This Just In – Research in Motion (BlackBerry) Acquires Palm Inc.

Huge news in the mobile industry today. Corporate smartphone juggernaut, Research in Motion has taken the bow off their plan to acquire Palm Inc, makers of the highly anticipated Palm Pre that is due to launch later this year. This announcement makes Apple’s iPhone announcements sound like lunch room banter. Here’s a clip from this worldwide exclusive announcement posted on Futurelooks:

“It has just been announced that Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry line of devices, is in the process of acquiring Palm, Inc. This news comes mere months before the pending release of the Palm Pre, a smartphone that is supposed infuse new energy and excitement into the Palm brand. Research in Motion wants to capitalize on this excitement and extend it to the BlackBerry line as a whole.”

This is hot on the heels of this morning’s launch of the new Blackberry App World. Looks like Waterloo is full of surprises today. Head on over to Futurelooks for the whole story on how this latest deal came together.

With the power and security of the BlackBerry Platform and the beautiful OS of the new Palm Pre, the new PalmBerry handsets will have people saying “iPhone Who?”

iPhone – Why Do You Have to be a Douche?

Sorry about the lack of updates, but I’ve been busy with Futurelooks and all the work that CES 2009 has caused. I’m not complaining. It’s definitely a good thing to be busy, especially when a lot of people are worried about their jobs.

Some of you might know from my Twitter Updates that I had been looking for a new phone and ended up picking up a Blackberry BOLD just after the New Year. Though the iPhone 3G is a fine gadget/toy, I know that I’d probably just become one of those guys showing off stupid apps that serve no purpose (or need to upgrade because Apple finally decided to catch up and include stereo bluetooth and video in the new model). In fact, Ed Lau struggled with this same question of how useless most iPhone apps seem to be. It definitely doesn’t help that every week at Dot Com Pho, stupider and stupider apps keep showing up.

I have to say that I do become more and more happy with my Blackberry as each day goes by. The real QWERTY keyboard is great and I’m not messing with trying to Jailbreak it (after every software update bricks it) to give it features that a cutting edge smartphone should have in the first place like “cut and paste”. Instead of mucking with useless apps, I’m getting stuff done, usually before I even get out of bed in the morning. It just does what it’s supposed to do without complaint.

Of course I’ve been surfing the Interwebs for even more things I can do with the Blackberry BOLD and have come across some pretty cool sites like CrackBerry.com. While perusing the site, I came across this video that absolutely cracked me up. I’m sorry iPhone Gary, but this is just too funny…

For the record, iPhone Gary is NOT a douche like the gadget he worships. In fact, he’s a very cool guy and friend. However, he is one of those guys that shows us a whole lot of useless iPhone apps all the time. I would love to see him come up with some useful apps to show off at upcoming Dot Com Pho’s, like an “iPhone Is Useful Dot See Eh” segment. Just leave the useless apps for John Chow to go with his Fart Apps, Beer Apps and the even more useless Twitter Shout Outs.

OMG! It’s the “Will It Blend?” Guy!

Tom Dickson of Blendtec has made quite the name for himself and for his company by blending all sorts of things. From iPhones to Chuck Norris, there doesn’t seem to be anything left for him to throw into these crazy powerful and super loud blenders. I met up with Tom at the Lunch@Pieros press event across the street from the LVCC during CES 2009 to ask him a couple questions about blending stuff…

Initially I was kind of star struck but after talking to him for a little bit, it’s pretty clear that he’s a big gadget geek like the rest of us and really loves what he does. I mentioned to him how Kelly has broken my blenders with her weird protein shakes. Of course, I had to tell him the reason why she drinks these blender wrecking concoctions.

After hearing that Kelly can easily throw my 80 kg frame over her head and that she was on track to compete at the 2012 Olympics for Olympic Weightlifting for Canada, Tom immediately hooked us up with a Blendtec Blender which should be arriving soon. A powerful little female Olympic Weightlifter vs the world’s most powerful blender. Now there’s something that blends well together. I can’t wait to have this thing in the house!

Some of the things he blended at this event included…

A Tape Measure which put up a really good fight…

A few cellphones including the legendary Nokia 5190 which went down without much complaining…

Michael Kwan tried to blend too, but we all know that he doesn’t do so well with things with motors. He seemed to take the task very seriously though. Why so serious Michael? More pictures after the jump.

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