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Cleaning up those BlackBerry rumors

Published Apr 25th, 2008 1:13PM EDT
BGR

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So you might have seen a couple things floating around on the BlackBerry 9000 lately. One of them is that Fortune recently went ahead and declared an August release for the device. The other is that a RIM “spokesperson” claims that the reason we’re now hearing battery life issues is because power management is usually turned off to “help with debugging”. Let’s break this down a bit. First…the power issues:

I’m all for corporate spin, but for them to have the audacity to even hint there are no power issues is an insult to all people with an IQ of, let’s say, over 70. Let me preface this by saying I have had an extremely early prototype of every single BlackBerry device since the Pearl 8100, and have never, not ever, not once, had battery life issues. Not even with the buggiest of beta software and not final hardware. The reason the BlackBerry 9000 has power issues is because of the new 624MHz Intel processor RIM is using along with the 3G chip. I may sound like a broken record here (do they make those anymore?) but using an archaic operating system and dressing it up ain’t gonna help. Putting lip stick on a pig does not make it a pretty girl last time I checked. There are most certainly major power issues with the BlackBerry 9000, hence the delays in the devices release. Which leads me to…

Oh, Fortune. You may remember this little article that was posted about a month ago, you know, the one where we said the BlackBerry 9000 was delayed until July or August? Yes, the very same information you just regurgitated while incorrectly reporting on the BlackBerry 9000’s model and codename. But it’s all good, our readers know who said it first, we just expect a little more from you…

So, why exactly am I bitching? BG, why so agitated? Well, I work hard to deliver all the information I do to our readers and anyone who finds it interesting. Do I care about not getting links? Negatory. Do I care that my exclusive information was republished without my permission into a “new” story a month later? Yes. What if Fortune had their own sources and simply posted what they were told? Then they’re not doing a very good job. Are they that starved for stories that they’re publishing an article a month after it was first broken? That would be like CNN running Election Day coverage a month after MSNBC. Glad I don’t work there…

Am I a complete jerkface for posting this? Am I short on sleep and patience and long on dislike of all things unoriginal and recycled? Do you completely agree with me? Sound off. I want to know your thoughts.

Jonathan S. Geller
Jonathan Geller Founder, President & Editor-in-chief

Jonathan S. Geller founded Boy Genius Report, now known as BGR, in 2006. It became the biggest mobile news destination in the world by the end of 2009, and BGR was acquired by leading digital media company PMC in April 2010.

Jonathan is President of BGR Media, LLC., and Editor-in-chief of the BGR website.

What started as a side project at the age of 16, quickly transpired into 24-hour days and nights of sharing exclusive and breaking news about the mobile communications industry. BGR now reaches up to 100 million readers a month through the website, syndication partners, and additional channels.