The BlackBerry Passport screen is bigger than it looks

July 29, 2014 Eric at Ebscer

The BlackBerry Passport is due to be released this September, and the phone’s 4.5 inch screen is much bigger than it first appears to be. Mainly this is due to the fact that the Passport will have a square screen as opposed to the 16:9 ratio that dominates the industry. The tradition of measuring screen sizes based on the diagonal favors widescreen formats (and may be part of the reason that BlackBerry and Apple both moved their phones from 4:3 screen ratios to their current 16:9 ratios). Measuring instead by area, the screen of the BlackBerry Passport is equivalent to a 4.9 inch widescreen phone.

The table below compares the Passport to other BlackBerry phones, giving the area in square inches and then a comparison to the size of the Passport.

Phone	Area
Passport	10.11	100%
Z30	10.68	106%
Z10	7.78	77%
Q10	4.79	47%
Bold 9900	3.76	37%
Torch 9800	4.92	49%

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10

How to sideload apps onto WindowsRT devices

July 21, 2014 Eric at Ebscer

With WindowsRT Microsoft has made a bit of an odd platform that only accepts apps from the Windows store and does not provide a simple way to install any custom built apps. The easiest way to sideload an app onto a WindowsRT tablet is to set it up as a developer test device. Unfortunately this does require you to be able to log-in to a Microsoft developer account. Not only is this account not free, but you will be required to reconfirm your credentials every three months. Still this is far easier then the other options to sideload onto WindowsRT.

Step one:

First you need to find the Windows PowerShell app open it using the “Run as administrator” option. Then confirm yes at the UAC prompt. Open the keyboard to type Show-WindowsDeveloperLicenseRegistration and hit enter. Then agree to the prompt, and then log-in to your developer account.

Step two:

In Visual Studio create a Windows Store app in the same manner you would as if you were planning on releasing the app to the store. However once the executable is generated in the AppPackages folder, instead of uploading the .appxupload file find the similarly named test folder and transfer this whole folder onto your WindowsRT device. For WindowsRT devices without support for USB drives this is a challenge all on its own, where the best solution may be to email yourself a .zip file.

Step three:

Now with the folder on your WindowsRT tablet find the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 file, touch and hold to bring up the right-click menu and select “Run with PowerShell”. Confirm that you do in fact want to open the file, and then follow the multiple prompts within PowerShell. Eventually the app will load and you will be able to run the app as if you had installed it from the app store.

code, Windows

Physical Keyboard users still in the minority, but trending upwards

July 11, 2014 Eric at Ebscer

This past month the percentage of BlackBerry 10 users with a physical keyboard reached an all time high at 37.2% of the market. This number has been trending upwards for the past half year, and is only likely to accelerate when the BlackBerry Passport and Classic launch in the fall.

Currently the BlackBerry 10 ecosystem is still dominated by the BlackBerry Z10 which accounts for 55.1% of BlackBerry 10 phones in use. The most popular keyboard device is the BlackBerry Q10, but the Q5 has also seen a sudden boost in popularity, after lagging behind the Z30 for most of its life.

All of these statistics are based off of the data collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free check-list app Stuff I Need (which is now also available for Windows Phone and Android users).

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

Use of OS7 ticks up another percentage point

July 9, 2014 Eric at Ebscer

OS 7 now consists of 52% of the BBOS market. This is a very slow uptake when compared to BlackBerry 10, but at the same time it is continuing to inch forwards.

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free BlackBerry strategy game Pixelated. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of June 2013 through the end of June 2014, and does not include BlackBerry 10 or PlayBook devices.

BlackBerry, Statistics

BlackBerry 10 OS distribution

July 8, 2014 Eric at Ebscer

BlackBerry 10 has seen a continuing slow uptake of newer OS versions in the month of June.

Pixelated saw 86% of users on the newest OS version, while the Stuff I Need app had 92% of their users on the newest OS.

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free strategy game Pixelated and the free checklist app Stuff I Need. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of June 2013 through the end of June 2014.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

More levels for Runaway Trains

July 2, 2014 Eric at Ebscer

Runaway Trains has been updated to version 2.7 adding an additional ten levels to the game. The game is now up to 210 total levels and is available on BlackBerry World, Google Play, Amazon AppStore, and the Nook bookstore.

About Runaway Trains

Runaway Trains is a colorful strategy game for all ages where you must route the trains to the proper station. Each level progresses in difficulty and presents an unique puzzle which you must solve by finding a way to guide the coloured trains causing a collision or running out of track.

This is done by touching the intersections to toggle the open path of the tracks. If at any time the trains crash or end up at the wrong station, you will have lost and have to try again.