May 31st, 2012

BlackBerry PlayBook Update Adds Improved Android Compatibility

playbook2_toronto_1384c09f

The RIM PlayBook by just received a developers update that adds some interesting new Android functionality to RIM’s tablet. This new version now supports Android apps running in their own windows, improving compatibility with the general Android app universe. → Read More

May 30th, 2012

Research In Motion Opens 10% Down A Day After Issuing A “Business Update”

rim

After a rough day yesterday, RIM’s stock opened 10 percent lower today, trading at $10.05 at the opening bell. The stock price briefly recovered but it’s on a steady downward trend as of the writing of this post. If this slide continues, the stock is set to hit a low not seen since 2003.

Trading of RIM shares was halted for 15 minutes yesterday in order to issue a what the company called a “business update“. CEO Thorsten Heins detailed RIM’s recent challenges, and also explained that the company is employing the help of Royal Bank of Canada and J.P. Morgan to evaluate financial strategies. The company also warned that it will report a loss for the fiscal quarter ending on June 2. This came on the heels of report that states RIM is set to lay off a major chunk of its workforce. → Read More

May 29th, 2012

RIM Halts Trading To Issue Business Update, Hires RBC And J.P. Morgan For “Strategic Review”

rimoney

Canadian smartphone manufacturer RIM has briefly ceased trading of their stock today in order to issue a “business update” from CEO Thorsten Heins to their stockholders.

Though the release takes the time to outline some of the company’s recent personnel changes, Heins also points out that the company has enlisted the services of both the Royal Bank of Canada and J.P. Morgan to help the company evaluate their financial strategies going forward.
→ Read More

May 28th, 2012

As Layoffs Loom, RIM’s Chief Legal Officer Steps Down

office_5x3_med-res

There goes another one — RIM announced today that Chief Legal Officer Karima Bawa will soon be leaving the company. This is RIM’s second major departure in as many weeks, with RIM sales head Patrick Spence leaving the ailing smartphone maker last Wednesday.

At the time, sources pointed to audio electronics company Sonos as his likely landing spot, though neither Spence nor Sonos have officially commented on the situation.

Unlike Spence, who reportedly jumped ship after being passed over for the company’s vacant COO spot (Sony Mobile EVP Kristian Tear eventually got the job), Bawa’s situation seems much less contentious. After spending nearly twelve years with the company (two of which were in her current spot), she’s finally looking to retire. → Read More

May 7th, 2012

RIM Launches The Most Boring Anti-Apple Campaign I’ve Ever Witnessed

Screen shot 2012-05-07 at 11.09.04 AM

In one of the most anticlimactic (and likely ineffective) marketing campaigns in history, RIM has today launched its “Wake Up. Be Bold.” campaign in Australia. It began with a group of “protestors” disembarking from a bus outside of Apple’s Sydney store with signs that read “Wake Up.” But don’t get too excited — that’s the most exciting part of the story.

After the long and vigorous rivalry between Samsung and Apple, both in marketing and in the courts, the South Korea-based company was originally blamed for the seemingly out-of-the-blue protest. RIM, of course, kept quiet.

But it was in fact RIM that staged the shit show, which all culminated in the launch of the wakeupbebold.com website, wherein an Australian man explains how business has changed and that to be different you mustn’t just “think different,” but “do different” (which I’m fairly certain is grammatically incorrect), lest you end up “floating through life like a cork in a stream.” → Read More

May 3rd, 2012

Confirmed: Scalado’s Camera Tech Is Inside BB10

bb10cameraeng

At RIM’s keynote earlier this week, CEO Thorsten Heins unveiled a brand new camera app that will ship along with BlackBerry 10. It was quite impressive. It basically lets you snap a pic, select a subject’s face, and sift through frames captured before the moment you pressed the shutter button to make sure everyone looks their best. Perhaps the person on the left had a huge, wonderful smile while the person on the right was blinking. With the BB10 camera app, you will be able to fix that.

But the tech seemed awfully familiar. So familiar, in fact, that we had to do a little digging to satisfy our curiosity. Come to find that a company called Scalado, known for their super badass imaging tech like Remove and Rewind, actually invented this tech a while back. At the time we were unsure what the relationship between RIM and Scalado was, but RIM has since responded and clarified that this is, in fact, a licensing deal. → Read More

May 2nd, 2012

Thorsten Talks: RIM CEO Sounds Off On Licensing, Updating Devices, And The U.S. Market

Thorsten-Heins-new

Just because the first day of BlackBerry World is over doesn’t mean we mobile geeks have run out of BlackBerry-related tidbits to pick apart.

Oh, far from it — in fact, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins took the stage (again) earlier today for a long-running chat with the press, and he has since outed a few juicy new details about the company’s strategy going forward.

First, let’s take a quick look at the things RIM won’t be doing, shall we?
→ Read More

May 2nd, 2012

LTE BlackBerry PlayBook Coming This Year, Says RIM CEO

bacon

RIM is keeping the PlayBook party going. While speaking at a BlackBerry World breakfast with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins stated the company plans to launch an LTE-enabled PlayBook by the end of the year. However, the CEO didn’t detail the projected release date, price or available wireless carrier.

This is a smart move for RIM. Rather than spending the time and resources producing another tablet, RIM is instead concentrating efforts on making sure upcoming software works on existing hardware. During a recent trip Rim’s Waterloo campus, the company made it clear to TechCrunch that it is very much committed to bringing BlackBerry 10 to the PlayBook. → Read More

May 1st, 2012

RIM To Developers: We’ll Make Sure Your App Earns At Least $10K In Its First Year

rimoney

With the release of their BlackBerry 10 beta development tools and Dev Alpha devices earlier today, RIM has made it very clear that they want to build up as much developer love as possible before BlackBerry 10 officially launches.

Well, as it turns out, that’s not the only thing they’re doing to attract devs. Alec Saunders, RIM’s VP of Developer Relations, revealed at BlackBerry World that RIM will guarantee developers of quality apps a minimum of $10,000 in annual earnings — if developers come in under the $10K mark during their first year, RIM will actually pay them the difference. → Read More

May 1st, 2012

Did Scalado Invent RIM’s Time-Defying BB10 Camera Tech?

bb10cameraeng

Remember that retro time-defying camera app that RIM unveiled alongside a few other BB10 features? You should — it happened this morning.

Well, it would seem that the ability to search back through frames captured before the actual moment you pushed the shutter button has already been done. Nope, not by Apple. Not by Motorola, HTC, Samsung, or Nokia either.

It’s been done by Scalado, an imaging technology company known for their Remove and Rewind tech, among other things. → Read More

May 1st, 2012

Tired Of Talk? Here’s What BlackBerry 10 Might Look Like

bb10concept

Even though we still don’t know when RIM will get around to launching it, CEO Thorsten Heins gave us a few brief glimpses at what BlackBerry 10 would be able to do during his keynote address at the BlackBerry World conference.

But what’s that? You missed the keynote? Well, just for you, here’s the video that Heins played during his time on stage that shows off what the company’s forthcoming mobile operating system could look like when it officially launches later this year.
→ Read More

May 1st, 2012

The Future Of RIM: “BlackBerry Isn’t For Everyone”

rim-not4every1

Today is BlackBerry Jam, RIM’s developer conference or WWDC equivalent. It’s RIM’s moment to redefine, rejuvenate, and re-establish itself in the world. Whether or not the company can pull it off, however, is an entirely different matter.

BlackBerry 10, RIM’s brand new platform, has been delayed, run into naming issues, and seen the transfer of power go from the company’s co-founders, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, to long-time employee Thorsten Heins. The conference will prove whether or not RIM is now adaptable — something for which the company has been publicly flogged for the past year.

We took a trip up to Waterloo to speak with some of the employees ahead of the event, namely Vivek Bhardwaj, Head of Software Portfolio EMEA for RIM, and as I walked away I felt less sure of who RIM is and what the company is about than I ever have before. → Read More

May 1st, 2012

Early Look: BlackBerry 10′s Smart New Take On Touchscreen Typing

bb10keyboard

As it stands, most of BlackBerry 10 is still shrouded in mystery. Not even the Dev Alpha devices that will be made available to developers offer a glimpse of RIM’s new software — they’re running a modified version of the PlayBook OS instead.

All that said, RIM hopes to whet our appetites with glimpses at some of the nifty little touches that BlackBerry 10 will sport when it sees a widespread launch later this year. TechCrunch went to Waterloo and met with Vivek Bhardwaj, RIM’s Head of Software Portfolio, who took a few moments to give us one such sneak peek — an early look at BlackBerry 10′s keyboard, still a work in progress. → Read More

May 1st, 2012

RIM Officially Opens BlackBerry 10 To Developers, Greets Them With Dev Alpha Devices

devalpha

RIM has caught plenty of flack these past few months, thanks to (among other things) a multi-day global outage, disappointing PlayBook sales, and a dramatic management shake-up. Beyond all of this, the news that their next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system wouldn’t see the light of day until the latter parts of 2012 seemed like yet another nail in RIM’s coffin.

But the beleaguered company is trying to move past all of that at BlackBerry World. While we regular folk still have months to wait until the first BB10 products make it to store shelves, RIM has just officially opened up the BlackBerry 10 platform to developers at BlackBerry World, starting with the release of their BB10 beta development toolkits and the BlackBerry 10 Developer Alpha device.
→ Read More

April 13th, 2012

Balsillie The Radical? New Report Shines Light On The RIM That Could Have Been

Balsillie

Once perched atop the highest peaks of the smartphone market, Waterloo-based RIM recently found themselves at a crossroads: should they push ahead on the hardware front, or give it up in favor of their more lucrative network service business?

With the more “dictatorial” Heins at the helm, RIM has pointedly chosen the latter path, but a recent report from Reuters paints a picture of what could have been.
→ Read More

April 11th, 2012

RIM’s Updating Spree Adds BBM Support To Their Facebook, Twitter, Travel And Music Apps

bbm

The folks at RIM are no doubt devoting plenty of time and effort to their long-awaited BlackBerry 10 operating system, but they’ve found the time to whip up a few app updates to please the nearly 55 million BBM users out there.

First up on the list are a pair of newly-updated Facebook and Twitter apps — users will be able to share their sparkling wit with their BBM buddies from within each of the apps, ensuring none of their friends will be able to escape their ironic jabs and repartee. While RIM is smart to tie engagement with these two major social platforms into their own, they haven’t stopped there. → Read More

April 9th, 2012

Indian Government To Launch BlackBerry Messenger Snooping System ‘Soon’

04-BBM-6

BlackBerry fans in India had best stay on the up-and-up lest they want to draw unwanted attention from the country’s security agencies. India Today reported over the weekend that the country’s government is on the verge of being able to capture messages sent though RIM’s formerly iron-clad BBM service.

Unnamed Indian officials were quick to point out to India Today that their forthcoming ability to capture and crack BBM messages will be used strictly on snoop on devices whose users are suspected of engaging in criminal or terrorist activity.
→ Read More

April 3rd, 2012

RIM Releases Mobile Fusion Device Management Service, Plays Nice With iOS And Android

blackberry

The folks at RIM can see the writing on the wall — they’ve historically enjoyed plenty of enterprise love, but the recent “bring your own device” trend means headaches not only for RIM, but for the companies that have to manage all of them. In a move to hang on to relevance in the business market, the Waterloo company has officially released their Mobile Fusion device management platform, which aims to simplify how businesses manage a fleet of iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices. → Read More

March 29th, 2012

RIMour: RIM Is Laying Off Execs As Dust Settles Post-Earnings

blackberry

An errant tweet points us to the news that Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins is “clearing house” and “SVP/VP-level execs” are being fired. What does this mean? Hopefully a turnaround and, more cynically, an effort to reduce costs. Either way, RIM is changing.
→ Read More

March 29th, 2012

RIM Falls Short: BlackBerry Shipments Down 21% From Q3, Former Co-CEO Jim Balsillie Resigns

sadberry

This just in folks: RIM has released their Q4 2012 earnings report, and it paints a pretty bleak portrait of the ailing company. RIM posted quarterly revenues of $4.2 billion, down 19% from the previous quarter, and down 25% from the year-ago quarter. The Waterloo company also reported a net loss of $125 million or $0.24 per share diluted in Q4, along with earnings per share of $0.80.

In the days leading up to the release, analysts expected earnings of $0.83 cents a share on revenue of $4.56 billion. → Read More

Upcoming Events

E3 2012

Los Angeles, CA

Disrupt SF 2012

San Francisco, CA

Real-Time
Crunchbase

FX Aligned — Received $1.25M in Unattributed funding
6.3.2012
FX Aligned — Company added to CrunchBase
6.4.2012
6.1.2012
Compliance11 — Acquired by Compliance11, Inc..
11.15.2012
Compliance11 — Acquired by Compliance11, Inc..
11.15.2012
Tropos Networks — Acquired by ABB.
6.1.2012
KikScore — Acquired by Google.
6.1.2012
Hughes Telematics — Acquired by Verizon for $612M.
6.1.2012
MoneySavingExpert — Acquired by Moneysupermarket for £87M.
6.1.2012
FX Aligned — Received $1.25M in Unattributed funding
6.3.2012
Affectiva — Received $500k in Grant funding from National Science Foundation
6.1.2012
Visible Technologies — Received $24M in Unattributed funding
6.4.2012
Nanosolar — Received $70M in Unattributed funding from OnPoint Technologies and Mohr Davidow Ventures
6.1.2012
SumAll — Received $1.5M in Unattributed funding from Battery Ventures
6.1.2012
6.1.2012
OnPoint Technologies — Invested in Nanosolar.
6.1.2012
Mohr Davidow Ventures — Invested in Nanosolar.
6.1.2012
Battery Ventures — Invested in SumAll.
6.1.2012
Opus Capital — Invested in Crittercism.
6.1.2012
Facebook — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:FB.
5.18.2012
FX Aligned — Company added to CrunchBase
6.4.2012
IdentiSys — Company added to CrunchBase
6.4.2012
SPECIALKIDS.COM — Company added to CrunchBase
6.2.2012
XCEL Healthcare, Inc. — Company added to CrunchBase
6.2.2012
webtide — Company added to CrunchBase
6.2.2012
WikiSeer Semantic Extraction API — Product added to CrunchBase
6.1.2012
WikiSeer Keynotes — Product added to CrunchBase
6.1.2012
WikiSeer Semantic Ads API — Product added to CrunchBase
6.1.2012
Twelvefold Touch — Product added to CrunchBase
6.1.2012
Spectrum for Video — Product added to CrunchBase
6.1.2012
CrunchBase