Author: JT

Apps from BlackBerry announced for other operating systems

| September 24, 2013

The greatly struggling smartphone manufacturer has now unveiled its BBM for iPhone and Android users.

As the company had been indicating for some time, BlackBerry has now announced that its dedicated BBM messenger service apps are now available to Android and iPhone users very soon.

The BlackBerry Messenger service have now become available for sale on the Apple App Store and on Google Play.

This means that the apps for BlackBerry Messenger will no longer be exclusively available to users of the devices from that manufacturer. They are now available for free for the devices based on the operating systems of the leaders of the smartphone market, Android and iOS.

These free apps becoming available for Android and iPhone are only one of many recent announcements from the company.

Apps - Blackberry messenger app for other operating systemsThe unveiling of the apps for other smartphones came directly after the company launched yet another smartphone device into the marketplace. It also revealed that it would be laying off 4,500 employees, as the company flounders in losses from a lack of sales.

These messenger apps allow smartphone users to be able to share information and chat with up to 30 different users within a single conversation. It also uses a unique PIN to ensure that the users’ privacy will remain secure. That number is not just a password for signing into the program. Instead, it can be used to boost security when deciding whether or not contact information and other data should be shared with the other people who are involved within the conversations.

As BlackBerry takes these steps into the iOS and Android marketplaces, it is leading many people to speculate with regards to whether or not this is a last ditch effort from the company to attempt to compete in yet another marketplace. The messenger service apps market is already swamped with competition, with leaders that have already established themselves, including WeChat, WhatsApp, and Line.

The BBM apps became available to Android smartphones over Google Play download as of September 21, and iPhone users started downloading from the App Store starting on September 22. The number of downloaders and users has yet to be seen.

Gadgets from Apple define a new mobile tech mainstream

| September 18, 2013

The fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S will make biometrics commonplace in a single device release.

Although there has been as much negative press as there has been positive regarding the release of the latest smartphone gadgets from Apple, the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C, it is the new feature of the fingerprint scanner in the 5S that is gaining the most attention from the media.

This single new feature could change the way we think about how everyday technology functions.

The fingerprint scanner is being marketed as this gadget’s security upgrade, but it could actually represent a great deal more. It is catapulting biometrics into the mainstream, so that they will be incorporated into the workplace, events, real world shopping, and mobile commerce. Until just recently, this sector had been receiving attention from only the fringe of the industry.

Now, in the release of a single gadget, the use of biometrics is about to become commonplace.

Gadgets - Apple iPhone 5S Fingerpring ScannerThe executives at Apple explained that the Touch ID technology embedded in these gadgets as a part of the iPhone 5S home button will only be providing users with fingerprint access to the device itself as well as the manufacturer’s own online stores, analysts have said that this release is going to have a much broader effect.

This type of technology, referred to as biometrics, will likely become central to wider adoption in other gadgets and devices, say analysts. According to Alan Goode, the managing director of the U.K. based Goode Intelligence research consultancy, “It really propels biometrics into the mainstream.”

The senior vice president of design at Apple, Jonathan Ive, has also dropped hints as to the future of the technology that is available in this latest of gadgets from the tech giant. He stated that “Touch ID defines the next step of how you use your iPhone,” and that “making something as important as security so effortless and so simple.”

Though there has already been criticism to the way that the fingerprint technology works in these latest gadgets, with complaints such as the issue of sweat interfering with its function, it is still giving Apple an edge for the moment, as it is the only one with this technology on the current market. That edge may, however, be short lived, as other manufacturers, such as Microsoft, are already building fingerprint recognition into their own latest releases. In Microsoft’s case, that tech is being worked into the latest Windows 8 update. It is expected that Android won’t be long to follow.