Hasta La Gadget!

The hashtag, as expressed by Jimmy Fallon's symbolic fingers.

(Credit: LateNight/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

When you’re struggling, some of your ideas can hobble from the moment you utter them.

It’s hard to notice, though. You’re so desperate for things to change.

Perhaps JC Penney was merely trying to be at one with the crowd, when it had the notion of giving customers a discount if they say “hashtag” at the counter, accompanied by the word “offer.

As BuzzFeed reports, the idea was to give $10 back on $25 to anyone who made themselves temporarily — and, perhaps, quietly — look absurd in conversation with a Penney employee.

JC Penney’s Twitter account proudly proclaimed: #Tomorrow #is #HashtagDay #at #jcp #Say #HashtagOffer #AtCheckout #ForA #10off25 #Offer #DetailsAndExclusionsInStore #ThatsHowWeDo.”

#ThatsHowYouShouldntDo.

Despite wanting to have sympathy with JC Penney, a retailer that’s struggling for dollars, I wonder why, when this particular idea came up, no one said: “Don’t you guys watch Fallon?”

Those of normal disposition might remember that only last week, Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake … [Read more]

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Dell had an event this week, which is in itself noteworthy regardless of what they launch, but it turns out there were Android tablets there! We talk about those for a while, as well as the Elliptic Labs ultrasound gesture control SDK, Android in the Car, Amazon’s four-camera phone plans, and briefly the Kindle Fire HDX.

This week on the show prodigal son Chris Velazco returns from his many travels (we held the podcast a whole day to make sure he could come), and we’re joined by Natasha Lomas as well. I nearly forgot to mention that we also chat briefly about BBM for Android, and it must be forgettable because BlackBerry itself seems to have forgotten about it as well.

We invite you to enjoy weekly Android podcasts every Wednesday (or Thursday this week) at 5:30 p.m. Eastern and 2:30 p.m. Pacific, in addition to our weekly Gadgets podcast at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific on Fridays. Subscribe to the TechCrunch Droidcast in iTunes, too, if that’s your fancy.

Intro music by Kris Keyser.

Direct download available here.

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Things haven’t been going well for BlackBerry, that’s certainly no secret. The company has lost a major chunk of its user base both in the established as well as emerging markets. It has recently taken a nearly $1 billion hit as an operating loss largely due to inventory write down of unsold BlackBerry Z10s. The company’s share price is a fraction of where it used to be only a couple of years back. Still, it has proven itself to be one of the major players in the area of secure mobile communications. NATO has approved BlackBerry 10 smartphones up to the level of “Restricted” communications.

Enterprise and government customers have without a doubt remained a large part of BlackBerry’s user base over the years. However its been facing strong competition on that front as well by other devices, such as those developed by Apple and Samsung. What this particular NATO approval entails is that BlackBerry will now be able to sell BB10 devices to agencies in 28 member countries which have been allowed to use them in the field or in the office. This is definitely a piece of good news regarding BlackBerry to come out in recent weeks, as the company has more or less been caught up in a web of bad press primarily due to its own troubles.

NATO Approves BlackBerry 10 For ‘Restricted’ Communications original content from Ubergizmo.

Less than a month after announcing its plans for an IPO, Twitter has today made its S-1 filing with the SEC public, offering the most detailed look yet at at the inner workings of the company. With the IPO, Twitter is looking to raise $1 billion on 472,613,753 shares of common stock, trading under …