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4 Reasons why BlackBerry is this Decade's Palm

BlackBerry Has Nowhere to Go but Down

Blackberry May be in Trouble

I was talking to a friend the other day and we were both discussing how we thought BlackBerry was in trouble. They owned a niche with their killer push email service and just stopped there. I can’t think of a single impressive innovation from them in the last several years.

There are several reasons why I think that they are in for a long slow slide into irrelevance.

• Can’t cross over as consumer devices
• Too many superior alternatives
• They will lose the enterprise (and that’s really all they have)
• Software is stale and boring

Can’t cross over as consumer devices

You have to admit that their hardware is fugly. Their best hardware feature is their amazing keyboards and they keep turning their backs on them. The Storm touchscreen that made you ask, “Should I touch it, tap it, or press it?” How about that stupid “two letters on one button” idea on the Pearl and Perl Flip? What a train wreck. There are both bad ways that they deserted the traditional keyboard. The problem is that if they include that big, wonderful keyboard, you’ll probably get a big, ugly phone. That’s fine for corporate drones, but not 16 year old girls.

Too many superior alternatives

iPhone – Except for the keyboard, it kills BlackBerry in every conceivable areaGoogle’s Android Platform – any good handset maker has free access to great softwareWindows Mobile – Available to any handset maker. Enterprise support, Better UI, Better Media, Better appsPalm’s Web OS – It’s just sexierNokia’s Symbian Platform – Take a look at the worldwide stats.

They’re Losing the Enterprise

The only thing that keeps BlackBerry afloat is their absolute stranglehold on Enterprise mobile email. They currently have 21 million enterprise users or a 60% +/- share of enterprise mobile email. Nowhere to go but down.Here are a few reasons why that will erode fairly soon:High cost of their email services for enterprise – In order to supply “push email” to those Crackberry addicts, you need to have a very expensive addition to your IT infrastructure. Most companies either use Microsoft’s Exchange or Lotus’ Domino mail servers. BlackBerry devices can’t connect directly to those servers. You need to have the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, a second “shadow” mail server that is the intermediary between the corporate mail server and the phone. Extra server, extra software, extra support staff; you do the math.All of their competitors can connect directly to Exchange serversAll of the other major smartphone Operating systems can connect directly to the Exchange server. BlackBerries do work better for email, but not enough to justify all that expense. Plus, key decision makers would love to ditch that bulky extra phone.

The Software is Stale and Boring

Does anybody actually “like” using their BlackBerry for anything other than email? Let’s face it, the software is kind of boring.The fact that the vast majority of customers are corporate workers who don’t own the phones means that their apps store faces problems too. Think about it; are you going to buy a bunch of software to install on the phone that your work owns? That’s if your IT department doesn’t have it locked down before they give it to you. No Up-sell

Other Nails in their Coffin

Gmail – It works amazing on mobile phones and supports “push email”. The mobile web interface is great too.

Google Docs / Zoho Office – You can view, edit, and create office documents for free. They also support real-time collaboration.

Tablets and Netbooks – Did anyone see the iPad? True, I knocked it for a few issues, but version 2.0 and beyond will start taking big slurps off BlackBerry’s milk shake. What happens when another 30+ iPad competitors hit the streets? Those slurps start turning into chugs.

Conclusion

Now I know, Palm is still around. Heck, I even cited them as one of BlackBerry’s threats. But they used to be a household word, not the fifth bullet in an argument. People labeled an entire electronic gadget category (Personal Digital Assistants) as Palm Pilots. Kind of like all mp3 players are called iPods today. Now they’re an afterthought.I’m not saying that they will shut down operations next week, but I do anticipate a several year slide into obscurity. Don’t be surprised if in 2016 you hear yourself say, “Remember CrackBerries?” Kind of like when we make fun of those huge cellphones that rappers carried in their videos.

What Do You Think?

Do you think that BlackBerry’s best days are behind them? Or, are they about to seize control of the handset market?

5min.com Video of the Day

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Create a Portable Document Scanner for your iPhone

Getting All of those Scraps into your Computer

Overview: You will learn how to turn your iphone into a portable document scanner for free in under 15 minutes. This will all be done using one piece of cardboard, a ruler, a utility knife and a pencil.

Getting Things Done With Creativity and Elbow Grease

Occasionally I need to get digital copies of papers into my home and/or work computers. I don’t feel like having two full-blown scanners wasting space on my desks, nor do I feel like buying them.

What’s my quick, free, space saving solution? Build a stand that allows me to use my iPhone to make quick images of documents.

I have a few simple requirements for this document scanner:

1. Must be able to be assembled quickly and easily
2. Muse capture 8.5″ x 11″ documents perfectly (no cropping)
3. Must be able to be disassembled, and stored quickly and easily
4. Must be cheap (better yet, FREE!)

I searched for a few alternatives and found this really cool option by Kyle Koch.

He sells them for $15 here. This is an awesome idea and $15 is very fair price. But what fun would that be? I decided to try to build my own for free.

This is my finished prototype:

I place the document on the tray and the phone on the top supports with the camera application running. Then, I just press the “shoot” button and have a decent scan of the document. The key is to have the USB cable plugged in so that you can just grab them using the computer’s file manager. Also, the better the lighting, the happier you’ll be.

With a little bit of practice, I was able to get acceptable results on each documents first try.

Here are some of the document scans that I produced: (scaled down for this article)

Not bad for $0 and 20 minutes time.

Instructions for Building your iPhone Document Scanner

I know, you want to build yourself one of these handy gadgets, right? Well believe me, it’s very simple.

What you Will Need

Supplies: Utility Knife , Pencil, Ruler or Yardstick, piece of cardboard (15″ X 30″), scissor.

Instructions:

Print out and assemble the Templates diagram

Trace two Stand pieces on the cardboard

Cut out the Stand pieces using the Yardstick and Utility Knife (be very careful)

Trace and cut out the two Bottom Brackets

Trace and cut out the two Top Brackets

Cut the notches into the Stands and Braces as shown on the diagram

Insert the notches on top and bottom to assemble the Stand

Place the rectangular base into the stand

Place a document on the rectangular base

Turn the phone’s camera application on and place it on the top braces so that the document is in the picture

Take the picture.

Portable Document Scanner Video Tutorial

The following video tutorial shows you how to perform all of the steps necessary to make your scanner.

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Customize your Browsers with the Quix Super Bookmarklet

Create the Ultimate Command Line for your Browser

Overview: You will learn how to use Quix browser bookmarklet to Make a Super Bookmarklet for your browser.

What is Quix?

Quix is an exensible bookmarklet tool that performs the functions of several bookmarklets, extensions, and GreaseMonkey scripts.

What’s in it for You?

You can remove several extensions, GreaseMonkey scripts, and existing bookmarklets. This will get rid of some browser bloat (caused by extensions) and speed things up. It will also clean up your browser’s interface a little. Plus, you can add a lot of power and flexibility to your browser using Quix.

Removing Unnecessary Extensions

Before I added the Quix Bookmarklet to FireFox, I was running the following extensions: Ubiquity, Evernote Clipper, Delicious (among others).

I was able to uninstall them completely. This took two buttons off my toolbar and cut back on some ram. Not all of the big five browsers use extensions, but most support them in some form, so this will have a similar effect there too.

Removing Unnecessary Greasemonkey Scripts

One of the most handy FireFox extensions is Greasemonkey. Greasemonkey allows you to customize the way a webpage works using small bits of JavaScript. There are thousands of Greasemonkey scripts available that help you get more from just about any popular website or service. While these may be incredibly useful, they do come at a small cost.

I was able to remove a few Greasemonkey scripts that I no longer needed.

Combining Several Bookmarklets into One Button

Bookmarklets don’t place any processing load on your browser when they are not being used, but they do take up space on your toolbar. I was able to remove the following highlighted bookmarklets from my toolbar and replace them with functions in Quix.

How to use Quix

Just go to Quixapp.com and drag the Quix bookmarklet to your Bookmarks toolbar

Click the Quix bookmarklet and type a short command (1 – 10 letters).

The command above (bd) will bookmark the current page to your Delicious account.

Your browser performs a helpful task for you.

Here is a full list of Quix commands and what they do.

If you have some coding skills and like getting your hands dirty, you can even create you own custom commands.

Quix Bookmarklet Video Tutorial

The following video shows how to install, configure and use Quix to make your browser more powerful.

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Tech Geek’s Guide to a Super Romantic Valentine’s Day Gift

How to Take Gadget Gifts and Make them Romantic
There is a common stereotype that techie types are not romantic, especially in the gift department. While this is rooted in a lot of truth, it doesn’t have to be so.

Follow these simple recommendations and you are Guaranteed to Get You Some High-Tech Lovin’.

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Improve your Internet Reading Experience Using Instaper

From Clutter to Clean in One Click

Overview: You will learn how to use Instapaper.com’s service to quickly clean, reformat, and save articles on the web to a convenient location for you to read later.

What is Instapaper?

When you are on the internet, you probably find important, interesting, or useful information. The problem is that just don’t have time to read it at that moment. With just one click, Instapaper reads, cleans, and stores the information for you to read at your convenience.

Allows you to easily save information from the web into a central location to be read later on in a clean, simple format.

Advantages of Using Instapaper

Here are some of the main advantages to using Instapaper:

• Clean formatting for efficient reading experience (plain text and simple images)
• Stores the URLs to the source material
• Easily share your saved material
• Great third party integration

When you have a busy page (like the one below) that may have Headers, Footer, Sidebars, Ads, lot’s of media, and other distractions. It is not the optimum reading experience. This can be exacerbated by being on a mobile device or in a hurry.

Just click the Read Later bookmarklet and save a copy for later reading.

This is what the Instapaper version looks like. A little easier to read, don’t you think?

If you want to see the original page, just click the View Original button at the top of the page.

See How it Works

Here is the whole process:

1. Create an account at Instapaper.com
2. Add the Instapaper bookmarklet to our browser’s toolbar (Learn all about bookmarklets)
3. Enter your Instapaper credentials
4. Click the bookmarklet when you find a page that you want to read later
5. Go to Instapaper and read your stuff

See Instapaper in Action in the Video Tutorial Below

Where you can Use Instapaper

You can use the Read Later bookmarklet in any desktop or mobile browser that supports bookmarks.

Many Twitter clients for iPhone have it built right in.

RSS Readers like Google Reader and some desktop readers.

See the full list of places where you can use Instapaper on their website.

Instapaper Alternatives

There are a few other services that offer similar features out there.

ReaditLater uses a Firefox plugin to save pages to a location where they can be read at your leisure. They have an iPhone app too.