New phones rumoured as BlackBerry cans BB10 production Federal government staff in Washington DC have their own private underground metro system but they might not be getting any more BlackBerrys. A recently uncovered memo appears to tell United States Senate staff they’ll no longer be equipped with the once ubiquitous BlackBerry phones because they are to be discontinued. The …
This post has been deleted by its author
The security of Blackberry devices always was just an illusion, just like the security of any other mobile device on the market today.
Blackberry delivers user data to governmental departments all over the world:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Blackberry-liefert-User-Daten-an-Behoerden-in-aller-Welt-3235507.html
How BlackBerry helped to uncover 2 mafia cells:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Wie-BlackBerry-half-zwei-Mafia-Zellen-aufzudecken-3175296.html
And so on. However BlackBerry could have a chance as a manufacturer of Android devices with a keyboard if they allow alternative firmware images.
F**k you Mike Lazaridis.
F**k you Thorsten Heins.
F**k you Michael Chen.
Just f**k the lot of you.
All of the above, barring Lazaridis who was too slow in adapting the company, let BlackBerry rot. And now here we are, the Sega of mobile phones whoring their brand out to anyone.
It's a properly sad day, and an absolutely shit day for BlackBerry fans like me, but most importantly those whos jobs depend on BlackBerry.
Wolfietone - some might disagree. The absolutely shit day could have happened a while ago. It could have been when they decided to drop desktop synch for tasks and notes (or anything really; BB link for Mac still doesn't work and I guess it never will). It could have been when they brought out a device with no replaceable battery. It could have been the day they allowed Android apps on the phone with no ability to restrict access to private information. It could be today.
I switch to my Classic whenever I'm going on holiday - i.e. I need something a bit more rugged than an iPhone and I don't really care if it breaks or gets lost or stolen. I won't need any apps for work (ToDo, Notes, bank accounts, expenses, timesheet, etc. which are all missing from BB ) and I won't be using it much so it doesn't matter that in normal use I only get 7 hours of battery life.
I've calmed down a bit since writing my original post. My first proper phone was a BlackBerry, and I still use my Z10 for work related activities.
You're quite right in all of what you said. There are numerous times you could say it's been a shit day, so we could call this a shit week instead? I don't know. What I do know is that BB10 is a great OS for mobile. It's problem was when it was released it wasn't finished, lacked features, and it was jarring to a lot of users because of that. In my eyes you got used to it very quickly, but it took them far too long to fix the problems, so it never took off.
I don't know what I'm going to do when my Z10 packs up. I have, like you, one of the classic BlackBerry's (a BlackBerry Curve) which is switched on the odd time I need to receive a text message from Twitter for some rubbish they want me to confirm. I'd like to think that both handsets will last for the next 5 years, but seeing as I've been using the Z10 daily for the last 2 years, I don't think it will happen.
I don't remember the stages of grief, but I'm over the anger stage now and just very depressed about it all.
It was over for Blackberry in 2010, when sales of the iPhone 4 began catching fire and Android became able to reach low end market segments, allowing it to begin the long process of replacing all the cheap feature phones.
While this was going on Blackberry was still stubbornly selling their early 2000s technology with their heads in the sand, and nothing they did in the future with BB10, Android or anything else was going to matter. All the money they've lost since would have made a nice severance payment to the employees who ended up losing their jobs since, or will in the final death throes.
What's more shocking to me is that Microsoft ended up fumbling this as well, despite owning the catbird seat in the IT enterprise from which to push their way in and an effectively unlimited budget.
DougS - Apple and Google were the first two to realize that smartphones could be something the rest of us unwashed masses would find useful if configured correctly. Crackberry, Nokia, and Slurp did grasp that until too late. Both had what fighter pilots call "target fixation" and got blindsided when iPhones and Android phones took off. Nokia failed to grasp a somewhat more expensive smartphone is much more useful to people than a cellphone. Slurp and Crackberry were fixated on business users to the exclusion of the peons. Steve Jobs had enough sense to realize the peons have money and will willingly part with some of it if they can get useful device.
I have two z30's in this household ... ;-) Same here, not sure what I will get next ... I try to separate personal and work life as much as possible ... mainly because I like to troll/piss people off every now and then in my personal life ;-).
I was looking at bb10 devices the other week and the prices have not come down, I really want to get a few to keep in a drawer for when the one I have fails ... but only when the prices come down ...
Three things, keyboards, a great OS, and privacy. In the good old days of Blackberry, when you chatted to Alice you ONLY chatted to Alice, and not Alice with Charlie at Blackberry in on the conversation, not Charlie's friend Stasi Dave in some spooks department, or Stasi Daves friend Rozz in the police department, or Rozz's friend Rebekah in the Press department.
That got them banned in Pakistan and India, and they sort of lost the plot, undermining their own product. Letting themselves into the private conversations of their customers. Which means that anyone who can serve them with legal papers in any jurisdiction can let themselves into the same conversation.
Then they started the “do what is right for the citizenry, within legal and ethical boundaries.” excuse. As if their presence in a private conversation is an "ethical" choice. See you, the customer are not ethical, so you the customer cannot be allowed privacy. We Blackberry are ethical, so we need to spy on your conversations. Here buy our crap scum.
They lost the plot and with it, they lost the customers.
It's big, it's heavy, but it doesn't have GPS or all the new stuff i didn't want on the newer BlackBerries and absolutely none of the stuff on other phones. I can email, text and call, I can just about go on websites, and I can have a lot of music on .mp3, flac, etc. I love the keyboard. It's simple. It does me just fine.
If Blackberry had any sense they would look at modifying their Android version to provide an experience as close to the current Blackberry experience as they can get.
Personally I'm not a fan of Blackberry devices, but for those that are it would hopefully be enough to keep you happy, plus gives you some additional benefits at the same time.
A physical keyboard is not a technical issue but a design issue and using a GUI that resembles the BB10 GUI is not rocket science. With Android both should be doable with some work. And you can still have a more secure device that has better integration with email servers than a typical Android without having to maintain the complete OS.
I see the biggest problem being perception; that is now an Android based device.
"If Blackberry had any sense they would look at modifying their Android version to provide an experience as close to the current Blackberry experience as they can get."
If they had any sense, they'd have an open bootloader and actively encourage different boot images. Or at they would have a Google-free stock Android with an added packet filter so you could make sure the device will _only_ talk to _your_ server.
Nice looking phone. I really liked the Idol 3 I played with. It's not on the same level as my BB Passport, and Android is a mess, but there are no longer any alternatives. It's just mind boggling that the planets entire tech industry has handed all our data to two American giants and their government. Don't believe the puppet play between Apple and the FBI. All your base are now belong to the NSA.
I must be the only one with an actually discontinued phone here, this being written on a Classic. Will keep it while it lasts, love the keyboard and the OS, don't miss apps that much.
Past that? I've already tried Android, via a Nexus 5. Didn't like it at all. I'd give WinPho a try, if it had a future, but I doubt MS's competence and commitment on mobile. Probably back to an iPhone then. Truth be told, that isn't that harsh, except to the wallet.
I think Chen is doing what he can with a very bad hand. The blame rests squarely on those who fell asleep at the wheel from '06 to '11 or so. BB10 launch wasn't all it could have been, not nearly. But the takeaway is that launching a new mobile OS is just very hard right now - you need apps, polish and a huge base of Googleable how-to-do-xyz articles from day 1. Sure looks like years of mobile OS duopoly going forward.
Sad for BB employees too.
Nope, you're not the only one.
I'm using a Classic now myself as my work phone, and will probably buy another one as a spare when the prices drop.
As my personal phone I have a Pearl 8200 Flip Phone. It's a bit plasticky but its in showroom condition because I look after it, and I get looks of "oh wow - is that a new phone?" when I pull it out. Then I tell onlookers that it is from 2006...
This replaced a Pearl 8100 phone that gave me years of sterling service and still does if needed, but the trackball is getting a bit hard to keep clean.
This in turn replaced a 7230 with the weirdo form factor and the funny colour screen. Don't know where that one is, which is sad because it was a quirky phone and was the first phone that someone walked up to me and asked "what is that?" when I got it in 2004.
And in the bottom drawer of my tech desk is a BlackBerry 5810 monochrome screen system that is now 15 years old, yet still holds a charge. It's great for playing snake, or sending SMS messages, or typing mini-essays on. Crisp screen, though the backlight makes an annoying fluorescent hum.
RIP BlackBerry. The Priv just isn't the same.
SilentCircle has endured into a second generation and the Blackphone 2 is out now. Seems they are building phones and systems for true privacy and security for private persons and enterprises, not for government agencies. Phones may be pricey. What do El Reg readers think, though? Never see the systems compared here.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
