A look at BlackBerry maker Research in Motion

On Thursday, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. offered details on layoffs and announced yet another delay in its BlackBerry 10 devices. It also reported disappointing earnings for the latest quarter.

RIM faces the most difficult period in its history. RIM, which fathered the ground-breaking BlackBerry in 1999, has hired a team of bankers to help it weigh its options. Those options include partnering with other companies, licensing software and overhauling its business.

Here's a look at recent developments as the company struggles to regain market share lost to Apple's iPhone and devices running Google's Android operating software:

Sept. 15, 2011: RIM reports a sharp drop in net income and revenue in the fiscal second quarter and says it has sold far fewer PlayBook tablet computers than it expected.

Oct. 10: Email and Internet services are disrupted for three days, primarily outside North America. RIM says a crucial link in its infrastructure had failed, and a backup didn't work either. By the third day, other users, including those in the U.S. and Canada, were affected by a backlog of traffic.

Oct. 25: RIM says it is delaying the launch of an upgraded operating system for the PlayBook until February, saying it isn't up to its standards yet. The company also says the new version initially won't have the popular messaging service BlackBerry Messenger. It's the third delay announced since the features were promised in April.

Dec. 2: RIM says it is writing off much of its inventory of PlayBook tablets after it had to sell them at a deep discount. The model originally priced at $500 now costs $200. The company says it's taking a pre-tax charge of $485 million in the just-ended quarter. RIM also says it will sell fewer BlackBerrys in the holiday quarter than in the one that just ended. It also says it won't meet full-year earnings guidance of $5.25 to $6 per share, the third cut in a row.

Dec. 6: RIM says "BlackBerry 10" will be the new name for its next-generation system after the company loses a trademark ruling on its previous name, BBX.

Dec. 15: RIM says new phones deemed critical to the company's future won't be out until late 2012. The company says the BlackBerry 10 phones will need a highly integrated chipset that won't be available until mid-2012, so the company can now expect the new phones to ship late in the year. The company also says BlackBerry sales will fall sharply in the holiday quarter compared with the three months that ended Nov. 26. RIM says it would only ship between 11 million and 12 million BlackBerrys in the fourth quarter, down from 14.1 million in the third quarter.

Jan. 22, 2012: RIM founder Mike Lazaridis and long-time executive Jim Balsillie announce they will step down as co-CEOs. Thorsten Heins, a chief operating officer who joined RIM four years ago from Siemens AG, was named as their replacement. Lazaridis and Balsillie remain on the board.

Feb. 21: RIM finally releases an upgraded operating system for its PlayBook. The free upgrade allows for built-in email, calendar and contacts on the tablet ? features promised within 60 days after the PlayBook's launch last April. The PlayBook had received negative reviews because it launched without an email program and the popular messaging service BlackBerry Messenger. The new version still doesn't include the messaging service.

March 29: RIM says Balsillie has resigned from its board, and two top executives are leaving. RIM also writes down the value of its product inventory again as the company reports a loss of $125 million, its first quarterly loss since fiscal 2005. Heins doesn't rule out a sale, but he says it is not the main direction of the strategic review he's overseeing.

April 26: Newest board member of RIM says a turnaround could take three to five years. Prem Watsa, RIM's third-largest investor, says he sees his investment in the company as a long-term one, adding that RIM's fortunes won't be reversed soon.

May 1: RIM unveils a newly designed smartphone prototype powered by its upcoming BlackBerry 10 system. The prototype BlackBerry has a touchscreen, but no physical keyboard like most BlackBerry models. No update was given on the new system's launch date.

May 2: Company stresses that while the prototype has no physical keyboard, RIM will continue to make some models with one.

May 8: RIM announces hiring of two senior executives from struggling tech companies. Frank Boulben, the new chief marketing officer, comes from LightSquared. Kristian Tear, the new chief operating officer, is from Sony Mobile Communications.

May 29: RIM says it will have an operating loss in the current quarter and significant layoffs this year. The company says it has hired J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help evaluate various strategies, including opportunities to partner with other companies and license software.

June 20: RIM says it has started laying off employees as part of a restructuring plan aimed at saving about $1 billion this year.

June 21: Company says the first BlackBerry device running BlackBerry 10 will not have a physical keyboard, only a touch-screen one. Ones with hard keyboards will eventually be made, but the company declines to say when.

Monday: Stock hits lowest level since 2003. Morgan Stanley's Ehud Gelblum says the company is facing a "triple whammy" in the current quarter. Gelblum says RIM's phones are aging, growth in the global smartphone market is slowing, and shipments are likely to decline ahead of the launch of BlackBerry 10 phones.

Thursday: RIM says it's cutting 5,000 jobs, or about 30 percent of its workforce, and delaying the launch of BlackBerry 10 yet again, to the first quarter of next year. It also reported worse results for its latest quarter, which ended June 2, than analysts had expected.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/look-blackberry-maker-research-motion-202621505--finance.html

epidemiology total eclipse of the heart jionni lavalle earthquake san francisco donald payne elizabeth berkley mlb 12 the show

Wildfires worsen in Colorado, 32,000 flee homes

COLORADO SPRINGS (Reuters) - A wildfire raging near some of Colorado's most popular tourist sites grew suddenly more ferocious on Tuesday, forcing 32,000 people from their homes, prompting evacuations from the U.S. Air Force Academy and swallowing numerous houses at the edge of Colorado Springs.

From the vantage point of a command post about 10 miles from the path of advancing flames, the entire community of Mountain Shadows, a northwest subdivision, appeared to be enveloped in an orange glow after dark.

"This is a fire of epic proportions," Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown said as ash drifted down on the city, sirens wailed and the thick smell of smoke permeated the air.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper flew into the city Tuesday night by helicopter to meet with fire commanders and tour the fire zone first-hand. He noted that the blaze was one of at least a dozen burning throughout the state. Four people have died in Colorado wildfires so far this year.

"This is the worst fire season in the history of Colorado," he said during an impromptu news conference, adding that from the air he saw many homes destroyed in a glowing landscape that looked "surreal."

The Waldo Canyon Fire, which has roared through at least 6,200 acres of dry timber since Saturday, has grabbed attention for days because of its proximity to landmarks like the famed mountaintop of Pikes Peak and the Air Force Academy.

The blaze claimed its first property losses on Tuesday as wind-driven flames swept over containment lines into Colorado's second-most populous city, consuming an unknown number of homes on the town's outskirts as authorities hurried to evacuate residents.

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said 32,000 people had been evacuated, and an Air Force Academy spokesman said the evacuation zone included two communities of single-family homes on academy grounds housing civilian and military personnel and their families.

"We are in a very critical situation now. Unfortunately we do have structures and homes that are burning in the northwest corner of Colorado Springs. We have mandatory evacuation over a considerable area," fire information officer Rob Deyerberg told Reuters.

A mushroom cloud of gray, black and brown smoke, topped by billowing, white cumulus clouds, rose nearly 20,000 feet into the sky and hung over the area as residents scrambled to heed evacuation orders.

The sudden closure of service stations along with other businesses, leaving fleeing motorists unable to fill up their cars, added to a sense of urgency as roads filled with traffic.

Columns of vehicles carrying evacuees and hastily packed belongings stretched bumper-to-bumper for miles, crawling slowly southward out of town along Interstate 25.

Closer to the blaze, which has been fanned by winds blowing into the southern Rockies from the prairies to the east, trees were visibly twisting from the heat of the flames.

"It's a very hostile environment out there," fire information officer Anne Rys-Sikora said.

Asked how quickly the fire was spreading after the latest flare-up on Tuesday afternoon, incident commander Rich Harvey said, "If I gave acreage right now, it would be wrong in five minutes. It's growing."

Hickenlooper said he was consulting with Pentagon officials. The Air Force Academy issued a statement saying the military was preparing to dispatch up to 25 more helicopters to join the firefighting effort.

Authorities earlier said that half of the fleet of eight Air Force C-130 cargo planes equipped as air tankers were already at work, dropping flame-retardant chemicals over the blaze.

DEATH IN UTAH

Still, the Waldo Canyon Fire, burning primarily within the Pike National Forest on the western fringe of Colorado City, was dwarfed in size by wildfires elsewhere across the state, and by a fatal blaze that flared with renewed intensity in Utah.

Authorities said on Tuesday a body was found in the ashes the fast-moving Wood Hollow Fire about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City, marking the first fatality in a blaze that has scorched over 39,000 acres of rolling hills covered by parched cheat grass and sagebrush.

Flames fanned by high winds into a second county forced the closure of Utah's state Route 89 for a second time and prompted the evacuation of the entire town Fairview, a community of more than 1,200 residents according to the latest census, state emergency managers said.

The blaze already has leveled an estimated 30 homes and killed 75 sheep, authorities said.

The Wood Hollow Fire is believed to be one of just two western wildfires that have claimed lives in recent weeks.

The other is the High Park Fire near Fort Collins, Colorado, south of Denver, which now ranks as that state's second-largest blaze on record and its most destructive ever, having consumed 87,250 acres in steep mountain canyons since it was sparked by lightning two weeks ago.

The High Park has destroyed 248 homes and killed a 62-year-old grandmother, whose body was found in the ashes of her cabin, while leaving an estimated 4,300 residents displaced by evacuations.

Colorado accounts for several of the 29 large active wildfires being fought across the country on Tuesday. The bulk of them were in seven western states -- Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona and California, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported.

Although federal authorities say the fire season got off to an early start in parts of the northern Rockies, the number of fires and acreage burned nationwide is still below the 10-year average for this time of year, according to fire agency records.

(Additional reporting by Ellen Miller in Grand Junction, Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City and Laura Zuckerman in Salmon, Idaho. Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Lisa Shumaker and David Brunnstrom)

watergate mlb pregnant man outside lands 2012 lineup beloved ufc results water for elephants

Find a Mobile App Developer to suit your needs. | ExpertsArticles.com

It?s amazing what difference mobile phones have made in our lives. The lifestyles of younger people have especially changed. Nearly all school children have at some point owned and operated a mobile phone. Young people are more inclined to purchase new promotional packages. They also tend to be very informed about the latest applications. As many kids and students do not have a fixed income they depend on their parents to pay for their mobile bill. It is no wonder that a lot of the marketing of applications is centered on younger people. The game console industry has also exploded recently. As the processing power of cell phones have improved, it was only a matter of time before the interest for better games and applications would skyrocket.

With the smart phone industry booming, it seems that there is a cell phone application for nearly everything we do. Mobile phones were initially only ideal for phone conversation and texts. Nowadays most phones can handle much more, including sending multimedia messages and accessing the web. A lot of the modern applications have been made possible with the developments in certain areas of mobile phone technology like 3G, 4G, Wap, Wifi and GPRS. 3G makes it possible to access the internet from pretty much anywhere in the world. In certain countries it is also still cheaper than fixed line broadband.

In a recent consumer survey it was interesting to note what types of applications are growing in popularity.
The majority of cell phone users within the first world countries, use mobile phone applications for communication, entertainment and emergency assistance. Communication applications includes texts and chats.

There are however users who?ve a higher mobile expenditure, who use transaction orientated, location orientated and content delivery applications. Content delivery includes internet search applications, e-mails and updates. Transaction based applications allows the users to do such things as online banking, purchasing and booking. Location based application allows the user to receive shopping offers and local advertisements. These users furthermore have a much wider selection of applications to choose from.

Anybody who can be described as pre-paid user will unfortunately have limitations in the applications they can utilise. Pre-paying clients will normally use their cell phones for mainly communication and personal enjoyment.

It?s pretty evident that the Mobile App Development Market is one of the most lucrative in the world. For more information on Mobile App Development, visit www.simplikate.com. We are able to custom build apps for IPhone, Blackberry,Android and many more.

For more information about Mobile Application Development visit our website: Best Mobile App Development

mickael pietrus heart transplant the international preppers geraldo obama trayvon martin pietrus

Strategic Email Marketing Techniques for Real Estate Professionals ...

Email marketing is a powerful tool if used strategically. Email marketing has been abused by many businesses because they have not used it appropriately and this has de-sensitized the target market when it comes to paying attention to emails. However, Email marketing has the ability to produce a high return on investment in comparison to other methods of marketing if done well. Some areas to consider when marketing your business via email are as follows;

?

?

Subject Line
Subject line is the number one thing that captures the attention of your audience. Some spam emails get clicked on because of their subject lines. A subject line that piques the curiosity of your recipient is very likely to be opened and possibly shared if the rest of the content is as captivating.

Use 5-6 words in your subject line and be sure to concentrate on key phrases you know your customers would be interested in. Words like ?Free,? ?Save? and ?Win? should be completely avoided in your subject line as that immediately looks like spam and causes these clients to delete them.

?

Wrong Target Audience
Imagine sending an email to a food and beverage company talking about the benefits of using certain materials for construction. The probability of getting any ROI on that email blast is next to nothing. Ensure that the email blasts that go out are being sent to a targeted audience.

When clients fill out forms on your site, be sure to put them in drip campaigns that pertain to the forms they filled out. For example, if they filled out a form requesting information on mortgage rates, be sure to send them information about mortgage rates.

?

Teaser Information
When composing email marketing pieces, the idea is to send teaser information and not all of it. Have one idea explained in the email and mention other ideas that would leave them wanting more information. The more information would be provided through hyperlinks to your website where they can access more information or call you to get more information.

This concept also helps you keep your emails brief and to the point. Readers of the web scan through information as opposed to reading in detail so ensure the purpose of the email is well highlighted.

san onofre paula deen birth control recall nick carter leslie carter aaron carter sister pfizer

US approves first obesity drug in 13 years

US regulators on Wednesday approved the first drug to treat obesity in 13 years, a drug called lorcaserin, marketed as Belviq and made by Arena Pharmaceuticals.

The drug works to control the appetite through receptors in the brain and was approved as additional therapy for certain overweight and obese patients, combined with diet and exercise.

Trials showed the drug helped people lose an average of three to 3.7 percent of their body weight after a year when compared to a placebo, the US Food and Drug Administration said.

It is approved for use in obese adults with a body mass index of 30 or greater, or overweight adults with a BMI of 27 or greater who have at least one other condition such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol.

Arena's stock opened the day at $9 per share and jumped as high as 47 percent on news of the US approval. The company said it is also seeking approval on the European market, but has no timeline yet for a decision.

Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, described obesity as "a major public health concern," and said the new drug offers a treatment option when used "responsibly in combination with a healthy diet and lifestyle."

However, the FDA warned that Belviq is not for women who are pregnant or nursing, and called for further long-term postmarketing studies on the drug's potential risks.

The label will also recommend that Belviq be discontinued in patients who fail to lose five percent of their body weight after 12 weeks of treatment.

"These patients are unlikely to achieve clinically meaningful weight loss with continued treatment," said the FDA statement.

Belviq activates the serotonin 2C receptor in the brain, and may cause serious side effects if taken in combination with certain medications for depression and migraine that increase serotonin levels or activate serotonin receptors.

"Belviq may also cause disturbances in attention or memory," said the FDA.

Common side-effects in patients without diabetes include headache, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, dry mouth, and constipation.

In diabetic patients, side effects may include low blood sugar, headache, back pain, cough, and fatigue.

Lorcaserin was rejected in 2010 by the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee, which advises the FDA, over concerns that it formed breast tumors in rats.

But those effects did not appear in trials on overweight and obese humans.

An independent advisory committee to the FDA recommended the drug be approved in May after three randomized, placebo-controlled trials of nearly 8,000 patients spanning one to two years.

"All participants received lifestyle modification that consisted of a reduced calorie diet and exercise counseling," the FDA said.

"Compared with placebo, treatment with Belviq for up to one year was associated with average weight loss ranging from three percent to 3.7 percent."

Some patients with type 2 diabetes experienced higher levels of weight loss, with 38 percent of these patients achieving at least five percent loss of their body weight compared to 16 percent who did the same on a placebo.

The pills will be manufactured at Arena's facility in Zofingen, Switzerland, and will be distributed in the US by Eisai Pharmaceuticals.

Arena is headquartered in San Diego, California.

According to Michael Aziz, internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, the biggest apparent drawback to the drug is the tiny amount of weight loss that patients experience while taking it.

"The only problem with this drug is the weight loss is so, so very low," Aziz told AFP, remarking that a 200 pound (91 kilogram) person might lose just six pounds (2.7 kg) in a year, based on the study data.

"That is so insignificant," he said. "I think people should also implement lifestyle changes because the fact is, people can lose one pound a week and that is perfectly healthy."

The last anti-obesity drug approved in the United States was Xenical (Orlistat) by Roche in 1999.

Sold over the counter as Alli by GlaxoSmithKline, it works by preventing the body from absorbing fat, though its tendency to cause gastrointestinal side effects such as oily, loose stools have curbed its popularity among patients.

niki minaj grammy performance grammys 2012 ll cool j deadmau5 phoebe snow jennifer hudson tribute to whitney houston nicki minaj grammy

This Sony Action Cam Prototype Is Brimming With Wonderful Tiny Tech [Cameras]

Sony just posted images of this tiny action camera it's developing. It's adorable, but seriously, how the heck is a camera that small going to produce high quality HD video? It's got solid guts—and not the kind you need to go skydiving. More »

bryce harper may day dan savage new world trade center kellen moore octomom paulina gretzky

faceToonskool- the school providing degree in animation | 321 Blog!

animation, animator, career, courses, designer, duration, graphic, india, minimum, months, pass, pro, student, toonskool, yrs

jared sullinger jaleel white levi johnston paul ryan 2013 srt viper scott walker recall fisker atlantic