Research in Motion's soon-to-debut Bold is "strong" but no "game changer" according to a product analysis from Citi Investment Research.

Analyst Jim Suva, who isn't available for an interview this week according to Citi Group corporate communications, likes what he sees with the Bold, the latest BlackBerry due out from RIM anytime.

Well, at least when there are no 3G network glitches in sight, apparently.

Suva spent 12 hours putting the Bold through a bunch of tests that included various network configurations, and application uses from email to movie watching to drop and water spill tests.

Here's what he likes:

• Completely new Web browser with HTML support is a big improvement from the Curve and Pearl
• The ability to edit documents received via email & send with revisions (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Meaningfully improved display
• World class speaker and phone reception
• Voice recognition by Nuance works well (call home, call office, call Jim)
• Email & voice to work in Japan & Korea unlike other Blackberry products, which for business travelers is a big positive
• Good video taking and playback
• GPS works very easy and is free
• Very easy device and software set up {Suva figured it all out without technology help or instruction manual]

Here's what he doesn't like:

• We had a few occasional 3G signal dropping troubles at some locations especially on high-rises building streets & on our 34th floor (EDGE picked up immediately but slower internet speeds)
• Smudges on the screen from our extended testing
• Not a touch screen phone (nor was this expected but wait for future products in 2H08)
• I [Suva] did not get an instruction book (likely because it is not carrier certified/launched yet in North America or at AT&T) but managed to get everything set up (email, phone, internet, GPS) very quickly
• 2MP camera could have had more MP resolution.

Overall:

In summary we are positive on the Bold (strong product but not a complete game changer) and we believe it will appeal to business users especially those who travel internationally but less so to consumers given its likely high price (Rogers $399).

Here's my take: [[note very unofficial since I haven't seen the Bold]

RIM apparently went back to its roots after reaching out consumers with its last few devices, which is likely a smart move given how Apple keeps trying to reach for that enterprise gold smartphone ring.

Yes, I know it's hard to improve on excellence, but as my college coaches always said, there's always room to improve.

So what is with the 2MP camera?

I mean, I have that on my phone and believe me when I say I have a no-name phone and it's not very smart.

Also consider the fact that Web rumors claim Motorola's coming out with a 8 MP camera in a few months.

Yes, the US swimmer is, in my opinion, the greatest athlete I think we'll see for a long time.

He's up there with Tiger.

But the most amazing thing -- as one credit card company would say  -- the most 'priceless' thing -- is that my daughter and I got to watch his races over and over again on our laptops this weekend.

We shared the exhilaration of that fingertip win... of his power in the water ... of his commitment to his sport.

As I told my 15-year-old, who has now ordered every poster there is of Phelps, I didn't have that luxury or chance to watch Mark Spitz over and over when I was a teen. (Stop counting the years...).

It makes you realize how powerful, and amazing, the Internet can be. Something I think we all tend to forget now and then.

Jim Balsille, and likely his top sales team, must have been suffering some serious palipitations last week when a tech news site ran a big headline, and big story, about how a big Research in Motion (RIM) customer was considering switching off the BlackBerry platform for Apple's new iPhone.

A tech leader at HSBC, the world's biggest bank, was quoted in a story as saying the company was thinking about moving thousands of users off BlackBerries to the iPhone.

This would be big news, and, like most other tech reporters I suspect, I jumped on the phone to get details.

But the news was that it wasn't news at all. It wasn't true.

As one person I called, who asked to remain anonymous, told me "there's not a snowball's chance in hell" it was happening.

I could almost hear the sigh of collective relief at RIM, and likely within HSBC's compliance division since there's no comparison yet to be made between the iPhone's security abilities and the BlackBerry, though Apple has done a better job on its firmware 2.0 and will likely keep improving on that moving forward.

I'm not naming the publication that ran the story because the purpose of my blog is not to take cheap shots.

No one is perfect, and no publication is immune from having to correct itself now and then.

We're human.

The problem is the fact that so many Web sites took the story and ran with it, repeating the erroneous news all over the Internet, from blogs to publications, and so few took the time to make two quick calls to verify whether it was actually happening.

The lesson from this is that we -- all in the tech industry, those who create news and those who report on news -- all need to keep a skeptical eye.

We also have to fight the urge to jump on a bandwagon. We can't let the very competitive pace of online journalism let us los track of the need to verify and doublecheck before we put words to Web pages.

Yea, I'm being preachy. I'm allowed.

But I respect my industry and colleagues who follow the golden rule of getting information first-hand -- the old fashion way.

After all, it's still amazing how powerful the written word can be, even when it's not on paper.

As I wrote awhile back, LTO tape isn't dead and it's not even close to dying. It's a valuable part of many an enterprise's storage infrastructure, especially the mid tier and smaller company.

But like every technology it has its drawbacks -- despite some vendors' claims that no storage technology has drawbacks.

One beauty of tape is that it can be recycled -- a good thing as that obviously saves money.

One bad thing is that sometimes a tape is mistakenly re-initialized or re-formatted, bringing the tape marker to a point where it claims no data remains on the tape when, in reality, there is data and data that a company realizes it wants to save and recover.

"Depending on the quality of the back-up processes and the attention spans of storage admins, it's not unusual for tapes to be incorrectly wiped and placed back in the reuse pile," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

While King doesn't view it as a huge problem, he said it's great that there is a solution to recapture mistakenly erased tape-based data

That is, as long as no one re-tapes over the tape with new data.

As long as that doesn't happen Kroll Ontrack, a technology and services company that started off in 1985 as a disk drive software company, can help get the data back.

According to Jeff Pederson, manager of data recovery operations, his company is seeing an increasing demand for tape recovery and Ontrack is one of the few, if not the only, technology tools that can grab stored data on a reinitialized tape.

Customers can use the tool to get a listing of files and then, if necessary, have the data recovered.

"Many companies find tapes and think they're blank but need to be sure before putting them into operation. They need to now what exists on them in case they need it," Pederson said.

The best way to avoid such scenarios is to obviously make sure tapes are managed, stored and inventoried properly.

Pederson said a good backup and disaster recovery plan can also help enterprises from ever having to call for a diagnostic and tape recovery effort.

Tape recovery can be a costly endeavor. While tape itself may be cheap, another beauty factor, having to diagnosis tape data can run anywhere from $100 to $500 per tape. Actual recovery costs can range from $1,000 to $8,000 for a tape.

That can add up to a tidy sum if a box discovered in storage has hundreds of tapes.

But then again it's also a small price to pay if the data recovered saves a company a huge regulatory fine or litigation costs.

The big no-no is not ever overwriting on a tape unless you're sure it's clean and clear of data, or if the data on the tape isn't needed.

"Once you overwrite there' no way to get to that earlier stored data," said Pederson.

Motorola's finally got a new leader helping out at the helm of its company and to drive its handset division forward and I have to admit I was a bit surprised Moto lured in such an experienced and successful executive.

During the past six months I've been checking in with industry pundits, asking them what they've been hearing through the grapevine, tracking the blind items about who Moto was courting to come into the fold.

I kept badgering Motorola's communication and pr team for feedback, comment, a status report.

But things were eerily quiet except for some rumour of a HP executive potentially coming into the ranks.

So naturally I expected it was going to be someone from left field, or someone climbing the corporate ranks and looking to cut their CEO teeth on what is definitely one of the biggest career challenges in the mobile device industry.

In reporting the story of Sanjay Jha's appointment yesterday I spent a good portion of the day dialing up experts and analysts and asking them to give me a one-word descriptor of the news.

Somewhere I expected to hear something negative.

But nada. No one had a bad word to say about Jha, his experience, or his ability to make change.

Even on the quick impromptu conference call with investor analysts there was not one bad word. Every investor congratulated Jha, and several even congratulated CEO Greg Brown on his choice.

Yes they asked the usual hardball questions -- how is Motorola going to turn around its mobile device business, where is Jha going to start first, what is it going to take to make change?

And Jha answered each question with ease, but more importantly, he answered with directness.

As he told analysts, he's no stranger to Motorola or its history.

While others may see a dismal future, he sees Motorola's steadfastness, its talent, its unwavering determination to not only stay in the mobile device market but to fight for what it once had.

While one analyst jokingly commended Jha on his courage in taking the job, the truth is that Jha is courageous.

But then again so is Motorola these days.