WhatsApp to stop working on some devices by the end of 2016 – find out if your model is affected

 

WhatsApp has said that its messaging app will cease to work on older phones and operating systems as early as the end of this year.

The announcement comes after a warning earlier this year that the Facebook-owned company would be pulling support for older models, and that the deadline to upgrade was fast approaching.

The same blog post was then updated to say some phones would be supported until June 30, 2017, while the service would be discontinued on others by the end of this year.

The blog says: “When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 per cent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia.

“As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms the vast majority of people use.”

Those using certain handsets will have to buy new ones if they want to use the world’s most popular messaging app, which has a billion users globally.

“While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future,” a spokesperson said. (Video calling was recently added to WhatsApp)

iPhone users

WhatsApp will stop working on iPhone 3GS at the end of this year.

It will also cease to function any iPhone running iOS 6, so any phone which hasn’t been updated to a later operating system will lose WhatsApp.

The change also affects first, second, third or fourth generation iPads that haven’t been updated.

Android users

WhatsApp will cease to function on any Android tablet or phone running Android 2.1 or 2.2.

This affects any phone released between 2010 and 2011 which hasn’t been updated.

Windows phone users

Anyone still using Windows Phone 7 will not be able to use WhatsApp anymore.

Blackberry and Nokia users

People who have these phones are safe until June 2017: BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40 and Nokia Symbian S60.

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Samsung and BlackBerry Announce Strategic Partnership

Samsung and BlackBerry announced a strategic partnership. The deal will bring the Canadian company’s highly praised mobile security solutions to the Korean giant’s lineup of Android devices.

The end result of the partnership between the two companies will be available in early 2015. It will merge BlackBerry’s BES12 cross-platform EMM solution and Samsung’s KNOX into a single security suite for Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

Samsung KNOX and BES12 will offer complete separation of business and personal data. The upcoming security suite will also provide enhancements that address some of the Android-specific security issues.

The deal is a win for both parties. It will instantly make Samsung a major player on the enterprise market. BlackBerry on the other hand, will surely welcome the fresh stream of cash to its business.

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The New BlackBerry Passport Shown off in a video!

The BlackBerry Passport will soon hit retail shelves, but Carphone Warehouse has jumped the gun and posted a video hands-on of the device. The video shows the BlackBerry Passport in detail and shows off its key features, some of which haven’t been revealed by the company before.

As you’d expect the keyboard is excellent on the Passport. It also doubles as a touchpad and supports gestures. A swipe to the left deletes a word, while up and down swiping scrolls a web page.

The phone is quite tough as well, thanks to its stainless steel frame. There’s also a special shortcut button to the BlackBerry Assistant on the right side of the phone. You can use it to set reminders and search the web, among more.

While the video has since been removed from the retailer’s YouTube channel, a copy has been uploaded, which you can check out below.

The new BlackBerry Passport is edges closer to release!

There’s a fair amount of anticipation among BlackBerry device enthusiasts for the upcoming BlackBerry Passport. We’ve already seen this device several times, and now the BlackBerry Passport has edged a step closer to release.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen officially revealed the Passport back in June and further to this we saw the phone pictured in a white color option. It has a rather unusual wide form factor that we weren’t too sure about at first, the phone looked more stylish than we’d initially thought.

Before the launch of a new smartphone to the market the device has to pass through various regulatory procedures, and last week a device thought to be the BlackBerry Passport appeared at the FCC. Now the phone has received GCF Certification too, so all is looking promising for the rumored September release.

The phone is thought to have a Snapdragon 800 processor, a square 4.5-inch display with resolution of 1440 x 1440, 3GB of RAM, and a 3450 mAh battery, and will release running BlackBerry 10.3, a very appealing lineup of specs. It also has a new-look physical QWERTY keyboard and it’s targeted at business users, although it could well appeal to non-enterprise users too.

There’s no BlackBerry Passport release date available yet, but it’s interesting to know that the FCC confidentiality agreement expires on September 12th, which perhaps gives us a hint. If you’re interested in this upcoming device you can already register your interest in it at BlackBerry here.

Do you like what you’ve seen and heard so far about the BlackBerry Passport smartphone? Will you be pre-ordering this handset when pre-orders open?

iPhone 5c outsold all Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices in winter quarter

While the iPhone 5c has failed to live up to internal expectations set by Apple, the smartphone certainly hasn’t been moving off the shelves as badly as some people might think. According to an AppleInsider report by Daniel Eran Dilger, the mid-tier handset actually outsold every BlackBerry, Windows Phone and flagship Android device in the United States during the winter quarter. Take a look…

The report cites multiple sources in claiming that iPhone 5c sales were roughly 12.8 million during the three-month period, more than double the sales of some key smartphone competitors:

That means iPhone 5c sold twice as many units as all Blackberry smartphone sales combined (6 million), more than all of Nokia’s Windows Phone smartphone sales in the winter quarter (8.2 million), and in fact, all of Microsoft’s Windows Phones sold globally in the winter quarter (slightly more than 8.2 million, as Nokia makes 90 percent of the world’s Windows Phones). Even Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 reportedly sold just 9 million units in the winter quarter. If you do the math, that’s less than 12.8 million.

It is worth noting that the iPhone 5c was the second most popular smartphone on only half of the top four carriers — AT&T and Sprint — in the United States. The high-end Samsung Galaxy S4 nabbed second place on Verizon and T-Mobile during the same time period. But the sales numbers outlined above prove that the iPhone 5c — a so-called “flop” — is a legitimate candidate on the list of best-selling smartphones.

A major reason why critics have been pouncing on the iPhone 5c is because it is overshadowed by the more successful iPhone 5s in sales. But as Dilger notes, it is hard to believe that Apple is upset that consumers are opting to purchase a smartphone that retails for double the price with a two-year contract. He goes as far to blame Android as part of the problem.

Note that Apple isn’t just asking for more money; consumers are readily paying twice as much to buy iPhones. That’s indicative of a failure on the part of Android. Either the entire world has been fooled, or Android is simply not as desirable as its proponents claim.

Kantar reported in December that almost half of iPhone 5c buyers were switching from competitors, namely Android-based smartphone makers like Samsung and LG. That contrasts sharply with iPhone 5s buyers, 80 percent of which upgraded from a previous iPhone model. The highest demand for the iPhone 5c comes from lower income households, with 42% of owners earning less than $49,000 per year.

Apple most recently launched an 8GB version of the iPhone 5c in Australia, China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, perhaps further propagating myths that sales of the budget handset have been less than desirable. But as we now know it, the iPhone 5c has actually been one of Apple’s most successful products in the last year and quietly positioned itself as the world’s second most popular smartphone.