*UPDATE 6* – Services are beginning to be restored. Here’s the word from RIM: Thursday 13th October – 9:00 (GMT-5) BlackBerry services are operating well globally. BlackBerry Support teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to ensure ongoing service stability. Some customers in Canada and Latin America who are sending messages to other regions may see intermittent... »
PLEASE SEE THIS POST FOR STATUS UPDATES ON THE OUTAGE! *UPDATE 2* – Things seem to be starting to work again in some regions. RIM says they’re very sorry. *UPDATE* – According to BBC, “The problem appears to have originated in a datacentre in Slough which handles Blackberry services for the affected regions.” Having issues with e-mail delivery and BBM message sending... »
We heard earlier reports that Research In Motion was looking to make BlackBerry Messenger Cross-Platform. If the alleged screenshots are authentic, we could see BBM hit Android in 2012. The screenshots show what appears to be an early beta version of BBM. Although, it is noted that BBM for Android is nearing its final stages. Nevertheless, take this with a grain of salt until more information rele... »
*Update*: Dow Jones Newswires’s Carolyn King reports that RIM has refuted Vinh’s charge. RIM calls the speculation “pure fiction,” she writes, and “remains highly committed to the tablet market,” citing an email from RIM. Research In Motion is said to have stopped production of the BlackBerry PlayBook all together, claims Collins Stewart analyst John Vinh. “While Quanta last week acknowledge... »
A few RIM engineers are one deck at the Droidcon event held in Romania. They explained there will be a few restrictions on apps that can run in the Android app player. According to Thing: [quote]Key features which will be unavailable to Android apps running under the compatibility layer on the PlayBook and future BlackBerry devices include Android’s famed battery-sucking Live Wallpaper, SIP ... »
Shares for Research In Motion have risen over 6% on rumor that activist investor Carl Icahn had taken a stake in the company. Stock traders ”are saying Icahn has taken a stake, but nothing is confirmed,” said BGC Partners tech analyst Colin Gillis. RIM’s stock has jumped over $23/share so far. Neither Icahn’s office or RIM has commented. We’ll keep you posted as this ... »
We’ve seen Research In Motion push ‘system messages’ to your BlackBerry Messenger in the past. Although, these messages were usually only to let you know that your groups and/or contacts were being recovered. However, in a new unreleased build, BBM v6.0.1.21, RIM seems to be taking advantage of the system message feature and enhancing it just a bit. The most recently spotted exam... »
It is being reported that Quanta has begun cutting production lines for the BlackBerry PlayBook at their northern Taiwan facility. The reason for the cut back is said to be due to a decrease in orders for the PlayBook. Quanta is reported to offer preferential compensation to lay off about 1,000 workers. RIM chose to use Quanta and their Taiwan facility to thwart imitations of the PlayBook by China... »
If you’ve been looking to get the BlackBerry Curve 9360 on T-Mobile the wait may not be much longer. Rumors originally suggested the Curve 9360 would release on September 14th, which has proven to be incorrect. Pamphlets for the device have finally made their way into retail store locations. This could be a good sign that the launch is imminent. A recap on the Curve 9360 specs: 806Mhz proces... »
Another day, another Research In Motion senior executive leaving the company. John Vandermay, VP of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), has left RIM for Gemcom Software International Inc., a Vancouver-based mining software company. There, Vandermay will be vice president of product development. Vandermay is the fifth RIM executive to leave since March of this year. It is unclear if the loss of Van... »
Patents are always fun to talk about and see. We recently stumbled across a newly published patent titled ‘Customizable Keyboard’. To our surprise, the patent detailed the ability to set custom keyboard designs for specific variations and scenarios. The patent gives an abstract: [quote]A customizable keyboard for a handheld electronic device is provided. The keys of the keyboard are ro... »
Back in July we exclusively showed you all the goodies that you’ll find come loaded in the BIS 4.1 rollout. RIM has now published a knowledge base article detailing a few of the features and enhancements. BlackBerry Internet Service Email 4.1 released yesterday in the Asia Pacific region. It is scheduled to release in the European region on September 23, 2011 and North American regions on Oc... »
Remember that other Bold Touch we previously showed you codenamed ‘Bellagio’? More photos have emerged of the BlackBerry Bold 9790. This new Bold looks to bring the familiar form factor of the 9700 & 9780, but now with a touchscreen. The Bold 9790 is said to feature: NFC 5MP camera GPS WiFi 1.2GHz processor (possibly) Check out the rest of the images below of the Bold 9790 stacked ... »
A few new details have have surfaced regarding the BlackBerry Bold 9980 (R47). We initially showed you some images and later a hands-on video. According to CrackBerry, the Bold 9980 is codenamed ‘Knight’ and was designed for or by Porsche. We have learned new details ourselves that the Bold 9980 has a true all-glass screen and will be available for Porsche owners ONLY. Other than the o... »
In an official statement today Sprint has confirmed rumors of a delayed release saying, “Due to unexpected circumstances, Sprint shifted the launch of the BlackBerry Curve™ 9350 smartphone beyond the planned Sept. 9 availability date. It will now go on sale in October with a specific availability date shared at a later time.” An internal memo leaked to Phone Arena alleges that the rel... »
Yet again, another lead position has just left Research In Motion. This time, Alex Ivanovic, who was the Lead Product Manager of BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365. Alex was in charge of the new RIM-hosted BlackBerry-enterprise service available for Microsoft Office 365. The new RIM-hosted service will offer a feature set that is similar to BlackBerry Enterprise Server Ex... »
If you are a Rogers Wireless customer and have the BlackBerry Bold 9780, Curve 9300 or the Curve 8520 (sadly no BlackBerry 7 devices) you can take part in the new “My10 BlackBerry Social” plan. The new plan is priced at $42.75/month to give you 150 minutes, 6pm evenings and weekends, Unlimited Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace), Unlimited messaging and BBM, plus unlimited ... »
Images of a purported next-generation full-QWERTY BlackBerry have surfaced on a Chinese website. MaxPDA has been relatively credible in terms of their BlackBerry leaks. Earlier we reported on their PlayBook OS 2.0 screenshots that made their way out. We aren’t ruling out that the above pictured device could merely be a Chinese fake. The keyboard is unlike any past keyboard BlackBerry users h... »
A few new photos from a Chinese website have surfaced of what appear to be of a BlackBerry PlayBook running OS 2. The PlayBook seems to be sporting OS 2.0.0.2992, which gives it standalone e-mail, calendar, and contacts. There is also a shot that show a little green Android icon. Rumor has it that we should see this update hit PlayBook users sometime in September. Other things that appear could be... »
So far we’ve seen Sprint, Three UK, and Vodafone UK announce they will carry the Curve 9360. Now, Canadian carriers Virgin Mobile, Rogers Wireless, and TELUS have announced the BlackBerry Curve 9360 is coming soon. Virgin announced their support via Twitter, as did Rogers make a Tweet. TELUS has already put up a ‘coming soon’ page detailing the 9360′s specs. Neither carrier... »
