Corporate and legal

How BlackBerry is fixing its once 'broken' brand

ORLANDO, Fla. -- When Frank Boulben joined BlackBerry a year ago as its chief marketing officer, he found a company whose reputation with the public was in shambles.

To make matters worse, its marketing strategy was in complete disarray. Each country or region had their own version of a BlackBerry campaign, complete with different agencies and creative processes. Even within the same region, campaigns would change from quarter to quarter with little lasting effect.

"There were a lot of broken pieces," Boulben recalled during his keynote presentation at the company's BlackBerry Live conference on Tuesday.

Getting BlackBerry'… Read more

Yahoo schedules NYC product event for Monday

Yahoo Chief Marissa Mayer will speak at a mystery product event in New York on Monday, May 20.

The event was first reported by CNBC, but Yahoo later confirmed that it has invited members of the media to an early evening press conference.

The Monday gathering is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET, and the invite reads, "Join us as we share something special." A Yahoo spokesperson said the company would also livestream the announcement, but declined to share additional information on the subject of the event.

Yahoo could use the hastily scheduled affair to announce some type … Read more

Report: Facebook and Microsoft flirting with Tumblr too

Yahoo isn't the only tech titan with eyes for blogging sensation Tumblr. The 6-year-old startup that powers nearly 108 million blogs has piqued the curiosity of both Facebook and Microsoft who seem ready to duke it out over the object of their affection, according to a new report.

The Thursday night rumor mill had Yahoo ready to commit to a Tumblr partnership, investment, or possibly even a $1 billion purchase. Now Forbes is reporting Tumblr has entertained equally serious gestures from Facebook and Microsoft.

Yahoo has a lock on negotiations, according to Forbes, which means Tumblr can't field … Read more

Sprint grabs U.S. Cellular spectrum, customers for $480m

Sprint's network will soon receive a much-needed boost in some Midwestern cities like Chicago and St. Louis, Missouri.

The wireless carrier announced on Friday that it finished inking a deal with regional service provider U.S. Cellular, which is based in the Midwest.

As part of the $480 million agreement, Sprint will gain a total of 30MHz of PCS spectrum, which Sprint says will expand its network capacity in those areas, bringing better service to customers there.

In addition, around 420,000 U.S. Cellular customers will also transfer over to the Sprint family. Sprint and its prepaid arms, … Read more

BlackBerry regains some lost market share in Canada

BlackBerry has managed to regain some lost market share in its home country of Canada.

In a research note to investors on Thursday, Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt reported that while BlackBerry's market share was just 6 percent in Canada in the fourth quarter of 2012, it jumped to 13.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013. The analyst believes that there was some excitement that cropped up around BlackBerry's latest handsets, the Z10 and Q10, which helped spur the change.

Still, BlackBerry is still far behind where it once was. According to McCourt, BlackBerry had a … Read more

Is the unlocked Nexus Galaxy S4 worth the hefty price tag?

Google is turning the popular Samsung Galaxy S4 into its latest Nexus phone, running the "pure" Android experience.

But at $650 per device, some users question how much that pure Google experience is really worth.

On Wednesday, Google announced that a version of the hot, new Galaxy S4 would be added to its lineup of Nexus devices. Google has worked with device makers over the past few years to sell its own Nexus-branded devices that don't include any extra software other than the Android operating system.

These "pure" Google devices are sold by Google and … Read more

Google engineers: We're trying to fix Android fragmentation

SAN FRANCISCO -- Engineers on the Google Android team say they are still working hard to ensure that Android updates are rolled out to new devices in a timely fashion.

During a fireside chat at the Google I/O developer conference here Thursday, 11 members of the Android development team fielded questions from the audience of developers. Android team members acknowledged the continuing issue of fragmentation within the Android ecosystem. But they also said they planned to continue a rapid pace of innovation.

"This is something we think about a lot," said Dave Burke, engineering director for the … Read more

Google goes under the sea with Street View at Google I/O

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google and its partner The Catlin Seaview Survey need help from developers to document the world's coral reefs and save them from extinction.

During a session at the Google I/O developer conference, Richard Vevers of the Catlin Seaview Survey and Jenifer Austin Foulkes, a business product manager for Google Earth & Maps, talked up Google's efforts to bring underwater panoramic images to Google Maps.

Google first started virtually mapping the ocean floor four years ago, and in September the company launched its first 360 degree panoramic street views of the ocean. Google partnered with … Read more

Yahoo lucks out; Mexican court chucks $2.75B damages award

A Mexican court ruled last November that Yahoo and Yahoo Mexico had to shell out a whopping $2.75 billion in a lawsuit over a yellow pages listing service's lost profits. On Thursday, Mexico's Superior Court of Justice reduced that number to a mere $172,500 in damages.

This is likely welcome news to the tech company. Damages of $2.75 billion is a huge portion of the company's revenue -- in Yahoo's most recently reported quarter, it only generated $1.07 billion in revenue.

The lawsuit was originally filed by the Worldwide Directories and Ideas … Read more

Bill Gates crowned world's richest person, once again

It looks like telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim has lost his grip on the title of world's richest person.

And who to fill his shoes? None other than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

With a $72.7 billion fortune, Gates is now $550 million ahead of Slim (who has a net worth of $72.1 billion), according to Bloomberg. This is the first time Gates has earned the biggest billionaire status since 2007.

Gates has seen his fortune grow about $10 billion over the past few months, according to Bloomberg. The increase came not so much from Microsoft stock -- only … Read more