Continue reading »]]> BlackBerry customers revolt after spyware scandal

If your customers think that you tried to spy on them, that’s not going to be good for business.

23 July 2009

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/gc/g/2009/07/23/blackberry-customers-revolt-after-spyware-scandal/

That’s the message that’s presumably being heard loud-and-clear by telecoms company Etisalat, which has found itself in the middle of a storm of negative headlines after it was revealed that an update it sent to BlackBerry users in the United Arab Emirates, which claimed to improve performance of the mobile device, was actually spying on them.

RIM, makers of the Blackberry smartphone beloved by businesspeople around the world, say that the spyware update sent out by Etisalat actually worsened battery life and reception, and (most worryingly) was designed to “to send received messages back to a central server.”

Potentially, the patch gave Etisalat the ability to read any emails and text messages sent from their customers’ BlackBerry devices.

Now, an online survey conducted by the Arabian Business website reveals that more than 50% of Etisalat’s BlackBerry customers are planning to ditch the UAE telecoms provider in the wake of the spyware. It’s hard not to feel sympathetic with those aggrieved customers. After all, as Erin Andrews just demonstrated, no-one likes to be watched without their knowledge.

Curiously, the offending patch appears to have been written by a US-based company called SS8, who develop electronic surveillance solutions for intelligence agencies.

Quite why Etisalat may have wanted to distribute a spyware update to monitor its customers is still unclear. So far they have declined to comment on the claims of spyware, restricting their public comment on the matter to the following statement:

Etisalat today confirmed that a conflict in the settings in some BlackBerry devices has led to a slight technical fault while upgrading the software of these devices.

This has resulted in reduced battery life in a very limited number of devices. Etisalat has received approximately 300 complaints to date, out of its total customer base which exceeds 145,000.

These upgrades were required for service enhancements particularly for issues identified related to the handover between 2G to 3G network coverage areas.

Customers who have been affected are advised to call 101 where they will be given instructions on how to restore their handset to its original state. This will resolve the issue completely.

RIM has published an update which removes the application from affected BlackBerry smartphones.

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With the launch of Apple iPhone, RIM has faced challenge like never before to keep up their sales of Blackberry phones like many other mobile phone manufacturers. Everyone will agree with me that iPhone is a revolutionary product that changed the way people used to think and act with their mobile phones. But Blackberry was always there to suit the needs of the corporate people. What makes these full featured phones so different? Let us discover 10 differences between these two blockbuster mobile phones.

1. Design

The iPhone design has made a revolution in Cellphone world. Keeping in mind that the recent Blackberries look smarter than before, they are just a good looker but not gorgeous like the iPhone. If the design were a fad then there wouldn’t be hundreds of iPhone Clone available in the market. The clones are selling only because it has the iPhone look.

2. E-Mail

The E-Mail service of Blackberry is simply the best. A Blackberry set up with Microsoft Exchange server has intelligent push email service which downloads the message immediately on the phone and an LED indicates that a new message has been received. The iPhone recognises new messages in 15 minutes and needs to be checked actively by the user.

3. Application

Any discussion of iPhone is incomplete without a mention of iPhone Apps. The developers of the applications for Blackberry use outdated tools that doesn’t give them enough access to the core APIs on Blackberry handsets. On the other hand iPhone is the easiest device to develop applications for. This is why there are thousands of developers developing millions of apps for the iPhone.

4. Surfing the Internet

The Blackberry browser is only a primitive one compared to the stunning safari browser of the iPhone. But the iPhone browser seems to load the pages more slowly than Blackberry over the EDGE network.

5. Keyboard

Every Blackberry except Storm boasts a full QWERTY keyboard. It is excellent for fast and accurate typing. It is true that the virtual keyboard in iPhone comes nowhere near the typing satisfaction by hardware keyboard and it takes time to master typing ability in a virtual keyboard. But there are a plenty of people who are fans of QWERTY keyboard only that takes up the whole bottom part of the front face of their cellphone and for them iPhone is really a bliss.

6. Camera

Most of the Blackberries have better camera than the iPhone. For example The Blackberry Storm has a 3.2 MP camera with image stabilization, auto-focus, white balance, variable zoom and flash. The 2.0 MP camera of iPhone is still not upto the mark to be fair. With storm you can also capture videos.

7. Battery

The iPhone battery runs out faster than Blackberry which makes it less reliable for corporate use. Although one reason for this may be due to the fact that iPhone is used for more tasks. But still I feel that iPhone has a poor battery.

8. Phone Call Quality

Blackberry has good RF reception ability. They get signal in many areas where many other phone don’t. The iPhone on the other hand has similar kind of reception quality too. So not much to distinguish between the two.

9. Multimedia

The iPhone is a great multimedia entertainer. It has good music and video players which is far ahead of any other device. The only place where Blackberry is superior than iPhone in multimedia section is the camera quality. But anyway, for multimedia, Apple iPhone -hands down.

10. Usability

At first, the iPhone may seem to be bit awkward with its full touchscreen design but you can use your intuition to get things done. On the other hand everyday Blackberry users can do the tasks faster with their shortcut keys. But Apple iPhone is just too ahead when its about learning from the scratch. Its very simple, easy to understand and still stylish.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, I have to say that the iPhone may be a very good, attractive and revolutionary phone but it still lacks the features that are vital ones for corporate people. But for ordinary people like many of us, the iPhone is the best. They both have their own sets of target and that is why, no matter what Apple iPhone and Blackberry battle will be on for some time to come.  Do you have any other thought? Please share with us.