Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
ie8 fix

BlackBerry

Judge holds himself in contempt for his cell phone

Michigan Judge Raymond Voet doesn't like phones interrupting court proceedings. It's fair enough; court is very serious business, and the last thing you need is someone's wacky ringtone right at the moment of sentencing. Voet, therefore, decided that offenders are liable to be held in contempt and fined, a policy that's stated in a clear sign hanging in Voet's courtroom.

So when, in the middle of court, his own phone started asking him to give it voice commands, he had no choice but to hold himself accountable.

"The prosecutor was in the middle of his closing arguments," Voet, an Ionia County 64-A District Court judge, told ABC News. "He lost his train of thought and looked at me. I felt my face starting to burn red." Voet turned off his phone and allowed the prosecutor to continue. During a break in proceedings, however, he fined himself the $25. … Read more

BlackBerry to ask for probe into report on Z10 returns

BlackBerry plans to ask U.S. and Canadian regulators to probe a report about high return rates for the company's flagship Z10 smartphone, calling the comments "false and misleading."

The Canadian company said that within the next several days, it will formally ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission to review a report from research and investment firm Detwiler Fenton that claims there have been "unusually high" return rates for the recently released device.

BlackBerry Chief Legal Officer Steve Zipperstein said in a statement:

These materially false and misleading … Read more

Alleged image of BlackBerry QWERTY phone leaks online

BlackBerry watchers may have just gotten a peek at the upcoming BB10 R-Series QWERTY smartphone.

A purported image of the R-series phone popped up yesterday in the BlackBerryOS forums. The image doesn't show much other than the familiar BlackBerry QWERY keyboard and screen. But further details about the new phone may have been revealed by blog site BlackBerry Empire.

An alleged sketch of the R-Series phone shows slots for a Micro SIM card and an SD card on the left side. The Micro SIM slot is a new feature for BlackBerry phones and is likely geared for travelers who … Read more

BlackBerry Z10 gets updated Facebook, Twitter apps

Buyers of the new BlackBerry Z10 phone will find updated versions of both its Facebook and Twitter apps.

As detailed in a BlackBerry blog yesterday, Facebook 10.0.1 offers the following features:

Friends Nearby: You can now find out if your Facebook friends are in the area by seeing if they've checked into a nearby location. Photo Updates: You can now tag any photo that you've uploaded into Facebook and save photos from Facebook onto your BlackBerry phone. Events: You can now view and respond to events and invite your friends to those events. You can also … Read more

BlackBerry's off to a nice start. So now what?

Don't hang up the banners and throw the ticker-tape parade for BlackBerry yet.

BlackBerry's fiscal fourth-quarter report brought a bevy of good news. The company surprisingly returned to profitability; it shipped 1 million Z10 smartphones, the majority of which were snapped up by consumers; and it appears as if it it's taking share from competing platforms.

It's a strong start for BlackBerry. But by no means can the company declare "Mission Accomplished" on its comeback. Indeed, there are a lot of unanswered questions that won't get answered until another several months of results … Read more

BlackBerry co-founder Lazaridis to retire May 1

BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis, who left the co-CEO role just over a year ago, will retire from his current position on the board effective May 1.

After hastily giving up the co-CEO position amid shareholder pressure, Lazardis has served as vice chair and a director of BlackBerry. Last week, he launched a $100 million fund, Quantum Valley Investments, to work on commercial applications for breakthroughs in quantum science.

"With the launch of BlackBerry 10, I believe I have fulfilled my commitment to the board," Lazaridis said today in a press release. "Thorsten and his team did an … Read more

BlackBerry swings to profit, sells 1M Z10 smartphones

BlackBerry swung to a surprising profit in the fiscal fourth quarter amid early signs of progress with its BlackBerry Z10 flagship phone.

For the three months that ended on March 2, the Canadian smartphone manufacturer reported a profit of $98 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $125 million, or 24 cents a share. Excluding items such as its cost-savings program, the company reported an adjusted EPS of 22 cents. Sales, however, fell by 36 percent to $2.68 billion.

More importantly, BlackBerry said it sold 1 million units of the Z10 in the period. … Read more

T-Mobile undercuts Apple with iPhone prices

T-Mobile's new service plans mark a huge change for wireless carriers. In addition to ditching contracts, the nation's fourth largest wireless provider also has dropped handset subsidies completely. So now, when you buy a new phone from T-Mobile, you'll pay much more for your device than you did when you signed two years of your life away. You have the option of paying the full cost at the time of purchase, or paying a deposit with monthly installments, but the phone's price is the same either way. And, of course, you won't be tied to … Read more

Testing T-Mobile's 4G LTE

T-Mobile just took a bold, new step by shredding the contracts for its plans plus launching its new 4G LTE data network. But what kind of speeds can you really expect to see on the carrier's hot, new devices? Judging from what I observed at T-Mobile's splashy press event in New York, apparently quite a bit. … Read more