Corporate and legal

BlackBerry CEO axes planned BB10 for PlayBook tablet

The BlackBerry PlayBook will not be moving to BlackBerry 10 after all.

CEO Thorsten Heins confirmed that he had canceled BlackBerry's plans to bring its next-generation operating system to its tablet, which continues to ship and has developed a small cult following.

Heins said he wasn't satisfied with the level of the experience, and made the "difficult decision" to stop the company's efforts on that front and shift its resources back to its core smartphone products.

The PlayBook runs on a rudimentary version of the BB10 operating system. Both BB10 and the PlayBook OS are … Read more

BlackBerry narrows loss, but Wall Street had expected a profit

BlackBerry may have shown a bit of progress in sales of its new smartphones, but its loss left many industry watchers surprised and disappointed.

The Waterloo, Ontario, company on Friday posted a loss of $84 million, or 16 cents a share, in its fiscal first quarter, which ended June 1. That was narrower than the loss of $518 million, or 99 cents a share, from a year ago. Excluding one-time items, the company lost $67 million, or 13 cents a share. Revenue rose 9 percent to $3.1 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected BlackBerry to post revenue of $3.36 … Read more

Senate approves immigration bill with increased H-1B visas

In a rare bipartisan effort, the U.S. Senate approved the immigration bill with a 68-32 vote on Thursday. This means the lobbying efforts put forth by Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and other major tech companies most likely made a difference.

The 1,200-page measure, dubbed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, which ultimately won the Senate's approval, calls for boosting security on the U.S.-Mexico border, helping immigrants that are currently in the U.S. illegally, and increasing H-1B visas to foreign workers.

It's the bit about H-1B visas that the tech companies were … Read more

Sharp inks LCD joint venture with China Electronics

The embattled Sharp has entered into an agreement with state-run company China Electronics to form a joint venture focused on building LCDs.

Sharp's board of directors announced on Thursday (PDF) that they've formed a joint venture that will be known as Nanjing CEC-Panda LCD Technology, with China Electronics. That company, better known as CEC, will own 92 percent of the joint venture, leaving Sharp with 8 percent ownership.

According to Sharp, the newly formed company will start construction on an LCD production plant in August, and expects to start delivering panels in June 2015. It will focus its … Read more

Apple loses bid to include Galaxy S4 in Samsung suit

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal has turned down Apple's recent request to include the Galaxy S4 in an ongoing lawsuit against Samsung.

In a ruling dated Wednesday, Grewal wrote that Apple's argument for including the Galaxy S4 in its lawsuit against Samsung is not persuasive enough and creates "undue prejudice" for Samsung as it defends itself against Apple's legal jabs.

According to Grewal:

Throughout the hearing, Apple warned that excluding the Galaxy S4 would result in yet another case with more claims of infringement and would require Apple to continue to play, in … Read more

Google takes aim at adult-theme Blogger pages, threatens takedown

Adult-themed Blogger sites might soon be in for some trouble with the platform's owner, Google.

Blogger Violet Blue on Thursday tweeted a notice Google sent out to bloggers warning them that as of June 30, the search giant will be updating the Blogger Content Policy to "strictly prohibit the monetization of Adult content on Blogger."

According to Google, there are some Blogger pages that are adult-themed in nature and have ads promoting adult Web sites. After the policy change takes effect, the company will take down any blogs that are still promoting those sites.

"If your … Read more

Verizon hits 500 LTE markets as focus shifts to coverage over speed

Verizon Wireless is close to the finish line with its 4G LTE rollout.

The nation's largest wireless carrier by subscribers said on Thursday that its network has reached its 500th market with Parkersburg, W. Va. The company said it has virtually wrapped up its deployment, with a handful of markets left to get a 4G connection by the end of the year.

The milestone further cements Verizon's position as the leader in 4G LTE in the U.S., with by far the largest next-generation network among all carriers. In addition, the completion of the rollout means Verizon can … Read more

Verizon says first LTE-only phones to arrive in late 2014

Verizon Wireless will offer smartphones that run only on its 4G LTE network by the end of next year, according to the carrier's network chief.

A 4G-only device could potentially be cheaper and sleeker because it doesn't need multiple cellular radios that current smartphones require. But that can't happen until Verizon gets its voice service to run on the 4G network, which currently handles only data traffic.

But with Verizon essentially wrapping up its 4G LTE rollout, the carrier already has an eye on voice over LTE. Verizon is hoping to offer what's known as VoLTE … Read more

Motorola logo gets a makeover -- and a 'Google company' tagline

Google has made a lot of changes at Motorola Mobility since it acquired the company a year ago.

The Web giant, which bought the Motorola spinoff in May 2012 for $12.5 billion, sold the Motorola Home set-top business for $2.35 billion, settled a massive lawsuit with TiVo, and laid off thousands of employees in a reorganization that called for the closure of a third of the company's 94 offices.

Perhaps in an effort to highlight the company's new character, Motorola has dumped the decades-old red button "M" logo for something more colorfully in line … Read more