Dec 23

BlackBerry Users See the Fail Whale Twice in Week

Posted in: BlackBerry, Phones, research in motion, Today's Chili, update

blackberry-1223

The cult of the BlackBerry phone is based on the device’s ability to bring e-mails to users faster than they can click through them.

But that could become history. BlackBerry users faced a service outage Tuesday evening — the second time in less than a week — that made e-mail, text messages and web services such as Twitter and Facebook inaccessible.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion restored the service Wednesday morning and blamed it on a glitch in its instant messaging program called the BlackBerry messenger.

“Based on preliminary analysis, it appears a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure,” said RIM in a statement.

The company has provided a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is encouraging all users to upgrade to this latest version.

The service interruptions could hit BlackBerry’s reputation and cause some customers to consider alternatives.

RIM has sold about 75 million BlackBerrys worldwide. But it faces stiff competition from rivals such as as Apple with the iPhone, HTC and Motorola — which recently released the Droid. BlackBerry users have to still contend with a browser that’s decidedly 1990s in its look, poor maps, an anemic app store — 2,000 apps to the iPhone’s 100,000.

Meanwhile, outages on the RIM network seem to be getting more frequent. BlackBerry users faced similar problems accessing their e-mail last Thursday. Which raises the question, exactly what kind of backup systems does RIM have? So far, RIM has chosen not to answer that.

Still concerns over the BlackBerry’s recent failures may be “overblown,” writes Shaw Wu, an analyst with brokerage firm Kaufman Bros in a research note to his clients.

“RIM’s fundamental advantages, including its push network technology and ownership of core hardware and software, [are] underestimated,” says Wu. “Our long-standing view is that Apple remains RIM’s only true competitor, but we believe there is plenty of room for both to succeed.”

Still RIM’s stumbles can only help Apple pull ahead.

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Photo: (Lymstylez/Flickr)


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Dec 23

Apple planning event for January, with high-res iPhone or small-sized tablet in tow? Maybe just hanging out?

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, rumor, speculation, tablet, Today's Chili

Breaking news, everybody: Apple’s working on some stuff. The rumors are flying in all directions today, starting out fairly innocently with word from the oft-innacurate DigiTimes of an iPhone-destined 5 megapixel camera sensor. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster piled on with an investor note saying they’re giving an Apple January event a 75% chance of happening, and the tablet is squarely at 50 / 50. The most interesting word, however, comes out of the Silicon Alley Insider, who is quoting a “plugged-in source in the mobile industry” who says that Apple is working with some select app makers on prepping high-res apps to demo on a “new, larger mobile device.” The device would be shown in January but not available at that time — presumably in wait for these redesigned apps to mature (at WWDC, perhaps?). While that rumor is being piled in with the ever-present tablet hubbub, if we were to read between the lines we’d say it sounds more like a higher-resolution iPhone in the style of Google’s Nexus one or Motorola’s Droid — both of which are making the iPhone’s 320 x 480 screen look a tad archaic. Certainly more likely than Apple releasing “several tablets” to match up with all the disparate rumors we’ve seen of the 7-inch / 9-inch / 10-inch unicorn device.

Update: Just so you know, The New York Times has it on good authority that Steve Jobs is apparently “extremely happy” with the current tablet design. The assumption here — if true, of course — is that he won’t be killing this project like he did all the previous iterations.

Apple planning event for January, with high-res iPhone or small-sized tablet in tow? Maybe just hanging out? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo, Pocket-lint  |  sourceAppleInsider, Silicon Valley Insider, DigiTimes  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 23

Dell Pulls Ads From MTVs Jersey Shore

Posted in: Today's Chili

dell jersey shore.jpg

It’s the day before we all break for the Christmas holiday, and what better way to celebrate than to discuss MTV’s “Jersey Shore”? The show – which follows seven tanned and hair-sprayed individuals in a “Real World”-esque home on the Jersey Shore, has been a topic of conversation in the halls of PCMag a few times, but alas, there was no tech angle.

Until now. TMZ reports that Dell is now the third sponsor to pull their ads from the TV show. “Jersey Shore” has drawn fire from Italian-American groups, as well as those representing the beaches of NJ, for what they considered to be a deragatory depiction of the region and its people.

Dell asked MTV to block its ad from airing during “Jersey Shore” because they don’t “condone or support ethnic bashing in any form,” TMZ said.

American Family Insurance and Dominos Pizza have also removed their ads.

‘The Situation’ was unavailable for comment.

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Dec 23

Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Stuff you don’t want

Posted in: Today's Chili

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today’s bevy of hand curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the holiday season.

That whole gift giving time is very nearly upon us, and if you don’t know what to get your closest and dearest by now, you may well be beyond salvation. To honor those lost souls, and to appease the anti-consumerists out there who think there’s more junk in stores than there is sand in Dubai, we present the dark side of the Engadget HGG. Here, nestled in the same familiar price categories, we pick out the best of the worst gadgets to see the light of day in 2009. So join us after the break, and should you find yourself unwrapping one of these in a couple of days… you have our condolences.

Gallery: Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Stuff you don’t want

Continue reading Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Stuff you don’t want

Engadget’s Holiday Gift Guide: Stuff you don’t want originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dec 23

TiVo, Sony and others to FCC: ‘gateways’ should replace CableCARD

Posted in: sony, tivo, Today's Chili, verizon
Cable Gateway Diagram
All the comments to the FCC in response to the call for ideas to replace the failed CableCARD idea were due this week so we spent a little time reading a few of them and found some overwhelming trends. Everyone seems to applaud the death of CableCARD and is pushing for an end to the associated mandates as well as those related to 1394. Neither of these two ideas worked out as planned as is evident by the fact that most consumers don’t use them. What’s more interesting though is the recommendations and none were as detailed and thought out as TiVo’s — although we admit we didn’t read them all. The idea TiVo and others are getting behind is what might be known as a gateway, which we envision would look a lot like a cable modem. The key here is that while various gateways would be available depending on the medium your preferred provider used (coax, satellite, fiber), they’d all share a common interface on the consumer side and as you might expect this common interface would be of the IP variety with standard internet protocols like HTTP and SSL on top of it.

Continue reading TiVo, Sony and others to FCC: ‘gateways’ should replace CableCARD

TiVo, Sony and others to FCC: ‘gateways’ should replace CableCARD originally appeared on Engadget HD on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceTiVo FCC filing (PDF), Sony FCC filing (PDF)  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 23

RIM blames massive service outage on newer Messenger versions

Posted in: BlackBerry, RIM, Today's Chili

Diehard BlackBerry users often compare BlackBerry Messenger to a potent drug. And just like a drug, coming down from a BBM high can be rough — so rough, in fact, that RIM’s claiming that a couple recent releases are responsible for “an unanticipated database issue” that stone-cold knocked out data service for many of the world’s subscribers yesterday. Folks using versions 5.0.0.55 and .56 are being strongly advised to upgrade to 5.0.0.57 immediately, but in the meantime, Waterloo says its systems are back to normal while apologizing “for any inconvenience to customers.” With three major outages now under BlackBerry’s belt in the past month, faith in the rock-solid stability of its infrastructure is fading rapidly — but then again, it gives you a great excuse to be off IM for a few hours and talk to live humans, doesn’t it?

RIM blames massive service outage on newer Messenger versions originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Scoop  |  sourceGearlog  | Email this | Comments

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Dec 23

Mom Calls 911 on Video-Game Obsessed Teenage Son

Posted in: Today's Chili, video games

Kids Playing Video Games.jpg

Nothing says happy holidays like a visit from the cops. An exasperated Massachusetts mother called 911 Saturday after her 14-year-old son refused to stop playing “Grand Theft Auto.”

Angela Mejia woke up at 2:30am on Saturday to find that her son was still playing the game, hours after she told him to go to sleep, the Boston Herald reports. Mom unplugged the gaming console, but then called 911.

Officers convinced the kid to knock it off. “They (police) were just like, ‘Chill out. Go to bed,'” the boy told the paper.

Mejia, a single mother of four kids, said calling police was a last resort. “I want to help my son, but I can’t find a way,” she said.

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Dec 23

Nexus One to go on sale January 5 by invite only?

Posted in: Today's Chili

Engadget Mobile posts full specs for the Nexus One and also reports that the smartphone will go on sale January 5 by invite only. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-10421101-251.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Android Atlas/a/p

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Dec 23

Three free iPhone apps that make shopping easier

Posted in: Today's Chili

Just one day left to hit the stores for those last-minute gifts. Put these apps in your iPhone arsenal and you’ll get things done quicker, easier, and maybe a little cheaper. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10421082-233.html” class=”origPostedBlog”iPhone Atlas/a/p

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Dec 23

PS3 dipped in gold appeals to our ‘elitist doofus’ sensibilities

Posted in: Today's Chili
Here’s the thing. Merely dipping something in 22 carat gold does not necessarily mean we’ll like it better… but it’s a semi-decent start. Now, we know a PS3 literally covered in gold and diamonds isn’t exactly “news,” nor is it anything we haven’t seen before with other consoles. It is, however, a stark reminder that being super rich often leads to gaudy, tasteless, nearly criminal displays of ridiculousness. Hit the source link if you want to order one from purveyor Stuart Hughes for a mere £199,995 (that’s about $320,000).

PS3 dipped in gold appeals to our ‘elitist doofus’ sensibilities originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  sourceStuart Hughes  | Email this | Comments

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