BlackBerry 10 Will soon be released

Save on Delicious

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion's stock rallied sharply Friday a day after reporting a narrower-than-expected loss, as analysts debated whether the smartphone maker is poised for a rebound.

RIM, whose shares hit multiyear lows earlier this year, climbed 5.05 percent to end at $7.50, after paring some early gains. Still, the stock remains a far cry from 2008 highs above $140.

The Canadian firm said Thursday it lost $235 million in the past quarter, its third consecutive loss, although not as bad as analysts had forecast.

Despite the jump in RIM's share price, many analysts remained skeptical on the prospects for RIM, which has delayed until next year its new BlackBerry 10 platform, which aims to compete against the Apple iPhone and devices using Google's Android system.

"RIM has received positive feedback from carriers; however, we believe this new launch will need to be an absolute home run for RIM to stay in the game," said Brian White at Topeka Capital Markets.

Daniel Ernst at Hudson Square Research said the modest rise in the number of RIM subscribers was positive. "We continue to believe it's too late for BB10, and that a strategic sale is a better long-term option than independence," he added.

Ehud Gelblum at Morgan Stanley said RIM "appears to be driving (subscribers) by selling devices below cost," and added that this "shrinks the pool of potential BB10 'upgraders.'"

Thorsten Heins, president and chief executive of the Ontario-based firm, said Thursday that the BlackBerry 10 platform "is on track to launch in the first calendar quarter of 2013."

Heins told CNBC television on Friday that "there are many more steps to come until we launch BlackBerry 10, and then I think that the market will be very excited by what BB 10 has to show and what it will deliver to its customers."

He added that the new phones would offer "a fantastic keyboard experience" with the traditional physical keyboard and that another model would have a full touchscreen.

BlackBerry 10 had been set to launch in late 2012, but RIM announced a delay earlier this year that prompted grim predictions for the company.

RIM said revenues in the fiscal second quarter rose two percent from the prior quarter to $2.9 billion, a figure some 31 percent lower than a year earlier.

RIM said it shipped 7.4 million BlackBerry smartphones in the period and 130,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.

The company's global subscriber base rose to 80 million and the company's cash position edged up to $2.3 billion.

© 2012 AFP

Retweet this story

Facebook's Zuckerberg will meet Russian PM

Save on Delicious

The founder of the social network Facebook Mark Zuckerberg is to visit Russia next week and hold talks on innovation with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the government said on Friday.

Zuckerberg will be visiting Russia at a time when Internet and social network use is exploding in the country, even though Facebook lags well behind top Russian-language social network VKontakte and other homegrown rivals in user figures.

"The meeting will take place on Monday," Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalya Timakova was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

"They will discuss cooperation in IT-technology and start-ups in Skolkovo," the technology hub outside Moscow that has been championed by Medvedev as a Russian equivalent of Silicon Valley.

Regularly brandishing an iPad at government meetings and publishing comments on Twitter, former president Medvedev likes to promote himself as the main proponent of a drive to give Russia a more innovation-based economy.

Critics have regularly ridiculed his often banal utterances on Twitter and noted that the Russian economy is no closer to weaning itself off a dangerous dependence on hydrocarbon exports.

Nevertheless, Medvedev has almost 1.5 million followers on Twitter and also keeps accounts on Facebook and VKontakte as well as a Live Journal blog.

According to the Vedomosti daily, Zuckerberg will also be attending the Facebook World Hack in Moscow, an event when programmers get together to suggest ideas for the social network's development.

Although it is believed to be his first visit to Russia, Zuckerberg's company already has close links to the Russian Internet sector.

Russian technology investment firm DST Global, whose main shareholder is oligarch Alisher Usmanov, has a stake of at least five percent in Facebook although some observers estimate that the holding is even higher.

The anti-Kremlin demonstrations that rocked Russia since December have largely been coordinated through social networks and analysts say that the increase in Internet use poses a significant challenge for the domination of President Vladimir Putin.

© 2012 AFP

Retweet this story

Motivationals strenght

Save on Delicious

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." - Michelangelo

for more click here  Retweet this story

Space debris delays Japan's satellite experiment

Save on Delicious

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Thursday it has decided to postpone an experiment to release satellites from the International Space Station (ISS) due to approaching space debris.
The experiment planned for the early hours of Friday is scheduled to launch five small satellites provided by the Fukuoka Institute of Technology and Tohoku University.
The looming space debris may require the ISS to change its orbit, according to the national aerospace agency.
The task will be undertaken by astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, 43, who is staying at the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module, the country 's first manned experiment facility, in the ISS. Retweet this story

Facebook deletes Fake Likes

Save on Delicious

Facebook has begun deleting fake page "likes", independent data suggests.

According to Pagedata, many of the site's most "liked" pages suffered large drops in numbers on Wednesday.
The move follows the social network's admission that 8.7% of its users are not "real", many having been set up by spammers who use them to artificially make pages appear more popular.
The issue poses a problem for Facebook as it seeks to expand its targeted advertising service.
Facebook's shares have slumped from their initial public offering of $38 (£23) in May to $20.62 on Thursday.
In a blog post written in August, Facebook said: "A 'like' that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with a page benefits no-one."
Technology news site The Verge, citing Pagedata's statistics, noted that some of the most popular pages on Facebook had suddenly shed significant numbers of users.
The page for Texas HoldEm Poker, one of the site's most popular, shed 96,317 "likes" on Wednesday - compared with net gains of about 20,000 each day for the previous month.
Other prominent pages also saw a drop in numbers, including those of pop singers Rihanna (-28,275), Eminem (-15,420) and Lady Gaga (-34,326).

Facebook would not confirm to the BBC that the purge was happening, but could not provide an alternative explanation for the drop in numbers.

Shedding fans Earlier this year, an investigation by BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones highlighted some shortcomings in Facebook's "like" system.
His fake company, Virtual Bagel, which used Facebook's targeted advertising programme, attracted more than 1,600 "likes" - despite having neither products nor interesting content.
Closer inspection revealed these had come from accounts in countries such as India, Egypt, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Marketing experts argued that had Virtual Bagel been a real company, using Facebook advertising to gain these likes would have been a waste of money.
At the time, Facebook told the BBC that there was no "significant" problem.
But later, a blog post announced an impending crack-down on illegitimate activity. Facebook reassured users that impact would be minimal.
"On average, less than 1% of 'likes' on any given page will be removed, providing they and their affiliates have been abiding by our terms," the company said.

"These newly improved automated efforts will remove those 'likes' gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk 'likes'.

"While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious 'likes'."
The aim of the tweaks was to provide "more accurate measurement of fan count and demographics" to brands that use the service to advertise their products or services.
Promoting online engagement with brands is a key component of Facebook's business model, in which it uses key information - such as age, gender and location - to target certain advertisements at specific recipients.
However, this system is increasingly coming under threat from a black market of fake "likes", sold in bulk in order to falsely boost a brand's figures.
A simple search brings up a host of websites offering large numbers of Facebook fans or "likes" - as well as followers on Twitter and views on YouTube.
Retweet this story

Google's Boss hits out at mobile patent war

Save on Delicious

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Thursday criticised raging patent disputes in the global mobile industry, warning that they stifled innovation and reduced consumer choice.

"Google stands for innovation as opposed to patent wars... The last thing we want to see are innovation and particular products being stopped," he said at an event in Seoul to launch Google's new Nexus 7 tablet PC.

Global smartphone giants Samsung Electronics and Apple are currently locked in a long-running patent battle over design and technology in 10 nations including the United States and Japan.

Schmidt declined to comment on any specific case, but was due to meet Samsung's mobile chief JK Shin later on Thursday. The South Korean firm uses Google's Android platform on its smartphones and tablets.

Last month, a California jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its Galaxy S smartphones.

Apple, which has filed patent infringement actions on earlier versions of the Galaxy S series, added the newest Galaxy S III to the list in a fresh complaint filed on September 1.

Schmidt pointed to estimates that there are some 200,000 mobile patents with "complicated" and "overlapping" technical specifications.

"I think one of the worst things that has happened in the last few years is the belief that somehow, because there are so many patents... that one vendor could stop the sale of another vendor's devices," Schmidt said.

This "literally prevents choice, prevents innovation. And I think that's a very bad outcome", he added.

Google's launch of the Nexus 7 tablet in South Korea is aimed at expanding its share of a lucrative market led by Apple's iPad with devices that use the Internet search firm's own software.

The seven-inch tablet, powered by the latest generation of Android software called "Jelly Bean", is being made for Google by Taiwan-based Asus and weighs about as much as a paperback book.

The device -- already launched in the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain and Japan -- is priced at 299,000 won ($268).

It will be available for pre-order in South Korea this week before hitting shelves in mid-October.

The number of mobile gadgets powered by Android has now reached 500 million globally, with 1.3 million new Android devices being activated each day, said Schmidt, who described South Korea as a "leading" market.

"In 2011, Korea had 30 percent smartphone penetration... Right now in 2012, 60 percent of Koreans have smartphones. This gives you the sense of how fast this is happening," he told reporters.

South Korea is being ranked second in the world in the number of apps downloaded at the Google Play app store, Google's Android team head Hugo Barra said, calling the growth "really phenomenal".

© 2012 AFP

Retweet this story

China aircraft carrier enters into service

Save on Delicious

China's first aircraft carrier has entered into service, the Defence Ministry says.

The 300m (990ft) Liaoning - named after the province where it was refitted - is a refurbished Soviet ship purchased from Ukraine.
For now the carrier has no operational aircraft and will be used for training.
But China says the vessel, which has undergone extensive sea trials, will increase its capacity to defend state interests.

The delivery of the aircraft carrier comes at a time when Japan and other countries in the region have expressed concern at China's growing naval strength.

China and Japan are embroiled in a row over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Several South East Asian nations are also at odds with China over overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.
It also comes weeks ahead of a party congress expected to see the transition of power to a new generation of Chinese leaders.
'Defend interests' The Liaoning was formally handed over to the navy at a ceremony attended by top Chinese leaders at Dalian Port, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
"Having the aircraft carrier enter the ranks will be of important significance in raising the overall fighting capacity of our nation's navy to a modern level," China's Defence Ministry said in a statement.
The vessel will "increase [China's] capacity to defend, develop its capacity to co-operate on the high seas in dealing with non-traditional security threats and will be effective in defending the interests of state sovereignty, security and development", it added.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas took a look at the new carrier in June

The official commissioning of the country's first aircraft carrier signals China's status as a rising power, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing.
The country's Communist leaders are spending billions modernising their armed forces so they can project military power far beyond China's borders, our correspondent adds.
The Liaoning, formerly known as the Varyag, was constructed in the 1980s for the Soviet navy but was never completed.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Varyag sat in Ukraine's dockyards.
A Chinese company with links to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) bought the ship just as Soviet warships were being cut for scrap.

The world's carriers

• US: 11 in service, with 3 under construction
• Russia: One, the Admiral Kuznetsov
• UK: One, HMS Illustrious which only carries helicopters - two under construction
• China: One, the Liaoning
• France: One, the Charles de Gaulle
• India: One, the Viraat, formerly known as HMS Hermes, but converting another, the Admiral Gorshkov, into the Vikramaditya. A third is under construction
• Italy: Two, the Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Cavour
• Spain: One, the Principe De Asturias

It said it wanted to turn the Varyag into a floating casino in Macau and in 2001 the ship was towed to China.

The Chinese military confirmed in June 2011 that it was being refitted to serve as the nation's first aircraft carrier.
Analysts say it will take years to outfit the carrier with aircraft and make it fully operational. But Chinese officials say that the Liaoning advances the country's military modernisation.
"The development of aircraft carriers is an important part of China's national defence modernisation, in particular its naval forces, and this aircraft carrier is an essential stepping stone toward its own more advanced aircraft carriers in the future," China's Rear Admiral Yang Yi wrote in state-run China Daily newspaper.
The carrier will be mostly used "for scientific research and training missions" so China could build "a more advanced aircraft carrier platform in the future", he added.

Retweet this story