It’s the most wonderful tiiime of the year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve all heard that before. For this month, that doesn’t seem to be the case. RIM has seemed to epically fail once again. Three times in one month and two times in one week, their services has shut down and CrackBerry BlackBerry users are in disgust; and Tuesday’s outage once again affected all U.S carriers as well as our next door neighbors in Canada as well. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I’m a fool. The third time, I don’t know anymore. BlackBerry BES/BIS users have been widely affected this whole  year with outages from RIM’s servers. The one thing that is supposed to work and have vital reliability for heavy Enterprise users, is starting to show a pattern is making people everywhere wonder, “Should I keep this”? Here is what RIM had to say about the outage:

A service interruption occurred Tuesday that affected BlackBerry customers in the Americas. Message delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption. Phone service and SMS services on BlackBerry smartphones were unaffected. Root cause is currently under review, but based on preliminary analysis, it currently appears that the issue stemmed from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger (versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56) that caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure. RIM has taken corrective action to restore service.

RIM has also provided a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is encouraging anyone who downloaded or upgraded BlackBerry Messenger since December 14th to upgrade to this latest version which resolves the issue. RIM continues to monitor its systems to maintain normal service levels and apologizes for any inconvenience to customers.

Yes, it’s understandable that RIM has gone from just being a corporate brand to becoming a household name, but you have to admit that they should have expected this with the release of the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 that regular consumers would start to enter the BlackBerry realm. Eventually I think RIM will figure it out, until then, pray that this doesn’t happen on New Years Eve.

(Update) We’ve gotten sporadic reports today that BlackBerry service — possibly just BIS — has been down for at least a period today, which would amazingly mark the fourth time a serious outage has occurred in RIM’s fortress in just the past several weeks. That’s bad for any device, but it’s particularly tragic for a platform that has staked its reputation on reliability. What’s everyone seeing out there right now? RIM, when will you learn?

Source: Engadget Mobile

With the holiday season approaching fast, we at Smartphone Nation thought it would only be right to make a holiday gift guide to help you choose the perfect the gift. There have been many great phone launches this year; however, a few stuck out as superior. We have though of all major carriers when writing this review, so make sure to take carriers into consideration when making your choice.

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For all those worried about not getting the 6gb plan due to Rogers and Fido’s inventory being low on the iPhone 3GS. The 6gb $30 data plan will be extended until September 15th, 2009. Promotions and whatnot are as followed:

Here is a summary of the special upgrade options for current iPhone owners who do not qualify for standard upgrade:
 
1) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone 3G between July 11 and Sept. 30, 2008, and with an average monthly spend of at least $100, Rogers will provide $500 off the cost of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires September 15, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.
·       16GB 3GS $199
·       32GB 3GS $299

2) For Rogers Wireless customers who bought an iPhone between July 11 and Dec. 31, 2008, but aren’t eligible for the above offer, Rogers will provide $250 dollars off the purchase of an iPhone 3G S. This special offer expires September 15, 2009 and comes with the addition of a one-year term to the customer’s existing service agreement.
·       16GB 3GS $449
·       32GB 3GS $549

3) All Rogers Wireless customers can upgrade to the iPhone 3GS at our cost at Rogers.com, or for a suggested retail price of just $19 more than our cost through our retail channels.
·       8GB 3G $580/$599
·       16GB 3GS $680/$699
·       32GB 3GS $780/$799

4) Fido customers can take advantage of the Fido Rewards iPhone 3G S promotion:
·       Use FidoDollars towards the purchase of a new iPhone 3G S
·       Fido will top up the FidoDollars amount by $100
·       This promotion does not include an extension or renewal of their service agreement.
 
6GB/$30 data plan promotion
Customers will be able to sign up for this data plan until September 15, 2009.
 
Rolling inventory of the iPhone 3GS is on its way, and back orders are being filled for customers on a priority basis.

 Thanks again Miranda from Rogers Wireless!

Just recieved an email from Rogers Wireless explaining the new subsidized price and plan for current and new iPhone customers. Big thanks to Miranda from Rogers Wireless.

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Rogers/Fido is going to be cracking down on people buying more than one iPhone. At launch, the 32GB iPhone will be in stock, but in limited quantity. For this reason, the phone company will limit the sale of the 32GB to one per person AND account. This is a bummer for people on a family plan and want to get a few 32GB for the family and friends. This also rules out people opening multiple accounts to get multiple iPhones, as it is only one per person.

Thanks WorldIRC!

With the announcement of Apple’s latest product, the iPhone 3G S, Rogers and Fido has reintroduce the promotional 6GB iPhone data plan for only $30 to its customers. Beginning tomorrow and for a limited time after, customers can add the 6GB iPhone data plan, which will be grandfathered after the promotion. All other Rogers and Fido data plans will stay the same. The new iPhone 3G S will be available on June 19th in a 16GB and 32GB size for C$199 and C$299 with a three-year contract. The company has also let us know that there will be a “no-term” price available upon launch of the phone.

Earlier today, Apple announced a new iPhone and set a date for the OS 3.0 update. The iPhone 3G S is “the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet” according to Apple. The new iPhone supports 7.2 HSDPA, for networks that support it, meaning you will get speeds that are double the speeds of the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G S also has more features such as longer battery life, a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus,video recording, voice control, and a compass. The new iPhone comes in 16GB and 32GB and will run you $199 or $299. For the old iPhone 3G in 8GB, you will be paying $99. The iPhone 3G S will be available on June 19th.

Along with the iPhone 3G s, Apple also announced the availability of iPhone OS 3.0 beginning on June 17th. OS 3.0 will be a free update for current iPhone users and has over 100 new features. These features include MMS, video recording, copy and paste, spotlight search, and landscape keyboard. This update will be ready for download using iTunes 8.2 on June 17th.

We have learned Rogers’ and Fido’s upcoming handsets thanks to clearskies08 from Howard Forums. The user posted a powerpoint that shows all of the upcoming phones. They will be releasing the following smartphones:  Nokia XpressMusic 5800, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, Motorola Q11, HTC Touch Diamond. HTC Touch Pro, HTC Touch Viva, HTC Touch 3G, BlackBerry 82xx, BlackBerry 9520. Check out the rest of the pictures.

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Fido, a major Canadian wireless carrier, has done a make over of their plans. Fido has tried to re-brand themselves as a low-cost carrier offering cheaper plans than any other carrier. As one can see looking at the above plans, the plans are very low prices compared to other Canadian carriers. If you are Canadian and looking to spend less money on your plan head over to Fido and sign up!

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