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BlackBerry Ltd co-founder Jim Balsillie says his NHL dreams didn’t endanger the company

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 06/09/2015 - 14:36

BlackBerry Ltd. co-founder Jim Balsillie can rattle a long list of factors behind the company’s stunning fall from the top.

Addressing the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto Tuesday, he discussed many of them: patent lawsuits, aggressive competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone, the failure of the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm. But there’s one theory in particular he wants to permanently debunk: That he was too distracted from the handset business by his pursuit of a new NHL team for Ontario.

“It gave a lot of people an opportunity to make a very simplistic solution to a very complex problem,” Balsillie said. “In 20 years, I didn’t miss one day of work. I didn’t miss one meeting, or one email, or one document to review.”

Wearing a pink jacket and a white dress shirt with no tie, Balsillie walked through the company’s dramatic story — from its humble origins in the mid-‘90s, to its ultimate heyday in 2011 where it was making $20 billion in revenue, followed by its rapid loss of handset market share to competitors. Balsillie and his co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis stepped down from the company formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd. in 2012. Last year, the company’s revenue was $4 billion.

Of course, BlackBerry can take credit for inventing an entirely new product, the now-ubiquitous smartphone. At a time when pagers were the height of business communications technology, BlackBerry gained traction with everyone from teenagers to business leaders by making it possible to send and receive emails on a handheld device.

But finding funding as a technology startup wasn’t easy, Balsillie said.

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“We were ahead of our time. Tech wasn’t embedded in everything, as it is today,” he said. “You had to have a profitable business model that you can defend.”

It was an aggressive business. BlackBerry found success by partnering with big telecommunications carriers like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., but the parties were each trying to make as much money as possible and the relationships were sometimes bumpy.

In 2007, AT&T signed a multi-year exclusivity deal with Apple’s iPhone. BlackBerry introduced the Storm, its most sophisticated product ever, to compete with the iPhone for the high-end smartphone market. It ended up rushed to market too soon, it was full of bugs, and slow, and customers didn’t want it.

A year later, Verizon made a deal with Google Inc.’s Android, Balsillie said.

“Here you are being fired by your second largest customer. Your largest customer is partnered with iPhone. The lesson is, there’s a fine line between ambition and biting off more than you can chew,” Balsillie said. “With the Storm, we tried to do too much… It blew up on us.”

If anything is most to blame for nearly killing BlackBerry entirely, it was the massive patent-infringement lawsuit launched by NTP Inc. against the company, Balsillie said. NTP had claim to a patent on a wireless email technology that it claimed — and a U.S. court later agreed — BlackBerry had willfully violated. The company was criticized for letting the lawsuit drag on for years before eventually settling, after appealing the infringement ruling, for about US$600 million. Balsillie said that settling any faster than the company did would have been a death sentence.

“It’s kind of like your child living through a senseless accident. You’re happy they’re alive, but it’s not a happy dance,” he said. “But my goodness, you’re relieved.”

Balsillie no longer has any official ties with the company he helped create, as current chief executive John Chen leads a difficult turnaround strategy. But unlike most of his former customers, the BlackBerry founder said he remains a loyalist.

“When it comes to smartphones, I’m sentimental,” he said. “I use a Bold. I love it and you’ll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.”

 

Apple Inc made a dig at Spotify during its keynote, and Spotify’s CEO isn’t happy about it

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 06/09/2015 - 10:55

During Apple Inc’s keynote address at its WWDC conference on Monday, the company made a sly dig at Spotify.

It was so short you’d miss it if you blinked.

When Apple debuted its new music-streaming service, Taylor Swift was in the No. 1 spot on the video charts.

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Swift famously does not get along with Spotify. She argues that its free, ad-supported model fails to properly value artists’ work, and removed all her most recent music from the platform after a high-profile falling out.

Shortly after she pulled her music from Spotify, her album “1989” sold 1.3 million copies within its first week — the most of any album since 2002 — and became the top-selling album of 2014.

Apple Music, which will not have a free tier, does have Taylor Swift’s music, and the company not so subtly showed that off on stage.

What does Spotify have to say about all this?

ScreenshotIt seems Taylor Swift's music will be part of Apple's new streaming platform, Apple Music.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek subtweeted to acknowledge he caught the dig, then deleted it.

Subtweeting is when you make a comment on Twitter that’s obviously in reference to something, but you don’t actually state the original reference.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain preview — Five ways Hideo Kojima’s next game is different

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 06/09/2015 - 06:59

LOS ANGELES — The world is open in the latest instalment of “Metal Gear Solid.”

While his penchant for hiding in cardboard boxes remains, the cigar-smoking protagonist is no longer confined to slipping through linear levels in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the next edition of Konami’s long-running stealth video game series. The open-world adventure is providing players with the power to choose exactly how Snake embarks on his missions.

Phantom Pain, which is scheduled for release Sept. 1, is essentially a tale of revenge. The game centres on a battered and bruised Snake (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) setting off on horseback to rebuild his private army in Cold War-era Afghanistan.

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After recently spending several hours with Phantom Pain, here are a few of the most dramatic changes coming to the franchise:

OPENING ACT

Before he’s unleashed on the open world, Snake mysteriously awakens in a medical facility after being in a coma for nearly a decade following the events of Ground Zeroes, a stand-alone prologue released last year. The first chapter focuses on Snake’s harrowing pursuit by the series’ most supernatural baddies, yet all while he’s wearing nothing but a flimsy hospital gown.

CHOOSE OR LOSE

The saga is divided into chapters, each with its own opening and closing credits. However, Phantom Pain leaves Snake’s strategies mostly up to players to decide, rewarding them for being as sneaky and resourceful as possible. It’s possible for Snake to go with guns blazing into enemy territory, but that won’t necessarily net him the best upgrades for his bionic arm or base.

BASE CONTROL

Phantom Pain is as much about supply management as it is snooping around. Snake can slyly tether balloons to enemies, vehicles, munitions and more in order to send them back to his headquarters, Mother Base. As he collects supplies, his floating enclave will prosper. For example, Snake won’t be able to interrogate foes until he’s actually recruited an interpreter.

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC

Apparently, music will play a vital role in Phantom Pain, which is set in the 1980s. That’s evidenced by tunes from such artists as Billy Idol and A-Ha pumping out from boom boxes tucked within bases. Snake can also create his own retro mixtapes. What better way to prepare for combat than to blast David Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs” on the helicopter ride into battle?

MY BUDDY AND ME

Snake won’t totally be alone on the front lines. After securing or recruiting them, he’s able to call on such “buddies” — as they’re known in the game — as a trained attack dog, mechanized robot walker and assassin sidekick to accomplish his tasks. As with Snake’s other equipment, the buddies can be outfitted with stuff like better armour and higher tech weapons.

Apple Inc iOS 9 features revealed: Everything you need to know about the next big software update for the iPhone and iPad

National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 06/09/2015 - 05:37

Apple has unveiled iOS 9, its next major software update for iPhones and iPads.

Apple focused on elevating the foundation of the platform with iOS 9, which means it’s made some security and performance updates.

Here’s a look at everything that’s coming to iOS 9.

Siri and search

Apple is making some big improvements to Siri. The company says that word-detection accuracy has improved and Siri now misses words only 5% of the time.

One big change seems to be that Siri is becoming more intelligent and contextual, like Google Now. Thanks to a new feature called Proactive, Siri offers up contacts you might want to call or text based on your upcoming meetings and suggests apps you might want to download based on the ones you already have.

Apple is also opening up the API for its Spotlight search to developers, which means content within apps will soon be as searchable as the files stored on your phone. 

Apple’s Craig Federighi showed in an on-stage demo how search and Siri integrate tightly with all of Apple’s apps. For example, since Federighi had a potluck on his calendar, as soon as he typed in “potato” in search, potato recipes began to show up in the results. 

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Siri can also pull up photos from your phone based on when and where you took them. So, for example, when Federighi says, “Show me photos from San Francisco last year,” any photos taken in the city about one year ago will show up.

Security is a big part of iOS 9 too. Apple emphasized that it doesn’t mine your data for contacts and other information and store it in the cloud. Everything stays on your device.

“You are in control,” Federighi said.

Apple Pay

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There are some updates to Apple Pay coming in iOS 9 — you’ll be able to add store cards and royalty cards to the app. The Passbook app is being rebranded as Wallet, and you’ll be able to store credit, debit, and store loyalty cards within the app. 

Notes and Maps

Apple is making some improvements to its other native apps. Notes, for example, comes with a new toolbar that lets you format headings, numbered lists, and other formatting more easily.

You can access the camera and camera roll directly from Notes in iOS 9. Drawing tools are also coming to Notes, and you choose to save webpages from Safari directly to a note with a single tap.

Apple is making significant additions to Maps, too, which saw a troubled launch when it was initially unveiled in 2012. Public transit is coming to Apple Maps, whereas the app previously supported only driving directions.

Apple

News

An application called News is coming to iOS 9, one that seems to be a Flipboard competitor.

The app shows you various news sources when you set it up, and you can choose which ones you want to follow. It then creates a feed based on your choices that looks like an interactive magazine.

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You can watch news videos within the app.

The app is extremely visual — photo galleries are shown in a thumbnail-like format called Photo Mosaics. Apple is trying to make this the go-to news reader app for iPhone and iPad users.

New features for the iPad

Apple is adding some functionality specifically for the iPad. There are new shortcuts in the quick-type bar for the iPad that lets you access attachments, cut and paste text, and more. You can turn the keyboard into a trackpad by placing two fingers down on it and dragging.

The most notable new iPad feature is the new split-screen capability. By swiping in from the side, you can check see your email while browsing in Safari. Pulling down from the top lets you access other Apple apps that work with this split screen mode, like Notes.

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It looks as if it works really well based on the demo. You can even resize videos and move them around the screen so you can continue watching while you read your email or browse other apps. It’s worth noting that these features have been available in Android for some time. On some LG phones, for example, you can resize windows and apps and move them around the screen.

Performance, battery life, and other improvements

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There’s a new low-power mode coming to iOS 9, which Apple claims can extend your iPhone’s battery for an extra three hours.

Apple is fixing over-the-air updates by reducing the amount of space you need to install new updates. You’ll need only 1.3GB to install iOS 9 (you needed 4.6GB of free space to update your iPhone to iOS 8).

Some improvements are coming to HomeKit; there’s support for window shades, carbon-monoxide sensors, and security systems.

With CarPlay — Apple’s connected-car software — your phone will automatically connect to the system. You don’t even have to take your iPhone out of your pocket, Apple says.

Compatible devices

Here’s a look at all the Apple devices that will support iOS 9.

Apple

Apple hasn’t said when iOS 9 will officially launch, but it typically debuts in the fall, around the same time as the iPhone.

At WWDC 2015 Apple Inc finally puts women onstage

National Post Tech Desk - Mon, 06/08/2015 - 13:59

The big news at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference always revolves around new apps and updated operating systems. Monday’s event marked a completely different turning point for Apple: Women took the stage during a keynote presentation.

Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay, appeared before the crowd of software developers and journalists on Monday to discuss progress in mobile payments. A second woman, Susan Prescott, gave the pitch for Apple’s forthcoming News app. It marks the first time female executives have made an on-stage appearance during an Apple keynote presentation since 2010, when Zynga’s Jen Herman gave a demonstration of the game Farmville.

Like its competitors, Apple wants to be seen as working against the image of Silicon Valley as a male-dominated industry. Over the weekend, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that the industry needs to do a better job on gender issues. The company’s much-hyped and highly-scrutinized public events have long been noticeable for the absence of prominent women.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Imagesusan Prescott, Apple vice president of Product Management and Marketing, speaks during the Apple WWDC 2015.

 

Christy Turlington, a legendary fashion model, was the only woman to appear during the recent Apple Watch presentation. If you’re keeping track of these presentations as a way to measure progress towards gender equality in Silicon Valley, you could easily make the case that Turlington’s cameo should actually count against Apple. Few people are complaining about a lack of beautiful women being used to draw attention to gadgets.

Compare Apple’s performance to this year’s Google’s I/O developers conference, which took place at the end of May. Arguably the biggest news of the day-Google Now on Tap -was presented by Aparna Chennapragada, the company’s director of product management. Chennapragada was one of three women who spoke during the keynote presentation. Ellie Powers, product manager for Google Play, has presented for three years running. The last time a Google didn’t have a woman on stage during its annual I/O keynote was 2011.

Microsoft also seemed to make a point of having more women on stage at the keynote for its developer conference, Build, held in late April. Three women took the stage for the keynote, walking through technical subjects like SQL databases and Saas applications. At the 2014 conference, the only female voice on stage came from Cortana, who sounds like a lady but is really a piece of artificial intelligence technology.

Stephen Lam/Getty ImagesModel Christy Turlington was the only woman who presented during the company's Apple Watch reveal keynote in March.

Developers conferences have never been a paragon of gender diversity. A regular tradition at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference are tweeted photos showing a line for the men’s room that extends down the hall next to a completely empty women’s bathroom. When female developers had to wait to use the facilities at I/O this year, some people actually held it up as a triumph.

Of course, counting keynote speakers and measuring bathroom lines isn’t a perfect way to measure the current levels of gender inequality in the tech industry. Google’s workforce isn’t actually any more diverse than Apple’s. About 30 percent of each company’s employees are women, according to recent diversity reports. (Here are reports for Apple, Google, and Microsoft.) Apple actually employs more women in tech positions than Google (20 percent versus 18 percent), and women make up a higher percentage of leadership positions (28 percent to 22 percent.) There are three women on Google’s board compared to Apple’s two. Microsoft lags behind both companies, with only 17 percent of its tech jobs and 18 percent of its leadership roles held by women.

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Apple Music streaming service offers 30 million songs for US$9.99 a month, release date set for June 30

National Post Tech Desk - Mon, 06/08/2015 - 13:47

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple showed off a new music streaming service on Monday, dubbed Apple Music, that will give users access to an inventory of 30 million songs for US$9.99 a month.

While late to the hotly competitive streaming music business, Apple has strong advantages: deep relationships with music companies; a global brand; and hundreds of millions of customers – and their credit cards – through iTunes.

Calling it a “revolutionary music service,” legendary music industry figure Jimmy Iovine took the stage at the company’s annual conference for developers to unveil what had been widely expected ahead of the event. Apple Music includes a service to connect artists and fans and what the company described as a global radio station called Beats 1.

Apple Music’s US$9.99 a month price takes effect after a three-month free subscription period. The company is also offering what it calls a “family plan” for US$14.99 a month for up to six family members.

Local pricing would be available closer to launch, Apple Canada said in an email release Monday.

It will be available on iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, Macs, Apple TV, personal computers and — in a surprising twist — Android smartphones running software from Google Inc.

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Earlier in the event, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook announced that so-called “native” apps will be introduced in the next version of the operating system for its Watch that should make apps for its latest gadget speedier and help untether it from the iPhone.

The company also unveiled new details about its Apple Pay service, saying it was already supported by more than 2,500 banks and will surpass 1 million locations accepting it next month. In addition, the company said it would roll out the service to the United Kingdom next month.

In a related move, Apple said it would rename Passbook, its app for credit and debit cards and boarding passes, to Wallet.

The company also unveiled the next version of its operating system for Macs, El Capitan, continuing the company’s theme of naming key updates to the software after California landmarks. The software will be available in the fall.

Like other Apple products, the Watch’s commercial success will likely hinge on a compelling collection of apps. But early apps for the timepiece have been tethered to the iPhone, placing some limits on what developers could do.

The expanded software kit should lead to better and faster watch apps, said Bob O’Donnell, an analyst at TECHnalysis Research, in an interview before the event.

But it was the music service that was the highlight of the event. The company behind the iPod and iTunes has long been a leader in digital music, but it has lost ground in recent years as subscription services such as Spotify have caught on with consumers.

© Thomson Reuters 2015, with files from Bloomberg

Apple Inc’s WWDC 2015 to reveal music streaming service, iOS 9 and more: Live coverage

National Post Tech Desk - Mon, 06/08/2015 - 08:38

Apple Inc. is expected to reveal exciting products and software at its biggest developers’ event of the year, including a new music streaming service that will pit the company against rivals like Spotify and Pandora.

The world’s biggest tech company is likely to announce the paid music service at its annual Worldwide Developers’ Conference in San Francisco today. In a keynote session, chief executive Tim Cook and other Apple executives are also expected to unveil new features of its latest iOS for iPhones and iPads, and OS X for Macintosh computers.

Analysts say Cook and his team will also introduce enhancements to its mobile-payment service known as Apple Pay, and tools for building third-party apps for Apple Watch.

Apple makes most of its money from selling handheld gadgets, like the popular iPhone, and other computer hardware. But the company uses the less flashy WWDC to highlight the software, online services and apps that make those devices indispensable to consumers around the world.

What will Tim Cook reveal about the iPhone maker’s road map for the coming year? Join FP Tech Desk for all the latest news, buzz and analysis of Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET.

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With files from The Associated Press

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