Awful sales forced BlackBerry to cancel two phones planned for 2014

Hold onto that BlackBerry Z30 while you can, BlackBerry fans: It might be the last device designed in Waterloo targeted to the mass market for a long time. The Wall Street Journal has spotted a detail in one of BlackBerry's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week that explains how the company has decided to cancel two new smartphones that it had tentatively planned to release in 2014. The Journal's sources say that the two cancelled devices "were internally code-named Café and Kopi, and were low-cost phones aimed at emerging markets." Given that manufacturer Foxconn has been signed to churn out low-cost BlackBerry 10 devices, it's not surprising that BlackBerry decided to cancel these two smartphones.



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Posted in 2013 at 08:10PM, December 23

Video: These are the two games that could save Wii U

The Wii U had an undeniably disastrous 2013 in terms of sales but Nintendo thinks it has two aces up its sleeve for next year. Nintendo on Wednesday released two new videos showing off the two most important exclusive games that it will release next year — Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8. Both games are loaded with beloved characters from Nintendo's Mario Bros. games and both are based on franchises that have made Nintendo a lot of money in the past.



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Posted in 2013 at 08:10PM, December 18

Samsung and HTC shamed for cheating as multiple phones get banned from benchmark site

Despite the company's denial last month, Samsung has been found by multiple reputable testers to cheat on benchmark tests. According to reports, several Samsung smartphones and tablets crank up the heat when they detect benchmark tests being performed. The problem seemingly extends beyond just Samsung though, and several other vendors including HTC and LG apparently juice their benchmark tests as well. Now, it looks like benchmark test providers are starting to fight back.



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Posted in 2013 at 08:10PM, November 27

BlackBerry board reportedly rejected all proposals to break up company

If BlackBerry's going down, it looks like it will go down in one piece. Unnamed sources tell Reuters that BlackBerry's board of directors flatly rejected proposals to break up the company even though Apple, Microsoft and Lenovo all expressed interest in buying off some of its parts. Reuters' sources say that BlackBerry's board saw that any breakup would "not serve the interest of all stakeholders, which include employees, customers and suppliers in addition to shareholders." Microsoft and Apple were reportedly interested in buying some of BlackBerry's patents while Cisco and Lenovo were apparently more willing to buy up much larger chunks of the business.

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Posted in 2013 at 08:10PM, November 08

PS4, Xbox One game delays might make for a sparse holiday lineup

Console launches are infamous for the underwhelming launch games that come along with them. Developers just don't have enough time to spend with the system to know its strengths and weaknesses before having to release their first next-gen titles, but this holiday season is looking even more grim than usual as delays have begun pushing some of the most exciting games out of the release window for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.



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Posted in 2013 at 08:10PM, October 18