SiliconANGLE » BlackBerry

Google-MoMo Deal Soon to be Approved

Mellisa Tolentino — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:39:24 +0000

Earlier reports stated that Google sent letters to standards organizations such as theEuropean Telecommunications Standards Institute, a nonprofit recognized by the European Union, to assure them that their acquisition of Motorola Mobility will not affect licensing patents or violate antitrust regulations.

Google’s “good deed” seemed to have its desired effect as people familiar with the matter stated that the U.S. Justice Department will probably give its go signal for the Google-Motorola acquisition sometime next week. If the deal is approved, Google will add 17,000 patents for mobile-phone technology in their portfolio.

Motorola Mobility

While waiting to be gobbled up by Google, Motorola is busy with product launches. Motorola is launching the MOTOLUXE in the UK. The smartphone features a 4-inch touchscreen, an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with flash, Bluetooth and GPS technology, and utilizes the MotoSwitch user interface – the intuitive UI that puts your most used or important contacts and information front and center.

“Not only does this smartphone have a big screen and the latest, greatest entertainment tools, it’s affordable and won’t take a bite out of your budget,” said Motorola Mobility Europe senior marketing director Marcus Frost.

MoMo is said to be looking at producing “life-proof” tablets for school and hospital use. They want to offer products that are affordable, user-friendly, and durable – able to withstand daily physical stress as well as handle software updates for years to come.

Motorola is also asking Apple to pay a royalty of 2.25% on iPhone sales, which Apple will probably refuse. Whatever road Apple takes, it would be favorable for MoMo – if Apple pays, MoMo gets rich(er); if Apple doesn’t pay up, MoMo could easily file for injunction against infringing products, which could result to Apple losing money.

But on a darker note, a former Motorola employee was found guilty of stealing Motorola’s trade secrets, but not guilty of economic espionage against the United States. In 2007, Hanjuan Jin was caught and detained at the O’Hare International Airport by federal agents for illegal possession of thousands of Motorola’s trade secrets on her computer and in other forms of digital storage.

T-Mobile’s Valentine Deal

If you still haven’t figured out what to get your special someone for Valentine’s, better head to the nearest T-Mobile store on February 11, Saturday, and choose from the range of free smartphones, select tablets or hotspots. You just need to sign up for a two-year subscription plan with a qualifying Classic or Unlimited Value plan, pay up front and send in a mail-in rebate form.

The T-Mobile Valentine promo includes the Samsung Galaxy SII, Nokia Lumia 710, BlackBerry Bold 9900 4G and if you’re looking for an affordable tablet that has all that and more, better get the T-Mobille SpringBoard while it’s on sale.

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In the same vein:

MoMo Wins Against Apple, Samsung Confident In EU Probe

Mellisa Tolentino — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:45:18 +0000

Motorola Mobility won a second German patent ruling against Apple over their iCloud service. The Mannheim Regional Court found Apple had infringed a patent used to synchronize e-mail accounts.

Presiding Judge Andreas Voss stated that “The court has come to the conclusion that the wording of the patent does cover functioning that were at issue here.” Apple “wasn’t able to convince the court that it isn’t infringing.”

The ruling allows Motorola to block the sales of devices with access to the iCloud, as well as ask Apple for information about past sales and holds Apple liable for damages.

“Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and we’re appealing the courts decision,” company spokesman Alan Hely said.

Apple clearly is in a losing streak, as they were recently rejected twice in their request to ban the sale of Samsung devices in Germany.

Samsung Confident With EU Anti-trust Probe

After two wins against Apple, Samsung is quite confident that the anti-trust probe set by the European Union will end well as it would soon find out that they comply with the rules.

“We believe that, upon the scrutiny of the facts, the commission will conclude that Samsung Electronics has acted in compliance with EU competition rules,” Samsung said.

Samsung is under investigation, as the EU believes that some of the patent lawsuits they filed against Apple were considered essential to wireless communications, which must be licensed on a fair and reasonable basis to any company, under an agreement formed by industry groups and, in Europe, sanctioned by the European Commission.

RIM Offers Free PlayBook To Android App Developers

Research in Motion opened their doors to Android app developers in time for the roll out of the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 OS. They gave the Android app developers until February 6th to submit their repackaged apps.

But it seems like not many Android app developers were interested, so RIM’s sweetened the deal by offering free BlackBerry PlayBooks to those that port their Android apps. RIM’s vice president for developer relations Alec Saunders made the announcement on Twitter.

Shh…. Android Devs – submit your Android app to BB AppWorld by Feb 13 and get a free Playbook –> tools here:http://bit.ly/w758Ci – @asaunders

Developers registered for the BlackBerry App World are entitled to a 16 GB Playbook if they repackage their Android apps into the compatible BAR file format and submit it to BlackBerry’s App World between Feb. 2 and Feb. 13. The repackeaged apps must meet RIM’s BlackBerry App World Vendor Guidelines.

Symantec Warns Of Mutating Android Trojan

After Symantec retracted their claim that Android.Counterclank was indeed an aggressive adware and not malware, the security software maker now warns Android users of malware that mutates every time is gets downloaded.

According to Symantec, “The applications morph themselves automatically in a few ways every time the threat is downloaded. In addition, manual modifications are also made every few days indicating that the malware authors are actively maintaining this malware family.”

These variants were identified Android.Opfake. and are used in malicious Android apps hosted in Russian websites. The sites hosting Opfake include links or buttons that can be used to download the malicious packages claiming to be free versions of popular Android software.

Vikram Thakur, the principal security response manager at Symantec, explains that the severity of damage, as well as how easily these polymorphic viruses can be detected and fixed, rely on the complexity of the polymorphism.

“If antivirus vendors place their detection on the executable and non-changing sections, all files would be successfully detected,” said Tim Armstrong, malware researcher at Kaspersky Lab. “However, if the Trojan’s executable code were also polymorphic, the challenge of detecting it would be more difficult,” Armstrong added.

HTC Gobbles Dashwire

Dashwire, Inc., the maker of the Dashworks platform that provides mobile and web applications enabling people to easily setup and personalize their smartphones, and seamlessly access their mobile content across multiple screens and services, has been acquired by HTC as they expand their reach to the cloud. It’s a smart move for HTC, which had a less than stellar fourth quarter and is struggling to keep up with other Android OEMs like Samsung.

“Cloud services are key to delivering the promise of connected services to our customers,” said Fred Liu, president of engineering and operations, HTC Corporation. “People want access to all of their important content wherever they are on any device. The addition of Dashwire’s cutting-edge sync services and deep mobile cloud experience strengthens our ability to deliver these services in a more powerful way.”

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Android Tablet Sales Figures Questioned Amidst Amazon Kindle Fire Boon

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:40:04 +0000

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan estimated that Amazon sold six million Kindle Fires in the fourth quarter, but during yesterday’s earnings’ call, Amazon’s top executives did not clarify how many units they actually sold, or even how much profit they gained because of the tablet. At $199, Amazon spends more in making the Kindle Fire than selling it, but hopes that the money saved by consumers who bought the tablet would be spent in their store. Amazon’s fourth- quarter revenue was at $17.4 billion, less than the $18.3 billion estimated by analysts, and the company’s net income fell 57% to $177 million, or 38 cents a share, from the previous year’s $416 million, or 91 cents.

Android and iOS products have been compared not only in features and performance, but most of all in sales. With the Android platform available for any OEM to use, there are hoards of Android tablets from different brands wandering the market. With that in mind, it’s so easy to believe that more people are buying Android tablets than iPads, but is this really true?

Iffy Android numbers?

Galen Gruman of InfoWorld pointed out how Android numbers are misleading. First off, OEMs using the Android platform aren’t really revealing the their true sales number, what most of them reveal are the numbers of units shipped, and this doesn’t mean they were sold. Second, if the tablets are not sold, retail stores ship the unsold devices back to where they came from and no one really looks at the return number or the number of devices returned to the manufacturers. And third, if there really are more Android tablets than iPads, then why is it that 88% of web traffic generated by tablets are from iPads? Are Android tablet users not using their devices to browse the web? Think about it.

RIM takes on Android

Do you remember when Microsoft’s Senior Director of Windows Phone 7 Brandon Watson, offered free phones, dev tools, and training and other resources to webOS developers, encouraging them to jump ship? Research in Motion is doing the same thing to Android app developers, except they don’t offer freebies, just the privilege of porting their apps to the BlackBerry PlayBook in time for the launch of the OS 2.0 in February.

The BlackBerry Runtime for Android apps allows the Android applications to run on the BlackBerry PlayBook, but these apps must first be repackaged into the compatible BAR file format. App developers can choose from the Eclipse Plugin -BlackBerry Plugin for Android Development Tools, Online Tool – BlackBerry Packager for Android apps, and the Command-line tools – BlackBerry SDK for Android apps. And of course, you have to remove anything that pertains to Android and the Android Market in the app description or elsewhere before it gets published, and you have to submit it before February 6.

Microsoft tablets have a shot

ARM, the UK-based chipmaker, reported some outstanding results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2011, and they have the high demand for mobile devices to thank for their recent upswing. ARM chips are the number one choice for mobile devices by manufacturers, since they use up less energy compared to Intel chips. But Intel isn’t happy about ARM’s lead in the mobile sector, as they want to dominate the mobile plane as well. To that end, they launched the Lenovo K800 smartphone powered by Intel at the CES 2012. But it looks like these two chipmakers would be working closely together on an Android tablet competitor – a Windows 8 tablet with both ARM and Intel chips.

ARM’s CEO Warren East discusses the great potential of Windows 8 tablet stating that the familiarity of users to Windows would be its leverage.

“Consumers are familiar with Microsoft and very familiar with Windows and they’re less familiar with an Android environment. Microsoft has an awareness advantage with consumers that the Android folks didn’t have,” East said.

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Leaked BlackBerry London, Samsung Plans to Wow in 2012

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:30:25 +0000

Though Research in Motion hasn’t been doing well in the market, it doesn’t mean that they’re just going to sit around until they wither. And with Mobile World Congress 2012 fast approaching, it seems they’ll be unveiling some surprising products at the event.

Crackberry released a leaked image of what they are calling a superphone–the BlackBerry London–which is like the smartphone version of the Playbook with its round edges and matte finish.

The BlackBerry London will be the first of its kind to run the BlackBerry 10 OS. As for the other features, nothing has been specified yet, but all bets are pointing to a 1.5GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, an 8MP rear facing camera and a 2MP front facing camera.

And as the name hints, the superphone is said to be launching in London but US versions, dubbed Laguna and Lisbon, are said to be in development for availability at AT&T, Sprint and Verizon.

Samsung Galaxy SIII

If you thought that Samsung was done with churning out awe-inspiring devices, you are so wrong. Samsung released a statement that is enough to make people curious and excited for things to come not only in the upcoming Mobile World Congress, but also for the rest of the year.

“Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012.The successor to the Galaxy SII smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product.”

Disney Mobile on docomo

NTT DOCOMO and The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. made a joint announcement introducing the exclusive smartphone brand, “Disney Mobile on docomo,” which will be launching two models, one in late February and the other one in March.

The smartphones under the brand “Disney Mobile on docomo” will be sold by DOCOMO and users will have access to exclusive content and services such as:

Access to Disney full-length animations, live actions and overseas dramas.
Digital content from Disney, such as puzzle and music game applications for children and family-entertainment.
Original Disney applications, live wallpapers and more.
Various customer benefits in cooperation with Tokyo Disney Resort.

Other Mobile News

If you’re tired of searching for apps that could possibly help make your life less miserable or even save it, there are two new apps that could probably help you with that.

CrimePush, created by Juan Jimenez, is safety intelligence application designed to keep you safe if a threat should arise. The app allows you to discretely report crimes to authorities, send automated emergency distress messages to family and friends as the incident is happening. The app’s development was put in motion when Shayan Pahlevani, co-creator of the app, was held at gunpoint in the streets of Washington DC. The app is now available in iTunes for free.

Robert Half International, a global specialized staffing firm, launched the Robert Half app for iPhones and Android smartphones that would enable job seekers to search for available positions in their fields, as well as access to compensation information that can be customized by job title and geography. The free app is available in iTunes and the Android Market.

“We’ve always strived to provide professionals with the information and resources they need to get ahead,” said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International. “Our mobile application is one more tool to keep people informed, no matter where they might be.”

And finally, Neil Young, the Canadian singer-songwriter, claimed that he and the late Steve Jobs were working on a “high-resolution audio” listening device which would download content “while you’re sleeping.” But since Jobs’ death, nothing much has been happening with regards to the iPod follow-up.

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RIM Loses Footing In Europe, Kindle Fire Sales at 6M

Mellisa Tolentino — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:05:37 +0000

Research in Motion is running out of markets to sell their products. With Apple dominating in North America and Samsung gearing up to do the same in Europe, RIM’s walls are quickly closing in and they have no one else to blame but themselves. RIM’s BlackBerry devices were once the top choice for business people, but with delayed updates, the business sector is now looking elsewhere for mobile products that cater to their needs.

RIM’s secret weapon, and hopefully the answer to their declining market problem, is the BlackBerry 10, their latest software offering. Unfortunately, phones supporting BB10 will not be launching until late this year.

RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins is also counting on the security flaws of other mobile devices being used in workplaces, and they are banking on it to drive consumers their way.

“They are in a pickle. Their pickle is security,” Heins said in an interview. “When the first big security flaw even happens in one of the large enterprises, you will see this turn around. Wait for the day this happens.”

Kindle Fire

Android faces a great deal of competition and security concerns heading into the workplace, but the consumer market is ripe for some of its more popular devices, particularly the Kindle Fire. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan estimated Amazon’s sales for the Kindle Fire tablet at about six million units in the fourth quarter, claiming that the tablet is a true iPad contender.

“Kindle Fire has staked out an important market position due to its loyal Amazon customer base and attractive (low) device pricing,” Rohan said in a note to clients. “We believe the lower hardware price will correlate with high e-book and video content attach rates.”

Previous studies showed that Amazon loses money by selling the Kindle Fire at such a low price, but Amazon is hopeful that the loss could be compensated by sales of media compatible with the tablet that can be purchased in Amazon.

Other Mobile News

Nokia will be launching a white Lumia 800 in Australia by March to add to their existing black, cyan and magenta variants. Pricing is yet to be announced.

The 5.3-inch screen Samsung Galaxy Note is hitting the US market on February 19, under AT&T for $299.99 with a two-year plan. Pre-orders will start on February 5 and is available in two variants, carbon blue and ceramic white.

Of the available 4G smartphones in the market, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx may have major appeal in terms of battery life. It lasted 8 hours and 25 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test which involves continuous surfing over 4G with the phone set to 40% brightness. The Droid Razr Maxx is available in Verizon.

And finally, Apple is faced with some bad PR because of the reportedly horrid working conditions at Foxconn, which supplies parts for their products. Apple CEO Tim Cook is reportedly outraged with the unsafe working condition at Foxconn and swore to step up their audits in Foxconn as well as other suppliers. Apple cut ties with factories found to be violating workers’ rights.

Apple isn’t the only company that uses Foxconn, Nokia, Dell and Microsoft are among popular brands that get their supplies from the Chinese factory. One technology writer, Dan Lyons, wrote an eye-opening piece with regards to the “boycott Apple” appeal,

“Ultimately the blame lies not with Apple and other electronics companies – but with us, the consumers. And ultimately we are the ones who must demand change.”

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RIM’s New Head Sticks with Plan, Even When Facing Patent Lawsuit

Mellisa Tolentino — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:00:47 +0000

Research in Motion’s poor performance was blamed on the two co-CEOs of the company. Analysts were saying that RIM needed a more structured and streamlined chain of command in order for the company to function better. On Sunday, investors got what they wanted when co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepped down, replaced by Thorsten Heins, RIM’s COO. RIM’s shares were up, which signified that investors were contented with the change. It seems like they trust that Heins will be able to turn things around. But when, exactly, will this turn-around kick in?

When asked what his plans are as the new CEO Heins stated: “I don’t think that there is some drastic change needed,” meaning that he will just push through with RIM’s original plan of launching new products, but would focus more on their marketing strategy in the US, as they deem they weren’t proactive enough to prevent consumers from flocking to competitors like Apple and Android.

Heins also added that he “will not in any way split this up or separate this into different businesses. If there [are] requests coming towards Research In Motion to talk about licensing that platform to other companies, I will entertain those discussions. I will listen.”

This definitely did not sit well with investors – RIM’s stock price plunged 8.5% lower, to $15.56. They were expecting change, drastic change, not only in leadership but also in the company’s plan for the future.

Still hope for RIM?

But there could still be hope. According to Heins, their main problem before was they kept missing product launches because everything was delayed. Heins sees that the company lacks execution, and that’s what he will be addressing. And since there is now only one CEO, this could mean that commands will better be executed since only one person needs to oversee things now.

According to some sources close to Heins, the new CEO is known as being a “get-it-done” type of person. If a plan is made, he makes sure that it pushes through. Heins is also known as being strict in following deadlines, so maybe this year RIM could actually launch products on time.

Legal tape could get in Heins’ way

But Heins has more serious matters to attend to, as just hours after his appointment, the new CEO already faced his first legal hurdle. Wi-LAN Inc., Canada’s largest intellectual property enforcement firm and Ottawa’s most valuable public company, sued RIM for allegedly infringing two of their patents. Wi-LAN is seeking an undisclosed amount for payment in damages and wants RIM to pay for using their patents. Wi-LAN claims that a much as 60 BlackBerry devices infringe one of their patents related to Bluetooth data transmission.

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Android Usurped by Apple in Q4, RIM Drowns in Sales and Security Leaks

Maria Pila — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:30:41 +0000

Android continues to rule the roost in the smartphone segment, in terms of sheer numbers at least, but Apple’s iPhone 4S launch bucked the overall trend in Q4 2011 with huge demand almost outweighing new Android sales. The figures, collected by Nielsen, suggest over 46-percent of US smartphone owners used an Android device in the final quarter of 2011, compared to 30-percent using an iPhone. However, by December, almost 45-percent of new smartphone buyers opted for one of Apple’s handsets.

The iPhone 4S launch, it’s suggested, ate heavily into Android sales demand. iPhone purchases kicked off at 25.1-percent for new buys in October 2011, with Android phones monopolizing sales at 61.6-percent, but Apple demand grew to 38.8-percent and then 44.5-percent in November and December respectively, while Android demand dipped to 48.7-percent and 46.9-percent of new buyer acquisitions in the final two months of the year.

As for other platforms, RIM’s market share for BlackBerry devices sits at 14.9-percent among all smartphone owners, though demand in Q4 was down to just 6-percent for those shopping for handsets during that period. Windows Phone is even less at 1.3-percent, with a slight uptick in Q4 interest, while Symbian, webOS and Windows Mobile all saw dwindling interest.

Samsung denies any interest in buying RIM

As you can see, RIM is still in deep trouble regarding its positioning in the mobile marketplace. Some say it’d be a good idea for RIM to sell off its company or some of its components, with Samsung being the latest rumored interested buyer. But Samsung Electronics reiterates it has “never” considered buying the Canadian mobile-phone maker, and there has been no contact between the two companies, James Chung, a spokesman for Samsung, said. Chung went on to clarify that Samsung also isn’t interested in using RIM’s software through a licensing deal.

RIM advanced to $17.47 at the close in New York trading Tuesday after the BGR blog reported Samsung may be interested in buying the company and that no deal has been made because Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM is asking too much. The blog didn’t identify its sources. Shares in RIM dropped 75 per cent last year as the company lost market share to Apple and Android- device makers including Samsung but Tenille Kennedy, a spokeswoman for RIM, declined to comment on the report Tuesday.

RIM troubled with PlayBook vulnerability

On the other hand, Research in Motion may have improved its overall experience on the PlayBook with its recent update, but security researchers recently revealed that the device leaves corporate email and user information open to potential hackers. Researchers Zach Lenier and Ben Nell of Intrepidus Group uncovered a vulnerability in the PlayBook’s Bridge application that leaves the authentication token for the Bridge application somewhere anyone could dig it up.

The Bridge application lets you connect the PlayBook to a BlackBerry smartphone via Bluetooth. It is currently necessary to connect to your BlackBerry with Bridge if you want to access your corporate email and calendars using the tablet. While the connection itself remains secure, the .ALL file contains access to the BlackBerry Bridge token, your BBM user name and information, your bookmarks, and other information specific to the device and its user.

When the research team announced the Bridge exploit at a computer security conference on January 12, Research in Motion released a statement that included a promise to fix the exploit in the PlayBook 2.0 update coming in February. From the statement:

The BlackBerry PlayBook issue described at the Infiltrate security conference has been resolved with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, which is scheduled to be available as a free download to customers in February 2012. There are no known exploits, and risk is mitigated by the fact that a user would need to install and run a malicious application after initiating a BlackBerry Bridge connection with their BlackBerry smartphone.

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RIM Gets Back to Basics: CES Demos Focus on Business Users, Cloud

Mellisa Tolentino — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:10:41 +0000

Research in Motion, maker of BlackBerry devices, has been awfully quiet for some time now. 2011 wasn’t kind to RIM, with the service outage, slow OS update, flopped tablet and a lot more headache-inducing situations. It’s quite impressive that RIM hasn’t turned their back on the mobile industry all together. As the saying goes, “It’s the calm before the storm,” RIM is back in business at this year’s CES.

New Phone OS

RIM announced the new BlackBerry 7.1 OS which incorporates a new feature called BlackBerry Tag, which allows BlackBerry users to share information and content by simply tapping their NFC enabled BlackBerry smartphone against another NFC enabled BlackBerry smartphone. BB users can now instantly invite a friend to BBM, exchange contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia content. Also, users of BB smartphones not equipped with the NFC feature can pair their device to an NFC enabled Bluetooth device so they can enjoy BB Tag.

“BlackBerry 7 delivered a next-generation platform for our customers around the world and the range of software updates announced today build upon the strengths of that platform to further enhance the mobile experience and make life easier, from managing daily tasks to planning big adventures,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion.

Aside from this, BBM, BlackBerry Traffic and BlackBerry Travel apps were all updated. BB 7.1 OS is already rollingout to devices worldwide, while the updated apps are already available in the BlackBerry App World store.

New Tablet OS

RIM previewed the new features of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, which will enable customers to stay even more connected and productive in their personal and professional lives. The BB PlayBook OS 2.0 is available for free for all PlayBook owners/users by February 2012.

“BlackBerry PlayBook is already recognized for delivering powerful performance, true multi-tasking, advanced web browsing and HD multimedia in an ultra-portable design,” said Lazaridis. “With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 we are building on this strong foundation, as well as leveraging our strengths in communications, social integration and productivity, to allow people to use their BlackBerry PlayBook in new ways throughout the day.”

BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 Features

Advanced Messaging Experience: includes a new unified inbox, multi-tasking within email, rich-text email, composing and editing, and inbox management tools – allows for powerful inbox search across multiple email accounts, as well as the ability to set out-of-office messages and email signatures directly from their tablet.
Deep Integration of Social Relationships: includes innovative people-centric calendar and relationship-centric contacts app.
Making Your BlackBerry Smartphone and Tablet a Powerful Pair which includes remote control for the BlackBerry PlayBook with the new BlackBerry Bridge that allows a user’s BlackBerry smartphone to act as a keyboard and mouse for their BlackBerry PlayBook and opening content on the BlackBerry PlayBook with the BlackBerry Bridge so you can take documents, emails, multimedia files and web pages found on your smartphone and open them quickly and directly on the BlackBerry PlayBook.
Improved Mobile Productivity: Updated document editing capabilities for Documents To Go makes it easier for users to create and edit documents while on the go. It now features enhanced support for the virtual keyboard, the ability to view and update embedded charts and chart sheets within spreadsheets, a new formula wizard with over 100 functions as well as the ability to edit presentations including text, bullets and formatting; Print To Go application via WiFi; Increased control and manageability of corporate data – the combination of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and BlackBerry Balance will help to overcome many barriers to widespread tablet deployment.
New Apps and Content: more available apps in the App World such as Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Groupon, Thomson Reuters, Zinio and many more; Video store will initially be available in the United States; Enhanced web browsing.

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How Web Outages Stole the Show in 2011

Cherr Aira — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:35:02 +0000

Technology has made several giant leaps in mobility, social networking, online video and gaming in 2011. But while the rave party is still on to celebrate previous year’s accomplishments, some companies are still on the road to recovery from the mishaps that struck them this past year. One of the glaring lowlights of 2011 include web outages that prompted setbacks for affected organizations. Some technological catastrophes were traced to own shortcoming, but many were inflicted by cyber hackers.

The 3-Day Blackberry Depression

The world was alarmed after RIM’s three-day network outage that affected millions of Blackberry users, particularly in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The business sector, which is thought to be BlackBerry’s biggest fan, was angered when suddenly they could not access their email, calendar appointments and BlackBerry Messenger or BBM. Consequently, users’ trust and confidence on this leading mobile brand declined radically.

Amidst the misfortune, the Canadian mobile carrier is firm on saying no to selling shares to foreign investors, promising a rebound for 2012. Sadly, the new year greeted Blackberries sourly, with sales still inexorably dropping each day.

Sony’s Month Long Nightmare

Gamers around the world found themselves crippled Sony’s PlayStation Network in April. The scare lasted for nearly a month, with a series of investigations to hopefully trace the untraceable hackers that placed millions of users’ information at risk. To prevent the further dismay, one of the executives addressed the PlayStation outage issues in an important event last spring. Sony engineers also constructed a new network system to avert outages and privacy breaches in the future.

AWS Slip in the Cloud

Migrating to cloud has been an enormous issue for many companies in 2011. While the benefits seemed luring, there are still several people who doubting whether the cloud could provide them with efficiency they require. Hesitation grew when Amazon Web Services went down several times in April. The temporary zone maintenance affected several big brand companies, including Netflix, Foursquare, Reddit, Quora and others.

NetFlix

Aside from teaching us how to lose 1 million customers in a month with a price hike, NetFlix experienced a series of short web interruptions in 2011 that led to even more dissatisfied customers. The last quarter may have been one of redemption, recording a whopping 2 billion hours of movies and TV series streaming. The rest of the year was not as promising for NetFlix.

Microsoft Didn’t Escape Outages Either

Microsoft’s cloud-based email services outage caused an international panic in September. Millions of Hotmail and Skydrive users’ information were exposed to some unknown entities in the web universe. But the giant was quick to respond and was able to resolve the issue within hours.

With stunning victories for the likes of Apple, Android and Facebook, there were equally spectacular failures from big companies like RIM and Sony. It’s the yin and the yang of running a tech business in this day and age, only improving with each lesson learned.

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In the same vein:

A Horrid New Year For RIM and Little Hope for Change

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:38:43 +0000

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion suffered a lot of drawbacks in 2011. For starters, when they launched the BlackBerry Playbook many had high hopes for the tablet, but with no e-mail, calendar and other native apps, people started to think twice about purchasing the device. Aside from that, OS updates for BlackBerry devices were slower than Android updates. Also, the gap between product launches were so wide that people started to lose interest as more smartphones suited for business people came out. But one of the greatest hiccups RIM suffered in 2011 was the service outage that lasted for almost a week, angering a lot of BlackBerry users in the US.

Their only hope for a comeback is the BlackBerry 10, their soon-to-be-launched OS, and a new line of devices running it, which they deem as a major game-changer for the Canadian company. But RIM already stated that it wont be until the latter part of 2012 that they’ll release a new line of devices, making BB10 just another glitch in their system.

“RIM made a strategic decision to launch BlackBerry 10 devices with a new, LTE-based dual core chipset architecture,” the company said, referring to a chip that supports a high-speed wireless service known as LTE that is now available in some parts of the United States. “As explained on our earnings call, the broad engineering impact of this decision and certain other factors significantly influenced the anticipated timing for the BlackBerry 10 devices.”

But it seems like 2012 will not be kind to RIM either, as rumors started spreading last year that some major companies are eyeing them for a buyout, added to the fact that they just cut the price of the PlayBook: all versions of the tablet now priced at $299. The move is seen as a desperate plea to up their sales, especially with more powerful tablets coming out this year from Android and Apple.

Demand for change

RIM investors are seeing the unusual company structure as the reason behind the company’s demise. If you aren’t aware, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are both co-CEOs and co-chairmen, making investors think that it’s time for the company to have a more structured chain-of-command. Jaguar Financial Corporation, which speaks for 12 of RIM’s 20 largest shareholders and 8% of its stockholders, has been calling for some months for boardroom change, including the splitting of the CEO and chairman roles.

Aside from Jaguar, Northwest & Ethical Investments is also demanding RIM to name an independent chairman and CEO. Northwest was promised a role in studying leadership changes in exchange for withdrawing a proposal to split the chairman and CEO roles in June but Robert Walker, Northwest’s vice-president of ethical funds stated that a review hasn’t been made. If nothing happens until January 31, Walker will push for an investor vote to split the roles of CEO and chairmanship.

According to some sources, “Barbara Stymiest, an independent member of RIM’s board, is leading the race to replace the co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in the chairmanship.”

A Horrid New Year For RIM and Little Hope for Change is a post from: SiliconANGLE
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