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Layoffs at Waterloo-based smartphone industry pioneer BlackBerry cut deep last year, with around 5,000 employees being let go. Those cuts continue into 2013 as BlackBerry undergoes what CEO Thorsten Heins called a “complex transition” earlier this month, and the latest is that 250 employees of its core R&D and new product testing facility have been let go as of earlier this week, as confirmed by Canada’s CTV News and by BlackBerry itself to TechCrunch.

That number pales in comparison to some of the massive cuts that came in big batches last year, including one 3,000 person block in August 2012. Last year, however, BlackBerry reportedly told its employees that if they were working on services or projects key to BlackBerry 10, they’d mostly likely be safe. These cuts appear to be closer to the bone, however, coming as they do at the heart of BlackBerry’s innovation efforts, which is why it’s perhaps more worrying for the company’s overall outlook than the big sweeping trimming of potentially redundant or sub-optimal departments last year.

BlackBerry is saying the change to employee count is all about efficiency, in a statement provided to TechCrunch (included in full below), but it’s hard to see a big batch of layoffs so near to R&D, which should be the lifeblood of any technology company, as a good sign. Heins’ strategy of cost-cutting and efficiency has helped BlackBerry manage to stay relatively strong on revenue, however, and to keep a healthy cash reserve on hand.

BlackBerry has a number of products in the pipeline, apparently, including the leaked A10 (and the somewhat unimpressive Q5), a new touchscreen flagship that’s rumored to be launched later this year. But that device looks to be quite far along already; this fresh report of staffing changes begs the question of how much more new hardware we have left to see beyond that.

The full statement from BlackBerry’s Lisette Kwong follows:

I can confirm on the record, that BlackBerry on Tuesday informed 250 employees of their termination in Waterloo. These employees were part of the New Product Testing Facility, a department that supports BlackBerry’s manufacturing and R&D efforts.

This is part of the next stage of our turnaround plan to increase efficiencies and scale our company correctly for new opportunities in mobile computing. We will be as transparent as possible as those plans evolve.

Apple is cashing in big on three-year old tech, according to its earnings results last night. As the Wall Street Journal points out, it’s seeing the iPhone 4 leading to big growth in markets like India, and buttressing Apple’s fortunes against low-cost devices based on competing mobile platforms like Android. The iPhone 4 is a key driver of Apple’s record 31.2 million iPhones, the company explained on its earnings call, but it’s probably best to consider this an audition.

Part of Apple’s ability to move so many older devices has been the iPhone 4 itself, but the reason this time around (vs. with past older handsets like the 3GS) the company sold so many devices in markets like India was a new price-aggressive strategy. Apple is offering discount deductions for trade-ins through partners both at home and abroad, and plans to offer pricing incentives in China as well to boost somewhat sluggish revenues there this past quarter.

So the iPhone 4 is in part responsible, but retail partners in key growth markets like Asia say that the price difference is what’s really driving increased interest in older models, and that’s the new element in Apple’s product strategy. It’s also the one that explains why Apple would pursue something like a new, secondary line of low-cost devices instead of just shipping older models at lower prices on a permanent continued basis.

As evidenced by its lower average selling price on the iPhone segment for the previous quarter, all this focus on moving older units with aggressive pricing strategies is driving down how much it makes on each device, and narrowing margins. Apple has typically succeeded by being a high-margin consumer electronics manufacturer: it makes a lot of money on each device it sells, leading to high profits and an ever-growing cash pile.

The iPhone 4 and other older generation devices get price cuts because Apple gradually pays less to make them, thanks to lowered component costs and improved manufacturing efficiency. But they still contain materials that are premium and have a relatively fixed value, including glass and metal. Supply and production costs go down incidentally on older devices; engineering a low-cost device from the very start with margins in mind can help Apple continue to work on dealing with downward price pressure in high growth markets, while at the same time making fewer concessions to margins.

A new low-cost iPhone isn’t a sure thing, but it’s starting to look very likely for a fall launch. Think of the iPhone 4 and the last quarter a dress rehearsal for that kind of device, and Apple’s success with it and its new pricing takes on even more significance.

Amazon’s harnessing the power of the Kindle Single to bring the art of long-form interviews to its e-reader. The new Kindle Singles Interview series offers up conversations with world leaders and other key figures for $0.99 a pop, kicking things off with Shimon Peres. The Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize winner discusses the country’s upcoming peace talks with New Yorker writer David Samuels. The conversation, titled simply “The Optimist,” also touches on topics like Mark Zuckerberg’s “revolution with a billion people.” You can check that out in the source link below.

Filed under: Amazon

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Source: Amazon

TCL just announced a new 50-inch Ultra HD LED television for $1000. Holy wow, that is freaking cheap. Just a few months ago, we were blown away by Seiki’s 50-inch 4K that cost $1500. How the hell are they making all of these beautiful, high-resolution panels so cheap?

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There are very few good, original movies these days. Most of what hits the silver screens are prequels as well as sequels of a particular franchise, and the audience continue to lap it up regardless. Well, I guess the same can be said of hardware, especially in the consumer electronics realm – narrowing it down to portable devices like smartphones and tablets. From the Samsung Galaxy S, we have seen it “grow” to end up at the Galaxy S4 at the moment, while the iPhone has ended up as the iPhone 5 till today, with whispers of an iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 on the way. The Asus-manufactured Nexus 7 tablet is no different, and it is all set to embrace a next generation model, simply known as the new Nexus 7.

Just what kind of hardware can you expect this sequel to carry? For starters, this 7” tablet is touted to boast of the highest resolution for a 7” tablet in the world – at 1,920 x 1,200 pixels on its 10-point touch IPS panel at 323ppi pixel density. Apart from that, a quad-core 1.5GHz S4 Pro Qualcomm processor would keep it chugging along nicely without any slowdown, where it is accompanied by an Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB RAM, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean right out of the box. Should you wish to hook up the new Nexus 7, it can do so via NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11n connectivity, with the option of wireless charging capability thrown into the mix. In front lies a 1.2-megapixel shooter, while at the back there is a 5-megapixel camera.

Going on sale via Google’s online store in the US, expect the new Nexus 7 to hit other markets in due time. For those who were hoping that the next generation Nexus 7 tablets will arrive with the same price tags as before, you will be slightly disappointed. After all, better hardware does command a higher price point, does it not? Good thing Google and Asus have managed to keep overall costs relatively low still, where the 16GB model will retail for $229, which is $30 more expensive than its predecessor, but still a whole lot more affordable than the cheapest iPad mini. As for those who want to pick up the 32GB Nexus 7, you will have to fork out $269 for it.

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[ Nexus 7 tablet announced copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]