Free Republic

Ministers are preparing a major expansion of the Government's powers to monitor the email exchanges and website visits of every person in the UK, it was reported today. Under legislation expected in next month's Queen's Speech, internet companies will be instructed to install hardware enabling GCHQ – the Government's electronic "listening" agency – to examine "on demand" any phone call made, text message and email sent, and website However ministers believe it is essential that the police and security services have access to such communications data in order to tackle terrorism and protect the public. Although GCHQ would not be...

TORONTO—The new chief executive of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. RIMM +0.44% is overhauling the company's executive ranks and exploring strategic options, including a sale of the struggling smartphone pioneer. The changes include the exit of longtime executive Jim Balsillie, who had presided over RIM's rise and steep fall. Mr. Balsillie, who until earlier this year was co-CEO, resigned his board seat and is parting ways with a company he helped run for 20 years. The overhaul comes just two months after Thorsten Heins took the reins at RIM and confidently proclaimed there was no need for "seismic" change....

<p>The crisis at Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd. showed no sign of lifting Thursday, as the company said a long awaited product revamp would be delayed until late 2012.</p> <p>RIM's two top executives made a symbolic gesture of resolve, asking that their pay be dropped to $1 a year.</p>

“Who here has a BlackBerry? Who here uses Gmail? Well you are all screwed!” Assange exclaimed. “The reality is intelligence contractors are selling right to countries around the world mass surveillance systems for all of those products.”

BlackBerry offers angry users $100 in free apps as apologyOCTOBER 19, 2011 Last week, BlackBerry users experienced a service disruption that in some countries lasted three days. Said to have affected their entire customer base of 70 million users, the outage lasted for one day in the U.S., 1.5 days in Latin America and Canada and for about three days in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. To compensate users for their inconvenience and frustration, Research in Motion (RIM) is offering users $100 in free premium apps between now and the end of the year. **SNIP** • SIMS 3...

Washington (CNN) - Congress isn't getting a glimpse of what's on President Barack Obama's Blackberry - or any more internal White House communications related to the bankrupt solar company Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government. On Friday the White House Counsel sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee explaining they won't comply with the request because it "implicates longstanding and significant institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests."

A three-day disruption to BlackBerry services spread to North America on Wednesday, frustrating users of the Research In Motion devices just two days before rival Apple's new iPhone 4S goes on sale. ... RIM has made inroads into the youth market attracted by its free BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service, partially compensating for its losses in the corporate market. But new products like its PlayBook tablet computer have been poorly received. Following a dismal set of quarterly results and a plunge in its share price, some investors are now calling for a break-up, sale or change of management at the company....

The GOP's demand for all White House communications on Solyndra covers President Barack Obama's personal BlackBerry messages too, Rep. Cliff Stearns said Thursday. The Florida Republican said he made the precedent-setting request to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on Wednesday after newly released emails showed that warning flags about the California solar company’s shaky finances had reached into the president’s inner circle, including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. "We asked for all communications between the president, the White House and Solyndra,” Stearns said. “So if there's nothing on his BlackBerry, that's fine. But if there's something on his BlackBerry,

Because BBM, which rioters are using to communicate, is not traceable by cops, PM David Lammy says it’s “one of reasons why unsophisticated criminals are outfoxing an otherwise sophisticated police force.” LONDON – What, you might wonder, is the modern urban guerilla’s rioting weapon of choice? A machete? You might think so. But for most of the youngsters looting and ransacking the streets of London for the past three nights, cement blocks, iron bars and supermarket trolleys seemed to do the job of smashing in shop windows just as well. A balaclava? Perhaps. Per the multiple videos posted on Twitter...

ABC News’ Sheila Marikar (@SheilaYM) reports: While a cinematic love letter to Sarah Palin is set to debut in Iowa Tuesday night, a more critical film about the former Alaska governor is in the works. British filmmaker Nick Broomfield is shopping a documentary that examines Palin's life and rise to prominence through interviews with her parents, friends, colleagues such as ex-legislative director John Bitney, ex-Senate president Lyda Green, ex brother-in-law Mike Wooten and many more. In a preview clip from the film, Bitney and Green bemoan Palin’s habit of using her Blackberry during meetings. “It was frustrating at times to...

All three of our Blackberry Verizon phones stopped working this weekend. Seems their batteries died and would not recharge. Wife's, daughter and mine all stopped. Anyone else have a problem? Possible virus? Had to upgrade phones, go the iPhones.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat, has been embroiled in a scandal since a close-up photo of a man’s crotch was sent from his Twitter account... [Snip] Mr. Weiner has been careful to point out that his Twitter account is private, but his spokesman did not respond to questions from The Washington Times about whether the congressman was on his government-issued BlackBerry when the photo was sent via Twitter. [Snip] If he was using his work BlackBerry, the normal protocol for a security breach would be to report it immediately to the House Information Resources (HIR) division for an investigation....

As of Saturday, May 21, 2011, US Presidential hopeful Herman Cain officially announced his candidacy to run for the office of President of the United States. Herman Cain is an American businessman, political activist, columnist, radio host from Georgia, and apparently a BlackBerry Bold 9000 user! The picture seen above is taken from a YouTube video of Cain sharing some first-hand accounts of racial discrimination as he describes the experience of sitting behind the white/black demarcation on buses. He also talks about the experience of taking turns with his brother, standing watch as each took a drink from the "white"...

Original Title:"[视频分享]Herman Cain—2012美国总统候选人宣传视频使用黑莓录音"At the link, just hit the little orange arrow over the Presidential candidate, and it will stream the man using his Blackberry Bold 9000 while on the road in Iowa, which freaks out Chinese enthusiasts of that technology.On a deeper level, he relates some incidents of racial discrimination and segregation in the South which he directly experienced, and terms himself as an "ABC".

I've downloaded Drudge & The Blaze apps.... what are some of the other higher quality content apps? I'd love to see a FR app, but realize the expense may not fit into this year's budget. Capital project for 2012????

So, I was thinking yesterday (A dangerous hobby, I know) and the though occured to me: Why not develop a Freerepublic app for smartphones? I mean, sure, the site displays fine and all, but a couple of other sites have apps that update and show you recent posting activity, so why not here? Ideally, it would be cross-platform, and allow you to choose which forums to display the recent activity from. I know it would only appeal to a niche audience of Freepers, but I don't see any reason it couln't be done. Any coders out there with some spar...

Android continues to take market share in smart phones, according to research firms presenting year-end tabulations this week. Getting a clear snapshot on Android is somewhat complicated in that the platform is spread across multiple vendors, including HTC, Motorola Mobility(MMI) and Samsung. The market for smart phone operating systems currently is dominated by Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone platform, Nokia’s (NOK) Symbian and Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry OS. Collectively, though, the Google (GOOG) -backed Android operating system continues to move up the charts.

ANADA'S Research In Motion has fired back at Apple's Steve Jobs over his claims that the iPhone is outselling the Blackberry and that 7-inch tablet computers have no future. "We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple," RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said in a blog post responding to the comments made on Monday by Jobs. Jobs, speaking to financial analysts during a conference call, dismissed 7-inch tablets as "tweeners" saying they were "too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad". He suggested makers of 7-inch...

You can no longer rely on encryption to protect a BlackBerry A Russian passcode-breaker firm exploits a weakness in RIM's encryption to crack open backups By Martin Heller Did you think your BlackBerry data was safe because it's encrypted on the phone, over the airwaves, and in its backup form? Think again. Russian software developer ElcomSoft, which, with its Russian competitor AccentSoft, has developed effective password-cracking programs for most common desktop encryption formats, is at it again. Now, it's targeted the BlackBerry with a Phone Password Breaker that was previously limited to Apple mobile devices. [ See why mobile devices...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Research In Motion Ltd. lifted the wraps Monday off a touch-screen tablet device called the BlackBerry PlayBook, making it the latest wireless-device maker to step into the new market. At the company’s annual DevCon conference in San Francisco, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis billed the PlayBook as “the first enterprise-ready tablet.” He said the tablet is designed to “amplify” the experience of the company’s BlackBerry smart phones, which can pair with the tablet through a Bluetooth connection. “This will enable a new world of computing that you can hold in the palm of your hand,” Lazaridis said...