A whole year.  It’s been a whole year (and change) since we’ve been rockin’ out BlackBerry news, reviews, themes, games, leaks, and much more to you all.  Our start was small, and we slowly but surely made our way up (we’re not done growing yet) to top.  Our forever going mission was to give you all the latest and most accurate BlackBerry updates and did our best to keep in replying back and forth to our Twitter followers which gets overwhelming for many and gets neglected by a lot of other “Twitterized” online publications.  We love you all.  It was a fun year for all of us and none of it could of happened without Berry users like you.  We wanted to wrap up the year with some highlights to remember through 2009.

BlackBerry Celebrities:

• One of our favorite category on our site is the BlackBerry Celebrities.  Nothing is funnier than posting nonsense on celebs walking around with BlackBerry and a cup of coffee, and seeing real fans comment with hatred against us.  That wasn’t our purpose.  The BlackBerry Celebrities section’s intention was strictly for entertainment and comic relief where we disclosed that information we say about the photos may or may not be true.  So who were out favorites? We owe a huge thank you to Kim Kardashian for all footage we have of her, including the bra and panties shot she took using her Curve 8900.  Later we saw Tila Tequila get jealous of Kardashian and take a similar photo herself using the same BlackBerry! And how about poor Kevin Bacon who got his BlackBerry stolen in an New York City subway.  There were many BlackBerry Celebrity moments we had this year, check out more here.

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

• Our category of randoms.  Somehow linked to BlackBerry, but not exactly always.  This year we showed you funny gadgets like the iTringe, which made the iPhone seem more like a BlackBerry with a QWERTY keypad that wraps right around.  And for all the guys out there, we put out when Maxim became a mobile-enabled website where you could view various pictures and read all sorts of articles on the models.  One of my personal favorites was the Just in case RIM shuts down BIS/BES article where it took you through a comical drawing and graph of what life would consist of naked of the BlackBerry.  We weren’t too far off with the recent BlackBerry outage that went on through the middle of the night.  As a result we put together the BlackBerry Emergency Kit in case BlackBerry services did shut down again.

Device & Accessory Reviews:

• Being our first complete year in the business, we were happy to be able to review all sorts of BlackBerry devices running tests and hands on experiences with them.  When we started we so limited with devices and application testing and now we are overwhelmed with BlackBerry devices in every direction from every carrier, running every OS, with every application (just about).  We were honored to attend the BlackBerry Bold 9700 Launch event, where PocketBerry and other online publications got a chance to link up and chat about the new device and receive one to take home for reviewing at the end of the day.  We took you through all sorts of accessory reviews such as the OtterBox.  As the OtterBox is one of my favorite cases for the BlackBerry, I personally did a few video reviews on the Defender Series for the Bold 9000 and Curve 8900.  We always gave you the first and best perspective on them showing all its general specifics.  A funny part of the year was when we put out a BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 review years after the device came out.  As we explained in the review, PocketBerry was not around yet when the device came out, and it being a flip phone BlackBerry which still exists in the market today and launched recently to Verizon Wireless, we had every right to put out how we felt about it.  Also, we ran the BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 experience after two months of usage where we conducted some regular and random tests.  We had written a texting while driving experience with it, and as expected, ZoomSafer blew up our comments telling us how unsafe it is to text and drive!

PocketBerry Store:

• One of our biggest accomplishments of the year was launching the PocketBerry Store which consisted of applications and accessories via MobiHand Inc.  At one point, we had a bunch of shopping widgets where we redirected you to other sites to purchase and download all sorts of apps, but today we can finally keep you in-house at PocketBerry.com.  Our app store is accessible via mobile and desktop along with a mobile app for it that works on every BlackBerry.

Giveaways:

• Putting out devices, apps, and accessories for giveaways was really fun.  We loved seeing our Berry users come to PocketBerry and claim their prizes.  As we didn’t have many go on this year, we’re making it our resolution to put out more giveaways through 2010.  So what giveaways did we have this year?  We put out an unlocked BlackBerry Storm 9530 which of course didn’t appeal to all, but certainly was a great freebie BlackBerry which worked on every carrier.  Then we did a BlackBerry Bold 9000 giveaway which was also unlocked, and we received more contestants for this one.  Not much Storm 1 love I guess.  Then later after reviewing the BlackBerry Bold 9700, we ran a giveaway for the device and also unlocked it.  In this giveaway, the turn out was far more great than both the Storm and Bold 9000 giveaways put together.

These are just some of many moments we wanted to share with you from our wonderful year at PocketBerry.  Thank you all for being dedicated to our site and let’s get ready for a new year filled with lots of BlackBerry device releases, news, and leaks!

-by Mac Jadalhack

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