BlackBerry services hit for second day

BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa were hit with service disruptions to their smartphones for a second day after an unexplained glitch cut off Internet and messaging services for large numbers of users around the world.

Research in Motion Ltd., which makes BlackBerry devices, acknowledged there were ongoing issues Tuesday, hours after it said services were operating normally and the issue responsible for delays in subscriber services a day earlier had been resolved.

"Some areas have messaging delays and impaired browsing," Blackberry said on Twitter, adding it was working to "restore normal service as quickly as possible."

In Britain, Vodafone UK told customers via Twitter that service was not fully restored. Rival T-Mobile UK blamed "a European-wide outage on the BlackBerry network" which it said was affecting all mobile operators. There were also reports of problems elsewhere in Europe, such as Spain.

The disruptions were also felt in the Middle East and Africa.

Etisalat, which operates in the United Arab Emirates, apologized for "the further interruption" to Blackberry services, "once again due to RIM problems."

And Kenya's Safaricom Ltd. said on Twitter that its Blackberry customers were experiencing a "technical fault," while South Africa's Vodacom told subscribers the issues were affecting multiple networks and countries.

There were no reports of any problems in the U.S.

Angry smartphone users also used Twitter to vent frustration with the company and bemoaned the loss of their messaging capabilities, questioning why the company took so long to restore services.

No NBA deal headed into deadline day

NBA players and owners still have no deal headed into the deadline for starting the season on time.

Negotiators for the sides met for more than five hours Sunday before breaking for the night. They are scheduled to return Monday afternoon.

"We're not necessarily any closer than we were going in tonight, but we'll be back at it tomorrow and we'll keep putting time in," union president Derek Fisher of the Lakers.

If they can't come to a deal then, Commissioner David Stern has said the first two weeks of the regular season will be canceled. It is scheduled to begin Nov. 1.

Neither side offered any specifics, but a person with knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press that they did not discuss the split of revenues, perhaps the biggest issue dividing them. The person was granted anonymity because the details were supposed to remain private.

When they last met on Tuesday, league officials asked the union if they would consider a 50-50 split of basketball-related revenues. The players, guaranteed 57 percent under the previous collective bargaining agreement, rejected that and said they were not prepared to go below 53 percent.

The salary cap system is the other big issue remaining.

Fisher also said the union would postpone a regional meeting scheduled for Monday in Los Angeles so he and other officials could remain in New York for more talks.

"We feel like our time, and our guys would want our time, to be used in meeting and try to get closer to getting a deal done," he said. "So instead of going forward with that meeting, we're going to put it off and then we'll reschedule it accordingly depending on what happens tomorrow and into the week if we continue to meet."

No further talks had been expected this weekend. On Friday, a person close to the union told AP players had been seeking a session before the deadline, but were told it came with a precondition of agreeing to the 50-50 revenue split.

The NBA later confirmed it wasn't prepared to move above a 50-50 split but still was open to discussing other issues, but that the union had declined.

Stern, Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, owners Peter Holt of San Antonio and Glen Taylor of Minnesota, and senior vice president and deputy general counsel Dan Rube met with union executive director Billy Hunter, Fisher and vice president Maurice Evans of the Wizards, and attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Ron Klempner.

Stern wouldn't comment on Sunday's talks beyond saying they would meet again Monday, adding they had an agreement with the players not to provide any details.

Amazon Opens Fire, Sells Nearly 100,000 Tablets on Day One

Kindle Fire sales are already burning up.

Amazon took a whopping 95,000 pre-orders for its new Kindle Fire tablet in its first day on sale, according to a digital marketing firm.

That number falls well short of the 300,000 first-generation iPads sold in a day, however. But analysts are confident of a strong holiday season for Amazon’s new entrant, which will begin shipping on November 15.

Retailers hope the Kindle Fire's low price tag -- which is less than half that of Apple's cheapest iPad tablet -- will attract shoppers to stores during the busy holiday season. 

"I could impulse shop," said Robin Rothberg, 33, a lecturer at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.

eDataSource estimated these figures by tracking email purchases found in The New York research firm's database of millions of email, Twitter and Facebook marketing campaigns dating back to 2003.

Forrester Research expects 24 million tablets will be sold in 2011, topping the estimated 20 million PCs that are expected to be sold, but still short of the 29 million laptops that are expected to sell.

Apple's iPad 2, the cheapest model of which costs $499, is the dominate player. The iPad accounts for three out of every four tablets sold. Other tablets make up a small percentage of the market, including the Motorola Xoom ($499 for the Wi-Fi only version); the Blackberry PlayBook (starting at $499); and CherryPad's CherryPal ($190).

The Kindle Fire, which was unveiled last Wednesday, is the first tablet that's expected to be a formidable competitor to the iPad 2. Forrester Research predicts Amazon could sell 3 million units by year's end. Meanwhile, Apple has sold nearly 29 million since it released the first one in April 2010.

"We think these Kindles are going to be some of the hottest gifts this year," said Brian Dunn, CEO of Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer that has been struggling in the down economy. He adds that tablets and electronic readers have "captivated consumers."

But Amazon's tablet could do more than that. The Kindle Fire's ability to show e-books, surf the Web, stream movies and TV shows and support apps is expected to drive sales of Amazon's digital content. As such, the online retail giant is willing to take a $10 loss on each unit sold, according to IHS iSuppli estimates, suggesting that the e-commerce company is taking a financial hit upfront to get the device into as many hands as possible.

"The Kindle Fire, while dilutive on a per unit basis, could help Amazon catch up to existing distributors of digital media, and may reinforce the advantage Amazon enjoys with Amazon Prime," analysts at Stifel Nicolaus said, upgrading the company to "buy."

Pre-sales of Amazon's three other e-ink Kindles launched this week, the $70 original Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, and $149 Kindle Touch 3G totaled approximately $25,000.