Yesterday BGR received an open letter by an anonymous high-level RIM employee, address to Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, CEOs of RIM. The employee pulled no punches as he (or she) outlined everything that is currently wrong with RIM and the reason they are losing so badly to Apple and Google.

Among the things that the employee addressed the first was about BlackBerry devices lagging behind Apple’s when it comes to user experience. He also noted that Android devices lacked when it comes to simplicity and elegance and that BlackBerry has the opportunity to build something new and “uniquely BlackBerry” with QNX platform. Read more »

Not even two days passed since the launch of Google’s latest social networking service and they already had to shut down the gates to prevent the hordes of people trying to get in. Although some assumed, myself included, that this invite mechanism might work against Google, turns out the exclusivity of it generated far greater interest among people than it would had Google just allowed anybody and everybody to come in.

But even with the limited invites that Google handed out the response they got was pretty overwhelming with everybody wanting to get in and ironically enough, using other social networking services to score an invite for themselves. Read more »

While carriers are still pushing all sorts of technologies as “4G”, Ericsson did a quick demo run of actual 4G – LTE Advanced – using a test network. They achieved mind-boggling speeds of around 950Mbps – in other words, much, much faster than current “4G” offerings (including LTE) and faster than even Wi-Fi 802.11n.

Ericsson expects the first commercial LTE Advanced network to be up and running by 2013, though considering most networks haven’t even begun rolling out LTE, I doubt Advanced will reach many people soon. Still, here’s what you can expect from LTE Advanced. Read more »

Yesterday ICANN decided to allow custom domain suffixes. Right now companies have to settle for .com or .org or one of the 20 others standard suffixes or use country-specific ones. Starting 2012 they can create custom suffixes – if they’re willing to pay for it.

It’s pricy but I’m sure sites ending in .google or .apple are not very far off. It would allow companies to offer very memorable URLs for their important products – think mail.google for Gmail (instead of the current mail.google.com) or iphone.apple (instead of www.apple.com/iphone). Read more »

No, it’s not what it sounds like. Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, isn’t using some sort of Apple PR talk to make it’s top selling game more interesting. Angry Birds Magic, if you remembered, is an NFC-based addition to Angry Birds which allows you to unlock special levels by tapping two NFC-enabled phones together.

Now Rovio is taking Magic one step further with special location-aware integration in Angry Birds. When you go to your favorite cafeteria, for example, you might be offered to unlock some cool stuff. Read more »

If you’ve been hesitating between buying an Apple iPhone 4, but you’ve always admired and preferred the freedom Android provides, you can now find some peace and get the GooApple 3G (whew!). This unholy creature combines the body and looks of an iPhone 4 with the “soul”, as Steve Jobs likes to call the software, of Android.

The GooApple 3G comes from the great copyland of China and is replicated to such a degree that even screen protectors and cases designed for the iPhone 4 will match perfectly. When you turn it on, you might get fooled that it’s running iOS 4, but you’d be wrong. This thing runs Android 2.2 Froyo and is so deeply skinned to look like the real deal that it fills you with amazement. Read more »

After the unveiling of their next generation console, the Wii U, at E3 2011, Nintendo Co. shares fell down by 5.7% on Wednesday, their lowest in the past five year. As of mid-day Thursday, they are still down by 5.2%. Clearly people are not taking a liking to the new console.

The problem, according to the analysts, is that the product itself isn’t bad but it just failed to meet people’s expectations, which were rather high following the phenomenal success of the Wii. The market is also evolving at a rapid pace Read more »

You know that LG is really the master when it comes to funny comparative advertisements. Just like they did in the ad of the LG Optimus Pad fighting an Apple iPad, now they released an even better one, this time focusing on the LG Optimus Black.

In the ad, the LG Optimus Black is in a race against some interestingly named phones. On the starting grid are Waffle’s Ivan (iPhone 4), Samson’s Gary S Jr. (Samsung Galaxy S II), Sonic’s Archie (Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play), Hightech’s Dwayne (HTC HD2). Read more »

Google has decided to dip its toe in the water and now the +1 button is available for publishers, bloggers and basically everyone to put on their websites.

The button, as you may remember, was found only on Google’s search results page, but as it turns out the search giant is taking it one step further. Rather than waiting for you to search a page, figure it’s useful and then “+1″ it, Google lets publishers take the initiative and allow people to recommend their website right on it. Read more »

In a move that would improve anyone’s mood due to its hilarity, Samsung has filed a motion in court asking Apple to hand over the next iPhone and iPad. The reason for that is because they want to know if they are similar to Samsung’s own products and they would want to take measures from Apple from suing them again for copying their designs.

The decision to perform this act of comedy is probably the result of Apple recently asking the court for Samsung to hand them pre-production samples of the Droid Charge, Infuse 4G, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 Read more »

Hybrid vehicles have been on the roads for a few years now and offered better fuel economy with their combustion engine/electric engine combination. The most notable early examples were the Honda Insight and the Toyota Prius, still big names in the hybrid world. More recently we’ve seen competition come in with cars like the Chevrolet Volt from the US.

The Volt was one of General Motors most popular contributions to the hybrid family and even had a spot in Michael Bay’s Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Read more »

Well, it didn’t take so long for yet another lawsuit filled against Google. Just after the announcement of Google Wallet and Offers yesterday, the online money transfer giant PayPal filled a 28-page claim (get the PDF).

It turns out that Osama Bedier, currently working as Vice President of Payments in Google previously worked at PayPal as a mobile payment executive and thus misappropriated PayPal’s trade secrets by joining Google.

Read more »

We mentioned that Samsung Germany recently updated their online store to include a host of accessories for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. This pointed to the possibility of the 10.1′s official release very soon and our suspicions look to be on the money.

Samsung US let out a highly suggestive tweet the other day with a link to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 notification site. Rumor has it that 8 June is the date to mark down in your calendars and if all goes to plan, you should be able to pick up some 8.6mm thick goodness from then on. Read more »

Google is preparing to unveil an NFC-based mobile-payment service tomorrow at an event in New York, allowing you to virtualize your cash and pay in stores using your Android phone.

According to sources close to the matter, at first the service is going to be available for testing in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C. If the new mobile-payment service turns out to be a success, a wider roll-out will follow. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been tantalizing us for some time now and still we must wait. We’ve seen it pop up in Russia and there’s word of its release in India. Pricing and spec sheets are floating around the internet and still we must wait!

The good news is that June should see the worldwide launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Samsung have kept schtum thus far on an official global release dates but in specific regions, days and months have already been hinted at and if it’s available in one region, it’s release elsewhere won’t be far off. Read more »