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Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement.

With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

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Posts by Simon Sage

61% of UK teens have a mobile on Christmas list, some willing to fake faith in Santa for one

A recent survey of over 1000 British teenagers by Mobiroo has revealed some interesting holiday trends. 61% of the kids, aged 11 – 18, said a mobile phone was on their wishlist. Of those, 17% were pretending that they still believed in Santa to get their parents on the hook for a phone, lest their childish, innocent hope be shattered into a million pieces. The teens were all business at the end of the day, though; 77% made their expected gifts explicit, and 20% admitted to being rude in the … Read more

Teens-present 2 months ago

Simon Sage

$1.7 million-worth of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets stolen

Although some thieves aren’t particularly interested in RIM’s smartphones, the BlackBerry PlayBook is a different story altogether. A shipment of 22 pallets of BlackBerry PlayBooks heading from Plainfield, Indianapolis to Ontario was stolen after its driver took an hour-long pit stop in Madison County, only to find his truck had disappeared. 5,200 devices were stolen, valued at between $1.7 and $5 million, depending on which memory denominations of the device were loaded up. The clincher? Brightpoint, RIM’s supply partner, didn’t have any tracking mechanism on the truck whatsoever, so police … Read more

emptytruck 2 months ago

Simon Sage

RIM offers four free months of BBM Music – any takers?

BBM Music went live a few weeks ago, and though it had a 60 trial attached, RIM is bumping up the trial period to four months. Anyone who isn’t already giving it a try and downloads from now until January 4 will be able to get the extended trial period. Unfortunately the offer is limited to those in the United States, so those of us elsewhere in the world are a little screwed, but that’s okay – I was ready to say goodbye in January anyway. BBM Music is a … Read more

BlackBerry-bbmmusic 2 months ago

Simon Sage

BlackBerry App World 3.1 goes live, with age ratings and gifting

After a short beta period, BlackBerry App World has been updated to version 3.1. The biggest feature is the ability to ask for and give apps as gifts, but there’s also an age rating system, so you can tell if apps are appropriate for general audiences, teens, mature folks, or adults only. Awhile back, RIM was talking about being able to gift airtime, which would have been a nice addition, but probably a fair bit more work to pull off. As far as the gifting goes, I’d love to see … Read more

BlackBerry-gift 2 months ago

Simon Sage

BlackBerry PlayBook developer beta adds stereo Bluetooth support

RIM’s on a roll filling in function gaps they should have a long time ago. The developer beta for the BlackBerry PlayBook has been updated to include a stereo Bluetooth profile, so you can stream tunes stored on the tablet out to your stereo system wirelessly. I’ve tried a few apps, like the native media player, the updated YouTube app, the preloaded NFB app, and the music store, and they all pump music out to the big speakers just fine. Voice notes don’t work, but who uses that anyway? The … Read more

BlackBerry-PlayBook-a2dp 2 months ago

Simon Sage

Sprint starts rolling out mobile hotspot for BlackBerry Bold 9930, Torch 9850

After a smattering of leaks, BlackBerry OS 7.1 is starting to work its way through official channels. The software update has previously snuck out for the Bold 9900, Torch 9810, and Curve 9360, but today Sprint is rolling it out to their Bold 9930 and Torch 9850-toting customers. In addition to providing mobile hotspot service (presuming you have a supporting plan, of course), OS 7.1 also introduces an interesting little device analyzer, which should help diagnose any device problems you’re having. Since we won’t see a BlackBerry 10 device until … Read more

BlackBerry-9930-71 2 months ago

Simon Sage

RIM CEOs take $1/year salary, BlackBerry 10 phones not due until late 2012, 71% YoY drop in net income

RIM announced their quarterly results tonight, and the big bombshell is that the two CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will be swapping out their standard salary for just $1 each year. This isn’t entirely uncommon in the business world, but is a show of good faith to critical investors who have been calling for a change in leadership. The two are obviously huge stakeholders in the company, and this is a reasonable compromise, but it’s also clear that the two aren’t going to be kicked out of the company. … Read more

playbook-down 2 months ago

Simon Sage

Facebook Timeline hits Android app, iOS mobile site

Today the new Timeline Facebook layout has been rolled out to the general public to mixed reviews, and that launch includes mobile. The official Facebook app for Android now sports the new look, as well as the mobile site for iOS devices. This isn’t to say the iOS Facebook app won’t be getting Timeline at some point; in fact, the original launch showcased an iPhone running the feature just fine. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, the new layout offers a nice big banner image behind … Read more

iOS-Facebook 2 months ago

Simon Sage

Rogers launches beta for live TV iPad app

Rogers today announced a great new app for their digital TV and internet customers that happen to also own an iPad. Rogers Live TV will stream some 20 stations over Wi-Fi directly to an iPad, including the biggies like CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CBC, and YTV. Rogers had previously dipped their toe in the live streaming video thing with Fifa World Cup on the iPad and their existing streaming on-demand app for smartphones. This is a pretty sweet service, but the only clincher is that you have to be married … Read more

iPad-RogersTV 2 months ago

Simon Sage

BlackBerry Curve 9360 gets mobile hotspot thanks to leaked OS 7.1

Following closely with recent leaks for the Bold 9900 and Torch 9810, the entry-level BlackBerry Curve 9360 now has a leaked operating system upgrade which will enable mobile hotspot functions. BlackBerry users have been waiting for this function for a long time, and even now seems a little late to the party, what with BlackBerry 10 right around the corner. It would be entirely laughable if RIM managed to launch their new platform without mobile hotspot, but given how they’ve been slogging on bringing new PlayBook functions to market, I … Read more

BlackBerry-9360-hotspot 2 months ago

Simon Sage

Netflix unveils new iPad app

The Netflix app for the iPad has been updated with a significant user interface overhaul similar to what was launched on Android last month. Now you can see twice as many shows on the screen at once, while still getting easy access to what you’ve recently been watching, suggested titles, and the usual genre browsing and search. You’ll need iOS 5 loaded up in order to enjoy the spiffy new app, but in addition to the update, Netflix has opened up their apps to Latin America. While these upgrades are … Read more

iPad-Netflix 2 months ago

Simon Sage