TORONTO, Feb 11 (Reuters) - E-mail service of Research In Motion's (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research)(RIMM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) BlackBerry smartphones experienced a "critical severity outage" on Monday, the company told clients in an e-mail.

"This is an emergency notification regarding the current BlackBerry Infrastructure outage," RIM support account manager Bryan Simpson said in an e-mail. The message said the outage affected enterprise clients and "users of the Americas network."

RIM was not immediately available for comment and its e-mail gave no estimate on when service may be restored or how many individuals could be affected.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssT...aTelecomNews/idUSN1145997920080211

Quoting Werdywerd (Thread starter): E-mail service of Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones experienced a "critical severity outage" on Monday, the company told clients in an e-mail.

Nice. Send an email to notify customers of an email outage.

Fox News has it listed as "Breaking News"   
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330367,00.html

Now this is interesting. I just sent an e-mail from my Blackberry from one of my two accounts on my Blackberry to the other and the following happened. I received the e-mail in my regular Gmail inbox but did not receive it on the Blackberry one. Odd outage.

Quoting CO777ER (Reply 2): Fox News has it listed as "Breaking News"

Everything fox reports is "breaking news"  

Quoting Werdywerd (Thread starter):

Quoting CO777ER (Reply 2):

They are called CrackBerrys for a reason...people can't live without them!

Pain in the arse. I remember when it happened last April too...quite annoying. Although the odd email is trickling through to my BB at the moment...not everything, and I'm unable to send.

COME ON RIM, SORT IT OUT!   

Quoting SKYSERVICE_330 (Reply 5): people can't live without them!

Agreed. My Curve is like an organ in my body.

I can place calls, but have a 'data connection refused' warning.

Lame.

This outage shall not deter me from my impending BB purchase. The Curve is at the top of my list, though the recent announcement of the cameraless 8820 for T-Mobile is awfully tempting.

Quoting FXramper (Reply 7): My Curve is like an organ in my body.

How do you have room for so many at once?   

Quoting SKYSERVICE_330 (Reply 5): They are called CrackBerrys for a reason...people can't live without them!

It's like a ball and chain in many ways   

Tom at MSY..........(on my CrackBerry)

Quoting HickoryShampoo (Reply 8): The Curve is at the top of my list

The Curve is one sexy piece of gadgetry. I switched from the 8700G to the 8320 Curve in brushed titanium colours. BB really hit one out of the park with this device...good camera, WiFi with VoIP capability, good storage plus a MicroSD slot to add up to 2GB more, media player, nice navigation, excellent 'feel' and controllability, and killer clean looks. Me and my BB are attached at the hip.

I have the World Edition for work...

and i havent received an email on it since 329p EST....luckily im on regular email too right now on the laptop so its not a huge deal...

Quoting IFEMaster (Reply 10):

I'm about ready to hurl my $%#-ing HTC Dash off a bridge. I just marking time 'til Feb 26 when my contract lapses 1 year so I can get the Curve at a discount. But, as I mentioned earlier, the 8820 may be released in early March. We'll see...

I'm starting to get e-mails again.

Why do people get blackberrys (especially branded ones) ? I never understood this phenomenon when you can have a much better smartphone and load BlackBerry Connect and connect to your enterprise server if you need that capability.

I'm still not getting e-mails... not even the notification =T I just checked my Gmail on my laptop and a few messages were not recieved by my BlackBerry   when will this end? By the way, I'm in California... not Taiwan    .

Email is back up.....but the internet response for me is still slow. It took this page a good five minutes to load completely.

Tom at MSY (on the CrackBerry)

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 14): Why do people get blackberrys (especially branded ones) ? I never understood this phenomenon when you can have a much better smartphone and load BlackBerry Connect and connect to your enterprise server if you need that capability.

I don't have a branded Blackberry (8700g here), but I will answer this. Basically, I don't think a lot of people can be f'ed to deal with setting up their phone to work with RIM's service. Plus, Blackberry plans are generally all-inclusive.

I don't have a Blackberry, but what a pain in the arse for those who do. Sorry not much to add, but I also wanted to say:

Quoting HickoryShampoo (Reply 8): How do you have room for so many at once?

  



I know, it's a different one, but the guys belt almost looks like it says KROC.

Dave

Quoting N1120A (Reply 17): I don't have a branded Blackberry (8700g here), but I will answer this. Basically, I don't think a lot of people can be f'ed to deal with setting up their phone to work with RIM's service. Plus, Blackberry plans are generally all-inclusive.

I am not sure what you mean here. All you do is run a standard install file and all the settings are automatically put on your phone with software. You dont have to set up anything.

You can use any Blackberry plan including all-inclusive with minutes with this also...

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 14): Why do people get blackberrys (especially branded ones) ? I never understood this phenomenon when you can have a much better smartphone and load BlackBerry Connect and connect to your enterprise server if you need that capability.

I think "better smartphone" is a very subjective term. I've personally found the two BlackBerry handhelds that I've had to be the quickest, most intuitive, most consistent, most reliable, and easiest to use smartphones I've dealt with. I've had two Windows Mobile based phones and I considered an iPhone for a while (two hours of play time with a demo model soon put an end to that thought), but when it comes to what I want out of my smartphone, BlackBerry wins hands down.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 14): Why do people get blackberrys (especially branded ones) ?

Some people don't have a choice and take whatever crap their company gives them...

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 14): Why do people get blackberrys (especially branded ones) ? I never understood this phenomenon when you can have a much better smartphone and load BlackBerry Connect and connect to your enterprise server if you need that capability.

Oh please please pleaaaaase tell me... what is a "better" smart phone? And don't get me started on BlackBerry Connect... thats a whole other headache for me.

Ill take supporting a BlackBerry anyday over a Treo, WM5/6 or any other PDA/Smartphone.

I'm just glad i wasn't at work today.

Quoting IFEMaster (Reply 20): I think "better smartphone" is a very subjective term. I've personally found the two BlackBerry handhelds that I've had to be the quickest, most intuitive, most consistent, most reliable, and easiest to use smartphones I've dealt with. I've had two Windows Mobile based phones and I considered an iPhone for a while (two hours of play time with a demo model soon put an end to that thought), but when it comes to what I want out of my smartphone, BlackBerry wins hands down.

Quoting NorthStarDC4M (Reply 22): Oh please please pleaaaaase tell me... what is a "better" smart phone? And don't get me started on BlackBerry Connect... thats a whole other headache for me. Ill take supporting a BlackBerry anyday over a Treo, WM5/6 or any other PDA/Smartphone.

Any Symbian OS device is alot better IMO as well as some WM6 phones. I dont get whats wrong with BB Connect? It loads once and thats it.

Most people here buy branded smartphones or with factory CID locks, there would be no problem if you CID unlocked and reflashed to different firmware which you can go to whatever carrier brand ROM you want or non-brand for faster speeds.

Ive had at least 25 different smartphones over the last 3 years (along with other mobiles) currently im running a SIM/CID Unlocked Softbank X02HT as my primary smartphone and it does the job quite better than a blackberry. Not to mention its specifications are far superior.

There are other things, lack of cameras on some models, no HSCSD (Maybe NorthStar can explain to me why you would throw in Global GPRS/EDGE into a blackberry then not put in HSCSD which is a hell of a lot better than switch-packet GPRS that has to wait for data network permissions and is the standard in some networks) on the 8320 Curve and lack of WLAN on most CDMA models such as the 8830 World Edition...just crippling specifications here. Lets not forget the one unforigiving crap of the blackberry is lack of UMTS support all over the 850/1700/1900/2100 spectrum, this is just unforgiving in 2008. We have people with Blackberries on ATT running Edge for the love of god.

Could be worse, you could be an idiot and running on CDMA because you have nothing better to do than make Qualcomms craptastic empire even larger and you are willing to accept a crap phone that in 99% of EV-DO networks cant video call   Even when you have a crapload of desert and cover a whole continent the Australians said bye bye to CDMA and went over to deploy WCDMA.

Lets chalk up slower processors for most Blackberries too, the Intel Xscale 312mhz thats in the 8320 Curve is a joke compared to my Samsung SC400mhz chip, lets add to that 64MB of Internal ROM hahaha! Im not even going to count the countless 3rd party apps I have on my device that I use on a daily basis that blow any BB out of the water.

Quoting Corey07850 (Reply 21): Some people don't have a choice and take whatever crap their company gives them...

Youre right about that!

I can make a pretty damn long list of excellent smartphones before I even get to any RIM device.

Quoting N1120A (Reply 17): I don't have a branded Blackberry (8700g here), but I will answer this. Basically, I don't think a lot of people can be f'ed to deal with setting up their phone to work with RIM's service. Plus, Blackberry plans are generally all-inclusive.

I think most people have BlackBerry's because that's what their work gave them. When my boss hands me the phone I just take it. Everyone at my work uses the BlackBerry, and while it's a pain on days like today, they are few and far between. I'm certainly not going to try and load BlackBerry software onto another phone, the free BlackBerry from work suits me just fine.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 23): just crippling specifications here

Crippling? For who? Not I, and not millions of other BB users...

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 23): this is just unforgiving in 2008

Again, unforgiving for who? Tell me something that you can do on your platform that I can't do on my BB. Something tangible with a measurably different effect on productivity...

Quoting IFEMaster (Reply 25): Again, unforgiving for who? Tell me something that you can do on your platform that I can't do on my BB. Something tangible with a measurably different effect on productivity...

Anything that has to do with Data including internet, email etc I can do at least 2-3x as fast. Any other productivity software that you might use, mini spreadsheets, calculations etc I do faster.

I thought thats what it was all about in smartphones, having fast connections and fast devices so you dont waste time screwing around waiting for crap to load.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 26): internet

Since the BB is primarily a business device, really what high content websites would you view that require high bandwidth? I hardly use the browser on my BB, but when I do, it's mostly mobile sites, which load in just a few seconds anyway.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 26): email

If you can type an email faster than me, sure. But BB Enterprise has consistently shown itself to be up there with consistency, reliability, and speed of email delivery to the handheld. I've personally benchmarked it; I get handheld delivery within 3 to 5 seconds of an email appearing in on my Exchange server.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 26): spreadsheets, calculations

I've found smartphones to be impractical for spreadsheets, documents, presentations etc. Too small and fiddly on any phone for anything remotely useful to me.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 26): I thought thats what it was all about in smartphones, having fast connections and fast devices so you dont waste time screwing around waiting for crap to load.

I guess this is where you and I differ. I want three things out of a smartphone: mobility, connectivity, and reliability. On my BB, I have complete unified messaging with always-on 'push' connectivity, and it's been way reliable than either of my two previous WM smartphones.

Quoting IFEMaster (Reply 27): Since the BB is primarily a business device, really what high content websites would you view that require high bandwidth? I hardly use the browser on my BB, but when I do, it's mostly mobile sites, which load in just a few seconds anyway.

Plenty, anything with streaming video. News site and ending with YouTube

Quoting IFEMaster (Reply 27): If you can type an email faster than me, sure. But BB Enterprise has consistently shown itself to be up there with consistency, reliability, and speed of email delivery to the handheld. I've personally benchmarked it; I get handheld delivery within 3 to 5 seconds of an email appearing in on my Exchange server.

I have never seen my ISP server email down in 8 years. Ever.

Quoting IFEMaster (Reply 27): I've found smartphones to be impractical for spreadsheets, documents, presentations etc. Too small and fiddly on any phone for anything remotely useful to me.

I havent. I use it for school constantly.

Quoting IFEMaster (Reply 27): I guess this is where you and I differ. I want three things out of a smartphone: mobility, connectivity, and reliability. On my BB, I have complete unified messaging with always-on 'push' connectivity, and it's been way reliable than either of my two previous WM smartphones.

BB certainly have less connectivity than any of the 3 smartphones I have, probably are less reliable especially when you consider something screws up with RIM service youre done. Like I said, you want that load BB Connect, I used it for 2 years previously and never had a problem.

Again I fail to see your point with BB Push connectivity as a strong point, this can also be done with Microsoft Direct Push on WM5+ smartphones with MSFP firmwares. This is the inherent problems with why your BB service gets disrupted, you need 20x more BES boxes to run the same you need for DirectPush. But the biggest downfall again in my eyes is it does not matter what band you are using you can use MSFP, Edge/UMTS/GPRS/EVDO/1xRTT/HSDPA and of course WiFi. You only ever need internet access so if you are stuck in an airport or somewhere in your house out in the boonies with no service you can still connect via WiFi without a problem.

Since were talking money lets realize that you have to pay for BES, you pay diddly squat for MSFP...and that my friend is the ultimate advantage. Why pay for RIM servers and fees when you just dont have to, the answer is simple its implemented in alot of places and people are used to it.

I would like you to tell me what the advantage is of having to be cursed to a specific plan with your blackberry that is more expensive and works in less places at slower speeds with the carrier having to pay RIM for regional NOC vs using a simple TCP connection and choosing whichever damn device you want and whichever internet you want and much higher speeds. Its cheaper, and its faster.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 28): Plenty, anything with streaming video. News site and ending with YouTube

Absolutely no business need for any of those for me.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 28): I have never seen my ISP server email down in 8 years. Ever.

Me neither.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 28): this can also be done with Microsoft Direct Push on WM5+ smartphones with MSFP firmwares.

Except you have to pay for the Exchange plugin...and have you seen the exhorbitant license fee that Microsoft is charging for that, PER USER? Cost prohibitive.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 28): you need 20x more BES boxes to run the same you need for DirectPush.

Rubbish. I have one BES box.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 28): Since were talking money

We are?

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 28): lets realize that you have to pay for BES

Sure. Less than than the per mailbox license for the Exchange add-on though.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 28): you pay diddly squat for MSFP

See above.

Quoting LOT767-300ER (Reply 28): what the advantage is of having to be cursed to a specific plan with your blackberry

I'm not cursed to a specific plan. My BB is unlocked, I have a generic data plan.

I close my discussion in this topic for obvious reasons  

"I cannot believe this happened again," he said as he got off a plane. "I'm on the road 300 days a year. My entire life is in my BlackBerry — my family life, my professional life, my emotional life, everything. ... They're not allowed to do this to me."

Methinks someone needs some much needed R&R... It is one thing to not be able to access important information for work, but when he starts saying my FAMILY life, and my EMOTIONAL life, and then THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DO THIS TO ME. I would think this guy is on the verge of needing an intervention, lol

Quoting BR715-A1-30 (Reply 31):

Amazing that someone is so tethered to their life through a frickin' cell phone.   I hope he reads his own statement and realizes what a sad existence he has. To appreciate the convenience is one thing, but to meltdown because you're without email for a few hours? Jeez....

Quoting DavestanKSAN (Reply 18): I know, it's a different one, but the guys belt almost looks like it says KROC.

That pic was the original KO pic.

I am not buying phones that are made in China anymore, i have had nothing but problems. I like the Nokia E seiries and I do as well have a Blackberry (Made right here at home in Waterloo)