Why RIM stopped using Trackballs

This is under the trackball of a Blackberry Bold 9000 after about two years of light-to-moderate use. To get some lovely detail of the grime, you'll want to view that image full size.

It looks almost uncannily like a birds nest aside from the scale - it's just a few millimetres across. Perfectly shaped to the underside of the roller, it kept it's form as I yanked off the protective plastic coating. I'm not sure what material kept it stuck down during this but it certainly didn't wipe off easily. I'll be disappointed when the 9000's are retired as the trackpad handsets don't have this kind of character (I haven't had a single one in for cleaning yet).

The best part: The roller was still working perfectly, it was brought in because of antenna issues.

RIM: Now checking your email from the wrong country

I like the way my blackberry handles multiple email accounts. RIM servers effortlessly stream my gmail traffic directly to me wherever I am, handling two-way sync, calendars and contacts with ease.

Today google forced me to re-authenticate in gmail a couple of times. A quick look at the recent activity list revealed why:

216.9.249.99 turns out to be bda-216-9-249-99.bis3.ap.blackberry.com and is the first time a foreign IP has been handling my mail for an extended period.

They have Australian servers that work perfectly well, and I cant find any notices about local downtime. I'm not entirely happy with this, we'll have to see if it stays.

Edit: A week later, It's still all Canada. Either google has reclassified all RIM IP space as physically in canada, or RIM has made a fairly drastic change to how they access your email account.