Category Archives: BlackBerry

Hockey Scores app ready for a new season

Z10The Hockey Scores app has been updated for a new season. This app supports all BlackBerry phones running OS 5.0 or higher, including all BlackBerry 10 phones.

About Hockey Scores

This application provides the day’s hockey scores is an intuitive and easy to use format. It also includes additional game statistics such as start times, goal scorers, shots on net, hits, faceoff percentage, team Corsi numbers, and lists out the goal scorers.

Links & Information

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Hockey Scores

Simple Dice optimized for version 2.3

IMG_00000048The Simple Dice app has been updated to version 2.3 in BlackBerry World. This update greatly reduces the app’s overall instal size, and also includes some improvements in recovering in-app purchases.

About Simple Dice

This free app is exactly what it sounds like, just a virtual die that you can roll to get a random number between one and six. The app can also be downloaded from BlackBerry World for both BlackBerry 10 and older touchscreen BlackBerry phones.

Links & Information

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Simple Dice

Deploy BlackBerry 10 apps with device name instead of ip address

DeviceNameWhen using a script (or the command line) in order to deploy apps to a device you can use the phone’s device name (which seconds as a network name) in place of the ip address. For example instead of

blackberry-deploy -installApp -launchApp -device 192.168.1.104 -package PixelatedShapes.bar -password password

you could use

blackberry-deploy -installApp -launchApp -device BLACKBERRY-Z10E -package PixelatedShapes.bar -password password

This shortcut is particularly helpful to use when writting scripts, so you do not have to update the file every time that the phone is assigned a new ip address.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, code

Pixelated Shapes released

IMG_00000102Pixelated Shapes has been released for BlackBerry 10, PlayBook, and Android. The game is a twist on the classic version of Pixelated that replaces the familiar squares with triangles and hexagons.

Additional Features

In addition to the standard triangle grid, you can also play the game with hexagons, or a micro sized grid of triangles or hexagons after paying for a one time in-app upgrade of $2.99 USD. This single upgrade also unlocks the the full range of option in the game such as the ability to adjust the difficulty level or to change the color scheme of the game. Purchasing the upgrade also allows you to display a full range of statistics (such as win percentages), and to see the number of remaining moves that you have on the top of the main game screen.

How to Play

Pixelated_ShapesStarting with the shape in the upper left corner you can change the colour of this pixels in order to match that of the surrounding shapes. The color of the upper left shape is set by using the controls on the bottom of the screen. This is done repeatedly allowing the block to grow, until eventually the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to get to this state in as few moves as possible. Under the default settings you must clear the screen in under 29 moves in order to win. If you wish to play until you clear the board you can adjust the ‘end game condition’ dropdown on the options page.

If you have any feedback feel free to contact me at eric@ebscer.com

Links & Information

114

Android, BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Pixelated, PlayBook

Popularity of US carriers for BB10 users

The below chart shows the relative popularity of the four largest carriers in the United States by BlackBerry 10 users.

BB10USCarriersAug2013

While there has been some month to month variation in general there is roughly an equal number of BlackBerry 10 users on AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. The biggest surprise here is the relative popularity of T-Mobile among the BlackBerry 10 user base as it lags significantly behind the other two in overall subscribers.

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free checklist app Stuff I Need. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of April 2013 through the end of August 2013.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

BBOS devices continue to see slow growth of new OS versions

StatsAugust2013

While BBOS has nowhere near the impressive OS adoption that BlackBerry 10 has shown, users are continuing to move towards a larger percentage running OS 7. August showed the newest version of BBOS exceeding 40% of the market for the first time, coming to 40.8% of users during the month.

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 August 2012 through the end of August 2013, and does not include BlackBerry 10 or PlayBook devices.

BlackBerry, Statistics

OS 10.1 should be the new minimum for developers

This past August saw BlackBerry 10 users continue to quickly upgrade their OS systems to the newest version. Use of 10.1 (or higher) is up across both Pixelated and Stuff I Need from the previous month.

BB10OSVersionsAug2013-Pixelated

BB10OSVersionsAug2013-StuffINeed

The Stuff I Need app showed 91.0% of users on the newest OS version, while for Pixelated the number was 81.9%. Given the aggressive rate of growth, and the large number of users that have upgraded, I think it is safe for developers to begin writing apps that require 10.1 as a minimum OS version. BlackBerry 10 is seeing an adoption rate of the new versions that the older BBOS never came close to.

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 February 2013 through the end of August 2013.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

Stuff I Need app updated to version 2.2

IMG_00000060The Stuff I Need app for BlackBerry 10 has been updated to version 2.2 in BlackBerry World. This update improves the app’s start up time, and also adds an option to uncheck all items in the current list with a single button.

About Stuff I Need

Originally conceived as a grocery list app, this minimalistic checklist app can be used to keep track of the stuff you need to get, or the stuff that you need to do. Items on the list can be edited (or deleted) by giving them a long press. Lists can be switched by pulling down on the tab at the top of the screen. This will expose a spinner that shows all of your current lists. New lists can be added by using the “+” button on the right side of the expanded tab. Making use of three or more lists requires the use on a one time in-app purchase.IMG_00000128

Links & Information

BB_World_Small

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Stuff I Need

Update to Mileage Tracker for BlackBerry 10

IMG_00000117The Mileage Tracker app for BlackBerry 10 has been updated to version 1.4 in BlackBerry World. This new version of the app allows you to have the option to sort entries alphabetically instead of just by date. The update also includes a number of other small improvements to make the app quicker and more efficient.

About Mileage Tracker

Mileage tracker is a free app designed to help you track the miles you drive on each trip for use on tax deductions, accounting, or employee reimbursements. Instead of keeping this information charted on your computer, it makes much more sense to be able to track this directly on your phone, which you normally would have with you in the car already.

Trips can be grouped into categories, and edited (or deleted) at a later date. Following a one time in-app payment you can export your data into an Excel compatible .csv format and a pretty (and sortable) .html format.IMG_00000038

Links & Information

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Mileage Tracker

Carrier billing is still incredibly popular

On BlackBerry’s developer site they have posted some statistics that show how heavily consumers favor carrier billing. The main chart of interest is show below.

CarrierBilling

For a few years now I have discussed the popularity of this option for consumers, but by focusing on the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom it turns out that I had in fact been under reporting the issue. While the above chart only includes customers who have carrier billing as an option, the widespread use of this option in the Middle East and Africa is astoundingly high. Even in North America this option is preferred, but in much of the world there simply is no competition.

For BlackBerry, they should see that it is time to bring carrier billing in house, as it is foolish to continue to put such a large part of their business in the hands of an unreliable partner.

BlackBerry, Statistics

Runaway Trains now at 200 levels

Runaway Trains has been updated to version 2.6 in order to add 10 new levels to the game, and bring the total number of levels up to 200.

IMG_00000200

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.

Links & Information

Android app on Google Play
Android, BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Nook, Runaway Trains

BlackBerry users quickly adopting 10.1

BlackBerry 10 users are continuing to quickly adopt newer OS versions as the percentage of users running OS 10.1 is up significantly from last month. Below are the July stats for the Pixelated and Stuff I Need apps.

BB10OSVersionsJuly2013-Pixelated

BB10OSVersionsJuly2013-StuffINeed

The numbers differ a bit between the two apps, but both show encouraging results. The Stuff I Need app had 88.5% of users on the newest OS version, while for Pixelated the number was 75.7%. With this rapid adoption of newer OS versions developers may want to consider dropping support for older OS versions as soon as next month. Even with little cooperation from Verizon, BlackBerry is doing a good job getting its users to upgrade fairly quickly.

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 February 2013 through the end of July 2013.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

Vast majority of BB 10 users still have no physical keyboard

BB10DevicesJuly2013-StuffINeed

Last month I sparked some disagreement over on BerryReview when I suggested that the age of the keyboard was over. One month later, and the statistics from July show no reason for me to think any differently as once again the vast majority of BlackBerry 10 users have been keyboard free on the BlackBerry Z10.

While usage of the Q10 is up slightly from last month, there are still almost four times as many users on BlackBerry’s touchscreen only phone. The Q5 while far more popular than last month is still largely irrelevant to this discussion with less than 1% of the marketshare.

I highly doubt that we are ever again going to see a situation where the majority of BlackBerry phones sold have a physical keyboard. The keys are not going away, but they are no where near as important to BlackBerry’s future as most analysts would lead you to believe.

The data used in this chart was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free checklist app Stuff I Need during the month of July.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics