![]() ![]() Users who had the “Automatically import media” option enabled have seen the BlackBerry Desktop Software become unresponsive in case they disconnected the smartphone during an automatic import from the media card. That’s pretty much it for the new additions, as the rest of the change log mentions nothing but fixes.įor instance, the BlackBerry Desktop Software didn't prompt users to disconnect and then reconnect their smartphone or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet after a forced upgrade of the Desktop Software. The BlackBerry Desktop Software now supports tablets running BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0.1, as well as the new BlackBerry Curve 9220, RIM has confirmed. That happens to be true.ĭennis Kavelman was a senior executive at RIM/BlackBerry from 1995-2010.Research In Motion has released an improved version of the BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Macintosh users, adding improved support for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, as well as for the new BlackBerry Curve 9220. Former employees and executives from BlackBerry have gone on to leadership roles in many other prominent technology companies, started new technology companies in Waterloo and across Canada and are investing their time and resources back into the Canadian technology ecosystem and their communities. Mike and Jim, in their unique co-CEO partnership, built a company in Waterloo, Ont., that at its peak reached a valuation of over US$75 billion and in 2011 reached US$19.9 billion in revenue with over 17,000 employees. There are inspirations and lessons to be taken from the real RIM/BlackBerry story - the rise and the fall - and the people behind it. The Toronto tech CEO I spoke to after the screening was shocked when I told him it was all made up. Why does all this matter? It’s just a movie. I could go on - I didn’t think the real stories were boring but I’m not a movie writer. The creation story of the two-way pager/Blackberry is fictional, the naming story of the Blackberry is made-up, the scenes with Palm, the NHL and various customers are all dramatizations. The movie’s origin story of founders Doug Fregin and Mike Lazaridis coming together with Jim Balsillie isn’t true. I’m writing this to provide this necessary context from my personal lived experience with the company- my interpretation- because the founders I worked with and the employees I worked with were completely unrecognizable to me in this portrayal that paints them as incompetent tech nerds, diabolical villains and childish Canadian technology engineers incapable of competing at a global level.Īfter the screening I had an interesting moment when the CEO of a Toronto tech company in attendance said to me: “Wow, I didn’t know all those things about the company.” I realized that this retelling was going to become the new narrative about the company, and just couldn’t let that stand without comment. There’s even a disclaimer that it is a “fictionalization.” The problem with a fictionalization is that, without context, an audience has no way to figure out where the line between fact and fiction lies. Like many, I saw the trailer and was braced for some storytelling licence and exaggeration of characters and simplification of plot - it is a 20-year story told in two hours, after all. The director and writers seem to just have seen another story that they can spin into their style of “entertaining farce.” It’s tempting to speculate about the motivations of those funding and producing it but I will leave that to others. Why am I writing this? I’m not going to do a movie review, although the film is pretty fast and intense with a decent soundtrack. This movie, which is supposed to be loosely based on the book, will unfortunately be unrecognizable to those who lived the BlackBerry story and one that seems to go out of its way to diminish and tarnish the legacy of the founders and employees of one of Canada’s great technology stories. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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