News

RIM's stock is in retreat. Here's why

Research in Motion's stock, which has had an impressive run over the past few months, appears to have finally gotten tripped up.

The BlackBerry maker's shares fell more than 14 percent today, a day after reporting fiscal third-quarter results that investors considered better than expected. The stock recently fell $2 to $12.08.

If you look beyond the basic revenue and profit, RIM's performance in the quarter gave reason for Wall Street to be concerned. Ultimately, these results matter little; what will determine the company's fate will be the success or failure of its BlackBerry 10 … Read more

RIM reaches patent peace with Nokia -- at a cost

Nokia and Research In Motion have settled all of their patent disputes, but the BlackBerry maker appears to have landed on the wrong side of the deal.

Nokia announced today that it has agreed to a deal with RIM that will end all patent infringement litigation between the companies. RIM has agreed to make a one-time payment to Nokia to settle the cases. Going forward, RIM will give Nokia "ongoing payments" for the right to use its patents.

The battle between RIM and Nokia dates back to 2003, when the companies signed a licensing agreement that allowed RIM … Read more

HTC may get into Windows tablet game

HTC is working on a pair of tablets running Microsoft's Windows RT operating system, according to Bloomberg.

HTC is mulling two tablets, a 12-inch version that is larger than most standard models, and a 7-inch version that is better able to compete with the likes of Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Apple iPad Mini, according to the report, which cited anonymous sources.

Microsoft is hoping to expand its lineup on tablets running on the Windows RT operating system, which is a stripped-down version of Windows 8 that is able to run on the more power-efficient ARM chip architecture … Read more

Is the BlackBerry PlayBook making a comeback?

There may be life in the BlackBerry PlayBook yet.

Research In Motion's tablet saw a surprising jump in shipments in the fiscal third quarter, with the company sending out 255,000 units in the period. In the last quarter it shipped 130,000, only slightly less than the 150,000 it shipped a year ago.

So what gives? Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka said during an investor conference call today that there was strong "promotional activity" in North America, with RIM seeing some success with the Wi-Fi and 4G versions of the PlayBook in North America and … Read more

RIM posts Q3 profit due to tax windfall, but subscribers fall

Research In Motion posted a profit in the fiscal third quarter thanks to a favorable tax settlement, but it ceded some customers along the way.

The company reported a profit of $14 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $265 million, or 51 cents a share. Revenue fell by nearly half to $2.72 billion. Excluding the one-time item, it reported a loss of $114 million, or 22 cents a share.

The results were better than Wall Street expected. RIM was supposed to post a loss of 35 cents a share on revenue of $2.… Read more

Best of the best from this year in Crave

It's been an eventful year here at Crave, what with the discovery of Dungeons & Dragons dice from the Ptolemaic Period; the strange tail of the robotic butt; a ship that flips over on purpose, and cow lady-parts that text farmers when it's time for a booty call.

Our retrospective gallery below gives you just a small sense of the mind-bending stories we encountered in our 2012 travels. Among the stories that grabbed your attention most (as judged by traffic and reader comments), we've got jaunts to remote geeky destinations in New Mexico, a trip aboard a giant Lego spaceship, and a look at a zombie-proof safe house. … Read more

Verizon responds to AT&T, adds 29 LTE markets

Verizon has added 29 new LTE markets to its service.

The company announced today that Selma, Ala., and Port Angeles, Wash., are among the many markets getting access to its LTE service today. With those cities added, Verizon now offers its LTE service in 470 markets across the U.S. Verizon said today that it's also expanding its LTE availability in 36 existing markets, bringing its total coverage to more than 250 million people.

Verizon's announcement comes just a couple of days after AT&T announced that it has brought its LTE network to five cities, bringing … Read more

Galaxy S3 Premium Suite upgrade starts U.K. rollout

Samsung announced today that the U.K. rollout of its Premium Suite upgrade for Galaxy S3 owners kicks off today. The company, however, didn't say where else it will roll out the software in coming weeks.

Samsung announced the Premium Suite upgrade for the Galaxy S3 earlier this month. The update delivers a wide range of features, including multiple window support, a "smart rotation" feature that automatically rotates the screen based on the user's face position, and a predictive function that will open certain applications based on the user's actions (plug in headphones and it'… Read more

MetroPCS announces mid-range ZTE Avid 4G

Although ZTE is pouring more money into high-end phones like the ZTE Warp Sequent, the Chinese manufacturer is still releasing entry to mid-level handsets as well.

Today, the prepaid carrier, MetroPCS, is offering the ZTE Avid 4G, a mid-range 4G LTE handset, for $149.

Running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the handset has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor.

It also has a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing VGA camera.

In addition, its 4-inch TFT display has a 480x800-pixel resolution.

Other features include Wi-Fi hotspot, and joyn capabilities, which is MetroPCS' content sharing and chat client.

The Onion uncovers Apple's new 'iPhone 5C'

It's rare that The Onion manages to scoop other news outlets, especially when it comes to tech, but it happened today: Apple will soon unveil the iPhone 5C, a new model with a special feature designed especially for college girls.

And forget grainy leaked snapshots; The Onion has actual video of the 5C, as shown in the below exclusive news report.… Read more