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If I'm understanding the summary, and I very well may not, this is exactly what BlackBerry Blend did on BBOS 10. It was quite slick being able to throw my device up on my big screen and use the PC keyboard to finish that email I started while on the bus.

Only tangentially related, but Blackberry can go fuck themselves. I bought their flagship Priv phone at launch at a premium price (because I love hardware keyboards) and when the moment passed where they legally did not have to provide security updates any more they said 'go fuck yourselves' to their customers. I received their message clearly and will be steering well away from anything of theirs.

...without knowing for what the patent was.
But it's awfully predictable how a company that has sold it's brand for 3rd party generic smartphone manufacturing and is being relegated to a part of smartphone history would now resort to becoming a patent troll business, what with it's history:

- of litigations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
- of giving away the keys to the kingdom: https://www.theverge.com/2016/...
- writting a tone deaf blog post about it: http://blogs.blackberry.com/20...
- and then daring to continue labeling their phones as "most secure" for some reason: https://us.blackberry.com/smar...

This company should've been long dead by now.

...without knowing for what the patent was.
But it's awfully predictable how a company that has sold it's brand for 3rd party generic smartphone manufacturing and is being relegated to a part of smartphone history would now resort to becoming a patent troll business, what with it's history:

- of litigations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
- of giving away the keys to the kingdom: https://www.theverge.com/2016/...
- writting a tone deaf blog post about it: http://blogs.blackberry.com/20...
- and then daring to continue labeling their phones as "most secure" for some reason: https://us.blackberry.com/smar...

This company should've been long dead by now.

I've been repeating this for quite a while now, but I dunno for what reason, people have apparently forgotten all about the case involving the Canadian Mounted Police, a master decryption key for all non-enterprise accounts, and extremely crappy response from your same very own John Chen who was also the CEO back at the time.

Let me refresh people's memories:
https://www.theverge.com/2016/...
https://news.vice.com/article/...
http://blogs.blackberry.com/20...
https://www.computerworld.com/...

If anyone was stupid enough to fall into the obvious and very false statement that the new Blackberry had better costumer protection in place in comparison to Apple or other Android brands, it's on you for not doing very basic research.
It's like getting surprized with a new round of scandals of Lenovo laptops having malware pre-loaded on their bios. There have been enough cases to know what the position of the company is. If you are still throwing your money at them, you are just reinforcing the behavior and proving to them that it's acceptable.
John Chen has said nothing there that he didn't already say in the past. While he is the CEO of the company, such behavior is to be expected. Anyone who cares about their own personal privacy and about having proper standards on costumer protection should've already let go of the brand by now.

If your company has a blackberry enterprise server installed, you can easily configure the phones to log everything to the central company-owned server: http://support.blackberry.com/...

Of course, nobody cares about anything but Ooh! Shiny! anymore...

We're talking about Canada, where Blackberry not long ago has given encryption keys to the Canadian Mounted Police that gave access to ALL messages from non enterprise users, and this case seems all but forgotten with the company releasing new phones supposed to be the most secure phones ever.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4...

So yeah, to me it kinda sounds like a slippery slope. But nothing in comparison to what was already done.

The fact that Blackberry is still alive and well (as much as the company can be on their own merits), never had a public outcry after what they did, and that the case seems to be forgotten with tons of people still using and praising the company for their efforts... even after the CEO explicitly supported the idea with a vague public comment... I think it's pretty clear that something like what was described in this post would be pretty ok.

http://blogs.blackberry.com/20...

Having access to numbers located in the immediate vicinity of a crime isn't all that much in comparison to having access to the messaging content of an indiscriminate list of costumers of a certain class from a certain brand of phones.

Would I be ok with this? No, I wouldn't... like I said, slippery slope. At least this case was handled properly with a court order and all, and a message to respond is not that much of a bother, but anyone can see how actions like that can go wrong pretty fast. In a way, it's still relatively indiscriminate based on mobile location - it doesn't mean by any stretch of the mind that a person is suspect of anything, but they are still being targeted.

These days, it doesn't sound like that much of a jump going from requiring a court order to do that and doing it without one, doesn't sound that much of a jump from getting phone numbers to getting private content, and it might not be that much of a jump going from sending messages asking for cooperation to outright pre-emptively arresting people. Sure, hard to imagine the police and judges making such a jump and being this irresponsible - but then again, we have enough proof how overreaching they can become.

I know lots of people won't get the base concept, but essencially mobile companies are revealing private information - for a good cause, yes, and at a minor level in this case, yes. But let's say that in the list is someone who does not want his or her location disclosed at the time of the crime, not being involved with it, for some reason. This is one problem with indiscriminate targeting.

I would be ok with helping the course of an investigation, I would not be ok with mobile companies logging and releasing private information. As for Blackberry, of course, the company is dead to me. Has been for quite a while now. But it's ridiculous how people still defend it.

Also, as to the cell phone comment, this is the phone that was offered, and the only phone legally allowed to contain classified information: http://arstechnica.com/informa...

It was never meant to be hooked to State unclassified email, it is only for classified. For unclassified, State hands out a Blackberry.

http://press.blackberry.com/en...

Real companies have real products.

Whatever you think of their hardware business, which does indeed still exist, BBM and BBM clients remain real products, and provide better message security/traceability (think regulated securities traders) than pretty much anything else out there.

"Troll" passed from having a particular meaning to being simply a pejorative tossed at any patent owner someone didn't like long ago. From a policy perspective, you're either a practicing entity or not, and Blackberry remains a practicing entity.

I found this blog that describes what they did to secure android. http://blogs.blackberry.com/20...

It's really sad that the whole fracas about Blackberry handing a single encryption key that opened up the doors to all non-corporate Blackberry users for the Canadian Mounted Police got burried and didn't get enough attention from costumers, but at least for me, the company is fucking dead regarding privacy and security.

It really shows how much the news was ignored when the same company dares to say they came up with the world's most secure phone after all that. John Chen (Blackberry's CEO) made his position extremely clear. It's still there for anyone who wants to read it: http://blogs.blackberry.com/20...

This was written after it was revealed that Blackberry was using a single encryption key for all users of non-corporate Blackberry accounts. Canadian Mounted Police was given access to it in a glarringly major security and privacy flaw. The company caved in on giving keys to conversations of all it's costumers because the Canadian Mounted Police wanted to have access to some criminal conversations. It's basically the same thing as if Apple decided to open backdoors for the FBI.

I can only imagine that the company didn't close after that due to common users' ignorance. People failed to understand how something like this puts the company as the worst among all regarding privacy and security. Luckly for all of us, Blackberry is already dying anyways.

BB CEO was disturbed by Apple just a few days back.

John Chen said he was disturbed that Apple valued its customers' privacy and its own reputation above government demands for backdoors. I think I can safely say that BB's reputation is now 'disturbed'.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen said he is "disturbed" by Apple's tough approach to encryption and user privacy, warning that the firm's attitude is harmful to society. Earlier this year, Chen said in response to Apple resisting the government's demands to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters: "We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good." During BlackBerry's Security Summit in New York this week, Chen made several more comments about Apple's stance on encryption. "One of our competitors, we call it 'the other fruit company,' has an attitude that it doesn't matter how much it might hurt society, they're not going to help," he said. "I found that disturbing as a citizen. I think BlackBerry, like any company, should have a basic civil responsibility. If the world is in danger, we should be able to help out." He did say there was a lot of "nonsense" being reported about BlackBerry and its approach to how it handles user information. "Of course, there need to be clear guidelines. The guidelines we've adopted require legal assets. A subpoena for certain data. But if you have the data, you should give it to them," he said. "There's some complete nonsense about what we can and can't do. People are mad at us that we let the government have the data. It's absolute garbage. We can't do that." Chen also warned that mandatory back doors aren't a good idea either, hinting at the impending Investigatory Powers Bill. "There's proposed legislation in the U.S., and I'm sure it will come to the EU, that every vendor needs to provide some form of a back door. That is not going to fly at all. It just isn't," he said.

Until tokens gain the ubiquity of phones (which seems unlikely)

Since tokens can be generated by software on phones, even obscure and obsolete phones, tokens are already more[1] ubiquitous than phones.

[1] hardware tokens can be taken into secure areas where mobile phones are banned.

You should look at the fiscal year for BB before complaining. The fiscal year for a company doesn't start with the civil year. So, the information is accurate, the first quarter of the 2017 financial year for BB starts March 1st 2016 and ends May 31st 2016. http://us.blackberry.com/conte...

Actually, even running a BES doesn't help that much, all traffic still runs through the BES servers in Canada.

http://support.blackberry.com/...

The local BES server gets the mail from the mail server, and sends it to the Canadian BES servers, where the phones retrieve the mail. The BES server even has complete access to the mail server, as this is required for it to function.

As more of these high profile hacks emerge BlackBerry's expertise is suddenly in vogue again. And BlackBerry is actually well positioned to take advantage. I think with Chen at the helm they've got a good shot at taking a lion share of securing medical and IoT.

As more of these high profile hacks emerge BlackBerry's expertise is suddenly in vogue again. And BlackBerry is actually well positioned to take advantage. I think with Chen at the helm they've got a good shot at taking a lion share of securing medical and IoT.

Like the Blackberry Priv

Blackberry makes some stylish hardware, so it could be a good move.
Move into a new market, while not leaving your old market.

And you don't even need to believe me. Scroll to the bottom of this page and read this disclaimer that exists on all BB 10 pages about Android apps:

Android app support and compatibility will vary by smartphone and/or software version.

And also notice how they only mention being able to install apps from Amazon's App Store not Google Play.

I have a tiny keyboard I bought for my Palm IIIx about 15 years ago in early 2000, and I seem to recall that Handspring had to license a keyboard patent from RIM back in 2002. So it must be older than 2000 or it's prior art, and the patent is at most 2002.

Wow, way to link to some obscure student essay just to have an argument. Maybe you could've pulled the actual financials from google instead: http://press.blackberry.com/co...
Q4 2015: positive cashflow of $76Million versus a negative cashflow of 784Million in Q4 2014
Q4 2015: cash and investments of $3.27 billion, up $608Million from Q4 2014
Q4 2015: earnings of $0.04 per share, versus loss of $0.08 per share in Q4 2014

I would say the original claim of them pulling out of a nosedive would be accurate. It doesn't mean they're flying high again, but they did manage to generate some positives.

Automakers, though large and well-established, haven't put much effort into building the platform on which their cars run.

There's a reason for that. They're quite bad at it. That, and BlackBerry/QNX are quite good at it. Currently if you want Apple Car or Android Auto in your vehicle that vehicle will be running BlackBerry QNX Car as both platforms are simply plug-ins for QNX Car. BlackBerry needs to renegotiate its contracts such that they get credit just like Microsoft did with Sync so people know how pervasive BlackBerry actually is. Currently over 50% of the cars made worldwide run QNX Car. The problem is car makers choose what plug-ins to license for their vehicles and then customize the interface to their liking. That has led to some atrocious UI over the years but BlackBerry has sought to improve the situation with QNX Car 2.0 by providing more UI tools and widgets. Much of what Android Auto and Apple Car bring to the table have been possible for years. Car makers simply didn't see any need to add those features to their vehicles.

Blackberry is still hoping yesterday will get better.

I don't know, have you seen the latest blackberry offerings?

These are yesterday's phones. Old SoC, no innovation. High prices.

Blackberry is still hoping yesterday will get better.

I don't know, have you seen the latest blackberry offerings? Also, they run Android apps, so that's something more than you get with WP10.

Though frankly I don't see much changing for either company.

You said they didn't know Java so that it wouldn't have been easier to switch to Android. I provided links that showed they used Java in their phones. They also use Java for BES, which is not a front-end app, btw.

Blackberry Support for Java Runtime Environment 7 on BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10

Again from blackberry's site, the BlackBerry Java Development

and this

When installing BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is a prerequisite and the BlackBerry Setup begins to install JRE. During the JRE Installation, an error similar to the following is displayed:

Error 1330. A file that is required cannot be installed because the cabinet file C:\Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\jre1.6.0_18\Data1.cab has an invalid digital signature.

This may indicate that the cabinet file is corrupt. This was seen with Java Runtime Environment 1.6.0 Update 18 but similar errors could appear with later versions.

BES is not a "front-end app." So, you're totally wrong, you could have googled this in 5 seconds, but no, you insist on remaining wilfully ignorant. Just like everyone else who suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

You said they didn't know Java so that it wouldn't have been easier to switch to Android. I provided links that showed they used Java in their phones. They also use Java for BES, which is not a front-end app, btw.

Blackberry Support for Java Runtime Environment 7 on BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10

Again from blackberry's site, the BlackBerry Java Development

and this

When installing BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is a prerequisite and the BlackBerry Setup begins to install JRE. During the JRE Installation, an error similar to the following is displayed:

Error 1330. A file that is required cannot be installed because the cabinet file C:\Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\jre1.6.0_18\Data1.cab has an invalid digital signature.

This may indicate that the cabinet file is corrupt. This was seen with Java Runtime Environment 1.6.0 Update 18 but similar errors could appear with later versions.

BES is not a "front-end app." So, you're totally wrong, you could have googled this in 5 seconds, but no, you insist on remaining wilfully ignorant. Just like everyone else who suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

You said they didn't know Java so that it wouldn't have been easier to switch to Android. I provided links that showed they used Java in their phones. They also use Java for BES, which is not a front-end app, btw.

Blackberry Support for Java Runtime Environment 7 on BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10

Again from blackberry's site, the BlackBerry Java Development

and this

When installing BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is a prerequisite and the BlackBerry Setup begins to install JRE. During the JRE Installation, an error similar to the following is displayed:

Error 1330. A file that is required cannot be installed because the cabinet file C:\Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\jre1.6.0_18\Data1.cab has an invalid digital signature.

This may indicate that the cabinet file is corrupt. This was seen with Java Runtime Environment 1.6.0 Update 18 but similar errors could appear with later versions.

BES is not a "front-end app." So, you're totally wrong, you could have googled this in 5 seconds, but no, you insist on remaining wilfully ignorant. Just like everyone else who suffers from the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

It's been available for 2 years... the answer is Blackberry Hub. It shows all my e-mail, phone calls, text messages, as well as BBM, Skype, WhatsApp, etc.

> Differentiation is difficult in the smartphone market these days.

> all are nice upgrades but are only iterative

Please give us one huge upgrade - simple QWERTY. Last QWERTY phone is N900 from 2009. The next will be Jolla+TOHKBD in 2015 just thanks to a community funding effort (but still with weak hardware from 2013). Everybody in forums wants QWERTY but no single manufacturer makes one.

Huh? I can immediately name two examples of a modern QWERTY phone here or here.

> Differentiation is difficult in the smartphone market these days.

> all are nice upgrades but are only iterative

Please give us one huge upgrade - simple QWERTY. Last QWERTY phone is N900 from 2009. The next will be Jolla+TOHKBD in 2015 just thanks to a community funding effort (but still with weak hardware from 2013). Everybody in forums wants QWERTY but no single manufacturer makes one.

Huh? I can immediately name two examples of a modern QWERTY phone here or here.

...but do miss the QWERTY keyboard like mad. I've been waiting for any company to launch an Android phone with QWERTY keypad., that don't suck . But I guess the Blackberry Classic is as close as I can get to that.

Gary

I'm comfortably easing into using my passport. Currently on day #3, so far so good.
The passport's keyboard is very well done, they have put a lot of thought into the user interface and hardware: here is an interesting video of the keyboard in action. Limiting the physical keys to just 3 rows of letters actually works really well with the virtual rows that can pop up on screen.
I'm sure I will find some things about the passport that I dislike, I just haven't found any thus far.

...but do miss the QWERTY keyboard like mad. I've been waiting for any company to launch an Android phone with QWERTY keypad., that don't suck . But I guess the Blackberry Classic is as close as I can get to that.

Gary

I'm comfortably easing into using my passport. Currently on day #3, so far so good.
The passport's keyboard is very well done, they have put a lot of thought into the user interface and hardware: here is an interesting video of the keyboard in action. Limiting the physical keys to just 3 rows of letters actually works really well with the virtual rows that can pop up on screen.
I'm sure I will find some things about the passport that I dislike, I just haven't found any thus far.

nostalgia only goes so far;

It isn't nostalgia: there is a market for people who aren't tech people and need something simply. Apple is ignoring those people as Blackberry did right up until just now. I understand the need to have a simple smartphone with a keyboard as well as the simple mp3 player with just a few controls.

Developers who want to target multiple platforms try to avoid the NDK as it can be difficult to support and can make their app incompatible with even other Android devices if they aren't running the same platform (ARM/INTEL ATOM). That said there is limited support on BlackBerry 10.3

Perhaps BlackBerry can answer those questions.

Apple phones have already had this for years.

Blackberry phones have already had this for years.

Android phones have already had this for years.

Windows phones have already had this for years.

What exactly is this law going to change, force FirefoxOS or Sailfish phones to add a remote killswitch? It sure sounds like people are getting riled up about something that has already been done to 99% of the smartphones on the market because now it's "the rules" that they continue to due what they're already doing.

Blackberry's BBM message facility is the most secure in the business.

Wrong. Go read some of RIM's documentation. http://docs.blackberry.com/en/...

RIM has always been clear about the security of their products. BBM messages are encrypted with 3DES.

3DES is a decent algorithm, but the keyspace is small. With a million dollars of compute power, brute-forcing 3DES is very easy. That is a trivial amount of money for a government or most private companies.

Ever wonder why BBM works will all blackberries by default? There is a default BBM encryption key, and it is well known in the security community (no, I won't tell you what it is).

It is possible to change the BBM encryption key, but most people don't.

So, a not-so-strong algorithm, and a known key. Any government that claims (many have done so) that they can't read BBM is either incompetent or lying.

On the other hand, Blackberry email is strongly encrypted with AES, good luck brute-forcing that.

Blackberries have many security certifications from different countries: http://us.blackberry.com/busin...

Which is why Blackberry's are the criminal's first choice of phone.

Maybe, but BBM isn't the reason.

I'm not just saying that, the London looting "riots" of a few years ago were organised by criminal gangs and they used BBM to do it.

British yobs aren't the smartest people.

Apple's pretty secure though.

LOL. wut? Do you read anything on slashdot?

Blackberry's BBM message facility is the most secure in the business.

Wrong. Go read some of RIM's documentation. http://docs.blackberry.com/en/...

RIM has always been clear about the security of their products. BBM messages are encrypted with 3DES.

3DES is a decent algorithm, but the keyspace is small. With a million dollars of compute power, brute-forcing 3DES is very easy. That is a trivial amount of money for a government or most private companies.

Ever wonder why BBM works will all blackberries by default? There is a default BBM encryption key, and it is well known in the security community (no, I won't tell you what it is).

It is possible to change the BBM encryption key, but most people don't.

So, a not-so-strong algorithm, and a known key. Any government that claims (many have done so) that they can't read BBM is either incompetent or lying.

On the other hand, Blackberry email is strongly encrypted with AES, good luck brute-forcing that.

Blackberries have many security certifications from different countries: http://us.blackberry.com/busin...

Which is why Blackberry's are the criminal's first choice of phone.

Maybe, but BBM isn't the reason.

I'm not just saying that, the London looting "riots" of a few years ago were organised by criminal gangs and they used BBM to do it.

British yobs aren't the smartest people.

Apple's pretty secure though.

LOL. wut? Do you read anything on slashdot?

What advancement? The typo keyboard is virtually a 1 for 1 copy of the Q10 keyboard. They didn't even bother changing the colour of the frets.

Just a illustrate how blatant a knock-off it is, here's the Typo keyboard from the linked news story, and here's what Typo copied to create it.

While it isn't open source (was skype open?), Blackberry Messenger (BBM) meets all your requirement. And is now also available for Android OS and ios.

This sounds like a pitch for a replacement to Good Technology or BlackBerry BES or MobileIron but tied to a single Android phone. I mean the headline says it's a secure phone but it looks like it will require Silent Circle as the communication go between. You can do that now on Android, BB 10, and iOS with BES 10. No special version of Android needed. Hate on BlackBerry all you want but they know security.

There was plenty of marketing for BB10. Such as the marketing campaign involving Alicia Keys.

Blackberry.

http://us.blackberry.com/

I need something that works x-platform: mac, pc, android, ios, and windows phone 8). Linux would be a bonus for me, but not a requirement. At least we don't need BB support.

Actually, skype has been available for blackberry 10 for some time: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/26382880/?countrycode=CA&lang=en

Not that anyone cares...

There's a reason why Skype caught on in the first place, and Microsoft has just pissed it away. I look forward to using whatever competitors emerge with secure, encrypted VOIP products.

-jcr

Like BBM?
The Android and iOS clients don't have the VOIP or Video yet but should get them in the next update.

I don't know, maybe the fact that they changed their fucking name 9 months ago from RIM to BlackBerry.
http://press.blackberry.com/press/2013/research-in-motion-changes-its-name-to-blackberry.html

BlackBerry bought The Astonishing Tribe (They designed the UI for the G1) to redesign the BlackBerry UI.
They also bought QNX to be the base for the new BB OS 10.
In fact they were quite aggressive in acquiring properties to bolster their brand.

All of those acquisitions do nothing (as in, bupkis) outside of the mobile device realm that Blackberry occupies. Nothing.

Find me something that can be used outside of that realm, and I'll be happy to concede.

Novell's acquisitions gave it reach into selling OSes (SuSE), email (GroupWise), and stuff well outside of their original directory/auth stuff. Hell, they even own UNIX (as in, SysV).

On top of that they have diversified the BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Services) to secure iOS and Android devices.

Sure - way the hell after Microsoft beat them to it with ActiveSync, and by the time they even bothered, BlackBerry had a mere sliver of their former marketshare. Too little, too late - it was moot point by the time BES got that kind of feature set.

The problem BlackBerry has is mind share and they haven't got it anymore.

TBH, they never had it. Apps wasn't the big selling point with a Crackberry - Push email was front-and-center, and nothing else mattered. They only bothered with apps as a corporate focus (and email as secondary) after the iPhone stole its girlfriend, and Android stole its lunch-money.

RIM is only a half-step away from being a walking corpse. Barring a vortex that sucks up the towns of Cupertino and Mountain View, California? Nothing will change that.

To be fair, the Novell comparison doesn't exactly match up... Novell at least (to their credit) diversified a little, and went all-in to Linux (albeit too late).

Blackberry has done none of this, and (to extend the poker analogy) merely doubled-down on their own increasingly lousy hand.

Same misinformed song different singer.

BlackBerry bought The Astonishing Tribe (They designed the UI for the G1) to redesign the BlackBerry UI.
They also bought QNX to be the base for the new BB OS 10.
In fact they were quite aggressive in acquiring properties to bolster their brand.

On top of that they have diversified the BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Services) to secure iOS and Android devices.

The problem BlackBerry has is mind share and they haven't got it anymore. The new ecosystem is actually quite impressive but without a large enough audience it is all moot. To get that mind share they will need a killer feature not available on the other systems and it's not that easy to do.

But until BlackBerry actually announces the layoffs I am putting this one squarely in the rumor to get stock lowered for a buyout box.

I wonder if they got filthy rich during the Blackberry Port-A-Thon.