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Finding flaws in the iPhone 5

Monday's CNET Update is a bit scratchy:

Apple sold more than 5 million iPhone 5 units as of the first weekend. That's a million more than the launch of the iPhone 4S. But looks like Apple could have sold many more if there was enough supply. Several retail stores in major cities had only 8 or 10, according to reports, and didn't get enough to fulfill preorders.

When you have millions of people around the world racing to be the first to have one, there are high standards. So there's been quite a bit of press … Read more

RIM pushes BlackBerry 10 into the spotlight at BlackBerry Jam

Research In Motion and its next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system will get another chance to prove their worth at the company's annual developer conference, kicking off Tuesday in San Jose, Calif.

In a move that will surely disappoint analysts, shareholders, and the RIM faithful, we don't expect the company to show off any new devices at BlackBerry Jam Americas (known last year as BlackBerry Developer Conference,) but they will want to provide more details about the OS, hoping loyal and new developers recommit to BlackBerry over iOS and Android. In addition to selling developers on the brand new … Read more

RIM fixes BlackBerry outage that hit Europe, Middle East, Africa

RIM's BlackBerry e-mail service was offline earlier today for users across the Europe, Middle East, Africa. But service has since been restored, according to the company.

Research In Motion confirmed the outage in a tweet earlier today and said that services should now be up and running again.

A spokesman for RIM sent CNET the following statement from CEO and president Thorsten Heins:

I want to apologize to those BlackBerry customers in Europe and Africa who experienced an impact in their quality of service earlier this morning. The BlackBerry service is now fully restored and I can report that … Read more

Microsoft, RIM ink patent deal on storage tech

Microsoft and Research In Motion today said they have signed a patent licensing agreement that gives RIM access to Microsoft file system technology.

That technology is called Extended File Allocation Table -- or "exFAT" for short -- and Microsoft says it optimizes files for use on flash storage, which is overwhelmingly the storage of choice on smartphones and tablets.

"Today's smartphones and tablets require the capacity to display richer images and data than traditional cellular phones," David Kaefer, the general manager of intellectual property licensing at Microsoft said in a statement. "This agreement with … Read more

Apple, RIM get green light to intervene in Kodak appeal

Apple and Research In Motion can now intervene in Kodak's efforts to reinstate its patent case against the two tech giants, which was tossed by the U.S. International Trade Commission earlier this year.

In a court order (pdf) posted last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., said both Apple and RIM could intervene in the case, in which Kodak accused the two companies of infringing on its patents.

The decision means both companies can participate in Kodak's appeal and defend the products accused of infringement.

Kodak originally filed … Read more

Yahoo's free phone offer snubs RIM's BlackBerry

Research In Motion is getting no respect from Marissa Mayer.

Yahoo's new CEO informed employees yesterday that they would be getting the new smartphone of their choice from Apple, Samsung, Nokia, or HTC. Through the program, Yahoos will have access to the industry's newest and hottest phones, including the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC Evo 4G LTE, and Nokia Lumia 920.

In addition to purchasing the phones, Yahoo will also pay employees' voice and data bills.

But what they won't pay for is a BlackBerry. Once the de rigueur instrument of business communications, RIM's smartphone … Read more

BlackBerry sinks to zero sales in 'a meaningful number' of stores

Research In Motion has several things to worry about. But who knew shelf space was one of them?

Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette told All Things Digital in an interview published today that his retail checks indicate "BlackBerry sales were largely unchanged in August versus July; however, we detected meaningfully lower inventory levels versus a month ago." Translation? Carriers are content with fewer BlackBerrys, since they might not sell many of them.

In fact, Faucette said that he found "a meaningful number of carrier retail locations which had not sold a single BlackBerry in over a month.&… Read more

Apple outshines Samsung on mobile ad network

Apple continues to be the industry's top device maker, at least in the number of ad impressions recorded by Millennial Media for its September Mobile Mix report.

For the second quarter of 2012, Apple took home a leading 31 percent of all ad impressions (the number of times an ad is displayed). The iPhone retained its top spot among the top 20 handsets, accounting for almost 16 percent of all impressions.

Samsung captured 22 percent of all impressions to win second place among the top 15 phone makers. The company saw eight of its phones on the top 20 … Read more

RIM: BlackBerry 10 to have biggest app-etite at launch

RIM may be months away from its first BlackBerry 10 OS offering, but the ailing BlackBerry-maker wants you to know that it's committed to a thriving app market at launch.

In fact, Alec Saunders, RIM's vice president of developer relations and ecosystem development, told CNET that RIM intends to launch its OS with more apps than any other first-generation operating system.

The pressure on Saunders and team to perform explains why RIM has been hitting app creators hard since May hosting BlackBerry Jam developer sessions around the world, including two here in the San Francisco Bay Area.… Read more