There’s a very unique BlackBerry bus going around tour in Dubai this month.  The folks over at BBin spotted some photos showing the the bus with people crowded around at it at a few different angles.  It’s a double decker bus which has the latest Blackberry devices displayed inside, I’m sure the BlackBerry PlayBook as well (maybe with 2.0).  As mentioned before, it is going on tour in Dubai making stops at a few universities, hospitals and fairs.  Hit the jump for tour dates and more photos of the BlackBerry bus.

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Last week users in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) faced BlackBerry Internet Service outages.  The outage went out for a few days, and even hit the US and Canada for about a day as well.  According to police in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai traffic accidents dropped by 20% and 40% in Abu Dhabi during the BlackBerry outage week.

Texting/BBMing while driving is a huge issue for many as some can’t help but give in to the addiction.  There’s great apps to help eliminate looking at your BlackBerry and typing away such as DriveSafely.

Source: BGR

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Since the BlackBerry PlayBook is now available all over the Middle East, it’s only  fair that applications targeted towards that audience become made available to users there.  Even for those outside the region who just want to tune into international news It’s good.  Khaleej Times brings the latest news in the United Arab Emirates on your BlackBerry PlayBook.

The layout is pretty simple.  You view the main headlines with the ability to click each one to read more on it.  Alternatively you can click the Sections button on the upper right hand corner to select what subject you want to read on.  These include nation news, business, city times, region, international, and sports.  The app is powered by Polar Mobile, as you’ve seen lots of their applications launch for BlackBerry including Hockey News, and many others.

Khaleej Times for BlackBerry PlayBook >>

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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Here in the US we complain about BlackBerry Messenger spam messages that provide false information.  The United Arab Emirates are facing a bigger dilemma where their latest BBM spam message provides a link that when clicked sends you to dial 999, which is the country’s emergency line.  Currently Abu Dhabi police are investigating where this spam message started out, but who knows if that’ll get them any where.  Maybe they’ll solicit RIM for further help!

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• Source: BBCool
• Image Source: Washington Times

With no pricing confirmed yet, the BlackBerry PlayBook is set to launch in the United Arab Emirates on June 25th.  RIM has been doing their tours around the world introducing the PlayBook internationally and announcing launch dates as well.  Perhaps we’ll be seeing the UAE version come with native Arabic keyboard and in-browser support just like Saudi Arabia will have for their PlayBook tablets which will launch on the same day as well.

Source: Zawya

It looks like the United Arab Emirates and RIM have come to agreement and a BlackBerry ban will no longer take place.  This was a huge issue that sizzled over the gulf throughout the summer where we saw more and more countries go for the ban.

There is no word as to what exactly was done here to make the two come to agreement and keep BlackBerry services, but a state news agency WAM said that “the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has confirmed that BlackBerry services are now compliant with the UAE’s telecommunications regulatory framework.”  So we can sort of assume that RIM has given the UAE some sort of access to what they want to see.

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-by Otoniel Bruno

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

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As you all know by now, the United Arab Emirates have officially put a ban on BlackBerry services throughout the whole country.  This called to be one of the highest trending stories this past weekend for many reasons.  Last year there were security threats within the UAE as a “patch” was pushed out to BlackBerry users but turned out to be spyware.  Now that UAE has given the green light to proceed with closing out its BlackBerry services, RIM of course has responded.  Hit the jump to read the full official statement.

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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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