Leaked BlackBerry roadmap shows three new devices coming in 2013

Research in Motion dropped yet another bombshell during last week’s earnings call by announcing the delay of BlackBerry 10 OS until the first quarter of 2013. In the interim, BlackBerryOS has acquired a leaked hardware roadmap that gives us a pretty solid idea of when we can expect to see BB 10 mobile devices next year and the form factor they will take.

Before we jump into next year, however, the roadmap suggests we can expect to see a BlackBerry PlayBook 4G launched in Q4 2012, likely in time for the holiday buying season. Of course, this device pre-dates the BB 10 launch so we don’t expect much more than a simple hardware upgrade for RIM’s tablet.

Q1 2013 will bring the launch of BB 10 and the first full-touchscreen BlackBerry device, the BlackBerry London / L-series device. Following shortly after or perhaps even at the same media event is the BlackBerry Nevada / N-series, a full QWERTY handset.

A new tablet codenamed Blackforest [128] is slated (no pun intended) for Q3 2013. Details on this tablet are unknown but if the roadmap icons are drawn even remotely to scale, we could perhaps assume that this tablet is either larger or has a slightly different aspect ratio. Also, the [128] could be a reference to the amount of internal flash storage on board, but all of this is pure speculation at this point. Could this be the long-rumored 10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook that many thought had been scrapped?

RIM to split handset and messaging services into two companies

Research in Motion has been fighting an uphill battle to remain relevant in the handset market for a number of years but according to one report, they will soon concede defeat. RIM is planning to divide their handset and messaging service into two separate entities and sell the handset division, according to Gizmodo as first reported by the Sunday Times (login required).

The newspaper claims that RIM would keep the messaging and data capabilities like BBM, BIS and BES but would license out their usage to third parties. This idea to license BBM has reportedly been tossed around before with some inside the company thinking it would help brand recognition while others believe it would give customers yet another reason to switch to Android or the iPhone.

The newspaper suggests a few other options as well, including the possibility of selling the business to Amazon or Facebook, handing over the messaging division to Google or Apple if the price is right or continue to remain a single entity but sell a stake in RIM to a large company like Microsoft or someone else with handset ambitions.

Forbes points out that none of these ideas are new and some are pretty comical at the core, like Microsoft investing in RIM. After all, they have Windows Phone and Nokia to work with. Adding RIM would seemingly do next to nothing for their handset division.

We’re not sure what will eventually happen to RIM but they certainly can’t continue on their current path without changes for too much longer.

Source : http://techspot.com

Biggest tech failures of 2011

 

There are always valuable lessons to be learned from failures -- and boy has 2011 been a pedagogic year for some tech companies. Sony, for example, has no doubt learned about the importance of securing its network infrastructure, especially when it holds the information of millions of customers. And in the event that something goes wrong again they now know it's better to come clean sooner rather than later.

Netflix and HP probably learned a thing or two about about communicating with their customers as well. The first tried and failed to split its business in two, and announced a 60% price increase for streaming and DVD-by-mail customers, while HP alienated partners and shook customer confidence when it announced it was halting its webOS projects and possibly exiting the consumer PC market.

We could go on for a while listing Research In Motion's recent mishaps, or the back and forth patent battles in the mobile sector headed by Apple versus Samsung and Microsoft versus every Android manufacturer. Some were also dissapointed by the iPhone 5's no-show -- though the 4S is a huge sales success -- and in general 2011 was something of a failure for any tablet manufacturer that wasn’t Apple and maybe Amazon.

What about Google's Chromebooks? Was the decade long wait for Duke Nukem Forever worth it? Cast your vote in the poll below and let us know about the tech failures we missed in the comments.

Injunction blocks RIM from using BBX name for new OS

Research in Motion's run of bad luck continues. Fresh after hearing a senior executive in Indonesia might be charged with negligence following the sales stampede at their BlackBerry Bold 9790 launch, the Canadian firm has now been blocked from using the name BBX for its new OS.

Software company Basis International won an injunction at a U.S. Court in Albuquerque preventing Research in Motion from using its copyrighted "BBX" trademark. The New Mexico based firm threatened RIM with legal action less than a week after it announced the new operating system to the world in October. RIM claimed that the trademark was irrelevant as they were in different sales channels, but the District Court of Albuquerque disagreed, granting the injunction in order to protect Basis International's long-standing ownership of the BBX trademark.

The decision prevents Research in Motion from using it for its upcoming operating system. It also stopped the company from using it at its Asian DevCon conference today, and tomorrow in Singapore.

"RIM doesn't typically comment on pending litigation, however RIM has already unveiled a new brand name for its next generation mobile platform. As announced at DevCon Asia, RIM plans to use the 'BlackBerry 10' brand name for its next generation mobile platform," RIM said in a statement to The Guardian.

Despite the name change, the new version, based on QNX as used in the ill-fated PlayBook, is tasked with reviving the BlackBerry brand of smartphones as at a time when Google's Android and Apple's iOS operating systems continue to grow in popularity. They've already suffered a few setbacks though, with issues surrounding compatibility with its hugely popular BlackBerry Messenger and Email services.

It was widely reported when the new OS was announced that the firm still did not have those two essential services running on its next software platform. Lack of support on its PlayBook tablet certainly hurt  sales, with many purchasing other tablets after months of waiting in vain for the update to arrive.

It has been a troubling year for RIM, with profits down, a much-publized four-day-long service outage, investor confidence at an all-time low and the write off of nearly $500m in excess PlayBook inventory. For those holding out for a PlayBook the company announced a price reduction down to $199 for the Christmas period.

Full update and round-up of Carrier IQ tracking software scandal

Update: Two new updates worth mentioning before the new week. Just a day after the Senate launched an investigation, Carrier IQ and some involved parties including Samsung and HTC are now facing a a class action lawsuit.

From the other side of the fence, Carrier IQ have started to defend themselves with a number of security experts siding with them. Dan Rosenberg, a security consultant who has discovered more than 100 vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel, FreeBSD, and GNU utilities, reverse engineered Carrier IQ's code and analyzed the tracking data collected by the company.

His conclusion in brief: "The application does not record and transmit keystroke data back to carriers... there is no code in Carrier IQ that actually records keystrokes for data collection purposes." Meaning there should be fewer privacy concerns than originally imagined. Read more here.

--- The original story is below ---

On Wednesday, news broke about a hidden application installed on most popular smartphone handsets that logs nearly everything the user does. Accompanying the news article was a 17-minute long video of developer Trevor Eckhart demonstrating how his HTC Evo 3D was tracking his key presses and even the content of his text messages.

The controversial claims resulted in the producer of the software, Carrier IQ, sending Eckhart a cease and desist letter. Digital rights group EFF jumped to his defence resulting in the company retracting its letter and issuing a formal apology.

Handset manufacturers and carriers were extremely quick to address the mounting criticism and anger from customers at the logging software, with a flurry of press statements clarifying their stance -- here is what is known so far:

Apple does use the logging software, though in an official statement to AllThingsD the company said it "stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update." They also reiterated that users must actively opt-in to share any information, and should they do so, it would be sent anonymously, encrypted and would not include any personal information. "We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so." More information on how Carrier IQ works on iOS is available in a blog post by iPhone jailbreaker Grant Paul.

Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion said it "does not pre-install the CarrierIQ app on BlackBerry smartphones or authorize its carrier partners to install the CarrierIQ app before sales or distribution." The Canadian firm added that they do not develop, or comission the development or distribution of the app, but promised to investigate reports and speculation related to Carrier IQ.

HTC outright pointed the blame in the direction of phone carriers: "Carrier IQ is required on devices by a number of U.S carriers so if consumers or media have any questions about the practices relating to, or data collected by, Carrier IQ we’d advise them to contact their carrier." The company also said that they were investigating the possibility of adding the option for users to opt-out of data collection by the software.

In the same vein, Samsung released a statement saying carriers were responsible for the installation of CIQ software and it had nothing to do with them. When speaking to Engadget, they further pointed out that "Samsung does not receive any consumer user information from the phones that are equipped with Carrier IQ."

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform is seemingly clear of any known traces of the software. Joe Belfiore, who oversees Windows Phone Program Management, confirmed as much in a Twitter message on Thursday. It's flagship handset partner Nokia also stepped up to the hot plate, releasing a statement denying the company has shipped any products with Carrier IQ's software installed.

Google also made it perfectly clear to everyone that it had nothing to do with Carrier IQ, and insisted its new Google Nexus phones were free of the tracking software, according to a reliable source as quoted by the Verge. Questions have been raised about how Carrier IQ's software was able to make its way on Android devices given the various compatibility tests required in order to use Google's Android OS, though.

U.S. network carriers Sprint and AT&T have come clean, admitting they use the software in devices they sell. The official word from Sprint is that it helps "analyze network performance and identify where we should be improving service," claiming it is an integral part of the Sprint service. Similarly, AT&T's offical line is, "we solely use CIQ software data to improve wireless network and service performance," according to the Huffington Post.

T-Mobile also confirmed it uses the Carrier IQ "diagnostic tool" to troubleshoot device and network performance with the goal of enhancing network reliability. Meanwhile, Verizon, the largest U.S. carrier clarified they don't use Carrier IQ's software, and according to an email addressed to Gigaomfrom Verizon spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson, any statement saying otherwise is false. 

Users in Canada, as well as Europe and elsewhere across the world so far appear to be unaffected.

RIM wants Hulu Plus on the BlackBerry PlayBook

Research In Motion (RIM) is interested in getting Hulu to work on its newly released tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook. Users shouldn't expect the free version of Hulu on the device, however, but rather Hulu Plus, which gives subscribers an expanded content library in the form of full seasons and more episodes of shows already available on the free version as well as allowing access to the streaming service from more devices.

"We are in conversations with Hulu to bring the Hulu Plus subscription service to BlackBerry PlayBook users," a RIM spokesperson said in a statement. Hulu has yet to comment.

Hulu blocked the BlackBerry PlayBook just one day after the device was officially released. Hulu blocks pretty much every mobile device that is ever released, and as we argued last week, the company should not do this unless it already offers Hulu Plus on said devices.

We also wondered last week whether RIM should bother to strike a deal with Hulu, given alternatives like Netflix, but it looks like the Canadian company believes so. Hulu will likely only be interested in putting Hulu Plus on the BlackBerry PlayBook if the device sells well, and right now it's too early to make that call. RIM could of course convince Hulu with an incentive.

If RIM gets its way, the BlackBerry PlayBook will join a decently long list of Hulu Plus supported platforms: Apple's iOS 4 devices, Sony's PlayStation 3, the Roku Streaming Player, WD TV Media Player, as well as Blu-ray-linked television made by Samsung, Sony, and Vizio. BlackBerry Tablet OS is QNX-based. It follows that Hulu Plus may one day find its way onto BlackBerry phones, given that BlackBerry OS will be replaced by QNX as of BlackBerry 7.

RIM confirms BlackBerry PlayBook will support Android apps

Although the device hasn't launched yet, many prospective customers believed the PlayBook's greatest weakness would be its lackluster app selection, especially when compared to the ecosystems Apple and Google have established. Eradicating those concerns, RIM has just announced that its upcoming tablet will be able to run Android apps.

The company will release two "app players" that provide an environment for the PlayBook to run BlackBerry Java and Android 2.3 apps, which will be available through the BlackBerry App World. That functionality will arrive this summer and could open the door to more than 250,000 apps if the entire Android Market is available.

Additionally, RIM said it will release a native SDK allowing the masses to develop C/C++ applications for the PlayBook's BlackBerry Tablet OS, which is based on QNX Neutrino. These options "will provide our users with an even greater choice of apps and will also showcase the versatility of the platform," said RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

RIM will demo the new app players and the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK at BlackBerry World in Orlando, Florida from May 3 to May 5. The PlayBook is slated to launch in North America on April 19 with models ranging from $499 for 16GB of internal storage to $699 for 64GB, or about the same pricing as Apple's second-generation iPad.