News

BlackBerry Has Officially Pulled The Plug On Older Devices

The company is pulling the plug because it has been focusing exclusively on delivering enterprise software and services to enterprises and governments.

Published

4 years ago

January 5, 2022

David Morelo

blackberry has officially pulled the plug on older devices

Long gone are the days when BlackBerry smartphones dominated the world of business with their characteristic QWERTY keyboards that made it possible for managers to bombard employees with text messages and emails at a much faster rate than phones with the old-school keypad allowed.

Now, older BlackBerry devices have turned from unused to unusable because the legacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions are no longer available from January 4, 2022.

“As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS, and 9-1-1 functionality” stated the company in their announcement.

The company is pulling the plug because it has been focusing exclusively on delivering enterprise software and services to enterprises and governments since it discontinued its BlackBerry line in 2016 and changed its name from Research In Motion (RIM) to BlackBerry Limited.

The last mobile phone operating system released by RIM is BlackBerry 10, which became available in 2013 and reached its last version (10.3.3.3216) on April 4, 2018. Since then, Chinese electronics giant TCL released several BlackBerry-branded phones, but their reception was lukewarm at best.

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In August 2020, the BlackBerry brand changed hands again when it was picked up by OnwardMobility, a US-based company in the mobile security space. The company announced a new BlackBerry 5G smartphone with a physical keyboard, but it has already missed the advertised release date of 2021 by a few days, and there’s no indication that the smartphone will hit the shelves any time soon.

Indeed, it’s possible that OnwardMobility has realized that the demand for a smartphone with a physical keyboard simply isn’t there anymore because most consumers have gotten used to typing on increasingly intelligent virtual keyboards on their 6-inch and larger smartphone displays.

News

Noon And Yango Switch On Robot Deliveries In Dubai

The rollout folds autonomous couriers into noon’s rapid-delivery network as the UAE tests everyday autonomy.

Published

3 days ago

December 10, 2025

Nour Nasir

noon and yango switch on robot deliveries in dubai

Noon and Yango Group have signed an agreement to put autonomous robot deliveries into commercial use in Dubai, turning Yango’s earlier pilots into a daily service for noon Minutes orders. The launch in Sobha Hartland is the first full integration of Yango Autonomy’s electric robots with a major e-commerce network in the region, with wider deployment planned across Dubai and, later, other GCC markets.

Residents can choose a robot at checkout, track it in the app and unlock its compartment once it arrives. The hardware runs on Yango’s AI navigation and routing stack, which plans paths, avoids obstacles and yields to pedestrians. The units had already covered more than 1,500 kilometers during previous Dubai pilots, a test bed that demonstrated their ability to operate in mixed pedestrian environments and dense residential streets.

The rollout adds a contactless option to noon’s last-mile network and is positioned as extra capacity during peak periods. “Partnering with Yango Group lets us bring a future-ready delivery option straight to our customers,” said Ali Kafil-Hussain, noon’s Chief Business Officer. Noon has used Minutes to set rapid-delivery expectations in UAE cities; autonomous units now slot into that same high-frequency model.

Regulatory clearance from Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority underpins the move. The RTA authorized Yango’s robots to operate on public walkways and in neighborhoods, smoothing the shift from controlled trials to commercial work. Dubai has framed autonomous mobility as part of its smart-city buildout, and the partners lean on that agenda to accelerate integration.

Also Read: Uber And WeRide Roll Out Driverless Robotaxis In Abu Dhabi

For Yango, the partnership is an anchor for its autonomy platform in the Gulf. Islam Abdul Karim, Yango’s Middle East regional head, said the aim is to make autonomous delivery an “everyday, reliable service” for UAE communities. The company views operational data from early districts as the basis for scaling into more communities and, eventually, cross-border rollouts.

The move lands as Gulf retailers search for faster fulfilment and lower-emission logistics. Autonomous couriers remain a small share of last-mile delivery, but Dubai’s approvals and early usage data give the partners a clearer path to turn pilots into durable infrastructure.