The National Transportation Safety Board has announced plans to switch to the iPhone from BlackBerry due to reliability shortcomings, reports Bloomberg.
The BlackBerrys have been “failing both at inopportune times and at an unacceptable rate,” according to the NTSB’s notice. The 400-employee agency “requires effective, reliable and stable communication capabilities to carry out its primary investigative mission and to ensure employee safety in remote locations,” it wrote.
Last month the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency also announced that it will drop RIM’s BlackBerry and buy iPhones for its more than 17,600 employees.
Research In Motion today unveiled its vision for the BlackBerry 10 platform at the BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Florida and released the initial developer toolkit for native and HTML5 software development. The toolkit is available in beta as a free download from http://developer.blackberry.com.
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“BlackBerry 10 builds upon the core values and exceptional user experiences that have attracted more than 77 million BlackBerry customers around the world today,” said Alec Saunders, Vice President, Developer Relations and Ecosystems Development. “Developers building for BlackBerry 10 will be able to easily create the kind of cutting-edge apps that deliver truly engaging experiences and ‘wow’ customers, whether through integration with native features and other apps like BBM or by leveraging the new signature design elements of this new and powerful mobile computing platform.”
“There is tremendous interest, anticipation and momentum building toward the launch of BlackBerry 10 devices, and today we’re extremely excited to release the BlackBerry 10 developer beta tools for general use,” said Christopher Smith, Vice President, Handheld Application Platform and Tools at Research In Motion. “Developers can use this first beta of the tools to get started building apps for BlackBerry 10 and as the tools evolve over the coming months, developers will have access to a rich API set that will allow them to build even more integrated apps. The toolkit we are delivering today also meets developers on their own terms. Whether using the powerful Cascades framework, writing direct native code or developing in HTML5, BlackBerry 10 will empower developers to create attractive and compelling apps that excite customers.”
The toolkit includes the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK with Cascades, which allows developers to create graphically rich, high performance native applications in C/C++ using Qt. The Native SDK for BlackBerry 10 has a rich set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that give developers access to core device features and a range of BlackBerry application services, such as Push and Payment services. Cascades is a powerful native application development toolset that allows developers to easily build visually stunning applications without having to write complex, low-level graphics code.
The toolkit also includes support for HTML5 application developers with the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK, allowing them to create native-like applications using common web programming technologies. The BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK allows developers to use HTML5 and CSS for building apps and provides JavaScript bindings to native device APIs along with RIM’s open source UI toolkit, bbUI.js, to create applications with native-like capabilities. In this initial release of the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK, developers have access to a core subset of the full WebWorks APIs, including Identity, Application and App events, System and system events. More details about the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK are posted on http://devblog.blackberry.com/2012/04/b … bworks-sdk.
Applications created with any of the BlackBerry 10 tools will run on BlackBerry 10 smartphones as well as BlackBerry PlayBook tablets when the new platform becomes available for the PlayBook. All of the SDKs will be updated to give developers access to more of the BlackBerry 10 unique capabilities over the coming months.
To further help developers get started on the BlackBerry 10 platform, BlackBerry 10 Jam attendees are being provided a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device. This testing unit is a further commitment from RIM to provide the developer community with the tools they need to build successful applications for BlackBerry 10 devices, so that they are ready when the first BlackBerry 10 devices are expected to launch in the latter part of 2012.
Bump, an app that lets you share contact info and photos by bumping two phones together, has been updated with new buttons to let you quickly add contacts to popular social networks.
Use Bump to share contact information and photos by simply bumping two phones together. Just open Bump, hold your phones, and gently bump your hands together — Bump will magically do all the rest.
• SHARE CONTACTS: Share your contact info; connect on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
• SHARE PHOTOS: Share photos with friends and family
• FIND MUTUAL FRIENDS: Find friends in common with people you bump from your social networks and phone contacts
• SYNC DEVICES: Move contacts and photos between devices
What’s New In This Version:
• New buttons on contact cards you receive from people you meet let you add them on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn with just one click!
• You can now add your phone number to your own contact card by just tapping the card..
Pricing & Availability:
You can download Bump from the App Store for free.
Following horrible fourth quarter results, RIM has announced the resignation of its former C0-CEO as a Board Director, the resignation of its CTO, and the resignation of its COO.
Today the company reported fourth quarter results for the three months and fiscal year ended March 3, 2012.
Highlights:
● $2.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments at the end of the quarter, which increased by approximately $610 million in the quarter
● Cash flow from operations of approximately $1.1 billion, up from approximately $900 million in Q3
● Revenue of $4.2 billion, down 19% from the third quarter
● GAAP net loss in Q4 of $125 million or $0.24 per share diluted; adjusted net income of $418 million or $0.80 per share diluted
● BlackBerry smartphone shipments of 11.1 million in Q4, down 21% from Q3
● RIM to discontinue providing specific quantitative guidance
● RIM provides update on organizational changes
In addition the company announced that Jim Balsillie, former Co-CEO of the Company, has resigned as a Director on the Company’s Board.
“As I complete my retirement from RIM, I’m grateful for this remarkable experience and for the opportunity to have worked with outstanding professionals who helped turn a Canadian idea into a global success,” said Jim Balsillie.
Also, RIM announced that David Yach will be retiring from his role as CTO, Software, after 13 years with the company and Jim Rowan, COO, Global Operations, has decided to pursue other interests after 4 years with the company.
RIM is now searching to for a new COO with responsibilities to run the company’s operations.
