When Thorsten Heins took over as CEO of Research in Motion at the start of 2012, the BlackBerry phone maker seemed very much in denial about its troubles. Not anymore.
A new poll from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the average teen sent out 60 texts a day in 2011. That’s up from the 50 texts they were sending daily in 2009.
BlackBerry 10 is looking a little bit like an iPhone and a little bit like Android in a batch of leaked screenshots.
Roger Martin, the dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, is also a board member of BlackBerry maker RIM. And in an interview with the Globe and Mail’s Gordon Pitts, he’s anything but sheepish about the challenges that RIM currently faces.
Fingers crossed Steam operator Valve might have found a way to plonk stuff like Skyrim, Rage or Sins of a Solar Empire on your mobile phone? Alas, the new freebie Steam client for smartphones won’t do anything like that. What it will do, however, is let you buy Steam games from your phone and chat with pals on the go.
The days when AT&T customers could save $5 per month by giving up their unlimited data plans will soon be over.
I don’t buy the notion that the Consumer Electronics Show is dead or dying, if only because the Samsungs, Sonys and LGs of the world need a place where they can peacock on a grand stage — and Las Vegas is ideal. But over my last three years of covering the show, I’ve realized these gadget makers can’t do much to make CES exciting. That responsibility falls to Apple, Google and Microsoft, regardless of whether or not they pay for a booth or deliver a keynote.
The smartphone front was quiet at this year’s show, but a few phone makers still managed to be interesting. Here’s who impressed us the most.
It’s a familiar refrain among parents of young children: Kids don’t want to play with toys anymore because they’d rather play games on an iPad or a smartphone. Now, some toy makers are trying to adapt by fusing phone and tablet apps with store-bought toys. One of these companies, WowWee Toys, recently showed me some of their prototypes as part of a toy line they’re calling “App Gear.”
As an owner of Samsung’s Galaxy S II, I’ve taken an interest in a series of rumors about Samsung’s next flagship phone, the Galaxy S III. There’s not much to chew on at the moment, aside from the requisite spec boosts and a promise of an official announcement in February. So in the vacuum of solid information, I present to you my five wishes for Samsung’s Galaxy S III.
With BlackBerry 10 smartphones delayed until late 2012, the next year is going to be pretty awkward for Research in Motion. For nearly another year, the company will have to peddle phones based on BlackBerry 7, an operating system that’s been scaring customers away in droves.
