Symantec just released a study where they intentionally lost 50 smartphones in restaurants, malls, student unions, and all around Silion Valley, Washington, DC, New York, LA, and Ottawa.

Read more here for some crazy statistics on what people do when they get a hold of a phone that isn’t theirs…

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion features

BlackBerry® Device Service: provides management features for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets

Universal Device Service (expected in 2012): provides management features for devices that use the iOS and Android operating systems

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Studio: a web app that provides a single place for management of mobile devices, users, configurations, policies and more

I have included the links to the most popular documentation below.

Administration Guide

Feature and Technical Overview

Installation and Configuration Guide

Release Notes

Also check out the many software packages BlackBerry offers

Choose from a variety of BlackBerry® software and service options that give your employees broader access to the information they need, while offering greater IT control. Your organization will also be able to connect your BlackBerry smartphones to third-party and custom enterprise applications.

Go here to read about them.

When we took our first official tour of the native messaging on BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2 a month ago at CES 2012, one of the services that was missing from the social messaging integration was Facebook. We *knew* Facebook would soon be joining Twitter and LinkedIn, but it’s good to see Facebook is now there too for when the highly-anticipated PlayBook software update drops later this month. You can hit up the video above to get a quick look of the Facebook addition within the Manage Accounts option screen and integrated into the native messaging client itself.

Go here to check out the full story.

According to RIM’s press release Mike Lazaridis, former Co-Chair and Co-CEO, has become Vice Chair of RIM’s Board and Chair of the Board’s new Innovation Committee and Jim Balsillie remains a member of the Board.

Read more here.

Just in case you didn’t know, you can connect a micro-HDMI cable to your PlayBook and present what is on your screen in full HD! Sweet! Once more tip that isn’t on this list is the ability to take screenshots from anything on your screen. For this to work you cannot be in bridged mode with your phone, for some reason it doesn’t work, and I am not sure why…

Go here to read the full story.

PlayBook OS 2 brings loads more changes to the platform, and they’re squarely aimed at making the BlackBerry slate an easier target for developers. Adobe Air 3 and Flash 11 are supported, Open GL ES 2.0 and Open AL are baked in, and RIM’s Native SDK –which brings support for C/C++ apps — has been certified for release as well. RIM is also snuggling up to standards-based apps built using web code like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and even WebGL with the introduction of WebWorks and a much-improved browser. Check out the video.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/42ZTO5uynnI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

This link has instructions on how to download PlayBook OS 2.0 Beta. This site also has a little bit more info!

Also note that all PlayBooks are $299.00 CDN, that includes the 64GB version, until January 9th 2012.

*If you enabled Developer mode on your PlayBook and downloaded OS2, you do not need to side-load the Android Player on your device, its built into OS2.*

So you are still looking for a PlayBook, well guess what? RIM is still pumping them out and hoping you will buy them, and if you are interested, the 16GB is going for $199, 32GB is $249, and the 64GB version is $399. I do believe that the US is selling all Playbooks for $299, so technically, I would attempt to order from a US company that ships to Canada to get the 64GB PlayBook for a paltry $299.00.

I got my hands on one for my father and he loves it. The video playback is amazingly clear, and the stereo speakers are pretty good. The user interface is much smoother and responsive then I thought, which is a good thing. Anyways, if you are looking to pick one up either check your local retailers or order from Shop.BlackBerry.com, I’ve included the link direct to the PlayBook page.

Have fun with your new PlayBook if you happen to order one. And have a safe and Happy New Year.

Check out these links for more info! GizmoCanada(new) and a bounce back to another blog on here.

Cheers to 2012!

-NS

For what it’s worth, The Verge was informed that this model is merely a dummy unit, although the actual device is alleged to contain a 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage. An 8-megapixel rear camera is also said to be in the mix, along with a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter and a June 2012 release date

I did read elsewhere that the Black Berry Colt is still in the works, and it will be in essense a smaller version of the Playbook, and guess what? It will be BES enabled! Check out the full story and picture of the Black Berry “London”

As much as we’d love to have it in your hands today, we’ve made the difficult decision to wait to launch BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 until we are confident we have fully met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers and end-users. And here’s what we’re doing to accomplish that.

First off, we have decided to defer the inclusion of the BBM™ application to a subsequent BlackBerry PlayBook OS release. We are committed to developing a seamless BBM solution that fully delivers on the powerful, push based messaging capabilities recognized today by BlackBerry® users around the world and we’re still working on it. In the meantime, BlackBerry smartphone users will be able to continue to use BlackBerry® Bridge™ to securely access BlackBerry® Messenger™ on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s high resolution display.

Personally I believe they should leave it up the consumer if they want to be able to use BBM on the playbook, what would be even better? Allowing BBM’ing from a web browser! Now that would be cool. Read more here.

“Rumors suggesting that the BlackBerry PlayBook is being discontinued are pure fiction,” RIM spokeswoman Marisa Conway said in an emailed statement. “RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market and the future of QNX in its platform.”

… and here is the truth …

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion brushed off suggestions on Thursday that it would discontinue production of its PlayBook computer tablet as “pure fiction” after an analyst said the company may be considering an exit from the market.

“Rumors suggesting that the BlackBerry PlayBook is being discontinued are pure fiction,” RIM spokeswoman Marisa Conway said in an emailed statement. “RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market and the future of QNX in its platform.”

Currently you can purchase a 16GB playbook for $299, down from $499. Not a bad deal for one heck of tablet.