BlackBerry

RIM blew a chance to re-energize developers and BlackBerry consumers by announcing new smartphones and tablets at its annual BlackBerry Developers Conference today in San Francisco.

RIM's founder, president, and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis proudly unveiled BBX--the next-generation marriage of its QNX-plus-BlackBerry OS operating system for future devices--but failed to connect vague descriptions of the forthcoming platform with real-life devices.

There was a smattering of demos, some technical details, and a lot of hot air when it came to describing the benefits of BBX, but none of the concrete details, like release dates or a glimpse of a tangible … Read more

Struggling BlackBerry maker RIM knows it has to change if it's to hold the interest of developers--and that means making the new operating system, BBX, a friendlier place for Android developers to play.

That's the subtext at the BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco today, which played out in live demos of Android games that have been ported over to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The real message, however, is evident in the new PlayBook OS 2.0 beta software for developers.

RIM stressed in a press release that the PlayBook 2.0 beta includes the BlackBerry Runtime for … Read more

One of iOS 5's most anticipated features is iMessage, an Apple instant-messaging service that can be used only among iOS devices. This is essentially Apple's answer to BlackBerry Messenger, RIM's own internal messaging system. The idea behind both messaging services is that they don't cost anything extra and won't deduct from your text messaging plan.

The catch, of course, is that both exist only in either the iOS or the BlackBerry ecosystem. Here, we take the opportunity to compare both messaging services. … Read more

Research In Motion's BlackBerry service outages have prompted the company's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis to issue a video apology to customers.

"Since launching BlackBerry in 1999, it's been my goal to provide reliable real-time communications around the world," Lazaridis said in a video posted on his company's Web site today. "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."

The trouble for RIM started earlier this week when the company's e-mail, messaging, and Web service … Read more

RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie unveiled BlackBerry Tag today at the GITEX conference in Dubai. BlackBerry Tag is an NFC-based app that will let BlackBerry customers share information simply by tapping their BlackBerrys together. You can also add friends directly to your BBM list this way.

This sounds a lot like Bump, an iOS and Android app that transfers information in a similar way. However, Bump uses your phone's sensors and a cloud-based algorithm for the connection, while BlackBerry Tag utilizes NFC, the proximity-based technology introduced with BlackBerry OS 7. Not many BlackBerry phones are equipped with NFC, however. They … Read more

Could billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn be the answer to Research In Motion's woes?

Wall Street apparently thinks so, as RIM's stock rose nearly 7 percent today on speculation that Icahn may have taken a stake in the company, BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis, citing traders, told Reuters today.

"We believe that, if true, this would be viewed positively, as it could lead to changes in the company to potentially unlock value," said James Moorman, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor's.

Icahn has a track record of taking major stakes and agitating for change … Read more

Let the BlackBerry PlayBook sale begin.

Best Buy's Canadian Web site and Staples were the first retailers to offer steep discounts on Research In Motion's PlayBook tablet. Staples is selling the low-end 16-gigabyte model for $299.99 after a $100 discount and another $100 mail-in rebate. Best Buy, meanwhile, is selling the same model for $399.99, but throwing in a $100 store gift card.

The discounts were first identified by BGR, which also reported that Wal-Mart is offering the tablet for $250 in an unadvertised sale.

The new prices mark RIM's and the retailers' latest effort … Read more

Verizon Wireless doesn't like to use the word "throttle" when describing how it will restrict heavy data users, but it has no problem with the word "choke." And as Jessica tells us, that's exactly what the carrier is starting to do for the "most active five percent of its 3G data customers." No, it's not very convenient, but at least the carrier is trying to be polite about it.

Elsewhere in the podcast, we tackle a new female-oriented phone from HTC that may have Rhyme, though it's without any real … Read more

Say your goodbyes to the quirky Kyocera Echo; even illusionist David Blaine can't save it now.

According to an image of an internal document obtained by Sprint Feed, the Android smartphone with its dual touch screens and "pivot hinge" will reach the end of its short life at Sprint in early October.

We will say one thing for it, it was a unique device. Introduced in New York in February with magician Blaine as the night's buzzworthy entertainment, the Echo's two 3.5-inch WVGA touch screens open up to form a larger 4.7-inch display … Read more