BlackBerry

Chinese company TCL buys global rights to BlackBerry phone brand

by @jjvincent Dec 16, 2016, 5:37am EST

BlackBerry has signed over (mostly) global rights to use its branding on phones to Chinese manufacturer TCL. The news follows an announcement by the Canadian company in September that it would stop making its own phones and concentrate instead on...

New, 20 comments

BlackBerry makes the DTEK60 official, available today for $499

by @dcseifert Oct 25, 2016, 8:00am EDT

BlackBerry is adding a new phone to its stable today, the higher-end DTEK60. It follows the release of the DTEK50 from earlier this year and has better specs and features than the entry-level model. The DTEK60 is available unlocked direct from...

New, 19 comments

BlackBerry's success led to its failure

by @vladsavov Sep 30, 2016, 10:00am EDT

It’s mobile prehistory at this point, but there was once a time when the ultimate smartphone you could get was a BlackBerry. Before Apple’s iPhone arrived, Google’s first Android prototypes were basically BlackBerry clones. It’s easy to think of...

New, 107 comments

BlackBerry's physical keyboard isn't going away yet

by @MicahSingleton Sep 29, 2016, 2:00pm EDT

After BlackBerry announced it was finished building its own smartphones yesterday, many people were concerned it signaled the end of the company's iconic QWERTY keyboards. But CEO John Chen put those worries to bed, clarifying in an interview...

BlackBerry says it's done designing and building its own phones

by @jjvincent Sep 28, 2016, 7:52am EDT

BlackBerry has announced that it plans to stop making its own phones as the struggling company continues to focus on its software and security products. This is far from the end of BlackBerry devices, the production of which will be outsourced to...

New, 82 comments

BlackBerry’s next rumored Android phone, the DTEK60, passed through the FCC

by @ashleyrcarman Sep 27, 2016, 5:30pm EDT

BlackBerry released its DTEK50 last month (pictured above) as a its second Android phone following the Priv. We heard rumors that the company would be launching more Android devices, possibly one for each quarter for the next two quarters. This...

New, 7 comments

BlackBerry DTEK50 review: secure, but not special

by Chris Welch Aug 29, 2016, 1:15pm EDT

Last year BlackBerry launched the Priv, its first-ever Android smartphone. The Priv represented another attempt by BlackBerry to reinvent itself for the modern mobile era and build something worthy of competing with Apple, Samsung, and other...

New, 14 comments

Listen to a Lana Del Rey tribute to BlackBerry Messenger and the good ol' days of sexting

by Kaitlyn Tiffany Aug 16, 2016, 3:07pm EDT

Lana Del Rey's peppiest tracks are always about classic American brands: Pepsi cola, Mountain Dew, James Dean, Lolita shades, Bruce Springsteen, et cetera. A recently unearthed 2011 demo about BlackBerry Messenger is no exception, but it is the...

New, 8 comments

Let's help Kim Kardashian replace her dead BlackBerry Bold

by Jamieson Cox Aug 3, 2016, 3:33pm EDT

It's a sad day in Waterloo, folks: Kim Kardashian West, international celebrity and staunch defender of the physical keyboard's merits, has given up on her beloved BlackBerry Bold. While Kardashian has other phones — she uses an iPhone 6S for...

New, 27 comments

BlackBerry makes its Hub software available for all Android Marshmallow devices

by @dcseifert Aug 3, 2016, 10:10am EDT

BlackBerry has today announced that it's making its Hub software available for all Android devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or newer. The Hub, which combines email, messaging, social networking, and other accounts together in one dashboard,...

New, 10 comments

Circuit Breaker

Hands-on with BlackBerry's touchscreen phone

by @vladsavov Jul 27, 2016, 8:26am EDT

What company in 2016 advertises a phone as having a touchscreen? BlackBerry does. Now, I know it's because the Canadian mobile granddad distinguishes between its keyboard and touch devices, but does that really need to be on the box? BlackBerry...

New, 90 comments

BlackBerry says its new Android smartphone is the 'world's most secure'

by @dcseifert Jul 26, 2016, 11:10am EDT

BlackBerry has announced its second Android smartphone today, the DTEK50. The device, which shares hardware specifications and design with the Alcatel Idol 4, is a midrange, all-touchscreen smartphone. BlackBerry is touting the security features...

New, 64 comments

Don’t panic: BlackBerry’s keyboard is here to stay

by @ashleyrcarman Jul 7, 2016, 11:46am EDT

BlackBerry announced plans to discontinue its Classic phone yesterday, and following that news, multiple media outlets reported that the phone’s discontinuation spelled doom for physical keyboards. Those reports are false, of course, but...

New, 14 comments

BlackBerry is reportedly going to release three new Android phones

by @ashleyrcarman Jul 1, 2016, 12:20pm EDT

BlackBerry isn’t ready to give up on Android. The company is reportedly planning to release three new Android phones this year, which will come out one per quarter for the next three quarters, according to VentureBeat. That’s a lot of Android on...

New, 41 comments

Senate staffers will no longer be issued official Blackberry smartphones

by @kwameopam Jul 1, 2016, 11:18am EDT

The age of the Blackberry as the go-to mobile device in Congress is finally coming to an end. Senate staffers were informed this week that BlackBerry devices won't be issued after the already-limited supplies run out. Though BlackBerry plans on...

PayPal is shutting down its Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Amazon apps

by Chris Welch May 25, 2016, 6:44pm EDT

PayPal is thinning the number of mobile operating systems supported by the company's flagship app down to just two: Android and iOS. The PayPal mobile apps for Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Amazon's Fire OS will be discontinued as of June 30th. I...

New, 40 comments

BBM gets video calling, years after video calling was introduced

by @ashleyrcarman May 4, 2016, 3:46pm EDT

BlackBerry updated BBM this week to allow for video calls. It's currently available in beta on Android and iOS for North American users. The rest of world will get the update in July. The company says on its blog that BBM users are "on-trend" in...

New, 11 comments

The Blackberry Priv is getting Marshmallow and a sweet swipe keyboard

by @ashleyrcarman Apr 26, 2016, 3:12pm EDT

The BlackBerry Priv is getting Android Marshmallow starting on May 3rd. But more importantly than that general update is what the recent OS brings with it. The Priv's physical and digital keyboards are getting a major upgrade where they'll be able...

New, 23 comments

BlackBerry CEO: tech companies should help government with ‘reasonable’ data requests

by @nickstatt Apr 18, 2016, 7:23pm EDT

BlackBerry CEO John Chen responded today to reports claiming the company cooperated with Canadian police to intercept and decrypt more than one million secure messages sent using BlackBerry devices. Although he did not confirm or deny having...

New, 32 comments

Canadian police have had master key to BlackBerry's encryption since 2010

by @nickstatt Apr 14, 2016, 5:44pm EDT

Canadian police have been in possession of a BlackBerry master encryption key since 2010, according to a pair of blockbuster reports today from Vice News and its sister site Motherboard. The reports say the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)...

New, 36 comments

BlackBerry plans to release two mid-range Android smartphones this year

by Dante D'Orazio Apr 10, 2016, 5:11pm EDT

BlackBerry isn't finished with the hardware business yet. CEO John Chen said this week in an interview with Abu Dhabi's The National that two new BlackBerry smartphones are on the way: one with a physical keyboard, and another with a full...

New, 23 comments

BlackBerry makes its BBM privacy features free

by @MicahSingleton Apr 4, 2016, 9:49am EDT

BlackBerry is making some key BBM privacy features free for all users. In an update to BBM on BlackBerry, iOS, and Android, users will be able to use Retract, which allows you to delete a message from both the sender and recipient, and Timer,...

Facebook is giving up on BlackBerry

by @nickstatt Mar 21, 2016, 8:41pm EDT

Facebook is dropping support for BlackBerry's mobile operating systems, which will force BlackBerry owners to use the social network's mobile website if they'd like to access it on the go. Lou Gazzola, BlackBerry's senior marketing manager for...

New, 24 comments

BlackBerry confirms it's laying off 200 workers

by @backlon Feb 5, 2016, 1:44pm EST

Update: BlackBerry has apparently thought better of its original strategy to try to pass off the layoffs as a "small number" and amended its original statement. The company now tells us that "approximately 200 employees have been impacted in...

New, 11 comments

The BlackBerry Priv is coming to Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint

by @nickstatt Jan 6, 2016, 2:31pm EST

BlackBerry's Priv, its Android-powered smartphone with a sliding keyboard, is coming to Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint in the US after an exclusivity period with AT&T has run out. BlackBerry CEO John Chen announced the news today at a press...

New, 8 comments

BlackBerry won't be leaving Pakistan after all

by @amartoo Jan 4, 2016, 7:55am EST

BlackBerry has decided to continue operating in Pakistan, abandoning a plan to withdraw from the country after the government demanded backdoor access to user data. In a blog post published last week, chief operating officer Marty Beard said that...

Why BlackBerry is still betting on the keyboard

by Katherine Boehret Dec 1, 2015, 3:13pm EST

You’ve probably read about the new BlackBerry Priv phone. And if you mention it to someone who hasn’t, you’re likely to tell him about its most important feature: a slide-out physical keyboard that’s supposed to be pretty good. Then watch. ...

BlackBerry leaves Pakistan following government backdoor demands

by @ashleyrcarman Nov 30, 2015, 10:29am EST

BlackBerry is pulling out of Pakistan entirely next year, saying it won't sell devices or services there because the government has demanded access to BlackBerry Enterprise Service emails and BBM chats. Pakistan issued a shutdown order on...

The 20 best deals of Black Friday 2015

by Jacob Kastrenakes Nov 27, 2015, 12:48pm EST

Black Friday is here, and it's time to start shopping. Today can be a fun day to search for deals on all the gadgets you've been wanting, but it can also get pretty overwhelming. There are pages and pages of circulars to go through and too many...

BlackBerry Priv Android slider phone will be available on Verizon, too

by Dante D'Orazio Nov 7, 2015, 6:00pm EST

It looks like AT&T won't have a domestic exclusive on the BlackBerry Priv after all. Verizon Wireless has hinted on Twitter that it, too, will offer the keyboard-equipped Android phone to its customers. No other information is available on...

New, 20 comments

Even Samsung's tiny Tizen OS is now bigger than BlackBerry

by @vladsavov Nov 5, 2015, 4:36am EST

In a mobile market dominated by Apple's iPhone and Google's stable of Android devices, there's very little room for any more competitors. Microsoft can only muster a couple of percentage points as the distant third-place contender, and everyone...

New, 44 comments

BlackBerry’s $699 Android gambit is too much too late

by @vladsavov Oct 27, 2015, 8:45am EDT

Of all the big companies that were selling mobile phones before the iPhone, every one has now either moved to making Android phones or left the market. BlackBerry was the last remaining holdout, but now it too has an Android handset in the offing,...

New, 133 comments