BlackBerry Rocks! » Random & Misc

Serious Twitter Outage & Facebook Also Failing

Mauricio — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:31:12 +0000

* UPDATE From the status blog:

Update (9:46a): As we recover, users will experience some longer load times and slowness. This includes timeouts to API clients. We’re working to get back to 100% as quickly as we can.

If you’ve been wondering why your BlackBerry Twitter or Facebook applications aren’t working well today, it’s because a virtual apocalypse is in currently progress! Just kidding, but they are experiencing some problems.

Twitter as of right now is fully down with this update from their status blog:

We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly.

Facebook is also having some intermittent issues but seems to be working for the most part. Until these problems are sorted out TechCrunch has a great list of alternative things to do.

Let me know if these problems are affecting you in the comments!

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Link: Serious Twitter Outage & Facebook Also Failing

Google CEO Uses A BlackBerry, Not An Android Or iPhone!

Mauricio — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:23:51 +0000

Well, well…what do we have here? It looks like Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, has been caught using a BlackBerry and not an Android or iPhone!

What does that mean since BlackBerry is a competing company? Pocket-lint could not have put it any better:

What’s that say about Android? Perhaps he just doesn’t think it’s good enough yet to power his business life, or maybe he was trying out a new Google feature, or more far fetched android on a BlackBerry.

As Silicon Alley who spotted AP photographer Nati Harnik photo pointed out: “How is Android supposed to conquer the world if Google’s boss is still a CrackBerry addict?”

There’s no stopping the BlackBerry addiction. Not even if you’re the CEO the most powerful company on the web with your own smartphone.

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BlackBerry Saves Kidnapped Woman

Mauricio — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:11:19 +0000

Here’s a story where a woman was kidnapped and then saved because her neighbor left his BlackBerry in her car.

For most people, losing a cell phone or Blackberry is annoying and inconvenient, but for one Pennsylvania woman, a lost Blackberry was likely the difference between life and death.

On Sunday evening 57-year-old Mary Wilkerson of Susquehanna Township, Pa., went to dinner with her neighbor Robert Scott and his wife. Wilkerson drove that night, and when Scott returned home later he realized he had left his Blackberry in Wilkerson’s car.

The next day Wilkerson’s son called the police — his mother had vanished from her home during the night.

When investigators asked Scott if he recalled anything suspicious, he remembered his missing Blackberry.

“I began to talk and I said, ‘You know, I think my Blackberry is in Mary’s car,’ and they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s all we need,” Scott told “Good Morning America.”

Using the BlackBerry’s signal as a homing beacon, police worked with U.S. marshals and were able to track down Mary’s car on Tuesday. They found it in an alley about eight miles from her home.

Some people just don’t care for the well being of others. I hope the “group of masked men” get brought to justice.

Read more @ ABCNews

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Obama Unofficially Endorses The BlockBerry 9500

Mauricio — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:57:05 +0000

No, you did not read that wrong. Apparently the Chinese shanzhai phone maker is using Barack Obama’s BlackBerry addiction (lol) to their advantage, and using it to promote their new BlockBerry 9500 phone.

Check out the features:

Windows Mobile 6.1
460MHZ proccessor
3.2 inch touchscreen
WIFI and bluetooth connectivity
Sirf III GPS
3G and EDGE

The poster’s slogan is “Obama have Blackberry, I have blockberry.” This gave me a good laugh.

I’m not sure how legal this is (or if they even care) but I’m sure they’ll be getting a call from the White House and RIM about it.

Source: ClonedinChina.com

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‘Blue Check’ police device and BlackBerry provide instant fingerprint identification

Mauricio — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:55:10 +0000

While browsing around the web today I found a video clip on ABC 7 about a new device being used by law enforcement called Blue Check.

Blue Check helps identify individuals along with the use of a BlackBerry.

“This is the actual device that takes the fingerprints,” said Deputy Kovac. “I’m going to get your right index finger, left index finger. And now this is automatically sending your fingerprints to the BlackBerry.”

A few minutes later: “Here’s your fingerprints, by the way, that are being sent,” said Kovac. “If you’re a wanted person, it’s going to immediately give me your name and photograph of you.”

That’s pretty awesome! Well, not if you have run ins with the law…

The video would not embed correctly so here is the link to view it. The video shows the device in action.

Read the rest of the story at ABC 7.

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President Obama to get a high-security, top-secret BlackBerry

Mauricio — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:40:25 +0000

I think it’s great that Barack Obama continues to fight for the right to feed his BlackBerry addiction . It looks like he’ll soon be playing Brick Breaker and sending BBMs again, after the NSA approves his SecureVoice enabled BlackBerry.

By Bill Gertz:

President Obama will soon get his souped-up, high-security BlackBerry for use in and around the White House and during presidential travel, according to Obama administration officials.

The top-secret BlackBerry 8830 is in the final stages of development by the National Security Agency, which will soon begin checking to make sure its encryption software meets federal standards. The device could be ready for use in the next few months.

Once in hand, the president will be able to send text and e-mail and make phone calls to others with the secure software loaded on their devices. Others expected to get secure BlackBerrys include top aides as well as first lady Michelle Obama.

The software being used is called SecureVoice, developed by the Genesis Key Inc. of Washington. It can turn any BlackBerry 8830 or Curve into a device that is designed to defeat hackers, eavesdroppers and spies.

Read more @ WashingtonTimes.com

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Alleged Craigslist Killer Done In By His BlackBerry

Mauricio — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:07:01 +0000

I’ve been hearing about this guy and how he lures people to a location through Craigslist. I wonder how much damage this has caused Craigslist and the way they handle their site.

By Geoff Fox:

If Philip Markoff, the man arrested in Boston as the Craigslist killer, is guilty he might have been fingered by his own “Crackberry” addiction. I’m not a detective, but it’s pretty easy to see the man shown in a string of surveillance photos wasn’t trying to hide from the cameras that have become an unavoidable part of our everyday life. And in each frame he is shown clutching his BlackBerry.

Not even a cold-blooded killer can escape the BlackBerry addiction. Kudos to the authorities for tracing him electronically the way they did.

Source: AppScout via BlackBerry Cool

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BlackBerry App World logo becomes a tattoo!

Mauricio — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:53:48 +0000

CrackBerry member ivanmor decided to tattoo himself with the BlackBerry App World logo!

How’s that for true addiction. This guy will probably become some sort of modern-day “illustrated man” with all tech tattoos because this one isn’t his first!

Check them out: ivanmor’s Flickr page

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Crackberry causes cop crash

Mauricio — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:58:52 +0000

Unrelated photo via Google Image Search

By Kim Matas:

Police chief “mortified” by Blackberry bang up.

——-

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (AP) — The police chief of the south Seattle suburb of Federal Way has issued a public apology for a minor traffic accident that happened while he was checking his BlackBerry in his unmarked police car.

The city summed it up Thursday in a news release that began “Federal Way Police Chief Brian Wilson is mortified.” Apparently Wilson stopped for a red light on March 18 and glanced down at his BlackBerry to view newspaper headlines and e-mails. He then took his foot off the brake and collided with the car in front of him.

The Seattle Times reports no one was injured and the cars weren’t damaged.

Still, City Manager Neal Beets gave Wilson a verbal reprimand.

The police chief says he takes full responsibility.

How’s that for an “oops!”

The law can’t stop the BlackBerry addiction! I mean come on…he’s a police chief…

Source: AZStarNet.com

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Gang of villagers chase away Google car

Mauricio — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:17:33 +0000

By CNN:

Google’s ambitious plan to offer a 3-D street level view of communities across three continents hit a snag when angry residents of a UK village blocked the search engine’s camera car from photographing their homes.

Fearing the appearance of their well appointed properties on the Web site would attract criminals scouting for burglary targets, villagers in Broughton, north of London, summoned the police after spotting the car.

“I was upstairs when I spotted the camera car driving down the lane,” resident Paul Jacobs told The Times of London.

“My immediate reaction was anger: How dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent? I ran outside to flag the car down and told the driver he was not only invading our privacy but also facilitating crime.

“This is an affluent area. We’ve already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it’s an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police.”

What do you all think about that? Would you agree or disagree with the angry village?

Howard Stern picks the BlackBerry Bold over the Palm Pre

Mauricio — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:10:02 +0000

The popular shock-jock Howard Stern has decided to go with the BlackBerry Bold over the Palm Pre!

Since Stern has been a long time Palm user (up till now owning a Treo), Palm decided to give him a Pre to play with and see how he’d like it. Palm was expecting Stern to like the Pre, but after the trial he decided to go with the BlackBerry Bold.

Why you ask? For Stern it was one important detail: the Palm’s inability to connect to Lotus Notes.

BlackBerry 1 – Palm 0

Not sure who Howard Stern is? Check out howardstern.com

Source: ZDNet via IntoMobile

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BlackBerry Pearl freaks out a rechargeable flashlight

Mauricio — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:57:22 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is weirdly interesting.

My Pearl is about 2 years old.. and a refurb. It’s always done weird things when too close to speakers – makes them sputter out all kinds of noise due to its radio antenna signals. Last night I discovered a new.. “trick” this thing has. I put it next to a rechargeable LED lantern/light and suddenly it started blinking WILDLY. When I moved the BB away, it stopped. The light is controlled by a physical button, and to my knowledge does not have any radio controls.

Has something like this every happened to anyone? I get the radio and speaker thing all the time, but never has my BlackBerry freaked out another electronic device let alone turn it on.

Source: BlackBerry Blast

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MIT team creates finger-controlled 3D phone projector

Mauricio — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:42:42 +0000

Ok this has to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. A MIT team of developers have created a finger-controlled 3D phone projector. I’m not sure how recent this is, but it’s new to me.

Right now it’s a bit bulky with all of the components, but imagine when it can be as small as a Bluetooth! You definitely have to check out the video. All the components used to create this gadget come to a total of only $350!

This is too awesome.

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