BlackBerry Makes Privacy and Control Subscription in BBM Free 32
BlackBerry, on Monday, announced it is making all the privacy features in BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) messaging app free to use. Prior to the announcement, the Canadian company charged $1 monthly premium subscription for the advanced privacy and control features. From the company's blog post: These enhanced privacy and control features give users full ownership over what they share through BBM -- even after it leaves their phone. With "Retract," users can retract messages and pictures from recipients they sent mistakenly or no longer wish to make accessible. "Timer," meanwhile, gives users control over how long their contacts can view shared messages, pictures, or location information.
Except for.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The servers where BB gave the local government the keys to everything.....
This mostly sounds like BB trying like hell to stay relevant.
Re:Except for.... (Score:4, Insightful)
The servers where BB gave the local government the keys to everything.....
This mostly sounds like BB trying like hell to stay relevant.
Less than trying to stay relevant, more like trying to stay in business, and not declare chapter 11 or 7 (or whatever the Canadian Equivalent is)
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=B... [yahoo.com]
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This mostly sounds like BB trying like hell to stay relevant.
And it doesn't seem like it will be at all successful. I work with a lot of companies, and I haven't heard anyone mention RIM/Blackberry in the past few years, except as a joke.
Re:Except for.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Which is pretty much what they've been trying to do since Apple and Android phones came onto the market.
They may have created the smart phone, but they've subsequently had their market share taken away by other companies with products consumers want more.
I'm just not convinced they're succeeding at staying relevant. The only people I know who use BB stuff have been using it so long they're saturated with the koolaid.
Once they rolled over and started caving on security to governments around the world, their claims about bring more secure can't be trusted.
I'm just not seeing them recovering enough to matter much.
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The only people I know who use BB stuff have been using it so long they're saturated with the koolaid.
I owned an Amiga past the point where it was no longer cool to do so, and what I see of the remaining BlackBerry faithful looks much like the last of the Amiga crowd. Every competitor is branded with dumb nicknames ("Lamedroid", "pOS", etc.). Everything is a conspiracy ("Facebook won't support BB OS 10 because they're threatened by the Hub and don't want competition!"). All of their hardware is inherently better than everyone else's in all possible ways, their battery life is better, their security is bette
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If BB wants to stay relevant... Switch to a PURE android with hardened hardware and OS extensions that warn the users of FBI/NSA/HS fake cell towers, insecure routes, real security like the uber secure android phone out there but at a reasonable price.
Yes, they need to piss off the worlds governments. but corporations are willing to pay to keep the GOV out of their communications.
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Unfortunately they are so very late to the party everyone is thoroughly drunk off their ass from Android and iPhone. I hear the chips & dips are pretty good. I worked for a carrier back in the day and a vendor let me handle what was very much a pre-release BB 10 phone. I believe it became the Z10. I was pretty quickly hooked on the BB 10 OS\Interface. It was new, it was innovative, and it was absolutely elegant. I also knew by then that it was
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I still have my z10, my wife and I each got one the day it was released. I don't see any compelling reason to upgrade. They're still supporting and updating it, after all. The kicker, as you point out, is the UI. Why no one has thought to copy it is beyond me. (Even BB! No peek, for example, on the Priv. Insanity.) I could probably adapt to an Android handset, but every time I try one it feels like I've stepped back in time.
My wife was seduced by the Classic and upgraded. It's a very nice phone, feels ve
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It was released with the playbook in 2011 and development continues to this day through the BB10 OS.
Why? Jealous?
That's great! (Score:2)
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Incompetent or lying, pick one (Score:5, Insightful)
These enhanced privacy and control features give users full ownership over what they share through BBM -- even after it leaves their phone.
...unless the recipient uses the notorious hacker tool known as "the screen shot". Seriously, either the blog author is too non-technical to be writing about such things or they're OK with flat-out lying to their readers.
If someone can write a Blu-ray ripper, they can trivially keep copies of any other data you send them. Once information has left your device, it is no longer "yours" in any meaningful sense. Implying anything else is flat-out deceptive.
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I dunno, timed messages seem to be working well for Snapchat.
...as long as the recipient doesn't screenshot them, or take a picture of the screen, or pass it around their friends before it can be deleted. "Private, but shared" is an impossibility.
Turns out the plebs prioritize fun features and iBaubles over security and privacy.
Which is fine, as long as you know that's the decision you're making and haven't been misled into thinking you can have them both at the same time. I love Twitter, but no one at Twitter ever told me "you can delete your message and no one will ever be able to see it again (as long as they haven't posted a picture of it to th
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Take a screen shot and the other party gets a notification in BBM that a screen shot was taken.
It's not exactly moving the goalposts to suggest that someone could physically take a picture of their screen if they were motivated enough. If there were important data or a naked celebrity, people will find a way.
It's QNX. (Score:1)