March 16th, 2008
Russell Shaw, rest in peace
Editor’s note: Russell Shaw passed away on March 14. For more information, see Between the Lines. His family requested that we post this notice so people know that all scheduled meetings are canceled.
February 28th, 2008
BlackBerry with slide-out keyboard described in new Patent app
A new BlackBerry Patent app just published Thursday describes technology for a BlackBerry device with a slide-out keyboard.
The Patent app is entitled, Hybrid Portrait-Landscape Handheld Device With Trackball Navigation and Qwerty Hideaway Keyboard.
The Patent abstract, and the accompanying illustration, pretty much tells us what we need to know.
Here’s the Abstract:
A device is disclosed for use in two different orientations. In one orientation, the keyboard is exposed to the user.
This orientation is named the landscape orientation because the device will be positioned such that its width is larger than its height. The user would opt for the landscape orientation for tasks that require the keyboard, such as inputting data, drafting emails, sending emails, and other functions typically associated with a standard computer.
The other orientation is named the portrait orientation because the device will be positioned such that its height is larger than its width. In addition, the keyboard is not used in this orientation and therefore hidden away.
The user would opt for the portrait orientation for tasks such as making and receiving telephone calls and for reading documents and emails.
The device detects the orientation positioned by the user and modifies the elements shown on the display screen so that they are presented in the correct orientation to the user.
February 28th, 2008
BlackBerry Patent app describes “Ergonomic Cursor Controller”
A newly published BlackBerry Patent application entitled Ergonomic Navigation Cursor Controller For a Handheld Mobile Communication Device specifies technology for a “navigation button” dedicated to controlling the movements of a cursor on a BlackBerry screen.
The Abstract is rather specific. It calls for:
An ergonomic cursor navigation controller for a handheld mobile communication device generally includes a navigation button having a ringed and waved upper surface and may further include an execution button disposed within a perimeter defined by the ringed and waved upper surface. The navigation button is provided for navigating a cursor about an electronic graphical display of the handheld mobile communication device. The ringed and waved configuration of the controller facilitates improved tactile operation of the controller and reduces the occurrence of pressing incorrect buttons on the handheld mobile communication device.
In this Patent app’s art, Figure 22 offers an informative view of what’s being proposed here. The controller is element 34 in the grab:
February 20th, 2008
Remember this, BlackBerry: when it comes to customer communications, it’s NOT all about the carriers
Once again, there were scattered BlackBerry service outages yesterday. This time, it was maintenance on the BlackBerry Internet Service side of the business. The one that forwards your other email account messages to your BlackBerry.
Unfortunately, yesterday proved that when it comes to letting customers know what the you-know-what is going on, BlackBerry’s notification processes are extremely flawed.
These outage notification processes seem to entirely consist of:
Email alerts directly from RIM to key commercial accounts.
There doesn’t seem to be a system in place for letting smaller accounts, and individuals who access BlackBerry services via their cell carrier from knowing what is going on.
No “we have reports of scattered BlackBerry outages” notifications on the BlackBerry and RIM sites. There also doesn’t seem to be a regular structure in place for letting carriers know of these disruptions in a manner that would enable these carriers to post outage-related notifications and updates on their own sites.
These have been flaws ever since I can remember.
Plainly, these flaws call not only for engineering new business processes that let all BlackBerry customers know about outages.
If it means taking a few carriers by the scruff of the neck and getting them in the customer alert loop, then so be it.
I still have my doubts this will be done right away. Even if the will to do so was there, BlackBerry is so subservient to their carriers I doubt they lack the will or the vision to architect subscriber alert systems such as the type I am proposing here.
February 20th, 2008
Numerous BlackBerry BIS service outages reported
Numerous posters on BlackBerry board Pinstack are reporting some BlackBerry BIS service outages.
“I love my bb, but this is getting ridiculous,” one poster writes.
I beg to agree.
Update: Reports are coming in pointing to issues with “scheduled maintenance,” but generally attesting to network back up around 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT.
February 19th, 2008
Will BlackBerry OS 4.6.0 see fix to battery drain issues? Perhaps not
We hear via Boy Genius Report’s traditionally well placed sources that BlackBerry OS 4.6.0 is out of internal development and is now in the carrier certification process.
That could be could news. Or it might not matter.
Those in the know, and tend to go through life seeing the glass half-full hope that this OS build could address battery 
suck issues that seem to plague most if not every mobile device capable of running Wi-Fi or GPS.
“The good news is that the introduction of the carrier certification process,” Jibi writes, “may indicate the remote possibility that a workaround and/or resolution has been implemented for the new does-it-all device.”
I wonder that since these battery drain issues seem to have a lot to do with extra power for signal acquisition and retention, whether or not these problems are more related to network issues.
February 19th, 2008
Analyst: BlackBerry service glitches ignite “concerns,” but no harm done (yet)
I’ve just been sent a copy of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion stock analyst Mike Abramsky’s brand new, quite detailed analysis on RIM.
There’s plenty to chew on in this RBC Capital Markets report.
The first thing I wanted to know is Abramsky’s take on what effect, if any, the Feb.11 BlackBerry service outage will have on RIM’s business.
Summary: the incident reignites “concerns,” but wont effect sales of new BlackBerrys.
On Feb 11, RIM suffered a service disruption, leaving 8M BlackBerry users in the Americas without service for 3 hours, due to a problem with a system upgrade intended to increase capacity. The outage offers ST headline risk and reignites concerns over dependencies on RIM’s service, but is unlikely in our view to affect sales momentum (RIM’s last disruption was 10 months ago).
Abramsky then gives us some info on the Network Operations Center (NOC) where the outage occurred.
We est. RIM’s centralized NOC architecture now handles est. up to 1-2B emails per day (75-150 emails/day/user x 12M subs) or equivalent to 10%+ of global phone traffic, growing at 72% CAGR. The NOC also provides RIM with its competitive advantages — push email, security, bandwidth efficiency, etc. and offloads overhead from internal email servers, which are often less reliable.
Hmm, quite a busy place. Apparently too busy to institute robust redundancies?
February 18th, 2008
RIM and Motorola sue each other in silly patent dispute
Note: This post is duplicated on my IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband blog.
Just within the last few days, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion and Motorola have sued each other for Patent 
infringement.
Motorola’s big issue seems to be a feeling that in most of its 8xxx series models, RIM’s method of storing contact info in wireless emails, and its ability to recognize incoming phone numbers are tantamount to infringement.
RIM fired back, accusing, by implication, Motorola’s Q email phone of offering thumb keyboards awfully similar to several BlackBerry models.
RIM also says that Motorola’s patent royalty fee structure is “exorbitant.”
I have to tell you that some of the capabilities each company is suing each other about seem rather established, and yes, generic to me.
Hate to use the “t” (as in troll) word, but this really sounds like a neh-neh fight you sometimes see in and around sandboxes.
What do you think?
February 13th, 2008
NOC-NOC, who’s there? Or, “I’ve seen the thumbwheel and the damage done”
NOC= (Blackberry-maker Research In Motion’s Network Operations Center in Waterloo, Ont.) 
As to the latter portion of this post’s title, NOT an original.
Readers of a certain vintage may recognize that saying as an adaptation from an old Neil Young song entitled “I’ve Seen The Needle and the Damage Done.”
My colleague Tom Krazit gives the phrase a fresh meaning as he puts up a post containing observations about BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion’s Tuesday service outage, as well as continued practice of running pretty much all BlackBerry email and data traffic through its Network Operations Center.
Tom writes in part:
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that expansion efforts at RIM’s NOC may have been to blame for the outage. The problem isn’t that the servers are in Canada; they could be anywhere. It’s just that everything has to go through the one location. In theory, as long as you have enough redundant backup systems and plans, that shouldn’t be a problem. But every now and then, it is.
Frank Gilman, the chief technology officer for Los Angeles law firm Allen Matkins, was forced to deal with the outage Monday afternoon. “What surprised me was the apparent lack of a solid business continuity plan on RIM’s part to ensure reasonable connectivity,” he said via e-mail, of course. “A company that is marketing devices that increase the mobility of professionals should have systems and contingencies in effect to avoid an outage of that size and duration.”
This can lead to problems.
As Tom points out, and I so totally agree, not having multi-site redundancy for when this sheet hits the fan kind of leaves enterprises who have put full faith in BlackBerry’s “five nines” Service Level Agreements in a real pickle.
That’s so not OK.
If you are an enterprise BlackBerry user, I’d love to read your thoughts on this. Would you rather that RIM offer more redundancy, including perhaps, addl NOC(s).
February 12th, 2008
BlackBerry: outage probably caused by data routing system upgrade glitch
BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has just said an early investigation is pointing to a problem with an upgrade of a data routing system.
The upgrade was part of an ongoing effort to expand capacity for long-term growth, it noted.
More as we learn more.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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Recent Entries
- Russell Shaw, rest in peace
- BlackBerry with slide-out keyboard described in new Patent app
- BlackBerry Patent app describes “Ergonomic Cursor Controller”
- Remember this, BlackBerry: when it comes to customer communications, it’s NOT all about the carriers
- Numerous BlackBerry BIS service outages reported
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