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My suspicion on the BlackBerry claim is that what was intercepted was regular SMS messages, and not the secure BB PIN messaging.

The latter is what is super secure, because it traverses via the data link to the BES and is essentially opaque to telcos.

Completely false. You really don't understand the blackberry platform.

Here's a better explanation: http://www.berryreview.com/2010/08/06/faq-blackberry-messenger-pin-messages-are-not-encrypted

PIN messages do NOT go via the BES (blackberry enterprise server). Neither does blackberry messenger (BBM). Both PIN and BBM work fine without a BES, or even if the BES is down.

PIN messages are not encrypted. BBM is encrypted with 3DES, which isn't that strong - the keyspace is small enough to the brute-forced in a reasonable amount of time for anyone with a million dollars of compute power.

What you CAN do with a BES is have AES encrypted email from your office to the blackberry. Good luck brute-forcing that.

The blackberry platform offers many different services, with different levels of encryption.

The really interesting thing would be to know exactly what is disclosed here.

The BES platform remains certified by many organizations: http://us.blackberry.com/business/topics/security/certifications.html

If there is a flaw in the AES implementation that would be news.

most people I know just use regular SMS because they don't know any better. And you can't use PIN messaging outside your own BES network.

False. You don't know any better. You can send PIN messages to any blackberry device (unless sending PIN has been blocked on your device by your admin).

Do Safeway and Target ban magazines from their rack for including mail-in subscription cards? Apple does the equivalent.

Oh, the horror! you act like this is some awful thing.

And, no, Safeway and Target don't do that particular thing, but they have their own rules that they apply to the products they'll sell.

Does Target ban the sale of blueray players that include support for netflix/hulu/amazon (allowing the user to purchase video content from other stores)? Apple does the equivalent.

No, they don't. They allow apps that support third-party services. What rock have you been living under?

It's called "commerce" and you go where the money is. On mobile, the money is on iOS

Don't be stupid. For all but a few vendors, iOS is NOT the place for app developers interested in earning real money. Do some reading.

Hahahaha! You're cherry picking and grasping at straws. iOS is by far the most lucrative platform. You can make money on platforms, and if you can get a niche, you can make more on one platform than the average of another. But it takes a special kind of stupid to say iOS doesn't have, by far, the largest, most financially viable of all the mobile ecosystems.

The truth is that people go where they *think* the money is -- even in the face of evidence to the contrary. That won't last forever. Apple won't be able to get away with their abusive practices for much longer.

Your ilk have been saying that for half a decade now, in the face of reality to the contrary. Sure, it may not last forever, but you should at least have e decency to accept the present and the past half-decade, instead of twisting reality to fit your prejudices.

Do Safeway and Target ban magazines from their rack for including mail-in subscription cards? Apple does the equivalent.

Does Target ban the sale of blueray players that include support for netflix/hulu/amazon (allowing the user to purchase video content from other stores)? Apple does the equivalent.

It's called "commerce" and you go where the money is. On mobile, the money is on iOS

Don't be stupid. For all but a few vendors, iOS is NOT the place for app developers interested in earning real money. Do some reading.

The truth is that people go where they *think* the money is -- even in the face of evidence to the contrary. That won't last forever. Apple won't be able to get away with their abusive practices for much longer.

Because adopting Android worked out so well for everyone but Samsung, right?

Oh, the exact opposite of that? I guess being a "me too" player isn't a smart strategy. Probably even worse for premium brands.

RIM made a smart move by buying QNX. It's (quite possibly) the most advanced mobile OS on the market. It instantly gave them a presence in new markets, which they're leveraging well, and an easy way to maintain their legendary security.

Their new UI is stunning (thanks to great acquisitions like TaT and smart hires like former Apple designer Don Lindsay) and from what we've see so far, clearly not something you could achieve by slapping a skin on top of Android. Features like Balance would also be a clunky mess (like running a VM on your phone).

For developers, there's nothing attractive about Android -- from the tools to the ROI, it's painful. RIM, in contrast, has dramatically improved developer relations and the quality and variety of the tools available to developers. This includes true native development, not just a few "essential" parts. From Google's What is the NDK page: "In general, you should only use native code if it is essential to your application, not just because you prefer to program in C/C++".

In short: Adopting Android would have been the single worst move RIM could make. They'd be just another Android phone is a sea of unprofitable competitors, they'd lose every advantage that they currently have (their edge in security and MDM, for example), they'd be left out of other markets instead of expanding in to new ones, and they'd be unable to provide the same innovative new features for end users and developers (balance, peak, flow, etc.)

RIM made some mistakes, that's not in question, but skipping over Android was not one of them. Their transition was painful, sure. However, their new products are very impressive and, in many ways, well ahead of the game. Even BGR is singing their praises -- that takes some doing!

They could still fail in the market, I'll grant you that, but that won't be because they've produced an inferior product.

Was done in January and again in February:
http://liliputing.com/2012/02/blackberry-playbook-price-drops-to-199-permanently.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/247202/rim_selling_playbook_tablets_for_300_each.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/tech-news/rim-chops-all-playbook-prices-to-299/article4085706/
http://www.berryreview.com/2012/01/29/shop-blackberry-confusingly-returns-playbook-prices-to-199-16gb-299-64gb/

Yay slashdot!

Actually, you can type out things like 1-800-BEST-BUY on a Blackberry. Just hold down the ALT key as you type each letter. The device will translate to the appropriate number for the phone call such as a 2 for B.

http://www.berryreview.com/2008/02/20/faq-how-to-dial-phone-numbers-with-letters/

The graphic seems to be a crop of actual "content ratings table" found on App World.

You can see it in this article. If you go to app page linked in the article and click on its rating, the aforementioned table does appear.

Challenge accepted. Weather app designs that don't look like Apple's:

Here's one unique design.

And another unique design.

And another unique design.

Yet another unique design.

Another unique one.

And another unique one.

And yet another unique one.

Even more unique designs.

And even more unique designs.

And it keeps going with the unique designs.

Yet another unique design.

Another unique design.

And the final unique design.

All of these look just fine and aren't inconvenient.

Challenge accepted. Weather app designs that don't look like Apple's:

Here's one unique design.

And another unique design.

And another unique design.

Yet another unique design.

Another unique one.

And another unique one.

And yet another unique one.

Even more unique designs.

And even more unique designs.

And it keeps going with the unique designs.

Yet another unique design.

Another unique design.

And the final unique design.

All of these look just fine and aren't inconvenient.

Yeah I'm sure a new platform is exactly what RIM needed to solve all their problems. Maybe instead they should make blackberry possible to develop for.

You're forgetting that even those developers who manage to kludge together an application that works on all carriers, connection types (see if you can count them all), and devices, and manages to fill out all the legal disclaimers about bogus export control restrictions, still has to wait 3+ months just to see RIM blink an eye in the approval process:
http://www.berryreview.com/2011/08/16/im-for-playbook-stuck-in-app-world-approval-limbo-for-3-months/

It's as though RIM doesn't even want developers--they just want to pretend that they have an app store. They could take a lesson from Apple on this.

I have no doubt that it involves the same parts of the brain as religion. But let's not confuse someone who uses and likes a brand with the same type of response as the religious one. I think that most people - those who do not spend time contributing to what amounts to online fan clubs - just get what suits them and use it without thinking about it too much; and it's unlikely that you'll see the same level or type of response in them.

Exactly. The battle against H.264 will end up costing them even more market share too.

What battle? Open video is here to stay and it's usage is growing every day. Look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLPPlRDOZx0

You can watch that video in WebM natively in your browser with no plugins. Firefox will not only be just fine but will, in fact, be better than ever. So will Blackberry with the embrace of open audio on the Blackberry Torch 9800 and Curve 9300.

uh yes you do actually - several in fact:

http://www.berryreview.com/2009/02/04/phoneyfart-the-inevitable-farting-app-for-blackberry/
http://crackberry.com/best-blackberry-fart-app-yet-ibee-farting
http://www.mobihand.com/150//product.asp?id=24413
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/3699
http://forums.crackberry.com/f35/free-fart-app-joy-154538/


and there's plenty more. Got anymore bullshit or is your talking points script all tuckered out diddums?

uh yes you do actually - several in fact:

http://www.berryreview.com/2009/02/04/phoneyfart-the-inevitable-farting-app-for-blackberry/
http://crackberry.com/best-blackberry-fart-app-yet-ibee-farting
http://www.mobihand.com/150//product.asp?id=24413
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/3699
http://forums.crackberry.com/f35/free-fart-app-joy-154538/


and there's plenty more.

Got anymore bullshit or is your talking points script all tuckered out?