The Global Blackberry Outage Is Over…. Now The Blame Game Begins

At a news conference today, the two headed CEO combo over at RIM declared the global Blackberry outage over:

Co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie informed investors and reporters on a conference call that the service to all BlackBerry customers in all regions of the world had been restored as of the wee hours of Thursday morning.

What happened? Here’s what Lazaridis said:

He explained that on Monday there was a hardware failure on a dual redundant core switch that had been designed to help protect the BlackBerry infrastructure that failed. This switch failure caused the e-mail and messaging services to go down in Europe, India, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South America.

The backup switching architecture did not work as intended and the systems in Europe quickly became overwhelmed, which is how the issue began rippling to other parts of the world. When technicians restarted the system, it took a long time for the backlog of messages and data passing through the infrastructure to become stable.

Now that service is restored, customers should be seeing inboxes on their BlackBerry smartphones fill up with messages that had been sent and queued up in the system.

“When you start to see the traffic flowing very quickly, that’s a very good thing,” co-CEO Jim Balsillie said.

Now the real problems for RIM begins:

“We are reviewing our options in terms of compensation,” said a spokesman for Britain’s Vodafone , adding that “no decisions have been taken.”

Spain’s Telefonica said on its web site it would compensate customers, in line with Spanish law. Spanish Consumer Association FACUA estimated that clients will receive 0.23-1.90 euros ($0.31-$2.62) for each 24 hours of service interruption.

It gets worse for RIM:

Colombia’s government launched an investigation Wednesday into BlackBerry service outages that have disrupted email and instant-messaging, and said it may force the product’s maker, Research in Motion Ltd., to pay back its customers in the South American nation.

“When a customer pays for a service, they have a right to receive that service in full,” Alejandro Giraldo, who oversees consumer protection at the Colombian government’s regulatory agency for companies, said in a phone interview.

So RIM may have fixed the outage, but their problems are starting. Sucks to be them.

Day 4 Of The Global Blackberry Outage…. Mike Lazaridis Speaks

So, things seem to be improving with Blackberry service worldwide. But things are not back to normal yet. Having said that, we have one major development. Mike Lazaridis who is the co-CEO of RIM posted a statement on the Blackberry website via YouTube. I’ve posted the YouTube version below:

This is the first time that senior management at RIM has said anything about this global fiasco. One has to think that they should have been out in front of this much earlier. The fact is that RIM may fix this problem, and things may return to normal. But the damage is done. RIM’s reputation is in tatters and you can hear people running to the Apple Store to get iPhones. It’s also going to increase the pressure to dump Lazaridis and his buddy Jim Balsillie… Speaking of the latter where is he? Was he too busy trying to buy a NHL team to say anything? Sorry, I’m digressing here. The point is that this is quickly becoming the event that is either going to cause a major shakeup within the company, or kill it.

Time will tell which it’s going to be and I assure you that we will not have to wait long for the answer.

Blackberry Troubles Are Now Worldwide…. Oh My! [UPDATED x2]

We’re now into day three of this Blackberry outage and it is getting worse for RIM. The outage has now gone world wide. As I type this, the e-mails on my Blackberry are about 5 to 6 hours behind what is actually in my Outlook inbox. Also, the apps on my Blackberry that rely on Blackberry data services don’t work. For example, I can’t get weather using WeatherEye, nor does Ubersocial work.

RIM has had outages in the past. But based on my 42 year old memory, this is the worst outage that I have experienced with the company. For a device along with a network that is considered by many to be business critical, this is a massive blow to RIM. They’re going to have to really regain the confidence of their users to keep this from being the nail in their coffin.

UPDATE: Mail has sporadically appeared on my Blackberry over the past few hours, but it’s still behind what’s actually in my inbox. Data services still seem to be problematic as well. Perhaps I should be shopping for an iPhone 4S seeing as my associates who have iPhones are having zero issues getting e-mail at the moment?

UPDATE #2: Things seem to be back to “normal” at the moment. Let’s hope they stay that way.

Blackberry Outage Into Day 2…. And It Grows

RIM goes from bad to worse today with the news that they haven’t resolved that outage in Europe, Middle East And Africa. But added to that is the fact that the outage has now spread to South America and India. It now turns out that the issue is with the Blackberry infrastructure:

Research in Motion Ltd. said the disruptions — which affected users from Europe to Latin America — were due to a failure within the company’s own infrastructure. A transition to a back-up switch did not function as tested, causing a large backlog of data, RIM said.

It was the first time the company offered an explanation of the outage since problems first occurred Monday morning.

“We are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible,” the company said in a brief statement.

So it sounds like they are starting to right the ship. But I think the damage is done. An infrastructure that cannot stay up 24/7, 365 days a year is one that business will avoid. I wonder where they’ll look for replacement smartphones? Hmmmm… There’s this company Cupertino, Ca that just pre-sold a million of some new type of smartphone. Perhaps they’ll get some interest?

Probation For iPhone Prototype Sellers

You might recall that Apple “lost” a prototype phone which set off a bit of a circus that included police raids. Now the people who sold the phone to Gizmodo got their day in court:

The men, who were accused of selling the device to gadget blog Gizmodo last year, were sentenced to one year of probation, 40 hours of public service, and a requirement that each pay $250 in restitution to Apple, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told CNET.

Brian Hogan, the man who allegedly found the prototype in a bar, and Sage Wallower, who allegedly helped Hogan shop the device around to technology sites, were charged with misdemeanor theft in early August. They allegedly obtained the prototype iPhone 4 after Robert Gray Powell, an Apple computer engineer who was 28 years old at the time, left it in a German beer garden in Redwood City, Calif., about half an hour’s drive from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.

Well. That puts an end to this story. As long as it doesn’t happen again.

Oh wait.

Blackberry Users In Europe, Middle East And Africa Knocked Offline

Chances are that if you’re a Blackberry user in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, you likely didn’t use your Blackberry much due to an outage to the Blackberry network:

The glitch, which struck at around 11AM, was affecting online services for consumers all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa. All are served by a RIM data centre in Slough.

They have been unable to browse the web or instant messages, or access other internet services such as email.

A RIM spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Users who are served by a corporate server appeared to be unaffected

Charming. This is the last thing that RIM needs at the moment. I hate to say it, but this might be a reason for Blackberry users to switch to something else. Even if RIM beefs things up, I don’t think people fully trust RIM’s ability to keep their network up.

“White Hot” Samsung Galaxy S II 4G Available At Bell

Samsung sent me an e-mail to mention that a white version of their Galaxy S II 4G smart version is now available at Bell:

Equipped with a powerful 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, this ultra thin device is designed to run at incredible maximum speeds of 21 Mbps on the Bell network. The brilliant 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus display delivers vibrant colors, clearer graphics and wider viewing angles. It also comes loaded with an 8 megapixel camera with flash, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, plus a 1080p camcorder to capture and play back full HD. Available for $599.95 no term or $149.95 on a 3-year contract.

I’ve seen the original version of this phone and it looks good. If you want a color other than black, then you should check this out.

Review: Rogers LTE Network – Part 4: The Wrap Up

So I’ve lived with Rogers LTE for a week. The question is, what do I think about it?

First, it’s FAST. I got speeds of 20+ Mbps downstream in various parts of Toronto. While it’s not the 75 Mbps that they advertise, it’s noting to sneeze at. Second, the Sierra Wireless Aircard 313U that I reviewed was a very nice piece of kit. Easy to install and easy to use. The coverage at least in Toronto largely means the 416/647 area code. I did some further testing and found that it their coverage does creep into the suburbs outside of Toronto, but I would not bank on coverage deep into the suburbs. Two things that I should mention on that front. First, that’s likely to change as LTE gets extended by Rogers. Second, this is likely going to be the case in Ottawa, Montreal, and Vancouver as well. The only part that I would give Rogers LTE falls down is the price. It’s not cheap. The average consumer isn’t going to be using LTE anytime soon and I suspect that some business users might be turned off of going to LTE as well. If the price for LTE drops, they will have a winner on their hands because everything else about Rogers LTE rocks.

Review: Rogers LTE Network – Part 3: The Plans

The big question that I’m being asked is what does LTE go for on the Rogers network. Let me start with their current “must have” plan. A 10GB data plan for $52.93 per month on a 3 year plan. That’s a limited time offer, although I have no word on when this offer ends. Other plans include:

• $47.93 for 2GB
• $62.93 for 4GB
• $77.93 for 6GB
• $92.93 for 9GB

One thing I’ll point out is that if you blow past your cap at a given level, you get bumped up to the next level. Having said this, none of these plans can be described as cheap. But the 10GB data plan is your best choice if you must have LTE. I for one as a business user won’t be paying these kind of prices for LTE even though I can write this off as a business expense. They’re just too high for my tastes. Many others will likely share that view. I suspect that this will affect the adoption of Rogers LTE.

Tomorrow, I’ll wind up this review with my closing thoughts.

Steve Jobs: 1955 – 2011

Today was a very strange day.

I had an appointment tonight at 8PM at the Apple Genius Bar to have the battery of my MacBook Pro replaced under AppleCare. When my turn came, I stepped up to the Genius Bar and started to explain the fact that my MacBook Pro started displaying the “Service Battery” error. At about this time, a hush fell over the store and the moods of the Apple Store employees changed. I found that to be weird. At that moment my Blackberry vibrated. When that happens, it’s usually a customer needing help or my wife needing me for something. I took a look there was a message from an associate asking me if I had heard about Steve Jobs. I had a funny feeling as I typed in “no.” A few seconds later I got a text back.

“He died.”

I was in shock. I was thinking that this couldn’t be right. Then my wife texted me to say that Steve Jobs is dead. Then I knew it was for real.

There’s no way that I could begin to describe what Steve Jobs has done. Let’s face it, he’s done a lot that we now take for granted. iPods, iPads, iPhones are just the tip of the iceberg. We have technologies that we take for granted because he decided to start a company in a garage and sell computers for $666. If you want to get the full list, I’d try Wikipeda. But take it from me. Even Windows users should be thanking Steve Jobs. He’s done that much.

Here’s what Apple had to say:

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

If you want to express you’re condolences, click here. Apple has set up a page and an e-mail address for people to express their condolences. I find that fitting seeing as you could sometimes get a response if you e-mailed him.

So as I type this, I have a new battery in my MacBook Pro (Many thanks to the Apple Store in Sherway Gardens for doing the battery swap on the spot). However the world has lost a truly great man.

May he rest in peace.