The BBM Service has been a real Joker in the Blackberry deck, due to its simplicity of not having to register or download anything and especially the cheap rates compared to conventional text messages. The BBM Service has really changed the way how people communicate and Blackberry having over 60 million monthly active users has created quite a following, due to the BBM service being a standard feature on every BBM phone and was also quite unique to Blackberry at the time, this is of course before whatsapp and other IM players came to the poker table.

It is popular because it works, is in every BB and every BB has a ping. No need to register an account or download anything to start talking with fellow BB users. Macrumors forum

It has been announced that the BBM Service will be released for Android and iOS as a free app this summer. Summer being a relative term depending where one is, which gives me no idea of when this release will happen and plus no dates have been given for this release according to the blackberry blog.

Its an interesting thought that Blackberry’s exclusive service will soon be free on rival platforms. Its an interesting strategy one thing is for sure that they may get more exposure having the BBM brand on multiple platforms, on the other hand reading the comments from other posts it appears that the public feels that this should have been done a couple of years ago, so not too sure on where Blackberry is going with this.

From my understanding here at Cytrus the Blackberry 6 and 7 OS are firstly very hard to develop with, having limited help forums and documentation as compared to Android. Through friend’s of my own saying that the quality of the blackberry low end devices have a lot to be desired, the only thing that really kept blackberry in the game was their BBM Messenger service, even though they were kind of the loosing team and now they are just giving away their 11 herbs and spices to the public. A good assumption would be that Blackberry will try to battle WhatsApp and other messaging applications on across mobile platform scale.

In addition to this, Blackberry do plan on releasing BBM Channels, which is a very new social platform within BBM that will give customers to connect to businesses, brands, celebrities and other groups. Blackberry also plans to add support for BBM Channels including voice and video chatting for iOS and Android, depending if they are approved by Apple App store and Google Play.

Big and interesting move by Blackberry.

Expanding across different products lines such as; slates, tablets, Smart T.Vs and other devices, durable strong glass is in high demand in the technology industry. Funny to think that the History of Gorilla Glass technology they did experiment with chemically strengthened class in the 1960s and are in no way tied to the band known as the Gorillaz.

However there seems to be some new technological endeavors for the screen technology, and necessity being the mother of invention, cover screen technology is looking into making fingerprint proof screen technology. Before I get into that, lets focus on this new movement to screen technological improvements.

filthy

A company based in Japan called Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) (they are basically a massive printing and publish company on a billion dollar scale) have recently being doing a lot of R&D on hard-wearing plastic, which is lighter and stronger than standard Glass (but is same strength as corning Gorilla Glass) and can be for both mobile and tablet devices and it is pretty clear having only a haze of showing 0.4 percent and 91.2 percent respectively. In addition a big selling point of plastic is that it is lighter than glass as well as more flexible compared to glass, which leaves room for growth into flexible technology in the near future.

Paraphrasing from Techsport the product is:

No name for this product just yet, but it is comprised of three parts:

• A fingerprint-proof layer on the outside
• A piece of plastic in the middle and a hardening agent applied to the back.
• The substrate measures from 0.5mm to 1.5mm thick depending on what’s needed and weighs about half as much as glass solutions.

Some may become skeptical of having finger proof screens asking if it is possible, but looking at this video below:

After achieving this marvel how could the human race not solve all the worlds problems.

What is also nice about these advances and improvements on screen technology is that this puts pressure on Corning Gorilla Glass to come up with fresh ideas and new glass technologies not like they haven’t though.

After doing some research on Facebook Home and I’m getting a lot of posts saying the same things over and over.

So to avoid boring news like this particular head turner of a story. I have decided to streamline this article, to bring you the facts and the meat of the story.

A question you may ask out loud to yourself, is it true that Facebook Home will only be available to certain Android devices?

Yes, Facebook Home is going to not only change how you spend your time, but also change your mobile  it turns out. According to Forbes these are the selected devices:

• HTC One X
• HTC One X+
• Samsung Galaxy S III
• Samsung Galaxy Note II

When the Samsung Galaxy S IV and HTC One are available, you can also install Home on them, and the HTC First, out today from AT&T, will come with it preinstalled. Facebook has also said that other phones with the last couple of Android versions may also run it.

This could be quite a pulling factor for my people to come onto Android, now for the special features:

The chatting heads I do find a practical and useful feature, I myself have had some troubles multi-tasking with messaging a buddy and needing to get out of messenger section and navigate around my phone. Chatting heads or Head is a nice multi-tasking feature that allows the user to have access to a conversation no matter where you are on your device. As an added bonus users can place the floating heads just about anywhere for their own amusement as seen in this Mashable article. Even though Facebook Home will not be available on the iPhone, there has been a recent update to the Facebook application for iPhone iOS 6.0 to include chatting Heads outside the Facebook application, so iPhone users are not left out in the dark or out of the home or just outside.

Image by mashable.com

The Cover Feeds welcomes the user to their phone upon unlocking and basically display’s your news feed  as wallpapers that are scroll-able, the end results are really nice and adds life to one’s mobile. Although its not the most effective way into looking at all your news feeds, unless you don’t have any friends then you’ll be fine.

 It seems to only make sense to integrate one of the worlds biggest social site into a mobile OS, all contacts details and information are all available and up to date too! Facebook Home for avid Facebook users is ideal although it may not be for everyone, but it’ll certainly fit most people that are on Facebook (that includes just about everyone I know) . Also due to its limited compatibility only being available on small number of Android devices, that leaves a lot of other OS players out of the game, Windows and coming later this year Firefox OS and Ubuntu in early 2014!

Ubuntu wants to keep the open source world alive and lives by it as a rule and to help peeps get more involved they have given Ubuntu development tools to push more for Ubuntu native apps, due to the overall performance and quality of app will be way better than HTML5. (Native apps are on average better than HTML5 ones)

Ubuntu can also run HTML 5 (so developers using phone Gap can still get in there). Due to their great following of Open source software or should I say shareware, for people who want to design and develop for Ubuntu, it is quite possible to say that there will be a supply of developers willing to go the Ubuntu route.

Demo graphics they going for?

According to what i have picked up from the video, they aiming and going high for Enterprise clients (big wigs, Shot callers, Home brawlers and Bar Tab runners to be precise), and with Ubuntu’s reputation for security is a big selling point and Corporate Fat Cats and their love for security, hence the selling point for Corporate clients.

Big money when you go for Corporate fat cats

As well as overall normal average everyday consumers and in all honesty people like different things, so something new and fresh, not as fresh as the Windows OS phone, but that is just my opinion.

Its guesstimated that Ubuntu mobile OS will becoming out in the first quarter of 2014 (was the end of 2013 now 2014) and If i were to compare it with the new Blackberry OS 10, Yes I have had a chance to play around with the Blackberry Q10 and Z10 here at the house and home of Cytrus. Well in both OS’s there is a lot more swiping being used as well as other improvements on the navigation and user experience of having a better faster functioning Mobile OS directed for the User’s benefit.

Conclusion

Melanie Pinola mentions on life hacker the following about Ubuntu:

Ubuntu for Android combines the Android mobile operating system and the Linux-based desktop OS, so when you dock the handset you get the full desktop OS. Ubuntu is expected to start shipping these devices in late 2013.

Good support, good Ubuntu community, good security and Corporate Fat cats to boot. Seems like a good game plan, but the mobile industry is becoming fierce. Furthermore Ubuntu is only launching in 2014 and some people believe that there is no place for an Ubuntu OS as far as progress goes, they don’t have a manufacturer or an Operator yet. A question that always goes through my head, with the beautiful Windows 8 OS,  the ever growing market share of Android and iPhone OS, Blackberry 10 OS coming in strong with their new platform and even Firefox coming up with an OS as well. Is there enough room for Ubuntu to join in and is it too late? Population is growing and Mobile devices are becoming a commodity in my eyes, but I do feel pessimistic for Ubuntu.

Mobile app for new platform gives access to a catalogue of the best wines in South Africa and to all Top12Wines competition rankings

Cape Town, South Africa – Top12Wines has announced the immediate availability of its Top12Wines application for BlackBerry® 10 smartphones. The application is now available for download on BlackBerry® World™.

The Top12Wines application provides a vast catalogue of the best South African wines along with the results of weekly Top12Wines tastings, and current rankings in 30 categories. Wines are displayed per category such as varietals and blends and can be classified by their rank in the Top12Wines competition. Wine lovers who want to participate in the wine tastings and ranking series have access to purchase in-App tickets for the tasting events organised in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Paris. More cities will be available soon.

“We are proud to have been chosen by BlackBerry as one of the apps featured at the launch of the new BlackBerry® 10 platform,” said Frederic Dasse, founder of Top12Wines. “This application will broaden the Top12wines community and will allow everyone to look at the rankings, tasting results and book tastings at any time through their brand new BlackBerry® Z10 smartphone”.

An update of the application, which is expected in March, will integrate in-app purchases of any wine bottle participating in the Top12Wines competition. “We are very excited about our application as it demonstrates the powerful capabilities of the new BlackBerry 10 platform”, says Gidon Judes, Managing Director of Cytrus Technology, that company that developed the application. “The integration of the BlackBerry 10 Top12Wines application with the http://www.top12winesstore.com e-commerce store will offer a rich user experience by bringing more convenience and extending access for nomadic consumers.”

For more information on the Top12wines application, visit: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/22019908/

About Top12wines

Top12wines has been organizing since 2010 open wine contests where anyone can participate to blind tastings to rate the wine they prefer. Virtually all the most awarded wines in every possible categories, make the line up of the Top12Wines tastings, and an ongoing ranking eliminates the ones which do not perform best, while others come to replace them and challenge the leaders. All the wine participating to the contest are therefore supposed to be the best in their respective categories, being the most awarded, and having to prove themselves thereafter on a continuous basis in front of the public. Participating to a Top12Wines tasting is obviously a unique opportunity for wine lovers to taste all these great wines at the same time, around a restaurant table, with old or new friends, in a friendly, relaxed and unpretentious atmosphere.  For those who will never actually participate in a Top12Wines tasting, the tasting results are available to anyone. Wine lovers can also use Top12Wines rankings as a recommendation for their next purchase or can buy these very best wines from http://www.top12winesstore.co.za.

Media Contacts for Top12wines

Frederic Dasse

Founder of Top12wines

Tel:+27 21 782 5042   / +27 81 799 3899

fred@top12wines.com

BlackBerry and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of Research In Motion Limited. BlackBerry is not responsible for any third-party products or services.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins presented the new Blackberry 10 phones to the world and I can only compare his excitement to a first time parent presenting his first born child to family and friends. Thorsten Heins also announced a change in company name and that his company will no longer be called RIM, it has been fully absorbed and falls under the Blackberry brand. Very interesting!

Blackberry’s overdue release of a full touch world class phone is big news. I must admit that I was really impressed with the two devices Blackberry produced. They have stayed true to their motto “Blackberry keeps moving you forward”

Some key features include the ability to move from ones personal phone settings to business setting using one finger. Further the Blackberry 10 platform was launched with over 70 000 apps. The most apps ever produced for a platform launch!

International BB10 spokes-person Alicia Keys compared her relationship with her BB phone to a relationship with a boyfriend. Amazing how the relationship between people and phones has changed so much in the last 10 years.
Alicia re-committed to the BB 10 and will be part of a team of celebreties that will leverage the BB 10 powerful platform to produce amazing concepts for applications that will impact our lives.

One of keys to the success of the new Blackberry 10 platform is that developers can now do their thing and easily develop cool applications utilising the Blackberry 10 platform. Everyone knows that developing applications on the previous Blackberry platforms was at best complicated and at worst a nightmare. With the Blackberry 10 platform developers feedback is that they are now excited again to develop applications on the Blackberry  10 platform. This will ensure that a consistent stream of amazing applications will come out from the developers community (much like we have seen with Android, IOS, and Window8) and push the content delivery on the Blackberry 10 phones.

The JHB event consisted of the who’s who’s of the mobile industry in SA and Cytrus was proud to be part of the event. Cytrus was contracted by then RIM (now Blackberry) to develop a lifestyle application. This app is called Top12Wines and showcases the years top 12 wines as voted by every day people in wine tastings. The founder of Top12Wines is Frederic Dasse and Cytrus enjoyed taking his web-presence to mobile. The app was one of 8 applications that were featured in the JHB launch! The app is live and available on the Blackberry app store. Blackberry produced amazing pods for us to showcase the Top12Wines app which enhanced the whole experience.
People in SA are very passionate about their wine as SA is a leader in the production of world class wines. I was amazed to see how excited the crowed on attendance was about the application Cytrus developed. Cytrus is very excited
to have partnered with Blackberry on their big launch event.

The Top12Wines is another example of how Cytrus pushes mobile technology boundaries to develop world class applications. This is aligned with our commitment to innovate in the mobile space utilizing the most relevant and powerful platforms. More to come soon from Cytrus, watch the space.

All in all the Blackberry 10 launch was a fantastic event and it will be interesting to see how the Blackberry 10 will impact the mobile market. I personally am positive that Blackberry will regain its place as a leader in the mobile industry.

Some background first, every one in SA knows the Shout brand, which is headed by Danny K and Kabelo. Cytrus first got involved with Shout over a year ago and developed the Android application, which was sponsored by Samsung. Cytrus then developed a BlackBerry application that was sponsored by RIM. We have just completed the development of a Windows 8 application which was co-sponsored by Microsoft and Trellidor. The application will be available on the Microsoft store in December, so look out for it and download it. Some of the key features include:

• Location based crime reporting
• Dynamic map representation
• Location based emergency number information
• Social media integration

To read more about the shoot see link to Trellidor blog post: http://blog.trellidor.co.za/2012/12/on-track-with-shout-founders-kabelo-and-danny-k/

Back to the shoot, on the day we met at the Trellidor office in JHB and took tons of photos that will be sent to the various media channels. Danny and Kabelo were like fish in water having done this type of shoot many times before. Me and Suliman ( Microsoft) were not as natural in front of the camera, but all were very supportive and the experience was awesome.

I then had to demo the app with Suliman and we spoke about the application features and the partnership between Microsoft, Cytrus, Trellidor, and Shout SA.

I would like to thank Charlene and Pete (Trellidor), Suliman (Microsoft), Danny and Kabelo for being such great people and Cytrus is proud to have such great partners. We all can sleep better knowing that we are helping every day South Africans fight crime with innovative technology.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the Cytrus team who had to work so hard to develop the application in record time. Well done team Cytrus. This is another application of many that Cytrus has developed that pushes forward mobile technology.

Watch the space, more to come soon.

Gidon Judes

Cape Town, South Africa: 4th November 2012 – The Methys Group, http://www.methys.com, an international Technology and Business Performance Management Consulting firm with operations in France, UK, Benelux, Tunisia and South Africa has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Cytrus Technology (Pty) Ltd, a South African eCommerce and mobile development company with significant track record in delivering complex and cutting edge digital projects. As part of the transaction, venture capital investment firm Teim Ventures, current shareholders of Cytrus, will be taking a minority equity stake in Methys (Pty) Ltd.

Cytrus Technology was started in 2007 out of the technology division of Clicks2Customers. With a presence in Cape Town and Johannesburg, the company has become renowned for its high quality delivery on eCommerce and mobile development projects for a wide range of bluechip clients. By joining Methys’ international network of technology specialists, Cytrus will gain access to new markets such as France, Tunisia, Benelux and UK. This will allow Cytrus to utilise Methys’s expertise in Business Intelligence/Analytics, CRM/Digital Marketing consulting and innovation management.

This transaction will nearly triple the footprint of Methys operations in South Africa. The combination of Methys and Cytrus will allow the group to be the first to provide a range of services focusing on enabling customers to successfully embrace the digital revolution and the changes associated with the increasing importance of Web, Mobile and Social Networks.

“With Cytrus being a major player in the eCommerce and Mobile space, this acquisition comes at the perfect time to expand on new opportunities and exciting business prospects. Both our companies have complementary profiles and distinct expertises, but already share the same culture of innovation. With this merge, clients will be able to experience the Innovative and quality products with the expertise of BI, Analytics and specialist advisory services”, says Gidon Judes, Managing Director of Cytrus Technology.

Christophe Viarnaud, Chairman of Methys comments on the group strategic plans, “The ever increasing consumer adoption of mobile services and social networks is triggering profound and irreversible changes in the business landscape of most brands and business models. Today, by combining Methys core skill set in consulting, design, enterprise performance management and innovation with Cytrus well structured approach to mobile and web applications delivery, we are creating a team of people passionate about customer success, and uniquely positioned to deliver integrated solutions including the development of multi device e-commerce and mobile platforms, online payments, digital advisory, business intelligence and all the tools that our South African and International clients may need to market their products online and strengthen their digital strategies.”

About Methys

Methys is an international Technology and Business Performance Management Consulting firm with operations in France, UK, Tunisia and South Africa. Methys is focused on customer success, driving maximum business performance. Leveraging on partnerships with key technology providers and a rich set of methodologies blending functional and technological excellence, the passion of Methys people is about giving you the means to enhance the performance of your business.

http://www.methys.com

About Cytrus

Cytrus utilises its strategic, creative and technical know how to produce consistently engaging digital experiences delivering cutting edge robust solutions to our clients in the enterprise space. We utilize globally proven project management, development and support methodologies. We adhere to the highest standard of quality in delivering projects and are passionate about providing our clients with an exceptional level of service.

No small feet to achieve.

Steven highlighted two cloud offerings that Softline Pastel is now offering their client base: Pastel MyMoney, and Pastel MyBusiness.

Pastel MyBusiness

South Africa’s first online accounting solution for small business from Pastel. Imagine the following:

You’re shopping online. Your banking online. Its time you managed your accounting online? Put your customer information in the palm of your hand, be a part of the online trend and watch your business grow from anywhere in the world.

Pastel MyMoney

An online personal finance management tool.

• Pastel MyBusiness with give you an overview of your spending habits, bank account balances and what you have left at the end of each month.
• You can capture income, expenses and bank transfers, or use the easy bank import option to import your bank and credit card statements.
• Create a budget from scratch or based on historical spending and track your spending against your budget each month.
• You can attach notes and files to any transaction. Keep a record of all your purchases by taking a picture of, or scanning in your till slips, warranty papers and any other important documents.
• Manage your household contents for insurance purposes by recording all your purchases .

Cytrus is proud to have developed the Pastel MyBusiness and Pastel MyMoney apps for android phones and tablets! Our team worked hand in hand with the Pastel crew and our applications were very well received by all. The feedback has been amazing! Cytrus is committed to pushing the boundaries of mobile development in South Africa. I would like to extend a big thank you to the Cytrus team for developing such great apps. Watch the space as many more exciting applications will hit the market soon.

- Gidon Judes ()

Some pics from the event

Justin Drennen and Paulo Ferrero

Mobility Business

Mobility Business Tablet

Steven Cohen

I brought it into the office and the whole team had a go, but most impressively it’s great to see where technology is going and even more how things we saw in movies as kids are becoming a reality for us. This is an exciting time to be in the mobile space and Cytrus are looking forward to making a difference.

Enjoy the cover and good job FHM.