In case last week's service outage has you losing faith and you're thinking it might be time to trade in your BlackBerry for an Apple iPhone, you may want to do yourself a favor first and watch this BlackBerry vs. iPhone video.

It yet again proves what all us crazy CrackBerry users know.... when it comes to fruity phones, BlackBerry is always gooder than Apple. Funny stuff right here. :)

Source: JusReign via CB Forums

If you missed the live BlackBerry Service Update Press Conference this morning, we have the audio here so you can check it out. During the call, both Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie were on hand to explain the cause of the longest BlackBerry outage to date. They took questions from investors and media and helped shed some light on things for everyone. Services have now been fully restored across the globe, so things should be up and running for everyone at this point. Check out the full 22 minute press conference in the player above.

Are you looking for a BlackBerry hand out to make up for the service outage? If so, what?!

Both of RIM's Co-CEOs were on today's BlackBerry service update conference call. One of the questions asked to them in the Q&A session was in regards to what RIM would do in terms of reparations to the customers who were affected these past few days. The answer from RIM was that the top priority was first restoring service globally. With that now completed, from here they'll start to think on that subject and get back to customers. So this leads us to the....

Question of the Week: What would you like to see from RIM in terms of reparations over the service outage? As a BlackBerry customer, do you expect something? If yes, what? A month of free service? A discount off your next BlackBerry? Credit in App World? The comments are open and I'm sure RIM is listening, so sound off and let us know. Personally I don't want anything... I'm just happy to have service back!

On their BlackBerry Service Update Press Conference earlier today, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis stated that all global BlackBerry services have been restored. The outage that started late Monday has been an ongoing issue with service loss across the globe. This is the biggest outage to date for RIM, and the first failure in over 18 months.

You should see service back on your device now, so email and BBM will be trickling in slowly. If you have yet to see anything on your BlackBerry, you can try the old faithful battery pull or simply restarting your device. Drop a comment here and let us know how things are going for you now. 

An update from RIM's Founder and Co CEO Mike Lazaridis. Would write more here but gotta jump in the car to head out for an early morning radio interview on all this BlackBerry outage craziness.... watch the video and leave a comment!

RIM is holding a service update press conference live at 10AM EST - listen along with us on our live podcast.

It's been a crazy few days in the BlackBerry World. For those in the EMEIA region who have been dealing with BlackBerry service issues since Monday, you're all my heroes for getting through it in one piece. Seriously, it's pretty crazy how hard it is to cope with no email / BBM / web browser etc. on your mobile device once it's part of your life - it shows just how much society has become dependent on technology. Just today has felt a bit like torture to me... at three days I'd be going CrackBerry Crazy for sure.

With the BlackBerry service interuption spreading to North America for the past twenty four hours, my day got extremely crazy as I fielded tons of questions from mainstream media. One of the big questions that came up often was how mad/not are BlackBerry users at Research In Motion over the outage? My general thought was that while nobody likes their phone/service to be at less than 100%, there's probably a pretty even split between those who are REALLY TICKED off and those who get that things can happen, and that while it sucks, life will go back to normal soon enough. In other words, outages can happen, no big deaL, still going to be using a BlackBerry tomorrow.

So that's the question here... how ticked off are you? Is an outage like this something that makes you mad enough to want to spit nickels and switch to a different platform? Or does a little separation make the heart grow fonder for BlackBerry?

To All BlackBerry Customers:

I want to first apologize for the service interruptions and delays many of you have been experiencing this week. I also wanted to connect with you directly, give you an update on the service issues we are trying to solve, and answer some of the questions and concerns you’ve expressed.

You’ve depended on us for reliable, real-time communications, and right now we’re letting you down. We are taking this very seriously and have people around the world working around the clock to address this situation. We believe we understand why this happened and we are working to restore normal service levels in all markets as quickly as we can.

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Update: The call ended with no real answers as to when BlackBerry services will be back up and running. RIM didn't really give any answers that we didn't already know, however they did explain a bit more of exactly what is going on and what caused the issues. Have a listen to the call in the player above or visit the link on the Research In Motion website.

RIM is holding a conference call at 3pm EST to discuss the recent outage in service being reported worldwide. If you'd like to tune in to listen, you can do so at the link below, and we'll follow up for those of you that can't make it live.

Join the BlackBerry Service Update Press Conference

If you haven't discovered it yet, Research In Motion is posting updates on the status of BlackBerry service at RIM.com (and on UK.BlackBerry.com). Here's the timeline and where things are at:

Wednesday 12th October - 9:45 (GMT-5)
BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas may be experiencing intermittent service delays this morning. We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. We will provide a further update as soon as more information is available.

Wednesday 12th October - 12:00 (GMT+1)
We know that many of you are still experiencing service problems. The resolution of this service issue is our Number One priority right now and we are working night and day to restore all BlackBerry services to normal levels. We will continue to keep this page updated.

Tuesday 11th October - 21:30 (GMT+1)
The messaging and browsing delays that some of you are still experiencing were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure. Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to many of you and we will continue to keep you informed.

Tuesday 11th October - 16:00 (GMT+1)
Some of you are experiencing messaging and browsing delays. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

Monday 10th October - 20:46 (GMT+1)
Our sincere apologies to all of you affected by today's BlackBerry service issues.

Monday 10th October - 15:00 (GMT+1)
We are currently working to resolve an issue impacting some of our BlackBerry customers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. In the meantime, we apologise to you for any inconvenience, and thank you for your patience.

BlackBerry outages happen. They suck. But they happen. Those of us who have been longtime BlackBerry users have dealt with some major outages in the past. We're dealing with one now (I feel really bad for those who have been affected for literally days now). And the odds are this won't be the last BlackBerry service outage you endure, assuming of course you stick with BlackBerry. 

Some of you cope (and are currently coping) with the service interuption quite well. Others, like my friend BlackLion15 think enough is enough and that someone has to go over to Waterloo and slap those in charge at RIM. I usually try and take these kinds of things in stride, but on a day like today when iMessage becomes available in the Apple world, I have to admit the timing of this BlackBerry service outage couldn't be worse.

This outage got me thinking about BlackBerry reliability, which prompted me to re-read an article we posted here on CrackBerry back in 2008 about Understanding Reliability. Reading the article again today (posted below), most of the points ring true... especially that point about wishing RIM would do a better job of communicating what's going on to people. At least RIM is doing a slightly better job this time around, with updates being posted to their website. Though I do think in the three + years since this article was written that the competition has heated up and people's tolerance for service downtime is less than it once was. If you've never read the article before, take a few minutes now and read it again. And let's hope everybody affected by the outage has their service returned to normal soon. It's hard to get work done when I just keep glancing over at my 9900 hoping the red light will start flashing again.

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Sale Now Over: Global BlackBerry Services have been Restored

Don't you just hate it when your email and BBMs quit coming in? We do too. So to make the time pass a little more quickly until things are running 100% again, we're having an impromptu sale on all BlackBerry Accessories!

Just use coupon code noservice at checkout when purchasing accessories from ShopCrackBerry.com or our CrackBerry Canada store and you'll save yourself 10%. Sale ends once BlackBerry service is restored and working properly, so hurry!

Take advantage of the BlackBerry service outage savings while they last!
Stay on top of the BlackBerry service outage news 

Another Update: You can stay on top of official service updates from RIM/BlackBerry here. The latest from RIM is as follows: 

Wednesday 12th October - 9:45 (GMT-5) BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas may be experiencing intermittent service delays this morning. We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. We will provide a further update as soon as more information is available.  

If you're killing time waiting, be sure to check out our BlackBerry Service Outage Sale.

Update [7:30am ET] from Kevin: Well this just SUCKS. Apparently things are getting worse before they get better. Waking up in Canada this morning my BlackBerry services are still down (lost service last night). No updated message from RIM yet on on what's going on. Looking at some tweets from BES Admin friends, we're hearing as of two hours ago that "Limited service expected for at least another 8 hours for BIS and BES Email, no word on BBM, BISB and Push API." Hopefully we'll get an update from RIM this morning and things will be back to normal SOON.

Update [Wednesday night] Canada / Mexico / US and more are now starting to report slow / delayed BBM messages.

Update [4:42p EST]: While services seem to still be down, RIM had this to say on their Facebook page:

The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure. Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated, and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience, and we will continue to keep you informed. 

Following yesterday's crippling outage in Europe, Middle East and Africa, it seems that the BlackBerry Internet Service may be down again. Although service did resume late last night, there have been signs that the service is down again already today. I for one have not received any emails on my BlackBerry in the past few hours and BBM messages are not going through at this time either.

Are you in the EMEA region and currently having BIS problems yet again? Hit us up in the comments and let us know where you stand. Hopefully today's outage will not last as long as yesterday's one -- we'll be sure to keep you updated if we find out more. 

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