BlackBerry

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

T-Mobile took the covers off its latest BlackBerry today, and it's the BlackBerry Curve 9360. The Curve 9360 is one of the trio of new Curves RIM has announced recently. It's the entry-level BlackBerry brand, but it does ship with a number of new features. They include BlackBerry OS 7, better graphics, and the new WebKit browser that supports HTML 5 video.

Of course, it has the usual BlackBerry Curve form factor with a 2.4-inch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and an optical touch pad for navigation. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera with a flash, Wi-Fi, … Read more

Talk about bad timing for Research In Motion.

On the heels of another disappointing quarterly report, RIM is suffering from an outage that has hit its e-mail and BlackBerry Messenger services today. BlackBerry customers took to Twitter to voice their complaints. The company later acknowledged problems.

"Some Canada & LatAm customers report BBM issues. Our support teams are investigating. We apologize for any inconvenience," the company said in a tweet.

A RIM representative wasn't immediately available to provide further details on the extent of the problem to CNET.

The outage appears to be more widespread. The Huffington Post reported seeing tweets complaining about service in the U.K. and the Middle East. … Read more

Research In Motion will have to learn from the mistakes of the PlayBook tablet if it wants to see any success with its next generation of BlackBerry smartphones.

With disappointing sales and plunging profits, how could the company not feel the urgency to rush out a phone using slick its new QNX software? But that would be a bad idea. As the PlayBook has shown, rushing out a product only leads to more criticism and a poor reception.

"They got to get it right with QNX," said Mike Walkley, an analyst for Canaccord Genuity. "They're better … Read more