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RIM boots Balsillie as Chairman, but he remains co-CEO
It looks like RIM co-founder Jim Balsille is out as the company's chairman of the board, although he will remain on with RIM as co-CEO. The crackberry BlackBerry maker has had a little of a black eye recently (like many tech companies) with its handling of stock option accounting, which dates all the way back to 2004. As a result, RIM will have to lower its earnings by what seems like a nice chunk of change -- $250 million. Although we don't think RIM is going anywhere fast, its recent public missteps like this one have added to a long list of woes in recent years. Just promise us, RIM, that this isn't going to affect the release schedule for the 8820, mkay?
Rogers officially announces Blackberry 8800
With the RIM 8800 having been through the review cycle recently, it seems fitting for Canada's Rogers Wireless to officially announce the newer Blackberry for sale from official channels -- not quite so fast though. The press release from Rogers states that the 8800 -- which will be exclusive to Rogers in Canada -- "is expected to be available in retail and business channels in March." Yawn, wake up when March comes, please. All in all, the Blackberry 8800 has now been "introduced" by Rogers as of, well, today -- but no availability for at least a few weeks. When it comes out, finally, customers on Rogers Wireless' service will have the newest Blackberry in their hands with all that EDGE goodness and thin-phone likeness -- as the 8800 is reportedly the thinnest Blackberry ever.[Thanks, Chris]
RIM's new Blackberry 8800 gets worked over
The nasty details on the newer Blackberry 8800 are in the form of a review. Is it a sports car or a gussied-up luxury SUV, though? LAPTOP Review sides with the latter, as RIM's latest offering sports onboard GPS (we knew that) and TeleNav software built right in for an extra $10 per month charge. While you won't mistake this for a Motorola Q or even a Blackberry Pearl, the 8800's 2.4 inch screen, large-capacity battery and looks-to-be-quite-useful QWERTY keyboard are the highlights according to the review -- all of which make the 8800 rather wide -- but still holdable. Just like most of you, we're kinda partial to wider screens instead of taller screens -- that is, unless you read your emails in "portrait" fashion. One downer? The voice quality was a little fuzzy on the incoming side according to the review. Price? $299 from Cingular for this EDGE (but not HSDPA) beauty with a 2 year contract for one of RIM's newest with a feature list as long as your arm.
