SlideShow: Motorola Pro+ 4G

With a touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard and Android 2.3, the Motorola PRO+ 4G  is a challenger to RIM's BlackBerry devices. Geared towards business users, this light yet full featured 1GHz smartphone features. We think the design is reminiscent of the Palm Pixi. Coming exclusively to Bell, the Motorola Pro+ 4G sells for $349 without a contract.

BlackBerry PlayBook on sale, for $300 off on all models

eReaders? Bah, get a real tablet! Like RIM's very own BlackBerry PlayBook now being discounted by $300 by a number of retailers like Best Buy, Future Shop and Staples until the 19th. This means that the 64GB model is now cheaper than what the 16GB model was! THis might make up for the fact the PlayBook still doesn't have an email client or can't send and receive BBM messages. 

Breaking: BlackBerry outage day 3 spreading to Canada, South America

It's not a good time to be a BlackBerry customer, specially if you're in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Japan, Hong Kong and more recently South America and Canada.

A report from the Globe and Mail early today pointed out that the glitches that have stalled services for millions of users not only continued but seemed to worsen.

"Users in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Japan, Hong Kong and some parts of South America suffered patchy e-mail service and no access to browsing and messaging, ratcheting up negative sentiment towards a company already losing market share to Apple and Samsung," the report stated. 

The timing of this service failure could not have come at a more sensitive time. Apple is releasing the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 mobile operating system on Friday and Samsung is expected to launch a flagship Android smartphone called the Nexus Prime as well as the latest version of the Android mobile operating system Ice Cream Sandwich.

Many of BlackBerry's customers use their device for business and have vented their disappointment and rage through social networks. RIM hasn't released any statements regarding the new developments. Earlier reports traced the problem to a server outage in Slough, U.K., where RIM operates a data center, but the company would not comment on those reports.

A Reuters report stated, "RIM, which had said on Tuesday that services had returned to normal, said later the problems had actually spread beyond EMEA and India to Argentina, Brazil and Chile."

"The messaging and browsing delays ... were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure,"  a RIM spokesman said. "As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service."

Users affected by the BlackBerry e-mail, web and BBM service problems can check the BlackBerry Service Update page which has regular status updated from Research In Motion.

Sources: Globe and Mail

               Reuters

Breaking News: BlackBerry Outage Fails Millions of users in Europe, Middle East and Africa

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

BlackBerry services for users in Africa, the Middle East and Europe have ceased since 11:00 a.m. Monday. This widespread failure is  is being blamed on a  bug on Research In Motion’s server in Slough, England  and has affected millions of users across countries, carriers ands devices. This is an unwelcome development for the already beleguered handset maker whose reputation was built on security and class-leading service. This is one reason loyal customers have remained with the smartphone maker.

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