The worldwide BlackBerry outage that lasted three days last week disconnected an untold number of Research in Motion's 70 million customers, and the company today is offering compensation to its users with a couple of valuable packages of free (non-material) stuff.

For users, the entire catalog of premium apps in BlackBerry App World will be free to download for four weeks. Between Wednesday, October 19th and December 31, 2011, premium apps will be available free of charge to users, depending upon their device type, OS, and local regional restrictions.

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Apple's release of the iPhone 4S was largely panned by bloggers and journalists, most of which were looking for a much more dramatic upgrade. The 4S seems to be more of an upgrade aimed at the millions whose iPhone 3GS have become long in the tooth, and for these consumers this phone is a marked improvement.

Like Apple has said, iPhone 4S looks nearly identical on the outside to the iPhone 4, but is a new phone on the inside. From the dual-core processor to the better camera, and the innovative digital assistant in Siri, moving from the 3GS to the 4S is like night and day.

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Attention may have been focus on the hardware releases coming from Apple this week, but there also was the usual wide selection of software releases to devour. The release of the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 is probably the biggest news of the week, and to tie in with this, Apple released iTunes 10.5 32-bit and iTunes 10.5 64-bit. One of the most interesting features of iOS 5 is iCloud storage and synchronization, and Windows users can take advantage of the newly released Cloud Control Panel for Windows to control this from their desktop.

When working with your PC, the inevitable reduction in performance that creeps in over time can be banished using TuneUp Utilities 2012. The app can be used to optimize the registry, save power and fix problems. In a similar vein is MAGIX PC Check & Tuning 2012, which can be used in one-click mode for quick fixes, but also enables you to get a little more hands-on if you want to get the best possible performance from your computer. If two tune-up tools aren’t enough for you, iolo System Mechanic Free 10.6 rounds off a trio of performance boosting utilities, and this one is available free of charge.

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Feature-packed and easy to use, CyberLink PowerDirector has always been one of the better consumer video editors. Of course there’s always room for improvement, though, and the latest version, PowerDirector 10 Ultra, has some very interesting additions.

Full 3D editing support allows you to import 3D videos and photos, or convert 2D media to 3D, then enhance these with 3D effects, titles, transitions and more. New 2D effects include a time-lapse tool, or support for recording hand-drawn animations (signing your name, say), and playing them back within a video.

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Yesterday, in Austin, Texas, Dell World wrapped up an exciting week of keynotes and sessions focused on enterprise IT. While Apple had the limelight this week, with launches of iCloud, iOS 5 and iPhone 4S, the spotlight for many enterprises was Dell World and its Who's Who list of presenters, which included Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Salesforce.com chief Marc Benioff, former Chief Information Officer of the United States Vivek Kundra , VMWare CEO Paul Maritz, Intel chief Paul Otellini, and others. Among the hottest topics: virtualization, whether cloud, desktop or server.

"Virtualization is really changing the way that we deliver IT", says Chris Young, general manager of VMWare End User Computing. Young presented one the week's virtual sessions. He rightly observes that IT computing has passed through three major eras -- mainframes, client-server, the web -- and is transitioning to a fourth. "We're now, through virtualization, heading to the cloud. End-user computing will be one of the areas of IT that's going to be completely transformed by the cloud era".

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I missed out on the big iPhone 4S launch here in San Diego, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise -- as the anachronism goes. There was chaos this morning in BetaNews manor, so I ground my teeth, cursed often and kept my fingers pounding the Lenovo ThinkPad T420s keyboard. I wouldn't have gone to buy iPhone 4S but to take photos before the store doors opened at 8 a.m. My sixth sense sniffed opportunity -- that the line outside Apple Store Fashion Valley would be nowhere near as big for iPhone 4S as it was for v4. I was right. It wasn't, I later learned. Grumble, grumble.

My daughter texted soon after going to school. She needed me to sign some papers for taking tests and to cough up payment for exorbitant fees. She needed everything during lunch, and "It'd be amazing if you could bring some food too!!!" Parenthood. I needed a break, so we met and squared everything away. Then I got to thinking about Apple Store. It was only a few miles away. Why not pop over there and see how the line looked and if iPhone 4S had sold out.

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With a range of social networks to choose from, each with their own timeline or news feed available, coupled with blogs and news websites, many Internet users have a huge amount of information to wade through each day. If you don’t fancy the idea of visiting each of your preferred news websites and blogs individually, or cluttering up your phone or tablet’s home screen with endless social networking apps, Taptu may be of interest as it makes it possible to access all of your social network and news feeds in one place.

You can quickly and easily add your Facebook account to the app so you can keep track of news that is posted in this way, as well as using the app to keep an eye on your timeline as it fills up with comments and pictures from your friends. Similarly, you can add your Twitter account to make it easy to keep up to date with the tweets of everyone you follow from the same place.

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We planned here at Betanews to give you a good first impressions review of the iPhone 4S, but to tell you the truth just getting the phone to work has been one of the worst experiences setting up an electronics device I can remember. You saw our photos of the unboxing? Well, that was the highlight. Seriously!

To better grasp what the average person might experience, we followed the instructions as they were given. No shortcuts, nothing. I'm also new to this online activation thing, so that may have been smart on my part to follow the directions I'm being given. Apparently, that may have been the first mistake.

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The day has finally arrived: Apple's iPhone 4S appeared on my doorstep this morning. After having the iPhone 3GS for two years, it certainly was past the time to make the jump to a much better phone. Indeed the 4S is that phone, including a dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, and Siri, Apple's new personal assistant.

While I had initially planned to hold off upgrading until the iPhone 5, after Apple showed of Siri I was hooked. What follows here is my unboxing of the device, and as you can see, not too much is different from past iPhones as far as content. I also posted my first impressions, and a full review will follow this weekend.

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It's a rare occurrence these days: neither Apple nor Samsung can claim victory in their ongoing legal battle, as courts in two separate countries pushed back on their efforts to bury each other in injunction hell.

Samsung was denied an injunction against Apple products in the Netherlands, while a court in Australia refused to issue an injunction preventing Samsung from releasing any future tablet devices before the current infringement case goes to court there.

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Today, Apple's newest smartphone goes on sale in seven countries -- Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. We'd like to know: Did you buy one? If so, did you preorder or stand in line? Perhaps you're in line somewhere right now reading this. Do tell us. Maybe you're home, taking a day off from work, waiting for FedEx to deliver you preorder -- and wondering why not a day early like iPhone 4.

I didn't buy the new smartphone. As I wrote last week, "You can have iPhone 4S, I'll take Galaxy S II". (By the way, the S2 is simply the best smartphone I've ever owned. I haven't enjoyed a gadget this much in years.) Meanwhile, my colleague Ed Oswald preordered iPhone 4S. He received it minutes ago as I write. Look for his unboxing photos and first-impressions review later today.

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Microsoft has completed the $8.5 billion acquisition of consumer VoIP and instant messaging service provider Skype from investment firm Silver Lake that was first announced
six months ago.

Now, Skype is officially a new business division inside of Microsoft, and the company's CEO Tony Bates will become president of that division, reporting directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. For now, it appears Skype's products won't change.

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The only way to stop your PC’s performance degrading over time is to stop using it. That’s not really a practical option, so the next best thing is to use suitable optimization software that reduces clutter and ensures that all systems are running as well as they can be.

The latest release of TuneUp Utilities 2012 provides you with over 30 different tools for optimizing and maintaining your Windows machine to keep it humming along nicely. It costs $49.95, but a free trial is available for testing purposes prior to purchase.

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Samsung can breathe a small sigh of relief. While a US District Judge says that Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes on patents held by Apple, she refused to award the preliminary injunction the Cupertino, Calif.-based company seeks.

Lawyers for both companies appeared before US District Judge Lucy Koh in a long-anticipated court hearing yesterday. Samsung can continue selling Tab 10.1 as well as the Droid Charge, Galaxy S 4G, and Infuse 4G in the United States. For how much longer, with the holidays fast approaching, is uncertain.

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We asked, and you surprised us with your answers. Many of you don't think much of iCloud. But perhaps you got off to a bad start because of the glitchy launch. First impressions are so important in any new relationship.

Yesterday, Apple flipped the switch on iCloud in conjunction with a rash of supporting software updates, including iOS 5. Getting those updates was no easy matter, as Ed Oswald reported yesterday and many of you also shared. iCloud is Apple's new connected synchronization service, which replaces iTunes as major sync hub and offers a rash of new capabilities. But to really get it, many of you have to persevere through more updates than I've seen necessary from Apple in years. The service also isn't working quite right for many of you, in a cascade of glitches that reminds of the catastrophic launch of MobileMe three years ago.

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