Nokia has filed a lawsuit against HTC, RIM and Viewsonic in United States and Germany. Nokia says these companies infringe a number of their patents related dual function antennas, power management, as well as on the software front like app stores, multitasking, navigation, conversational message display, dynamic menus, data encryption and retrieval of email attachments on a mobile device.

“Many of these inventions are fundamental to Nokia products,” said Louise Pentland, chief legal officer. “We’d rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations, but as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorized use of our inventions.”

Press Release

At the BlackBerry World, RIM revealed details regarding its upcoming OS – BlackBerry 10. RIM says BlackBerry 10 has been built “on the core values and exceptional user experiences that have attracted more than 77 million BlackBerry customers” and is emphasizing on gestures that will allow users to multitask quickly and efficiently.

BlackBerry is known for its physical QWERTY keyboards but interestingly, the BlackBerry 10 concentrates more on the touchscreen front. However, this does not mean RIM will adopt a similar strategy to HTC’s.

RIM also introduced a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device and as is evident, this prototype device sports a 4.2-inch (1280×768) touchscreen display, micro-HDMI support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and microSIM support.

[Via PR|The Verge]

India is a big market for BlackBerry smartphones and capitalizing on that fact, RIM today introduced the most affordable BlackBerry 7 smartphone. Carrying an asking price of Rs. 10,990, the Curve 9220 will be available in India from tomorrow and runs BlackBerry 7.1 OS. Additionally, it features a 2.44-inch TFT display, 2MP camera, FM Radio, physical QWERTY keyboard, microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, talk time of 7 hours and even a dedicated BBM key.

Interestingly, RIM will also enable buyers with a selection of paid BlackBerry apps totaling to Rs. 2,500. This offer is valid up to June 30.

RIM today announced a new accessory to complement its maiden tablet. The BlackBerry Mini Keyboard is compatible with BlackBerry PlayBook and doubles up as a stand to give it a laptop-like form factor. Another advantage is the integration of a multi-touch touchpad that not only functions as a regular mouse but also supports Playbook gestures.

RIM says the keyboard connects securely over Bluetooth to PlayBook and has a battery life of up to 30 days.

The keyboard can be pre-ordered for US$119.99.

Press Release

A move speculated on the Wall Street for many weeks has turned into a reality. Blackberry maker Research in Motion Co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have stepped down from their position to become Vice Chair of the Board, Chairman of the new Innovation Committee and a member of the Board respectively.

Thorsten Heins will be promoted to President and CEO of RIM. Heins joined he company from Siemens Communications Group in 2007 and COO for Product and Sales in August 2011.

Meet Thorsten Heins in the video below:

RIM announced a new software update for BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 at the CES 2012 and we managed to get our hands on it. The PlayBook OS 2.0 is a significant update that takes the maiden BlackBerry tablet to a whole new level.

The most missed feature in the PlayBook is now available – native email. Additionally, there’s an unified inbox, multi-tasking within email, deep social integration of contacts, improved BlackBerry Bridge that allows to use BlackBerry device’s keyboard and mouse, control it and even open files and videos directly from the phone to the PlayBook.

On the business front, the new OS will integrate an improved version of Documents to Go office suite, increased control of corporate data, more apps and a video store (not shown on the video).

RIM will release the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 in February 2012.

RIM’s PlayBook sale in India is a hit, going by the recent numbers. Following the announcement of the sale last week, RIM has managed to sell each and every PlayBook available on the retail shelf. According to RIM India’s Director, Sunil Dutt, RIM sold more than 12,000 devices in just 4 days and to give a chance to new consumers, RIM is extending the sale by a week.

PlayBook is RIM’s first tablet offering powered by QNX OS and features dual-core processors, dual HD cameras, 7-inch display, Wi-Fi and more.

RIM will sell 16GB, 32GB and 64GB PlayBook tablets for Rs. 13,490, Rs. 15,990 and Rs. 24,490 respectively.

[Via ToI]

Out in the market for a decently-priced tablet? Well, you can take a look at RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook. The entry-level BlackBerry tablet now goes for just Rs. 13,490. A steal, if you ask me. Other SKUs like the 32GB and 64GB also got a price drop, which is now Rs. 15,990 and Rs. 24,490 respectively.

The offer is valid till December 31, 2011 and is available at all BlackBerry outlets.

Wondering about the PlayBook? You can check out our review here.

[Via FoneArena]

RIM continues its launch spree in India with the introduction of three new handsets. The first two belong to the affordable Curve range (9350, 9380) whereas one is from the top Bold series (9790). All BlackBerry devices run BlackBerry OS 7 and comes with usual set of features like the new BBM, Social Feeds, NFC, GPS, improved browser and more.

The Curve 9350 features a full QWERTY keyboard along with an optical trackpad, Wi-Fi, 5MP camera and a microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB. Supporting the Curve range is 9380, which is the first Curve device to sport an all-touchscreen form factor. It has a 3.2-inch display, optical trackpad, 800MHz CPU, 5MP camera and microSD card slot.

Finally the Bold 9790 features a 480×360 2.45-inch touchscreen support, QWERTY keyboard, 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, 8GB internal memory and microSD card support.

All the devices are expected to be available from the first week of December for a price of Rs. 20,990 for both the Curve handsets and Rs. 27,490 for Bold 9790.

It seems BlackBerry Colt won’t be the first BBX-based device to make its way out. According to the latest grapevine, RIM has reportedly scrapped Colt for London. The image comes by way of The Verge but BGR seems to have more details on the launch, which they believe to be sometime in Q3 next year. That is a long wait but BGR says RIM is still working on bringing native BES and BBM to BBX and is the likely cause of delay.

Nevertheless, the phone is rumored to be powered by a TI OMAP 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 8MP rear facing and 2MP front facing camera.