The popularity of smartphones -- like the Blackberry, iPhone, Palm and the emerging Droid -- is on the rise and shows no signs of letting up.
Another entrant, Jolla, says its 'Sailfish' platform is a second-generation operating system like BlackBerry's BB10 and is easy to use because it has a gesture-based user interface and is designed to avoid patent litigation.
Cell phones that take pictures and crude video are no longer shocking, nor are handheld e-mail and computing devices like the BlackBerry from Research in Motion (nasdaq: RIMM - news - people ).
And mindless, single-player games or automatically downloaded Letterman-like top-ten lists might help the BlackBerry gain share against boredom.
The iPhone, along with some competitors like the BlackBerry, are really hand-held computers that happen to make voice calls.
Laura Dawson is an expert on Canada-US trade who believes that companies like Blackberry and the trendy sportswear designer LuluLemon were allowed to flourish and take on the world because of free trade.
There's a slender power button up on the top and, on the upper-left, a three-way volume rocker like those found on many BlackBerry handsets.
The device features clever business tools like document annotation and BlackBerry synching, and a durable all-plastic screen that is Plastic Logic's proprietary technology.
Whereas Loopt, Foursquare and Gowalla are well known, a growing number of users are looking into lesser-apps like FastMall and AroundMe on the iPhone and BeatTheTraffic on BlackBerry.
Increasing availability of high-speed wireless networks enable convergence of voice and data onto devices like the BlackBerry.
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We're told that HTML5 BlackBerry 10 applications can run on the tech after some tweaks for screen resolution -- much like the web-based key fob that you'll see here.
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The popularity of this blog-like site has led to a TFLN book and a mobile app for Android, Blackberry and the iPhone.
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And rapper producer Pharrell Williams proved even mundane tasks like e-mail could be blinged out when he showed off his gold-plated BlackBerry.
Research in Motion finally let people get their hands on its BlackBerry PlayBook, but some online blogged their disappointments when they discovered that things like standalone calendar and e-mail clients are seemingly missing from these versions.
"If you look at a device like the BlackBerry, I know the U.S. government has gone over that with a fine-tooth comb, and that makes me feel good, " said Mr. Wysopal.
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