Can't win 'em all, can you?
The highs were pretty high in the tech world in 2011, as new gadgets, updates and advances delighted the masses. I mean, Facebook made a change that most people (so far) seemed to actually like. What are the odds?
But the lows were lower. For every moment of digital bliss, it seemed, there was a clunker of equal or greater magnitude.
So, who are we to not rub salt in the wounds of those who got it oh-so-wrong this year?
In fairness, some of these "Doh!" moments came from folks who had otherwise good years. And nobody, not even perennial tech darling Apple, is perfect. (One hard-working journalist even had to write this very story twice after he accidentally deleted it and was forced to start over. Sweet, sweet irony.).
Sure, tech successes are nice. But these social-media miscues, foot-in-mouth e-moves and other digital duds gave us more to talk about in 2011.
Here are our 2011 "Tech Fails of the Year." Feel free to jump in the comments and let us know what we missed.
Weiner on Twitter
In a crowded and competitive field, former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner grabs our "What Were You Thinking?" award for this one.
The congressman (we're staying away from name jokes because ... well ... too easy) was being talked up as possibly the next mayor of New York City when his Twitter account was apparently hacked by someone who sent lewd photos to some of his female followers. That's the story Weiner gave, anyway.
Except, as it turned out, that someone was him.
Many of us gave Weiner the benefit of the doubt in the scandal's opening hours. I mean, what public official would be dumb enough to get raunchy on a platform like Twitter, where anyone who wants to can follow your every tweet?
Turns out ...
He wasn't alone. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried tweeted jokes about the Japan tsunami and earthquake that killed more than 15,000 people. Actor and Twitter pioneer Ashton Kutcher posted a hasty tweet defending Penn State coach Joe Paterno -- before, he says, learning the full extent of the school's child-sex scandal. The resulting backlash even led him to quit Twitter, at least temporarily.
But for so badly misunderstanding the public nature of Twitter, for the whirlwind of lies that followed before he fessed up and resigned and ... yes ... for thinking women like it when you send them closeup pictures of your crotch on the Internet, Weiner earns this bulging "Fail."
Go Daddy's SOPA misstep
When the vast majority of the Web's most active players are against something, and when your livelihood depends on the Web's most active players, it's probably best to either go along or keep quiet about it, right?
Not so for Go Daddy, the Web registrar and hosting company known for its titillating TV ads. In December, the company made the ill-fated decision to come out in support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Google, Yahoo and Facebook are just some of the Internet heavyweights that have lined up to stop the proposed federal law, which would penalize websites that host pirated content. The bill has come under fire from Web-freedom advocates, who say it could dampen online expression.
Go Daddy, which had submitted testimony to Congress in support of the bill, issued a public statement supporting it -- even doubling down with a stronger statement when the Web backlash began.
Fast forward 24 hours and the company -- which had already earned ire in some quarters for its racy (some might say sexist) TV commercials and its founder's penchant for elephant hunting -- changed its mind amid a rash of defections.
Tens of thousands of domains, including more than 50 owned by Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, were moved from Go Daddy, and that's before a Reddit-organized boycott planned for Friday. Oops.
'Duke Nukem Forever'
When video gamers wait 14 years for a follow-up to one of their favorite titles, they sort of expect it not to suck. In the minds of many, "Duke Nukem Forever" failed that important test.
Longtime gamers waited 14 years for \
Longtime gamers waited 14 years for "Duke Nukem Forever." Many would have been happy to wait longer.
First announced in 1997, "Forever" was to be a follow-up to a game that got lots of love for good-heartedly pushing the boundaries of sex, violence and naughty language in the emerging field of shooter games.
It was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. What finally emerged in June hit with a thud.
"At best, it can look a few years out of date; at worst, it is a blurry, stuttering mess," wrote CNN's Ravi Hiranand, in what actually was one of the kinder reviews of the game "Playing the game feels like being thrown back into the mid-'90s, and not in a happy, nostalgic sense."
In a post-"Grand Theft Auto" world, maybe waiting "forever" would have been a better idea after all.
The other tablets
As 2011 dawned, it appeared that Apple had created a thriving new space in personal computing with its iPad.
Beginning in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, a host of competing companies stepped forward with their rival tablets. The Motorola Xoom. BlackBerry's PlayBook. Samsung Galaxy Tab. The HP TouchPad.
One problem: Nobody bought them.
Most of the new tablets, many running Google's Android operating system, came in at roughly $500 -- about the same price as Apple's new iPad 2. And the public showed that at that price, they were happy going with the industry leader.
Some tablets got pulled. Others never made it off the production line. HP had some luck selling TouchPads -- after throwing up its hands and slashing prices to fire-sale levels.
One exception. Amazon may have cracked the code late in the year with its Kindle Fire, a smaller, simpler tablet that, at $199, is $300 cheaper than the least-expensive iPad 2.
Game off at PlayStation Network
When roughly 70 million users lose access to your gaming and entertainment network, it's a "fail."
In April, a hacker accessed account information for users of Sony's PlayStation Network, ultimately knocking the network offline in late April. It wasn't completely restored until early June and some gamers lacked access for weeks.
While getting hacked was bad, some users were even madder after Sony took a week from the time of the attack to let them know what happened.
Another, much smaller, attack happened in October. In the end, it looks like most of the network's fans stuck around -- a fact no doubt aided by multiple blockbuster game releases this year.
iPhones and bars don't mix
Seriously, Apple employees?
No ... seriously?
In 2010, the tech world was aflutter after an Apple employee, reportedly celebrating his birthday, lost a prototype of the unreleased iPhone 4 in a California beer hall.
Tech blog Gizmodo bought the phone, showcased it on their site, and touched off a firestorm that included everything from police raids to legal threats.
Well, at least we know that after all of that, it could never possibly happen again.
No ... wait. It happened again.
Tech blog CNET reported that an Appler left a prototype of the iPhone 4S in a Mexican bar and restaurant in San Francisco.
As our John Sutter wrote: "Here's a theory: Maybe there's some sort of connection between drinking and losing things?"
Netflix-Qwikster
Netflix, the Web's most popular movie-rental service, first rattled some customers by raising prices in July.
Then, in September, the company announced it was, basically, splitting itself in half. Web-streaming video would still come from Netflix. DVD-by-mail rentals would come from a separate company.
Called ... "Qwikster."
Where to start here? Customers who wanted both services complained about having to set up and maintain two different accounts on two different websites. Then there was the new name, which felt dated (Napster and Friendster, anyone?) and like it was spat out by some zany-misspelled-startup name generator.
Oh yeah ... and there was the fact that the "Qwikster" Twitter handle was already owned by a guy whose avatar was a weed-smoking Elmo muppet.
Chris Taylor, of Mashable, questioned whether Qwikster was "the worst product launch since New Coke."
It didn't even last as long as that syrupy mistake. About three weeks later, Netflix announced that Qwikster was dead.
PayPal plays Scrooge
Shutting down a fund to give presents to children in need at Christmas? Sounds like something one-percenter Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life" would endorse.
But that's essentially what Web-payment titan PayPal was doing before getting popped in the nose by the Internet.
PayPal temporarily shut down Regretsy\'s Christmas drive for kids in need.
PayPal temporarily shut down Regretsy's Christmas drive for kids in need.
Snarky blog Regretsy, when not mocking regrettable craft projects, has long maintained various charity funds. With the holidays approaching, actress and blog runner April Winchell (who writes on the site as "Helen Killer") announced a fund drive to buy toys for 200 children submitted by community members.
It was hugely successful, meeting its fundraising goal in the first 24 hours. Then PayPal, which was processing the donations, stepped in and froze the fund because it said Winchell used a "Donate" button that's supposed to be for nonprofits only.
The Web wasn't pleased.
Winchell used her popular blog to blast PayPal in less-than-friendly terms. Twitter users and other sites amplified the outrage.
A day later, PayPal said it "recognized our error" and even offered to donate to the fund.
God bless us ... every one.
iPhone 4S battery life
OK ... this one never reached the fever pitch that the iPhone 4's antenna problems did last year.
And maybe it's a sign that, when millions of people buy your product in the first few hours it exists, there are bound to be problems.
Despite not being the mythical iPhone 5, the 4S flew out of Apple stores when it was released October 14. But within hours, users started flocking to Apple's support forum to complain their batteries were running out of juice faster than Herman Cain's presidential campaign.
Apple publicly ignored the complaints for a little over two weeks. Then the company issued a statement saying that "a small number of customers" had complained about the battery and that an update to the phone's operating system was on the way.
As with the iPhone 4 "death grip," we'll call this a modest "fail" wrapped inside an epic win. The battery gripes didn't stop Apple from selling an iLoad of the new phones.
Bad year for BlackBerry
BlackBerry customers complained of mail delays and connectivity outages on their devices in October.
BlackBerry customers complained of mail delays and connectivity outages on their devices in October.
Alas, poor BlackBerry.
Research in Motion's crack-like gadget was once synonymous with "smartphone," effectively ushering in the era of messaging, e-mail-checking and other Phone 2.0 behavior.
But, 2011 wasn't kind.
It's bad enough that the iPhone and the rise of the Androids continue to muscle BlackBerrys out of the limelight. Then the BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM's effort in the burgeoning tablet space, arrived with a thud in April.
The capper, however, was an October outage at a data center that caused users to lose messaging ability in parts of Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, Latin America and North America. (To their credit, RIM ultimately gave away a pile of free apps to the folks affected).
The outage lasted for several days and was the final straw for some users, who abandoned ship for other phones.
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Top 10 Most Bizarre Tech Stories of 2011
In 2011, the tech world saw the release of game-changing gadgets including the iPhone 4s, Kindle Fire and iPad 2. But along with the good (and, yes, sometimes, the bad) came the bizarre.
And by bizarre, we mean the weird gadget creations and unexpected Internet sensations that went viral (cue Rebecca Black's "Friday").
Nonetheless, the strangest of the strange in the tech world made headlines by pushing the limits of technology, and this year it felt like there were more than ever.
Here are some of 2011's most unusual and out of the ordinary tech headlines, stories we never thought could happen -- which baffled us when they did.
1. Implanting organs in the name of art
As if two ears weren't enough, an Australian artist named Stelarc has decided to implant a third beneath the skin of his arm.
This performance artist wants to make his arm an acoustic device by attaching a wireless microphone to the implanted ear. The process took more than a decade and, he says, will take another year for his cells to fully grow on the ear's structure.
Once the ear is fully grown, the organ will be wirelessly linked to the Internet and allow the artist to share what his third ear hears with anyone who cares to tune in.
But, seriously, who wants to listen to an arm?
2. Japanese lab invents Internet kissing machine
Trying to give your partner a smooch through video chat and leaving lipstick smeared on your webcam is less than attractive.
Luckily, Japanese creators at Tokyo's Kajimoto Laboratory have made a "Kiss Transmission Device" for those long-distance lovers who want to share their affection.
Simply wiggle your tongue on a plastic straw, and it will transmit a signal that remotely makes another plastic straw wiggle -- presumably while it is in your lover's mouth.
This takes "keeping in touch" to a new and literal level.
3. This 'robot ostrich' probably will outrun you
Many animals can sprint faster than a human. Now, a "robot ostrich" is among them.
Scientists are trying to imitate the fastest two-legged runner on the planet by creating a robot ostrich that stands almost 5 feet tall, weighs 66 pounds and can run at speeds up to 32 mph. Fittingly, founders call this speedy ostrich FastRunner.
Although it hasn't been said what the robot bird will be used for, speculators assume that it is designed to go to war. To be sure, watching this birdie in motion may creep out those on the battlefield and beyond.
4. German scientists invent brain-powered car
No need to position your hands on the steering wheel to drive. Now, all you have to do is put your mind to it, and the car will execute your brain's commands.
Scientists at Germany's Free University are the innovators behind this brain-powered car.
A high-tech helmet is linked to an onboard computer that displays a cube on the screen. The driver can manipulate this cube with their thoughts. Using biological signals as patterns, the driver can pilot the car to drive in any direction, accelerate or break.
This may be only the beginning of what can evolve in the world of brain-powered computing.
But don't get too giddy just yet. The creators say the invention is only a "proof of concept experiment" and will not be speeding into action any time soon.
Still, the fact is that this creation is an out of the ordinary idea that bewilders us to think it exists at all.
5. Forget planking -- who's up for owling?
Some people stop at nothing and take owling to the extreme.
Some people stop at nothing and take owling to the extreme.
Planking was quite popular this year, as many folks went online to share images of themselves lying stiff as a board in public. But the trend shifted, at least for a brief Web moment, to mimicking everyone's favorite wise and nocturnal feathered friend.
The spinoff became a peculiar addiction for some, and owling has become one of the largest Internet memes.
People have shared images owling atop statues, houses and office desks. Some have even taken this bird's actions below ground level and participated in underwater owling.
It's pretty simple. Squat on an object, press your arms toward the ground, straighten your back and raise your head as you gaze into the distance and sit perched, well, like an owl.
Bellowing a "hoot" or two is optional.
6. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg eats only what he kills
"The only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, announced in May.
He calls it a "personal challenge"; we say it's just plain weird. Zuckerberg kills the animals and sends them off to a butcher in Santa Cruz, California, who cuts them into parts. From there, it's left for Zuckerberg to cook and consume.
Zuckerberg has begun his slaughtering challenge and made goats, pigs and chickens his prey.
7. Feeling lonely? Go hug yourself
We all need a hug at times, but it doesn't always happen when someone non-creepy is around to give us one. Instead, you can hug yourself by wearing a vest that hugs you back.
This invention, which was displayed at Japan's 3D and Virtual Reality Expo this year, allows individuals to wear a coded black vest that simulates a hug through programmed air compressions.
The mastermind behind this creation says he was curious as to how it would feel.
We think that if that aforementioned non-creepy person isn't around, it may be better to ask the creep for that hug before putting on this very odd vest.
8. Missing cobra sinks fangs into Twitter
Want to win more than 75,000 followers on Twitter within 24 hours? Morph into an Egyptian cobra and escape from New York's Bronx Zoo.
This venomous snake slid its way out of the zoo back in late March and slithered onto social media, publishing witty tweets of its whereabouts like, "Leaving Wall Street. These guys make my skin crawl."
Since March, the snake has been found, returned to the zoo and amassed more than 200,000 followers. It is still also actively tweeting through its account, @BronxZoosCobra.
And for the skeptics, the serpent published a post saying, "A lot of people are asking how I can tweet with no access to a computer or fingers. Ever heard of an iPhone? Duh."
9. Camera adds makeup to photographs
Cameras -- or at least one in particular -- may replace diamonds as a woman's best friend.
Panasonic's Lumix FX77 camera allows users to add effects to the pictures they take, such as whitening teeth and magnifying eyes, making subjects picture perfect.
For the women who forgot to brush on the blush or add color to the lip, the beauty retouch function allows users to manipulate the settings and glamorize their pictures.
It is an electronic transformation with an automatic alteration tool that makes Photoshop and other photo editing devices eat dust.
10. MC Hammer launches his own search engine
From writing rhymes to selling millions of records, this hip-hop veteran has realized his dreams and now says he's entered the final stages of creating an entire search engine.
MC Hammer said that his newest tech creation, called WireDoo, is built around searching for relationships and not just keywords. He announced the project at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco in mid-October and predicts that WireDoo could outperform Google.
It's hard to decide what's more strange: The fact that MC Hammer is launching his own search engine or that he believes his creation can take on Google on its own turf. It's a tossup.
With all of the uncanny and out of the ordinary news that made headlines in the tech world this year, it bewilders us to think of what could possibly be left to create. But there are undoubtedly more where these ... um ... creative ideas came from.
We will just have to wait and see whether 2012 will beat them for sheer bizarreness.
And by bizarre, we mean the weird gadget creations and unexpected Internet sensations that went viral (cue Rebecca Black's "Friday").
Nonetheless, the strangest of the strange in the tech world made headlines by pushing the limits of technology, and this year it felt like there were more than ever.
Here are some of 2011's most unusual and out of the ordinary tech headlines, stories we never thought could happen -- which baffled us when they did.
1. Implanting organs in the name of art
As if two ears weren't enough, an Australian artist named Stelarc has decided to implant a third beneath the skin of his arm.
This performance artist wants to make his arm an acoustic device by attaching a wireless microphone to the implanted ear. The process took more than a decade and, he says, will take another year for his cells to fully grow on the ear's structure.
Once the ear is fully grown, the organ will be wirelessly linked to the Internet and allow the artist to share what his third ear hears with anyone who cares to tune in.
But, seriously, who wants to listen to an arm?
2. Japanese lab invents Internet kissing machine
Trying to give your partner a smooch through video chat and leaving lipstick smeared on your webcam is less than attractive.
Luckily, Japanese creators at Tokyo's Kajimoto Laboratory have made a "Kiss Transmission Device" for those long-distance lovers who want to share their affection.
Simply wiggle your tongue on a plastic straw, and it will transmit a signal that remotely makes another plastic straw wiggle -- presumably while it is in your lover's mouth.
This takes "keeping in touch" to a new and literal level.
3. This 'robot ostrich' probably will outrun you
Many animals can sprint faster than a human. Now, a "robot ostrich" is among them.
Scientists are trying to imitate the fastest two-legged runner on the planet by creating a robot ostrich that stands almost 5 feet tall, weighs 66 pounds and can run at speeds up to 32 mph. Fittingly, founders call this speedy ostrich FastRunner.
Although it hasn't been said what the robot bird will be used for, speculators assume that it is designed to go to war. To be sure, watching this birdie in motion may creep out those on the battlefield and beyond.
4. German scientists invent brain-powered car
No need to position your hands on the steering wheel to drive. Now, all you have to do is put your mind to it, and the car will execute your brain's commands.
Scientists at Germany's Free University are the innovators behind this brain-powered car.
A high-tech helmet is linked to an onboard computer that displays a cube on the screen. The driver can manipulate this cube with their thoughts. Using biological signals as patterns, the driver can pilot the car to drive in any direction, accelerate or break.
This may be only the beginning of what can evolve in the world of brain-powered computing.
But don't get too giddy just yet. The creators say the invention is only a "proof of concept experiment" and will not be speeding into action any time soon.
Still, the fact is that this creation is an out of the ordinary idea that bewilders us to think it exists at all.
5. Forget planking -- who's up for owling?
Some people stop at nothing and take owling to the extreme.
Some people stop at nothing and take owling to the extreme.
Planking was quite popular this year, as many folks went online to share images of themselves lying stiff as a board in public. But the trend shifted, at least for a brief Web moment, to mimicking everyone's favorite wise and nocturnal feathered friend.
The spinoff became a peculiar addiction for some, and owling has become one of the largest Internet memes.
People have shared images owling atop statues, houses and office desks. Some have even taken this bird's actions below ground level and participated in underwater owling.
It's pretty simple. Squat on an object, press your arms toward the ground, straighten your back and raise your head as you gaze into the distance and sit perched, well, like an owl.
Bellowing a "hoot" or two is optional.
6. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg eats only what he kills
"The only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, announced in May.
He calls it a "personal challenge"; we say it's just plain weird. Zuckerberg kills the animals and sends them off to a butcher in Santa Cruz, California, who cuts them into parts. From there, it's left for Zuckerberg to cook and consume.
Zuckerberg has begun his slaughtering challenge and made goats, pigs and chickens his prey.
7. Feeling lonely? Go hug yourself
We all need a hug at times, but it doesn't always happen when someone non-creepy is around to give us one. Instead, you can hug yourself by wearing a vest that hugs you back.
This invention, which was displayed at Japan's 3D and Virtual Reality Expo this year, allows individuals to wear a coded black vest that simulates a hug through programmed air compressions.
The mastermind behind this creation says he was curious as to how it would feel.
We think that if that aforementioned non-creepy person isn't around, it may be better to ask the creep for that hug before putting on this very odd vest.
8. Missing cobra sinks fangs into Twitter
Want to win more than 75,000 followers on Twitter within 24 hours? Morph into an Egyptian cobra and escape from New York's Bronx Zoo.
This venomous snake slid its way out of the zoo back in late March and slithered onto social media, publishing witty tweets of its whereabouts like, "Leaving Wall Street. These guys make my skin crawl."
Since March, the snake has been found, returned to the zoo and amassed more than 200,000 followers. It is still also actively tweeting through its account, @BronxZoosCobra.
And for the skeptics, the serpent published a post saying, "A lot of people are asking how I can tweet with no access to a computer or fingers. Ever heard of an iPhone? Duh."
9. Camera adds makeup to photographs
Cameras -- or at least one in particular -- may replace diamonds as a woman's best friend.
Panasonic's Lumix FX77 camera allows users to add effects to the pictures they take, such as whitening teeth and magnifying eyes, making subjects picture perfect.
For the women who forgot to brush on the blush or add color to the lip, the beauty retouch function allows users to manipulate the settings and glamorize their pictures.
It is an electronic transformation with an automatic alteration tool that makes Photoshop and other photo editing devices eat dust.
10. MC Hammer launches his own search engine
From writing rhymes to selling millions of records, this hip-hop veteran has realized his dreams and now says he's entered the final stages of creating an entire search engine.
MC Hammer said that his newest tech creation, called WireDoo, is built around searching for relationships and not just keywords. He announced the project at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco in mid-October and predicts that WireDoo could outperform Google.
It's hard to decide what's more strange: The fact that MC Hammer is launching his own search engine or that he believes his creation can take on Google on its own turf. It's a tossup.
With all of the uncanny and out of the ordinary news that made headlines in the tech world this year, it bewilders us to think of what could possibly be left to create. But there are undoubtedly more where these ... um ... creative ideas came from.
We will just have to wait and see whether 2012 will beat them for sheer bizarreness.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Changing the Guard at RIM
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- When she stepped down as CEO of eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) in early 2008 after a decade, Meg Whitman said it was time for a new voice at the ecommerce.
"I have repeatedly said that 10 years was about the right amount of time for any CEO to stay at the helm of a company," Whitman said at the time.
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With eBay's stock beginning to slide and earnings flat-lining, Whitman knew it was time for alternative ideas. John Donahoe, Whitman's successor, implemented a successful transition at the company by overhauling its pricing structure and shaking up management. It took time and some grumbling from customers, but the process revived the company's stock and earnings growth, much to investors' delight.
There's a potential lesson there for Research In Motion (RIMM).
It has been a truly horrifying 2011 for RIM. Multiple product delays, underwhelming sales, massive outages and public relations embarrassments have battered the company's earnings, stock, and share of the smartphone market.
Yet the company's long-serving co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, continue to cling to their stay-the-course mantra. They maintain that they have a strategy in place, and that they're the best people to lead the company through its current mess.
The co-CEOs had a long, long run of success. Lazaridis, at RIM's helm for 27 years, and Balsillie, who has shared that role for 19, introduced the revolutionary BlackBerry to the world in 1999. The product took the corporate world by storm, and 10 years later, in 2009, the BlackBerry brand controlled a 20% share of the world's smartphone market, according to IDC. In the U.S. market, its share was a dominant 43%, according to comScore.
But that success has run right into a brick wall. Consumers gravitated toward feature-rich iPhones and Android devices, and RIM's product development fell far behind its rivals'.
Today, BlackBerry maintains just 10% of the global market and 19% of the United States'.
Lazaridis and Balsillie say they have a strategy to get RIM out of its current quagmire. They have transitioned the company's software to the more modern BlackBerry OS 7 and, next year, BlackBerry OS 10 will become RIM's unified tablet and smartphone platform.
But the execution of the transition has been disastrous. BB7 devices were severely delayed in getting to market. They finally hit stores in August, and have undersold the company's expectations ever since. The also-delayed PlayBook tablet debuted this year, but without key features like built-in e-mail, contacts and a calendar. The software fix to add those apps has been delayed until 2012.
The company's revitalization efforts weren't helped by a three-day global outage -- the longest in RIM's history. Recently, RIM's bad news took a turn for the weird: Two executives (now former executives) got so drunk on a flight to China that they had to be restrained while the flight turned back to kick them off. The out-of-control flyers apparently chewed through their restraints.
Investors aren't laughing: Shares have fallen 76% this year.
Analysts say it's time for RIM to bring in new ideas.
"What's clear is if RIM keeps doing the same things, it's not going to get better," said Mark Mckechnie, analyst at Gleacher & Co. "RIM's leadership missed the market's strategic inflection point. When everyone began supporting rich media on their devices, they just stuck to their guns."
Some shareholders have called for Lazaridis and Balsillie's heads, but the board -- led by the co-CEOs -- has been resistant.
"I think to some extent RIM is still in denial when it comes to the shortcomings in their offering," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner. "Investors want to see a change, and new leadership is usually what investors take as a serious attempt to change."
Milanesi said it's understandable that Lazaridis wouldn't want to let go of the company he founded, but a new voice is needed in some form. She suggested that someone new could fill the role of chief information officer while Lazaridis stays on as CEO.
Others say that, as with recent shakeups at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500), Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), Avon (AVP, Fortune 500) and Nokia (NOK), leadership at the very top needs to go in order to bring about real, necessary change.
"RIM's leadership team must take responsibility for -- and ownership of -- the difficulties the company has experienced during 2011," said Declan Longeran, analyst at Yankee Group. He criticized the company's "complacency at the top."
Tole Hart, an independent analyst, suggested that an outsider would make the most sense to take over as CEO. He said the new leader should come from a company like Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), Samsung, or Motorola (MMI), all of which have adapted and moved to the forefront of the smartphone revolution.
Another camp of analysts says vision isn't the problem. Execution is. BB10, by all accounts, will be a much more modern operating system.
"This is probably the worst time for new leadership at RIM," said Ramon Lamas, analyst at IDC. "The company's in the middle of a huge transition. If you have CEOs that are manning the helm to guide company through rough waters, why would you want to change that?"
RIM, which will report its financial results Thursday after the markets' close, declined to comment for this story.
RIM already warned investors that the numbers won't be pretty. You know who those shareholders are going to blame if RIM keeps offering up more of the same. To top of page
"I have repeatedly said that 10 years was about the right amount of time for any CEO to stay at the helm of a company," Whitman said at the time.
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* Comment
With eBay's stock beginning to slide and earnings flat-lining, Whitman knew it was time for alternative ideas. John Donahoe, Whitman's successor, implemented a successful transition at the company by overhauling its pricing structure and shaking up management. It took time and some grumbling from customers, but the process revived the company's stock and earnings growth, much to investors' delight.
There's a potential lesson there for Research In Motion (RIMM).
It has been a truly horrifying 2011 for RIM. Multiple product delays, underwhelming sales, massive outages and public relations embarrassments have battered the company's earnings, stock, and share of the smartphone market.
Yet the company's long-serving co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, continue to cling to their stay-the-course mantra. They maintain that they have a strategy in place, and that they're the best people to lead the company through its current mess.
The co-CEOs had a long, long run of success. Lazaridis, at RIM's helm for 27 years, and Balsillie, who has shared that role for 19, introduced the revolutionary BlackBerry to the world in 1999. The product took the corporate world by storm, and 10 years later, in 2009, the BlackBerry brand controlled a 20% share of the world's smartphone market, according to IDC. In the U.S. market, its share was a dominant 43%, according to comScore.
But that success has run right into a brick wall. Consumers gravitated toward feature-rich iPhones and Android devices, and RIM's product development fell far behind its rivals'.
Today, BlackBerry maintains just 10% of the global market and 19% of the United States'.
Lazaridis and Balsillie say they have a strategy to get RIM out of its current quagmire. They have transitioned the company's software to the more modern BlackBerry OS 7 and, next year, BlackBerry OS 10 will become RIM's unified tablet and smartphone platform.
But the execution of the transition has been disastrous. BB7 devices were severely delayed in getting to market. They finally hit stores in August, and have undersold the company's expectations ever since. The also-delayed PlayBook tablet debuted this year, but without key features like built-in e-mail, contacts and a calendar. The software fix to add those apps has been delayed until 2012.
The company's revitalization efforts weren't helped by a three-day global outage -- the longest in RIM's history. Recently, RIM's bad news took a turn for the weird: Two executives (now former executives) got so drunk on a flight to China that they had to be restrained while the flight turned back to kick them off. The out-of-control flyers apparently chewed through their restraints.
Investors aren't laughing: Shares have fallen 76% this year.
Analysts say it's time for RIM to bring in new ideas.
"What's clear is if RIM keeps doing the same things, it's not going to get better," said Mark Mckechnie, analyst at Gleacher & Co. "RIM's leadership missed the market's strategic inflection point. When everyone began supporting rich media on their devices, they just stuck to their guns."
Some shareholders have called for Lazaridis and Balsillie's heads, but the board -- led by the co-CEOs -- has been resistant.
"I think to some extent RIM is still in denial when it comes to the shortcomings in their offering," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner. "Investors want to see a change, and new leadership is usually what investors take as a serious attempt to change."
Milanesi said it's understandable that Lazaridis wouldn't want to let go of the company he founded, but a new voice is needed in some form. She suggested that someone new could fill the role of chief information officer while Lazaridis stays on as CEO.
Others say that, as with recent shakeups at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500), Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), Avon (AVP, Fortune 500) and Nokia (NOK), leadership at the very top needs to go in order to bring about real, necessary change.
"RIM's leadership team must take responsibility for -- and ownership of -- the difficulties the company has experienced during 2011," said Declan Longeran, analyst at Yankee Group. He criticized the company's "complacency at the top."
Tole Hart, an independent analyst, suggested that an outsider would make the most sense to take over as CEO. He said the new leader should come from a company like Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), Samsung, or Motorola (MMI), all of which have adapted and moved to the forefront of the smartphone revolution.
Another camp of analysts says vision isn't the problem. Execution is. BB10, by all accounts, will be a much more modern operating system.
"This is probably the worst time for new leadership at RIM," said Ramon Lamas, analyst at IDC. "The company's in the middle of a huge transition. If you have CEOs that are manning the helm to guide company through rough waters, why would you want to change that?"
RIM, which will report its financial results Thursday after the markets' close, declined to comment for this story.
RIM already warned investors that the numbers won't be pretty. You know who those shareholders are going to blame if RIM keeps offering up more of the same. To top of page
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Yahoo gets $610 Million From Lottery Scammers
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Congratulations, you've won millions in a lottery that you didn't enter! Just wire us some money first to cover fees, and we'll send you your winnings!
These fake lottery email scams have become ubiquitous, with scammers sometimes posing as well-known companies to boost their credibility. In 2008, Yahoo sued several "John Does" for using its name and logo as part of a scam.
On Monday, a federal judge awarded Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) $610 million in damages from the Thai and Nigerian scammers that the company was eventually able to identify through Internet records.
Yahoo's complaint reveals that between December 2006 and May 2009, more than 11.6 million hoax lottery emails were sent through its email system. The court awarded Yahoo $50 per scam email, a total of $583 million, for its victimization through violations of the Can-Spam Act.
The remaining $27 million is an award for trademark infringement. Yahoo was also awarded attorneys' fees.
Yahoo could use the cash: The court's total award is about half of the $1.2 billion profit that Yahoo netted for 2010.
But Yahoo stands little chance of actually collecting. None of the defendants -- a group of Thai and Nigerian individuals, a Nigerian corporation, and a Taiwanese corporation -- have responded to Yahoo's complaint. Nigeria is a famous haven for e-mail scammers.
The New York district court judge, Laura Taylor Swain, noted in her ruling that "apart from minor variations in phrasing and style, the [individual] emails [in the scam] are strikingly similar."
Swain concluded that the "circumstantial evidence is sufficient to support the reasonable inference that defendants are co-conspirators."
These fake lottery email scams have become ubiquitous, with scammers sometimes posing as well-known companies to boost their credibility. In 2008, Yahoo sued several "John Does" for using its name and logo as part of a scam.
On Monday, a federal judge awarded Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) $610 million in damages from the Thai and Nigerian scammers that the company was eventually able to identify through Internet records.
Yahoo's complaint reveals that between December 2006 and May 2009, more than 11.6 million hoax lottery emails were sent through its email system. The court awarded Yahoo $50 per scam email, a total of $583 million, for its victimization through violations of the Can-Spam Act.
The remaining $27 million is an award for trademark infringement. Yahoo was also awarded attorneys' fees.
Yahoo could use the cash: The court's total award is about half of the $1.2 billion profit that Yahoo netted for 2010.
But Yahoo stands little chance of actually collecting. None of the defendants -- a group of Thai and Nigerian individuals, a Nigerian corporation, and a Taiwanese corporation -- have responded to Yahoo's complaint. Nigeria is a famous haven for e-mail scammers.
The New York district court judge, Laura Taylor Swain, noted in her ruling that "apart from minor variations in phrasing and style, the [individual] emails [in the scam] are strikingly similar."
Swain concluded that the "circumstantial evidence is sufficient to support the reasonable inference that defendants are co-conspirators."
Friday, December 2, 2011
Is Your Smartphone Tracking Your Every Move
The Web fallout continued Friday over news that a hidden app could be tracking smartphone users' activity.
Many bloggers and smartphone customers fretted about the privacy issues raised by Carrier IQ, an information-mining app secretly installed on many phones. But at the same time, other tech observers were beginning to say that some of those concerns may have been over the top.
First, a recap: On Monday, researcher and developer Trevor Eckhart posted a 17-minute YouTube video apparently showing how the software -- designed as a diagnostic tool to find and help fix mobile network problems -- runs on his smartphone and logs every keystroke, every text and the full URL of every website he visits.
News of the app's existence on millions of phones had bounced around on tech blogs for a while. But attention skyrocketed this week when Eckhart posted his video.
By Thursday, it had turned into a rapidly developing story in which new information seemed to surface hourly. Mobile carriers and smartphone makers rushed to dispute claims made by Eckhart and others who said they confirmed his findings, explain their use of the app or announce that they once used it but plan to get rid of it.
The potential ramifications obviously had privacy-minded folks concerned.
"A couple of things seem pretty clear," Jay Stanley, a senior privacy and technology analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Friday. "We don't know what the company was storing or accessing or what their clients were storing or accessing, but they seem to at least have the capability to store and access a lot of very personal information."
Many mobile customers seemed to focus their concerns on the fact that the software runs without their knowledge and appears difficult, if not impossible, to uninstall.
For example, on Sprint's community forums, several topics had been created to discuss the issue. And customers weren't happy.
"There's no excuse to knowingly and willingly want to have that kind of invasive software, that potentially puts customers sensitive information at risk, on the phone," one customer wrote. "This software may violate multiple privacy laws, and that alone ought to void our contracts."
Sprint said it uses the app to root out network problems but can't see user activity. Other wireless carriers and smartphone manufacturers also responded. Verizon said it doesn't use the app, and Apple said it has stopped supporting it and plans to eliminate it altogether.
By Thursday morning, some on the Web were trying to put the brakes on the fears, though.
"Okay, folks, before we complete this public lynching, is there any evidence that Carrier IQ actually transmitted inappropriate data?" tweeted Declan McCullagh, a correspondent for tech site CNET.
In a message posted to Pastebin, Dan Rosenberg, an analyst with Virtual Security Research, wrote that some of the fears about Carrier IQ have been overblown.
"After reverse engineering CarrierIQ myself, I have seen no evidence that they are collecting anything more than what they've publicly claimed: anonymized metrics data," he wrote. "There's a big difference between 'look, it does something when I press a key' and 'it's sending all my keystrokes to the carrier!'.'"
"In my opinion, the media has made it more malicious than it really is and I am not concerned about my phone usage at all," wrote Matthew Miller, a columnist with tech site ZDNet. "It sounds to me like the software is designed to BENEFIT consumers and is not being used to track and target you."
But the ACLU's Stanley remains concerned. He cited promotional material on Carrier IQ's on website that notes its ability to track users' activities.
"If you look at their website, we don't know what their clients were buying, but we do know what they were selling," he said. "What they're saying to the media doesn't seem to comport to what they tout on their own website."
Carrier IQ says the core purpose of its tool is to uncover broad trends across a network. Its software can help carriers find out where calls are dropping and why, and zero in on device glitches.
For at least some of those who remain concerned (and there are no doubt many), there may be some hope of at least finding out if the app is running on their phones.
A new app in the Android Market, Voodoo Carrier IQ detector, is designed to help you simply find the kit on your phone if it exists. It's only a day old and not perfect, developers say, but will continue to be tweaked.
Many bloggers and smartphone customers fretted about the privacy issues raised by Carrier IQ, an information-mining app secretly installed on many phones. But at the same time, other tech observers were beginning to say that some of those concerns may have been over the top.
First, a recap: On Monday, researcher and developer Trevor Eckhart posted a 17-minute YouTube video apparently showing how the software -- designed as a diagnostic tool to find and help fix mobile network problems -- runs on his smartphone and logs every keystroke, every text and the full URL of every website he visits.
News of the app's existence on millions of phones had bounced around on tech blogs for a while. But attention skyrocketed this week when Eckhart posted his video.
By Thursday, it had turned into a rapidly developing story in which new information seemed to surface hourly. Mobile carriers and smartphone makers rushed to dispute claims made by Eckhart and others who said they confirmed his findings, explain their use of the app or announce that they once used it but plan to get rid of it.
The potential ramifications obviously had privacy-minded folks concerned.
"A couple of things seem pretty clear," Jay Stanley, a senior privacy and technology analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Friday. "We don't know what the company was storing or accessing or what their clients were storing or accessing, but they seem to at least have the capability to store and access a lot of very personal information."
Many mobile customers seemed to focus their concerns on the fact that the software runs without their knowledge and appears difficult, if not impossible, to uninstall.
For example, on Sprint's community forums, several topics had been created to discuss the issue. And customers weren't happy.
"There's no excuse to knowingly and willingly want to have that kind of invasive software, that potentially puts customers sensitive information at risk, on the phone," one customer wrote. "This software may violate multiple privacy laws, and that alone ought to void our contracts."
Sprint said it uses the app to root out network problems but can't see user activity. Other wireless carriers and smartphone manufacturers also responded. Verizon said it doesn't use the app, and Apple said it has stopped supporting it and plans to eliminate it altogether.
By Thursday morning, some on the Web were trying to put the brakes on the fears, though.
"Okay, folks, before we complete this public lynching, is there any evidence that Carrier IQ actually transmitted inappropriate data?" tweeted Declan McCullagh, a correspondent for tech site CNET.
In a message posted to Pastebin, Dan Rosenberg, an analyst with Virtual Security Research, wrote that some of the fears about Carrier IQ have been overblown.
"After reverse engineering CarrierIQ myself, I have seen no evidence that they are collecting anything more than what they've publicly claimed: anonymized metrics data," he wrote. "There's a big difference between 'look, it does something when I press a key' and 'it's sending all my keystrokes to the carrier!'.'"
"In my opinion, the media has made it more malicious than it really is and I am not concerned about my phone usage at all," wrote Matthew Miller, a columnist with tech site ZDNet. "It sounds to me like the software is designed to BENEFIT consumers and is not being used to track and target you."
But the ACLU's Stanley remains concerned. He cited promotional material on Carrier IQ's on website that notes its ability to track users' activities.
"If you look at their website, we don't know what their clients were buying, but we do know what they were selling," he said. "What they're saying to the media doesn't seem to comport to what they tout on their own website."
Carrier IQ says the core purpose of its tool is to uncover broad trends across a network. Its software can help carriers find out where calls are dropping and why, and zero in on device glitches.
For at least some of those who remain concerned (and there are no doubt many), there may be some hope of at least finding out if the app is running on their phones.
A new app in the Android Market, Voodoo Carrier IQ detector, is designed to help you simply find the kit on your phone if it exists. It's only a day old and not perfect, developers say, but will continue to be tweaked.
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