| Xbox Music said to rival Spotify and iTunes, Microsoft to make a mark in music Jun 28th 2012, 20:57  Xbox Music is coming to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, that much we know. We also know that the Zune brand is dead. But whether the new service will be a simple rebadge or an entirely new beast remains a mystery. Bloomberg has it on good authority, however, that that Xbox Music will more than just a new face. Microsoft is allegedly combining all the most successful elements of its competitors -- streaming, online storage, and offline syncing -- into a product that will put iTunes, Spotify and Google Play squarely in its crosshairs. The company is allegedly in talks with the record labels to secure the necessary rights for a monthly subscription service and a market for purchasing tracks. It will also take a page from Google Music and allow customers to upload their own collections. If Microsoft can pull off a such a comprehensive service others in the field better watch out -- few companies have the reach or budget of Redmond. Xbox Music said to rival Spotify and iTunes, Microsoft to make a mark in music originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  Bloomberg | Email this | Comments | | RIM announces Q1 earnings: $518 million net loss, 5,000 job cuts, BB10 not due until Q1 2013 Jun 28th 2012, 20:25  The last quarter has been about as rough as they come for RIM, and it's now detailed just how things stacked up in terms of hard numbers. For the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year, the company brought in $2.8 billion in revenue, down a full 33 percent from the prior quarter, while it reported a net loss of $518 million -- much worse than analysts were expecting. What's more, it's also announced that it's cutting an additional 5,000 jobs as part of its ongoing restructuring efforts, and that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones now won't launch until sometime in the first quarter of the 2013 calendar year. As for why, RIM only went as far as to say that the integration of some key BlackBerry 10 features and the "associated large volume of code" has "proven to be more time consuming than anticipated." For his part, though, CEO Thorsten Heins says he remains "confident that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones will provide a ground-breaking next generation smartphone user experience," and that he's "encouraged by the traction that the BlackBerry 10 platform is gaining with application developers and content partners." He further notes that the response to BB10 from key carrier partners has "been very positive." In terms of its existing devices, RIM reports that BlackBerry smartphone shipments (not sales) for the quarter totaled 7.8 million, while there were about 260,000 PlayBooks shipped -- on the company's earnings call, Heins noted that the total BlackBerry subscriber base now stands at 78 million. Not surprisingly, the company is warning of more bad news to come. It says it expects the "next several quarters to continue to be very challenging," with everything from the "increasing competitive environment," lower handset volumes, impact from the BlackBerry 10 delay, and the company's plans to "continue to aggressively drive sales of BlackBerry 7 handheld devices" expected to cut into its bottom line. In another bit of news, the company also announced that it has appointed Steve Zipperstein, Verizon's former General Counsel, as its new Chief Legal Officer. You can find the full earnings report at the source link below. RIM announces Q1 earnings: $518 million net loss, 5,000 job cuts, BB10 not due until Q1 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | MarketWatch, RIM [PDF] | Email this | Comments | | Recon Instruments defrosts its Android SDK at Google I/O (video) Jun 28th 2012, 20:23  Ski season (in the northern hemisphere at least) was in full swing when Recon Instruments announced that it'd be providing developers with an Android SDK for its HUD alpine goggles. Now, most of that snow may have melted, but the SDK is finally a cold, hard reality. Made available to the developing masses at Google I/O this week, frosty-fingered devs can use the tool to hook-in to Recon's visual display tools, including its MOD Live series. Given that this opens up the goggles' altimeter, barometer, accelerometer, gyro and magnetometer and temperature reader, that's a lot of detail to tuck into. Itching to get that downhill leaderboard app going? Slide on over to the source for the details. Continue reading Recon Instruments defrosts its Android SDK at Google I/O (video) Recon Instruments defrosts its Android SDK at Google I/O (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Recon Instruments | Email this | Comments | | Orange France begins nationwide NFC SIM rollout in the name of 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' Jun 28th 2012, 20:11  NFC's potential uses are numerous -- contactless mobile payments, automated actions and content sharing to name a few -- but aside from its scattered inclusion in a limited number of handsets in the US and overseas, we've yet to see it truly take off. Cue Orange France. The wireless carrier's taking a non-traditional route to spur adoption by sidestepping manufacturers and bringing the near field communication tech to all 27 million of its subscribers directly. To do this, the operator's implementing Gemalto's UpTeq SIM, a secure NFC solution the company claims is on par with existing chip-based implementations. Going forward, the enhanced SIMs will be standard issue for new post-paid users throughout the carrier's home footprint, while current subs will have to contact Orange to specifically request it. Head on past the break to check out the company's official PR. Continue reading Orange France begins nationwide NFC SIM rollout in the name of 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' Orange France begins nationwide NFC SIM rollout in the name of 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  TechCrunch | | Email this | Comments | | Microsoft reportedly plans Windows 8 upgrades all the way from XP, wants us to just let go of the past Jun 28th 2012, 19:39  Microsoft has been promising a cheap-and-cheerful upgrade path to Windows 8 for those who buy new PCs. But what about that five-year-old PC in the basement? If the historically well-connected Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet is right, the upgrade path will go further back -- much further. Although upgraders will still want Windows 7 if they need to carry over absolutely everything, tipsters claim that settings can transfer from releases as old as Windows Vista SP1. Those with truly ancient PCs (we're looking at you, corporate customers) can even bring over personal files from an OS as dated as Windows XP SP3. Like we saw last time around, some of the 7-to-8 upgrade rules are a bit Byzantine -- 7 Professional users can't step down to the non-Pro Windows 8 release, for example, and it's equally verboten to change language editions or move from 32- to 64-bit code without a full-scale reinstallation. The extra-long olive branch will be slightly unusual for Microsoft if it's confirmed, but then the company is also trying to move along a user base that in some cases has clung to XP for more than a decade. Redmond is no doubt eager to get rid of our dependency issues. Microsoft reportedly plans Windows 8 upgrades all the way from XP, wants us to just let go of the past originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | ZDNet | Email this | Comments | |
