RIM cuts 2,000 Jobs, COO Morrison retires

This is the unfortunate news we all knew was coming. RIM has announced that it is cutting 2,000 jobs from its global workforce. Announced in a statement today, the BlackBerry maker stated that the 2,000 jobs represent 11 per cent of its total workforce.  RIM's lack of new smartphone releases in the recent months and the slow but steady sales of its PlayBook tablet have impacted the company's bottom line.

The company also announced that its chief operating officer, Don Morrison, is planning to retire, and that Thorsten Heins is taking on the expanded role of chief operating officer for product and sales. 

"We thank Don for his outstanding service to RIM. We understand and respect his decision to retire after successfully dealing with a serious medical challenge and we wish him a quick recovery," stated Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEOs at RIM. "Don's presence at RIM will be missed, but our senior management and sales teams had already stepped up to manage Don's responsibilities since the commencement of his medical leave and we're confident in the ability of those teams to continue Don's tradition of success going forward."

Thorsten Heins is taking on the expanded role of COO (Product and Sales). All product engineering functions, including both hardware and software teams, are being consolidated under Heins' direction.

Review: Fujifilm XP20 14 Megapixel Waterproof camera

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Until recently, capable waterproof digital cameras were considered the domain of prosumer models which required expensive waterproof cases as add ons. Fujufilm's XP 20 and XP 30 cameras shoot 14 megapixel stills, HD quality video and are waterproof (up to 16 ft), dustproof, freeze proof (up to -10'c) shockproof (up to 4.9 feet) point and shoot cameras packed with creative and functional shooting options.

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Preview: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi

A quick walkthrough of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 inch tablet demoed during Samsung's summer showcase in Toronto. Here are our first impressions on the device. 

• Exceedingly thin and light, very similar physical feel to the iPad 2 except for the mostly plastic white case
• Makes most other 10.1" inch Android tablets look positively chunky
• Samsung has baked in a lot of goodness such as improved camera controls and a file system viewer
• Because of its thinness, size and widescreen it looks a lot smaller than it actually is
• Performance is reasonably fast although not too different from the Motorola XOOM which is available now and costs $499 for the 32GB version. Same with the Acer Iconia Tab which is currently on sale for $399 for the 16GB version.
• Samsung showed off  4G Data enabled version at a recent event which hints we might see one on a Canadian carrier, likely Rogers.
• Accessories will include a keyboard dock that makes it look like a netbook, some sweet connectors that allow USB and SDCard input and an array of Samsung and 3rd party cases.
• Expansys Canada is listing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (32GB) at $608.10
• eBay has a number of limited edition units that were given out during Google I/O for sale ranging in asking price from $500 up.

Review: Rdio streaming music service

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

A few weeks ago during a Telus event, we met some folks for Rdio, a streaming music service with over 7,000,000 songs. Rdio is available as a website and also has clients for the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone mobile devices, which can play streaming music or cache songs for offline playback. There are also clients for the Roku and Sonos systems. The web-based service also offers a native desktop client app for Mac OS X and Windows.

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