We have just noticed that there are two more 'Thank you' apps that RIM are offering their customers due to the outage earlier in the month.

Shazam Encore and Bejewelled. 

Shazam is a great app we think as it allows you to totally identify any track that is being played, so if there is a song you like and you dont know the name of the song or artist, Shazam will find out all the info for you!

Bejewelled is a similar sort of puzzle game to what is on offer already (BubbleBash) so not sure if it is such a big deal, however as it is free why not just add it to the downlload list and check it out anyway?

Who said RIM did not care? Following the outage early last week, Research in Motion have offered all their BIS customers access to download premium apps without any cost as a Thank You for the patience during the ordeal faced by all customers. BES customers will get free Technical Support for 30 days.

Please see their latest Press Release for further clarification. http://press.rim.com/release.jsp?id=5214

Finally; as of 09:00 GMT on the 13th October 2011, prettyfang.com can confirm that services seem to have been restored by Blackberry.

According to their status page they have advised that as of 06:00 GMT all services across Europe the Middle East and Africa have been operating with a significant improvement.

For the latest updates you can check out http://uk.blackberry.com/serviceupdate/

For those who are interested, RIM (the Blackberry company owner) have issued a statement for all their customers from the Chief Information Officer http://www.rim.com/newsroom/service-update.shtml 

Lets all hope its not just a temporary workaround, but a permanent fix!

Now Blackberry is out and to get back to work..

The Blackberry issue of sending/receiving emails, Blackberry Messenger updates/messages continue to haunt Blackberry users in the UK, Europe, some parts of Africa, India and now even some parts of North America a full 72 hours since first known.

The majority of Blackberry users are now beginning to think twice as to the certain timing of the outage and the length of time taken to resolve the issue with lack of updates from RIM.

Some conspiracy theorists are pointing the finger to competitors, Apple, Google and Android. Whereas others are pointing to some internal heirachy ramblings going on at Research in Motion headquarters in Canada.

Jonathan a Blackberry user in London was quoted as saying "This is ridiculous, I mean are they removing their patent protected servers in order to make way for takeover companies to look after the running of the backend;while RIM walkaway with their secrets of covert encrypted and compressed messages? Surely we need to know as we are your customers!"

The Blackberry UK Twitter page has had an update a few hours ago referring users to their http://uk.blackberry.com/serviceupdate/ page for the latest information. According to which the last update was made at 20.20 BST advising users that they are working to clear the backlog of messages in order to eliminate the delays

For most users, this is certainly NOT good news, although we are reassured at an update on the 12th October 12.00 BST reassures everyone that they are "working 'day and night' in order to restore the service."

Come on RIM get a move on, how hard is it to flick a switch? ;)

Blackberry have noted that some users are experiencing browser delays and failure of sending/recieving Blackberry Messenger messages. Research in Motion are working hard to restore their service as soon as they can.

They have confirmed that the outage is effecting major customer regions and deeply regret the outage, they can confirm that it is effecting users in BIS users in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Some of whomn have been without full service for at least 48 hours. 

We can confirm that App World via the device is also effected.

Currently RIM (Research In Motion) are aware of a 'problem with the core switch on their servers' and are looking to resolve the issue as soon as they can.

See below websites for further updates:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15270955
https://twitter.com/#!/UK_BlackBerry
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20118882-266/international-blackberry-outage-continues/

Some users have reported Blackberry Messenger and email sending recieving, as well as browsing issues. Research in Motion have issues a S1 severity update advising it is a major outage and to watch this space while they work on the issue to resolve the matter, it is not yet known if App World is also effected..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15243892