BlackBerry

BlackBerry’s CEO made the stunning revelation that he’d accept a $19 billion (read: the price paid for WhatsApp by Facebook) offer for BBM, the messaging service that makes up one small part of the Waterloo-based company with a market cap of $5.17 billion he currently runs. Chen dropped the bomb at MWC in an interview Continue Reading →

Ford Motor Co., struggling with in-car technology flaws, will base the next-generation Sync system on BlackBerry’s QNX and no longer use Microsoft’s Windows, according to people briefed on the matter. Using QNX will be less expensive than licensing Microsoft technology and will improve the flexibility and speed of the next Sync system, the people, who Continue Reading →

BlackBerry users on T-Mobile who want to upgrade will now receive $250 towards any BlackBerry phone, or $200 toward any other manufacturer’s phone in T-Mobile stores. The deal was introduced after a recent furor between BlackBerry and T-Mobile in which the carrier sent out an email to its BlackBerry-using customers that urged them to upgrade Continue Reading →

Japanese internet powerhouse Rakuten announced that it acquired Viber for $900 million. Viber has 300 million registered users and is known for its strength in Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia. The acquisition will no doubt reignite speculation about other mid-tier messaging apps. Behind the powerhouses like WhatsApp and LINE there is a Continue Reading →

As if having a 0.6% market share wasn’t bad enough, BlackBerry is going to have to face yet another challenge in 2014. The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung has just received an order for 7,000 smartphones from the United States Army, and has nearly completed another order that will send thousands more sent to Continue Reading →

BlackBerry on Friday announced it has filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California against Typo, the maker of an iPhone keyboard case designed to slip onto Apple’s phones. The Canadian company argues the accessory violates its intellectual property rights, which it will protect from copying and infringement. “This is a blatant infringement against Continue Reading →

Remember how excited you were for BBM to hit Android and iOS and then BlackBerry continued to fake us all out with imminent releases? Thankfully, that’s now all in the past and BBM is a reality for those of us not on BB10 devices, but still its feature set leaves something to be desired. The Continue Reading →

Time and cruelty have a wicked relationship. I fancy they sit in a bar together most nights and look back to see what they both have wrought. That’s why tonight they might be having a beer, a giggle, and dance at news that has just emerged about the company formerly known as RIM. Bloomberg Businessweek Continue Reading →

The troubled mobile phone maker BlackBerry still has at least one very loyal customer: U.S. President Barack Obama. At a meeting with youth on Wednesday to promote his landmark healthcare law, Obama said he is not allowed to have Apple’s smart phone, the iPhone, for “security reasons,” though he still uses Apple’s tablet computer, the Continue Reading →

BBM Channels, a new part of BlackBerry’s popular cross-platform mobile messaging app BBM, will be available on Tuesday on any handset running BlackBerry OS 5 and above. The struggling smartphone maker is calling the release an open beta – it’s not quite ready for an official release, it would seem – and will be added Continue Reading →