letters

RIM responds to open letter: We're fine

An open letter posted online today from an anonymous Research In Motion employee begged for accountability, and an admission that things need to change at the BlackBerry maker.

Well, someone at RIM did read it. But the company's subsequent public response did nothing to address any of the letter writer's complaints. Instead RIM's brief, two-paragraph response basically adds up to a dismissive, "we're fine."

First, RIM's official statement calls into question the letter's authenticity (which BGR says it verified). But then goes on to say, "[R]egardless of whether the letter … Read more

Anonymous letter bemoans RIM management woes

An anonymous Research In Motion employee has penned a devastating open letter to the company's senior management.

The letter was posted on Boy Genius Report by a reportedly "high-ranking" employee who bemoans the company's current "chaotic" transition period. (Boy Genius Report said it has verified the identity of the writer.) The writer's main objective is getting co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie to seriously consider his or her suggestions to stop RIM's slide into irrelevance in the mobile industry.

The beginning of the letter:

I have lost confidence.

While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone -- the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams.

Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base. You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects.

Before I get into the meat of the matter, I will say I am not part of a large group of bitter employees wishing to embarrass us. Rather, I believe these points need to be heard and I desperately want RIM to regain its position as a successful industry leader. Our carriers, distributors, alliance partners, enterprise customers, and our loyal end users all want the same thing...for BlackBerry to once again be leading the pack.

… Read more

Learn to read the fun way

Super Why is an interactive, educational reading game for preschoolers based on the hit PBS Kids show of the same name, featuring (much to the delight of Super Why fans, no doubt) many of the original sounds, games, and characters from the show.

Super Why gives you four different character-narrated, touch-based games, each with a different task for kids: Super Why's Story Saver (picking one of three words to correctly complete a sentence), Princess Presto's Wands-Up Writing (identifying letters by sound to spell a word, then tracing those letters with your finger), Alpha Pig's Lickety Letter Hunt (… Read more

U.S. senators ask Apple to pull police-evasion apps

A group of U.S. senators is calling on Apple to remove applications that alert users to the presence of police and other law enforcement checkpoints that have been set up to combat drunk driving.

U.S. Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) are named as senders in the letter, which is addressed to Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, Scott Forstall. No specific applications are named, but the letter highlights apps that "contain a database of DUI [driving under the influence] checkpoints updated in … Read more

Savage Love on your iPhone

Savage Love is the companion app to the popular syndicated sex-advice column of the same name, providing easy access to Dan Savage's columns, podcasts (aka Lovecasts), video clips, and a regularly updated Question of the Day.

The app has a clean, easy-to-read interface, opening on the current Question of the Day ("QotD") above separate tabs for previous QotDs, a search tool (letting you search through hundreds of old Savage Love columns), a list of Lovecasts (with every Lovecast ever), and a big set of browsable tags--everything from Boobs and Bonobos to Sexual Compatibility and Snowballing. You can … Read more

The 70,000 Blogetery users could get blogs back

The U.S. war on terror may have inadvertently stripped as many as 70,000 people of their blogs, but those bloggers may get their work returned to them.

Blogetery.com, a small blogging platform based in Toronto, was abruptly shut down on July 9 by Burst.net, its Web host, after FBI agents alleged Blogetery was home to links that led to bomb-making tips and the names of Americans targeted for assassination by al-Qaeda. Joe Marr, Burst.net's chief technology officer, said Wednesday that the company is considering its options and there's a chance executives there could … Read more

Get rid of typos

TypeIt4Me is a text-expansion and autocorrection utility, an app that can save you tons of time (and wrist strain) by automatically expanding frequently used words, phrases, and even images with just a few quick keystrokes.

Users have several good apps to choose from in this category, and TypeIt4Me is one of the best and longest-lived (with a successful track record that stretches past two decades). As with similar apps, you just type in a few letters to access your "clippings"--or you can even choose an abbreviation from TypeIt4Me in the menubar. You can set abbreviations to work … Read more

Steve Jobs sets the record straight with Adobe's Flash

Since the original iPhone was release a few years ago, the major knock on the iPhone OS was its lack of support for one of the Web's most ubiquitous plug-ins--Flash. Steve Jobs, on Apple's homepage has set the record straight, leaving little doubt where Apple's stance is on the much maligned Flash.… Read more

Steve Jobs' letter explaining Apple's Flash distaste

Editor's note: Here is the full text of the open letter from Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs explaining why Apple won't let Flash or Flash-derived applications onto the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. By mousing over the yellow highlighted portions of Jobs' letter, you can read comments related to that text from CNET readers and others around the Web that we found insightful.

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe's founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter … Read more