outage

Anyone who has had to endure "Sex and the City 2" will know that Abu Dhabi is, at least on film, a cheerily idiosyncratic place.

How can one not be overjoyed, therefore, to hear that the locals found a delightfully positive aspect to the recent outage that blanked their BlackBerrys for what seemed like months (in money-making terms, at least)?

The South Atlantic News Agency reports that the outage allowed drivers to concentrate on other things. The road, for example. Other cars, too. And, well other people.

The South Atlantic quoted Brigadier Gen Al Harethi, the director of … Read more

Research in Motion co-CEO Mike Lazaridis unveiled a new name for its next-generation operating system, BBX, as he made the case for developers to stick with BlackBerry.

BBX combines the best qualities of RIM's older BlackBerry operating system and its QNX platform, which powers the PlayBook tablet, Lazaridis said during the company's developer conference today.

RIM intends to use its BlackBerry DevCon conference to inject some life into its developer support, which is crucial to keeping its mobile ambitions alive. Lazaridis, in a number of demonstrations, promised an easier process for developers, more profits, and the ability to … Read more

commentary Research in Motion, is that really all you've got?

After a critical outage that left some BlackBerry users without e-mail for as many as three days, RIM is offering customers $100 worth of premium apps for free. Enterprise customers also get a month's worth of technical support.

The problem is, the BlackBerry faithful stick with you for primarily one reason: your excellent e-mail service. If they wanted games, media apps and other whiz-bang features, they would have fled to an iPhone or Android smartphone already. You lose your e-mail, even for one day, and you lose your … Read more

When a guy messes up in a relationship, he might resort to flowers and a necklace to get back into good graces. Research In Motion announced today that it's offering a big bouquet of free apps to its upset customers after several days of widespread network outages and slow service.

The $100 selection of premium apps includes Sims 3, Bejeweled, Texas Hold'em Poker 2, and Shazam Encore. Enterprise customers get a month of free tech support as well.… Read more

Research In Motion is turning to its BlackBerry App World to try to make things right with customers who were affected by last week's BlackBerry service outage.

According to the company, BlackBerry owners will soon be able to download over $100 in free "premium" applications, which will be available through the end of the year. The applications include Sims 3, iSpeech Translator Pro, and Shazam Encore, among others. Enterprise users will also be given one month of free technical support from RIM.

In a statement, RIM said that the free apps are a token of its appreciation for customer patience.

"We are grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers for their patience," RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in a statement today. "We have apologized to our customers and we will work tirelessly to restore their confidence. We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again."… Read more

New Facebook interaction added to eBay, Siri has some quirky answers, and BlackBerry service is restored, but will there be compensation for down time?

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Research In Motion's BlackBerry service, which had been out since Monday in some parts of the world, has been fully restored, executives at the company said Thursday morning.

Co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie informed investors and reporters on a conference call that the service to all BlackBerry customers in all regions of the world had been restored as of the wee hours of Thursday morning.

Lazaridis explained in slightly more detail what caused the problem. And he once again apologized to customers. Earlier on Thursday the company released a taped video apology from Lazaridis.

"Our inability to … Read more

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

Research In Motion's recent network troubles could be a boon for Apple and Google as frustrated BlackBerry customers consider alternative smartphones.

The worldwide BlackBerry outage that has plagued Research In Motion this week has left millions of subscribers in dozens of countries without access to e-mail and other messaging services for days. And the outage, which is likely one of the biggest in RIM's history, could tempt some of the BlackBerry faithful to ditch their "crackberries" for competing products form Apple and Google.

Angry customers have already taken to social networking sites such as Twitter to vent their frustration. And more than a few have said they're ready to give up on the BlackBerry.

@Gemified Day 3 of #BlackberryOutage. I'm wondering if they have any customers left willing to get a Blackberry again. Dear Blackberry - SORT IT OUT!

@Lkhall buy an iPhone! "@ariannahuff: I'm traveling with AT&T BB, TMobile BB and Verizon BB. What else can a girl do? #blackberryoutage"

@SharonDuceyJam Thank you blackberry for giving yet another reason to shop for a new smart phone. #blackberryoutage

It's hard to say whether customers such as these will actually follow through on their threats to leave the BlackBerry, which is still very popular among corporate customers, government agencies, and other business customers.… Read more