Hasta La Gadget!

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could send BBM messages from your desktop instead of having to keep switching back to your phone? As it stands Apple’s iMessage allows that if you’re using their Mac OS X operating system, and during BlackBerry Jam Asia 2013, BlackBerry demoed something similar as well, although there was no mention if and when such a feature would be arriving. However it seems that BlackBerry is considering that feature very seriously because in the latest survey sent out by BlackBerry for their BlackBerry Link 1.2 software.

Basically what the survey wanted to know is what sort of features both new and existing users of the software should be included in future updates for the PC and Mac platforms, and one of the questions was related to BBM and SMS integration. Of course there’s no telling if BlackBerry will ever incorporate such features, but given that BBM is no longer an exclusive to the BlackBerry platform and has made its way onto iOS and Android, giving these users the option to send messages through their computers and not just their phones could make them more receptive to using BlackBerry’s software.

Of course this does not really benefit BlackBerry financially since BBM is free, although with plans to monetize it in the future, having more users on board will no doubt be a great selling point for future clients looking to advertise through its BBM Channels feature. What do you guys think? BBM for the desktop, yay or nay?

New BlackBerry Survey Gauges Interest Of BBM For Desktop original content from Ubergizmo.

If BlackBerry has anything going for it right now, its certainly BBM. The once iconic BlackBerry exclusive messaging service was opened up to iOS and Android earlier this year and it gained a lot of popularity. 20 million people signed up in the first week alone, whereas BlackBerry Messenger was able to pull in 40 million new users overall across both platforms. The company is committed to BBM and continues to improve it, the latest BBM for BlackBerry 10 has been rolled out in a limited public beta and it comes with two major new features.

The first major feature that BBM for BlackBerry 10 brings is real time voice notes. Sending voices notes is now extremely easy through BBM beta on BB10, users simply need to press a button, speak up and release the button to send. The voice notes move fast, its almost akin to having push-to-talk enabled on the smartphone. Glympse is the second major feature included in this beta BBM build. It lets a BBM contact access your location in real time for a specified duration after which the location becomes private again. It is not known when this BBM build will be out of beta and will be released publicly for all BlackBerry 10 users. It is certainly going to take a lot of time before this feature is brought over to iOS and Android. [Image via Berryreview]

BBM For BlackBerry 10 Beta Features Real Time Location Sharing And Voice Notes original content from Ubergizmo.

It took a long time for BlackBerry to figure out that to preserve its once iconic messaging service, it had to open BBM to other platforms. The company finally did this a few months back and the initial response was great, with over 20 million users signing up across iOS and Android in the first week alone. The momentum might have slowed down since then, but BlackBerry remains committed to competing against behemoths like WhatsApp and Viber. It has scored another win, LG has agreed to pre-install BBM on its new smartphones in a variety of markets around the world.

The LG G Pro Lite will be the first smartphone from the Korean manufacturer to come with BBM straight out of the box. Andrew Bocking, EVP for BBM at BlackBerry said that the company is extremely pleased that LG is going to bring a seamless BBM experience to their customers with the G Pro Lite “in key markets.” He doesn’t go into detail about the markets where BBM will come pre-installed on LG smartphones. That said, BlackBerry reiterates its commitment to the messenger and says that it will continue to evolve for both iOS and Android in the coming months. This isn’t the first OEM deal that BlackBerry has secured, it already has a similar arrangement in place with various OEMs that exclusively service markets such as India, Indonesia, Latin America and the Middle East, where BlackBerry still holds its weight.

New LG Smartphones To Ship With BBM Pre-Installed original content from Ubergizmo.

BlackBerry’s BBM app has always been pretty popular and we suppose its exclusiveness helped play a part back then, but now that it has made its way onto iOS and Android platforms, recent studies have found that the app still managed to retain its popularity, especially amongst certain Asia countries to the point where  it seems that customer service for a particular company in the Middle East has turned to using BBM to help keep in touch with customers as well as address any problems or enquiries that they might have. This is according to a tweet by @shahriyarali who wrote on his Twitter account, “Middle East now running customer care service on BBM for stores.”

When it comes to customer service usually a hotline is provided, or an email address. Sometimes there are some websites which even have customer service representatives chatting with you live to address your queries, so be able to reach out via BBM is definitely a pretty uncommon sight! We’re not sure if this is such a good idea, especially since whoever is using the phone will have their hands full replying to customers all the time, but at the end of the day it’s like getting paid to chat at work which isn’t such a bad thing, right?

BBM Used For Customer Service In The Middle East original content from Ubergizmo.

BlackBerry finally took down its “for sale” sign last month after endless speculation about its future. The company didn’t go private as many expected it to, rather it took a $1 billion institutional investment and shuffled top management. Now, all eyes are on BlackBerry’s performance in the coming quarters. While new CEO John S. Chen says that the company is returning to its roots of enterprise management and devices, a new report from Digitimes suggests that BlackBerry is likely to replace its ailing core hardware business with software services.

Its no surprise that BlackBerry’s hardware division has burnt through a lot of cash, cash that the company desperately needs. All of the devices released in 2013 failed to generate enough revenue for the company, which had to take a $1 billion hit due to unsold Z10 inventory. Citing “industry watchers,” the report claims that the hardware business might be replaced with software service because of the increasing popularity of BBM on iOS and Android. In its first week alone, the service added 20 million new BBM users from the rival platforms. Moreover, BlackBerry recently partnered up with various Android OEMs to have BBM pre-installed on their devices. The company also said that its going to focus more on enterprise solutions from now on, and while Chen has already said that currently there are no plans to shut down the hardware business, who knows what 2014 will bring.

BlackBerry Likely To Replace Hardware Business With Software Services [Rumor] original content from Ubergizmo.