The Argentinean government has recently banned sales of iPhones and BlackBerrys.  So what’s the point? It’s all in best hopes to reduce price inflation and to stabilize the economy within Argentina.  Currently, Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola, LG and Samsung have all opened up plants in Argentina and for that reason they do not fall under the ban.  Basically this puts Research In Motion on the spot to build a local plant in the country which will avoid BlackBerry smartphones from being imported in.

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This summer was filled with lots of iPhone speculation and what the next fifth generation would include.  Last year with the iPhone 4 launching, we ran a little poll to see who was interested in switching to the new iPhone or staying with BlackBerry.  Those who wanted to stay with BlackBerry had hope in RIM coming out with better devices suited for today’s standards.  Now that we see OS 7 devices available, QNX on the PlayBook and to smartphones soon in 2012, will you continue staying or jump ship to the new iPhone?

I’m sure you all heard about it by now, but I figured we’d clarify it for those still in la-la land.  Just as we expected, RIM never announced BBM coming to iPhone on April 26th at a social media event in Toronto.  In fact, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie never spoke at any event in Toronto to begin with.  This was simply a fictional story that started out by a forum post, and evolved into being a rumor all over the web.  We got an email from RIM saying it as it is:

This story appears to be a hoax. RIM did not hold a conference in Toronto this week and Jim Balsillie did not speak at any event in Toronto this week.

And there you have it.  Does it mean BBM will never coming to iOS? I’m not saying that, but there was no announcement made by RIM, and I’m sure we would of heard all about it by now if that was the case.

According to a tip over at MacRumors, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie showed off a plan of bringing BlackBerry Messenger and “other services” to the Apple iPhone on April 26th, and it will be available in App Store.  This occurred at a social media conference up in Toronto where RIM made an appearance.  An update for it will be available by summer that takes advantage of a new notification system, which is assumed to be in iOS 5.

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An article over at Business Insider talks about some news from the past on how RIM saw the Apple iPhone and strongly believed it was “badly flawed.”  RIM execs even tried convincing superiors to go towards devices with better web experiences and larger screen devices but was denied.  At that point in time, RIM only saw secure email and physical QWERTY keyboards to be essential in smartphones.

Look where we’ve reached today.  Thankfully RIM has rolled out many new devices which do compromise to better web and application experience.  They’re not at the finish line yet with the not-so-new hardware now, but they are getting there, and we have a tablet launching anytime soon in the near future.

What I don’t like about some of the other iPhone style themes for BlackBerry is the lack of Today Plus features which gives you Messages and Calendar right on the home screen.  I spotted a new theme called iBerry Today Plus which gives you the iPhone-like icons and overall look, but also gives those Today Plus features just mentioned.  Features include:

• Maximum Optimization to Prevent Memory Leaks.
• Never miss an appointment.
• Calendar n email on home screen.
• Changeable app order.
• Changeable wallpaper, the Dock remains unchanged.

I’ve tried it on the BlackBerry Torch and Bold 9650 and the theme works great on both.  In my opinion, the theme just looks nicer on touchscreen devices just because of the larger display.  It’s $5.99 to purchase for those who want to check it out first hand.

Check out iBerry Today Plus >>

When the iPhone was announced by Verizon, we ran a quick post to see who was interested and switching over.  Now pre-ordering is officially available as of tomorrow, and some of you had lots of time to think this one through.  So drop a line, tweet us, or cast a vote in the poll – are you pre-ordering the Verizon iPhone?

So today Verizon officially announced the iPhone available on their network with a launch date of February 10th. Customers who wanted the iPhone switched to AT&T just because it was carrier exclusive, and others held on to their current carrier in best hopes that it would launch for them too.  So for those of you who currently have a BlackBerry on the Verizon network, will you switch to the iPhone now that it’s available?  Drop us a line in the comments or tweet us.

Browsing via BlackBerry? Click here to view video

Riz continues again with another video – this time bashing the iPhone with its famous “death grip” where reception fails once held in the hand. So far, I’m finding Riz’s videos really entertaining and strongly believe are good to circle around your friends stuck on Apple products, or even just for a good laugh.

This is just a quick crop from an image over at C-Section Comics bashing at mobile users where its obvious that BlackBerry got it worse here over Android and iPhone as well.  Even so, I found it funny, and true to some extent.  I guess we are sort of in the stone age when it comes to games, entertainment, and high end graphics on the mobile which seems to be a huge advantage to other platforms. What do you guys think of this – as BlackBerry or non-BlackBerry users even?