Outmoded

Outmoded
Originally uploaded by enrevanche.

Doc, at They Rode On, is holding a reader photo contest called "Thirteen ways of looking at a BlackBerry." It is inspired by a picture a friend sent him (and it's quite a good one).

Here's my entry.

I call this piece “Outmoded.”

Pictured, left to right: Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry Curve, generously provided by my employer, adjacent to Apple’s new iPhone, generously provided by me, both displaying a favorite blog.

Blackberry Outage

A system failure knocked out BlackBerry service to millions of customers late Tuesday but the company said Wednesday morning that service for "most customers" was restored.

A statement from the company said: "A service interruption occurred Tuesday night that affected BlackBerry in North America. E-mail delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption."

"Root cause is currently under review, but service for most customers was restored overnight and RIM is closely monitoring systems in order to maintain normal service levels," the statement said.

BlackBerry Service Back (CNN/Money)

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

Cracking the BlackBerry

...or "Hacking the CrackBerry," etc.

The security model of that BlackBerry on your hip isn't holding up very well to third-party scrutiny.

According to a white paper by John O'Connor, a researcher on Symantec's security response team, hackers can pay $100 for an API developer key that can open doors to the theft of data from Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices.

O'Connor's paper was briefly posted -- and quickly yanked -- from a blog entry discussing the future of the BlackBerry device. It is not yet clear why Symantec pulled the paper (the rumor mill says it's being saved for a conference presentation) but a quick peek at the findings suggests there might have been some external pressure involved.

eWeek Security Watch: Cracking the Blackberry with a $100 Key

Related: Symantec Weblog: Hacking the BlackBerry