blackberry Archives

BBM CEO: we can be ‘one of the two’ top chat apps in South Africa
By Andy Walker: Editor on 22 May, 2017
Remember BBM? That once iconic acronym stood for BlackBerry Messenger, one of the world's most used chat apps. But that legacy has long since come and gone. During BlackBerry's torrid few years in the early 2010s, the company sold the app's development rights to Indonesian-based company Creative Media Works (owned by Emtek). It's a complicated situation for the non-informed consumer still plodding away on older BlackBerry devices, but essentially, the new Android and iOS app is not the BBM you once knew. That doesn't mean much has changed though. It's still a chat app, and BBM CEO Matthew Talbot is adamant that the...

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BBM launches DiscoverTV streaming media service for Africa
By Andy Walker: Editor on 4 May, 2017
Messaging service BBM now has its own streaming video service. Dubbed DiscoverTV, the service aims to provide Africa's 1.1-billion smartphone users with "a wide variety of award-winning short form shows, selected from a diverse range of mobile movies, channels, cartoons and documentaries", the company explains in a press release. This content is available from within the BBM mobile app's Discover menu. Alongside the content, the payment payment methods are also better suited to the continent's mobile-first market. Users pay R1 per day for "unlimited access" to their favourite channel, but can use the service for free for the first month. BBM DiscoverTV is the...

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Weekly Round Up Podcast #79: Blackberry, Motorola, Ventureburn’s Pitching Den & Twitter
By Staff Reporter on 30 September, 2016
Welcome to Weekly Round Up, our podcast discussing the latest tech trends, innovation, and news from the last few days. This week, Hadlee Simons plays host to Graham van der Made and Matthew Alexander. We discuss the death of Blackberry's smartphone division and the news that Lenovo's Moto-branded devices are finally coming to South Africa next month. On the Ventureburn front, we talk about the Ventureburn Pitching Den at this past weekend's Innovation Summit. For Memeburn lovers, we talk Disney's thoughts about buying Twitter and, finally, the FIA World Rallycross Championships is coming to South Africa in 2017 for Motorburn fans. What...
BlackBerry bets big on enterprise mobility in Africa
By Paul Adepoju on 27 September, 2016
BlackBerry might have lost the smartphone market share battle in Africa and elsewhere to Samsung and other OEMs, but the company's multibillion dollar enterprise solution space is still intact according to Nader Henein the regional director, Advanced Security Solutions -- Advisory Division of BlackBerry. In this exclusive interview, Henein sheds more light on mobility for African enterprises, the key components, adoption in Africa and security (especially cybercrimes). According to Henein, enterprises need to go beyond just venturing into digitisation of their operations to embracing a mobile first strategy. "Mobile gives you the ability as a company to answer emails faster than your competitors because you can't be at...
Weekly Round Up #71: Nintendo NX leaks, Apple financials, Verizon buys Yahoo & more
By Staff Reporter on 29 July, 2016
Welcome to Weekly Roundup, our podcast discussing the latest tech trends, innovation, and news from the last few days. This week, Hadlee Simons plays host, chatting with Ventureburn and Gearburn staffers Matthew Alexander and Andy Walker. The team discusses the recent Nintendo NX leaks, Apple's mixed-bag Q3 financial report, Yahoo's sale to Verizon and the new Blackberry DTEK50 Android-based smartphone. What are we watching, reading, playing: Both Andy and Hadlee are still playing the same games they were last week (notice the trend here?). Matthew's currently on a Ghostbusters binge, watching the first movie before he braves the latest. Tweet of the Week:...
US govt ditches BlackBerry smartphones for Samsung, Apple
By Staff Reporter on 4 July, 2016
Canadian tech company BlackBerry has had a bit of a turbulent 2016. Sure, stocks are up marginally, and its YoY loss less than expected, but it has had to rework its image as a smartphone-first company. After it announced that its future phones will arrive with Android instead of its BlackBerry OS, the company has been forced to defend the latter. But even so, one extremely important company isn't going to chase waterfalls. What company, you ask? Just the United States government. The company's phone were long seen as the most secure devices, with current President Obama often waving his around in...
PayPal severs app support for BlackBerry, Amazon Fire & Windows Phone
By Staff Reporter on 26 May, 2016
It's not uncommon news for BlackBerry, Windows Phone or Amazon users to hear that a company is discontinuing app support for their platforms, but this time, the player is 170-million user strong PayPal. The company took to its blog to announce that it will no longer support BlackBerry OS, Windows Phone or Amazon Fire by the end of June 2016. This is largely thanks to the new version of its mobile app, which brings new functionality. "Version 6.0 of the PayPal mobile app has enhanced features and a new look and feel. We have brought features that our customers use most...
BBM video calling comes to Android, iOS
By Andy Walker: Editor 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,...
BlackBerry rolls out major BBM update, lets users ‘retract’ messages
By Andy Walker: Editor on 6 April, 2016
BlackBerry has announced that its instant messaging service BBM now includes a host of new privacy features for users on Android and iOS, allowing users to "take control over the messages and content that they share." Users can now 'retract' sent messages and images if they were sent by mistake. This also works if the message has already been sent, and the sender wishes to revoke access to said message. Other features include a new message timer, which allows users to "control how long contacts can view messages and pictures that have been shared or communicate their location for only as...

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Facebook to drop BlackBerry OS app support by end of 2016
By Andy Walker: Editor on 23 March, 2016
If you're using a BlackBerry that's running any version of BlackBerry OS -- this means all devices up to but not including the PRIV -- you'll likely have to fling it through a window if you're still interested in using WhatsApp or Facebook beyond this year. The social media overlord has announced that it's dropping native BlackBerry app support for Facebook and Facebook Messenger apps on the platform by the end of 2016. Although BlackBerry 10 OS runs Android apps, the system is clunky, and involves a ridiculous sideloading process, which is more of a headache than a solution to the...
WhatsApp will no longer support BlackBerry, Nokia S40, Windows 7.1, earlier Android versions
By Myolisi Sikupela: Staff Reporter on 29 February, 2016
By end of this year, WhatsApp users on BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10, will no longer be able to use the instant messaging sevice.In addition to cutting support for the BB OS, WhatsApp will no longer be compatible with Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 7.1 and earlier versions of Android, Android 2.1 and Android 2.2. The Facebook owned IM announced that these devices and platforms will soon be incompatible with the platform, owing to their inability to offer the kind of capabilities that WhatsApp needs to expand its app's features in the future. The company, which recently turned...

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BlackBerry Leap review-in-brief: outleapt by the competition
By Graham van der Made: Staff Reporter on 18 December, 2015
While its biggest rivals Samsung, Apple, and Huawei are at constant war with each other, BlackBerry just tries to stay relevant in the ever-changing smartphone world. The Leap an example of this struggle. Off the bat, the BlackBerry Leap features a 5.0-inch screen with a 1280×720 resolution, which is housed in a two-part chassis with several external buttons. Like most modern smartphones, the battery cannot be removed, and the SIM and MicroSD cards slot into the side of the device.
BlackBerry acquires WatchDox to bolster enterprise security operations
By Myolisi Sikupela: Staff Reporter on 22 April, 2015
BlackBerry has always excelled in providing its users with security and encryption capabilities and with this latest acquisition in its bag, the Canadian communications company is bolstering its reputation. BlackBerry has bought WatchDox Ltd, a company founded in 2008, fostering with the acquisition its shift towards software. WatchDox is a data security company with headquarters in California and research and development facilities in Israel. It offers secure enterprise file-sync-and-share (EFSS) solutions that allow users to protect, share and work with their files on any device. WatchDox platform is such that it secures documents that can be shared among co-workers and...
BlackBerry says apps should work on all mobile operating systems
By Nur Bremmen: Staff reporter on 22 January, 2015
Do you ever feel limited by your Apple, Android or Microsoft ecosystem? Well, you're not alone. BlackBerry CEO John Chen feels that exclusive applications and content for different mobile operating systems are discriminatory, and should thus cater for all ecosystems if true net neutrality is to be achieved. In a blog post Chen uses the analogy of a train system, saying that most of the discussion involving net neutrality focuses on the carriers which represents the tracks. The railway cars, Chen argues, are operated by content and applications. Neutrality legislation must take a "holistic view", he says. If we are...

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The Z3 could benefit from BlackBerry’s African dominance
By Braden Becker on 13 March, 2014
BlackBerry might not be the cool kid in developed markets, but it sure as hell is in a number of other places. Recent figures by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners put the longtime mobile developer at the bottom of total US market share for Q4 2013. What's worse, it was hardly a dip from the previous year. Actual blackberries (the fruit) may be more popular right now. The firm still contends against products like Window's Phone, however, selling almost two-million units that same quarter. Where those units are is interesting: BlackBerry owns nearly a quarter of the mobile market in South Africa...