Bad luck to those in Saudi Arabia who were planning on getting full use from the new BlackBerry Torch—they’ve hop-skipped-and-jumped their way to the front of the BlackBerry data services ban, ruining BBMers’ lives from this Friday.
https://gizmodo.com/blackberry-torch-impressions-the-blackberry-weirdly-e-5603176
It’s almost like Saudi Arabia thinks this is a race, as the UAE had only just announced they’d be switching off BlackBerry services from October 11th, including BBM, email and web-browsing services.
https://gizmodo.com/uae-blackberry-ban-includes-visitors-and-tourists-5603185
RIM’s products are seen as a threat to national security, due to the fact that all data is stored overseas, thus making it very difficult for officials to check up on residents’ communication. Hilariously, though, Reuters was told by RIM’s Chief Technology Officer David Yach that he believes “they’ll have trouble pulling the trigger to shut down BlackBerry…Most governments in the world rely on BlackBerry.”
https://gizmodo.com/blackberry-seen-as-major-security-threat-in-united-arab-5597328
Perhaps BlackBerry can convince ‘Berry-fanboy Barack Obama to have a few quite words in the ears of UAE and Saudi Arabian officials. [Reuters]
https://gizmodo.com/obama-still-steadfast-on-keeping-his-blackberry-they-5126576
