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All posts tagged "BlackBerry Messenger"

Posts tagged "BlackBerry Messenger"

  • BBM video calling comes to Android, iOS

    By on 4 May, 2016

    Canadian company BlackBerry might not be cooking up loving dinners for its operating system anymore, but it's not about to let its Messenger platform (BBM) go hungry. The company has now announced that Android and iOS users of its BBM beta app can now video call one other like Beyonce. Speaking about the new feature, SVP of emerging solutions Matthew Talbot noted that video calling was one of the chief requests users had for the BlackBerry Messenger platform: Video is the closest thing to being physically present. We know why that’s more important for personal calls—bridging the distance with our loved ones,...

  • MXit primarily used by adults finds SA social media study

    By on 26 October, 2011

    No longer the forgotten step-child of South African internet activity, a study by Fuseware and World Wide Worx has found that along with e-mail, news, and banking, South Africans have now also embraced social media as a core pillar of their internet activity. The study, titled South African Social Media Landscape 2011 as Memeburn has previously reported, found that MXit and Facebook lead the way in user numbers. When it comes to growth, Twitter and BlackBerry's instant messaging service -- which also doubles as a semi-social network -- BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) are in the lead. Twitter has seen the most dramatic growth...

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  • How iOS 5’s iMessenger will kill BBM

    By on 14 October, 2011

    The recent three day Blackberry fail adds impetus to the notion that Research in Motion (RIM) is dying. Sales of the BlackBerry are in worldwide decline, with RIM having a really bad last quarter. Pundits are wondering when the management will give in -- either through acquisition or throwing in the towel altogether: This isn't the first time an outage has happened, with independent telecom and technology analyst, Jeff Kagan, stating that: "I have been an analyst for 25 years and have watched RIM wrestle with this same outage problem time after time...this will not be the final nail in RIM's...

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  • Research In Motion: If government asks we’ll shut down BlackBerry Messenger

    By on 16 September, 2011

    BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion (RIM) announced that should the UK government ask, it would, in times of civil strife, shut down its "encrypted" BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service. The statement was made by RIM executive Stephen Bates before a UK parliamentary committee tasked with investigating whether or not BBM played a key role in the riots which rocked England in August. Also appearing before the committee were executives from Twitter and Facebook. "From our perspective we comply with the law and if the instruction ... would be to close down the mobile networks which is the method by which that...

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  • SA government ‘clarifies’ position on monitoring BlackBerry Messenger

    By on 8 September, 2011

    Recent reports that South Africa's government was looking to regulate the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service were greeted with dismay and anger. In a recent speech, South African Deputy-Communications minister, Obed Bapela, called for called for new regulations that would allow police and intelligence authorities to access messages sent via BBM. Following heated reactions and international news reports on the matter, Bapela's boss, Communications minister Radhakrishna Roy Padayachie, has issued a "clarifying statement" saying that, "government has no intention to regulate or legislate against Blackberry Encryption messenger service". The statement also noted, however, that government was still drafting a policy statement that...

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  • BlackBerry’s cloud-based music service launches in beta

    By on 25 August, 2011

    Following recent rumours that BlackBerry was set to launch a new product called BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) Music, Research In Motion (RIM) announced the arrival of a cloud-based music service. The service launched this week with closed beta trials in Canada, the United States and the UK. The news came in the form of a press release from RIM stating that the new service is aimed at socially connecting music fans. The service, BBM...

  • Facebook, RIM, & Twitter to discuss ‘social media ban’ with UK government

    By on 25 August, 2011

    Following statements by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, in the wake of riots which rocked England, suggesting that social networking sites and services should possibly be shut down in times of civil unrest, representatives from Facebook, Research In Motion, and Twitter are today set to meet government officials. Though Cameron's initial statement that the "free flow of information can be used for good, but it can also be used for ill… ...

  • SMS is dead. Well, almost.

    By on 18 August, 2011

    SMS is dead – more accurately, dying – and why wouldn't it be? Hundreds of millions of consumers around the world are wising up to the costs of mobile communication and because of its 160-character length, SMSes are obvious candidates for a subconscious cost/value analysis. Every so often the meme of SMSes being wildly overpriced (they are 140bytes of data after all) does the rounds. And then there was BBM. BlackBerry Messenger suddenly removed the need for SMS. It needed the BlackBerry installed base to reach tipping point before it became useful. The youth market, though, eventually cottoned on to...

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