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As per the blurb on Forbes,RIM Looks To Revive Smartphone Push With BlackBerry 7 – Great Speculations – Buys, holds, and hopes,

…..the introduction of the latest version of its smartphone operating system BlackBerry 7, and unveiled two new BlackBerry Bold smartphones based on this OS.  The new OS has a few improvements over preceding versions like faster performance for touch-screen navigation, web browsing, video and gaming and support for Near Field Communication technology.

The problem with Blackberry is that for a long time, it has been a “de-facto standard” for the enterprises. Over a period of time, it was forced to look at the growing market share of the other companies; most notably Apple. Of course, I was smitten by it, at some point in time, but after my Android experience, I doubt whether it is really required. Of course, it comes with it’s warts and all, but indeed, it was for the first time that I actually owned a touch phone that worked.

Hence, it is not surprising that with about an average hardware component, Blackberry should flounder. Reports of it’s “imminent demise” are probably over-rated by it’s detractors but it still capable of fighting in with the punch. This is not an endorsement (like what a twerps do on their twitter accounts); however, the major sore issue (with ANY smart phone company) is the lack of a decent after sales service.

Of course, RIM India was under a lot of cloud in recent times (it’s still not clear whether it has been sorted out or not), still is a matter of concern. Hence, even though Blackberry Messenger is a great option (surpassed by an interesting “WhatsApp” on Android), it makes reaching out to your contacts a breeze (in these so called flotsam called as “Social”).

Related articles

• Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones v2.0 (Beta Refresh): Support for OS 5.0 is here! (blogs.blackberry.com)
• RIM Updates Facebook for BlackBerries Beta (phonescoop.com)
• RIM Reveals New BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Smartphones (geniusgeeks.com)
• RIM Updates Twitter for BlackBerry Beta (phonescoop.com)
• Twitter For BlackBerry Version 2 Beta Available On Beta Zone (pocketnow.com)
• RIM Gets More Social (morbium.wordpress.com)
• RIM shows off updated BlackBerry Bold (theglobeandmail.com)
• What’s the No. 1 factor keeping you loyal to BlackBerry? [poll] (zdnet.com)

Image via CrunchBase

I had “cleaned up” the clutter recently; taking away a shit load of the “social integration” and the crap. In my opinion, social integration is useless. Hence, any overt reliance on Twitter or Facebook is bound to be difficult for the companies/start ups that aim to rely on them for their needs.

Although, they may be good for SEO/search rankings, I prefer to abhor them, keeping the Twitter account strictly for seeking immediate resolution to complaints or check out the new web sites which rely on OAuth log in systems. Then it is a matter of just disconnecting them.

There was an interesting post on OMG Ubuntu site on LiveFyre; hence this is a follow up post to bolster the argument in favor of LiveFyre.

Related articles

• How to integrate social media with your website (nancyloderick.com)
• 3 Web 2.0 startups worth watching (globalneighbourhoods.net)
• Webinar Recording: How to Integrate Social Into Your Website (web-strategist.com)
• Webinar Recording: How to Integrate Social Into Your Website ” Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang … (seome.me)
• Introducing the OMG! Ubuntu! Android app (omgubuntu.co.uk)
• OAuth: Refreshed and More User-Friendly (twitterrati.com)
• Spring Cleaning for Tweets: Top 5 Ways to Freshen Up Your Twitter Account (socialtimes.com)
• Keep It Simple: Integrating Social Media With Your Blog (everything.typepad.com)
• How to Successfully Integrate Social Media Into Your Site (blogs.sitepoint.com)
• How Did Jesse James Come Clean to Sandra Bullock? (eonline.com)
• 4 Solid Reasons for Social Integration (hyperdiskmtkg.wordpress.com)
• 4 Solid Reasons for Social Integration (hyperdiskmktg.wordpress.com)
• GetJar Adds Social Media Integration (socialtimes.com)
• 2010: The Year Social Went Viral (blogs.constantcontact.com)
• Have you Spring-cleaned your online profiles? (craftzine.com)

The administrator had installed Livefyre; I decided to go along with. There seems to be no big deal as far as the commenting system is concerned; but a new system built from ground up definitely has some advantages. (although the debate on Quora seems to be inconclusive for new entrants).

I had been busy in debugging a new web site; we haven’t moved in yet to a new hosting but it would definitely be on my calling card. It has been a lot of hard work; generating ideas and writing in documentation.

The default theme has been changed; I found the older ones to be better in terms of utilization of the space. The previous theme was overdone; a Twitter widget to roll the latest news on Broadband was introduced for any unique visitors. However, since most of the readers are ill-informed, I decided to give up on that too.

There was an option to subscribe by email; this has been done away with that too. I had set up a simple MailChimp account (RSS2Email) but due to lack of any response, it doesn’t make any sense to utilize their free services. It’s a lovely service and once I have a regular volume of posts; I’d revert to it.

The tag cloud has been expanded. I had set up a plugin for “contextual posts” (i.e. similar) but it did not serve the purpose. The sociable plug in has also been trimmed for easier management without cluttering up the interface.

If you wish to keep abreast of any changes here, I strongly suggest following this up through RSS feeds. Email is a passe’ and RSS is truly the way to go.

Related articles

• Another reason to love Livefyre (jeffesposito.com)
• Chimp Chatter Gets a Facelift (mailchimp.com)
• New Features Launching Tomorrow (mailchimp.com)
• ChimpTalk: A MailChimp Podcast (mailchimp.com)