News

BlackBerry Movie Tells The Story Of The Famous Keyboard Phone

It’s time to take a break from the Steve Jobs movies and give some appreciation to Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.

Published

4 years ago

March 17, 2023

blackberry movie tells the story of the once famous keyboard phone

Are you a BBM and email enthusiast who misses phones with physical keyboards? In that case, you might be interested in the upcoming Blackberry movie, featuring the creation journey of the famous handset.

The film stars Jay Baruchel (How To Train Your Dragon), Glenn Howerton (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), and Matt Johnson, also the movie’s director.

BlackBerry is released in theaters on May 12th and covers how the once-famous phone became the premier business communicator, but ended up losing out to the smartphone. In the trailer, we see Johnson’s Doug and Baruchel’s Mike Lazaridis watching the infamous Steve Jobs announcement of the new iPhone, and the stress and excitement as the company pushes to launch its first product.

Also Read: Top 10 Best Video Games Set In The Middle East

If you’re interested in learning more about Blackberry’s rise to fine, or want a preview of the movie before it hits the screen, check out the book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry. The text forms the basis of the movie’s script and is a fantastic read for anyone with fond memories of rocking a Blackberry in the past, as well as a cautionary tale of a business ultimately going bust.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.