BlackBerry will die on January 4th – for real this time

Dear friends, we're gathered here today to mourn the death of that once-beloved monarch of the mobile world: BlackBerry. And, yes, I realize that this is not the first time we've announced the death of the company or its devices (and, for reasons I'll explain below, it likely won't be the last) but this is a very definite ending for legacy BlackBerry hardware.

As of January 4th, any phones or tablets running BlackBerry's own software - that's BlackBerry 7.1 or earlier, BlackBerry 10, or its tablet operating system BlackBerry PlayBook - will no longer reliably function," says the company. Whether on Wi-Fi or cellular, there'll be no guarantee you can make phone calls, send text messages, use data, establish an SMS connection, or even call 9-1-1. That sounds pretty darned dead to us.

This seems ripe for a community of dedicated fans to build custom servers to keep things going - much like exist for many older games.