Waterloo, Canada - BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (NASD: RIMM) announced this week that it will pay $74.5 million to settle a stock options backdating charge from the Ontario Securities Commission.

Waterloo, Ontario - Research In Motion (NASD: RIMM) on Wednesday introduced its first touch-screen BlackBerry, the Storm, which the company and initial carrier partner Verizon expect to have in U.S. stores for the holiday shopping season. Pricing details were not provided for the Storm, which will also go on sale for Vodafone customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand. CNET News.com noted in its review that the device's ClickThrough touch-screen takes a little getting used to, because a user must actually apply pressure on the screen itself to hit buttons, rather than simply touch them. The device features 1GB of onboard memory, microSD card slot, and a media player that supports music and video.

New York - Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iPhone accounted for 19.2% of U.S. smartphone sales during the first quarter of 2008, down from 26.7% in the fourth quarter of last year, while rival Research in Motion's (NASD: RIMM) BlackBerry saw market share rise from 35.1% in the fourth quarter to 44.5% in the first, the Associated Press reported, citing a vendor survey conducted by market research firm IDC.

New York - In a likely bid to challenge Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iPhone, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (NASD: RIMM) is developing a touch-screen version of the device, expected to be released in the third quarter, The Wall Street Journal reported. The BlackBerry Thunder will be exclusive to Verizon and Vodafone, will and feature just four physical keys and no keyboard.

Barcelona - Melodeo, a provider of mobile music delivery technology, has announced a deal with Blackberry device maker Research in Motion that will let Blackberry users access their iTunes music libraries on the devices, Billboard reports. Melodeo's NuTsie service is expected to launch for Blackberry users sometime in the spring.

San Francisco - Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry mobile device, announced that it has launched an optimized application for use with the Facebook online social network. The application will automatically push Facebook messages, Wall posts or pokes to a user's BlackBerry, as well as allow users to post photos to Facebook. T-Mobile USA will be the first carrier to provide the new application, which will also be offered for download from Facebook.

New York - MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, announced on Tuesday that it is working with Research In Motion to allow BlackBerry smartphone users to have one-click access to MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball. Fans can now download an MLB.com icon to their BlackBerry smartphone, allowing immediate access to the MLB.com mobile website with a single click.