BlackBerry Outage Over but Brand Takes Hit (NewsFactor)

BlackBerry services around the world operated at normal levels Friday. Research In Motion completed restoration work on the company's network infrastructure just hours after RIM co-founder Mike Lazaridis apologized to BlackBerry smartphone users in a video posted at the company's Web site Thursday.

Still, industry observers say RIM needs to undertake several measures to regain its former reputation as a provider of highly reliable and secure mobile services.

"RIM has faced outages in the past, but never on such a large scale and not for so long," said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo. "This outage harms BlackBerry's brand reputation and raises a number of questions that RIM needs to address."

Unanswered Questions

Many multinational companies, governments, police forces and private individuals adopted the BlackBerry because the phones were generally perceived as the best e-mail and messaging mobile service.

"During the 9/11 terrorist attacks, BlackBerrys were the only handsets working [in New York City]," Jeronimo said. "And after the disaster the American government and police forces adopted BlackBerrys as their primary handsets."

However, the BlackBerry platform's brand status as a solid and secure platform was blown away by this week's unprecedented outage, which swept through Europe, the Middle East and Africa beginning Monday, spread to some Latin American countries and India on Tuesday, and extended into North America on Wednesday.

"The question that corporations, mobile operators, and users are now asking [is] how reliable is RIM's infrastructure, architecture and service," Jeronimo said.

The worldwide outage was caused by a core switch failure at the company's network operation center at Slough in the United Kingdom, according to Jeronimo. To rebuild its brand reputation, the BlackBerry maker needs to explain why it took so long to replace a broken switch as well as why the "fail safe" backup switch didn't work, he said.

What's more, the BlackBerry maker will need to explain why North American users were also affected -- even though RIM maintains a different network operations center covering its customers in North America.

"It shouldn't have happened," Jeronimo said. "What is needed to restore market confidence is a clear explanation of what happened and some kind of reassurance that it won't happen again."

Facing Fierce Competition

Jeronimo notes that competition is currently fierce and RIM cannot afford to fail on its core service proposition: reliability. An avalanche of online iPhone 4S pre-orders and Friday morning's lines of prospective buyers at Apple stores suggest a particularly strong launch for Apple's new smartphone release, according to Piper Jaffray.

"Lines were shorter compared to the iPhone 4 launch, but [there was] a longer online pre-order [window] -- seven days this year versus one day last year," Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Andrew Murphy said.

On the first weekend of availability for Apple's prior iPhone 4 model, Apple shipped 1.7 million units. This weekend, however, Munster and Murphy believe "Apple could sell 2 million to 2.5 million iPhone 4S units."

The good news for RIM is that a fresh Piper Jaffray survey indicates that 73 percent of the iPhone 4S buyers so far were upgrading from a previous iPhone model. What's more, IDC does not expect a huge number of smartphone users to switch their BlackBerrys for other devices.

"The BlackBerry still has a very strong value proposition and [BlackBerry Messenger] is still the main communication tool for teenagers in countries such as the U.K.," Jeronimo said. "For operators, BlackBerrys are the most profitable smartphones and continue to bring clients into their stores, attracted by RIM's messaging services and the physical keyboard."

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Wave Accounting Raises $5 Million In Series A

wave-accounting-logoWave Accounting Inc. has just closed $5 million in financing, in a Series A round led by?Charles River Ventures, with the participation of OMERS Ventures. The financing will be used by the company to continue the development of its free online accounting software for small businesses and market it internationally. Wave is a completely free (not freemium, but free) accounting package that supports itself through offers.?When a user is logged into their Wave account, there's a section called "Business Savings." This screen features offers for business-related needs like business cards, web hosting, credit card processing services and more.?American Express, Dell and Grand & Toy are among several dozen advertising partners to date.

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Taylor Swift donates 6,000 books to US library

American country singer Taylor Swift launches her debut fragrance, "Wonderstruck", at Macy's Herald Square on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

American country singer Taylor Swift launches her debut fragrance, "Wonderstruck", at Macy's Herald Square on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

(AP) ? Taylor Swift wants children in the Pennsylvania city of Reading to hit the books ? and she's made that easier by giving 6,000 volumes to the local library.

Librarians unveiled the donation from the Grammy-winning country singer Thursday. Swift grew up in nearby Wyomissing and wasn't able to attend the event.

Swift partnered with publisher Scholastic Inc. to donate the books for children and young adults. The titles were chosen by local librarians.

Reading is a struggling city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia. Swift's representatives told library officials she wanted to help economically troubled libraries.

Librarians say Swift's books will be marked with a white star on the spine and a sticker inside. They say they hope Swift's popularity will motivate more children and teens to read.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-10-13-People-Taylor%20Swift-Books/id-f5cdf82ba4024535a4c56c89587fdf68

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Nicki Minaj Very 'Selective' About Next Project

'She wants hit records every time and she wants to be creative,' producer Kane Beatz tells Mixtape Daily.
By Rob Markman


Nicki Minaj
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/ WireImage

Behind the Beats: Kane Beatz
When Nicki Minaj and Kane Beatz got together on her Pink Friday debut, the results were undeniable. Besides crafting songs like the soul-baring "Dear Old Nicki" and braggadocious album opener "I'm the Best," the Florida producer gave the Harajuku Barbie a smash single with "Super Bass."

So it makes sense that just as Nicki the Ninja heads back into the studio to begin working on her follow-up, she's tapped Kane for a beat or two.

"It's crazy. We got one so far. She's in L.A. goin' crazy," the platinum hitmaker told Mixtape Daily while he walked the black carpet at the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards.

Kane, who is also working with Roscoe Dash and with Rick Ross on his upcoming God Forgives, I Don't LP, revealed that Nicki is in the planning stages of her next album, so things could take awhile.

"She just started, so she's really picking her music and picking the songs. She's real selective," he said. "She'll pick all the beats before she even starts writing, so right now, we're just getting music together, and it's goin' crazy right now."

When working with Minaj, the "Bed Rock" producer focuses on presenting the Young Money star with hit records but also different types of beats that can allow her imagination to run wild.

"She wants hit records every time and she wants to be creative," he said. "With Nicki, it's more about getting the music right and leaving her the room to be creative and leaving her room to do her."

For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672471/nicki-minaj-kane-beatz.jhtml

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Bit.ly Wants To Predict The Future With Realtime Social Search

Screen Shot 2011-10-13 at 3.02.46 PMLink shortening service Bit.ly just announced the launch of its beta search platform and "reputation monitoring" service for its paying Enterprise customers. Apparently Bit.ly has been crawling every URL its shorten for "virality" (I guess that's what they were doing all this time) in an attempt to provide a snapshot of content that's trending and interestingly enough content that's going to trend through user search.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7NxXAaBfESA/

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BlackBerry maker says service fully restored

BlackBerry services buzzed back to life across the world Thursday, after a three-day outage that interrupted email messages and Internet services for millions of customers.

Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the phones, said the system was back to normal early Thursday U.S. East Coast time. The company was flushing through stalled messages in the morning.

Some phones that have been out of touch for a long time may need to have their batteries pulled out and put back in to regain a connection to the network, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said on a conference call.

A crucial link in BlackBerry's European network failed Monday, and a backup also failed. That immediately cut off service for most users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Chile, Brazil and Argentina.

Although the underlying issues were quickly repaired, the system had built up a backlog of emails and messages that needed to be wound down. Meanwhile, messages destined for the affected countries were piling up at BlackBerry data centers in the rest of world, slowing service everywhere. By Wednesday, the outage had spread to the U.S. and Canada.

Lazaridis and co-CEO Jim Balsillie said they had not made plans yet to compensate customers, but they are turning their attention to the question.

"That is something we plan to come back to these customers on very soon. ... Our priority right up until this moment (has been) making sure the system's up and running," Balsillie said. "We're going to fully commit to win that trust back."

BlackBerry users don't pay the company directly for its email and messaging services. Instead, the phone companies pay RIM on behalf of their subscribers. Balsillie said carriers haven't asked for compensation yet.

"This has not been about pointing fingers," he said. "This has been about serving customers."

RIM shares were down 58 cents, or 2.4 percent, at $23.28 in morning trading in New York. Investors have taken the outage in stride, figuring that it's only one of many problems RIM is facing. The shares are down less than 1 percent since the outage began.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44888035/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

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Liverpool wants greater share of TV rights money

updated 6:43 a.m. ET Oct. 12, 2011

LONDON - Liverpool says it wants the Premier League's top clubs to be allowed to emulate Spanish sides Barcelona and Real Madrid by selling their own overseas television rights.

England's 20 topflight clubs equally share the $2.2 billion rights fee that foreign broadcasters are paying under a three-year deal.

Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre says it is unfair that high-profile clubs with a global appeal are part of a collective deal.

Ayre says Liverpool "definitely feel there has to be some rebalance because what we are actually doing is disadvantaging ourselves against other big European clubs."

Most English clubs support the status quo because their revenue would drop if there was a change.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Ecuador scored a 1-0 exhibition win over the United States in?a game new?coach Jurgen Klinsmann can't have been pleased by.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44871450/ns/sports-soccer/

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Obama's Iran Dilemma: How to Respond to a Plot Seemingly Designed to Provoke Escalation? (Time.com)

The fact that President Barack Obama on Thursday founding himself insisting that the facts support his Administration's efforts to hold Iran's government accountable for a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington suggests that the world is not yet rushing to fall in line with his call for "the toughest sanctions" on Iran.

The "toughest sanctions", of course, would mean an oil embargo and blockade preventing Iran from importing gasoline, although such moves are so unlikely to win support that the Administration may not press for it. A more plausible goal might be to target Iran's central bank, in the hope of choking off the country's ability to trade on international markets. Even that move ? which some in Tehran say would be treated as an "act of war" ? would require the support of other countries, and would likely be opposed by countries such as Russia, China and Turkey, which conduct significant trade with Iran, and which have opposed the U.S. efforts to escalate sanctions over the nuclear issue.

The plot allegations, in short, are unlikely to be a game changer in the long-running effort by the U.S. and its closest allies to isolate and pressure Iran over its nuclear program: Those already on board with that effort ? such as Britain and France ? are backing U.S. calls for action on the embassy plot; those skeptical or opposed to that effort appear less certain of just what the evidence presented thus far by the Administration actually means. (See "Will the Washington Bomb Plot Force Obama into War with Iran?")

It should come as no surprise that a scheme whose spectacular hokeyness is difficult to square with everything that is known about Iran's well-established methods for staging terror attacks ? and for which it's hard to provide a rational motive even in the context of Iran's intense regional power struggle with Saudi Arabia ? is proving difficult to pin on the Iranian government's decision makers.

Apparently acknowledging that problem, President Obama said Thursday, "We believe that even if at the highest levels there was not detailed operational knowledge, there has to be accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity." That seemed to leave open an adjustment in the narrative to one in which the scheme could be blamed on a rogue element within the power structure.

Still, Obama's rhetoric was tough, insisting that Iran be made to "pay a price" the plot and warning that "no option would be taken off the table" in responding, which is code for the threat of military action. Washington certainly seems to be scooping up everything it can find on alleged Iranian malfeasance to throw into the p.r. battle. U.S. and Saudi intelligence officials told the Washington Post that they believe that Iran was behind the May 16 killing of a Saudi diplomat in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Saudi officials are even taking the opportunity to blame Iran's Quds force for instigating the Bahrain democratic uprising ? a claim that is more likely to undermine the credibility of the p.r. effort than it is to enhance it, with the Saudi-led crackdown in Bahrain enjoying limited sympathy beyond those who support Riyadh's role as an enforcer of Arab autocracy and sectarian pugilist. (See "Washington Bombing Plot Is Out of Character for Iran's Professional Killers.")

U.S. military officials also told the New York Times that Quds-forced trained and funded militants had fired rockets at an American position in Iraq, Wednesday, wounding three G.I.s. Perhaps that's just coincidence, but a case seems to be being made that Iran is on the offensive, requiring a response.

One bit of speculation that the Times reported was under consideration by U.S. officials as an explanation for why Iran's leaders might undertake the Washington plot was that it might have been conceived as retaliation for a series of assassinations of scientists in Iran, believed to have been undertaken by Israel with tacit U.S. support. Nobody's standing firm behind that one, of course, but even putting that out there could be double-edged when it comes to winning support for an escalation of pressure on Tehran: Many of the governments that would be appalled by the assassination of a diplomat are unlikely to be all that much more forgiving of the assassination of scientists as a strategy for dealing with Iran.

The revelation of the assassination plot has, from the outset, been closely tied to the main strategic confrontation, over Iran's nuclear program and its regional role. It's been seized upon as an opportunity to strengthen the U.S. hand in the existing sanctions effort, although it also appears to signal a rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, which had been antagonized by the Obama Administration's ambivalent reaction to the rebellions against autocracy in Tunisia and Egypt. Now, however, the Administration appears to be aligning itself with Riyadh in its regional cold war with Tehran. But while the Arab Spring has set back Iran's direct regional influence, that hasn't translated into strengthening Saudi influence ? while it may be managing the counterrevolution quite effectively in Bahrain and Yemen, the Saudis are hardly likely to win the support of newly empowered Arab publics, or regimes ? such as Egypt's ? more responsive to their citizenry. Iran remains more influential than the U.S. or Saudi Arabia is in post-Saddam Iraq, and on its northwestern border, Turkey has challenged U.S. policy toward Tehran even as it competes with Iran for regional influence. Even if it were convinced of Obama's claims on the assassination DC plot, it's hard to see that being sufficient to change Ankara's orientation. (See "The Saudi-Iran Cold War: Will the Assassination Plot Heat It Up?")

The one new development as a result of the assassination plot, however, is that the U.S. and Iran appear to have opened up a new channel of communication. CBS is reporting that Obama's UN Ambassador, Susan Rice, took the highly unusual step on Thursday of meeting with Iranian counterparts in New York. If they haven't been talking, they are now, although the contents of that conversation remain unknown.

Regardless of the details of the authorship of the assassination plot, its revelation has put President Obama in a difficult position. He's under growing pressure from Capitol Hill to take a tougher stand against Iran ? legislation making its way through Congress, for example, would tie his hands on sanctions, imposing measures against foreign firms that do business with Iran's energy sector that would antagonize U.S. partners and threaten the consensus around existing sanctions, potentially giving Iran a win.

Still, the tough talk about making Iran "pay a price", keeping "all options" open and imposing the "toughest sanctions" paints Obama into a tricky corner, particularly if there's no shift in Iran's stance or demonstrable price paid. After all, if this was, in fact, a plot authorized by the Iranian leadership, then it was plainly meant to be discovered as such, and to provoke the U.S. into retaliation. That would mean its authors were not afraid of a confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, but were actually courting one.

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Bun B Represents For Hip-Hop At Occupy Houston

'I think it's important that Bernard Freeman be here as a citizen of the world,' the Trill O.G. tells MTV News of lending support.
By Maurice Bobb


Bun B
Photo: MTV News

HOUSTONBun B assumed his role as the unofficial Mayor of Houston when he joined Occupy Houston at City Hall on Tuesday. The protest is an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement that began about a month ago in New York.

And as rap fans know, hip-hop has a long tradition of serving as an outlet for activism. So, like Talib Kweli and Kanye West did in NYC's Zuccotti Park, the legendary Professor of Trill turned up in his home city to show support for the demonstrators. MTV News caught up with Bun B at the protest, and he opened up about why he decided to come through.

"I think it's important that Bernard Freeman be here as a citizen of the world," he told us, mentioning his birth name. "And I think it's important that Bun B be here as a person of influence who has a voice that can bring attention to a cause. It's very important that someone from the hip-hop community is out here supporting Occupy Houston, simply because of the fact of how hip-hop is represented in the world," he added.

The Trill O.G. MC said it was also important to show that rappers are about more than their money.

"I think a lot of people look at us as being these flashy, fly types of people who are just concerned with spending money, but that's not all of us," he said. "That's not what hip-hop is here to do. We have individuals that represent that, and I represented that from time to time, but that doesn't make me who I am. I understand how real this world is and how real things can get and that's what Occupy Houston is about. It's not about what we do on the clock — it's about being off the clock and supporting people who can't even get on the clock right now."

While Houston is a long way from Wall Street, the city knows corporate corruption all too well. The Enron debacle, for example, is still a sore spot with many Houstonians.

"The effects of the Enron collapse in Houston are still felt today," Bun said. "Not everyone who had strong jobs in that sector were able to find replacements for those jobs. A lot of people had to take positions in companies to do things that they didn't necessarily train for in order to support their families and that's kinda what we're standing for at Occupy Houston.

"The misconception about Occupy Houston is that it's a bunch of jobless people who don't wanna work and just want the rich to give them their money. Well, that's not true. The majority of these people are educated — not just high school, but they're college graduates, they have degrees, they've done what it takes to get into the workforce. Unfortunately, corporate America is not affording enough opportunities for people to go out get jobs and support their families. Instead of hiring more people, they're firing more people just to keep the numbers up. A company that makes $3 billion a year, it's still gonna function if they only make $2.8 billion a year in order to keep a couple people employed."

Bun explained that protesters' frustration was due in large part to feeling underrepresented at the government level, where decisions affecting their lives are being made. "So that's what we're here fighting against, you know, corporate irresponsibility," he continued. "The fact that we in Houston and America — even though we're the people that vote, we're the people that pay our taxes — we don't have the voice that we should have in our local state and federal governments, and that's another stance that we're taking."

On Tuesday, demonstrators looked like most of those at Occupy rallies across the nation, brandishing homemade placards and signs with varying messages such as, "I am the 99 percent" and "Heal America, Tax Wall Street." Bun rolled up his sleeves and pitched in with assigning posters and announcing general assembly guidelines, which included the proper way to agree (both hands held aloft), block proposals (both arms crossed like an X) and to ask a question (one fist in the air).

Police were on hand, but no arrests were made on Tuesday.

"Anybody that wants to understand clearly what the Occupy movement here in Houston, across the country, as well as the world, a little better can go to any of the Occupy sites and find all the real information, not the misinformation," Bun said.

Share your thoughts on the ongoing Wall Street protests in the comments below.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672424/occupy-houston-bun-b.jhtml

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