Hasta La Gadget!

The Sun may be setting on the final day of July, but it’s also setting on the second day of the patent trial between Apple and Samsung. Today Apple gave its opening arguments while successfully getting a Google employee off the jury. Apple’s lead attorney seemed to think that Samsung would be taking a “devil made me do it” approach to its defense, while the Galaxy S manufacturer (which has a lot at stake in this trial) instead said that the iPhone was “inspiring to everyone.” Though it initially seemed that this trial would be nothing but boring patent talk, it now appears that it will be quite entertaining, so long as Apple and Samsung continue taking swings at one another like they did today.

Next up we’ve got some Apple and Samsung news that isn’t related to the trial, with Hulu Plus landing on Apple TV today (along with our examination of why it took so long), and Samsung reportedly working on a 11.8″ 2560 × 1600 tablet codenamed “P10.” Samsung Music Hub also launched in the US today, and the company is giving Galaxy S III owners a free 30-day trial. Be sure to check it out if you recently picked up Samsung’s latest flagship device.

Microsoft launched Outlook.com earlier today, and we’ve got a hands-on with the new service so you can learn all about it. Meanwhile, we caught wind of Sony’s new Xperia tablet thanks to some leaked presentation slides, and those who pre-ordered the Google Nexus Q found out they are being treated to a free device as the company halts Nexus Q sales in order to take some time to improve it. Unfortunately, today brought more bad news for RIM, which is reportedly gearing up to lay off 3,000 employees on August 13. The bad news doesn’t stop at the reported layoffs, however, as it was also revealed that TAT founder Hampus Jakobsson has left both the company and development on Blackberry 10 behind.

Got $150,000 burning a hole in your pocket? Maybe you should drop it all on this Legend of Zelda prototype cartridge. Today Ubisoft discussed the recent controversy over the security holes discovered in its UPlay launcher, telling gamers that it takes their security very seriously. Finally, by far the biggest piece of gaming news from today is the announcement that Star Wars: The Old Republic will soon be going free-to-play. That’s right: soon you’ll be able to ride Ewoks without paying a monthly subscription fee (you can ride Ewoks in this game, right?).

That’s all for today’s evening wrap-up folks. Now, go off and enjoy your Tuesday night!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: July 31, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Troubling times still lie ahead for RIM. The company announced during its most recent financial results that BlackBerry 10 would be delayed until the beginning of 2013. On top of that, RIM announced that further layoffs at the company would be necessary, with thousands of jobs already having been cut. A source speaking to Cantech Letter has now revealed that 3,000 employees at RIM will lose their jobs on August 13th.

RIM reportedly wants to finalize the layoffs before its next quarter closes on August 31st. Around 3,000 jobs will be cut in all, the remaining amount from the 5,000 that RIM previously announced would be cut. According to the source, those working on BlackBerry 10 are safe, as are those dealing with the enterprise side of the business, but many from customer services, human resources, marketing, and RIM’s global repair services will be let go.

The company is trying to cut back on its spending, hoping that the restructure of the company will save $1 billion. In its most recent financial results, RIM revealed that it had lost $518 million, and that revenue had also dropped by a third to $2.8 billion. The company struggled to shift its PlayBook tablet as well, with just 260,000 shipping out.

RIM has defended its decision to delay BlackBerry 10, saying that while it was ready to go at its core, the operating system still needed fine tuning before it could be unleashed on customers. The CEO of RIM, Thorsten Heins, also dismissed the idea of the company adopting Android or Windows Phone, saying that there was still room in the market for an alternative OS.

[via MobileSyrup]

RIM reportedly cutting 3,000 jobs on August 13th is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

BlackBerry phones aren’t known for their photo editing capabilities especially without any third-party software installed, but it looks like that will change with BlackBerry 10. The folks over at CrackBerry have managed to get their hands on a prototype of a photo-editing app that allows users to edit photographs with BlackBerry 10 devices. The app lets users add Instagram-style filters to their photographs, resize them, remove noise, adjust hue and saturation and a lot more.

While the app isn’t working at the moment, you can get a run through of its functions by watching the video below. Looks pretty cool for an app that’s touted to come with the device. In fact, it reminds me a lot of PicSay Pro for Android – which is a good thing. But I guess we’ll have to get our hands on the final version of the app before we can come to any conclusions. Blackberry 10 devices are expected to go on sale next year.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Images of Facebook app for BlackBerry 10 leaked, RIM CEO answers questions from concerned consumers,

Last month we saw leaked pictures of the BlackBerry Messenger design for BlackBerry 10 leak out thanks to N4BB, and now the site is back with yet more pictures detailing the user interface and keyboard shortcuts that the app will employ. The site notes that BBM is being overhauled by The Astonishing Tribe, with certain features being hidden from view and pulled up with user gestures to save as much onscreen space as possible.

That will help save precious screen real estate on the N-Series BlackBerry 10 device, which feature a touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard. Performing certain gestures will show and hide user elements such as context menus, while keyboard shortcuts will be employed for training messaging actions. Hitting “C”, for example, will bring up a new chat, while “S” will jump the user straight into search.

It looks like RIM is still tweaking the design, and as the screenshots suggest the onscreen keyboard for the L-Series device also isn’t finalized. A previous leak indicated that BBM would also feature theme support, allowing users to switch between a light and dark theme. The dark theme would be advantageous for the OLED screens employed on both phones, with pure black elements reducing power draw from the screens, maximizing battery efficiency as a result.

BBM for BlackBerry 10 further detailed in new leak is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After years of believing that it didn’t need to follow in the footsteps of the iPhone or Android (because people obviously prefer mobile operating systems based on a 20-year-old platform), it looks like RIM is now going after the most talked-about feature of the iPhone – Siri. The new alpha version of BlackBerry 10 contains a similar voice-controlled assistant.

To be clear, we (and countless other online sources) aren’t referring to it as a Siri-esque platform just because it’s a mobile voice recognition system. It functions almost identically, and in fact even the voice sounds like it came from the iPhone 4S. But will having a service that tries to rival Siri be enough to keep RIM afloat? We don’t really need to answer that, do we?

Obviously, the future doesn’t look good for BlackBerry. And even though RIM has finally, after years and years and years, realized that it needs to change its strategy, it’s still showing immense weakness. Case in point – BlackBerry 10 was supposed to launch in the first half of 2012. Guess what? We’re in the second half of the year, and there’s still no confirmed release date.

[via Technorati]

RIM’s BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha adds Siri-like voice command is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.