A scene from Telecom's XT launch at last night. A dollop of XT's $574 million budget went on a specular series of ligtening effects, which will be projected onto Auckland's Town Hall over the next four nights. The display was greated by Mike Mizrahi. Check out your correspondent's am-cam video below, too, which is dodgy than the official effort - also below - but captures the rocket effect, which was very boss.

RIM admits that a number of BlackBerry Bold units are overheating, but says the problem is restricted to Japan, where the smartphone has been withdrawn from sale.

On Friday, RIM suspended sales of the Bold in Japan after around 30 customers found the BlackBerry literally too hot to handle - allegedly around the keyboard area.

RIM’s BlackBerry has been known as a phone built for business, with its wild popularity centred around push email. But with Apple’s iPhone starting to infiltrate offices, Research in Motion is hitting back with a series of “lifestyle” BlackBerry applications from Google, Microsoft, TiVo and others that will take the battle to Apple’s home turf.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has released its first ever clamshell or “flip phone” model, the Pearl 8220, aka the “Pearl Flip.”

While industry wonks debate arcane technology standards, simple form factor is often a key buying decider for cellphone buyers. On its inital release, for example, Motrola’s Razr flip-phone was widely tipped with denting Nokia’s market share. At the time, Nokia had an all “candy bar” line up.