Watch 'Sesame Street' Hilariously Parody 'Downton Abbey'

Sesame Street has transformed Downton Abbey's Violet Crawley and Charles Carson into Muppet versions of the Dowager Countess of Grantham and her butler.

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The Muppet duo star in Sesame Street's new "Upside Downton Abbey" skit, which will air during the show's season 43 premiere on Feb. 4 on PBS. The spoof literally turns the Golden Globe-winning British period drama on its head, causing dinner woes for the hungry Crawley.

Downton Abbey recently took home a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, while Maggie Smith (who plays the Dowager Countess) won this year's Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.

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Sesame Street's new season will feature a star-studded guest cast, including Kristen Bell, Jon Hamm, Matt Kemp, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Melissa McCarthy, Paula Patton, Amy Ryan, Donald Glover, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bobby Moynihan and Dax Shepard.

BONUS: 8 'Downton Abbey' Tumblrs Suitable for Aristocrats

Click here to view the gallery: 8 Downton Abbey Tumblrs

Homepage image courtesy of Sesame Street's YouTube channel

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Apple edges out Samsung for mobile phone sales lead in fourth quarter

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc became the top mobile phone seller for the first time in the lucrative U.S. market during the fourth quarter of 2012, outshining arch rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, a report by Strategy Analytics showed.

Apple's share of the U.S. mobile phone market, including feature phones and smartphones, jumped to 34 percent from 26 percent, while Samsung's share grew to 32.3 percent from 31.8 percent, the research firm said.

Samsung had been the top mobile phone vendor in the US since 2008, the firm said. Indeed, for the full year, Samsung still held the crown for mobile phone sales; it had a 31.8 percent share of the U.S. market in 2012, against Apple's 26.2 percent.

Apple investors have recently been anxious about the future growth prospects for the company amid intense competition from Samsung's cheaper phones, powered by Google's Android software, and signs the premium smartphone market may be close to saturation in developed markets.

Overall, mobile phone shipments rose 4 percent to 52 million units in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2012, driven by strong demand for 4G smartphones and 3G feature phones.

But in all of 2012, U.S. mobile phone shipments fell 11 percent to 166.9 million, Strategy Analytics said.

Apple sold 17.7 million iPhones in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, up 38 percent from the previous year, driven by aggressive marketing of its new iPhone 5 and steep carrier subsidies, the firm said. Samsung shipped 16.8 million phones during the same period.

In the international arena, Samsung Electronics, with a range of handsets, has overtaken Apple as the world's top smartphone seller.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Coming soon to Facebook- more action, battle games

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When nWay began a trial of its dark, sci-fi combat game "ChronoBlade" on Facebook last year, the San Francisco-based startup felt sure it had a hit on its hands.

"First of all, what comes is, 'Wow, I had no idea you could actually do a game of this quality on Facebook,'" said Dave Jones, Chief Creative Officer of nWay, who has worked on "Grand Theft Auto."

Then came some resistance: Jones admits some potential investors and partners questioned how an action-focused game with slick graphics can play to a Facebook audience more accustomed to "Farmville" and other less time-consuming casual games. Others wondered how the game -- which launches this spring -- would gain significant users and revenue on the social network.

But Facebook Inc is betting nWay and a clutch of other developers this year can extend console-style action games beyond Microsoft Corp's Xbox or Sony Corp's PlayStation onto the world's largest social network.

Facebook is spearheading the launch of 10 high-quality games created by third-party developers in 2013 that squarely target so-called hardcore gamers, an atypical audience overlooked thus far against the wealth of family-friendly offerings like Zynga Inc's "Farmville" that now dominate the social network's gaming landscape.

The effort, which began late last year but will accelerate in 2013, is part of Facebook's ongoing objective of making sure its 1 billion-plus users log in and spend more time on the network, which in turn boosts ad revenue. Facebook also takes a cut of its applications' revenue.

Facebook's push into action and battle games follows a meeting in January between companies that make games like "first-person shooters" and Vice President Joe Biden to look for ways to curb gun violence in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings.

Based on the console gaming industry experience, hardcore gamers -- typically men 18 to 30 years old -- spend more time and effort to master fast-paced games such as first-person shooters (Microsoft's "Halo") or real-time strategy games (Activision Blizzard's "StarCraft").

"You'll see a whole set of games hitting in the next two quarters in particular and throughout the year that really start to redefine what people think of Facebook games," Sean Ryan, head of game partnerships at Facebook said in an interview.

Facebook will embrace games from "casual all the way up through first-person shooters, massively multiplayer online games, real-time strategy games - all those types of more core player-versus-player games."

Just as hardcore gamers interact online and form clans in multiplayer games on console game networks like Xbox LIVE, Facebook can be that social layer needed to foster such gaming communities that help popularize titles, Jones said.

GAMING POPULATION

Over a quarter of Facebook's 1.06 billion monthly active users play games, one of the largest gaming communities in the industry, and the social network hopes that can grow.

Facebook also aims to make more revenue from games. Revenue from the area was flat in the fourth quarter from a year ago, the company said on Wednesday without providing details.

The 8-year-old social network takes a 30 percent revenue share from game developers who offer their product free but then charge for virtual goods -- like ammunition and power boosts.

On Wednesday, Facebook's Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman told analysts on a post-earnings conference call that its "games ecosystem continues to show healthy signs of diversification" and suggested that games revenue would grow with increasing user engagement.

To grow its gaming business, Facebook has invested time and resources to work with developers since the summer to bring titles like u4iA's first-person shooter "Offensive Combat" and Plaruim's real-time strategy game "Stormfall: Age of War" alive, Ryan said.

"It doesn't mean we're walking away from other games, but there's no question our focus for 2013 much of it will be about becoming a better platform for core gamers and developers who make those games."

To help users discover them, Facebook added new action and strategy games categories on its App Center that also shows you friends from your list playing those games. It brought back notification messages from game apps -- a feature that had been removed because users found the annoying -- with certain restrictions that stop developers from spamming a gamer.

Developers also rely on word-of-mouth publicity and ads on Facebook's advertising platform to draw in prospective gamers.

"Stormfall" has a player base of 4.5 million and hardcore games were proving to be far more lucrative, said Gabi Shalel, chief marketing officer Of Tel Aviv, Israel-based Plarium.

"Hardcore gamers pay more, play more and generate higher average revenue per user than traditional casual games."

Kixeye, which makes the warfare-strategy game "War Commander," said its gamers spend 20 times more than players of social games, helping it stay profitable over the past three years.

Going forward, nWay's Jones says Facebook must have a defining title that comes along that establishes it as a hardcore gaming spot for gamers.

"Like 'Super Mario' did for Nintendo or 'Halo' on Microsoft, I think it just takes one title to come along, sort of as a benchmark to legitimize the whole thing," he said.

(Reporting By Malathi Nayak; editing by Andrew Hay)

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Hackers target Twitter, could affect 250,000 user accounts

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Anonymous hackers attacked Twitter this week and may have gained access to passwords and other information for as many as 250,000 user accounts, the microblog revealed late on Friday.

Twitter said in a blog post that the passwords were encrypted and that it had already reset them as a "precautionary measure," and that it was in the process of notifying affected users.

The blog post noted recent revelations of large-scale cyber attacks against the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, but unlike the two news organizations, Twitter did not provide any detail on the origin or methodology of the attacks.

"This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident," Twitter said. "The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked."

Privately held Twitter, which has 200 million active monthly users, said it was working with government and federal law enforcement officials to track down the attackers.

The company did not specifically link the attacks to China in the blog post, in contrast to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, which both said the hackers originated in China.

Twitter, the social network known for its 140-character messages, could not speculate on the origin of the attacks as its investigation was ongoing, said spokesman Jim Prosser.

"There is no evidence right now that would indicate that passwords were compromised," said Prosser.

The attack is not the first time that hackers have breached Twitter's systems and gained access to Twitter user information. Twitter signed a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission in 2010, subjecting the company to 10 years of independent privacy reviews, for failing to safeguard users' personal information.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Gary Hill and Lisa Shumaker)

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Why a Microsoft Office 2013 Subscription Makes Sense for Families

When you think of things you regularly pay a yearly subscription for, office software probably isn't high on that list. Microsoft wants to change that.

With the launch of Office 2013, Microsoft is introducing a new way for you to buy its software. No need to go to the store for a shrink-wrapped boxed version, it's moved to a subscription-based model. For $99 you get what's called Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium. You can install the software on up to five devices in your household. This is nice since many families today have a main computer and then kids tend to have laptops of their own for schoolwork. The software can also be used on Mac computers, though Microsoft is still using Office 2011 for Macs.

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For your yearly subscription fee, you get pretty much everything in the Office suite and then some. In addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the oft-overlooked OneNote, among others, you get what is called Office on Demand. This means you can access these programs on any Windows 7- or Windows 8-connected PC. You also get an extra 20GB of SkyDrive space over and above the 7GB Microsoft already offers for free, to save all your documents in the cloud.

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The subscription fee includes 60 minutes of Skype calls each month. You might think that's nothing since PC to PC calls are free, but remember, Skype calls can also be made to a landline phone, say, to a relative who isn't very computer savvy. So that means an hour per month of free calls to Aunt Gertrude.

At the Microsoft launch event in New York City this week, Rachel Bondi, general manager for office product marketing, told Mashable "people want more regular updates on their terms, allowing them to be able to get more frequent features that make their lives a little easier."

That's exactly what Microsoft is trying to do with the subscription model. While it's been three years since the last version of Office was released, Microsoft plans on pushing out updates to programs as soon as they're ready. If PowerPoint or Word has an update, a user can download it -- there's no need to wait for a whole new version of the suite to come out. Bondi says some service packs will be automatically streamed to your computer when they're ready so you're always up to date.

Customers are getting used to the idea of paying a yearly fee for online services. Xbox Live users pay a yearly fee for their gaming and entertainment. We pay monthly or yearly for services such as Netflix and Spotify. It makes sense that Microsoft is looking to capitalize off this paid model.

You may think $99 a year is a lot to pay for software, and you might be right, depending on your circumstances. If you have just one computer, perhaps two, and use it for mainly word processing and a spreadsheet, you'd be better off buying a boxed copy of Office Home and Student.

However, for families with two or three laptops in the house and perhaps a kid off at school with another one, a $99 yearly fee makes good sense. Especially with the SkyDrive storage and cloud-based access to all your email, calendars and documents.

What do you think, is a yearly subscription fee right for you? Let us know in the comments.

Click here to view the gallery: Office 2013 Review

Image courtesy of Microsoft

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Airbus says it has a "Plan B" for A350 jet batteries

TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - Airbus has studied alternatives to lithium-ion batteries for its next jet, the A350, and has time to adapt to any rule changes prompted by the problems that have grounded Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner, its top executive said.

Airbus plans to use lithium-ion batteries on the A350, similar to the technology incorporated in Boeing's 787 airliners, and so far has stood by the modern power packs.

"We studied the integration of these batteries on the A350 very carefully," Airbus Chief Executive Fabrice Bregier told a group of French aerospace journalists on Thursday. "I am very relaxed about this."

The first U.S. grounding of a new model of passenger jet in over 30 years has focused attention on the risks that lithium-ion batteries can overheat and ignite a fire that is harder to put out than most flames, because of the solvents involved.

Airbus warned about the risks of lithium-ion batteries at a closed meeting of airlines in March 2011, according to a presentation first reported by Reuters this week.

"We identified this fragility at the start of development and we think we resolved it about a year ago," Bregier said. "Nothing prevents us from going back to a classical plan that we have been studying in parallel."

He did not provide details, but some aerospace industry sources caution that a redesign of the batteries could require months of engineering work and tests to obtain certification.

"We have a robust design. If this design has to evolve, we have the time to do that," Bregier said. "If it has to change in a more drastic way because the authorities reach the conclusion that the technology is not mature, then we have all the time we need to do this on the A350 before first delivery in the second half of 2014."

The head of the company that makes A350 batteries, France's Saft, told Reuters earlier on Thursday he did not believe there would be a radical rethink by aviation regulators on the use of lithium-ion as a result of the 787's problems.

It is the first time Boeing or Airbus has used the technology in designing commercial passenger jets.

POWER BOOST

Lithium-ion batteries are a third lighter than their older nickel-cadmium counterparts and are also capable of supporting other electrical systems that make the plane lighter. They take up less space than the nickel cadmium batteries used on most jets.

Experts say the 787 relies more heavily than the A350 on electrical systems instead of traditional hydraulics to control brakes and other systems, and therefore needs more power back-up.

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said after a press conference last week that the lack of a fire-fighting system in the 787's battery compartment, which also contains flight electronics, was one area being examined.

Airbus has declined to say whether the A350 would include battery fire extinguishers, but industry sources say burning materials would instead be expelled outside the plane and that the fire hazard is reduced by electronics also provided by Saft.

Saft declined to comment on the A350 battery design.

Boeing's 787 batteries are supplied by French defence electronics company Thales, which sub-contracts the lithium-ion cells to Japanese company GS Yuasa Corp.

A year after intense global publicity surrounding wing cracks on its A380 superjumbos, Airbus is keen to avoid a public split with its commercial rival on safety issues. But after sending a public message of support to Boeing on the 787 this month, Bregier exhibited frustration at growing speculation over the saga's impact on the A350.

"I'm not going to give any lessons to Boeing. At the same time, I don't have to take any either, when I think we have done well and have a plan which allows me to have aircraft flying with batteries that don't catch fire," he said.

"Let's allow the U.S. authorities to come up with their own recommendations and decisions."

Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said on Wednesday the U.S. planemaker was "narrowing down" the potential causes of the two battery incidents that led to the 787 grounding.

(Writing by Tim Hepher; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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Sony ignites talk of PS4 unveil with Playstation meeting

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp will this month host its first major Playstation meeting in two years, sparking a flare-up in online speculation the Japanese consumer electronics giant is preparing to unveil the successor to its 70 million-selling PS3 games console.

Sony declined to say whether it would release a new product at the meeting in New York on February 20. "We will be talking about the Playstation business," spokesman Masaki Tsukakoshi said on Friday. A Google search for "Sony Feb 20 Playstation" returned more than 7 million hits.

The last time Sony held a Playstation event, in January 2011, it presented a protoype of its handheld Vita console. Before that, it convened a gathering in 2005 two months after it first demonstrated the PS3 concept. A meeting in 1999 revealed designs for the PS2.

It has been more than six years since Sony launched the PS3 home console, a longer gap than between it and its PS2 predecessor, adding to the anticipation that it will soon disclose its next gaming concept.

Since Sony's last home console launch, the games market has been transformed by the boom in smartphones and tablet computers that have wooed players with free or cheap games.

Sony and other console makers Nintendo Co Ltd and Microsoft Corp now have to contend with competition from hand-held devices made by Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics and others.

Analysts expect that tablets and other mobile devices will match the power and graphics of today's games consoles within a few years.

Struggling under competitive pressure, Nintendo on Wednesday cut its sales target for the Wii U, successor to its 100 million-selling Wii, to 4 million machines by the end of March from its launch in November, compared with an earlier forecast for 5.5 million.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Samsung Electronics chairman wins $4 billion court feud over family fortune

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Chairman Lee Kun-hee fended off a lawsuit by estranged family members demanding he hand over billions of dollars of shares in Samsung companies as a South Korean court ruled in his favor on Friday.

Lee, 71, and Samsung Everland, a de facto holding company for the country's largest conglomerate, were defending against three lawsuits by Lee's relatives seeking nearly $4 billion in assets in Samsung Life Insurance Co Ltd, which sits at the heart of the web of Samsung group shareholdings, and Samsung Electronics, the group's crown jewel.

The lawsuit was unlikely to have deprived Lee of his control over Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest maker of smartphones, TVs and memory chips.

But a ruling against him would have diluted his holdings and could have forced a reshuffling of the intricate shareholdings across the Samsung group if he were to retain his grip.

It also came at a key juncture for the electronics giant's successions plans, just months after Lee's son Jay Y. Lee, 44, was promoted to vice chairman.

Samsung has come to symbolize the success of South Korea's "chaebol" conglomerates on the global stage, where it is battling Apple Inc and its Galaxy smartphone is outselling the iPhone.

A judge at the Seoul Central District Court ruled that Lee could retain more than $1 billion in Samsung Electronics shares and another $1 billion in shares of Samsung Life.

Samsung Everland, a small zoo operator, was also allowed to keep its $1 billion stake in Samsung Life. Lee will remain Samsung Life's biggest shareholder with a 20.76 percent stake.

The lawsuits accused Lee of hiding from his siblings billions of dollars in shareholdings inherited from his father, Samsung's founder, while Lee countered that as his father's chosen successor, he had free rein to transfer group company shares.

HAPPY TOGETHER?

"This is a totally unexpected ruling and we'll decide whether to appeal after discussing with our clients," Cha Dong-eon, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told reporters.

Lawyers for Lee, who has been travelling abroad since early January, said the ruling was reasonable.

Shares in Samsung Life closed nearly 3 percent higher after the ruling, while Samsung Electronics sagged 0.5 percent. Seoul's benchmark Kospi fell 0.2 percent.

The trial, which exposed family intrigues behind South Korea's powerful chaebol, coincides with rising public resentment towards the conglomerates, stirred by their dominance in the economy and widening wealth gaps in society.

The ruling comes only a day after Chey Tae-won, chairman of South Korean chaebol company SK Holdings Co Ltd, was sent to prison on embezzlement charges, as the country seeks to level out the playing field between big business groups and the "economically weak".

Lee, South Korea's richest man, was worth an estimated $8.3 billion as of March 2012, according to Forbes Magazine.

He owns less than 4 percent of Samsung Electronics, but through family stakes in Samsung Everland and Samsung Life he exercises substantial control over the electronics firm and the other 80 or so Samsung companies, which operate in industries from construction to hotels to fashion.

The ownership of hidden assets came into focus in 2011, after a tax probe into Lee that followed the transfer of shares from nominee accounts to his own name. He was later indicted on tax evasion charges but pardoned by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

South Korea is no stranger to the family feuds that have engulfed other Asia dynasties such as India's Ambani family. Hyundai Group, once the biggest of the chaebol, split into two after a row between two brothers, one side becoming Hyundai Motor Co and the other Hyundai Group.

Before delivering his verdict, the judge said he wished for a happy ending to the family dispute.

"Regardless of the truth of what happened or the final outcome of this case, I think it may also have been one of the late founder's wishes that both parties have a happy life together with no quarrels," the judge said.

($1 = 1085.4750 Korean won)

(Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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7 Products That Make Tooth Brushing Fun for Kids

Click here to view the gallery: 7 Products That Make Tooth Brushing Fun for Kids

Parental success requires more than love, patience and understanding. Sometimes you need to break out your bag of tricks.

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If your little angels refuse to brush their teeth for the recommended two minutes -- or to brush at all -- we have a few tools to help.

SEE ALSO: App Game for Kids Encourages Healthy Eating

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Take a look through the gallery above for our stealth solutions to get your kids to get excited about dental hygiene. Share any of your tricks in the comments below.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Vaughan Nelson

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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RIM rebrands as BlackBerry; launches nifty new devices

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd on Wednesday unveiled the long-delayed line of smartphones it hopes will put it on the comeback trail, but it disappointed investors by saying U.S. sales of its all-new BlackBerry 10 devices will not start until March, sending its share price tumbling 12 percent.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins also announced that RIM was abandoning the name it has used since its inception in 1985 to take the name of its signature product, signaling his hopes for a fresh start for the company that pioneered on-your-hip email.

"From this point forward, RIM becomes BlackBerry," Heins said at the New York launch. "It is one brand; it is one promise."

RIM, which is already starting to call itself BlackBerry, had initially planned to launch the new BlackBerry 10 devices a year ago. But it pushed the release date back twice as it struggled to perfect a new operating system.

Ahead of Wednesday's announcements, analysts had said that any launch after February would be a black mark for the Canada-based company.

"The biggest disappointment was the delay in the U.S., that it will take so long before the devices get going there," said Eric Jackson, founder and managing Partner at Ironfire Capital LLC in New York.

Heins said the delays reflected the need for U.S. carrier testing, although carrier AT&T Inc offered few clues on what that meant. Instead, the carrier merely stated it was enthusiastic about the devices and would announce availability, pricing and other information at a later date.

"Carriers in all other parts of the world get their devices through the testing process significantly faster than the U.S. carriers do," said John Jackson, an analyst at IDC, adding that the U.S. process can often take "weeks" longer.

Nevertheless investors were extremely disappointed with the delay and RIM shares on the Nasdaq ended the day 12 percent lower at $13.78. Its Toronto-listed shares fell by almost the same margin to close at C$13.86.

RIM launched its first BlackBerry back in 1999 as a way for busy executives to stay in touch with their clients and their offices, and the company quickly cornered the market for secure corporate and government emails.

But its star faded as competition rose and the BlackBerry is now a far-behind also-ran in the race for market share, with a 3.4 percent global showing in the fourth quarter - down from 20 percent three years before. Its North American market share is even smaller - a mere 2 percent in the fourth quarter.

RIM shares have tumbled along with the company's market share and the stock is down 90 percent since its 2008 peak. Despite the pullback on Wednesday, RIM's share price has more than doubled over the last four months, reflecting the growing buzz about its new devices.

TOUCH COMPETITION

The new BlackBerry 10 phones will compete with Apple's iPhone and devices using Google's Android technology, both of which have soared above the BlackBerry in a competitive market.

The BlackBerry 10 devices boast fast browsers, new features, smart cameras and - unlike previous BlackBerry models - enter the market primed with a large application library, including services such as Skype and the popular game Angry Birds.

The BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen device, in black or white, will be the first to hit the market, with a country-by-country rollout that starts in Britain on Thursday.

A Q10 model, equipped with a small "qwerty" keyboard that RIM made into its trademark, will launch globally in April.

"I'm still confident that a lot of the subscriber base are going to want the upgrade to BlackBerry 10. It's a very strong improvement over what they currently have. This is not going to cause mass defections from iOS and Android, but it doesn't have to be a success for RIM. You've got to start somewhere," said Jackson of Ironfire, which owns shares in RIM.

The Z10 device won a lukewarm review from The Wall Street Journal's tech blogger Walt Mossberg, who complained of a shortage of apps.

On the other hand, David Pogue, who writes for The New York Times, apologized for describing BlackBerry as doomed in the past. The Z10 touchscreen device was "lovely, fast and efficient, bristling with fresh, useful ideas," he said.

While technology analysts conceded that RIM has done quite a remarkable job on many of the features of BlackBerry 10 and on the array of its app selection for a new platform, many argue it will be a very tough slog for RIM to regain its crown.

"I don't think that RIM will return to its glory days," said Charles Golvin, analyst at Forrester Research. "Success for them looks like staunching the bleeding and clawing back a percentage or point or two of market share."

Announcements about pricing so far have been in line with expectations. U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless said the phone would cost $199 for a two-year contract, while Canada's Rogers Communications is quoting C$149 ($150) for certain three-year plans.

GLITZY LAUNCH

RIM picked a range of venues for its global launch parties, including Dubai's $650-a-night Armani Hotel, which occupies six floors of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower.

The New York event took place in a sprawling basketball facility on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, just north of the Manhattan Bridge. The BlackBerry has been "Re-designed. Re-engineered. Re-invented," RIM said.

RIM, which is splurging on a Super Bowl ad to promote its new phones, also introduced Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys as its global creative director.

"I was in a long-term relationship with BlackBerry and then I started to notice some new, kind of hotter, attractive, sexier phones at the gym, and I kind of broke up with you for something that had a little more bling," Keys said at the New York launch.

"But I always missed the way you organized my life and the way you were there for me at my job, and so I started to have two phones - I was kind of playing the field. But then ... you added a lot more features ... and now, we're exclusively dating again, and I'm very happy," she said.

($1=$1.0029 Canadian)

(Writing by Janet Guttsman; editing by Frank McGurty, Lisa Von Ahn, Peter Galloway, G Crosse)

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