BlackBerry’s serious troubles began last June, when the company announced $84 million operating loss despite increased shipments and revenue. The very next quarter the company reported $965 million loss, 97% of which is due to the terrible BlackBerry Z10 sales.
BlackBerry has been looking for partners
to invest into the company since its financial troubles became clear.
The company’s board has even pushed for a quick sale before the end of
the year. At the end of September BlackBerry’s fate seemed sealed when a
deal with a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd for $4.7 billion was announced.
It seems the acquisition deal with Fairfax have been abandoned –
Fairfax couldn’t secure the cash because the banks didn’t believe
BlackBerry can be saved. Instead Fairfax and other investors will make a
$1 billion investment in BlackBerry and push the company into the
direction they want. How are they going to do that? With a CEO of their
choice, of course!
As part of the new deal BlackBerry’s CEO Thorsten Heins will be
stepping down and John S. Chen will take his place until the company is
back on its feet. Chen has previous experience with saving troubled
companies, which is why the investors want him explicitly. If everything
goes as planned, he will also become the Chairman of BlackBerry’s board
thus becoming the most powerful man in the company.
BlackBerry shares
dropped 18% in pre-market trading, but now that the market is open they
are down by about 10%. It seems not everyone is happy with this
investment.
So, BlackBerry is alive and there is a chance it may have a bright
future ahead after all. I guess only time will tell if the company’s new
direction will be successful or not.
LG Nexus 5
With the launch of the new LG Nexus 5, Google has once again released a top-tier smartphone at a price that is decidedly mid-range. Just like the Nexus 4 from last year, the Nexus 5′s retail price in the US is almost half of other flagship smartphones out there and will be the first Android smartphone to run on Google’s latest Android 4.4 Kit Kat. Being a Nexus 4 user myself, it’s easy to be tempted to upgrade to Google’s latest and greatest flagship.
But just how much of an upgrade would it be? And, how does it compare to other flagship Android smartphones in the market? Heck, how does it compare to other flagship smartphones running on Windows Phone 8 and iOS? I set out to find out, and the following data has been tabulated after the break.
First, the easy comparison. The Nexus 5
improves on last year’s Nexus 4 in just about every department. With
almost every Android flagship offering a Full HD screen, it’s no
surprise that the Nexus 5 would also pack a similar screen in. What’s
interesting is the addition of Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) into
the Nexus 5. Nexus devices have been notorious for its underwhelming
camera performance, and I sure hope that the new Nexus 5 would be a
significant improvement in that department.
Next, it was only fair to compare the Nexus 5 to its contemporaries: the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, Sony Xperia Z1, LG G2, the Motorola Moto X, and for comparison’s sake, the Nokia Lumia 1020 and the Apple iPhone 5.
In terms of specs, the LG Nexus 5 is well and truly a flagship device
compared to the other Android flagships in the market today. Naturally,
the specs speak half the story when it comes to Windows Phone 8 and iOS
7, but I figured it’d be interesting to include them in the table anyway
for easy reference.
Looking through the table, the LG Nexus 5
would be a pretty significant upgrade, and a compelling alternative if
you’re looking for a flagship Android smartphone with a pure Android
experience. Of course, the only question here is, when will it make its
way here to Malaysia and how much will it cost?
Android 4.4 (KitKat)
It’s finally here, Google has finally taken the curtains off its Android 4.4 KitKat operating system, showing off all the goodness this new treat brings. In an event in San Francisco, Google introduced the latest Android operating system that is much cleaner and simpler before, making it the perfect mobile OS for every phone, even those cheap entry-level ones with a mere 512MB of RAM.
On top of bringing a whole list of new stuffs with the new OS update from the design to the functionality, Google also updated Google Now and Google Hangout messaging app. First up, Google Now can quickly be activated from the launch screen, has an improved voice recognition, quicker searches, and more cards. Say goodbye to the default messaging app on Android because the new messaging app for Android 4.4 is now known as Google Hangouts; SMSes, instant message, voice and video calling are now done via a single app.
Android 4.4 KitKat is available immediately on the Google Nexus 5 and will be rolled out to the Nexus 4, 7, 10, and Samsung Galaxy S4/ HTC One Google Edition. Sorry Samsung Galaxy Nexus users, Google has already confirmed that it will not be available for your device because it “falls outside of the 18-month update window when Google and others traditionally update devices”.
ASUS Transformer Book T100
Just as Intel officially announced their line-up of the new Bay Trail processors (which includes the Intel Atom Z3000 series) at the recent Intel Developer Forum 2013, ASUS were also at their side showing off one of the first product to feature one of the newly launched processors. That product is the ASUS Transformer Book T100 which is available Malaysia from 18 October onwards.
With that, the T100 which features a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3740 quad-core processor has become the first Intel Bay Trail-based product in our market. Spotting a 10.1-inch 1366×768 IPS multi-touch display together with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC-based internal storage, the Asus Transformer Book T100 is also possibly the first new product in Malaysia that comes standard with Windows 8.1
Furthermore, the ASUS Transformer Book T100 also comes pre-installed with the full version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013. That means, users are able to utilize Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote on the 10.1-inch device right out of the box without any extra costs.
Article continues after the jump. Click on the Read More link below (whenever available) to read further.
While the 32GB internal storage does sounds very limiting, users are still able to expand it via T100’s microSD slot which supports microSD card of up to 64GB of storage. At the same time, the T100’s keyboard dock features a full-size USB 3.0 port and a multi-touch touchpad that supports gestures. However, the rest of the I/O ports such 3.5mm combo audio jack, micro USB and micro HDMI together with stereo speakers are all located on the T100’s tablet.
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the Official Retail Price for the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S in Malaysia?
We all know that the new iPhone will be reaching our shores on 31 October 2013, all three major local telcos as well as several Apple resellers
here have already started their teasers and registration of interests
but one big question remains, what will the retail price be? Only about 2
more weeks till we know for sure but it looks like Malaysian Wireless has got some insider information about the pricing as well as launch programs for the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S in Malaysia.
- iPhone 5C 16GB – RM1,899
- iPhone 5S 16GB – RM2,299
- iPhone 5S 32GB – RM2,599
- iPhone 5S 64GB – RM2,899
Apple is Now the World’s Most Valuable Brand
Apple’s rise follows that of other technology companies in this year’s rankings: Google jumped two spots to rank second this year from fourth in 2012, Microsoft retained its fifth placing while Samsung continued its impressive run to place eighth this year after jumping eight spots last year to place ninth.
Of course, for every rise in rank, there are other companies slipping down the list. IBM and Intel both dropped one spot from last year’s rankings, while Nokia ranked 19th last year, dropped out of the top 50 into 57th, and BlackBerry – placed 93rd last year – dropped out of the top 100 entirely.
Head on to the source link below for the full list of the Top 100 Global Brands of 2013.
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