Michelle Maisto

BlackBerry’s turnaround is on track, if not slightly ahead of schedule, CEO John Chen—roughly 26 weeks on the job—told investors March 28, announcing the results of BlackBerry’s fiscal 2014 fourth quarter. “I think the numbers show we are about a quarter ahead at this point,” said Chen. BlackBerry, which has slashed jobs, sold off real […]

From the annals of That’s Not Ideal comes news that BlackBerry sued an executive, Senior Vice President of Software Sebastien Marineau-Mes, to keep him from leaving. Apple offered Marineau-Mes a position as vice president of Core OS in December, iMore reported March 25, and on Dec. 23 the BlackBerry exec turned in a resignation letter […]

This year, expect to see global shipments of mobile phones, tablets, PCs and ultramobile devices rise 6.9 percent over 2013’s totals, to a high of 2.5 billion units, Gartner announced in a March 27 report. By contrast, 2013’s device shipments increased 4.8 percent over 2012’s. Mobile phones will again represent the largest portion of the […]

In August, Instagram’s popularity surpassed Twitter’s, with 7.3 million active users scrolling through photos each day, while 6.9 million daily active users kept their thoughts to 140 characters or less, according to data from comScore. Twitter is fighting back. On March 26 it announced it is getting “more social,” with the new abilities to add […]

Sprint has developed a program with the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) and NetAmerica Alliance to accelerate the deployment and use of 4G LTE technology across rural America. Sprint plans to offer its new partners’ members low-cost access to the equipment needed to build out LTE networks, as well as low-cost access to smartphones and tablets […]

BlackBerry CEO John Chen took to the company’s blogMarch 26 to announce that BlackBerry’s “fighting spirit” includes legally fileting anyone inside or outside of the company who leaks corporate secrets. Someone, wrote Chen, “falsely posed as an employee of one of our carrier partners to obtain access to secured networks.” They then “stole confidential information […]

BlackBerry’s Secure Work Space for iOS and Android has received Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 certification. Secure Work Space is a containerization solution for supporting multiple mobile platforms that is managed through BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10). It ensures that data is protected—on the device and while in transit—even on employee-owned smartphones and tablets. […]

Nokia’s first Android-supporting mobile phone appears to be a success, Android Headlines reported March 25, citing Chinese site JD.com. The Nokia X went on sale March 25 in China, and “promptly sold out in under 4 minutes,” said the report. It added, “The Nokia X had gotten about 1 million preorders in the first 4 […]

HTC’s One M8: Smart-Looking Smartphone Has Sixth Sense by Michelle Maisto The HTC One M8 The gun-metal finish on the M8 was “very hard to do,” HTC CEO Peter Chou said March 25, introducing HTC’s newest flagship device to the world. “Not only is this phone powerful,” he said, “it’s also very smart. The phone […]

When Tom Wheeler became chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in October, the 800-pound gorilla waiting on his desk was the nation’s need for more wireless spectrum. Wheeler’s tenure as chairman will be all about figuring out how to make more spectrum available and (arguably more challenging) divvying that spectrum up between the wireless […]

With the One M8 HTC has done it again: created a beautiful, feature-rich phone that pushes at several envelopes. It even pulled off the trick of lining up its announcement and the phone’s launch (which explains all the leaks). As of today at 1 p.m. ET, following the global introduction of HTC’s newest flagship, the […]

Mobiquity Networks owns and operates the nation’s largest location-based, mobile marketing-driven Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (BLE) beacon network. The BLE network covers 3,000 retailers with more than 15,000 storefronts and includes 100 “premier U.S. shopping malls,” the company said in a March 25 statement, announcing the release of a BLE Beacon software development kit (SDK), […]