Blackberry - Market Manipulation

I'm a Blackberry fan.  Not the raving fanboy type that has to have the latest berry, and that defends them no matter what.  No, I'm more the fan who silently roots for the underdog, and who watches their move with a mind both hopeful and critical.
I've rooted for BB10, bought, wanted to like, and then reluctantly sold the Q10.
I've examined the Priv, marvelled at it's UI and build quality, and reluctantly and silently put it back after concluding that the high price,inferior front camera, and substandard (by Blackberry standards) hardware keyboard were showstoppers.
But the shorts have forced me to break my silence.
By shorts I'm of course not referring to those of the Bermuda variety.  I'm talking about those market participants who grab hold of a given stock, sell it short, and proceed to manipulate the market for that stock to artificially constrain its price and range.
Since the second week of January, BBRY has been constrained within a very narrow ~3% trading range.  This is in spite of significant general market movements, and significant positive news about the stock (increased stock buyback, adoption of Android & abandonment of BBOS).  The stock has failed to participate in any of the market upticks (and conversely, in any of the market downticks) since week 2 of January.
Now broaching my silence is not out of a sense of disgruntlement - but rather of fascination that a subset of the market participants is able to exact such remarkable control of a security that it's trading range can so severely ignore rational reasons for movement and stay firmly still, in the face of multiple reasons for not doing so.
Can't wait to see what the month of February brings!

Quick flip on NA.TO calls + Musings on the future of Blackberry

Yesterday's market meltdown was a nice opportunity to buy some calls on NA for a quick flip.  It wasn't much money (Canada doesn't have the most liquid of option markets) but hey, I'll take it.
I now turn my attention back to Blackberry.  This stock is like an itchy scab that you just can't stop picking at.  Not really a good thing.  But I'm really tempted to buy some calls.  Here's my reasoning why;
1. The stock has gotten the shit kicked out of it lately. Not without good reason, mind you - since the hardware side continues to disappoint, and software revenue is a bit skewed by the Good acquisition... But it's so cheap that it looks attractive.
2. The PRIV effect.  It's an awesome phone.  Absolutely beautiful.  And it's actually been selling.  I'm not talking Iphone or Samsung volumes, here, but still - it's selling.  I don't access to any real stats - so I've resorted to walking into wireless retail establishments, who all tell me that it's been selling well, and also to looking at Amazon reviews as a proxy for sell through rates (e.g. lots of reviews for the Priv and associated accessories means good sell through).  Based on that unscientific-but-hey-I-have-access-to-no-other-metrics approach, I'm thinking that the hardware estimate could be a surprise to the upside.
3. What have they got to lose?  What I mean by that is, they've publicly stated that the Priv is make or break.  If they don't make their numbers, they get out of the hardware business and focus on services - value gets unlocked and the stock goes up.  If they make their numbers - everyone is appropriately surprised - stock goes up.
Those are my quick thoughts. Of course, there are lots of other fundamentals to consider - but then, when was the last time a stock traded on fundamentals...
What do you think?

Am I the balding, middle-aged microsoft guy?

I've had my curve for about a year, and its been a great ride. My biggest complaints? Lack of power, and no scroll wheel.

Now the power issue is easily dealt with by upgrading to the new Curve or Bold.

However, the scroll wheel? Unless I want to pick up a 5 year old 8700 on Craigslist and resign myself to living in the dark ages with no media capabilities and the storage ability of a Palm Vx, I'm s.o.l.

Apparently, although there are some who like to kick it old school with the scroll wheel, the roaring majority are 'ballers. So does this make me the middle aged microsoft guy from those Mac commercials? (vs. the cool apple dude). I really hope not!