Hasta La Gadget!

There has been a lot of talk recently about BlackBerry’s future. The company is clearly struggling in the global smartphone market. Its new platform and devices have failed to make much of an impact. There’s a possibility that the company might be sold. BlackBerry’s board recently announced the formation of a new special committee that is looking in to “strategic alternatives.” These alternatives include a sale of the company or partnerships and alliances, among other options. As per the company’s last proxy filing with the SEC, if BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins is ousted after the company is sold, his severance would roughly be around $55 million.

This proxy filing was made in May and the plan was approved by shareholders at BlackBerry’s annual general meeting on July 9th. This severance package includes salary, incentive payments and equity awards based on the company’s stock price at the end of the fourth fiscal quarter. Jacob Securities analyst Sameet Kanade believes that BlackBerry’s board shouldn’t have structured such a package that would give so much money to the CEO if he were to sell the company, adding that the “board should be looking out for shareholders.” Even if BlackBerry is looking to sell, there haven’t been any reports of interest from rival companies. A former Palm executive believes acquiring BlackBerry is a bad idea. Some analysts are of the view that the company will be sold in parts, its extensive patent portfolio is expected to net as much as $5 billion.

BlackBerry CEO Severance Roughly $55 Million If He’s Ousted After Sale original content from Ubergizmo.

I am quite sure that many of us have already heard of this particularly common phrase, “There’s an app for that.” Sure, that might be true and your smartphone is a ringing endorsement (pun not intended) for such a saying, but do bear in mind that not everyone is able to use the smartphone as intended to, and visually impaired folks happen to fall under this particular category. Innovators and entrepreneurs from Visus Technology figured out that they need to do something about this situation, coming up with a system which will be able to assist visually impaired and blind people “see” things from a new perspective thanks to the use of wireless technology.

Known as the Visus Visual Assist system, trials of it happened last month, involving a bunch of middle-school aged students in a summer enrichment program over at the world-renowned Carroll Center for the Blind. Each of these students were equipped with a Samsung smartphone, where they were then trained on using the Visus app, before being sent out to see just how helpful this app is. The Visus Visual Assist system was developed in collaboration with the Verizon Innovation Program, and hopefully, it will hit the market pretty soon, letting blind and visually-impaired people recognize faces, determine colors, and navigate their travel. Check out feedback from the students and teachers in the video above, and be encouraged. [Press Release]

Visus Visual Assist System Could Help Visually Impaired “See” original content from Ubergizmo.

We have seen our fair share of glow in the dark items in the past, where the most recent one would be this glow in the dark toilet seat which will hopefully, help the guys stay on target when they have to let loose their bladder in the middle of the night so that their other half would not have to worry about planting their rear end on some pee-stained seat. How about glow in the dark kittens coming to save the world by being an AIDS cure (which fizzled out eventually)? Well, here we are with scientists having created glow in the dark rabbits?

It sure sounds like these unique hoppers would hail from some sort of science fiction movie, but a team of University of Hawaii and Turkish researchers have somehow successfully created a litter of fluorescent green rabbits. A pair of the eight rabbits can glow a neon green color under black light, and this was made possible after injecting fluorescent jellyfish proteins into eight of the rabbit embryos, amounting to a 25% efficiency rate. The whole idea of this particular experiment is to see how injected genetic material is able to affect the litter’s biological make-up, hence green fluorescent color functioning as a marker.

Glow-in-the-Dark Rabbits Created original content from Ubergizmo.

Only yesterday we reported that Twitter is testing a new timeline box for trending TV shows. The box shows conversations about a TV show that’s making buzz on the microblogging network and also provides links to its related Twitter account. Today, as initially reported by TechCrunch, it has come to light that Twitter is testing another kind of timeline box as well, one that displays alerts about events happening nearby.

Just like the TV trending box, the one about events also shows up only on Twitter’s iOS app. It doesn’t show up on the website or the mobile web app. It is believed that both of these features are currently being tested on a very small scale, presumably only inside the U.S. Twitter hasn’t officially commented on these tests and features, so it can’t be speculated right now when these features will go live for all users. For nearby events, the box will display a representative tweet and will offer a shortcut that will bring up more tweets regarding that particular event. This may also become a revenue channel for Twitter, with people paying for placement within the box for their events. Those who would find themselves being irritated by the box will have the option of making it disappear by simply tapping on the X in the top right corner.

Twitter Reportedly Testing Timeline Box For Events Near You original content from Ubergizmo.

It was reported back in June that one of the largest carriers in the U.S., Verizon Wireless, was looking to make an entry in the Canadian market. At that time it was rumored that Verizon would possibly by acquiring two local Canadian carriers before competing for the wireless spectrum that the country is scheduled to auction in January, 2014. The Globe and Mail now reports that Verizon has decided to not pursue previous plans of purchasing Wind and Mobilicity, the two Canadian carriers it was originally rumored to be interested in.

Obviously there’s no confirmation on this from Verizon just yet, but the carrier has time and again been rumored to be interested in a making a move inside Canada. As per this new report, Verizon is waiting to see just how well it does in the wireless spectrum auction that takes place in January. Acquiring spectrum will be key for the carrier’s future in Canada, and if its able to get what it wants, there exists a possibility that it might pursue the acquisition of local carriers once again. So right now it seems that Verizon’s future in Canada depends upon the auction, and if it doesn’t fare well in January, it might reportedly drop its plans altogether.

Verizon Reportedly Decides Against Acquiring Two Canadian Carriers original content from Ubergizmo.