You are aware they have zero debt and are sitting on over a billion in cash and growing? Yes, growing their cash, even this quarter with all the doom and gloom. You have a very interesting definition of "bleeding money out their assholes". They're also adding subscribers, total number of people with active BlackBerrys is at an all time high. They have their issues but they're not going to be filing for bankruptcy tomorrow, despite common perception.

There is a key qualified there, that you've "owned or seen". The new BB7 devices really don't get the credit they should have and very few people know them. Everyone seems to have missed that RIM changed their UI over to 60fps hardware accelerated rendering. The result is an experience far smoother than the vast majority of Android devices. Things like pinch zoom in the browser are as smooth as iOS.

I'm not going to tell you that BlackBerry has a ton of apps, I'd be deluding myself. But the IM, email and social networking experience the GP was referring to is really unmatched by other platforms.

There's a difference between "can't afford" and "not willing to pay for". If you look at the US and government spending as a percentage of GDP ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending#Government_spending_as_a_percentage_of_GDP ) it's not that out of line with other countries. The problem is that taxation as a percentage of GDP hasn't kept up to pay for it all.

I'm not going to say the US shouldn't cut anything, but what to cut is really outside the scope of this and discussing it wouldn't end well. To point is just that, other economically successful countries (say Canada, which doesn't have a debt crisis) manage with governments that spend an even larger amount of money. The US could afford what it currently spends if it raised taxes to levels seen in many other developed countries, or even just close to those levels.

The Kindle Fire has half the RAM, half the storage of the PB base model, no cameras, no Bluetooth, single band WiFi, slower CPU/GPU, and lower quality (less accurate) touch screen. There may be other changes too, wouldn't be surprised if it was a lower quality LCD panel, the PB's is amazing and with that expensive.

RIM has been quite clear they're not abandoning the PlayBook, and have stated so officially on multiple occasions. Already there are starting to be rumours about a PlayBook 2. The OS on the PlayBook will power their next generation of phones, so they've got strong incentive to keep software development going. Despite all the bad press RIM remains quite profitable, making many hundreds of millions per year and selling over 40 million devices per year. They're not going to go bankrupt any time soon, and short of their bankruptcy the PlayBook won't be abandoned.

The thing about the PlayBook though is that it's already open enough you don't really need the root. What is this "unofficial code"? RIM already has a publicly available C/C++ Native SDK, they've even ported several open source apps and libraries themselves and made them available on Github. The PlayBook has also permitted sideloading since day one, so it's not even like you need RIM approval.

Don't expect Android to be loaded onto it, RIM has always used very secure locked bootloaders.

On the upside, OS 2.0 already has MKV support. It's in the developer beta.

Go to Menu -> Modules while in the applications list and you'll see every module. Opening up an application will also show you the modules for that application, and let you edit the app's permissions. I see everything that's an actual app my carrier (Rogers) has installed, and found the Rogers certificates. The VPLs (virtual pre-loads) are just homescreen bookmarks so they're not listed as apps until you open them and do the installation. Most things carriers push are just VPLs.

I should point out though that your carrier already knows what numbers you dialled and when you received messages. Anything that connects off device is obviously readable and loggable by them, BES of course excepted due to the encryption.

It does serve a useful purpose though. One, it provides push email service even for accounts only accessible over POP/IMAP/OWA. While obviously the push isn't instant, it does result in significant battery/data savings. It also enables compression, which I definitely appreciate when roaming. Compression also means better battery life.

You're right though that it doesn't strictly need to be there. I do think ActiveSync support is a good idea, and I do think we'll see it on BBX.

In either case my point wasn't really about the merits. In the years I've owned a BlackBerry I've only experienced two of those outages and they've been short enough. BlackBerry sure has its issues, but reliability is a pretty minor one.

It just means the app. Given Google's desire for Google Apps to be taken seriously in the enterprise I doubt the BES Connector will be discontinued any time soon.

Any device shipped in the last two years has either come with or is upgradeable to OS 6, meaning a WebKit browser. OS 7 actually has a pretty nice browser, the 60 fps hardware acceleration means it's much smoother than Android when scrolling/zooming. Pages also load quite fast. Okay, not quite as fast as the iPhone 4S, but an iPhone 4-like browsing experience is hardly "awful".

In the past decade RIM has had 3 big outages. While less than ideal it's not exactly an awful track record either. Any system inevitably has some downtime.

The newer BIS versions actually permit you to search remotely in the native client and access your full email history. In your inbox go Menu -> Search By -> Advanced. There's an On Device/Remotely option. Used to be exclusively BES, but that's changed. If you don't see it delete and re-add the account in the email setup app, some of the newer features require initial (automatic) setup steps.

@Pseudonym Authority With newer devices that limit has been increased 10x. I've never had a message be truncated. That limit doesn't include external images or attachments.

You can get a hosted BES/Exchange setup for a small fee. You have to have a trusted hosting provider in a country you consider safe.

Unlike many of the custom Android solutions being suggested on here, this requires an unmodified BlackBerry in a setup that is standard for pretty much any company. Having a setup which is highly customized for evading surveillance might work well, but if you're caught with it the consequences could be severe. Having something which is standard fare among business travellers makes you far less suspicious. Many oppressive regimes will throw you in jail even without being able to decrypt your data if they think it's suspicious enough.

As other posters have pointed out, RIM only provides access to BIS data. If you're running BES (an enterprise server) there's no way RIM can hand over your data. They've had the BES server software audited by independent agencies to confirm its security. Additionally, the on-device security is excellent. Unlike certain other mobile platforms there have been no attacks that can bypass the password lock screen. Additionally there's a full set of encryption and memory cleaning options.