Hasta La Gadget!

With BlackBerry’s declining popularity and with reports of the company recently announcing an operating loss, many have assumed that the Canadian company is on the way to its grave unless someone comes and bails them out. While it might seem that way on the surface, perhaps BlackBerry’s demise and troubles might be greatly exaggerated, at least that’s what a recent report by the Yankee Group seems to suggest. According to the recently published report, it basically tallies up the second quarter results from both Motorola and HTC and based on that report, it was found that despite BlackBerry’s troubles, they were still outselling both these two companies despite the recent BlackBerry Z10 inventory write-down.

For example HTC had recently announced their own operating loss of $101 million, a first of the Taiwanese company in a long time, while Motorola’s own operating loss was reported at $208 million. It was also found that BlackBerry had managed to reach the one million mark of Z10 units sold in the first quarter, versus Nokia who only managed to reach that mark with one of their Lumia devices after it had been on the market for a year. While this report certainly does not negate the problems that BlackBerry is currently facing, it does add some perspective to the entire proceedings. What do you guys think? Is BlackBerry’s demise greatly exaggerated?

BlackBerry Reportedly Outselling Motorola And HTC original content from Ubergizmo.

Do you remember Google’s Project Loon, where it is said to be able to deliver 10Mbps connectivity even for those who happen to live in the most remote areas of the world? Well, it seems that an antenna prototype of Google’s Project Loon plan has been shown off on a YouTube video that you can view above, and it is definitely an impressive bit of technology. According to lead network engineer Cyrus Behroozi, users need not have to fret over poor connectivity issues because of the constant movement of the balloon antenna.

Behroozi continued, “The antenna actually has to have more sensitivity off to an angle then it does straight up. That results in uniform signal strength no matter where the balloon is overhead.” Behroozi does admit that the prototype still has some ways to go in perfecting its performance, and it remains to be seen whether the future Loon antennas will resemble anything close to what has been depicted on the video. Still, the cost of implemented such a project worldwide is going to be staggering, and it is a good thing that Google’s profits in previous quarters have been nothing short of encouraging to be able to fund such an idea.

Project Loon Design Phase Spotted In A Video original content from Ubergizmo.

Both Pokemon X and Pokemon Y were released recently, and they have respectively racked up a fair amount of sales which is impressive for a portable console title, but that is to be expected considering the juggernaut of a franchise that it is. Unfortunately, the game itself has been “tainted” by a game breaking bug which has actually caused some grief for those who were affected. Apparently, if you were to save the game in specific areas within the main city of Lumiose, the game will freeze, and you would have to begin all over again. There is a silver lining behind this apparent dark cloud as Nintendo is working around the situation for a permanent fix.

Basically, Nintendo responded something along the lines of delivering a fix for this sae bug issue in a few days’ time via the Nintendo eShop, although gamers’ patience will have to be tested between now and then. As a stop gap measure, Nintendo has introduced the map of Lumiose City below that marks the selected areas that players should avoid saving their game. Better be safe than sorry, and just because it has not affected you before, that does not mean the issue is no real at all!

Nintendo Offers No Save Map For Pokemon X And Pokemon Y Lumiose Save Bug original content from Ubergizmo.

A few years ago, BlackBerry reigned supreme in the enterprise market with their BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) services which basically offered IT admins a way to control the phones being used, as well as providing security for emails and messages. Nowadays companies are starting to turn to Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices as alternatives, but at the same time some IT admins feel that despite the changes, there is still no alternative to BlackBerry when it comes to security.

Several IT admins have come forward with statements claiming that BlackBerry is still the reigning king when it comes to security. According to one particular admin, Sandra Smith, “As for alternatives to BlackBerry, there aren’t any […] Due to the Snowden revelations, we now realize that if you are running Microsoft/Google/Apple, you need to protect yourself from your OS and not use your OS to protect you.” Bob Egan, an analyst at Sepharim Group, basically echoed Smith’s statement, claiming, ”There is no question that BlackBerry has a strong technical security method and history — probably the best in mobile.” What do you guys think? Will Android, iOS, and Windows Phone eventually catchup in terms of providing security features for the enterprise market that will be on the level of BES?

Some IT Admins Don’t Think There Is An Alternative To BlackBerry For Enterprise Security original content from Ubergizmo.

Last week Sony announced their new Sony A7 and A7R and one of the more interesting and probably key aspects of both cameras is that not only were they mirrorless camera systems, but they were full-frame cameras as well, a feature that we’re sure is greatly appreciated by both the enthusiast and professional photographer. Given that most full-frame cameras come in bulky bodies, having a full-frame sensor crammed into such a compact design would most definitely be welcome. However it seems that Nikon might have something similar in the works and that device could be announced in the near future. (more…)

Nikon Full-Frame Mirrorless Hybrid Rumored For Announcement Soon original content from Ubergizmo.