IT'S WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2010. I'M JEFF BAKALAR, AND IT'S TIME TO GET LOADED.
AS EXPECTED, RESEARCH IN MOTION LAUNCHED A NEW BLACKBERRY PHONE YESTERDAY: THE BLACKBERRY TORCH. THE NEW PHONE HAS A SLIDEOUT KEYBOARD, 5-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA, AND A TOUCH SCREEN. THE PHONE COMES PRE-LOADED WITH OS 6, AND WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM AT&T WITH A TWO YEAR CONTRACT FOR $199. EXPECT IT TO HIT OTHER CARRIERS IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
SPEAKING OF BLACKBERRY OS 6, THE NEW SOFTWARE CONTAINS MANY IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE PREVIOUS VERSION, INCLUDING A NEW TOUCH-CAPABLE INTERFACE. ALSO IN THE SOFTWARE IS A BRAND NEW BROWSER BASED ON THE WEB-KIT RENDERING ENGINE--IN FACT THE NEW PHONE IS NAMED AFTER TORCH MOBILE, THE COMPANY THAT RIM ACQUIRED TO USE FOR THEIR MOBILE BROWSER. ALSO NEW IN OS 6, IS WIRELESS MEDIA SYNC, A NEW MUSIC PLAYER AND MUCH MORE. THE NEW OS WILL ALSO ARRIVE ON OLDER BLACKBERRY PHONES INCLUDING THE BOLD 9650, THE BOLD 9700 AND THE PEARL 3G.
TWO PLACES THAT WON'T BE GETTING THE NEW BLACKBERRY ARE SAUDIA ARABIA AND THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. THE COUNTRIES HAVE ORDERED THAT CELL PHONE SERVICE PROVIDERS THERE STOP SUPPORTING BLACKBERRY PHONES BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENTS CANNOT MONITOR ENCRYPTED BLACKBERRY DATA. THE U.A.E. HAS SAID THAT BLACKBERRIES ARE A NATIONAL SECURITY RISK BECAUSE TERRORISTS MAY BE ABLE TO USE THEM TO PLAN ATTACKS. RIM SAYS THAT THE E-MAIL AND DATA ON ITS BLACKBERRY ENTERPRISE SERVERS IS ENCRYPTED AND EVEN RIM CANNOT EVEN ACCESS THAT INFORMATION.
GOOGLE HAS FINALLY ROLLED OUT MULTIPLE LOG-INS. THIS MEANS YOU CAN NOW LOG IN TO GOOGLE SERVICES WITH MORE THAN ONE USER NAME--USEFUL IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE GMAIL ADDRESS. THE NEW FEATURE HAS TO BE ENABLED IN YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT SETTINGS, AND WILL ONLY WORK WITH GMAIL, CALENDER, GOOGLE SITES, READER, VOICE, APP ENGINE AND GOOGLE CODE.
THE TOO-EASY-TO-USE WEBSITE JAILBREAKME.COM FOR THE IPHONE IS RAISING SOME SECURITY EYEBROWS. RESEARCHERS HAVE UNCOVERED THAT THE JAILBREAK ACTUALLY EXPLOITS A PDF-VIEWER RELATED BUG TO RUN "ROOT-LEVEL" CODE ON THE I-PHONE OUTSIDE THE SANDBOX. ANALYST ARE SAYING THAT THIS EXPLOIT IS PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE BECAUSE IT RELIES ON THE SAFARI BROWSER TO EXECUTE AND WEBSITES COULD POTENTIALLY USE IT RUN NEFARIOUS CODE.
FACEBOOK HAS FINALLY UPDATED THE FACEBOOK APP FOR ANDROID PHONES. WHILE IT IS STILL NOT FEATURE FOR FEATURE ON PAR WITH THE I-PHONE, THE NEW UPDATE IS DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT. THE NEW APP NOW SUPPORTS NOTIFICATIONS, EVENTS, "LIKING POSTS," H.264 VIDEOS, BUT NO FACEBOOK CHAT YET.
THOSE ARE YOUR HEADLINES FOR TODAY. I'M JEFF BAKALAR FOR CNET.COM, AND YOU'VE JUST BEEN LOADED.
