BlackBerry blues

Don't you hate it when news infringes on your ability to conduct your business? A judge has ruled that the folks who make the BlackBerry--RIM is the company name--may have to pay hundreds of millions in damages for patent infringement or shut down their e-mail service.

I'm not sure if this means you should be looking at a Treo, and one with Windows rather than with the BlackBerry operating system. Here's the Forbes analysis: "It remains likely that RIM will weather the case, pay off whatever it has to, and keep its service up and running without interruption." Still, the shares are down more than 5 percent as of about 5 p.m. ET.