Skip Navigation
BlackBerry Blog

A Double Dose of Fandom: Meet @janolehelmbold and @jasonbrown434, June’s Social Fans of the Month!

06.10.16 / Nicholas Greene

This month, we’ve chosen two BlackBerry social superfans!

Jason Brown (@Jasonbrown434) is a first-year Horticultural student studying at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa. A long-time user of BlackBerry devices, Brown uses his BlackBerry for everything from schoolwork to academic research. He’s also one of our most devoted supporters on Twitter:

Jan Ole Helmbold (@janolehelmbold), a high school student from Frankfurt, Germany (he turns 18 this November), runs a video production business and operates his own YouTube channel where he often talks about his love of BlackBerry. He also works weekends at a café and regularly discusses his passion for BlackBerry on his Twitter feed:

As dedicated members of #TeamBlackBerry, Jan Ole will receive a BlackBerry PRIV and Jason will receive a BlackBerry Passport.

Greene: When did you first become a fan of BlackBerry?

Brown: It was back when I was in high school, around 2009. I saw the BlackBerry 8520, and I was hooked, it’s still one of my favorite phones. I had about three of those, all three black. I just really loved BlackBerry at the time, and I still do. The Z10 is my ultimate device, and I’ve got an Android for entertainment – Clash of Clans and stuff.

JanOleHelmboldHelmbold (pictured here): I’m fairly new, but even when I was little I really liked the form factor of BlackBerry’s phones. My first BlackBerry was the Classic, which I bought in late 2014. I’d been thinking of buying a BlackBerry for a while, since 2013 when the Q10 came out. I just recently got one, and it’s now my daily driver, even though I still love the Classic.

Greene: How does BlackBerry help you in your day-to-day?

Brown: BlackBerry 10’s interface is blazing-fast, and that helps me with everything from research to studying. And BlackBerry still does Push email better than everyone else – . And the Hub is great, too – whether I’m checking my email or just browsing the web, I can just peek into the Hub to see what I’ve got on the go.

The OS is powerful, efficient and easy to use. I have an Android device as well, for games like Clash of Clans, but I find it just isn’t as intuitive as BB10, so I don’t use it for much else.

Helmbold: It’s one of the quickest phones for multitasking in my opinion. I can quickly open my to-do list, and have all my to-do’s in BlackBerry to help me keep my day scheduled. I also use the file manager extensively, because I have a lot of documents and pictures on my phone through social media. BlackBerry Blend is also really useful; I always transfer files from my computer to my BlackBerry when I’m on the go so I can easily share them with other people.

I do a lot of messaging with my phone thanks to the keyboard, as well.

JasonBrown-BlackBerryFanOfTheMonthGreene: What’s your favorite thing about your BlackBerry?

Brown (pictured here): The keyboard on the Z10 is amazing. The fact that after a while it just recognizes your typing pattern means you can type with lightning-fast speed, and one-handed typing actually ends up being faster than two-handed. With my Z10, I’ll challenge anyone to a type-off and win.

I also really love the ease of use. You don’t have to scroll through your app layout page to look for a tweet. You can just open the Hub and read it. No other operating system has something that connects all your notifications together like that.

Helmbold: I agree with Jason – the Hub is awesome. I look at all the phones my friends are using, and on Android or iOS the notifications are a disaster. They have to look at each individual app to see notifications, while mine are all collected in one spot. The difference is like night and day.

And as I already said, I love the keyboard and form factor of my Q10. It makes typing quick and easy.

Greene: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Brown: I really hope Blackberry sticks with BB10. It’s an amazing operating system with an incredible interface – there’s nothing else like it out there.

Helmbold: One thing I’m grateful to BlackBerry for is that they really helped my YouTube channel grow. Ever since I started making BlackBerry videos, I’ve been gaining views and subscribers. I’ve gained a lot of traction because of BlackBerry.

To qualify as a Social Fan of the Month, you must follow both @JohnChen and @BlackBerry on Twitter, have a minimum of 200 followers, and post about BlackBerry on Twitter using the hashtag #BBFotM. You also must not be an existing member of the BlackBerry Elite program.

About Nicholas Greene