The BlackBerry Torch 9860 has hit the Middle East big today as it launches in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain.  The Torch 9860 offers the largest screen as far as BlackBerry devices go.  With a resolution of 800 x 480, you’ll enjoy seeing more on your screen, making it a multimedia powerhouse.  Typing is a breeze with OS 7′s enhanced keyboard which is a lot more responsive.  In portrait mode you can choose QWERTY or SureType and in landscape mode it’s a very comfortable QWERTY keyboard.  Here’s some quick specs on the Torch 9860:

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Now that the US and Canada officially have the BlackBerry PlayBook out, it’s time for other countries to start picking it up.  We already have the affirmative that the UK is getting it soon, and now there’s confirmation for Saudi Arabia.  STC announced at GITEX in Saudi Arabia that they will be selling the BlackBerry PlayBook on June 25th, getting full Arabic language support on it for both writing and reading.

On a side note, they also mentioned that BlackBerry App World will be available for all their customers finally so users can finally take advantage of BlackBerry applications.

Thanks ecivon for the tip!

Source: BerryReview

So yesterday’s ban lift wasn’t so random in Saudi Arabia, and it looks like there has been some sort of arrangement made between Saudi and RIM.  It looks like the country will be getting “special servers” installed in the country by RIM.  After that, the proper authorities would have to be trained on how snooping on messages works and can be achieved.  So I guess we can say RIM gave in a little on this one as they did not want to lose a whole country of customers.  That leaves us with other countries including the United Arab Emirates who are going on the BlackBerry ban as well.  Will RIM continue its efforts in catering “special servers” to all these other countries?

-by Mac Jadalhack

Source: NY Daily News

It looks like the BlackBerry ban in Saudi Arabia did indeed take place, but according to Yahoo! News, services were then restored again 4 hours later.  Was the government expecting RIM to throw in their gloves then realized they weren’t which resulted in bringing it all back? Perhaps.  The ban just happened on its own, as many customers did not receive notification that it would be shut down.

The regulator in Saudi Arabia said “The way BlackBerry services are provided currently does not meet the regulatory criteria of the commission and the licensing conditions.” This was from a statement carried by Saudi Arabia’s official news agency SPA.

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So who do we have so far in the BlackBerry ban? Everyday we keep hearing rumors of new countries agreeing to shut off services unless RIM does provide open access to all data that is intended to be secure with BlackBerry smartphones and not shared with anyone.  Here’s the countries we have so far:

• United Arab Emirates
• India
• Saudi Arabia
• Lebanon
• Indonesia

That’s 5 countries so far, but the matter should not be taken lightly as some of those countries really relied on BlackBerry as a preferred choice in smartphones.  It seems like countries are following each other at this point, petitioning together to result in RIM giving up and providing access to all data transferred through BlackBerry.

-by Otoniel Bruno

Source: RIMarkable

Image Source

Last weekend, the United Arab Emirates officially announced they were freezing all BlackBerry services in the country due to the lack of RIM’s permission to snoop on users’ information and messages sent/received.  As the same is going on in India right now, Saudi Arabia wants in too and threaten to shut down the services as of this Friday. The suspension of BlackBerry services because as of now the BlackBerry “in its present state does not meet regulatory requirements.”  Things have not been looking good for RIM domestically to begin with as many suggest their last straw to get up top was yesterday’s opened curtains on the BlackBerry Torch 9800, but now three countries threatening to remove BlackBerry services is on a whole new level.

-by Otoniel Bruno

Source: Yahoo! News

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The UAE announced earlier today that they were immediately suspending all BlackBerry services in the kingdom; Saudi Arabia has stated intentions to follow suit, later on into the month. Both nations have expressed concerns that BlackBerries facilitate morally and socially objectionable content, promoting instability and giving rise to concerns of national security. The UAE has pursued BlackBerries in particular due to their extremely secure nature; all data from BlackBerries is sent to Canada, making the data almost impossible to obtain by the Arab governments.

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Back in March, we let you know about Saudi Arabia’s attempt in controlling BlackBerry services which included monitoring BBM convos.  We later learned that the government attempted to put a ban on BlackBerry Messenger for the whole country.  Today find out that the ban has officially been ruled out.

“We look at the needs of society as well as the regulatory aspects of the BlackBerry service in a balanced manner. The organizational framework does not permit anyone to exploit the service. Therefore, there is no need for stopping the service,” said deputy governor of CTIC for legal matters Daifallah Al-Zahrani.

So for all those who were following up on the case to see if it was a green light or not, that’s the whole bit.  No more ban.

-by Mac Jadalhack

Source: Zawya