RIM to Give Out Free Apps After Worldwide Outage

Because nothing says "we're sorry" like new toys.

How do you make up for your product clunking out for a week and leaving millions of your customers with no means to communicate with their coworkers? Well, if you're Research In Motion, the answer is "free apps." BlackBerry users around the world will get to download a number of apps for the popular smartphones for free as a token of RIM's appreciation for getting through last week's four-day BlackBerry network outage. CEO Mike Lazaridis apologized profusely for the outage in a video posted to the Waterloo, Ont., company's website on Friday, but everybody always knows that a fancy new toy is a million times better than some "heartfelt apology" when it comes to making amends. While the free apps haven't been made public just yet, they are to include apps that translate text and speech, as well as a "personal assistant" app. Some of us were hoping for a new edition of BrickBreaker, but we guess this will suffice...