Techmeme: How BlackBerry Fell — Shares in the Canadian maker … (Vauhini Vara/New Yorker)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

August 13, 2013, 4:40 PM

Top News

Vauhini Vara / New Yorker:

How BlackBerry Fell — Shares in the Canadian maker of BlackBerry smartphones peaked in August of 2007, at two hundred and thirty-six dollars. In retrospect, the company was facing an inflection point and was completely unaware. Seven months earlier, in January, Apple had introduced the iPhone at San Francisco's Moscone Center.

More: Wired, GigaOM, Bloomberg, stratechery, Daring Fireball, larry borsato, memeburn, Mashable and Reuters

Tweets: @mattrosoff and @gsterling

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Message unread: Silicon Valley's secret, failed bid to save BlackBerry — Could switching to Android and focusing on business have turned the company around? — In the summer of 2012, just a few months into the job, RIM (now BlackBerry) CEO Thorsten Heins was trying to guide the company through an ongoing crisis.

More: BGR, CITEworld, Facebook and slideshare.net. Tweets: @robinchan

Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:

Amid BlackBerry's sinking ship, here comes a new BB7 phone with ancient hardware

More: BlackBerry Press Room, Guardian, The Next Web, TechSpot, ZDNet, BerryReview, Unwired View, Inquirer, Digital Trends, Electronista, CrackBerry.com, GadgeTell and Engadget

Bloomberg:

BlackBerry Said to Have Sought Buyers Since 2012 Without Success

Steve Cheney:

On The Future of iOS and Android — We've entered the age of iOS and Android penetrating beyond mobile, and there's a lot happening with respect to how the entire ecosystem is developing. Mobile advancements / investments are now driving the progression of all converged hardware / software.

More: Fortune and PC Pro. Tweets: @stevesi, @jessicalessin, @semil, @disruptivedean, @rohit_x_ and @rabois

Benedict Evans:

Defending iOS with cheap iPhones — Over the last 12 months, Google Android devices have outsold iOS by about 3 to 1. There are now perhaps 775m-800m ‘official’ Android devices in use, versus perhaps 415m iOS devices. This is without counting sales of the Amazon Kindle Fire or the (very) …

More: Tech.pinions, BGR, Business Insider, Key Performance Indicators, A VC and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @madewulf. Thanks:@monkbent

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Carl Icahn Makes a Large Investment in Apple — Shares of Apple are rising by more than four percent on word that Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist investor trying to take over Dell, has made a large investment in the company behind the iPhone and the Mac.

More: Forbes, Reuters, TechCrunch, GigaOM, BGR, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, Associated Press, ZDNet, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, CNNMoney.com, Business Insider, CNBC, Bloomberg, Macworld, BuzzFeed, Mashable and MoneyBeat

Tweets: @carl_c_icahn, @carl_c_icahn, @cnbc, @pkedrosky, @parislemon, @stevekovach, @zpower, @miguelrios, @johnpaczkowski and @edbott

Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:

AAPL Ends Up 5%: Icahn Tweets ‘Large Position,’ Nice Chat with CEO Cook

More: The Next Web, VentureBeat and Wired

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Facebook Testing VIP App With Some Celebs — The VIP app, which sources say Facebook is currently testing with a small group of famous people, essentially lets celebs (or their handlers) easily monitor Facebook fan chatter about themselves from a mobile device.

More: Inside Facebook, AllFacebook, The Atlantic Wire, The Verge, TechCrunch, bizjournals and App Advice

Tweets: @evelynrusli and @caseynewton

Dan Primack / Fortune:

FitBit raises $43 million in new funding — Activity tracker bulks up ahead of possible competition from Apple. — FORTUNE — FitBit, maker of a wearable device that measures physical activity, has raised $43 million in new venture capital funding. Fortune has learned that Softbank Capital led …

More: AllThingsD, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, Business Insider, VentureBeat and Mashable

Tweets: @ericjackson and @danprimack

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Amazon's AWS Now Offers A Push Notification Service For iOS, Android And Kindle Apps, Widening Its Toolkit For Mobile Developers — Amazon continues to “push” further into the space of becoming a one-stop shop for mobile developers looking to make, host and distribute apps …

More: GeekWire, Amazon.com, The Next Web, Engadget, Computerworld, MacRumors, iPhone Hacks, ZDNet, GigaOM and MacNN

Jamie Rigg / Engadget:

Some 2013 Nexus 7 users report buggy multitouch, Google is investigating — A muddled sense of direction isn't the only problem affecting the new generation of Nexus 7 slates, it seems, as some users are also reporting issues with multitouch on the 1,920 x 1,200 display.

More: CNET, 9to5Google, TechHive, The Next Web, GSMArena Blog, The Verge, Android Police, Softpedia News, Android Beat, Android Community and Delimiter

Zoe Kleinman / BBC:

Norway blocks Apple map flights — Oslo (left) is visible in 2D on Apple's map but Danish capital Copenhagen (right) is in 3D — Norway's government is refusing to let Apple take aerial photography of the capital city Oslo to create 3D images for its Maps app, reports local media.

More: 9to5Mac, ZDNet, WorldViews, VentureBeat, Agence France Presse, PadGadget, The Register, App Advice, Digital Trends, TechnoBuffalo, Inquirer, TUAW, TechEye, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, MacDailyNews, AppleInsider and The Mac Observer. Tweets: @9to5mac

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

To Square Up To Foursquare, Yelp Now Lets Users Post Reviews Directly From Its Mobile App — It's been a long time coming, but user-generated local reviews site Yelp is finally getting with the program: today it is rolling out the ability for users to write reviews directly in its mobile app …

More: Yelp Official Blog, Engadget, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, WebProNews and App Advice

Tweets: @joshconstine and @chris_ciaccia

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Microsoft unveils wrist-friendly Sculpt Ergonomic and Sculpt Comfort Desktops — Microsoft has pursued ever more exotic shapes in the name of comfort. Its new Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop might just take the cake, however. The all-wireless bundle's centerpiece, the Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard …

More: Windows Experience Blog, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, PC World, ZDNet, The Verge, Windows Phone Central and TechSpot

James Trew / Engadget:

Telefonica pens deal with Evernote, gives global customers one year's free premium access — You've got to hand it to Evernote, it's taking the initiative when it comes to getting its popular productivity tools into as many hands as possible. We've already seen Deutsche Telekom customers getting access …

More: TechCrunch, VatorNews, ZDNet, Electronista, Mobile World Live, GigaOM, NYT Bits, IntoMobile and The Next Web

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter Buys Open Source Training Company Marakana To Power New “Twitter University” For Engineers — Twitter today announced its latest acquisition, along with a move into offering richer resources to attract better engineering talent to the company. It has bought Marakana …

More: Official Twitter blog, AllThingsD, The Next Web, Mobile Marketing Watch, VentureBeat, ZDNet and Mashable. Tweets: @twu

Kevin Fitchard / GigaOM:

Mobile subscriber growth in the U.S. slows to a standstill — U.S. mobile carriers added only 139,000 new connections to their networks in the second quarter, making it the most lackluster period of growth in the modern age of mobile, according to a new report from Chetan Sharma Consulting.

More: Chetan Sharma, Mobile Marketing Watch and AllThingsD. Thanks:@kfitchard

Chris Kanaracus / InfoWorld:

Larry Ellison: Some government surveillance is ‘essential’ to fight terror — Ellison also weighed in on his friendship with Steve Jobs and Oracle's litigation against Google in a televised interview — Some level of government surveillance is “essential” if the nation is to minimize …

More: CBS News, AllThingsD, SiliconBeat, Computerworld, Digits, Mercury News, 9to5Google, eWeek, Los Angeles Times, Business Insider, SiliconBeat, ZDNet, Forbes, GeekWire, TUAW, TechEye, Yahoo! News and 9to5Mac

Rachel King / ZDNet:

Box for Android now supports account toggling, real-time updates for offline files — Summary: Even though enterprise is the core target audience, Box product managers know that most users want to be able to toggle between multiple accounts for work and play.

More: VentureBeat, The Box Blog, The Next Web, Android Community, GeekWire and Engadget

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Business Intelligence Startup Looker Raises $16M From Redpoint, First Round — Looker, a business intelligence startup founded by an early lead engineer from Netscape and LiveOps, has raised $16 Million in series A funding, led by Redpoint Ventures with First Round Capital …

More: eWeek, VentureBeat, Redpoint Ventures, GigaOM, ex post facto, The Register, Reuters and PandoDaily. Tweets: @firstround. Thanks:@drs650

Jathan Sadowski / Wired:

Stop Thinking That Tech Hacks Are the Solution to Our Surveillance Woes — That's it, I'm calling it early: this is officially the “summer of surveillance.” Especially with the latest news that due to this surveillance, not one, but two, separate companies announced they were shutting …

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.

Zoho:

Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Uncapped with Jack Altman:

Saam Motamedi from Greylock Partners

Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.

Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.

Invest Like the Best:

Henry Ellenbogen - Man Versus Machine

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Grit:

How Evan Spiegel Is Building the Future of Computing

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Acquired:

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.

Subscribe to Acquired.

Lenny's Podcast:

Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:40 PM ET, August 13, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.