RIM launches new BlackBerry Torch smart phones

Research In Motion has unveiled two new and powerful versions of its touchscreen BlackBerry Torch, including an all-touch model, as it seeks to regain ground lost to Apple and Google.

The new phones, along with an upgrade to its Bold model shown earlier, are part of what the Canadian company called the biggest global launch in its history as it seeks to claw back North American market share from Apple's iPhone and a slew of devices running on Google's Android software.

The refreshed lineup is designed to buy RIM time until it introduces a radically new software package for its smartphones next year.

RIM is slashing 2,000 jobs from its global workforce to reduce costs and streamline operations after posting a fall in profit and a dismal earnings outlook in its last quarterly report.

The three touchscreen phones, running on the new BlackBerry OS 7, boast improved screen displays and pack a 1.2 GHz processor from Qualcomm, the most powerful ever for a BlackBerry phone. They also have a dedicated graphics processor that should make video and gaming sharper and more responsive.

The browser is 40 percent faster than the original Torch, RIM's last major phone launch, which hit shelves almost a year ago.

All three devices will be launched by carriers around the world by the end of August, RIM said. The slider Torch will be exclusive to AT&T in the United States, the carrier said.

The all-touch Torch is RIM's first attempt at the popular style since two versions of its Storm model failed to excite.

Researchers discover How to Steal Credit Card Data using Square

Researchers attending the Black Hat security conference have demonstrated two ways in which Square - a mobile gadget that enables Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users to accept credit card payments - can be hacked to steal credit card data, with very little technical hardware required and "no technical skills at all."

Adam Laurie and Zac Franken, directors of Aperture Labs, discovered that due to a lack of encryption in the current Square app and free dongle for swiping cards, the mobile payment system can be used to steal credit card information, without even having the physical credit card.

Square works by converting credit card data into an audio file that is then transmitted to the credit card issuer for authorization.

In order to bypass the need to swipe a card, Laurie wrote a simple program - in less than 100 lines of code - that enables him and Franken to feed magnetic strip data from stolen cards into a microphone and convert that data into an audio file. Once that file is played into the Square device via a $10 stereo cable, the data is sent directly to the Square app for processing.

Laurie and Franken's hack proves that the Square app cannot distinguish between a true swipe on the dongle and an audio file fed to the app without swiping. In theory, the team could buy stolen credit card data in underground online markets and start up a practically skill-free criminal shop.

The duo was also able to pull money from a Visa gift card that is not officially allowed to be "cashed out."

Square is due for an update and Franken noted that he heard the company is planning to release new dongles that encrypt credit card data.

BlackBerry Smartphones trying to keep up with Apple iPhone and Google Android

BlackBerry, whose handheld smartphones revolutionized the way business people stay in touch with the world, has unveiled a new line of phones - just days after it announced 2,000 job cuts, revamped top management, and saw its stock hit a five-year low.

The new models, with touch screens, slide-out keyboards and a faster, more versatile operating system, were designed to appeal to BlackBerry's core audience of business users, while keeping up with increasingly some stiff competition: Apple's iPhone and phones that run on Google's Android operating system.

Research In Motion, the Canadian company that sells BlackBerrys, is profitable and its sales are rising - but it still has a tremendous problem. Apple and Android are eating its lunch. Smart phone consumers who expect the Web at their fingertips have turned away from Blackberry toward its more Internet-friendly counterparts.

Now some analysts see RIM as a has-been, a company that gave the world constant access to email on the go, but couldn't turn it into mass-market dominance.

"They were very late to make a major transition. They made great phones that focus around email, but not around the Internet. And that's where Apple and Android are way ahead of them," said Alkesh Shah, an analyst at Evercore Partners in New York.

The new RIM lineup includes three versions of the BlackBerry Torch (models 9810, 9850 and 9860), a multimedia handheld whose large touch screen makes it look much like an iPhone with extra buttons. Updated versions of the BlackBerry Bold - models 9900 and 9930 - take a more down-the-middle approach, combining a new touch screen with the kind of keyboard that had millions of users trying to type messages as they raced through airports or walked down the street.

The company is hardly about to go under. Most companies and government agencies still issue BlackBerrys, not iPhones, to their employees for business use. And BlackBerrys are still wildly popular in other parts of the world - much more popular than Apple in the Middle East and parts of Asia and Europe.

The company promises a new operating system next year, called QNX, designed to compete directly with Apple, Google, and other companies such as Motorola and Samsung. That'll be crunch time for BlackBerry.

RIM reveals 3 new BlackBerry touch phones

BlackBerry maker, RIM has revealed more about its BlackBerry 7 OS and given us a good look at the first three phones that will run on the new operating system: the BlackBerry Bold 9900, the BlackBerry Torch 9810, and the BlackBerry Torch 9850. The phones are using a new interface modeled after RIM’s BlackBerry Tablet OS, which RIM hopes will help it better compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones.

BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930:
The Bold 9900 was unveiled back in May. Following the traditional design of the Bold line, the 9900 has a 2.8-inch 640×480 (VGA) screen with a full QWERTY keyboard in tow. The device has a 1.2GHz processor, 8GB of onboard storage and a MicroSD card slot if you want more. The rear camera is 5MP (no front camera) and it can record 720p video. We also know from the unveiling that the phone will include a NFC chip, which means it could be used as a wireless credit card, assuming RIM has a plan to utilize this technology on a broad scale. The phone will support 3G on Sprint and AT&T.

BlackBerry Torch 9810:
Following the Torch, which came with BB OS6 last year, the Torch 9810 has a 3.2-inch “high resolution” touchscreen, a 5MP rear camera with autofocus and “HD” video recording, and a vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. RIM has improved the processing speed of the new Torch, up from 600MHz to 1.2GHz, likely responding to complaints that the last one was rather sluggish.

BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860
The Torch 9850 is the first decent looking fully-touch phone from RIM. The phone has a 3.7-inch screen, which is the largest of any BlackBerry smartphone, but relatively small compared to the 4.3-inch Android phones that dominate the market. The phone comes with Liquid Graphics technology, which supposedly means that the screen will be more responsive, a 1.2GHz processor, and 4GB of internal storage with a MicroSD slot if you need it. Like the other models, it will have a 5MP rear camera with autofocus, but doesn’t appear to have a front-facing camera.
BlackBerry 7 OS:
RIM claims that BlackBerry 7 will redefine the platform, offering much better web browsing and 40 percent better performance than BlackBerry 6 smartphones. However, it doesn’t, however, mention if the phone will utilize gestures in the fluid and intuitive way that the BlackBerry PlayBook does.

Apple delays iPhone 5 to October release

Apple is delaying the release of the iPhone 5 to October, according to people familiar with the matter, as the next-generation device suffers another in a series of setbacks.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company, which had scheduled a September launch, is pushing it back a month.
Reports initially alleged AT&T had blacked out employee vacations - typical during high-volume releases - during the last two weeks of September. But new sources say the information is inaccurate.
"I don't know why AT&T's calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it's not for an iPhone launch," said a source, indicating October would be more appropriate.
Previous supply-chain sources suggested the new iPhone will feature a faster A5 chip, similar to the iPad 2, run on both GSM/CDMA networks, and offer a higher-resolution 8-megapixel camera.

Facebook’s new iPad app: six spectacular features

Facebook's new iPad app has been more than a year in the making, and thus far, anxious iPad users have only received ambiguous "it's coming… eventually" updates from Mark Zuckerberg and Co. TechCrunch blogger discovered a hidden version of Facebook's new iPad app while playing around in the code for the site's iPhone app. Several other tech bloggers subsequently accessed the app - before Facebook caught on and blocked it - posting their early reactions online. It's unclear when exactly the app will be officially released, but in the meantime, what improvements do we have to look forward to in this "spectacular" new offering?

Here the features go:
1. Easy sidebar navigation
The "most important difference" between this newly discovered iPad app and current iterations of Facebook on iPhones and other platforms, is the retooled navigation system. There's now an expandable navigation sidebar that pops out from the left side of the screen, accessed with the mere flick of a finger. From the menu, users can navigate between the News Feed, Messages, Events, and other features, allowing for "speedier movement." The sidebar is a smart use of iPad's "screen real estate," says TIME, because it can always be tucked away, "your screen is never overcrowded."

2. Time-saving overlay menus
The new app makes "great use" of "pop-overs," or overlay menus, that have become popular on other iPad apps. That means that instead of being taken to a whole new window to view notifications or compose messages, these features just pop up in a small window in the corner of the existing screen. "This allows users to quickly check for these types of activity without losing what they’re currently viewing," says Constine at TIME.

3. Improved chat
Just as navigation appears in a sidebar on the left of the screen, the chat feature can now be accessed via a sidebar on the right side. This is designed to "permit persistent use" of chat while doing other things on Facebook.

4. A big emphasis on Places
"Facebook's location push is apparent" in the way the new app ramps up the Places tab. Places, which allows users to check in to locations like restaurants and bars, connects directly to the iPad's GPS, displaying a large map on the right side of the screen, and friends' location updates on the left. You can comment on friends' locations using this feature, too.

5. Eye-popping photos
"Browsing photos on the Facebook iPad app is a fantastic experience". Not only does the iPad's 9.7-inch screen blow up the photos beautifully, but it's "twitch-fast" to toggle among them. The app also allows you to crop photos using two fingers to define the boundaries of the crop. "It has a nice Minority Report feelin' to it."

6. A better-looking Friends page
The iPad app offers an improved showcase for the Friends page, which now uses "large, square-shaped thumbnails" to display high-quality photos of friends in an alphabetized, easy-to-navigate list. "It seems like Facebook's answer to Google+ Circles."

Sprint and T-Mobile to get the iPhone 5

There is no shortage of iPhone 5 speculation. The latest rumor says that the handset will launch on all four major networks, adding Sprint and T-Mobile to the mix. Whether that it is the actual iPhone 5 or is instead the iPhone 4S is still unclear.

Analyst Chris Larsen notes that the iPhone 5 will be available “on more networks, specifically Sprint and T-Mobile in the US.” He also says this would increase Apple’s market by 30-percent. Android has more and more become a force to be reckoned with. Given its growing industry presence and market share forecast, Apple is wise to consider easily boosting its own user base by expanding to all four major US carriers.

It would also make sense considering the unit shipments Apple has allegedly requested for the iPhone 5 or possibly iPhone 4S. It was recently revealed that Apple had placed hardware orders for the handset, requesting 25 million units be built in 2011, a number that was called “quite aggressive.”

Last month we also heard that Sprint’s research and development team was internally testing the iPhone, but it was uncertain whether the iPhone 4 or iPhone 5 would be the first iOS device to make it to the carrier. There was the possibility that Sprint would introduce the iPhone 4 around the same time as the iPhone 5 makes its debut, a la Verizon’s iPhone unveiling. But now it sounds as if the real deal, next-gen model will be the carrier’s first iPhone.

And of course, T-Mobile customers have always been likely to get the device, considering its pending acquisition by the original iPhone peddler, AT&T.

China Telecom planning iPhone launch later this year

China Telecom Corp Ltd plans to offer its 106 million subscribers the Apple Inc iPhone by the end of 2011, which would make it the second operator to do so in the world's largest mobile phone market.

The move would help China Telecom, the smallest of the country's three telecommunications operators, cement more high-end 3G users in a competitive market in which handset subsidies offered by carriers are squeezing margins. China Telecom operates the country's largest fixed-line network and is a relative newcomer to the mobile market.

"The reason telecom operators are fighting for the iPhone business is because everybody is trying to grab as many 3G users as possible," said Jane Wang, an analyst at UK-based research firm Ovum. "The only way to keep costs down is to build up such a user base."

China Telecom's shares, which have risen by about a fifth this year, extended earlier gains after Reuters exclusively reported the plan, rising as much as 5.5 percent to an intraday high of HK$4.95 and outperforming the Hang Seng Index's 1 percent gain.

Separately, China Telecom said in a statement that its president and chief operating officer, Shang Bing, had resigned to become deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China has 896 million mobile phone users - bigger than the entire population of Europe. Its three telecommunications operators are China Mobile Ltd, China Unicom and China Telecom.

So far, China Unicom is the only operator to offer the iPhone after signing a three-year agreement with Apple in 2009. Its deal with Apple is not based on a revenue-sharing scheme, unlike some operators in other countries. For example, in the United States, Apple has a revenue-sharing agreement with AT&T Inc on iPhone sales.

"Unicom is selling iPhones, but there was no particular boost to their earnings from that," said Patrick Yiu, director at CASH Asset Management. "Even if China Telecom gets the iPhone deal, it will still depend on whether their system can support it and on the details of the contract."

In May, China Telecom's chairman, Wang Xiaochu, told a news conference that the carrier had contacted Apple to launch the iPhone based on CDMA (code division multiple access) technology.
"It's expected to happen this year. China Telecom already has the required technology and it all hinges on the content of the agreement. As we all know, it's not easy to negotiate with Apple," said a source close.

China Telecom is expected to introduce the iPhone in November, said another source.
In June, a media report said bigger rival China Mobile could offer iPhones from September, although analysts said it was unlikely that Apple would support the carrier's TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) technology.

A more likely scenario was for Apple to support China Mobile's 4G LTE (long-term evolution) technology, which would only be available either in late 2012 or 2013, they said. If that is the case, China Telecom would be next in line to offer iPhones.

Google to open research institute

Berlin's oldest university says it is partnering with Google and three German institutions to start a research institute.

Humboldt University announced that the institute would open in the fall and examine the evolution of the Internet and its impact on society, science, politics and the economy.

The institute will focus on innovation, Internet and media policy, philosophy and constitutional rights.

Google will fund the institute to the tune of euro 4.5 million ($6.41 million) for the first three years.

The Berlin University of Arts, the Social Science Research Center Berlin and the Hamburg Hans-Bredow-Institute are also involved in the project.

App Store downloads cross 15 billion mark

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users have downloaded more than 15 billion apps for their gadgets, said Apple Inc.

The milestone was announced on Thursday. Apple said it was working to fix a security issue for the three popular tech products that a Germany agency warned could be used by criminals to gain access to confidential data.

The company crossed the 10 billion downloads mark in January. There are more than 425,000 paid and free apps available on Apple's App Store, and more than 100,000 were made specifically for the iPad tablet. They range from the useful to the quirky, from games to productivity tools to magazines, social networks and children's storybooks.

Apple said more than 200 million of its iOS devices - that is, the iPhone, IPad and iPod Touch - have been sold around the world to people in 90 countries.

Motorola Droid 3 available on Verizon for $199

The Motorola Droid 3 has arrived. The new phone is now available for purchase on Verizon’s Website for $199.99 with a two-year contract or $459.99 alone. Those hoping for a 4G LTE handset will be disappointed, however. The Droid 3 is still a 3G phone, though it does pack some punch with a 4.3-inch qHD (960×540) display, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a full QWERTY keyboard with a dedicated row for numbers, 1080p video recording, and 16GB of onboard memory. The unit will be available in stores on July 14.

The original Droid helped kick off the massive success Android had in 2009 and 2010, though Motorola itself has since been somewhat eclipsed by emergent competitors like Samsung and HTC. Motorola has not shown the Droid 3 at any trade shows or events this year.

Internet domain registrar, Go Daddy, is sold

The parent company of GoDaddy.com, a top registrar of Internet domain names, has been sold to a group of private investment firms for $2.25 billion, said a source familiar with the transaction.

Go Daddy Group Inc.'s sale to KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures comes as the company expects to top $1.1 billion in revenue this year because expanding Internet use has fueled the creation of more websites and the "domains" needed to help find them. Go Daddy announced the sale late Friday.

A fact sheet accompanying the release indicated that Go Daddy's revenue has grown by more than 20 percent in each of the past several years.

The Go Daddy Group Inc. was founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, who continues to serve as its CEO. The company, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., manages more than 48 million domain names, and sells other Internet-related technologies.