackball, type the city name, click the trackball again click q for F or leave if C, and click the trackball again, click P. The weather will display with the current weather and forecast. The other apps open what they say.

The next page displays Media, Calculator, Profiles, Notes, Options, Quit, Search, and Tools. Media didn’t open for me, but the others did. Tools is very unique. It gives you the choice of self test, memory clean, and torch. You can actually go straight to memory clean or test on your phone, the very command you have to find in status with TEST. So that to me was extremely useful and time saving.

The last page displays MySettings, Slide, Office, Desktop, Record, Music, and iRadioOn. MySettings is a really neat icon for the app, it displays wallpapers you can change to. Clicking the trackball brings you to the wallpapers, first one a black background with a neon green battery, moving the trackball to your left brings up the next one. There’s a man in black and white with a starred baret in front of a red background, a computerized face with two red hearts for eyes and a frown, a heart on a black background with a bite out of it that says ILove U, a computerized face with a red plus sign, two closed “eyes’ and a straight mouth, a rainbow dancing around a white and blue cloud with stars that reminds me of a care bear theme, and a�red lipstick stain on a black screen. Slide is Power Point, Office is the office apps, Music wouldn’t open, iRadioOn turns your radio on or off. Here’s another cool feature, you can move the icons on the pages by holding the navigation key (the trackball) for a second, allowing you to move the ones you use most to the first page! So it’s like having a virtual iPhone desktop for your BlackBerry.

I love the app, I see a lot of good potential in it. I really like the convenience of some of the shortcuts such as memory cleaner and the test. I know the app isn’t totally finished, but I’d like to see an icon for one or two of the messengers (especially the BlackBerry Messenger and maybe the Google Talk), that would be nice. Perhaps one of my digital radio apps, such as Pandora or one of my Twitter apps, since I have Tweet Genius and SocialScope. It could be called MyTwitter. Those would be nice icons in the future, but it is extremely colorful and fun, and simulates an iPhone, so you can have the look on the phone that you love and choose, your beloved BlackBerry.

But for now, even without the help section, it is really nice. It makes everything easy, doesn’t use much memory or battery.� I did notice however, that the weather icon functions best when fully charged, than a low battery. I’m excited to see what it will be like when it’s fully finished, and includes the help file. I’m including some pics so that you can get an idea what to expect, it looks very much like the MyPhone that MMMOOO designed for the iPhone. And everything MMMOOO comes out with has been unique and fun. This is one of those apps.

I see this popular with those who like themes, who like the color, and those who want a theme to simulate the iPhone that is interactive. It’s very colorful, easy to navigate, and offers some convenience and usefulness as well. It’s going to be out for release soon, and we’ll let you know when it is, and for what price. I would definitely recommend it if you love themes and like the iPhone but won’t settle for the iPhone.

How many of you out there are theme lovers? We’d like to know, and we’d like to know what you think of the app, any comments?

RIM has reported $643 million in earnings (that’s $1.12 per share), for the 1st Quarter that ended May 30th. A year ago, that result was 482.5 million (that’s $.84 a share). Excluding a $175.1 million tax credit and other items such as that, RIM earned $564.4 million (that’s $.98 a share). Revenue was $3.42 billion, that’s a whole 53% from the same quarter last year.

This was pretty much in line with what was expected. About 81% of the revenue was attained from the sales of BlackBerry devices, 13% from service, 2% from software, 4% from various businesses. Gross margins were at a strong 43.6%, up from 40% last quarter.

RIM stated it had shipped 7.8 million BlackBerry smartphones and added 3.8 million BlackBerry subscribers which is now at almost 29 million. According to the IDC, RIM is estimated to hold 55% share of the U.S. Smartphone market. So with the great news on hand, why did shares of RIMM fall 5% in after hours trading time? Inflated expectations and the fact that RIM met expectations, but some investors want to see them exceed expectations. Investors are worried about Apple’s newer iPhone, Palm’s Pre, and also the addition of Google’s new�Android smartphone (Goog), Samsung, and even Nokia that are now competing to try and�get in on the competition. RIM says it will sell between 8.1 and 8.7 BlackBerry devices in the second quarter.�With the�Flip Pearl (”no more butt-dialing”) on the scene, the Storm 2 and the Tour�(hopefully to be arriving soon to a cellular provider near you)�on the horizon, RIM may just exceed the goal they’ve set for the next quarter.

[via: Daily Financial]

“Successful Mobile�Deployments�Require Robust Security“, by Maribel Lopez, who was formerly with Forrester Research, states that the BlackBerry smartphones are the most secure against unauthorized access when they were compared against other device manufacturers. The report rates mobile devices in four different categories and the RIM BlackBerry devices stood out in all of them.

The report rated them on: Device; Network; Transmission; and Overall Mobile Security Rating. I’ll break it down for you what each manufacturer was rated and the comments it received.

Let’s start with Apple’s iPhone. In Device it was found the OS can be compromised, lacks device encryption, and does not have OTA updates. In that rating it scored 0%. In Network it received�75% as it uses the same active directory based authentication methods as Windows Mobile. In Transmission it received�50% for it having full VPN support but doesn’t have the added extra protection of a gateway or NOC server solution. The Overall Mobile Security Rating was�25% because even though v2.0 added several security features the platform still doesn’t have several basic yet critical features.

Now it’s Microsoft Windows Mobile’s turn. In Device it received�50% and comments were that it has a two-tier access for code execution control, removable storage but not on the device encryption, it supports OTA updates, and it requires third party Anti-Virus and Firewall support. In Network it received�75% and the comment was it�uses certificate and active directory domain services for authentication. Transmission received three fourths as well with the commentary that it has full VPN support but provides MDM gateway in the DMZ. The Overall Security Rating was�75% with the comment that the Windows MDM security update covers a majority of firms basic security requirements.

And last we have the BlackBerry. For Device it received a 100%, comments were that it allows complete control on what can be executed on the device, on device and removable media encryption, and supports OTA updates. In Network it reached 100% with the comments that it encrypts the message and uses an cryptographic shared key system for authentication. In Transmission it received 100% with the comments that it routes traffic through the NOC and the BES to ensure Security and does not require a VPN. The Overall Mobile Security Rating was 100% as the comment states RIM provides solid security across the three areas of vulnerability.

We all knew it all along, even with a PDF security breach, BlackBerry is still on top. Another reason to love your BlackBerry. What do you think of the report? Share your comments, we want to know!

[via: BlackberryBlast]

Looks like Rogers is finally ready to let the leash loose on Fido. In a leaked presentation that shows Fido’s upcoming handsets the ole faithful BlackBerry Curve 8320 was shown. The 8320 should show up for about $50 with three year contract (with voice and data plan). It’s expected to launch on or around July 13th. This means Fido will be getting a semi-newer BlackBerry to replace their dead before it even launched Pearl 8100. Oh and in case there is any iPhone fans here apparently Fido will be getting a smaller 4GB iPhone (Nano?) as well.

Oh by the way Fido… What happened to launching the Pearl Flip 8220?

[Source]