Hasta La Gadget!

In a sign that’s certainly not good for the upcoming software release, the founder of the developer group behind the user interface improvements that’ll be found on BlackBerry 10 has left RIM. Hampus Jakobsson has made his exit from the company with little more than a tweet this week, noting that he leaves BlackBerry 10 in the capable hands of TAT (The Astonishing Tribe) and RIM. At the moment it seems that Jakobsson will pursue other projects in the startup realm of software.

Thus far we’ve seen no word from RIM or TAT on how they’ll be handling the situation, with some of the most recent news from the latter company being their meeting up with BlackBerry blogger Douglas Soltys back in 2011. Strangely enough, the Twitter @tatmobileui where Jakobsson let it be known that he’s headed out the door had an update not long after the first noting that they’d still be rocking and rolling through the future without an issue as Jakobsson “taught us everything he knows.”

It was all the way back in December of 2010 that RIM originally added The Astonishing Tribe to their team with word that the PlayBook would be amongst devices that would benefit in the end. Of course now it’s more likely that everything that TAT has done thus far for RIM will be integrated into the new operating system BlackBerry 10 instead. TAT was and is a mobile user interface design developer and their team has been working, of course, on BlackBerry for over a year now.

Back before they were integrated into RIM, the TAT team worked with Android primarily, with concepts such as the 2D to 3D maps app you’ll see in the video above this paragraph. They ramped up to quite a few projects, in fact, with not too many final products to speak of before they were folded into the world of BlackBerry. We’re still hoping for the best, on the other hand, even without Jakobsson onboard!

[via N4BB]

TAT founder abandons RIM well before BlackBerry 10 unleashed is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Android is most definitely on the upward march when it comes to the world stage. But you might be surprised at how it’s faring in the US: it’s down, according to Strategy Analytics’ estimates. As of the second quarter, Google’s market share dropped from 60.6 percent a year earlier to 56.3 percent. No one would call it a moment of crisis for Android, but it implies that Apple was drawing in more of the customers jumping ship from other platforms — the iPhone climbed to 33.2 percent while RIM and others lost ground. The real tests of where the market is going, we imagine, will come in the second half of the year. Apple will have to survive an American summer full of Galaxy S III variants, while Samsung and the rest of the Android camp may have to cope with a bigger than usual iPhone update as 2012 heads into the sunset.

Filed under: Cellphones

Strategy Analytics: Android lost US market share in Q2, isn’t losing sleep just yet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IDC’s latest figures offer some predictable reading. More phones are being sold than ever before; 406 million units were sold in Q2, against 401.8 million in the same period last year — with a 42 percent increase in smartphone sales. The winners? Perennial court antagonists, Samsung and Apple, with the duo doubling their combined market share over the last two years. Samsung maintains its lead, reaching over 50 million phones sold — and a new quarterly sales record — while Apple saw a quarter-over-quarter decline, as buyers presumably wait for Cupertino’s latest iteration, or go elsewhere. Nokia, meanwhile, had another “transitional” quarter, with sales of both Symbian and MeeGo devices shrinking, although its Windows Phones proved stronger. According to IDC‘s figures, Nokia and Microsoft’s team-up handset sales have doubled since last quarter. HTC misses out on a top three spot, but its fortunes appear to have improved over the last two quarters, with the IDC pointing the finger at a more streamlined product range from the Taiwan manufacturer. ZTE continues to nip at its heels, reaching the top five thanks to strong entry-level smartphone sales in China, while continuing to inch onto US shores. If you’re looking for a full breakdown of all phones sold, dumb and otherwise, read up at the source below.

Filed under: Cellphones

IDC: Samsung and Apple ship almost half of all smartphones, but Korean manufacturer maintains lead originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 03:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung had an iPhone-squashing Q2 2012, analysts predict, shipping twice as many smartphones in the three month period, though the specter of the iPhone 5 is expected to put a dampener on Korean celebrations. The Galaxy S III helped lead Samsung to a total of 52m smartphones in Q2, Juniper Research estimates, more than double Apple’s market-disappointing 26m iPhone sales.

Of course, Samsung’s strength is its spread across the smartphone playing field. The Galaxy S III shipped 10m devices itself, but Samsung also has “Galaxy products hitting all price points” Juniper highlights, having “leveraged its global brand strength and the popularity of the Android OS to drive sales of smartphones in all price tiers.”

Meanwhile, other players in the smartphone game aren’t coming out as shiny as Samsung. RIM shipped 7.4m smartphones in Q2 and Nokia 10.2m, “yet to show any clear indication it is benefitting from the switch to Windows Phone 7, with its hopes riding on Windows 8 [sic]” Juniper suggests. HTC’s “early promise” has been stymied by Samsung, while Motorola is described as being “distracted by the Google acquisition” and weak in Western Europe.

In fact, beyond Apple and Samsung, Juniper is most positive about Sony’s potential, though critical of its current performance. “Sony should be doing better” Daniel Ashdown, Juniper research analyst suggests, “it, like Samsung, has a global name and the Xperia brand is well-established but its marketing and products have been disappointing so far.”

Samsung shouldn’t rest on its laurels, the analyst firm warns, though. Apple’s next-gen iPhone is expected to arrive in the second half of 2012 and “undoubtedly narrow the gap.”

Samsung trounced iPhone twice over in Q2 smartphones claim analysts is written by Chris Davies & 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,