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I thought RIM was Canadian? http://www.rim.net/

Although I don't doubt that the US government would would snoop on their network too if they could.

From the horse's mouth. Research In Motion Files Wireless Patent Complaint Against Glenayre Electronics, Inc

I guess what goes around come around, at least in this case.

Even though you're just joking around (but really, get some new material), the answer is yes they are. In fact, I recently had an interview there. From what I've seen, it looks like an excellent company to work for, with a very cool corporate culture.

Research In Motion (RIM) and Reliance IndiaMobile (RIM) will have a trademark battle.

both advertise and market as RIM/RIM.

Would it have killed you to explain you were referring to the BlackBerry wireless platform or to at least add a link to RIM (Research in Motion)? With all the patent related news about Monsanto lately some people might actually think you were referring to actual blackberries, the fruit.

he advises Microsoft to purchase "Research in Motion"

That would be a real shame. As a Canadian, I love to see strong products coming from the great white north. MS already took care of Corel (which used to be a publicly traded company based near Ottawa, Ontario) by having a (privately owned) subsidiary buy them and move them to a more controllable home in the US. (I'm not trying to be anti-US here, moderators!)

For those of you who don't know, RIM is based in Waterloo, Ontario. It would really suck if MS bought them out, too. Then all we'd have is OpenBSD!

But it seems wierd that the guest speaker at an event hosted by Research In Motion would advise Microsoft to purchase Research in Motion.

That seems a little, um, strange.

A BlackBerry is a handheld, wireless mobile e-mail device and organizer manufactured by Research In Motion (RIM). It differs from other mobile e-mail devices because it uses a push-based technology to deliver e-mail, instead of the traditional model where you would have to manually retrieve e-mails from the server.

The newer models have mobile phones built in. They are very addictive to use and as a result have earned the nickname CrackBerry.

Why in the world would they put the same freaking keyboard that's in the smallest model in the big 17" mamoo? You've got all this real estate and could put in a decent sized and spaced keyboard. I mean I understand the cost savings of using the same parts, but it's so rediculous in that huge area. Lighted keys would definitely be more useful, Research in Motion realized that when they brought out the new Blackberries

This is the ultimate combination of a PDA/Cellphone that runs on the GPRS/GSM(others, depending on where in the world that you live) system. I suggest you take a look at them on www.rim.net !!!! Cheers from Canada, eh!? =:)

He has the same amount of time that everyone else has, but look what he does with it. Plenty of people might say, "Gee, wouldn't it be great to have a machine to suck up wasps, or shoot marbles," or whatever, and their friends would reply, "Yeah, give me another beer," and that would be the end of it. This guy's a genius. He dreams up these contraptions, and then he actually builds them. I thought the pipe organ was great. I'm not surprised he works at RIM. They're lucky to have him. Makes me want to run out and buy a BlackBerry, if I could afford one.

Click here for a RIM job. (What's a rimjob?)

Actually the photos moved to here.

I used a CDPD modem with my PalmV for a little while, and while it was neat, there was a small problem with the modem's form factor. If you were less than gentle while you were using it, the modem would shift a little bit and easily get disconnected from the palm and disconnected from the network. Then you would typically have to power cycle the unit and wait for it to handshake with the network. Kind of a pain just to read email.

The new palm mentioned in this article uses the Mobitex network. This is an 'always on' radio network that is also used by the very popular Blackberry devices by Research in Motion. Mobitex coverage in the US looks pretty good, and there's even Mobitex networks in other countries throughout the world.

Isn't there something that does it already?

What about those personal organizers ? There are the Franklins, the Sharps, and what else ? Anybody play around with those cybikos ?

I'm thinking of building a prototype for a product, which will be a small organizer or two way pager like device with a key board and small 4 line screen. I know nothing about ergonomics, so I'd like to examine the best example.

The palm interface is really popular. There are a few reasons for this:

1) Graffitti, while difficult to learn compared to typing, eventually is much more natural than typing on a tiny keyboard which only serves to make the device larger.

RIM has handheld devices with a keyboard, one of which features the same size screen as a Palm but is still smaller. And no one has to learn a second alphabet.

Having tried both RIM's keyboard and Palm's Grafitti, I much prefer the RIM devices. Perhaps I simply haven't spent enough time with Grafitti to be efficient with it, but this is time that isn't required for the RIM device.

The palm interface is really popular. There are a few reasons for this:

1) Graffitti, while difficult to learn compared to typing, eventually is much more natural than typing on a tiny keyboard which only serves to make the device larger.

RIM has handheld devices with a keyboard, one of which features the same size screen as a Palm but is still smaller. And no one has to learn a second alphabet.

Having tried both RIM's keyboard and Palm's Grafitti, I much prefer the RIM devices. Perhaps I simply haven't spent enough time with Grafitti to be efficient with it, but this is time that isn't required for the RIM device.

Have a look at RIM's "Developer Zone" and specifically their FAQs. The neat thing about the Blackberry is that it runs Windows .DLLs. RIM provides a simulator that runs on Windows, and provides the same API that the pager does. Instead of interfacing with actual hardware, though, the simulator's API interfaces with a virtual LCD, a virtual keypad, etc. The exact same code runs natively on the development machine and on the pager itself.

Have a look at RIM's "Developer Zone" and specifically their FAQs. The neat thing about the Blackberry is that it runs Windows .DLLs. RIM provides a simulator that runs on Windows, and provides the same API that the pager does. Instead of interfacing with actual hardware, though, the simulator's API interfaces with a virtual LCD, a virtual keypad, etc. The exact same code runs natively on the development machine and on the pager itself.

paulb

Nope. I'm simply using a RIM.

We run a small Dev. hut, and we have just recently ventured into WAP. I must say, WAP sucks.

WMLscript is so bad that when we were developing a few simple card games, we got so frustrated, that we scrapped our script, and wrote a Java Servelet to gennerate all the WML content on the fly. With the expectations consumers now have of us developers, it is going to be VERY difficult to keep wireless users happy untill something is done about this standard.

What really excites us, is non-WAP relient devices, such as RIM These things are very compact, not super powerfull, but impressive enough.

Unfortunatly, we are about to enter what might be one of the biggest quarters that wireless has ever seen, which will do a good job of poluting the environment with Legacy Phone, dependant on the WAP standard for access to the Web.

WAP may suck, but it is going to be around for a while.

The best part about the rim is that they use a 386 chip- so their development SDK is just an addon for Visual C++. It's pretty easy to develop for- I was able to port a small text based app in a couple of hours the first time I picked up the SDK. If you have a RIM, go get it.

I got one of these about 2 or 3 months ago, and it is the ideal accessory for Webheads on the go. I wanted it because I do most of my work on client sites, and I need a means to get to my e-mail when I am enroute to a client or in-between two offices.

BellSouth Wireless Data provides service in the United States. Cantel provides service in Canada. Service is quite good in large cities and along major highways. YMMV, but it works in about 90% of the metropolitan areas in the USA.

You can get service for US$24.95 per month and up. The only thing I think most people will find upsetting is that service is metered unless you want to pay around $100 per month.

I use it for wireless e-mail, but it can also be used for some sort of wireless Internet access. I think the provider of that service is GoAmerica.

FWIW, I looked at the market and decided that the Blackberry pager was more practical than the Palm VII, and then I took the plunge. It would be a cool gift, but it is definitely for the CEO type or the geek who has everything.

--

Dave Aiello

It's a lot more expensive here in Canada. Cantel has it at CAD$50/month for 500K + 0.10/K over that. Ugh. Usually Canada has cheaper communications rates than you guys in the states.

You can definitely write user apps for blackberry. If I could get American prices, I'd probably hook up my wearable to a blackberry and I could get rid of my analog cell phone & modem.

Or maybe not. Hopefully PCS data prices will come down soon when Clearnet & Fido get their data networks running, so Bell has some competition. The cool thing about PCS is that you have two communications methods: PCS data & SMS. SMS is great for email as its always on. PCS data gets you a lot higher bit rate for surfing. (14.4Kbps woohoo!)

You don't have to use Blackberry: You can get PCMCIA modems for the same network (Mobitex), Dunno about Linux drivers.

It sounds like 3Com is putting in their own network. New York only. Ugh.

Come on everybody, buy stuff like this! Until a major display breakthrough, there aren't going to be enough of us 'borgs out here to drive the price down, so we depend on you!

When it's doing its thing, it's awesome. I've had some problems with the net-bound mail taking anywhere up to 1/2 an hour to leave their network but unit to unit communication is almost instant.