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For many years, Research in Motion has been catering specifically to business clients and smart phone users who heavily use email and texting features. BlackBerry handsets are primarily known for their physical keyboards –this actually explains why the term CrackBerry was coined several years ago.

For those who are not familiar with the term, Crackberry was used to refer to a form of smart phone addiction that was obtained because it was the first time that users had been able to send, receive and reply to emails instantly –like a supersized form of severe text messaging habits.

Anyway, going back to the topic at hand; RIM has decided to take the BlackBerry user experience to a whole new direction –with media. Media playback was always a side feature for BlackBerry handsets and never a main feature. BlackBerry’s OS 6 aims to change that, by delivering video and music content in a whole new way.

The first things we noticed with the new layout: how closely it resembles Apple’s iOS color schemes -from the heavy use of gray tones to the slight gradients. Thankfully, RIM brought in enough of their own elements to make the design their own. Users will certainly enjoy being able to see the album art embedded in music files, and how video playback controls have been streamlined.

Of course, no matter how much RIM improves the media playback experience on the operating system, the real issue still lies with the hardware. One of the main reasons why BlackBerry handsets are not the first choice for video playback is because most BB handsets come with small screens. This is due to the portrait oriented physical keyboard that the brand is most known for.

As impressed as we are with the media improvements on the BlackBerry OS 6, it will be a while before RIM is able to change their brands’ market range. At the same time, it is unlikely that any other company could take away their existing share of users.

The smoke has not yet fully cleared since last Friday night as Apple has taken in all possible reasons as to why the iPhone 4 has no real problem.

While the Cupertino based company is still in denial about the whole situation, the current owners of the iPhone 4 (estimated to be over 1.7 million all over the world), will have to contend with having to use a smart phone with a broken antenna that should be held “in the right way” so that their calls will not be dropped.

At the same time, several mobile phone manufacturers have expressed their stand against Apple’s statement that the antenna is something that all manufacturers should consider as a challenge –and that other devices are suffering from the same issue.

Research in Motion and Samsung have already made official announcements regarding the matter –stating that their devices are perfectly fine and that they are not suffering from any antenna issues. Nokia and Motorola, though not mentioned by Apple in the conference, also made similar public announcements as well.

For users who are not too happy with the free case that Apple is offering as a solution, there is one other option to go for: the recently launched Antenna-aid. With the situation with the antenna looking like it will never be fixed anytime soon, online retailer Etsy has released a small adhesive vinyl strip that can be used to cover up the exposed antenna area.

While the manufacturer only states that the accessory “might” fix the issue, it is still a better alternative than having nothing at all. Also, this solution is a great fit for users who are not too keen on adding the bulk of a casing on their iPhone 4.

In the meanwhile, plenty of speculation now surrounds the date of September 30 –the last day for refunds and free iPhone casings. Many suggest that a second version of the iPhone 4 –one with a fixed antenna, might be released by then.

Now, if there is one form of electronic communication that people use, and more often than not, trust, it is Email. Email alone was enough to push mobile phone technology to develop better handsets and eventually smart phones (it was the need to have access to email that made RIM, Palm and Microsoft focus so hard on making pocket PC technology and later, smart phones).

Apparently, some folks at Facebook do not share the same idea, people like Sheryl Sandberg for example is one of them. Sheryl is chief operating officer for Facebook (though we now wonder how long she will be holding that position). According to her, Email is going away.

Now, the reason she states for this is mostly due to the fact that the ‘younger’ generation prefers to use the internal messaging and chat options of Facebook as opposed to having to open another browser window and sending an email (or opening up email software like Outlook). In this regard, yes, it is true; private messaging is becoming the favorite tool of choice for casual conversations.

However, email is also the individual’s private address on the internet, it is where information about banking details, account registrations, forum tracking, personal subscriptions and other such content are sent and stored. People even use an email address to sign up for Facebook as well.

So no, there is no need to shut down one’s email address today or even years from now.

Email will be around for a long time, it may take on a different form, hosted on a new server, or even start allowing users to send email content using various media (as opposed to simply attaching a file). In that regard, there is no way that a social networking site would ever be able to phase email out.