[bungaboy]

OT: Fake reviews.

Watch tonight as we fake out the fakers & expose an industry of online deception. Show at 8 on TV & online. #reviews pic.twitter.com/duQ6kQ4k29

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/blog/q...-fakes-reviews

https://twitter.com/cbcmarketplace/s...465601/photo/1

https://twitter.com/hashtag/reviews?src=hash

[bungaboy]

OT: GT Advanced says it fell victim to ‘bait-and-switch’ by Apple

Noel Randewich
SAN FRANCISCO — Reuters
Published Friday, Nov. 07 2014, 6:19 PM EST
Last updated Friday, Nov. 07 2014, 6:22 PM EST

Apple Inc. pulled a “bait and switch” move to force GT Advanced Technologies into a money-losing deal to supply the iPhone maker with sapphire, according to an affidavit by a senior executive at the company.

In documents unsealed on Friday by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Springfield, Mass., GT Advanced chief operating officer Daniel Squiller says Apple offered what would have been GT Advanced’s largest sale ever and then changed the terms of the agreement after it was too late for the smaller company to pursue other opportunities.

GT Advanced, a maker of sapphire furnaces that supplied sapphire material to Apple for its smartphone screens, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Oct. 6 and refused to publicly explain why it had imploded, citing confidentiality clauses in its Apple contracts.

The two companies later reached a deal to part ways and allow GT Advanced to proceed with its bankruptcy, but Judge Henry Boroff denied requests by the companies to keep some of the documents in the case under seal.

In a deal struck last year, GT Advanced outfitted a plant owned by Apple in Mesa, Ariz., with furnaces that it would use to make scratch-resistant sapphire exclusively for Apple.

“With a classic bait-and-switch strategy, Apple presented GTAT with an onerous and massively one-sided deal in the fall of 2013,” Squiller wrote.

In another document unsealed on Friday, Apple called GT Advanced’s accusations “scandalous and defamatory.”

At the start of negotiations, Apple offered to buy 2,600 sapphire growing furnaces from GT Advanced, which GT Advanced would operate on behalf of Apple, the “ultimate technology client to land,” according to Squiller.

“In hindsight, it is unclear whether Apple even intended to purchase any sapphire furnaces from GTAT,” he wrote.

But after months of hard negotiating, Apple offered a deal under which it would shift away economic risk by lending GT Advanced the money to build the furnaces and grow the sapphire, and then sell it exclusively to Apple for less than market value, Squiller wrote.

GT Advanced was effectively forced to accept the unfair deal in October, 2013, because its intense negotiations with Apple had left it unable to pursue deals with other smartphone makers, he said.

“These statements are intended to vilify Apple and portray Apple as a coercive bully,” Apple said in its separate filing.

It said GT Advanced was eager to make a deal, and pointed to a jump of more than 20 per cent in the shares of GT Advanced after it was unveiled.

In November of last year, GT Advanced chief executive officer Tom Gutierrez told analysts on a quarterly conference call the company was “very pleased” to have made the agreement to supply sapphire to Apple.

[Corbu]

BlackBerry Says It?s Staging a Comeback - But Nobody Told the Feds - Nextgov.com

BlackBerry insists it�s staging a comeback.

The company has installed a new leadership team, slashed operating expenses by $2 billion over the past year, stabilized its cash flow -- and is still making �awesome� devices, according to the company�s new chief operating officer.

"Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated,� BlackBerry COO Marty Beard told a largely government crowd Thursday at a Washington, D.C. conference

But federal officials, current and former, apparently didn�t get the memo.

When queried by The New York Times this week about �particularly retrograde� technology she�s encountered in her 2.5 months on the job, the Obama administration�s new chief technology officer, Megan Smith, wasted no time mentioning the once-mighty mobile device.

�My son saw me with my BlackBerry, and he was like, 'Hi, �90s mom,'� the former Google executive said.

Beard called Smith�s comments �snarky.�

"So, you know, clearly we're going to have to update her� about the company�s turnaround, he said.

BlackBerry hasn�t exactly been �cool� for a while now, having been supplanted as tastemaster and trendsetter by both Apple and Android years ago. Still, the influence the company has retained, especially in Washington, has been thanks to its �gold standard� reputation for security, as Beard put it.

"This is really what BlackBerry does,� he said. �It focuses on industries that care about security -- financial services, health care, government."

Encryption to Blame for BlackBerry's Downturn?

So, it might�ve stung even more than Smith�s tossed-off jab when the company�s entire security-conscious business model was recently thrown under the bus by a former official from the National Security Agency.

�BlackBerry pioneered the same business model that Google and Apple are doing now -- that has not ended well for BlackBerry,� said Stewart Baker, speaking at an Internet summit in Dublin this week. He was referencing recent decisions by Google and Apple to offer customers by default software that automatically encrypts material, with no backdoor to law enforcement.

BlackBerry�s response?

A: Who is that guy? And B: Actually, robust security has turned out to be an asset for the company.

"I don't know who that person is or where he's getting that viewpoint, but actually from what we see in terms of our business, the interest in higher security is skyrocketing, just given all the cybersecurity threats,� Beard told Nextgov in a brief interview after his remarks at the conference.

He added, �It sounds like that guy [Stewart Baker] needs to be educated.�

Baker, for what it�s worth, served as the top NSA lawyer during the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations.

During his speech at the conference, Beard focused his remarks on the increasing need for agencies to secure mobile devices on their network as well as the applications that run on those devices.

Mobile "is the new gateway for hackers,� he said. Governments and businesses are still more focused on providing access to mobile devices -- rather than securing them -- because there is such pent-up demand from workers to bring their own devices to the workplace.

Agencies need to have a mobile management platform, which provides visibility into the devices connected on their networks and can update and secure them as needed, Beard said.

"This is like the basic premise of managing that perimeter,� he said. �Without that, you literally do have the Wild, Wild West and you literally are exposed to a lot of risks."

As for the company, it�s hoping to continue spreading the newfound good news.

"Because BlackBerry had gone through this tough time and this whole kind of turmoil ... we just need to get out and educate,� Beard told Nextgov.

And not a moment too soon.

Once Washington�s biggest BlackBerry cheerleader, President Barack Obama -- who fought to get a secure version of his device approved for official use when he took office -- was recently seen ogling the ambassador of Bahrain�s new iPhone 6 at a United Nations summit in September.

Was obviously penned before JC's open letter, included here for reference:
Mobile security cannot be an afterthought | TheHill

[sidhuk]

Blackberry passport. Christmas pre order for RED and WHITE.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...UvbUpU11058502

Posted using BlackBerry passport.

[rarsen]

OT as general statement that "Creative Writing and bold titles" also exists in other sectors, though I have seen far worse. Mainly of interest for those considering electric vehicles:

Will Falling Oil Prices Destroy Tesla? | Alternative Energy Stocks

[La Emperor]

OT: GT Advanced says it fell victim to ‘bait-and-switch’ by Apple

Noel Randewich
SAN FRANCISCO — Reuters
Published Friday, Nov. 07 2014, 6:19 PM EST
Last updated Friday, Nov. 07 2014, 6:22 PM EST

Apple Inc. pulled a “bait and switch” move to force GT Advanced Technologies into a money-losing deal to supply the iPhone maker with sapphire, according to an affidavit by a senior executive at the company.

In documents unsealed on Friday by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Springfield, Mass., GT Advanced chief operating officer Daniel Squiller says Apple offered what would have been GT Advanced’s largest sale ever and then changed the terms of the agreement after it was too late for the smaller company to pursue other opportunities.

GT Advanced, a maker of sapphire furnaces that supplied sapphire material to Apple for its smartphone screens, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Oct. 6 and refused to publicly explain why it had imploded, citing confidentiality clauses in its Apple contracts.

The two companies later reached a deal to part ways and allow GT Advanced to proceed with its bankruptcy, but Judge Henry Boroff denied requests by the companies to keep some of the documents in the case under seal.

In a deal struck last year, GT Advanced outfitted a plant owned by Apple in Mesa, Ariz., with furnaces that it would use to make scratch-resistant sapphire exclusively for Apple.

“With a classic bait-and-switch strategy, Apple presented GTAT with an onerous and massively one-sided deal in the fall of 2013,” Squiller wrote.

In another document unsealed on Friday, Apple called GT Advanced’s accusations “scandalous and defamatory.”

At the start of negotiations, Apple offered to buy 2,600 sapphire growing furnaces from GT Advanced, which GT Advanced would operate on behalf of Apple, the “ultimate technology client to land,” according to Squiller.

“In hindsight, it is unclear whether Apple even intended to purchase any sapphire furnaces from GTAT,” he wrote.

But after months of hard negotiating, Apple offered a deal under which it would shift away economic risk by lending GT Advanced the money to build the furnaces and grow the sapphire, and then sell it exclusively to Apple for less than market value, Squiller wrote.

GT Advanced was effectively forced to accept the unfair deal in October, 2013, because its intense negotiations with Apple had left it unable to pursue deals with other smartphone makers, he said.

“These statements are intended to vilify Apple and portray Apple as a coercive bully,” Apple said in its separate filing.

It said GT Advanced was eager to make a deal, and pointed to a jump of more than 20 per cent in the shares of GT Advanced after it was unveiled.

In November of last year, GT Advanced chief executive officer Tom Gutierrez told analysts on a quarterly conference call the company was “very pleased” to have made the agreement to supply sapphire to Apple.

There's a rotten core inside that agreement that they're trying to conceal. Feel sorry for those investors who got caught in this mess.

[bungaboy]

There's a rotten core inside that agreement that they're trying to conceal. Feel sorry for those investors who got caught in this mess.

Kinda sorta . . .

[La Emperor]

OT: And more smelly juice from the rotten agreement. Ballsy Judge Boroff.

Apple told its sapphire supplier 'Put on your big boy pants'

by
Philip Elmer-DeWitt

November 8, 2014, 7:05 AM EST


In a court filing Friday, the GT bankruptcy judge put the rest of Apple’s dirty laundry in the public domain.

Judge Henry Boroff didn’t do Apple any favors when he invited the company to specify which portions of Daniel Squiller’s 21 pages of testimony were so damaging to Apple that they should be blacked out.

Squiller is the COO of GT Advanced Technologies GTATQ -8.35% , the New Hampshire-based company that sought bankruptcy protection last month after its deal to provide sapphire for the lenses and screens of Apple devices went south. The so-called Squiller declaration was filed under seal, according to GT’s lawyers, because it contained details covered by a $50-million Apple non-disclosure agreement.

Last week, Apple and GT released a redacted version of Squiller’s affidavit without the statements Apple claimed were “untrue, defamatory and irrelevant.” See Apple and GTAT: What went wrong.

On Friday, the judge let it all hang out. Not only did he release an unexpurgated version of the so-called Squiller declaration, but he made public Apple’s list of the parts it didn’t want the public to see.

Appendix A-1, which catalogs nine statements Apple found to be “scandalous” and “defamatory” — along with the company’s response — is basically a reporter’s a road map to the juicy parts.

Among the highlights:

“When GTAT initially entered into negotiations to sell sapphire furnaces to Apple, it had no sense that this relationship would become a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ proposition.”
“With a classic bait-and-switch strategy, Apple presented GTAT with an onerous and massively one-side deal.”
“What ensued was anything but an arms-length negotiation. Apple simply dictated the terms and conditions of the deal to GTAT.”
“When GTAT’s management expressed their obvious concerns to Apple regarding the deal terms during the contract negotiations, Apple responded that similar terms are required for other Apple suppliers and that GTAT should: ‘Put on your big boy pants and accept the agreement.’”

.

“These statements are intended to vilify Apple and portray Apple as a coercive bully,” Apple said in its filing. “Apple’s image and reputation will be harmed if the defamatory statements alleging that Apple sought to dominate and control, strong-arm or take advantage of its suppliers are disclosed.”

Judge Boroff disagreed. “I simply do not think,” he told the company, “that they are sufficiently egregious that they are unusually prejudicial to Apple.”


Apple told its sapphire supplier: 'Put on your big boy pants' - Fortune

[sidhuk]

Those Canadians who do not support BlackBerry should read this for a change.
http://mobilesyrup.com/2014/11/08/bl...-rd-last-year/

Posted using BlackBerry passport.

[bungaboy]

OT: And more smelly juice from the rotten agreement. Ballsy Judge Boroff.

Apple told its sapphire supplier 'Put on your big boy pants'

by
Philip Elmer-DeWitt

November 8, 2014, 7:05 AM EST


In a court filing Friday, the GT bankruptcy judge put the rest of Apple’s dirty laundry in the public domain.

Judge Henry Boroff didn’t do Apple any favors when he invited the company to specify which portions of Daniel Squiller’s 21 pages of testimony were so damaging to Apple that they should be blacked out.

Squiller is the COO of GT Advanced Technologies GTATQ -8.35% , the New Hampshire-based company that sought bankruptcy protection last month after its deal to provide sapphire for the lenses and screens of Apple devices went south. The so-called Squiller declaration was filed under seal, according to GT’s lawyers, because it contained details covered by a $50-million Apple non-disclosure agreement.

Last week, Apple and GT released a redacted version of Squiller’s affidavit without the statements Apple claimed were “untrue, defamatory and irrelevant.” See Apple and GTAT: What went wrong.

On Friday, the judge let it all hang out. Not only did he release an unexpurgated version of the so-called Squiller declaration, but he made public Apple’s list of the parts it didn’t want the public to see.

Appendix A-1, which catalogs nine statements Apple found to be “scandalous” and “defamatory” — along with the company’s response — is basically a reporter’s a road map to the juicy parts.

Among the highlights:

“When GTAT initially entered into negotiations to sell sapphire furnaces to Apple, it had no sense that this relationship would become a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ proposition.”
“With a classic bait-and-switch strategy, Apple presented GTAT with an onerous and massively one-side deal.”
“What ensued was anything but an arms-length negotiation. Apple simply dictated the terms and conditions of the deal to GTAT.”
“When GTAT’s management expressed their obvious concerns to Apple regarding the deal terms during the contract negotiations, Apple responded that similar terms are required for other Apple suppliers and that GTAT should: ‘Put on your big boy pants and accept the agreement.’”

.

“These statements are intended to vilify Apple and portray Apple as a coercive bully,” Apple said in its filing. “Apple’s image and reputation will be harmed if the defamatory statements alleging that Apple sought to dominate and control, strong-arm or take advantage of its suppliers are disclosed.”

Judge Boroff disagreed. “I simply do not think,” he told the company, “that they are sufficiently egregious that they are unusually prejudicial to Apple.”


Apple told its sapphire supplier: 'Put on your big boy pants' - Fortune

[bungaboy]

Those Canadians who do not support BlackBerry should read this for a change.
BlackBerry spent $1.3 billion in R&D last year | MobileSyrup.com

Posted using BlackBerry passport.

Thanks for posting this.


"BlackBerry holds the number two spot. In FY2013, BlackBerry spent $1,324,470,000 on R&D, which is more than IBM Canada, Rogers, Imperial Oil, and GM Canada combined, as well as 19% of the company’s earned revenue."

[chrysaurora]

With Ontario's teacher's fund buying large shareholding in BlackBerry, are we expecting a short squeeze?


Posted via CB10

[kcdist]

I would think not. The fund purchased less than 2% of outstanding shares. Significant, but not earth shattering....

Posted via CB10

[FijiBB]

If 2% gives you top10, who's the rest?

Posted via CB10

[dusdal]

Institutions listing






http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/bbry/in...ional-holdings



Posted via CB10

[helopilot06]

I just couldn't pass up the 41% savings on a white z30. Now the wait begins....

and yes this is a screenshot from my playbook that I still use everyday. #respect. lol

[bungaboy]

I just couldn't pass up the 41% savings on a white z30. Now the wait begins....

and yes this is a screenshot from my playbook that I still use everyday. #respect. lol

You should have it by Thursday or Friday.

[bungaboy]

Five Things Apple Could Learn From BlackBerry About Phone Design

Five Things Apple Could Learn from BlackBerry About Phone Design

Over the course of the past five months, I've had the opportunity to review several smartphones aimed to appeal to business users, at least to some extent. A couple of those, including a Nokia Lumia that was sent to me to show off Microsoft's personal assistant, Cortana, were sufficiently pathetic that I sent them back to their makers. I didn't see any point in wasting your time with an article about a phone that had no clear reason to exist. But two of the devices I've looked at clearly were intended to be more than just consumer electronics. One of those was the BlackBerry Z30 that I reviewed in June, and the other is the Apple iPhone 6, which I reviewed in October. Both these phones are well-suited for business users, but obviously the iPhone ends up in far more hands than does the BlackBerry—if only because its overall sales are far greater. While working with these devices, I ended up using the BlackBerry Z30 for a few months. I grew to appreciate some of the innovative features that BlackBerry designed into the phone, a few of which made my life far easier than mobile phones usually do.

Then came time to review the iPhone 6, so I put away the Z30 and started using the Apple device for daily use. There are a number of reasons the iPhone 6 is an improvement over the earlier models, not the least of which was a screen that's large enough to use without the constant stream of errors that earlier iPhones brought about.

But the change from the BlackBerry handset to the iPhone was not without its adjustments. In fact, in a few areas, the BlackBerry beats the iPhone in a big way. Of course, for most things, both phones are just phones, but it's those differences in usability that can go a long way in determining overall satisfaction. But as I look at the BlackBerry Z30 resting on my desk next to the Apple iPhone 6, there are some features I wish I could magically transfer from the Z30 to the iPhone.

Multitasking: When I tap on the link to a Website in an email message on the iPhone 6 (which is running iOS 8.1 as of now), the email application closes and is replaced by the Web page. When I want to go back to my email, I have to close Safari and start the email app. Each time I want to move between them, it's open and close all over again. When I wanted to do the same thing with the Z30, I could simply minimize the email message and open the browser, but then I could leave the browser open and move back and forth by simply tapping on the minimized image of each. The Z30 could run eight such sessions at the same time with all of them remaining fully operational. It's worth noting that both the iPhone and the BlackBerry use similar OS kernels based on Unix, so it seems likely that iOS could multitask if Apple wanted to do it.

A Unified Inbox: While Apple consolidates all of my email into a single inbox so I can look at all of those messages at the same time, when the time comes to read text messages or social networking, then I have to switch to a different app in a different window. BlackBerry Hub solved all of this by consolidating everything into a single inbox, or you can select them by type easily and quickly. This means that I can see all of my incoming messaging in a single glance, which is vastly more efficient than having to move between them as I do with iOS.

A Keyboard that Learns: Actually, the iOS keyboard used to learn how I typed fairly quickly, but apparently that capability has been lost with iOS 8.1. A good example of this is how I usually sign my email messages, which is with my initials, "WR" at the bottom. Now the predictive text in the iOS 8.1 keyboard has never learned that when I type "Wr" or "wr" the letters should be capitalized. The keyboard on the BlackBerry Z30 not only had predictive text that was easy and fast to use, but it learned quickly. Autocorrect in earlier versions of iOS also learned that, but it no longer works and that slows down my email writing.

BlackBerry Balance: Perhaps one of the most significant features that BlackBerry has developed is BlackBerry Balance, which essentially lets you divide your device into two personalities, one for personal use and the other for work. The two sides are separate from each other, and data from one cannot make its way to the other. This means that users can't make insecure copies of sensitive information and it means that the IT manager can wipe company data without affecting personal data. While there are third-party secure containers available for iOS, they also require third-party mobile management systems, something that may be out of reach for some companies, especially small ones.

Adaptive Antenna Systems: The antennas in the Z30 are things of wonder. They could draw in cell signals and WiFi in areas where other phones could never find a signal at all. Dropped calls became a thing of the past. While the MIMO (multiple in multiple out) antenna system on the iPhone 6 improves its WiFi performance, especially when working with 802.11ac access points, those haven't helped cellular performance. And I just hate dropped calls when I know they're not necessary.

I could go on, but in some areas, such as battery life, one has to realize the limitations of the laws of physics. The iPhone would have better battery life with a bigger battery, for example, but then it would be larger and heavier. You can't have it both ways. But still, there are things that Apple could do to make the iPhone more useful and more efficient. Perhaps they are constrained by patents or by design philosophy, but from my viewpoint as a wireless phone user, I wish it could be the best of both worlds. Maybe this is the best reason of all why Apple should use some of its billions and buy BlackBerry.

[sidhuk]

Blackberry passport. Christmas pre order for RED and WHITE.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...UvbUpU11059612


Red listing removed.
http://berryflow.com/2014/11/red-bla...emoved-amazon/
Posted using BlackBerry passport.

Posted using BlackBerry passport.

[bspence87]

Reading up on OTPP. Both BlackBerry and OTPP heavily involved with MLSE (Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, TFC).

Can't help but think that there is probably some contacts between the two. Someone at OTPP has been watching BlackBerry closely and feels this is the time to enter.

All signs lead to positive. It hasn't looked this good since the Z10/Q10 launch!

Posted via CB10

[helopilot06]

Reading up on OTPP. Both BlackBerry and OTPP heavily involved with MLSE (Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, TFC).

Can't help but think that there is probably some contacts between the two. Someone at OTPP has been watching BlackBerry closely and feels this is the time to enter.

All signs lead to positive. It hasn't looked this good since the Z10/Q10 launch!

Posted via CB10

knock on wood that it doesn't dive like it did then

[notafanofyou]

Reading up on OTPP. Both BlackBerry and OTPP heavily involved with MLSE (Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, TFC).

Can't help but think that there is probably some contacts between the two. Someone at OTPP has been watching BlackBerry closely and feels this is the time to enter.

All signs lead to positive. It hasn't looked this good since the Z10/Q10 launch!

Posted via CB10

I thought the OTPP sold their majority stake in -2012?

http://business.financialpost.com/20...o-rogers-bell/

Posted via CB10

[bspence87]

I thought the OTPP sold their majority stake in -2012?

http://business.financialpost.com/20...o-rogers-bell/

Posted via CB10

Yes they did, but surely they still have contacts there.

As well, if I understand correctly, they still have a stake in Maple Leaf Square

Posted via CB10

[Shanerredflag]

If 2% gives you top10, who's the rest?

Posted via CB10

It's really easy to research...

Passport'n stuff all day long.

[bungaboy]

BlackBerry's Stronghold: Indonesia


Summary
•Indonesia is a BlackBerry stronghold.
•BB10 handset sales are growing in Indonesia.
•BBM is ubiquitous and easily monetized in Indonesia.


BlackBerry's Stronghold: Indonesia - BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) | Seeking Alpha