Nokia says most Apple products violate its patents

Nokia has ramped up its legal fight against Apple, arguing that almost all of its products infringe Nokia patents.

Nokia, the world's largest phone maker, filed its new complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

The Finnish phone maker alleges that Apple is using patented technologies to "create key features in its products", including iPods and iPhones.

In October Nokia sued Apple, saying that the company's popular touchscreen iPhone infringed 10 of its patents.

Apple told the BBC that it would not comment on Nokia's latest legal move.

However, the US firm recently countered by filing its own lawsuit against Nokia, saying the phone maker had copied certain aspects of the iPhone and infringed 13 of its patents.

The new complaint to the ITC relates to seven patents related to "user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies".

Nokia told Reuters that the firm expected the ITC to decide whether to pursue the case in around 30 days.

by :BBC news

Cell phone mania forces scramble for more airwaves

WASHINGTON – Wireless devices such as Apple's iPhone are transforming the way we go online, making it possible to look up driving directions, find the nearest coffee shop and update Facebook on the go. All this has a price — in airwaves.

As mobile phones become more sophisticated, they transmit and receive more data over the airwaves. But the spectrum of wireless frequencies is finite — and devices like the iPhone are allowed to use only so much of it. TV and radio broadcasts, Wi-Fi networks and other communications services also use the airwaves. Each transmits on certain frequencies to avoid interference with others.

Now wireless phone companies fear they're in danger of running out of room, leaving congested networks that frustrate users and slow innovation. So the wireless companies want the government to give them bigger slices of airwaves — even if other users have to give up rights to theirs.

"Spectrum is the equivalent of our highways," says Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group. "That's how we move our traffic. And the volume of that traffic is increasing so dramatically that we need more lanes. We need more highways."

That won't happen without a fight. Wireless companies are eyeing some frequencies used by TV broadcasters, satellite-communications companies and federal agencies such as the Pentagon. Already, some of those groups are pushing back.

That means tough choices are ahead. But one way or another, Washington will keep up with the exploding growth of the wireless market, insists Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va. He is sponsoring a bill that would mandate a government inventory of the airwaves to identify unused or underused bands that could be reallocated.

"It's not a question of whether we can find more spectrum," says Boucher, chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. "We have to find more spectrum."

CTIA, the industry group, is asking the government to make an additional 800 megahertz of the airwaves available for wireless companies to license over the next six years. That would be a huge expansion from the industry's current slice of roughly 500 megahertz. The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to make more frequencies available for commercial use, but has just 50 megahertz in the pipeline.

Two trends are driving the demand.

First, advanced new wireless applications — such as mobile video and online games — devour far more bandwidth than voice calls or basic text messages, says Neville Ray, senior vice president for engineering operations for T-Mobile USA Inc.

Second, consumers are flocking to wireless Internet connections, in some cases dropping landline accounts altogether. ABI Research projects U.S. mobile broadband subscriptions will climb to 150 million by 2014, up from 48 million this year and 5 million in 2007.

The predicament, says Jamie Hedlund, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, is that many users "assume the wireless experience should be the same as the wired experience, but the capacity is just not there for that."

The industry's concerns are finding a sympathetic ear in Washington.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, says finding more room for the wireless industry will be an important part of his agency's broadband plan. That plan, mandated by the 2009 stimulus bill, is due in February and will propose using wireless systems to bring high-speed Internet connections to corners of the country that are too remote for landline networks.

"If we are going to have a world-leading broadband infrastructure for the nation, wireless is an indispensable ingredient," says Genachowski aide Colin Crowell.

Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department that manages the federal government's use of the airwaves, says the agency is also hunting for more frequencies the wireless industry can use.

Some of the crunch can be addressed with technologies that make more efficient use of airwaves and new equipment that lets users share bands. The FCC also wants to promote greater use of frequencies that aren't licensed to anyone, such as the "white spaces" between the bands used by TV channels.

But such solutions alone won't solve the crisis, the wireless industry warns.

The FCC's attention for now is on TV broadcasters, which hold nearly 300 megahertz of airwaves that are mainly used to serve just 10 percent of American homes — those that still rely solely on over-the-air TV signals.

The FCC is exploring multiple options, most of which would leave broadcasters with enough capacity to deliver a high-definition signal over the air. One possibility, which might require congressional approval, is a voluntary program that would let broadcasters sell excess bandwidth through an auction, to either the government or directly to wireless companies. Although the FCC awarded spectrum licenses to broadcasters for free many years ago, those licenses are worth millions today.

"Fewer people are getting over-the-air TV and at the same time, more and more people are using mobile broadband," says Blair Levin, the official overseeing the FCC broadband plan. "So it only makes sense ... to get that asset into the hands of whomever can realize its greatest value."

The idea faces opposition from the powerful broadcast lobby. Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, says the proposal would stunt the industry's plans to make innovative use of the airwaves that became free when it turned off analog broadcasts and went entirely digital in June. Broadcasters have already returned more than 100 megahertz of those airwaves to the government and plan to use the rest to transmit high-definition signals, "multicast" multiple channels and deliver mobile TV to phones, laptops and cars.

"The FCC proposal would kill many of our future business plans in the cradle," Wharton says.

Wireless carriers are also setting their sights on frequencies held by companies that deliver voice and data services through satellites.

Hedlund, of the Consumer Electronics Association, notes that some of these companies have a lot of bandwidth but not a lot of customers. TerreStar Corp., for one, launched its satellite in July and is just building a subscriber base. And ICO Global Communications, which is running tests on a satellite launched last year, has not announced when it will begin commercial service.

But TerreStar General Counsel Doug Brandon believes the company has a strong argument for keeping its airwaves: Satellites can provide a critical lifeline in emergencies when other communications links go down and in rural areas where other carriers don't offer service.

If anything, added ICO Vice President Christopher Doherty, satellite phone companies are ideal partners for cell phone companies that want to expand coverage. TerreStar, for one, has a deal for AT&T Inc. to resell the satellite service.

More potential sources of frequencies are federal agencies that handle everything from emergency communications to surveillance operations. The Defense Department, for instance, needs the airwaves for such critical equipment as radars, precision-guided weapons and drone planes.

The Pentagon has vacated some frequencies and is developing technology that can make more efficient use of airwaves. It also says it is committed to finding compromises that work for the government and commercial sector, so long as those don't jeopardize military capabilities.

Karl Nebbia, head of the NTIA's Office of Spectrum Management, points out that federal agencies may be open to moving to different bands because the government is "a huge user of commercial broadband services." But one challenge will be to ensure federal users get the resources to relocate — including new equipment, potentially paid for with spectrum auction proceeds.

For now, one thing everyone agrees is that there are no easy pickings in the airwaves.

"There is no open space anywhere," says Kathleen Ham, vice president of regulatory affairs for T-Mobile.

Netbook decision: Windows XP or 7 Starter?

Windows 7, Microsoft's newest operating system, has received positive reviews; Windows 7 Starter, the version for netbooks, not so much.

Some critics think Microsoft's previous operating system, Windows Home XP, remains a better choice for netbooks in terms of overall battery life and some other features. This holiday season, shoppers are seeing netbooks on shelves loaded with XP and others with Windows 7 Starter. The latter is an essentially stripped-down version of Windows 7, released in October. `(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Windows 7 Starter may be too stripped down, some say. Among its frustrations: The background screen on the computer desktop cannot be personalized or changed from Microsoft's dominant logo, and there is no way to play back a DVD with an external DVD drive attached to the netbook.
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"You cannot change the desktop background on any Windows 7 Starter system," wrote Joanna Stern in an article on SlashGear's site recently. "That’s simply ridiculous. I have been changing backgrounds in Windows since my very first desktop that ran Windows 95!

"Can I live with a blue Windows logo on my notebook's desktop? Sure, but why should I? Yes, Windows 7 may be more aesthetically appealing than Windows XP, but who wants to look at a blue shaded Windows logo forever?"

Sales still strong

Netbooks continue to remain a strong part of the laptop market, representing between 15 and 20 percent of sales, said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group research firm.

The little laptops, generally weighing between 2 and 3 pounds and with 7- to 10-inch screens, are considered second computers for many, and provide wireless Web access on the go.

"What we’re seeing this holiday is that XP has been predominantly available on door-buster, lower-cost netbooks, those $300 and less, but the bulk of the netbooks out there are going to come with Windows 7 Starter," he said.

A recent check of Amazon.com's top-10 selling netbooks showed sales evenly divided between netbooks with XP and Windows 7 Starter.

'Solid, basic experience'

Benjamin Rudolph of Microsoft's Windows Business Group said the company extensively tested Windows 7 Starter, with "hundreds of thousands of people testing the product for thousands and thousands of hours," and concluded that for "people looking for that solid, basic experience" of Web surfing and checking e-mail on netbooks, Windows 7 Starter was a good choice.

"There are a couple of the visual elements that the higher versions of Windows 7 has that Windows 7 Starter doesn’t have, including the ability to change the background," he said.

The lack of DVD playback with Windows 7 Starter has also come as a surprise to some, who have gone out and bought USB DVD drives to plug into their netbooks, only to find such drives won't work.

"If you want to engage in more mobile entertainment, you want to be able to play DVDs back, you want the richer media experience, you might want to consider Windows Home Premium. That's why the Windows 'anytime upgrade' is such a good option," letting users decide if or when they want to move to a more robust operating system, said Rudolph.

The cost to upgrade from Windows Starter 7 to Windows 7 Home premium is $79.99. Some consider that a steep price, considering most netbooks themselves are between $300 and $400.

On one of its blogs, "Let's talk about Windows 7 Starter," Microsoft talks about many of the issues that have gotten attention of netbook users.

7 Starter plusses

Alex Spektor, netbook share tracker for Strategy Analytics, said that "part of Microsoft's reasoning for the fixed wallpaper (or background) may have been to limit the consumption of system resources on constrained machines like netbooks."

He believes there are "several key advantages" to using Windows 7 Starter vs. XP Home on netbooks. Among them: "The user interface, while largely a carryover from Windows Vista, holds some significant improvements over Windows XP," especially with improved "Wi-Fi connection management" that is easier than XP's.

The newer operating system, released in October, "displays all available Wi-Fi connections in a pop-up menu on the desktop, allowing for easy lookup of nearby hotspots and quick toggling between routers," Spektor said. "In contrast, Windows XP uses a somewhat cumbersome dialog box, which is somewhat less intuitive." Support timeline
Because Windows 7 is new, there is also "the benefit of ongoing support from the software giant," he said. "While Microsoft is still supporting Windows XP because of use in netbooks and the general resistance in the PC community to Windows Vista, the operating system is getting quite dated.

"At some point, Microsoft will end support for XP, which might leave users out in the cold with respect to patches or technical support."

That point will be Aug. 4, 2014, when Microsoft ends extended support for XP, according to the company's product "lifecycle" policy.
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XP's strengths

Points in favor of XP Home on netbooks are that "Windows 7 is a heavier operating system, consuming more resources than XP," Spektor said.

"While Microsoft has improved 7's power management functionality, early tests have shown that the OS takes a toll on the weak specifications of the typical netbook, affecting important factors like battery life."

Several tech publications — including PC World, Laptop magazine and Liliputing — have done comparison tests of battery life using both versions of Windows, and found that netbooks using XP have anywhere from 10 to 20 percent more battery life than those with Windows 7 Starter.

Battery life on many netbooks can be more than five hours, and so the difference may not be as keenly felt as for those with netbooks that have two or three hours' battery life.

Support issue

Michael Cherry, analyst for Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm, said while XP is "a well-known and familiar operating system, the downside is simply this: Microsoft will not be supporting it in the future."

In XP's favor, he said, is that it is "so widely used that most problems have been discovered and either repaired or a workaround is well-known.

"In reality, the concern is that a new security vulnerability will be found and Microsoft chooses not to fix it because XP’s architecture differs significantly from the versions of the OS it currently supports, or fixing it would break too many applications. This is the risk of becoming a new user of Windows XP today."

Windows 7 Starter is "less well-known and familiar, but people will not have trouble working with it," he said. "It is currently in mainstream support, so Microsoft is more likely to fix any problems that are uncovered.

"It has been trimmed down so that customers have the ability to download some features from Windows Live if they want them. I run it on a netbook that originally came from the manufacturer with XP, and I am satisfied with the performance."


Rudolph, of Microsoft, said Windows XP  "is a great OS, but for somebody looking for a netbook, Windows 7 is really what they want. It's the best OS we ever made, whether you pick Windows 7 Starter edition or a higher version, like Home Premium, you get to take advantage of all the speed, all the security, all the usability improvements. They’re present to the core in all editions of Windows 7.

"It’s a common misconception that going to Windows 7 Starter is a step down from Windows XP. It’s not; it’s definitely a step up."

Microsoft, Intel to cede tablet market to Apple?

If the Apple tablet emerges as expected, this will be another big device market, following smartphones, that the PC industry cedes to Apple.

The writing is already on the wall already for Microsoft and smartphones, as spelled out in a previous post and as documented in shrinking market share numbers.

That's not to say that Microsoft, Compaq (later Hewlett-Packard), and Intel didn't have a chance. Remember the Compaq iPAQ PDA that debuted way back in 2000, powered by an Intel StrongARM chip running an early version of Windows Mobile?

That device had a lot of potential. The operative word being "potential." An iPAQ could have been an iPhone. Or at the very least an iPod. And everybody could be drooling over iPAQs today instead of iPhones. Or using iPAQs instead of BlackBerrys. But of course things didn't turn out that way.

Fast forward to 2010 (January?). Apple announces a tablet and suddenly everyone wants a tablet.

And what have Microsoft, Intel, HP, and others been offering in the interim years when they had every opportunity to come out with a blockbuster tablet? Unattractive, bulky, half-baked convertible laptops that, let's put it this way, have not taken the PC market by storm.

So, here's the $64,000 question, uh, make that the $64 billion question. Why can't the combined R&D smarts, market clout, and overall technological resources of Microsoft-Intel-HP-Dell come up with a thin, sexy compelling tablet and/or media pad that will turn heads and convince the unbelievers (the average why-would-I-need-something-like-that consumer) that a tablet is a must-have product?

Answer: Because Apple will.

Here's a not unlikely scenario. Apple brings out the tablet/media pad, wows U.S. (and world?) consumers, sells a ton of units, Microsoft-Intel-HP-Dell follow suit with slavishly copied devices that don't sell very well comparatively.

That's how the market for successful newfangled devices works these days. Apple creates the market and everyone else follows in a panic.

Then there's the Intel factor. Intel also wants to be a player in this space. But Intel and its coterie of PC makers can't get off the traditional-design laptop gravy train. Plus, as formidable a chipmaker as Intel is, it is still behind the Qualcomms and Texas Instruments of the world in building the power-efficient system-on-a-chip silicon that goes into smartphones and will likely go into tablets.

So, here's my question for Intel et al: How many people will be buying Netbooks or Intel-based MIDs (mobile Internet devices) in 2011 if Apple has a more compelling alternative? Answer: a lot less if the Apple tablet exists.

And add Asia-based device makers offering tablets using an Nvidia Tegra 2 chip to that. A number of these tablets are expected too in 2010. In fact, Nvidia is already doing what Intel should have finished doing a long time ago: make a competitive system-on-a-chip that powers small devices. Intel had the chance to make XScale (what StrongARM eventually became) into something big for small devices six years ago. But it didn't. And now Intel is trying to reinvent the wheel by squeezing the upcoming "Moorestown" Atom chip into smartphones.

Intel, I'm sure you think Moorestown is a great idea, but it's a little late. Apple beat you to it by about three years.

Sony's PlayStation 3 Got Sales Boost From Final Fantasy XIII

Sony's PlayStation 3 got a boost from last week's launch of "Final Fantasy XIII" as Japanese consumers snapped up special-edition consoles to give the PS3 its best week since a relaunch several months ago, according to data released on Friday.

Sales of the PS3 totaled 237,086 units in the week of Dec. 14 of which about 92,000 units were a "Final Fantasy XIII" special edition offered by Sony, said Media Create. "Final Fantasy XIII," the latest installment in the long-running Final Fantasy series, launched on Dec. 17 so the figures cover its first four days on sale.

The weekly sales easily outpace those of recent weeks and are higher than those of early September when Sony relaunched the PlayStation 3 in a slimmer case and with a lower price tag. The PS3 sold 152,000 units during its relaunch week, according to Media Create.

The relaunch helped breath new life into the PlayStation 3 platform and push sales higher in the last three months. The PlayStation business remains a money loser for Sony but the company has targeted 2010 as the year it will return its gaming operations to profitability. The launch of games like "Final Fantasy XIII" plays an important role in this plan.

The "Final Fantasy XIII" software scored a major success for Square Enix with sales of just over 1.5 million copies over its first four days, said Media Create.

Sony is also attempting to widen the console's appeal.

Services such as movie rentals are being added to the PlayStation 3 and will be expanded next year with the addition of TV shows and other content. Sony has also pledged to offer a software update that will bring the capability to play back 3D content on Blu-ray Disc.

Sony's chief rival in the Japanese market, Nintendo, scored second place for the week. In the software chart its "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" ranked with 567,890 copies sold while the Wii console chalked up sales of 191,915 units, said Media Create.

Media Create estimates game software and hardware sales from point-of-sales system data gathered from around 3,000 retailers across the country.

Twitter buys developers of GeoAPI

Twitter is usually the subject of steamy acquisition rumors, but chose perhaps the deadest afternoon of the business year to announce that it has made an acquisition of its own.

Twitter has bought Mixer Labs, the company that created the GeoAPI location service for developers building application atop Twitter. Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, announced the acquisition on the company's blog, saying "when current location is added to tweets, new and valuable services emerge--everything from breaking news to finding friends or local businesses can be dramatically enhanced."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it would appear Twitter is putting some of that money it now gets from Google and Microsoft to work. Elad Gil, the co-founder and CEO of Mixer Labs, is a veteran of Google and McKinsey, saying on his company bio that he co-founded Google's Mobile team. Seven employees are listed on Mixer Labs' "About" page, but that might not be an exhaustive list.

Twitter acquired Summize in July 2008, but the company has made few acquisitions, instead fending off perpetual rumors that Google, Microsoft, or another tech heavyweight is poised to snap up the company. Geo-location is definitely one of the hotter segments among the social-media butterflies, with companies like Foursquare and Gowalla drawing significant attention.

Cheaper gaming PCs offer decent experience

ATLANTA – Personal computers designed specifically for gamers are getting more powerful and more affordable by the month. They're bursting with multi-core processors, powerful video graphics cards and plenty of memory to give you the most realistic graphics and action.

Although it should come as no surprise that the computers that can run games consistently well are the ones at the high end of the price spectrum, I found machines for about $1,000 that can give you decent play.

The cheapest ones, though, were disappointing when confronted with complex games that can push a system to its limit.

With prices coming down, PC gamers on the verge of buying a new machine must ask themselves: Does it look cool, and can it run "Crysis"?

"Crysis," a futuristic first-person shooting game, has steeper hardware requirements than typical games, which already tend to push the boundaries. So if your computer is powerful enough for "Crysis," it can likely run any game on the market.

The machines that run "Crysis" well have powerful graphics cards and multi-core processors — essentially several processors on a single chip working in synch.

These computers also have a generous amount of random access memory, or RAM, which is key to letting games to run smoothly. The myriad computations a game requires each second are primarily made with data uploaded on the fly to the available RAM on your computer. The more you have, the more data your computer can access quickly.

In my tests, Falcon Northwest delivers the best machines when price is no object.

At $3,856, Falcon Northwest's diminutive FragBox is a serious ding to the wallet, but it packs twin graphics cards for multiple display support, 12 gigabytes of RAM and an Intel Core i7 processor rated at cool 3.06 gigahertz — all in a box that's much shorter than the typical tower PC. At that price, you also get a 24-inch Samsung high-definition LCD display.

The FragBox ran "Crysis" and another processor hog, "Red Faction: Guerrilla," without a hitch. These are two of the most demanding games on the market because of their detailed graphics and complex action sequences.

The FragBox also scored well in benchmark tests I conducted using software from Futuremark Corp., which measures graphics rendering and other processing tasks at various display sizes and quality settings. Put simply, the FragBox can run the most complex games at the most extreme settings.

Contrast that with something at the low end of the price spectrum: the $499 Maelstrom from CyberPower Inc.

It's a full-sized, tower unit that has a rugged, futuristic appearance. This unit comes with an AMD Athlon 2.8 GHz processor and 2 gigabytes of RAM. That's one-sixth the memory offered by the FragBox.

There is noticeable lag if you're attempting to play games on a large display at full screen and in high resolution with a paltry amount of RAM. I had to settle for playing "Crysis" and "Red Faction" in a smaller window; the dreamy full-screen experience was a no-go here.

CyberPower did come through strong, however, with another tower model priced $500 higher at $999. The Gamer Xtreme 4200 sports an ATI Radeon high-definition graphics card and the latest Intel processor from the Lynnfield line, a Core i5 running at 2.66 GHz.

More importantly, the Gamer Xtreme 4200 has double the RAM — at 4 gigabytes. That helps support Intel's new chipset, and the results showed. The benchmark test scores revealed high frame rates per second when rendering graphics. I was able to play "Crysis" and "Red Faction" full-screen without any issues.

At a similar price, iBuyPower offers a variety of models, including the $999 Chimera. That machine performed admirably in tests. I didn't experience any performance drops when playing "Red Faction" at 1680 x 1050 resolution, an above average display quality. Bumping it up to 1920 x 1080, however, led to some lag and stuttering as I scanned the horizon for enemies during the game.

The Chimera comes with a decent ATI Radeon graphics card, but if you're going to spend an extra $150 on an upgrade, that would be the likely candidate. The chipset is solid, and the 4 gigabytes of RAM is fine. It just needs a stronger graphics card to take it to the next level.

If you simply must have a laptop specifically for your gaming needs, Dell's Alienware M17x is a smart buy, but it will set you back $1,799 at its cheapest configuration. I tried a tricked-out model that sells for $3,899. The result? I was able to play "Crysis" over coffee at a cafe in high definition at the most extreme settings, something few other laptop toters can boast.

One drawback of the Alienware laptop is size. It's a heavy beast that you would never want to carry around in a backpack or briefcase. It's more of a desktop replacement than a traveling companion.

The M17x has an Intel Core2 Extreme Quad processor operating at 2.53 GHz, sitting alongside a powerful graphics card to deliver those high-frame rates for "Crysis" and similar games. It comes with 4 gigabytes of RAM, and all the components are fine-tuned to deliver a high-end, high-quality gaming experience.

In summary, if you've got $1,000 or less to spend, I'd recommend something from CyberPower. The company builds very aggressively styled, affordable machines that can still give you decent play. If money is no object and you want a machine that looks nicer than a Ferrari, Falcon Northwest is the trend setter.

Anything less than $700 runs the risk of feeling slow and outdated once the next incarnation of "Crysis" comes out. If you're at all a serious gamer, you're better off spending a little more and planning ahead.

BlackBerry users beset by second outage in a week

TORONTO – When Corey Marshall's Blackberry mysteriously stopped sending and receiving messages, he realized all too clearly just how much he depends on the device: He had no way of contacting his friends because he never bothers to exchange phone numbers with anyone anymore.

"A lot of the times if I meet someone and I see they have a BlackBerry, I don't even want their number or care. I just want their BBM," or their BlackBerry instant-messaging ID, said the 23-year-old tanning-salon manager and student. "I didn't even have my boss' number. I only contact him through BB."

He added: "I go to sleep with it in my hands. It's the first thing I do when I wake up in the middle of the night. It's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning."

The second BlackBerry outage in less than a week disrupted service for millions of users on two continents Tuesday and Wednesday, demonstrating how vital — and how addictive — the device dubbed the "CrackBerry" can be.

The company behind the service, Canada's Research in Motion Ltd., blamed a software upgrade for the problem, which it said was confined to North and South America.

RIM said BlackBerry users were unable to send or receive e-mails and instant messages but did not lose phone service. Many users also found the Internet inaccessible. RIM said the disruptions began around 1:45 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, worsened around 6:30 p.m. and began to be fixed around 11:30 p.m. Service appeared restored by Wednesday afternoon. RIM would not disclose exactly how many subscribers were affected.

The glitch comes after another outage last Thursday and at least three breakdowns in 2008. The latest problems are happening at an especially bad time for RIM, which is facing tougher competition than ever before in the market it helped pioneer.

"One of RIM's big advantages is that it's perceived as a reliable device," said Duncan Stewart, director of research and analysis at DSam Consulting. "To lose the advantage of reliability would, in fact, be a very big deal for this company."

CanDace Johnson, a 25-year-old nanny living in New York, said her BlackBerry lost all Internet service around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, leaving her cut off from the e-mail account she uses to keep in touch with her boss.

"If someone is watching your child, you want them to respond to your messages," she said.

Robert Hagler, a 46-year-old lawyer in Daphne, Ala., noticed around dinner time Tuesday that the normal flow of e-mail and Facebook updates on his BlackBerry Curve had petered out.

"So I went home that evening, logged on to my laptop, and there's 20 e-mails sitting there," he said. "All my iPhone friends are just tickled to death."

When Marshall suddenly stopped getting reply messages from his friends, he lost his cool: "I kept unplugging my phone, turning it off and on. I was getting very upset when it wouldn't work."

"My whole life is based on my BBM," he said.

RIM has sold more than 75 million BlackBerrys since the gadget debuted 10 years ago. It now counts 36 million subscribers around the globe and ranks second in the worldwide market for advanced "smart phones," with a 21 percent share, behind Nokia Corp.'s 39 percent, according to market research firm Gartner Inc.

BlackBerrys are especially popular in occupations heavily dependent on messaging — among lawyers and business executives, for instance. RIM counts 500,000 subscribers in the U.S. government. President Barack Obama has been a BlackBerry devotee.

After originally focusing on corporate or government customers, RIM now gets most of its new subscribers in the consumer market, thanks to touch-screen models like the BlackBerry Storm.

But RIM faces innovative competitors such as Apple's iPhone, which had 17 percent of the smart phone market in the Gartner report, and the brand-new Motorola Droid. RIM's stock has dropped 23 percent since September.

The iPhone is beloved for its design cachet and the seemingly limitless supply of programs, known as "apps," that users can download to customize their phones. BlackBerrys got apps later, and have fewer available.

Yet the iPhone also has not been as reliable as many users would like. AT&T, the sole carrier of the device in the U.S., has been upgrading its network to reduce the dropped connections and long waits people have encountered when trying to run programs.

Although BlackBerry service is sold by wireless carriers, RIM manages its messaging network itself. The centralized structure means that any problems can affect millions of users.

This week's outage apparently stemmed from a flaw in recently released versions of RIM's instant messaging software, known as BlackBerry Messenger. RIM released a new version on Wednesday that solves the problem.

RIM, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, apologized for any inconvenience. The company declined interview requests.