[amazinglygraceless]

Reading another thread got me thinking that in the last 3 years or so BlackBerry went on something of a buying spree. Does anyone know what ever became of these, specifically, what benefit have they brought to the table?

1) Certicom - Cryptography
2) Chalk Media - Software
3) Dash Navigation - Automotive navigation
4) Torch Mobile - Mobile browser (not to be confused with: Torch Web Browser - Your All in One Internet Browser )
5) The Astonishing Tribe
6) Gist - Contact management
7) Scoreloop - Social gaming
8) Tungle.me - Social calendar

I left out QNX and Jaycut because I think I know the answers there.

[take99]

I'll answer one. Certicom has the patents on the next stage of encryption (elliptic curve cryptography) after the current ones are no longer useful which 'they' figure will happen in the next couple of years.

Encryption Patents Could Be Blackberry's Biggest Asset | MIT Technology Review

"With the company�s mobile devices widely seen as obsolete, it�s hard to see who would be tempted by Blackberry�s announcement last week that it is up for sale. Yet Blackberry does have some technology of its own likely still growing in value. Blackberry subsidiary Certicom owns patents crucial to using a form of encryption that the US and other governments say is the best way to protect sensitive data, and should replace the methods relied on to secure the Internet today.

Certicom�s near monopoly on implementing that technique, known as elliptic curve cryptography, means it is rarely used today outside of emails sent by Blackberry devices and communications by the US and other governments. But there is widespread belief in the computer security industry that elliptic curve cryptography will inevitably become the main way data is secured."

The National Security Agency�s webpage urging a shift to elliptic curve cryptography...

[amazinglygraceless]

@take99 Thanks for that. I did read through a thread on that but your explanation is way simpler.

[Shao128]

Good list. The one I've always been most disappointed with is Dash. Dash had a great product, way ahead of it's time. All we've seen out of it is BB Traffic. Which they really didn't need Dash for anyways. Seriously, there's no excuse for BB Maps being as bad as it is.


This video is from 2008, ya 5 years ago....

[RP Singh]

They need to resurrect tungle.me there is still nothing as good as tungle.me was, out there on the web. I dob't see any of the functionality for which I used tungle.me in the BlackBerry 10 Calendar so tungle.me really needs to come back.

Posted via CB10

[leejayh]

I think that they need a big IoT announcement that includes Certicom and how it makes IoT more secure and more efficient. Let's hope major players who care about a secure IoT start adopting their platform.

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[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I think that they need a big IoT announcement that includes Certicom and how it makes IoT more secure and more efficient. Let's hope major players who care about a secure IoT start adopting their platform.

Posted via CB10

You can hope... But IoT isn't really a new thing, in my industry IoT is all over the place already. Just not sure how BlackBerry's version will integrate with existing devices and software.