Hasta La Gadget!

Well faithful readers, the day has come. In this final issue of our weekly, we examine the death of innovative devices that despite miscalculated timing, still had their influence on a handful of gadgets that we use today. We also throw down the review gauntlet for the Jambox Mini, HP SlateBook x2 and one of Sony’s newfangled “lens cameras.” Eyes-On goes after a hunk of stainless steel, Rec Reading has Tim Cook on the new iPhones and Weekly Stat tallies digital publication readership. Head to those trusty repositories one last time and enjoy some end of the week leisurely reading.

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Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile

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Source: iTunes, Google Play, Windows Store

BlackBerry has just reported a $935 million hit in Q2 due entirely to what it’s calling a “Z10 Inventory Charge” — in other words, a loss associated with creating a stock of flagship handsets that subsequently failed to sell. Echoing Microsoft’s catastrophic write-down due to unsold Surface RT inventory, this single loss was enough to wipe out much of the company’s quarterly revenue of $1.6 billion. When added to a further loss due to corporate restructuring, it resulted in a final GAAP loss for BlackBerry of $965 million. It’s hard to gauge exactly how many of the newer BB 10 handsets (namely the Z10 and Q10) sold during the quarter, but BlackBerry admits that “most” of the 3.7 million units that reached end users were older BlackBerry 7 devices, so the figures can’t be pretty. For his part, Thorsten Heins says he’s “very disappointed” with the results, but he claims the company saw growth in enterprise server (BES 10) customers and he insists there’s still a future in that side of the business — a future that could soon belong to someone else.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: MarketWired

If you picked up Chromecast earlier this summer, there’s a good chance you’ve been exploring Google’s digital content library. Now the company is trying to make it a little easier for you, updating its Google Play Movies & TV app to present television content in a more straightforward, linear manner. Gone is the app’s episode-focused browsing experience, for instance, replaced by a more organized list of television programs that filter into sequential lists of episodes. Each show’s card is smaller too, allowing more to fit on a single screen. Diving into a program’s folder shows not only the purchased episodes, but now also prompts the user to buy the next episode in the series. Content that has been pinned for download can be accessed more quickly as well, and can be filtered through a new On Device menu for offline viewing.

The changelog also notes that the update brings “several bug fixes,” which seems to have disabled screenshots on some devices (according to Android Police.) Holding power + volume down still managed to snap an image on our HTC One, however. A mild disappointment, to be sure, but it’s hard to argue with a cleaner, more efficient interface. Snag the update for yourself at the Google Play link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google

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Via: Android Police

Source: Google Play

Skitch made a couple of big announcements today, one of which is a spanking-new logo. Gone is that pink heart we know and love, and in its place are the feathers of an arrow that signify stabilized flight and direction. As if to emphasize that point, the company also unveiled a version 3 update for its iOS app that promises even faster image capture and annotation than before. As soon as you launch it, you’ll be presented with Quick Shot mode, which should let you snap a photo, annotate it with an arrow and send it off to the cloud in seconds. You may add further captions to an image, share Skitched pics to all attendees in a calendar meeting, sync them via AirDrop or simply save them to Evernote. It’s also updated the overall interface with new tools and style bars for better use of real estate and to match the stylings of iOS 7. It looks like the new logo hasn’t rolled out to the App Store just yet, but the updated app certainly has. So go on and hit the appropriate link in the source to have a peek at the all-new Skitch.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Apple

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Source: Evernote Blog, Skitch (App Store)

The news for BlackBerry is just going from bad to worse these days. The latest development comes from its manufacturing partner Jabil Circuit, which has apparently had enough of the company’s troubles and is looking for a way out. Speaking on the company’s quarterly earnings call yesterday, Jabil CEO Mark Mondello said that “we are faced with a strong possibility of disengaging with BlackBerry,” adding, “our team has worked diligently over the past few days to comprehend the recently announced changes,” and that “we’re in discussions right now on how we’re going to wind down the relationship.”

As All Things D notes, BlackBerry is Jabil’s second-biggest customer (behind Apple), so this is no doubt not a decision it’s taking lightly, but it looks like it’s one it intends to move quickly on. Mondello went on to say that while the company is looking for a path that’s in the best interest of its shareholders and also “supports the needs of BlackBerry,” it plans to “take a restructuring charge, move swiftly and decisively and mitigate the impact to FY ’14 as best we can.”

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: All Things D