RIM has announced new versions of the operating systems for their BlackBerry phones and BlackBerry PlayBook today at CES. The company described the new software in dual press releases issued this morning.
BlackBerry OS 7.1, which begins rolling out to BlackBerry smartphones today, includes a variety of new features. BlackBerry Tag allows users with NFC-enabled phones to exchange information – contact info, documents, photos, etc – by bumping their phones together. Mobile hotspot functionality has been added as well, along with enhanced search capability.
PlayBook OS 2.0, meanwhile, has a lot more catching up to do. The PlayBook was widely panned when it released, and several features users regarded as critical were missing from the device on launch. The new OS adds many of those features in, and includes a whole lot more. A slew of email and messaging features have been added, including a unified inbox, rich-text composing and edting for email, and inbox search tools. The new OS also adds the ability to pair a user’s BlackBerry phone with their PlayBook, making the phone a remote control, keyboard, or mouse for their tablet. The update also includes a variety of productivity enhancements and access to new apps and content. The OS is expected to be available in February.
For the first several years of the smartphone era, companies provided their employees with devices – the Blackberry, the Palm Treo, and the like were the go-to phones of the business world. Even before that, company-issued computers were standard operating procedure. These company-issued devices had a whole host of benefits: everyone was on the same page, technologically speaking. IT departments had a great deal of control over usage, software implementation, security, and a whole host of features.
All that began to change in 2007, when Apple released the first iPhone. Suddenly flip phones with cameras were no longer the height of consumer phone technology. With the iPhone, Apple introduced a devices that was both popular with consumers, and capable of meeting the same needs as a business smartphone. Not long after, Google released their Android operating system, and a whole armada of touch screen smartphones hit the market in short order. Before long, people in the business world began wanting to bring in their personal iPhones or Android phones for use in business. As these phones have gained in popularity, more and more companies have begun instituting BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – programs, where employees use their personal phones for business, rather than being issued a work phone.
Recently, Good Technology, a company that specializes in mobile solutions for business, conducted a study (press release; PDF) on these BYOD programs and their effect on busness. The results of the study, which says that the “traditional model of supporting only company-owned devices” is becoming “increasingly obsolete” show that BYOD is gaining popularity in the business world. Of the businesses surveyed 72.2% supported BYOD, and a further 3.9% planned to so so in the next year, while 14.8% were considering the program, but with no specific timeline. Some industries are more willing to embrace the concept than others: the financial and healthcare industries are more likely to allow employees to bring their own devices, while retail businesses and the government are less likely to do so.
Interestingly, larger companies are more likely to allow employees to use their own devices: 80% of companies with BYOD programs have 2,000 employees or more, 60% have 5,000 or more, and 35% have 10,000 or more. Of the companies with BYOD programs, half require employees to cover all related costs, while 45% provide employees with either a stipend or the opportunity to claim the costs as a business expense. The companies that provide a stipend appear to have the most success with their BYOD programs.
These programs are not without their problems, however. Though the study does not cover it, BYOD can cause some concerns for corporate IT departments. As employees are increasingly using a wide array of devices for both personal and business use, it is becoming harder and harder for IT to maintain the level of security and implementation control that they enjoyed in the golden age of the Blackberry. A number of companies – including Good Technology – have sprung up to help deal with the problem. Recently, in a move that some think may signal the beginning of their eventual exit from the handset market, Blackberry parent company RIM announced Blackberry Mobile Fusion. The new security software is designed to integrate iOS and Android devices into Blackberry’s vaunted device security system.
Does your company support BYOD? What do you think about it? Let us know in the comments.
Blackberry has been on the ropes for some time. After almost single-handedly creating the smartphone industry (along with Palm) the company ruled the roost for several years, only to be upstaged dramatically by Apple’s iPhone, then by a spate of phones running Google’s Android operating system. Blackberry has been losing market share steadily ever since.
Part of the problem has been a consistent failure to produce competitive products. Attempts at a mulit-touch smartphone had less than stellar results, while the PlayBook tablet was effectively a bust. Fans and investors had been holding out hope, however, that the upcoming Blackberry 10 would be the company’s salvation. Last week, however, RIM’s CEO announced that the launch was delayed, and that the phone would not be available until late 2012. RIM cited the need to wait for new dual-core processors for the device to become available.
Now, however, BGR is reporting that the Blackberry 10 is simply not working. They cite a “most trusted source” who says that RIM was flat-out lying about waiting for the new chipset, and that the Blackberry 10 was simply a lousy device that would not even have been able to compete with earlier versions of the iPhone and Android, much less Apple or Google’s latest and greatest.
If BGR’s source is correct, this could have serious implications for RIM. A failed attempt at a new smartphone at a time when Apple and Android are already ascendant could push Blackberry out of the smartphone/tablet market for good. There have been some indications that RIM might be aware of this fact, and may be beginning to position itself for a transition into primarily software-based solutions company. The company announced last month that it was developing Blackberry Mobile Fusion, a software platform that would integrate RIM’s vaunted security features with iOS and Android devices.
Apparently, we have some elitist muggers roaming around Columbia University.
A pair of robbers are targeting students in Upper Manhattan, and they are taking the worst thing imaginable – their iPhones. I’m not using “iPhone” and a generic term for “smartphone” like saying “Kleenex” for “tissue.” I mean they are taking iPhones – and only iPhones.
If the students don’t happen to have the popular Apple device, these guys refuse to take anything else as a substitute. Android? No Thanks. Blackberry? Get real.
Twice at 526 114th St., and once at 556 114th St., the suspects demanded the victims hand over their iPhones, police said.
The first victim complied, but the second only had a Droid, according to police. The thieves apparently didn’t want a Droid — so they took cash instead.
One student was quoted as saying, “It’s insulting they don’t want my Blackberry.” Columbia Campus police suggest that it might be the high resale value of the iPhone that’s making these robbers so picky. I’d like to believe that they just can’t bear the thought of losing the silky smooth vocal stylings of Siri.
Whatever the case may be, Apple could definitely spin this into a new ad campaign. “The iPhone 4S: Because when you want an iPhone, nothing else will do. Just ask these robbers.”
Check out the video below for some surveillance footage of the incidents. Maybe that guy’s right. Maybe Columbia students just need to carry old Blackberries and offer them up the next time they are accosted by our iPhone-only thieves.
Yesterday marked the launch of Wikileaks’ newest project, the Spyfiles, following an announcement from Julian Assange while speaking on a panel at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism at the City University of London. Addressing the audience, Assange casually dropped the bomb that a new batch of files uncover the “international mass-surveillance industry.” From the conference:
In what sounds like the most dystopian novel I’ve ever read, Wikileaks explained the extent of the surveillance operation in a release:
International surveillance companies are based in the more technologically sophisticated countries, and they sell their technology on to every country of the world. This industry is, in practice, unregulated. Intelligence agencies, military forces and police authorities are able to silently, and on mass, and secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers. Users’ physical location can be tracked if they are carrying a mobile phone, even if it is only on stand by.
But the WikiLeaks Spy Files are more than just about ’good Western countries’ exporting to ’bad developing world countries’. Western companies are also selling a vast range of mass surveillance equipment to Western intelligence agencies. In traditional spy stories, intelligence agencies like MI5 bug the phone of one or two people of interest. In the last ten years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm. Intelligence companies such as VASTech secretly sell equipment to permanently record the phone calls of entire nations. Others record the location of every mobile phone in a city, down to 50 meters. Systems to infect every Facebook user, or smart-phone owner of an entire population group are on the intelligence market.
The Wikileaks release also explains that citizens involved in overthrowing their respective dictators during the Arab Spring this year discovered listening rooms “where devices from Gamma corporation of the UK, Amesys of France, VASTech of South Africa and ZTE Corp of China monitored their every move online and on the phone.” Further, the Spyfiles announcement details how surveillance entities in the U.S., Italy and France have manufactured viruses to infiltrate private computers and smart phones – they’re looking at you, iPhone, Blackberry, and Gmail users – in order to essentially hijack the device and record its every movement.
Wikileaks cohort OWNI have taken the Spyfiles release and created a remarkably fascinating – and outright terrifying – interactive map to help make sense of this new information to the visually-inclined. Go ahead and play around with it and become scared.
Not included in the video above is an extended account of how intelligence surveillance isn’t only limited to certain regions of the world:
But software users in the West are not safe either. Assange and other members of the panel told reporters how Western intelligence services used electronic devices to monitor the activities of its citizens. In Britain MI5 apparently used specialized voice recognition software implanted into cell phones that could make out who was speaking to whom. Other intelligence agencies had the ability to figure out where exactly the user was located, what they were typing and what they looked like. One of the programs allowed agencies to take photos of unsuspecting victims by using cameras implanted into their phones.
One intrepid tweeter already seems to have corroborated Wikipedia’s claim:
More mysterious is that Wikileaks seems to be experiencing some accessibility issues with their website right now following the release of the Spyfiles:
Not to be crass about what has been a pretty sobering article up to this point, but does this mean that I should hurry up and pay my parking tickets now or is it really just too late to even worry about that?
Android app developer Trevor Eckhart posted a video to his YouTube account on Monday in which he claims to have discovered a hidden app in the handsets of several carriers. Eckhart claims that the app, Carrier IQ, collects a wide variety of user data, including keystrokes, location data, and text messages.
It remains unclear what the software does with the data it collects. While at least some of it is forwarded on to Carrier IQ’s servers, no one is quite sure how much. Regardless of what is done with the data, the fact that it is collected at all by a hidden piece of software with no option to opt-out is enough to unsettle many.
In the 17 minute video, posted below, Eckhart demonstrates the app recording his keystrokes and intercepting network data, even when sent via secure HTTPS protocol. In a public posting, Eckhart accused Carrier IQ’s software of being a rootkit – spyware designed to bypass certain operating system requirements. Eckhart noted that the app never asks permission to record user data, and is well hidden on most phones. On some, he said, the app has even been renamed so as to be undetectable.
The app was initially found on a variety of devices across carriers – Android, Blackberry, and Nokia phones all appear to have the app installed. Initial reports excluded iOS devices in the litany, though information has surfaced this morning that the app is in fact present on iPhones, but in a much tamer form. While in other handsets the software is active and recording at all times, with iPhones it appears only to activate when the phone is placed in diagnostic mode.
Though Carrier IQ seems reluctant to directly reply to requests for comment from the media, they have issued a statement on their website, wherein they claim that the app does not record keystrokes or location information, but rather tracks performance data in order “to assist operators and device manufacturers in delivering high quality products and services to their customers.”
Eckhart’s announcement comes on the heels of Carrier IQ withdrawing its threat of legal action over a post in which he originally called the software a rootkit. Carrier IQ threatened to sue, but withdrew and apologized when the Electronic Frontier Foundation took up Eckhart’s case.
Twitter backlash against the company has been strong. One user pointed out that the level of spying engaged in by Carrier IQ pales in comparison to the scandal caused by Apple’s location data controversy last year.
Grant Paul, a well-known figure in the iPhone jailbreak community, is the one who discovered references to the software in iOS. He posted the news to his Twitter account.
In another curious twist, the Verge is reporting this morning that although the Carrier IQ software is installed on a variety of Android-based devices, it is not present on Google’s own Nexus devices, nor on the first generation Xoom tablet.
Other Twitter users note that at this point, there appear to be fewer phones without Carrier IQ than there are with it.
For years Blackberry was the biggest name in mobile business solutions. Some of the first and best smartphones were Blackberry devices, which were once ubiquitous in the business world. When the iPhone came along in 2007, it did not seem at first to be a serious threat to Blackberry’s mobile enterprise hegemony. The years since have proven otherwise. First the iPhone and then Android-based smart phones have gained an increasing hold over the business world. This, coupled with a string of questionable business decisions, has left Research in Motion, Blackberry’s parent company, staggering as their market share (and stock price) declines steeply.
Nevertheless, Blackberry has retained some advantages over iOS and Android devices in the business world, especially in the eyes of corporate IT departments, who value some of the security and customization features offered by Blackberry devices.
This morning, RIM announced it was developing Blackberry Mobile Fusion. The goal of this software is to allow the same level of security and configuration control over iOS and Android devices as IT departments currently have over Blackberry devices. The software, currently in pre-beta release, scheduled for closed beta in January and release in March, is RIM’s acknowledgement of the fact that iOS and Android devices are extending farther and farther into what was once Blackberry’s playground. As more and more people bring their iPhones or Android phones to work, IT departments are finding it harder and harder to juggle security and configuration solutions. With the announcement of Blackberry Mobile Fusion, RIM effectively cedes the ground lost to iOS and Android while simultaneously attempting to maintain a presence in the business world.
The question remains, however, whether this move signals a broader shift in RIM’s focus from hardware to software solutions, and whether the move will be enough to save the struggling company.
What do you think? Is this move too little, too late to save Blackberry? Let us know in the comments.
Last week, it was announced that AT&T would be holding a Black Friday sale, offering an array of phones for the low, low price of one penny. Of course, there are stipulations involved including a two-year contract and the acceptance of a data plan. Apparently, one cent smartphones are the trend of the day-after-Thanksgiving sales, because Amazon is in on it, too.
For a limited time only, all phones from Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T with a new line of service are on sale for a penny and include standard FREE Two-Day Shipping. Offer valid between midnight PDT November 21, 2011, through 11:59 p.m. PDT November 28, 2011, while supplies last. Plus, if you buy an eligible hotspot-ready smartphone and activate the hotspot feature, you’ll get a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card.
There are a number of Android-powered handsets as well as BlackBerry. However, for those of you wanting to grab a new iPhone 4S during Amazon’s sale, sorry, no Apple devices are included in the one cent blowout. That being said, the DROID RAZR 4G (from Sprint) is available, as is the BlackBerry Torch. The HTC Thunderbolt falls into Amazon’s sale, and there are a few Samsung handsets as well.
Basically, Amazon’s smartphone sale carries just about every phone except the iPhone. If Amazon’s list is comprehensive, there are almost 97 phones featured in during the one cent sale, which, according to Amazon’s disclaimer, is “valid between midnight PDT November 21, 2011, through 11:59 p.m. PDT November 28, 2011, while supplies last.”
Phones purchased during the sale are required to have a two-year contract, which is the same stipulation issued for AT&T’s one cent sale. As for the iDevice family, Apple is also having a Black Friday sale. Unfortunately, there are no one cent iPhones or iPads, although, the tablets are scheduled for an apparent markdown.
BBM Music, the music subscription service that uses BlackBerry Messenger, has moved out of beta and is now officially available for download for everyone in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
If you haven’t heard of BBM Music, here’s how it works:
Once BlackBerry users set up their BBM Music profiles, they are allowed to select 50 songs from a catalog of millions of licensed tracks. Those songs are theirs to listen to, available to be accessed at any time. The way that BBM Music users gain access to more music is through adding friends on the service. If two users are friends on BBM Music, they each have access to the other’s music. Basically, each friend equals up to 50 more songs that users can access anytime. Each user can swap out 25 of their own tracks per month.
According to BlackBerry,
BBM Music is a BBM-connected social music service that allows BBM and BlackBerry smartphone users to discover, play and grow their music collections together. In other words, BBM Music helps you connect with your friends around music on a whole new level.
OK, so if I snatched up 10 friends, I could have a maximum of 550 tracks at my fingertips. If I had 20 friends, 1050. You get the picture. It definitely sounds like an interesting way to share music.
But will users pay $5 a month for the privilege?
The pros to BBM Music are obvious – it’s a new, interesting way to share music that is inherently social. There is a ton of licensed content to choose from. Plus, it utilizes BBM, an app that receives rave reviews inside the BlackBerry community.
The cons are also pretty obvious, however. You only get 50 (75 after swapping) songs of your choice. Sure, you can gain access to hundreds- even thousands of other tracks. But they are songs that other people have chosen. Plus, $5 a month gets you access to a lot more content with other music subscription services like Spotify.
There is a free version of BBM Music that will be offered. But it only plays 30-second clips of each track, rendering it pretty much worthless. Nobody wants to just hear snippets of songs, no matter how fun the sharing of playlists happens to be.
BlackBerry is offering the premium service as a two month free trial, so it’s worth a shot to see how you like it.
For this writer, I feel like it’s a cool concept that simply doesn’t offer enough for $5 a month. What do you think? Could BBM Music be a hit for RIM? Let us know in the comments.
Perhaps the effects of the iPhone 4S won’t be felt until the 2012 estimates are factored in, but if the research offered by Canalys is to be believed, the number one smart phone provider in the United States is HTC. Not only that, but Samsung garnered the title of being the world’s top vendor in relation for these mobile devices.
It should be noted these numbers were taken from the third quarter of 2011, which helps explain the lack of an iPhone 4S push back, which has been selling like hot cakes since it launched earlier this month. The question is, did HTC and Samsung benefit while consumers were waiting for the newest iPhone? It certainly looks that way.
According to the research, Samsung’s appeal was evident:
Samsung shipped 27.3 million smart phones under its own brand to capture a 23% share, becoming the number one vendor in APAC, Western Europe and Latin America, ahead of Nokia, Apple and RIM respectively.
As indicated earlier, these numbers are for the third quarter of 2011. HTC’s third quarter was so strong, it helped push the device maker into the top spot in regards to being the number one smart phone provider in the United States, also for the three month period that made up 2011’s third quarter:
In the United States, the world’s largest smart phone market, HTC shone in Q3 2011, edging out Apple and Samsung to become the leading vendor. HTC shipped 5.7 million smart phones in the US under its own brand, giving it almost a quarter of the market, as well as an estimated 70,000 units under the T-Mobile brand.
As for Apple, Samsung’s strong performance not only granted them the top spot as far as worldwide smart phone distributor, it also put them ahead of Apple in the United States, coming in second behind HTC. All that being said, it wasn’t like Apple struggled as people waited for the new iPhone to hit the stores:
Apple’s US smart phone shipments totaled 4.6 million in the quarter and it was affected around the world by consumers waiting for the launch of the next-generation iPhone.
Considering that the latest Siri-powered iPhone topped four million the first weekend it launched, it’s safe to say Apple’s profile should be a little stronger when Canalys posts their fourth quarter research. Unfortunately, the good news did not bleed over to RIM, the makers of the Blackberry handset.
According to the research, RIM’s market share dropped under 10 percent for the first time ever.
Clearly, it’s an iPhone/Android world and the rest of the providers are just trying to carve themselves a sustainable niche.
Remember that 4 day outage that left BlackBerry owners all over the world without BlackBerry Messenger, email and in some cases, web browsing? Did you think that it was over when RIM apologized and threw free apps at the affected customers?
Those of you that felt that the free apps weren’t enough to assuage some BlackBerry users have been proven correct, as a suit filed in Quebec is seeking class action status on behalf of “all residents in Canada who have a BlackBerry smartphone and who pay for a monthly data plan” but because of the outage, were unable to access their messages and emails.
As a quick refresher, the BlackBerry outage began around October 10th, when reports emerged from parts of Europe, Africa and The Middle East that folks were having trouble with some of their services. In a couple of days, that outage had spread to North America. BBM, email, and web browsing were the three things most affected by the outage.
As services were slowly being restored, co-CEO of RIM Mike Lazaridis took to YouTube and issued a video apology to BlackBerry customers. He said that they had failed on their goal to provide reliable communications and that they had let many people down.
Shortly after that, RIM announced that they would be giving BlackBerry customers free apps in compensation for the outage. The free apps list included things like SIMS 3, Bejewled, and Speech Translator Pro. All in all, over $100 worth of apps have been offered for free.
Many were skeptical that this display would be enough to satisfy disgruntled users – that some would want real monetary compensation for the multiple days that they were unable to use the BlackBerry network. This is exactly what this lawsuit is asking for.
The Respondent has failed to take action to either directly compensate BlackBerry users or to indirectly compensate BlackBerry users by arranging for wireless service providers to refunds their customers and to take full responsibility for these damages
When you think about it, compensation for 4 days of data services being down doesn’t really amount to much money. I guess for some people, it’s the principle of the thing.
Time will tell if more suits like this are filed in other countries. Were you affected by the Blackberry outage? Do you feel like RIM did enough with the free apps and apologies? Let us know in the comments.
RIM finally confirmed the acquisition (though terms weren’t officially disclosed) in a blog post this morning. A message from Alan Brenner, SVP, BlackBerry Platform says:
Today we are pleased to announce that NewBay has joined Research In Motion (RIM). We’re excited that the NewBay team will be bringing their expertise in cloud-based digital content services to the BlackBerry platform.
NewBay’s LifeCache platform helps enable operators and device makers to deliver content across multiple, connected devices such as mobile phones, PCs and tablets.
Today we are delighted to share that NewBay has now become part of Research In Motion (RIM). This is a great opportunity to further expand our digital content cloud services offering. We will continue to enable operators and device makers worldwide to deliver a lifetime of content experiences across all connected devices such as mobiles, PCs, tablets and TVs.
Here’s what NewBay offers (via the company’s site):
The Irish Times, which broke the news earlier this month, reported that RIM would keep NewBay’s software development center in Dublin. The center, the report said, employs about 200 people, and marks RIM’s first presence in Ireland.
Last week BlackBerry users from across the globe experienced outages with their service. Some of the reported problems included: accessing the web, using BlackBerry messenger, roaming in Europe, and even accessing their email. It was later found out that a huge backlog was responsible for the intermittent service.
Sure, the BlackBerry outage inconvenienced tons of people, but could it have saved lives? That’s what the police in the United Arab Emirates are claim. They’re reporting that traffic accidents dropped by a staggering 40% in Abu Dhabi, and 20% in Dubai this past week. Their reasoning: driver’s BlackBerry’s weren’t working so drivers couldn’t text or check email forcing them to concentrate on driving.
Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the chief of Dubai Police, and Brig Gen Hussein Al Harethi, the director of the Abu Dhabi Police traffic department, both told The National newspaper:
“Absolutely nothing has happened in the past week in terms of killings on the road and we’re really glad about that … People are slowly starting to realise the dangers of using their phone while driving. The roads became much safer when BlackBerry stopped working.”
It’s likely that the BlackBerry outage did cause some drivers to concentrate solely on driving, but their might be another explanation to those stats, as Naked Security points out.
In late September a talented UAE soccer player by the name of Theyab Awana, died in a car accident when he crashed into a stationary lorry on the Eastern Road near Sheikh Zayed Bridge. Awana’s own father, Awana Ahmad Al Mosabi, said that his son was sending messages on his BlackBerry the time of the accident. Mosabi issued a statement asking drivers to be careful and not use electronic devices while driving:
“There were no skid marks on the road, and Theyab’s friend who was driving behind him said he didn’t see Theyab brake before crashing into the lorry,” Mr Al Mosabi said. “We are not certain that he was using his BlackBerry, but that’s what everything indicates. Too many people are texting while driving, so I ask all drivers not to use their mobile phones or other electronics while driving.”
It goes without saying that texting, emailing, or doing anything with your phone while driving is incredibly dangerous… so don’t do it. What happened to common sense?
What are your thoughts? Do you think the BlackBerry outage played a part in the reduction of traffic accidents? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Last week, Blackberry suffered service outages that affected millions of users all across the globe. Unsurprisingly, people found this to be anywhere from a minor to a significant annoyance – as functionality was affected in different ways for different people.
Most saw some sort of outage in web browsing, email or BlackBerry messenger.
Now, those affected BlackBerry users learn what RIM plans to give them for their troubles: Free apps.
A selection of premium apps will become free on the BlackBerry App World in the upcoming weeks, and they will remain free for the rest of 2011. Here’s the current list of apps that will be free to all users:
SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
Speech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
Nobex Radio™ Premium – Nobex
Shazam Encore – Shazam
Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo
According to RIM, there are more apps to come. When it’s all said and done, there will be over $100 worth of free apps available to users.
RIM’s enterprise customers will also be receiving on month of free enhanced tech support.
“We are grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers for their patience,” said Lazaridis. “We have apologized to our customers and we will work tirelessly to restore their confidence. We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again.”
Will a handful of free apps be enough to fix the damage that has been caused by the outage? There’s no doubt that some users will be disappointed, and would prefer some sort of monetary reimbursement.
The backlash on social media channels has been pretty severe. Plus, it was a bad week for BlackBerry to crap out – with Apple releasing iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S.
Are you a BlackBerry user? Is this apology package enough to make up for the trouble last week’s outage caused? Let us know in the comments.
BlackBerry users all around the world have had problems browsing the web and using BlackBerry Messenger for the past few days. Users also reported issues with their email services, and yesterday it was revealed that a huge backlog was responsible for the intermittent service.
For the U.S., RIM says that email services are up and running and they are working to clear any remaining jam in order to get it going at full speed. As far as everyone else goes, RIM says that “BlackBerry services are operating well globally.”
On Twitter, some people continue to complain about problems accessing certain functions of their BlackBerry devices, but at least it seems like things are on the mend.
Founder and co-CEO of RIM Mike Lazardis has issued a video apology to BlackBerry customers, posted on the BB YouTube channel.
“Since launching BlackBerry in 1999, it’s been my goal to provide reliable, real-time communications around the world. We did not deliver on that goal this week – not even close. I apologize for the service outages this week – we’ve let many of you down,” he says.
He says they are working hard to “stabilize the system” and that they have seen “steady improvements.”
As you can see, he predicts some “instabilities” as things return to normal.
What do you think about this apology? Is it enough? It sure was a pretty bad time for BlackBerry services to crap out in you’re RIM. While millions of users are taking to the web to vent their frustrations and complain about how their BlackBerrys won’t do anything they need them to do, you have Apple launching iOS 5 and their brand new iPhone 4S Friday morning.
How have you been affected by the BlackBerry outage? Let us know in the comments.
A disruption that has been going on for three days now has spread from Europe and the Middle East to North America today, as users are experiencing problems with many BlackBerry services.
On Monday, European, Middle Eastern and African users began to experience spotty functionality of email, internet browsing and BlackBerry messaging services. It appears that those problems have jumped the pond.
Last night, RIM gave this explanation to users –
The messaging and browsing delays that some of you are still experiencing were caused by a core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure. Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to many of you and we will continue to keep you informed.
And today they acknowledge that BlackBerry users in the Americas are now feeling the outage –
BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas may be experiencing intermittent service delays this morning. We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. We will provide a further update as soon as more information is available.
BlackBerry users are taking to Twitter to express their frustrations, and “Dear BlackBerry” is a trending topic in the States –
@Evil_Dumbledore Dumble-fucking-dory Dear Blackberry, I think it’s nice that you’re honouring Steve Jobs’ death with a 3 day silence2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
@LoveLeishman Tom LeishmanDear Blackberry I honestly feel a calculator would do more than my blackberry, sorry brokeberry.. right now.1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto
@AllThingsSel fahimaaa.Dear BlackBerry, I was actually going to upgrade you, but after the past 3 days i’m seriously considering buying an iPhone. Sincerely, me.3 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
RIM is telling users on Twitter that this is their #1 priority –
Is your BlackBerry experiencing issues? Has this outage made you think a little harder about that big iPhone 4S release on Friday? Let us know in the comments.
BlackBerry users throughout Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa have been experiencing problems with their service since early this morning.
It looks like the problems that people are having involve accessing the web, BlackBerry messenger and roaming in Europe. Some users are also reporting the inability to access their email. Apparently, all of these users are tied to one data center maintained by Research in Motion, or RIM – the folks behind the Blackberry devices.
Some of the carriers in the areas are blaming RIM for the outage –
@BlackBerryHelp Research In MotionWe apologize to any of our customers in Europe, Middle East & Africa still experiencing issues. We’ll bring you an update as soon as we can.2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
Blackberry users have taken to Twitter to voice their frustrations –
@theMillStudios Tim B.I see Slough has put itself back on the map today with chronic server failure killing 1/2 of the planets Blackberry services2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto
It appears that services are slowly reappearing for some users –
The majority of tweets rolling in are about the service still being down. Have you been affected? Are you seeing your BBM and other services returning to normal? Let us know in the comments.
According to reports, Research in Motion, which makes BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, has acquired Irish software firm NewBay for $100 million.
The Irish Times reports that NewBay staff were informed about the deal yesterday, and that “It is understood that RIM intends to keep NewBay’s software development centre in Dublin, which employs about 200 staff. It will be the first facility for the Canadian firm in Ireland.”
Here’s a quick look at some of the products NewBay offers (via the company site):
NewBay calls itself a “leader in digital content services, enabling operators and device makers to deliver a lifetime of content experiences across connected devices such as mobile, PCs, tablets and TVs.”
In other words, it sounds like a sensible acquisition for RIM as it struggles to compete with Apple and Google.
Bloomberg is reporting that RIM intends to enable future models of its BlackBerry devices to run Android apps, and that such devices would be introduced in early 2012.
The report, citing “people familiar with the plan” says this is designed a way for RIM to boost sales and that it would apply to devices than run on RIM’s QNX software.
The Android Market consists of 250,000 apps, as well as the recently announced movie rentals. This should be huge for the Android ecosystem and Google’s operating system in general, particularly now that the iPhone is said to be coming to another major U.S. carrier in Sprint.
Google launched a preview of the new Google TV add-on for the Android SDK this week, enabling developers to create and optimize their Android apps for TVs, which could greatly help the popularity of Google TV (along with some additional efforts in getting the TV studios on board) and also help Android itself that much more – placing into more living rooms.
RIM devices are expected to go to the QNX platform early next year, and those running Blackberry 7 will not be able to upgrade to the new OS, which the Blackberry Playbook tablet runs.
David Cameron’s country–well, his boss’ country–has been in the grips of some widely-publicized rioting. The story played out over the Internet as the immediacy of modern technology brought us reams of startling images and additional information concerning the chaos. Another area of focus were the rioters themselves, especially the use of social media to organize their attacks.
The Blackberry issue was well documented, as many rioters used Blackberry Messenger to coordinate. Once RIM offered to help the London authorities, the company blog was hacked for their efforts. Twitter and Facebook didn’t escape riot use, either.
And now, the backlash from the British Government begins:
What we have is British Prime Minister David Cameron essentially proposing the idea of allowing the police to censor these kinds of communication technologies. The methods of how are not discussed–that will be up to the geeks to figure out–but it’s clear, the London riots will have some long-felt repercussions.
Maybe even the censorship of social media. Mr. Cameron’s exact words:
Free flow of information can be used for good, but it can be also used for ill. So, we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at rather it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.
The bold portion is important aspect. Is it right for the government, British or otherwise, to essentially eavesdrop on social media-powered conversations, with orders to shut them down if they “are plotting violence, disorder and criminality?”
Does that overstep privacy boundaries or is it a necessary step in order to combat the occasional social unrest? Whatever the conclusion, the British Parliament needs to hurry with their decision because the disorder has spread to Manchester:
Frivolity aside, how much power is too much? How would the British government decide which technologies to limit? What type of Blackberry Messenger conversation would cross the line and how would the watchers know if it did? Or is this a case of reacting to future reports that potential civil unrest targets are using Facebook to coordinate, therefore, the British government such off access to these miscreants?
