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Tuesday 03 January 2012

RIM Co-Founders To Be Ousted As Co-Chairmen [ 03-01-2012 18:41 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: Financial Post Translation by: Paul Smith

There is never a dull moment at RIM these days and the opening days of 2012 appear to be no different in that regard. A report by the Financial Post is claiming that RIM's joint chairman and CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are about to be ousted from their roles as chairmen. Both the co-founders of RIM would apparently remain co-CEOs, but a new, independent chairman would be installed.

The frontrunner for that position is said to be Barbara Stymiest, a member of RIM's board of directors since 2007 and also a member of a committe setup to investigate the corporate governance of RIM. The committe was launched last year in response to shareholder pressure to break up the co-chairman/co-CEO roles. Having the chairman and CEO roles invested in the same person/people is common practice in the U.S., but not so in RIM's native Canada. Previous rumblings about splitting the roles or removing the co-founders hasn't met with much success as the board have generally been supportive of the pair even as RIM has grown closer and closer to the precipice. With Stymiest apparently set to become chairman the board's patience may have run out.

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Video: Ziggy Brings A Bit Of Siri To Windows Phone [ 03-01-2012 15:00 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: WPCentral Translation by: Paul Smith

There has been a fair bit of chatter over Siri like functionality being brought to Android and even a few attempts here and there, but not much has been said or done about brining that sort of voice interaction to Windows Phone. Sure Microsoft came out with some marketing crap after Siri was unveilved saying that Windows Phone had voice support yada yada yada, but now we can take a look at the real deal from a dev who is giving away his Siri like app for Windows Phone free.

The app is called Ask Ziggy and after having watched the demo video from the guys at WPCentral I was genuinely impressed. The app delivers all the usual voice related nonsense such as asking about the weather or the airspeed velocity of unladen swallows. However, take a look at some of uses shown in the video and notice that Ziggy really delivers on some pretty complex stuff. For example, when asked whether Darth Vader was a good guy or a bad guy Ziggy actually provides a nuanced answer that he was in fact both, rather than just give the stock answer of saying he was a baddie. Also noteworthy is that Ziggy allows both Facebook and Twitter status updates to be performed, something that wasn't possible using voice on Windows Phone (and still isn't using Siri).

It doesn't have quite the same polish as Siri does, but what do you want for free? The voice is your standard raspy electronic affair, but again it's hard to complain when the app is free and has no annoying adverts. It should be available soon(ish).

P.S. I have no idea if the name Ziggy was chosen as an homage to the supercomputer from Quantum Leap, but I would like to think so.

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IBD: Apple Will Loose Its Cool [ 03-01-2012 14:20 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: IBD Translation by: Paul Smith

Investors Business Daily is indulging in the age old tradition, at this time of year, of making predictions about the next 12 months. Top of their list is a prediction that Apple will 'loose its cool'. How will this seemingly impossible reversal of fortunes be brought about? Well apparently, according to IBD anyway, the iPhone is 'boxy, flat and feeling stale' and anyway they think Samsung's Galaxy range is cooler. Not only that but the mass of Android handsets out there is going to eat Apple alive ... keep dreaming. I'm no Apple fanboy, but with the real iPhone 5 looming, a new iPad and the possibility of an Apple branded TV set on the horizon 2012 really doesn't look all that bad for the folks in Cupertino.

The rest of the predictions were equally amusing, but for different reasons. For example, apparently Google+ isn't going to pose any real threat to Facebook in 2012. Presumably it was felt to be a little too on the nose to predict that a bear would shit in the woods some time in 2012. Likewise RIM is supposed to take a nosedive this year and go the way of Palm. Maybe RIM will bump into that bear? Twitter too made for some fun with the prediction that it would 'totter' and stagnate because it isn't a place where you can 'hang out'. To be fair, no website is a place where you can actually hang out, that would be called a pub.

For all the mirth and laughter of IBD's predictions head on over and check them out in full.

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