BlackBerry to fire 4,500 employees as sales of new device plummet

The news comes as Apple released two new iPhones on Friday which analysts predict will sell 5m in the opening weekend

theguardian.com, Dominic Rushe in New York and Charles Arthur, Friday 20 September 2013

The struggling smartphone firm said it expects to lose nearly $1bn on
disappointing sales of a new device. Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA

BlackBerry confirmed it was firing 4,500 of its staff on Friday as the struggling smartphone firm said it expects to lose nearly $1bn in the three months to August on disappointing sales of new phones.

Revenues for the three months were only $1.6bn, the company said, against analysts' forecasts of $3bn – indicative of a collapse in its business after lacklustre sales of its new Z10 and Q10 phones. In all, it shipped 3.7m smartphones in the quarter, its lowest since summer 2007, when the first iPhone came out.

The company's shares crashed from $10.20 to $8.03 before recovering to $8.73, a 17% drop on the day, valuing it at $4.5bn. The shares were briefly suspended as rumours of the loss circulated, and it was forced to indicate its quarterly earnings a week ahead of their scheduled date. It said it would announce a loss of between $930m and $955m next week.

That brings its total losses in the past seven quarters to $1.8bn, putting its viability as a going concern into question.

The company announced it was putting itself up for sale at the end of August – which market observers took to indicate it had failed to find a buyer privately. Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia this month effectively left the Ontario-based company in the cold.

Though Canada's Fairfax Holdings is believed to be trying to put together a private equity buyout, others think it will be sold off piecemeal.

The company blamed the loss partly on "more intense competition" following poor sales of the Z10 and Q10, released in January and April.

Apple launched its two latest iPhones yesterday, which analysts were predicting could sell 5m in the opening weekend.

BlackBerry's firings follow the loss of 5,000 jobs last year and a smaller round of redundancies this summer. The new losses will reduce Blackberry's 12,700-plus global workforce by about 40%. Expenses will be cut by 50% by the end of the first quarter of 2015, the company said.

BlackBerry's share of the smartphone market has plummeted as Apple and devices from Samsung, HTC and others have taken its once sizeable lead.

BlackBerry had over 14% of the US smartphone market in 2011 but, according to research firm IDC, it now has under 3%. Once the market leader, it now trails in fourth place behind Microsoft's Windows Phone brand, devices powered by market leader Google's Android system and Apple, IDC says .

Thorsten Heins, the BlackBerry chief executive, told Bloomberg in April that the Q10 could sell "tens of millions". So far the figure appears to be below 5m.

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Apple's market share in China continues to wane

Pentagon agency's Twitter account deleted for 'poor taste'

Google – AFP, 20 Sep 2013

The logo of social networking website 'Twitter' is displayed on a computer

screen in London on September 11, 2013 (AFP/File, Leon Neal)

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has scrapped the Twitter account of an agency that counters homemade explosives after it posted joking comments about a bombing in the Philippines, officials said Friday.

After explosions at two movie theaters in the Philippines, a staff member at the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Organization (JIEDDO) wrote in a tweet Wednesday that perhaps the cinemas were showing the film "Gigli," a 2003 romantic comedy starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez that flopped at the box office.

"Were they re-showing Gigli? Bomb explosions occur at 2 movie theaters in the Philippines... the IED is a global threat," said the post.

When the posting sparked critical reaction online, the agency tried to make another joke along the same lines. "Bad ppl doing bad thing didn't warrant bad movie reference. Will punish #socialmedia rep by forcing 2 watch Gigli," the agency wrote on its Twitter account.

After more negative reaction on Twitter, JIEDDO issued an apology. "Tweet was in poor taste. We apologize."

Pentagon press secretary George Little then promptly announced in a tweet that he had ordered the suspension of the JIEDDO Twitter account "following inappropriate and offensive tweets."

"Plainly unacceptable," he wrote.

JIEDDO, which was created to combat improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan with multi-billion dollar funding, said in a statement Friday those responsible for the tweet "have been appropriately disciplined after an internal review."

The organization "has a policy and procedure in place for selecting and crafting social media posts. That policy was not followed," spokesman David Small said.

"We sincerely apologize for the distasteful comment. Bottomline, there is nothing funny about an IED event."

Two Facebook executives resign, one bound for Alibaba

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-09-20

Facebook's logo on an electronic display in New York. (Photo/Xinhua)

Social media giant Facebook is loosing two of its key employees, product manager Justin Shaffer and communication manager Ashley Zandy — with one of them reportedly grabbing an opportunity with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Shaffer, who joined Facebook in 2010 when the company acquired his startup Hot Potato, has helped lead several past projects, including Facebook Group and Facebook Places.

A company source said Shaffer is considering setting up a new venture capital fund.

Zandy was with Facebook for more than two years and is reportedly leaving to become the associate director of international corporate affairs for Alibaba. She will remain in Silicon Valley and supervise all corporate and financial communications outside of China.

Despite the high-profile departures, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will continue to spend aggressively on infrastructure and headcount this year.

Apple's market share in China continues to wane

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-09-19

Reporters play with the new iPhone models at a launch event in Beijing
on Sept. 11. (Photo/Xinhua)

Apple's market share in China continues to shrink with the rise of domestic smartphone makers and the underwhelming public response to its new top-end iPhone 5S and cheaper iPhone 5C smartphones, reports the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily.

On Monday, Apple share prices tumbled 3.18% to US$450.12, falling 11.07% from US$506.17 before the firm unveiled its latest iPhone models. On Sept. 10, Apple unveiled its top-end iPhone 5S and a cheaper iPhone 5C, but it has triggered more criticism than praise, prompting a short-term crisis of confidence as Apple fans seek reassurances in the post-Steve Jobs era, according to the tech portal of Chinese website Sina.

The top-end 5S model introduces a fingerprint sensor built into the phone's main button to identify the user, while the 5C comes with a plastic back in a choice of colors. China Unicom — one of the country's three main state-owned telecoms — announced on Sept. 15 that it has received more than 100,000 preorders for the two handsets, but the orders are half the number reported for the company's iPhone 5 launch last year, where more than 200,000 handsets were ordered in the first two days.

Many domestic smartphone makers feel relieved as the "budget" iPhone 5C is still relatively expensive compared to other budget models, said Huawei Device chairman Yu Chengdong, who expects Apple's competitiveness and market share to continue to fall in the segment of the market dominated by cheaper Android handsets.

It seems Apple selects profitability instead of market share, the paper said. Meanwhile, its rivals Samsung, Lenovo and Huawei have used a volume strategy to gradually dominate the smartphone market. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, in the second quarter of this year, the Android system has taken 79.5% of the smartphone market share, while Apple's iOS accounted for just 13.6%.

Previously, most handset makers tried to avoid Apple launches when it introduced new products, but now nearly 10 domestic companies chose to unveil their products at the same time as the new iPhones. Insiders say that Apple's secret to success was to install the best software in the best hardware, and such a model has triggered an innovation in the industry. Chinese handset makers are now learning from Apple, and increasing their research and development units to at least 1,000 technicians in a bid to be competitive in the industry, the paper said.

Huawei opens largest European exhibition centre in the Netherlands

Want China Times, Xinhua 2013-09-19

Performers at a Huawei smartphone launch event in Bangkok on Jul. 30.
(Photo/Xinhua)

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei officially opened its largest European Huawei Enterprise Office and Exhibition centre in the Netherlands on Wednesday.

The 250 square-meter exhibition space shows the company's consumer electronics innovations specifically developed for the European market.

According to Huawei, the opening of the centre based in Amstelveen marked an important milestone in its recent European and Benelux expansion and growth. Benelux comprises Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Frans Weekers, Dutch State Secretary of Finance, along with CEO of Huawei Benelux, Simon Xin, the mayor of Amstelveen, Mr van Zanen, and the economic counselor of the Chinese Embassy, Li Fei, officially opened the exhibition centre.

"By opening this new exhibition centre I think Huawei has demonstrated its commitment to long-term development in the Netherlands. It also shows the favorable investment environment of the Netherlands," Li Fei said in a speech.

In his speech, CEO of Huawei Benelux, Simon Xin stressed that the company has expanded rapidly since its establishment in 1987. "Now we have more than 150,000 employees in more than 140 countries. In Europe alone we employ more than 7,000 staff members. In the Benelux, we have over 650 employees, from which local staff is 73% and we aim for more," he said.

According to the Foreign Investment Agency, the Netherlands is a strategic location to serve markets within Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"Already 360 Chinese companies are now active in our country, boosting the economy with investments and jobs," Frans Weekers said.

Another windy day in Texas: a new power purchase agreement

Google Blog, Tuesday, September 17, 2013   

As part of our quest to power our operations with 100% renewable energy, we’ve agreed to purchase the entire output of the 240 MW Happy Hereford wind farm outside of Amarillo, Texas. This agreement represents our fifth long-term agreement and our largest commitment yet; we’ve now contracted for more than 570 MW of wind energy, which is enough energy to power approximately 170,000 U.S. households.

The Happy Hereford wind farm, which is expected to start producing energy in late 2014, is being developed by Chermac Energy, a small, Native American-owned company based in Oklahoma. The wind farm will provide energy to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the regional grid that serves our Mayes County, Okla. data center.

Some (happy) cows on the future site of the wind farm. The cows will still
have plenty of room to graze between the turbines.

The structure of this agreement is similar to our earlier commitments in Iowa and Oklahoma. Due to the current structure of the market, we can’t consume the renewable energy produced by the wind farm directly, but the impact on our overall carbon footprint and the amount of renewable energy on the grid is the same as if we could consume it. After purchasing the renewable energy, we’ll retire the renewable energy credits (RECs) and sell the energy itself to the wholesale market. We’ll apply any additional RECs produced under this agreement to reduce our carbon footprint elsewhere.

This type of power purchase agreement represents one of several ways we’re working to make additional renewable energy available for both our data centers and the communities in which we operate. In Scandinavia, due to the region’s unified power market and grid system, we’re able to purchase wind energy in Sweden and directly consume it at our Hamina, Finland data center. We’re also working with our local utility partners to develop new options. In 2012, we signed an agreement with GRDA, our utility partner in Oklahoma, to green the energy supply to our Oklahoma data center with 48 MW of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project. Earlier this year, we began working with Duke Energy to develop a new renewable energy tariff (PDF) in North Carolina.

We take a comprehensive approach to acquiring renewable energy for our operations. We’ll continue working directly with utility providers, collaborating with industry regulators and pursuing creative agreements (PDF) like the Happy Hereford PPA.

Posted by Matt Pfile, Senior Manager, Data Center Energy and Location Strategy

'Technical glitch' brings down Iran firewall

Google – AFP, 17 Sep 2013

Iranians use computers at a cybercafe in Tehran, on May 14, 2013 (AFP/File,

Atta Kenare)

TEHRAN — A technical glitch allowed some Iranians temporary access to banned social networking websites Facebook and Twitter, an Iranian Internet official said on Tuesday.

Surprised Internet users in Iran Monday night were able to log onto their accounts without using illegal software that enables them to circumvent a widespread state-run filtering mechanism.

They voiced their delight online, with posts revelling in the rare web freedom -- restricted in 2009 when social networking sites enabled protesters to organise anti-government demonstrations in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election.

"Dear friends in America, do you believe miracles?! Well one has just apparently happened in Iran and the government in Tehran has lifted its filtering on Facebook!!!," said an overwhelmed Mehdi on his page.

Ali joined in, referring to the election of moderate President Hassan Rowhani, who has promised to bring more social freedoms.

He said in a tweet: "Twitter and Facebook has been freed! Rowhani thank you!"

But on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported that the unblocked access -- to the websites the Iranian regime considers as undermining the Islamic regime -- was being investigated.

Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, the secretary of an official group tasked with detecting Internet content deemed illegal, told the Mehr news agency that "it was apparently due to a technical glitch and the committee is investigating it."

"If there had been any negligence, it will be punished," he said adding that he was unsure of the origin of the problem.

Such incidents have happened in the past, giving Iranians temporary, unfiltered access to the Internet.

But by Tuesday morning, access to the sites was once again blocked.

A Twitter user, Sima, was dismayed: "What a joy was last night, logging onto Twitter without the VPN ... #sigh."

The incident came a few days after Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had its Twitter account officially verified by the social networking site -- even though it is technically illegal for him to have one at all.

Iran systematically blocks access to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and numerous other sites, including blogs and pornographic pages, as it tries to stop its population from surfing content it deems threatening or immoral.

Snowden leaks sparked welcome debate: US spy chief

Google - AFP, 12 Sep 2013

James Clapper speaks on September 12, 2013 at a hotel in 

Washington (AFP, Mandel Ngan)

WASHINGTON — Leaks from former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden triggered a much needed debate about surveillance in America, even if they jeopardized national security, the country's spy chief admitted Thursday.

"As loathe as I am to give any credit for what's happened here, which is egregious," said National Intelligence Director James Clapper, "I think it's clear that some of the conversations that this has generated, some of the debate... actually probably needed to happen."

Speaking at a conference in Washington, Clapper said the public debate about the best way to balance spying powers and privacy rights should "perhaps" have taken place earlier.

"So if there's a good side to this, maybe that's it," he said.

His comments marked the first time a senior US intelligence official has admitted the leaks might not have had a solely negative impact.

Demonstrators hold placards featuring 

former US intelligence contractor

 Edward Snowden in Berlin on July 27,

 2013 (AFP/File, John Macdougall)

Officials have previously labeled Snowden a traitor who endangered America's interests and spies in the field.

Clapper, who oversees all 16 US intelligence agencies, predicted there would be more revelations from Snowden, and said he was worried about their long-term effects.

He said he was concerned about "the impact, frankly, on our national security and the damage caused by these continuous stream of revelations."

But he said the intelligence community should be more open about its work, even if that meant taking more risks, to ensure that Americans and their representatives in Congress trusted their spy services.

He said his office had this week declassified hundreds of pages of documents from the court that oversees electronic surveillance as part of an attempt to be more transparent.

"Transparency of course is a double-edged sword. It's great for us, great for our citizens. But of course the adversary goes to school on that transparency too," he said.

"But I'm convinced we have to err on the side of more transparency because, most importantly, we won't have any of this if we don't have the trust and confidence of citizens and their elected representatives."

He said he had met with executives from some news media companies to discuss the fallout from the Snowden leaks and found a "gulf" between how the two sides viewed what affects national security.

And he acknowledged that it was a "big challenge" to make the case publicly for current surveillance powers in the aftermath of a wave of bombshell revelations.

Snowden had worked as a subcontractor in a NSA regional office in Hawaii before handing over secret documents to newspapers that lifted the lid on the extent of the spy agency's surveillance, including trawling through Americans' phone records and online traffic.

Snowden, who has been charged with espionage by US authorities, has secured asylum in Russia and his disclosures continue to trickle out in the Guardian and other publications.

President Barack Obama has defended the NSA's surveillance as lawful but has left the door open to more oversight from Congress or through other measures.

Clapper said more oversight of electronic surveillance would be helpful if it helped shore up public condence in the spy agencies.

But he said the NSA, for which he worked earlier in his career, was "an honorable institution" that deserved respect for its important work.

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iPhone transforms security with fingerprint reader

Google – AFP, Glenn Chapman (AFP), 12 Sep 2013

Apple chief executive Tim Cook introduces the new iPhone 5S on

September 10, 2013 in Cupertino, California. (AFP, Glenn Chapman)

SAN FRANCISCO — With the swipe of a finger, Apple could jumpstart a new era of smartphone security and strip away fear of tending to banking or other business on mobile devices.

Fingerprint recognition technology built into a sophisticated iPhone 5S set to hit the market on September 20 was hailed by computer security specialists as a welcome move that rivals will likely rally to match.

"It could be amazing," Lookout principal security researcher Marc Rogers told AFP on Wednesday.

"What is going to happen really depends on Apple's implementation," he continued. "We've seen Apple take obscure technologies and make them mainstream overnight."

Apple on Tuesday unveiled two new iPhone models, one of them a top-of-the-line 5S with innovative features including a fingerprint sensor to use as a security measure in place of passcodes.

A new iPhone 5S handset, which lets the

 user unlock the phone with a fingerprint, 

pictured September 10, 2013 (AFP,

Glenn Chapman)

"You can just press the home button to unlock your phone," Apple vice president Phil Schiller during an event at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters. "You can use it to authenticate iTunes purchases."

Schiller added: "We have so much of our personal data on these devices, and they are with us almost everyplace we go, so we have to protect them."

Reticle Research principle analyst Ross Rubin described Touch ID as a "show stealer" that addresses "a necessary annoyance that many consumers have to deal with many times a day."

Studies by Apple and Lookout, which specializes in protecting smartphones and tablets from hackers, show that only about half of smartphone owners protect handsets with access codes

A camera sensor built into the 5S home button at the bottom of the smartphone face peers deep into layers of skin to analyze loops and swirls of fingerprints.

Data from fingers is stored exclusively inside the sophisticated Apple-made chip that powers the smartphone and is refined every time Touch ID is used, according to Schiller.

"The company says that fingerprint data is encrypted and not sent to its (or anyone else's - sorry, NSA) servers," security researcher Graham Cluley said in a blog post, making a reference to reports of US spying on the Internet.

Touch ID lets 5S owners store as many as five fingerprints, meaning people will be able to let spouses, children, or others they trust share access to smartphones.

Combining fingerprint recognition with "second-factor authentication" such as verification codes ramps up smartphone security tremendously, according to Rogers.

"Imagine a banking application that lets you press a fingerprint to gain access, but to transfer money you also enter a four-digit code," Rogers said.

"It could make mobile devices more secure than their desktop counterparts."

Whether Touch ID transforms mobile commerce is likely to depend on how Apple shares the technology with the creators of applications tailored to run on iPhones.

"It is not unreasonable to imagine where Apple might go in the payment space for things outside the Apple ecosystem with a PayPal or Square type function," said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

"Some aspect of doing commerce in the real world is on the horizon for Apple."

Computer security specialists note that fingerprint security is not flawless, and resourceful hackers will still craft attacks.

Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide

 Marketing Phil Schiller speaks about the

 new iPhone on September 10, 2013

(Getty Images/AFP, Justin Sullivan)

"Your fingerprint isn't a secret, you leave it everywhere you touch," said security researcher Bruce Schneier.

Fooling some of the better fingerprint sensors with rubber fingers is difficult, but possible, according to Schneier, who noted that a researcher in Japan managed the trick more than a decade ago with candy gelatin used to make Gummi bears.

"The best system I've ever seen was at the entry gates of a secure government facility," Schneier said.

"Maybe you could have fooled it with a fake finger, but a Marine guard with a big gun was making sure you didn't get the opportunity to try."

Touch ID also prompted speculation about movie-style scenarios in which someone's digit is lopped off to unlock a stolen smartphone.

Security specialists thought the gruesome tactic unlikely, especially since PIN code access will likely remain in place as a way to get access to a smartphone if something goes wrong with the fingerprint scanner.

"It's inconceivable that malicious hackers and data thieves won't try to subvert Apple's Touch ID fingerprint scanning technology," Cluley said.

"How capable they will be at doing that, remains to be seen."

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Yahoo CEO Mayer: we faced jail if we revealed NSA surveillance secrets

Mark Zuckerberg joins Mayer in hitting back at critics of tech companies, saying US government did 'bad job' of balancing people's privacy and duty to protect 

theguardian.com, Dominic Rushe in San Francisco, Thursday 12 September 2013

Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer: 'Releasing classified information is treason
 and you are incarcerated', she told the TechCrunch disrupt conference.
Photograph: Reuters

Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook struck back on Wednesday at critics who have charged tech companies with doing too little to fight off NSA surveillance. Mayer said executives faced jail if they revealed government secrets.

Yahoo and Facebook, along with other tech firms, are pushing for the right to be allowed to publish the number of requests they receive from the spy agency. Companies are forbidden by law to disclose how much data they provide.

During an interview at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Mayer was asked why tech companies had not simply decided to tell the public more about what the US surveillance industry was up to. "Releasing classified information is treason and you are incarcerated," she said.

Mayer said she was "proud to be part of an organisation that from the beginning, in 2007, has been sceptical of – and has been scrutinizing – those requests [from the NSA]."

Yahoo has previously unsuccessfully sued the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, which provides the legal framework for NSA surveillance. In 2007 it asked to be allowed to publish details of requests it receives from the spy agency. "When you lose and you don't comply, it's treason," said Mayer. "We think it make more sense to work within the system," she said.

Zuckerberg said the government had done a "bad job" of balancing people's privacy and its duty to protect. "Frankly I think the government blew it," he said.

He said after the news broke in the Guardian and the Washington Post about Prism, the government surveillance programme that targets major internet companies: "The government response was, 'Oh don't worry we are not spying on any Americans.' Oh wonderful that's really helpful to companies that are trying to serve people around the world and that's really going to inspire confidence in American internet companies."

"I thought that was really bad," he said. Zuckerberg said Facebook and others were pushing successfully for more transparency. "We are not at the end of this. I wish that the government would be more proactive about communicating. We are not psyched that we had to sue in order to get this and we take it very seriously," he said.

On Monday, executives from Yahoo, Facebook, Google and other tech leaders met the president's group on intelligence and communications, tasked with reviewing the US's intelligence and communications technologies in the wake of the NSA revelations.

The meeting came as Yahoo and Facebook filed suits once more to force the Fisa court to allow them to disclose more information.

In its motion, Yahoo said: "Yahoo has been unable to engage fully in the debate about whether the government has properly used its powers, because the government has placed a prior restraint on Yahoo's speech."

It went on: "Yahoo's inability to respond to news reports has harmed its reputation and has undermined its business not only in the United States but worldwide. Yahoo cannot respond to such reports with mere generalities," the company said.

Microsoft and Google also filed their latest legal briefs on Monday to force the Fisa court to disclose more information.

In a blogpost, Google said it was asking for permission to publish "detailed statistics about the types (if any) of national security requests" it receives under Fisa.

"Given the important public policy issues at stake, we have also asked the court to hold its hearing in open rather than behind closed doors. It's time for more transparency," said Google.

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