fishmech posted:

blackberry os was originally meant to run on a portable revision of the 80386 and just handle displaying and sending email over a low speed wireless data network - not even interfacing with SMS services or traditional pager systems. this was gradually adapted into doing telephony and then actually running other applications.

you had to buy different devices if you wanted to use email on a microsoft exchange system or if you wanted to use email with a more typical pop3/imap system. needed to connect to both? gotta carry two of them

Fuzzy Mammal posted:

i carried around one of these and still got laid. 2003 was a wonderful time.

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

the "pager" models were shortlived and nobody remembers them. they re-did the hardware and re-wrote the software from scratch in a few years later.

in 2002 the main product was a multitasking smartphone with 2G internet, that used java for 100% of development, both system and applications. they were way the gently caress ahead of their time, and squandered it all

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

in 2002 the main product was a multitasking smartphone with 2G internet, that used java for 100% of development, both system and applications. they were way the gently caress ahead of their time, and squandered it all

Maximo Roboto posted:

Why the Turnaround of BlackBerry Ltd. Is Finally Complete

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

the "pager" models were shortlived and nobody remembers them.

Subjunctive posted:

I had one (950 Mobitex), and remember it fondly. developing for it was real, real bad though.

Thanks Ants posted:

lmao crackberry is still around

infernal machines posted:

this would have been a massive improvement for rim. sadly that dream was not realized

CBC News posted:

A class action lawsuit against BlackBerry alleges the Canadian smartphone software company denied employees their termination entitlements by transferring them to the Ford Motor Company of Canada and then giving them resignation letters.

Law firm Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP announced the lawsuit in a news release Thursday.

According to the release, the class action lawsuit covers more than 300 current and former employees who have been working in Ontario and across Canada.

The notice of claim said BlackBerry arranged to transfer those employees to Ford Canada in the fall of 2016, then informed them that they had resigned once they accepted employment with the company.

The employees were given resignation letters and stipulated their last date of employment, the suit said.

"BlackBerry's actions amount to a termination of the employees employment," the statement said. "This entitles these employees to statutory, common law and/or contractual entitlements on termination."

The notice of claim said BlackBerry has structured the transfer of employees to avoid paying termination entitlements and is refusing to pay them.

The employees have also lost their accumulated years of service with the company.

The plaintiffs in the class action are seeking $20,000,000 in damages or a resolution consistent with termination entitlements.

In an emailed statement, a BlackBerry spokesperson wrote: "We have reviewed the allegations in the lawsuit, and are confident we complied with all our obligations to our employees. Therefore, we believe the case lacks merit and we will defend against it vigorously."

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Nelligan O’Brien Payne posted:

Nelligan O’Brien Payne LLP has commenced a class action against BlackBerry Limited (“BlackBerry”) on behalf of a group of BlackBerry’s employees working in Ontario and across Canada.

BlackBerry arranged to transfer over 300 employees across Canada to a business partner. Only after employees accepted employment with the business partner, BlackBerry informed the employees that they had resigned their employment. Blackberry provided resignation letters for the employees to sign and dictated their last date of employment. Blackberry stated that the transfer is not a sale of business, meaning the employees will lose all of their years of service.

BlackBerry’s actions amount to a termination of the employees’ employment. This entitles these employees to statutory, common law, and/or contractual entitlements on termination. BlackBerry has stated that it will not pay BlackBerry employees any of these entitlements, despite the fact that employees lose all of their years of service.

BlackBerry has breached its duties of good faith and honesty, and has knowingly misled the employees. BlackBerry structured this transaction in such a way as to avoid paying these employees their statutory entitlements.

We seek damages for the plaintiffs for minimum provincial statutory entitlements on termination, contractual entitlements on termination, and/or common law entitlements on termination. We are also asking for bad faith and punitive damages, as well as costs.

Plaintiffs in the class action include individuals who were employees and/or dependent contractors of BlackBerry Limited in Canada, and who were offered and accepted employment with the business partner.

BlackBerry has given letters of resignation to employees to sign. We strongly discourage employees from signing such letters. Employees can contact our office if they have any questions.

minivanmegafun posted:

that's a really hosed up thing to do but is it a typical Canadian thing to implicitly trust what your employer gives you?

Kenny Logins posted:

if you're dumb enough to work at rimm/bbry in the past decade it's probably typical

Kenny Logins posted:

if you're dumb enough to work at rimm/bbry in the past decade it's probably typical

fishmech posted:

developing for it? was that like, building custom email clients to interface with ancient corporate email systems so the executives could use their blackberries or something?

Endless Mike posted:

remember when the playbook came out and you couldn't use bbm without logging out of your phone becasue they never envisioned a world where people have multiple blackberrys?

see also: google allo

Subjunctive posted:

I did hack on a free software email client of the time (I forget the name), but mostly it was building e-cash prototypes based on expensive math and questionable storage behaviour. I remember the development environment rebooting the host computer, until a printf in another part of the code was removed.

Q_res posted:

You made me curious, so I looked it up and you can actually get a 16GB Playbook on Amazon for $45.

I'm kind of tempted, I love useless, dead Operating Systems. It's why I have a Mac lying around.

fishmech posted:

honestly thats more intense development than i thought those devices were capable of handling.

Thanks Ants posted:

don't do it

infernal machines posted:

there's a real good chance it will never boot and you'll have a $45 paperweight because the battery discharged too far while in storage and the firmware doesn't have the fix that will allow it to charge a discharged battery

Maximo Roboto posted:

Now if it was a Touchpad, on the other hand

Q_res posted:

It's fulfilled by Amazon, so that should be too risky right?


Nah, I already bought one of those during the original fire sale.

Q_res posted:

It's fulfilled by Amazon, so that should be too risky right?

atomicthumbs posted:

i'll save you money and send you a broken piece of poo poo for $40

power botton posted:

what was the phone or tablet that was totally bricked once the battery was discharged was that a surface or a BBRY

power botton posted:

what was the phone or tablet that was totally bricked once the battery was discharged was that a surface or a BBRY

infernal machines posted: