BlackBerry email outages are something of a staple among the die-hard push-email fanatics out there. Which makes it all the more impressive when any BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) service outage is announced ahead of time.

T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) has announced that they’re are in the process of updating their BlackBerry Internet Email system to version 2.5. And, outages are coming hard and fast. BlackBerry users on T-Mobile’s network are already experiencing their first stretches of dead air.

Outages should end tomorrow morning (June 29) at 3am PST.

In the meantime, any going through BlackBerry email withdrawal can hit up our comments section  and vent your frustrations and/or pain.

But hey, at least you’ll end up with BIS 2.5 and some sweet HTML, MSN and Hotmail support, AOL push-email support.

[Via: BGR]

It’s basically a done deal, pending regulatory approval, that is. Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM)’s acquisition of Helio has been expected to happen for some time now, and now that it’s finally official, there are bound to be handfuls of Helio customers with questions about the takeover. More like 170,000 handfuls of Helio customers, to be more precise.

So, rather than leaving it up to Helio customers to find out the hard way that they’ll be subject to an ETF (early termination fee) if they decide to jump ship from Helio amidst the Virgin Mobile USA takeover, Helio has put together a little Q&A fact-sheet.

Most notable is that Helio is still accepting new activations and will be keeping current contracts intact – that means ETFs are still in place, people.

Keep reading to find out the details on what Helio customers can expect during these confusing times.

Read the full article »

Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that two of the 4 products announced by Nokia yesterday have the latest version of S40, 6th Edition. While S40 is not a smart phone operating system due to the lack of a native programming model and the lack of multitasking, it is still impressive and many many many more people use S40 rather than S60. Here is a change log from the S40 Forum Nokia homepage:

Series 40 6th Edition represents a continuing commitment by Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to mobile application developers, with support for MIDP 2.1 and the subset of the Mobile Service Architecture (JSR?248). JSR?248 provides a common implementation of seven popular JSRs. These implementations are shared with S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2, and it is expected that other manufacturers of Java™ phones will implement JSR?248. This means that developers will be able to create applications for Nokia platforms that will also run on other manufacturers’ devices, with little or no change.

In addition, Series 40 6th Edition delivers exciting new opportunities for the creation of location-based applications, with the introduction of the Location API for J2ME™ (JSR?179). This API can utilize an external Bluetooth GPS unit to obtain location information.

Series 40 6th Edition also provides improved support to Adobe Flash developers with the inclusion of the Flash Lite 3 Player. In addition to playing stand-alone Flash Lite content and applications and offering animated screen savers, Flash Lite can also be used to create animated “organic” wallpaper for Series 40 devices.

For Web developers, Series 40 6th Edition brings new opportunities with a browser based on the WebKit open source components WebCore and JavaScriptCore. This new browser delivers support for HTML 4.01, CSS2, JavaScript™ 1.5, and Ajax. Series 40 users can now experience a desktop-like Web browsing experience, which opens up new possibilities for Web developers to deliver sophisticated Web-based services to the mobile marketplace.

The platform continues to support 240 x 320-pixel screens, meaning media developers continue to benefit from the improved viewing experience and realize continued growth in the consumption of content and media. The platform approach, with its uniform implementation of technologies and supporting tools, documentation, and examples, will continue to offer developers the easiest route to seize mass-market opportunities.

And more information can be had in this PDF, most notably:

An enhanced UI with transitions support providing smooth-state transitions during UI navigation.

Additional audio and video codecs with support for Windows Media Video (WMV) 9, and Windows Media Audio (WMA) 10.

Extended WLAN capabilities.

Series 40 6th Edition — OMA MMS version 1.3 is supported, and the maximum supported message size has been increased to 600 kB.

Small screenshot (not 1:1 pixel scale):

Virtually the whole world over has adopted, or is rumored to be adopting, unlimited data pricing structures in anticipation of the iPhone 3G launch. That is, except Canada. Well, not Canada, per se, but Canada’s oft mis-guided and confusingly business un-savvy wireless carriers.

Today’s example of how NOT to do business in a competitive wireless industry comes from Rogers (NYSE: RCI) Wireless. Upon announcing their iPhone 3G rate plans, it seems that Rogers may very well have shot themselves in the foot. With iPhone 3G rate plans that seem to mock potential iPhone 3G customers with conspicuously absent unlimited data offerings and bundled minutes that further seem to deride Canadian iPhone 3G hopefuls’ intelligence, Rogers Canada may just well lose a considerable amount of business from scorned customers.

If the reaction to Rogers’ announcement on HowardForums, and our gut feeling, is any indication, Rogers’ attempt to maximize (read: greedily coerce) profit from iPhone 3G fans could end up netting the Canadian GSM carrier lower revenue than if they had offered the iPhone 3G calling plans at more favorable price-points and/or with more bundled service.

[Via: HoFo]

Thanks, Andrew!

In a recent interview, Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s CEO proclaimed that not only will Verizon Wireless succeed in capturing a significant portion of US customers looking to get in on the mobile internet boom, but that wireless carriers will have the power to control emerging wireless service business models.Rather than coming to terms with his company’s, as well as wireless carriers around the world, demise in to dumb-pipe-dom, Ivan Seidenberg insists that wireless operators can maintain their strangle-hold on the wireless landscape -by forcing customers to choose in-house services over third-party service like push email, streaming video, etc.Seemingly bitter that Seidenberg essentially blew his chance to take full control of Verizon Wireless by buying out Vodafone’s 45% stake and then passing up the chance to be the exclusive US iPhone carrier, the Verizon Communications CEO goes on to deride Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Steve Jobs as nothing more than passing fads that will eventually “grow old.” While the iPhone hype may die down, as Ivan would like to see, there’s no getting around the fact that mobile operators will eventually be reduced to nothing more than network connections through which savvy consumers will be passing data in their quest for superior third-party services.Here’s the thing. It’s one thing to declare your company in great shape and having achieve fantastic success in recent years – both of which are true of Verizon Wireless’s growing business. But, it’s a completely different thing to proclaim that you have complete control over the direction that the wireless industry is headed. If I were a Verizon investor, I’d be wary of the company’s leadership looking to maintain unrealistic control over a continually changing wireless landscape. Ivan Seidenberg’s stubbornness against change may be more of a liability than an asset.[Via: FT]Image from DigitalDaily

We’re still waiting for Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to get real with their Motorola Z10 slider in the US. So, in the meantime, Rafe from AllAboutSymbian has posted some live shots of the Motorola Z10 in action.

Like the Motorola Z8, the Z10 features that trick kick-slider. But, with a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, onboard video editing software, and higher-quality materials, the Motorola Z10 has more to be desired. Of course, there aren’t any indications that Motorola is planning to bring this desirable slider to its largest market in the US, but here’s to hoping.

I just want to end by saying that Motorola needs to get off their duffs and flood the market with as many reviews of this thing as possible. The UIQ3-powered Motorola Z10 has considerable promise, but nobody will know about it if Moto doesn’t blitz the media-space. Especially if Motorola hopes to get out of the major rut they seem to be so comfortable with.. In other words, where’s my review unit, Moto?

Head over to AllAboutSymbian for more Motorola Z10 photos.

[Via: AllAboutSymbian]

The hype building around the QWERTY keyboard-toting Windows Mobile 6.1 superphones from HTC and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) has finally come to this – a keyboard review. Sure, it might seem that a review of just the keyboard falls seriously short of giving potential customers an idea for just how great the HTC Touch Pro (codename: Raphael) really is, but when push comes to shove, the HTC Touch Pro and Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 are touting their keyboard as a major feature.

MobileBurn has been lucky enough to get their hands on an early version of the HTC Touch Pro and they’ve proclaimed the keyboard on the HTC Touch Pro as superior to the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1’s QWERTY bits. With smaller buttons than HTC’s previous keyboard keys, the HTC Touch Pro’s keyboard is at once extremely usable and quite innocuous. With the keyboard tucked away under the full-body touchscreen, MobileBurn says that it’s virtually impossible (aside from the added heft) to tell that the handset sports a full QWERTY keyboard.

Unfortunately, HTC didn’t want their TouchFLO 3D interface getting toyed with just yet. Apparently, there are some new features that HTC wants to keep under wraps for now. That means MobileBurn’s review is limited to just keyboard and design analysis. But, for anyone looking to plunk down some serious coin for either the HTC Touch Pro or the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, any sort of review is gold.

[Via: MobileBurn]

While not exactly a new idea for the iPhone, it seems that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is capitalizing on the iPhone’s huge multi-touch display to bring wireless remote-control functionality to iTunes. The latest iTunes 7.7 preview that was released to developers indicates that Apple is preparing to enable iPhones and iPod Touches as wireless remote controls for iTunes.

We’ve been waiting for Apple to officially roll out a feature like this ever since we discovered references in the iPhone 2.0 OS firmware betas that hinted as such.

The remote control feature will apparently be available as a free application through the AppStore, slated to go live in a couple weeks. We’re assuming that a WiFi wireless network will be needed for your iPhone to “talk” to your iTunes application, much like Buddy Remote.

Here’s the bit of text that got us excited:

Use iTunes 7.7 to sync music, video, and more with iPhone 3G, and download applications from the iTunes Store exclusively designed for iPhone and iPod touch with software version 2.0 or later. Also use the new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home — a free download from the App Store.

The iPhone 3G and iPhone as a remote control for iTunes makes perfect sense, and with a little luck, we’ll see it happen in the coming weeks.

[Via: MacRumors]

This sounds all too familiar. Like Helio’s inability to turn a profit despite increasing their cash inflow, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) has posted their Q4 earnings to disappointing effect.

Palm highlighted the fact that their revenue was up 29%, based on smartphones sales of 968,000 units totaling $296.2 million. But, it wasn’t enough to hide the fact that the Palm Centro’s spectacular success wasn’t enough to bring Palm any profit. The outfit ended the fourth quarter with a $43.4 million net loss.

Palm’s fiscal announcement works out to an adjusted loss of 22 cents per share, falling short of Wall Street’s expectation of an 18 cent loss per share.

What can we say. Palm’s return to profitability is likely going to be a long road, and a loss was expected for this particular quarter. But, the good news is that smartphones sales saw a much-needed upturn.

[Via: Unstrung]

It’s live! The latest iPhone SDK has been seeded to developers looking to get their wares ready for the AppStore launch on July 11. The iPhone SDK beta 8 is the SDK that will work with the final iPhone 2.0 OS firmware – the “Gold Master” if you will.

Today is the day that speculation pegs as the day that the iPhone 2.0 OS firmware goes “gold.” If true, the launch of the iPhone SDK beta 8 makes sense. This latest SDK is required to sign and build applications that will work with the final iPhone 2.0 OS version.

Download the iPhone SDK here.