In 2005, PC World called the BlackBerry 850 (pictured, courtesy Blackberryline.com) the 14th greatest gadget of the past 50 years. Today, the BlackBerry creator, Research In Motion, is struggling to keep up with competitors like iPhone and Android.

The BlackBerry 850

How does a company fall from grace so quickly?

Jonathan S. Geller of Boy Genius Report (www.bgr.com) has an idea. In a recent article titled “Inside RIM: An exclusive look at the rise and fall of the company that made smartphones smart,” Geller takes a look at RIM’s history, including its personas and politics.

It’s an interesting inside look at how the iconic company evolved — and didn’t evolve when it missed product features and device trends like adding MP3 players and cameras to its phones.

Read the full article here.

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BlackBerrys, iPhones, iPads, Androids – they have altered the way we work. More than half of American workers do some work from home, and almost a quarter perform job-related tasks at home every day.

Are you the type who steps away from the grill for a sec to check your e-mail?

So why would work stop on a holiday like the Fourth of July? (It doesn’t.) If you are the type who steps away from the grill for a sec to check your e-mail, here are a few of our most popular tips that promise to make your holiday a little less work-infused:

iPhone

Easy punctuation

Inserting a period from the symbols box can become tedious. You want to send messages with proper punctuation, but deadlines get in the way. Here’s a quicker way: Double-tap the spacebar. Problem solved. Reputation saved. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Android, BlackBerry, How To, iPad, iPhone, Time-Saving Tips Fourth of July, grilling

If you thought “consumerization of IT” was just a silly 2010 catchphrase, think again. According to a recent study conducted by IDC and Unisys, 95 percent of information workers use self-purchased technology at work. Unisys is calling it a revolution.

But as with every upheaval, there’s some pain to be had. In the same study, researchers note that while employees are using their iPads, iPhones, Androids and netbooks at work, their employers are unaware of the extent, and have not put solid plans in place to regulate the use of employee-owned devices.

Not only are they on a different page as their employers, they’re in another bookstore.

Here are some of the highlights from the study:

• Employers don’t have an accurate understanding of what and how many consumer technologies their employees are using in the workplace. For example, workers in the survey reported that they are using smart phones, laptops and mobile phones in the workplace at nearly twice the rate reported by employers.
• Workers are using consumer technologies and applications for business, but give their employers poor grades for the internal IT support they provide for these technologies. The researchers found that more than 40 percent of workers surveyed are using text and instant messaging, online communities and blogs for work. Also, industry analysts predict that the number of workers using smart phones for work will double between 2009 and 2014. Yet not even half of employers allow workers to access enterprise applications via smart phones.
• Employees say their employers are more permissive about use of consumer technologies than is reported to be case by organizations. Sixty-seven percent of workers say they can access non-work-related websites, but only 44 percent of employers say their employees can access non-work-related sites. Likewise, 52 percent of workers say that can store personal data on the company network, but only 37 percent of employers say this is the case.
• Employers expect to increase business use of social networking applications significantly in the next year, yet they are not integrating those applications with their enterprise apps and often lack basic guidelines and policies governing the use of social media in the workplace. Forty-six percent of workers surveyed are dissatisfied with their employers’ integration of consumer devices and social networks with enterprise applications. What’s more, 40 percent of organizations surveyed say that don’t have guidelines for social media use in the workplace.

Researchers conclude that, “While [information workers] are intimately familiar and facile with technology, they have little understanding of the security risks, management issues, and policy and governance implications that arise from mass introduction of consumer devices and applications into the workplace.”

In other words, preparedness — that’s IT’s job. And here are some suggestions from the study authors:

• Manage and support these popular consumer technologies;
• Secure critical data and assets against hackers, viruses, identity thieves, and other widespread consumer IT threats;
• Offer the interactive “app” experiences that consumers are looking for when transacting with their suppliers;
• Handle the expected increase in transaction load that these new interactive experiences will impose on the IT infrastructure;
• Attract and retain the new generation of workers entering the workforce.

In a recent post here and on Forbes.com, our CEO Brian Madocks offered his own suggestions. Read what he had to say.

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As always, the last few weeks of the year are reserved for retrospection. This is the time of year when we make resolutions for better living, all while reading the endless Best Ofs and Top 10s courtesy the media, niche and mainstream. We aren’t going to offer a standard Top 10 in this post, nor are we going to come up with any flimsy resolutions; we’re just going to take a look at what the business tech world’s been yapping about all year.

“The iPad is becoming, in effect, a jumbo BlackBerry.”

If there were three main themes this year in tech, they were this:

• The consumerization of IT/BYO tech
• Enterprise domination by iPads and tablets
• The increasing use of mobile devices for business and the growing need for specialized mobile IT support

Here’s a look at some recent bookmark-worthy articles that touch upon these topics: Read more…

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Workplace productivity is something the world lacks around the winter holidays. Our work weeks are interrupted by holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s (but who is complaining?). We also do a fair amount of scrambling in our personal lives this time of year — shopping for gifts, traveling to see family, cooking feasts — which leaves little energy for our work.

Here are a few BlackBerry and iPhone tips from PC Helps staff to help you get more done in this notoriously unproductive time of year. Read more…

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Mobile devices have altered the way we work. More than half of American workers do some work from home, and almost a quarter perform job-related tasks at home every day.

Are you the type to check your e-mail in between bites of Granny’s green bean casserole?

So why would work stop on a holiday like Thanksgiving? (It doesn’t.) If you are the type to check your e-mail in between bites of Granny’s green bean casserole, here are a few of our most popular tips that promise to make your holiday a little less work-infused:

iPhone

Easy punctuation

Inserting a period from the symbols box can become tedious. You want to send messages with proper punctuation, but deadlines get in the way. Here’s a quicker way: Double-tap the spacebar. Problem solved. Reputation saved. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney BlackBerry, How To, iPhone, Time-Saving Tips

Two weeks ago, we wrote about the multiplatform workplace and offered three reasons why your IT department should have an action plan for handling mobile devices. This week, we take a look at what the rest of the world is saying — or doing — about it.

If IT continues to let fear get in the way of change, it will face obstacles.

But It Looks Cool

As early as February of this year, the CBS Interactive Business Network (BNET.com) posed the question of whether iPads would be next in the bring-your-own-technology-to-work trend. The iPad was about a month away from release to the US market. Read more…

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It’s the unofficial start to summer! It’s time to turn on your away message and get lost. But before you do, make sure you are covered. Here are some tips to keep your e-mail house in order while you enjoy the season: Read more…

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If your smart phone freezes on you, resist the urge to pull a Naomi Campbell. Read these tips instead; you’ll save yourself unnecessary frustration – and even the cost of a new phone.

Frozen Treat: Three tips on resetting your smart phone.

How to Thaw a Frozen BlackBerry (all versions)

The first step to take if your BlackBerry is misbehaving is to reset it. Doing this will clear the internal memory and solve many issues. There are three ways to reset a BlackBerry: soft, double-soft, and hard.

Soft Reset
Press ALT+RIGHT SHIFT(CAP)+DELETE to perform a soft reset.

Use this reset method when you want to stop all applications on a BlackBerry while leaving the device powered on.

Double-Soft Reset
Start by performing a soft reset (ALT+RIGHT SHIFT(CAP)+DELETE). The screen will turn off. When it turns back on, press ALT+RIGHT SHIFT(CAP)+DELETE again. You should then see another blank screen, followed by an hourglass.

Performing a double-soft reset stops all applications on the BlackBerry and is nearly the equivalent of a hard reset. Timing is the key to performing this manuever. This is something to try if you are having difficulty removing the battery to perform a hard reset.

Hard Reset
Starting with the device powered ON, remove the battery for 30-60 seconds. After you put the battery back in, the device will reboot. This usually takes between one and three minutes.

NOTE: The BlackBerry Pearl, Curve and Storm only have the ability to perform a hard reset. However, there are third-party applications that you can download that provide the ability to perform a soft reset. (by Joel Reeves)

How to Thaw a Frozen Windows Mobile Device (Pocket PC Edition 5, 6) Read more…

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Although iPhones are catching up, the BlackBerry still rules mobile business communication. Case in point: We ran this tipsheet earlier in the year, and it continues to bubble up to the top of most-read lists. Here it is again.

Indeed, we get hundreds of BlackBerry calls a week, and most aren’t from the guy who cannot find the on/off button. Rather, it’s the managers on their way to meetings or hopping on flights who want to know the handy tricks and tips that will save them time and make their smart phones smarter.

Here are a few of the notables:

Tip No. 1: How to Filter Incoming Mail
Say, for example, you receive a daily report that you will not read or deal with on your phone and would prefer to just handle it back at the office. Can you create a filter for that?
Of course you can. Here’s how: Read more…

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