Blackberry encryption problems

[Spitfire]

Seems like Blackberry are getting the unwanted attention of governments about the encryption software, initially now from The UAE and Saudi Arabia has said it will suspend Blackberry services from this Friday. India has been complaining too but it seems Blackberry has come to an "arrangement" the the Indians about limited access to the encryption, probably due to the size of that market.

It'll be interesting to see if Blackberry caves-in or not, especially as their new Blackberry called "Torch" is being launched for sale next week in the US. Now that a couple of countries have complained then there might be a bunch more that get on the bandwagon and Blackberry has no choice but to compromise it's principles.

Privately, I hope they stick to their guns but that might be too idealistic as business is business. They may already have made deals with the US and European intelligent services anyhow, just no-one knows.

I've thought of getting one, anyone use a Blackberry or know much about them?

Any recommendations/experiences?

[tarakandi]

Message this morning from my companies IT group tells us that they are going to wait a couple of weeks and if the ruling still stands we will need to use BB and a Nokia.

The date we have been told for the implementation of the ban is 11 October 2010.

[PeteC]

If they're doing this to the BB, why not the IPhone? Isn't the IPhone just as capable of scrambling data and communications? Pete

[Jimbob]

Spitfire, I have a company supplied Blackberry 9700 with the touchpad instead of a ball. The biggest problem is the security options. The password access only lasts up to an hour. So when you want to use the phone, once the time lapses, you have to put in the 8 character code before you can ring someone. That's a pain. You get up to ten attempts to remember the password. On eleventh go it wipes the whole memory and you are in the s..t. Its secure!
The email stuff is fine. I don't have WEB access. Camera is just OK.
Sometimes it freezes up so you have to pull the battery out to reset it and wait and wait for it to come good. Battery life is good but don't let it drain flat. You then have to put in the SIM card password to then put in your main password.
(Of course there are plenty of Blackberry forums)
My previous blackberry was an 8800 but the dog gave that a right chew which made the W/1 key full out (lost) but I could still use a ball point pen on it It was very battered with bite marks all over it So I thought it was very robust. BB 1, dog 0, and it was my stupidity to leave around