BlackBerry to let go of 200 jobs in Ontario and Florida

In an effort to trim costs, BlackBerry is letting go of 200 jobs in its hometown headquarters in Ontario and Florida. This new round of layoffs with affect 75 manufacturing jobs in Sunrise, Florida, according to a state government site. Meanwhile, it’s rumoured that a lot of the job cuts in Canada involve people who are working on the BB10 device software. Gary Klassen, one of the company’s longest-tenured employees and the inventor of the BBM messaging service, is also leaving the company with this latest rounded of cuts.

BlackBerry won’t divulge the percentage of its workforce that has been affected by this latest round of layoffs. The Canadian company is trying to turn its fortunes around by putting its focus in its enterprise software business. BlackBerry let go of around 200 staff members back in September. The employees who were laid off then worked on the design and hardware of BB10 devices. But a spokeswoman for BlackBerry assures its users that they will still release updates for its BB10 software.

Source: Reuters

Pebble Time gets update to let Android users initiate text conversations

Using your Pebble Time before you’re allowed to reply to messages sent to you first. Now, Android users can start text conversations through the Pebble Time watch without pulling out your smartphone. The latest update introduces this new Send Text app, which Android users can access if they have the latest Pebble Time app on the phone and the latest software for the watch. If you have both, you can then just dictate the text to the watch or select one of the pre-written messages to send. It’ll show your contacts alphabetically by default or you can pick your favorite users to send messages to.

Source: SlashGear

Apple could bring more apps and services to Google Android

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

We're at a completely different place in mobile ecosystems than we were years ago. The era of closed systems and software exclusive to specific hardware is  quickly comng to an end.

Google has always had its software and services available on iOS (not so much on Windows Phone or BlackBerry). Under Satya Nadella, Microsoft has been relentless in making its services and apps available to Android and iOS and now it seems Apple is thinking of putting some of their apps and services on Android.

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Apple Pay now enjoys 1,000 US card issuers

Apple Pay, Apple's mobile payments platform tied to iPhone and Apple Watch now has 1,000 US card issuers as it makes a push to get more retailers into the fold. The company only has 998 banks and credit unions, but other issuers include retailers BJ's Wholesale Club and Kohl's. The service is available in 2 million locations and is also expected to expand into new countries like Spain and China. Apple Pay is available in Canada but only for American Express customers. We're hoping that other banks and credit cards will offer the service soon.

Source: Apple