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In what has become standard procedure for RIM’s co-CEO, Mike Lazaridis has donated an additional $50 million to the Perimeter Institute, Waterloo’s center for theoretical physics, bringing his total contribution levels to a whopping $150 million (Lazaridis donated an initial $100 million to help found the center in 2000).

“These are exciting times in science, and we have the good fortune to propel new ideas right here in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,” he said. “It is an important mission I feel passionate about and wish to support.”

Lazaridis made the private donation Wednesday evening just prior to a public lecture at the institute. Mikey, listen: we think it’s a great thing you’re doing here forwarding scientific discovery (and using RIM’s proximity to the Perimeter Institute to capitalize on that discovery), but if all you wanted was a lecture gig, you should have just come here. We would have gladly let you give a lecture at BBCool HQ for a cool mill, no questions asked (in unmarked ones, preferably). Call us.

(via CBC)

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Coming straight out of Jakarta this morning, RIM and Telkomsel, Indonesia’s largest carrier announced a new prepaid BIS option for the world’s largest archipelagic state. The solution allows customers to activate BlackBerry Internet Service easily via SMS, with service automatically disabled if there is insufficient credit in the account.

The prepaid BlackBerry Internet Service from Telkomsel is available via an unlimited package with a tariff of Rp/ 180,000 per month. For more information, go to: www.telkomsel.com

(via RIM)

(...)
Read the rest of RIM and Telkomsel announce prepaid BlackBerry solution in Indonesia (321 words)

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Mere months after their victory over Visto in the United Kingdom, RIM has laid the legal smack down on the company once again. The Globe and Mail is reporting that Visto has agreed to pay damages to RIM after a Federal Court judge found that the company infringed on three of RIM’s patents. For those keeping score at home, this means the end of a suit that dates all the way back to the summer of 2006. Yeesh.

Both sides have yet to work out the damages Visto will have to pay, but RIM must be happy with the moral victory. Jack McCoy strikes again!

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It looks like the holiday season was a bit kinder to BlackBerry sales than expected. While reporting third quarter results back in December, RIM was ballparking around 1.82 million new BlackBerry subscribers, but that’s been bumped up to about 2.18 million, totaling the BlackBerry subscriber count to 14 million. We’ll be able to see if the forecast holds up when Q4 and year-end results are announced on April 2nd.

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Hot on the heels of the touchscreen patent is another filed by RIM for a slider design that features a simple support mechanism underneath which keeps the screen tilted. While the “handheld mobile communication device with moveable display/cover member” was filed back in July ‘06, it still leaves you to wonder how it relates to the more-recently patented LCD touchscreen, considering they’ve been released to the public on the same day and all. Anyone think the angled look might sway some HTC users?

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A post on CNN Money noted that RIM spent a grand total of $890,000 in 2007 on lobbying the U.S. government for patent reform legislation as well as regulatory rules to make handsets more accessible to those with hearing disabilities. Patent reform is a little complicated, but the basic idea is to change the US patent laws so that patents are awarded to the first person to submit paperwork — a system which is common outside the US — rather than to the person who invented the concept. While this sounds backward, it has the potential to reduce the number of frivolous legal battle surrounding patents. RIM has certainly had issues with patents in the past, so the spending hardly comes as a surprise.

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RIM has recently settled on Irving, Texas as their American headquarters, and will be hiring upwards of 1,000 folks over the next few years while the expansion is underway. We might end up seeing some of those positions on BlackBerry Jobs, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled, job-hunters. The address for the HQ will be Las Colinas’ Riverside Commons, 5000 Riverside Drive, Brazos Building East, Irving, Texas 75039, if any local readers want to swing by and let us know how the new place is coming along. You can scope out the bird’s eye view here, or find more information about the area here.

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BlackBerry users in the Philipines have reported a service outage due to a small fire at RIM. Smart Communications was the affected carrier, so we presume it was a fairly localized incident that won’t be hurting other services any time soon, but it still makes us a bit jumpy to think about what would happen if a more widespread physical danger were to come to RIM’s servers.

Smart said the problem was detected Wednesday morning. The company added that RIM’s technical personnel are currently working to re-route traffic and expects normal services soon. Another advisory said that Smart and RIM are testing a solution to bring the push e-mail service back online.

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Not sure if you heard, but RIM is setting a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show down in Las Vegas from January 7th. to 10th. CES covers a wide range of fields, from gaming to home theatres, to wireless technology and digital imaging. Bill Gates will be one of the keynote speakers, alongside CEOs of Comcast, Intel, Panasonic and others. If you happen to be in the neighbourhood, RIM’s going to be set up at booth 30333 in South Hall B at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Even if you’re not attending, you can sign up for daily e-mail updates over here. For more info, check out www.cesweb.org, or follow the blog over here.

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In two short weeks, RIM will be announcing the results from last quarter. This will be the part where they put their money where their mouth is and we can see how the iPhone actually effected BlackBerry sales. The ongoing company line has been “Thanks for making smartphones popular, Apple”, which certainly has its merit, and with the healthy dose of new device releases, it’s hard to imagine sales slipping at all. To see if the talk holds up, you can sign up for the 5:00 PM ET conference here or take a listen after the fact here.

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Some more details on what’s going on with the new limitations on how RIM handles their own stock has been announced in a glorious fount of financio-babble. The plain English version lays it all out:

The plan lets managers, workers and directors sell shares according to a preset schedule, regardless of any inside information they subsequently receive, the Waterloo, Ontario- based company said in a statement today. Once such a plan is established, the employee can’t change the timing or size of the sales, the company said.

Many of the executives will end up selling or giving away their shares to charity over the next 13 months as a result of their amended insider trader policy.

Certain RIM Executives Adopt Automatic Securities Disposition Plans

Waterloo, ON - Research In Motion Limited (”RIM” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that it has amended its Insider Trading Policy to enable its directors, officers and employees (each an “insider”) to adopt automatic securities disposition plans (”ASDPs”) pursuant to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Rule 10b5-1 (”Rule 10b5-1″) and applicable Canadian provincial securities legislation, including the guidance under Ontario Securities Commission’s Staff Notice 55-701 (the “Canadian Legislation”).

Rule 10b5-1 and the Canadian Legislation permit insiders to adopt written ASDPs (generally referred to in the United States as “Rule 10b5-1 Plans”) to sell, donate or otherwise transfer shares in the future (including upon exercise of stock options) according to the ASDP on an automatic basis regardless of any subsequent material non-public information they receive. Once an ASDP is established, the insider is not permitted to exercise any further discretion or influence over how dispositions will occur under the ASDP. RIM recognizes that insiders may have reasons unrelated to their assessment of a company or its prospects in determining to effect transactions in that company’s common shares under an ASDP. These reasons might include, for example, charitable donations, tax and estate planning, retirement planning, the purchase of a home, the payment of university tuition for a child, the establishment of a trust, the balancing of assets and diversification of investments in an orderly manner, or other personal reasons. RIM also recognizes that many of its officers and employees have a substantial portion of their personal net worth represented by securities of the Company, and that a number of RIM’s officers have been subject to lengthy restrictions on their ability to effect trades in RIM’s common shares because of regular and special trading blackouts imposed on such officers under the Company’s Insider Trading Policy and the management cease trade order (MCTO) issued by the Ontario Securities Commission in October 2006 at the Company’s request.

In addition to meeting the basic requirements of Rule 10b5-1 and Canadian Legislation, RIM has established additional measures designed to conform with “best practices” relating to ASDPs. Those measures include the following: (i) ASDPs may only be adopted during a trading window; (ii) a “cooling-off” period of three months (30 days for pre-existing charitable commitments) will generally be required between the adoption of the ASDP and the first sale under the ASDP; (iii) an ASDP should generally have a duration of 12-24 months; (iv) the ASDP must contain meaningful restrictions on the ability of the insider to modify or terminate the ASDP; and (v) the ASDP should generally provide for regular sales of smaller amounts (relative to an insider’s holdings) over a period of time rather than large sales during a short period of time after adoption of the ASDP. In addition, RIM’s Insider Trading Policy requires all ASDPs to be pre-cleared by the Board of Directors or a designated committee thereof. The Board of Directors will also consider such other “best practices” as they exist at the time an insider adopts an ASDP and may impose such additional requirements, or grant such exceptions, as it determines are necessary or appropriate.

Following the amendment to RIM’s Insider Trading Policy, the following officers of the Company have opted to establish ASDPs prior to the closing of RIM’s current trading window today:

• Jim Balsillie (Co-Chief Executive Officer) – Mr. Balsillie’s ASDP provides for the donation of Cdn$38 million of common shares of RIM to certain charitable organizations and educational or research institutions, as well as the sale of Cdn$86 million of common shares of RIM over the 13-month term of the ASDP (including in each case common shares issuable upon exercises of stock options held by Mr. Balsillie). These amounts represent a small portion of Mr. Balsillie’s beneficial ownership of RIM’s shares.

• Mike Lazaridis (President and Co-Chief Executive Officer) – Mr. Lazaridis’ ASDP provides for the donation of up to Cdn$75 million of common shares of RIM by Mr. Lazaridis (or companies controlled by Mr. Lazaridis) to certain charitable organizations and educational or research institutions, as well as the sale of up to Cdn$100 million of common shares of RIM over a minimum 14-month term (maximum 18-month) of the ASDP. These amounts represent a small portion of Mr. Lazaridis’ beneficial ownership of RIM’s shares.

• Larry Conlee (Chief Operating Officer – Product Development and Manufacturing) – Mr. Conlee’s ASDP provides for the sale of 578,500 common shares of RIM upon exercises of options held by Mr. Conlee over the 12-month term of the ASDP.

• Dennis Kavelman (Chief Operating Officer – Administration and Operations) – Mr. Kavelman’s ASDP provides for the transfer of 240,000 common shares of RIM upon the exercise of options held by Mr. Kavelman to a charitable foundation established by Mr. Kavelman and his wife and the subsequent sale of such shares by the foundation pursuant to its ASDP, as well as the sale of up to 500,000 common shares upon exercises of stock options held by Mr. Kavelman over the 18-month term of his ASDP. In addition to the options subject to the ASDPs, Mr. Kavelman has 492,000 vested and unvested RIM stock options as well as RIM shares.

• Don Morrison (Chief Operating Officer – BlackBerry) – Mr. Morrison’s ASDP provides for the donation of 95,000 common shares of RIM upon exercises of stock options held by Mr. Morrison to certain charitable organizations and a charitable foundation established by Mr. Morrison and his wife, as well as the sale of 265,000 common shares upon exercises of options held by Mr. Morrison over the 12-month term of the ASDP.

• Karima Bawa (Vice President, Legal) – Ms. Bawa’s ASDP provides for the sale of up to 275,750 common shares of RIM (including common shares issuable upon exercises of options held by Ms. Bawa) over the 12-month term of the ASDP.

• Norm Lo (Vice President, Asia/Pacific) – Mr. Lo’s ASDP provides for the sale of up to 210,000 common shares of RIM upon exercises of options held by Mr. Lo over the 13-month term of the ASDP.

• Elizabeth Roe Pfeifer (Vice President, Organizational Development) – Ms. Roe Pfeifer’s ASDP provides for the sale of up to 50,350 common shares of RIM (including common shares issuable upon exercises of options held by Ms. Roe Pfeifer) over the 8-month term of the ASDP. In light of the smaller number of shares to be sold by Ms. Roe Pfeifer, RIM’s Board of Directors granted Ms. Roe Pfeifer an exemption from the requirement that the ASDP have a minimum 12-month term.

(...) Read the rest of More details on RIM's internal stock options (691 words)

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Yesterday was the day that RIM was to step up to the Ontario Superior Court to put the stock option issue to bed. Last we heard they had amended their plans and announced the settlement. The whole thing blew up back in March, when Jim Balsillie stepped down as RIM’s chairman because of the unfair way in which executives were receiving stock options. The Ironworkers Ontario Pension Fund demanded upwards of $100 to make reparations, but Jim Balsillie and Mike Laziridis have both forked up just $2.5 million each in order to offset legal costs, in addition to the $5 million already paid. Wow, way to haggle. Under the new agreement, individual directors won’t be able to get stock options so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.

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Well, the stock rush from yesterday has earned RIM status as Canada’s biggest company by market share value. The Royal Bank of Canada used to hold the spot as top dog on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but after falling to $53.58, RIM’s 1.1% climb was enough to make it king of the hill. Tech hasn’t been this big since Nortel, back in the heady days of 2000, and as both a Canadian and tech enthusiast that’s some pretty good news. Now we just have to wait and see if the Chinese release of BlackBerrys which spurred the rally was worth all the hype. It’s hard to imagine BlackBerry doing poorly over there, but you never know…

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RIM has quietly come to agreeable terms with Eatoni, who were in legal disputes with RIM over a predictive text technology in ambiguous keyboards (read: SureType). The patent in question helps devices chose words to be typed based both on ergonomics and the context of the word. Under the settlement, RIM has backed off on its countersuit against Eatoni, and will now be working with them to implement the technology in future BlackBerrys.

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Today the RIMM stock peaked over the $100-mark, which would have been $300 pre-split (well beyond the previously forecasted $275). The target price is sitting at around $120 right now, which is within arm’s reach of the current $98.56. We might want to keep an eye out to see if analysts will bump it up yet again, but others, such as Bear Stearns, has dummed down RIMM’s rating to “Peer Perform”. There’s plenty of doubt on how long RIM can keep the momentum going, but I’m more inclined to hop on the train rather than hop off.

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RIM announced today from Rome that the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and handheld software have received Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 2 augmented at the 8th International Common Criteria Conference. “Common Criteria,” whatnow? Common Criteria is a security evaluation standard, meaning BlackBerrys aren’t necessarily meeting specific security features, but are rather categorizing all of their characteristics so that they can be evaluated within the same framework as other technologies. This makes testing a lot easier, since everything within the Common Criteria is covering the same bases. CC blankets a range of IT equipment across 25 countries, but BlackBerrys are the first mobiles to get on the list. Go RIM! Gold star time.

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Mark your calenders, ladies and gents, because in two weeks’ time RIM will be releasing their quarterly results. From the information dished out Thursday October 4th., 5:00 PM ET, we’ll get a clear view on how much the iPhone has slowed RIM’s momentum, if it has at all. The results will also set the bar for the upcoming fall. We’ve seen a lot of BlackBerrys in the last few weeks, which can only be ramping up to the big Christmas push. If you’re looking to listen in on the live webcast, you can check it out here.

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Visto’s been legally nagging at RIM for awhile now, but now the second of their four patent objections has been dismissed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on the grounds that one patent regarding secure network file transfer has been in use by Lotus Notes since the 90s. This is just a preliminary rejection mind you, meaning Visto now has the opportunity to revise their complaint in scope or logic before it officially goes to court next July. Now, what the patent office says may have no ultimate bearing on the case proper, considering RIM had that much going for them in the NTP case, and we all know how that one ended up.

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Robb noticed that the official BlackBerry site has received a significant graphical overhaul. Paired up with yesterday’s Owners Lounge launch, and the new Built for BlackBerry site, RIM’s seriously cranking up their web presence, which in and of itself is good for their publicity, and for end-users looking for easily-accessible information. It does leave the lingering feeling that they’re ramping up to something bigger, though, even if it’s just a shiny new ad campaign.

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Jibi has spotted a hint on the forums of the BlackBerry Internet Service v.2.4 features list on RIM’s knowledgebase. Highlights include vCard, MP3, PDF and RTF support, improved Yahoo! mail sync, delivery and read receipts, as well as wireless message deletion. Hmm, a lot of these sound like they were supposed to be in 2.3, weren’t they? Rumor has it we’ll be seeing the upgrade released before the end of the month.

Details

This article profiles the main changes to the BlackBerry Internet Service 2.4.

Automatic login (new BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers only)

New subscribers can create their BlackBerry Internet Service and BlackBerry® Mail 2.4 accounts on their BlackBerry devices without having to create a login user name and password. For more information on Automatic login, see KB13955.

Branded icons for hosted domains

BlackBerry Internet Service 2.4 supports branded mailbox icons for hosted domains on the Homes screen of BlackBerry device. This feature requires that BlackBerry® Device Software 4.2.1 or later be installed on the BlackBerry device and that the organization’s wireless service provider have an existing relationship with Research In Motion.

Improved language support

The user interfaces will be translated into all of the BlackBerry Internet Service supported languages: English, French, German, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Chinese (traditional), Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portugese (European), Portugese (Brazilian), Russian, Turkish.

Enhanced BlackBerry Attachment Services

*
Support for MP3 or WAV encoded voicemail playback - up to 500KB file size
*
Support for Rich Text Format (RTF) file format
* Support for PDF rendering on server - requires BlackBerry Device Software 4.2.2 or later is required for this feature to function.

Address Book (vCard) Attachments

Attach and view a vCard®. A subscriber can attach an address from their BlackBerry Address Book to emails the subscriber composes, view vCards attached to received email messages, and have the option to add a contact to their BlackBerry Address Book.

Wireless Meeting Request (Support for iCalendar Attachments)

* Subscribers can create, receive, accept, and decline wireless meeting requests (iCalendar-formatted) on the BlackBerry smartphone.
* BlackBerry Device Software 4.2 or later is required for this feature to function.
* Not supported on devices running BlackBerry Connect™ software.

Delivery receipts

* Sends a delivery receipt to the original sender as a notification that an email message has been successfully delivered to all recipients or to a subset of recipients.
* Must be turned on through Options > Email Settings in the BlackBerry Internet Service email address icon.
* Available for both the BlackBerry Internet Service email address as well as third-party integrated email accounts.
* BlackBerry Device Software 4.2 or later is required for this feature to function.

Read receipts

* Designed to notify subscribers when other BlackBerry Internet Service email message recipients have read email messages that were sent to them
* Must be turned on through Options > Email Settings in the BlackBerry Internet Service email address icon.
* Available for both the BlackBerry Internet Service email address as well as third-party integrated email accounts.
* BlackBerry Device Software 4.2 or later is required for this feature to function.

Improved Mailbox management

Synchronization of message status

Full two-way immediate synchronization of message status (read/unread) to source mailbox. For example, if a BlackBerry device user reads an email message from an integrated third-party Inbox, the email message is automatically marked as read on the BlackBerry device as well

Save Sent items

A copy of email messages sent from the BlackBerry smartphone is placed in the source Sent Items folder. For example, if you send an email message from the BlackBerry smartphone using a third-party integrated account, a copy of the sent email message is placed in the Sent Items folder of the third-party account.

Wireless deletion

Email messages deleted from the BlackBerry smartphone can also be deleted from the mailbox of an integrated email account. When deleting an email message, the BlackBerry smartphone user will be prompted to select whether or not to delete the email message from the original mailbox as well.

Save Deleted items

A copy of email messages deleted from the BlackBerry smartphone is placed in the source Deleted Items ( or trash) folder. For example, if you delete an email message from the BlackBerry smartphone using a third-party integrated account, a copy of the deleted email message is placed in the Deleted Items folder of the third-party account. This feature is limited to source-types including IMAP, Microsoft Exchange, and IBM® Lotus® Domino® sources.

Improved support for enhanced Yahoo!® Mail

Synchronization of message status

Full two-way immediate synchronization of message status (read/unread) now supported to and from the Yahoo! Mail Inbox. For example, if a BlackBerry device user reads an email message from a Yahoo! Mail Inbox, the email message is automatically marked as read on the BlackBerry device as well.

Note: Full two-way synchronization of deleted email messages was added with BlackBerry Internet Service 2.2.

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The Globe and Mail just posted about a pretty great product RIM’s working on: the BlackBerry Home Server. The idea is that it would be kind of a mini-BES for your home, which would let RIM’s network operating center to talk with your PC at home, allowing for access to music, photos and files from anywhere with your BlackBerry. The author makes an open comparison to iTunes, and Scotia Capital’s Gus Papageorgiou wasn’t shy about bashing the old model versus the new one RIM is setting up.

“Why do you need this application-specific, expensive piece of hardware that you batch process into your PC every once in a while when you happen to be home, when instead you can just do everything you want to over the air and not have to worry about being at home to sync it with your PC or your laptop?” Mr. Papageorgiou asked.

This is a trend following Microsoft’s Windows Home Server in terms of bringing business functions to home customers, and shows a lot of promise for penetrating the multimedia-crazy consumer market. A few days ago we were talking about advanced features on BlackBerrys, such as music-playing, and how many owners actually use them. If RIM can offer the software which supports those features, we can count on usage (and the value of owning a BlackBerry) going up.

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