Tell us about a #BoldMove you've got in the works. Big or small, we want to hear how you're being #Bold.  ^MS—
Research In Motion (@BlackBerry) May 22, 2012

…and for a “simple” question, we got some fantastic and complex answers. One of the most inspirational stories was from Brett Gilmore, a Montreal native who made a super #BoldMove when he traveled to Ecuador to volunteer with Free The Children. In fact, we were so impressed with his journey that we wanted to ask him some questions about the trip, the volunteering and his experiences on #TeamBlackBerry. Brett graciously shared some stories with us:

1. Do you remember buying your first BlackBerry smartphone? Tell us about it.

Yes I do, I was using a different make of phone and it died on me with no possibility of revival. For Christmas my mom gave me another smartphone but I didn’t really fancy it. I wanted a BlackBerry® smartphone, so I could have BBM™, social hookups and BrickBreaker. My mom and I discussed that having a BlackBerry smartphone would be better for me because she has a BlackBerry smartphone, and it would give her an easier way to contact me if I had one as well. We traded in the other device for a BlackBerry smartphone, and from that moment on I was hooked.

2. How many BlackBerry devices have you had? Which ones?

I have had one BlackBerry. It is a BlackBerry® Curve™.

3. We are so inspired by your #BoldMove – taking a trip to Ecuador to help communities with Free The Children. Can you tell us more about your trip?

In 2010, my brother Liam went on a humanitarian trip to Ecuador, which our school organized for the first time. I was so inspired by his recounting of the trip that I decided I had to experience it for myself. I had always wanted to go to another country to help others, and saw this as a great first opportunity since the purpose of the trip was to build a community school. I went to Ecuador with Free The Children on a 10-day trip in April 2011.

We landed in the capital of Ecuador, Quito, where we were staying for the night to get used to the altitude so that we didn’t get sick in the mountains. We also toured the city and learned about the culture and their history. The following day, we made our way to the community where we would be working to build the school. We came across many things such as rose factories, farms, and livestock, and we got to know our amazing driver Rigo and learn about his family. He was a great person and gave us more insight into the culture and lifestyle. About four hours into the trip, we came across the first school ever made in Ecuador by Free The Children. Seeing it and realizing what happens when one person takes the initiative and gets his classmates to help in the fight for social equality and justice was incredible.

It was nighttime when we finally arrived at the lodge we would be staying in for the duration of our stay. I got altitude sickness which made me sick as a dog and weak like a baby. Despite this, I pushed myself during the day because I wasn’t there for myself but for the children. Our task was to lay the foundation of the school, and we had to start by actually making the bricks! We made over 200 bricks by hand.

When we weren’t working on the school, we were participating in cultural activities such as going to the market, visiting a women’s group, and visiting the Cloud Forest. I returned to Montreal a different person. This trip inspired me to engage in different humanitarian activities and events, which became something I am passionate about.

4. We’d love to hear about a favorite memory from the trip. Can you share a picture with us and tell us about the memory?

My favorite memory from the trip is playing with the kids of the community. We played volleyball, tag, hop-scotch and marbles. Despite the language barrier, we had fun and managed to play and laugh together. The kids there are always smiling, and it made me realize that you do not need a lot of material possessions in order to be happy.

5. Are you doing or planning on doing any more trips or work with Free The Children?

I would love to. I am a big fan of the work they do in other countries and will get involved with everything I can. I am also thinking of going to Kenya or Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and work in a community there. I would also like to visit Rwanda.

6. If you could create your own BlackBerry smartphone app to help people, what would the app do and why?

I’d create an app that would be useful for people who sponsor a child in another country so that they can receive updates on the child they sponsored. They could get information such as the weather, pictures, letters, and other things. I think it would be cool because the child you sponsor will always be with you in your smartphone.

7. How do you use your BlackBerry smartphone now to help others?

I use my BlackBerry smartphone to send texts about things that are going on in our school, such as meetings for trips, senior day, the 30 Hour Famine, school dances, dress down days, as well as to get other student’s opinions on activities so that everyone has a voice in our school.

Thank you for your time, Brett, and for being on Team BlackBerry! Readers – did you respond to our call for #BoldMoves? What was your leap of faith? Let us know in the comments.

Hey #TeamBlackBerry, we’ve got someone we want you to meet –- the newest member of the BlackBerry® Curve™ family of smartphones! We’re very proud to present the BlackBerry® Curve™ 9320, a stylish new smartphone for the socially-connected. I’ve got my hands on one of these smartphones right now, and I wanted to give you the heads up on three things you should know about this new BlackBerry Curve smartphone:

Style meets practicality

The first thing I noticed was just how well the BlackBerry Curve 9320 smartphone fit in my hand, and how good it looks at the same time. If you’re someone who’s really into messaging and social networking this BlackBerry smartphone is a wise choice. You get the best in class QWERTY keyboard for easy typing, a dedicated button for BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) — !!! — and it’s available in multiple colors so you can express your personal style. (Note: Please check with your carrier for color availability.)

Next Generation BlackBerry 7.1 OS

After you turn the BlackBerry Curve 9320 smartphone on and start it up, you’ll notice that it’s running BlackBerry® 7.1 OS. It gives you a smooth and fast BlackBerry smartphone experience, which I noticed most while I was browsing the web. The new OS adds features like Mobile Hotspot (Wi-Fi® sharing), which allows you to connect up to five additional devices*. It also has FM radio so you can tune into your favorite local radio stations.

Peace of mind at your fingertips with Parental Controls

For you parents out there considering the purchase of a smartphone to stay in touch, rest assured that your child or teen can safely use their BlackBerry Curve 9320 smartphone to have fun while giving you peace of mind thanks to new parental controls. With Parental Controls, you have the ability to limit or restrict certain phone numbers, and various social networking apps.

Well, there you have it: three things you should know about the BlackBerry Curve 9320. It’s designed to make messaging and accessing social networks incredibly easy, it’s running the latest BlackBerry OS, and it features handy parental controls for peace of mind. I think this may just be one of the best BlackBerry Curve smartphones for someone who is considering their first smartphone.

Pricing and availability of the BlackBerry Curve 9320 will be announced in conjunction with RIM’s distribution partners. For more information please check here.

Let us know what you think of it in the comments below!

* Mobile hotspot feature may require an additional data plan. Please check with your service provider.

Hi, I’m Ryan. I’m a Hardware Engineering Technician in the Hardware Support Lab at Research In Motion® (RIM®). Today, I’m going to give you an inside look at the testing we do during the development of your BlackBerry® smartphone to help ensure it lives up to the high standards that BlackBerry is known for. Our team works to make sure that your BlackBerry smartphone is both durable and reliable – which basically means we try to break them so that you, #TeamBlackBerry, would be hard pressed to do the same. =D

Your BlackBerry smartphone is your connection to your friends and family. It is your lifeline, and we want it to always stay in operating condition so that you can stay in contact with the important people in your life. So when you accidentally drop your BlackBerry smartphone, or sit on it, or spill your morning coffee on it, we want it to keep working.

So how do we work to ensure that your BlackBerry smartphone will keep working? Well, we drop them, bend them, shock them, soak them and zap them…a lot. We also do some nerdy things like reading digital signals to make sure everything is speaking the right language – they look like this:

Cool, eh? Yeah…not really, but it is helpful for our team. This video is a bit cooler:

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]
*Filmed using my BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet

You’re probably wondering why we dropped that BlackBerry® Curve™ 9360 smartphone in a bucket. It’s called a “Moisture Ingress Test” and it’s one of the many important tests that we perform on your BlackBerry smartphone to make sure that it lasts. The water contains a dye so that we know where water can enter a BlackBerry smartphone; with this info, we can improve the device’s water seal.

Allow me to run through a few of the other durability tests we perform on BlackBerry smartphones:

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

BlackBerry Smartphone Drop Testing

Dropping your BlackBerry smartphone is one of the toughest things you can do to it. It’s also one of the most common mishaps that we all make (sometimes I wonder if there’s butter on my fingers!). Just like you, we drop our BlackBerry smartphones…only we do it intentionally.

Every BlackBerry smartphone model gets dropped hundreds of times before the hardware is deemed strong enough for mass production and consumer use. When dropped, the BlackBerry smartphone is filmed using high-speed cameras for review and analysis that could lead to revisions in hardware design to make the device stronger and more durable. Every design revision is then tested to make sure it can endure consumer use – whether that’s on a construction site, in the boardroom, or downtown with your friends.

In the video above, you’ll notice a BlackBerry® Curve™ smartphone being dropped. We recorded this with our high-speed camera at 2000 frames per second! You may have noticed the wave that the impact sent up the casing on the side of the device. Did you know that the BlackBerry smartphones are designed to do that? By allowing the device to bend, we are able to absorb the shock from the concrete into the plastic… just like a shock absorber on a car!

BlackBerry Smartphone Bend Testing

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]
*Filmed using my BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet

Not only do we drop BlackBerry smartphones, we bend them too! Check out this video of my co-worker bend testing a BlackBerry smartphone. Why are we bending this poor smartphone? Well, many people like to keep their smartphones in their back pocket and sometimes, unfortunately, they sit on them. This test makes sure your BlackBerry smartphone can withstand the pressure of your posterior.

More BlackBerry Smartphone Tests

Do you love the keypad on your BlackBerry smartphone? We push the keys on BlackBerry smartphones literally millions of times to sure they click with the right pressure and can withstand all the e-mails, BBM™ messages and tweets that you type. Have you ever been shocked by a door handle? Your BlackBerry smartphone has been too! We zap them with what is called an Electrostatic Discharge, or ESD, to make sure that the sensitive internal components are protected.

I hope you all see how committed RIM is to making your BlackBerry smartphone the strongest and most reliable smartphone available. We definitely enjoy what we do in the Hardware Support Lab, but we also enjoy hearing how what we do is making your BlackBerry experience better. Tell us your BlackBerry smartphone durability stories in the comments below!

The BlackBerry® Curve™ series of smartphones have always been fun and easy-to-use, with great attributes that distinguish the line in a sea of entry-level handsets. Today, we are excited to announce the latest addition to our Curve family, the new all-touch BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone!

Our BlackBerry® 7 OS devices have been getting great buzz since we first announced the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 and 9930 smartphones, the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810 smartphone, the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 and 9860 smartphones, and the BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones. Later this month, the new BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone running BlackBerry 7 will be making its way to carriers and retail locations around the world. So, we thought it would be a good time to get Product Manager Mark to share three key things you need to know about this new BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone. Take it away, Mark!

1. All the great attributes of a BlackBerry Curve in a sleek all-touch design

First off, the new all-touch BlackBerry Curve 9380 is the first BlackBerry Curve smartphone that sports a touch screen, offering a full-sized touch display at that. It maintains the great attributes and fun and approachable features that distinguish the BlackBerry Curve family, adds some really cool new technology such as NFC and Augmented Reality, while offering users a responsive all-touch screen interface.

Like existing BlackBerry Curve models, the BlackBerry Curve 9380 is light in weight and has a sleek and stylish design. The beautifully crafted handset fits easily into your holster, feels great in your hand, and looks good no matter where you go.

The 3.2” all-touchscreen is packed full of pixels for a crisp picture, which makes it ideal for quickly scanning and scrolling through messages, zooming in on your friends’ newest Facebook® pics or streaming YouTube® videos on the go.

2. The BlackBerry Curve 9380 keeps you socially connected

The BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone is jam packed with features. From the basics like phone functionality, SMS and email, to a great web browsing experience and cool apps that take full advantage of the smartphone. It also makes it easy to interact with your social network, because the new BlackBerry Curve 9380 delivers an amazing social experience!

Your social life can be fully integrated through BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) driven by BBM 6, and great new BBM-connected applications which, for example, allow you to connect with your friends through BBM while playing a game or listening to (and sharing) tunes with BBM™ Music.

The new BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone also features our Social Feeds application, which ties all of your social networks together into one place. With Social Feeds you can update each of your social networks at once, and new messages from your friends pop up at the top of the screen so you can check them quickly and easily.

Oh, and we can’t forget the 5 megapixel camera! You can take a photo or a video of whatever you want, whenever you want. The camera allows you to take that snapshot quickly and then upload it to share on Facebook or Twitter®.

3. NFC and Augmented Reality – Some cool technology in the new all-touch BlackBerry Curve 9380

As we mentioned earlier, there’s some really cool new technology in the BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone too: NFC (Near Field Communications) and Augmented Reality (driven by the digital compass). NFC technology will allow you to interact with your surroundings in a whole new way. You can read and create smart tags, tap to connect with posters to access content, or sync up with NFC-enabled accessories. The recent announcement about BlackBerry® Tag coming in a future release of BlackBerry 7 will apply to this model and we’re working with MasterCard® to bring their MasterCard® PayPass™ mobile payment certification to this handset as well.

If you haven’t yet, you have to check out Augmented Reality technology, starting with the Wikitude app. This app allows you to hold up your device and, using the camera, explore the world around you. Standing in front of an important landmark? Just point your BlackBerry Curve 9380 at it and let Wikitude tell you all about it. It is even designed to work with BBM in virtually real-time to let you see where your BBM friends are in a crowd! These new experiences will blow you away, and we really encourage you to check them out yourself on the BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone.

You’ll be amazed with how easy and intuitive the BlackBerry Curve 9380 is to use. The responsive all-touch screen, optical trackpad, navigation keys and virtual keyboard make using the BlackBerry Curve 9380 effortless. Another bonus is that the smartphone’s features are well laid out, accessible, and you’ll really appreciate having all that screen real estate for watching YouTube® videos or viewing pictures. We’re incredibly excited about adding the BlackBerry Curve 9380 to our lineup and can’t wait to hear what you think!

Check out our BlackBerry Curve 9380 Where to Buy page for more details. Availability dates for specific devices from specific carriers will be announced in coordination with Research In Motion® (RIM®) partners. For more information on pricing and availability, contact your local carrier.

Make sure to post a comment below and let us know what you think!

I’m happy to announce three new members to the BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphone family today, the BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones. The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones will be available in Canada this month and via carriers in selected countries around the world beginning in September. For more details on pricing and international availability, make sure to check out our BlackBerry Curve product page or contact your local carrier.

As someone who used the first BlackBerry Curve (the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8300 smartphone), I’m pretty excited to see this popular smartphone family get the powerful BlackBerry 7 infused update. I tapped Product Managers Soniya and Pankaj to tell you the three things you need to know about the new BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones. Let’s get started!

1. The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones are sleek

People familiar with the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 and 9930 smartphones and the all-touch BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 and 9860 smartphones we introduced earlier this month have heard us talk about the sleek and trim design of the new BlackBerry 7 smartphones, and the BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones are no exception. Our intention was to craft the most stylish BlackBerry Curve smartphones yet, while still maintaining that classic ‘just right’ Curve feel.

We wanted to provide you a balance of ergonomics and style through a combination of key design decisions. For example, the BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones feature a “Waterfall” design similar to that of the new all-touch BlackBerry Torch, curving both front and back surfaces together for a smooth fit in your hand. We paired this design with a flowing soft-touch band around the circumference of the device, which is both durable and makes the new BlackBerry Curve smartphones comfortable to hold. The soft-touch band also seamlessly integrates functional features like the volume, mute and convenience keys. And we think you’ll love knowing that the BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones are also some of the lightest BlackBerry smartphones ever, weighing in at only 99 grams –including battery – making portability one less thing you need to worry about.

2. The BlackBerry 7 OS powers the new BlackBerry Curve smartphones

The slim and sleek BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones have been paired with the fast and powerful new BlackBerry 7 OS. We know that BlackBerry Curve smartphone users love to browse the web, and the next-generation BlackBerry Browser is a perfect example of the performance improvements offered by BlackBerry 7. The BlackBerry 7 Browser features a significantly faster web experience, as well as optimized HTML 5 support for things like web-based games and videos. BlackBerry 7 ensures that BlackBerry smartphone users will receive a fast and fluid experience on the new BlackBerry Curve smartphones, with crisp graphics that take advantage of the new devices’ HVGA+ (480×360) display.

BlackBerry 7 also features another improvement upon the BlackBerry 6 OS: voice-activated Universal Search. Voice-activated Universal Search makes it even easier to find the files, messages and contacts stored on your BlackBerry Curve smartphone. You can also use Universal Search to scour the mobile web and supported 3rd party applications to find the information you need – hands free!

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

The BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones are also the second series of BlackBerry smartphones to feature Near Field Communications (NFC), after the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones. NFC is a technology that allows BlackBerry smartphone users to just tap to connect, get information, and link up with other NFC-enabled devices or authentic BlackBerry accessories. For more information about what NFC means for BlackBerry smartphone users, please watch this interview with Andrew Bocking, VP of Handheld Software Product Management.

3. The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones deeply integrate social

On top of the new functionality provided by the BlackBerry 7 OS, the BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones feature a variety of applications that make them some of the most social BlackBerry smartphones ever. In addition to the latest versions of Twitter® for BlackBerry smartphones and Facebook® for BlackBerry smartphones, the new BlackBerry Curve smartphones feature a brand new version of the popular Social Feeds application, which integrates your Facebook®, Twitter® and BBM feeds into one convenient location. Social Feeds 2.0 contains new features such as Universal Search integration, and the ability to create custom views for your social feeds. My favorite new Social Feeds 2.0 feature may just be the ability to flag items for viewing at a later date, which ensures I don’t have to miss out on any important updates or news items when I’m on the go. Social Feeds is a great application for any BlackBerry smartphone user who can’t choose just one social network, or is looking for an easy way to stay connect to everyone and everything that matters to them (stay tuned for a future post covering Social Feeds 2.0 in more depth – Ed.).

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

Of course, our product team’s favorite social application on the BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones has to be the new BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) 6. BBM 6 allows for 3rd party applications (or “BBM-connected” apps) to incorporate your favorite aspects of BBM into their apps, from status updates and sharing to BBM chats. While there are many BBM-connected apps available, my personal favorite has to be foursquare, because I love sharing (and bragging about) new badges I’ve unlocked with friends. Make sure to read the Inside BlackBerry BBM 6: Apps Made Social post to find the BBM connected app that’s the perfect fit for your new BlackBerry Curve smartphone.

The BlackBerry Curve product team is very excited to bring these two new additions to the BlackBerry Curve smartphone family. Please post a comment and tell us what you think of the BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones.