For 2nd Time in a Week, BlackBerry Blinks; RIM Suggests Software Upgrade
For the second time in a week, BlackBerry smart phone aficionados today had to contend with an interruption of service reported by users but not confirmed by Ottawa-based Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of the device.
The glitches today and Tuesday apparently precluded customers from sending and receiving e-mails for several hours, regardless of which according to the Post Tech blog of the Washington Post.
As in earlier outages in 2007 and 2008, users managed, somehow, to cope, but it wasn’t necessarily easy:
“My whole life is based on my BBM,” says Robert Hagler. The 46-year-old Alabama attorney noticed at dinnertime Tuesday that he wasn’t getting the usual flow of e-mail and Facebook updates on his BlackBerry Curve and wasn’t pleased, reports the Associated Press.
“I kept unplugging my phone, turning it off and on. I was getting very upset when it wouldn’t work,” says Hagler.
RIM said yesterday that the Tuesday incident did not affect phone service or text-messaging. It attributed the e-mail problem to new BlackBerry Messenger instant-messaging software, and urged those who have downloaded or upgraded versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56 since Dec. 14 to upgrade to version 5.0.0.57, the Post says.
Additional and related coverage:
ABAJournal.com (2007): “Untethered to BlackBerry, Lawyers Cope, Find Peace”
ABAJournal.com (2008): “Major BlackBerry Blackout Reported”
Technology (Los Angeles Times): “BlackBerry outages give company a black eye, analyst says”
Wall Street Journal: “BlackBerry Maker Is Strained by Growth “
