BlackBerry to lay off 300 Waterloo-based employees

 BlackBerry has laid off 300 more employees based in their Waterloo, Ontario headquarters, as part of the 4,500 layoffs expected while the company prepares to be acquired.

“As previously mentioned, we are in a period of transition and we must focus on enhancing our financial results to be in a better position to compete in this current mobile environment,” said a BlackBerry spokesperson in an emailed statement to the Financial Post.

BlackBerry has trimmed more than 7,000 jobs since 2011 as it attempted to restructure and refocus its product line to better compete with popular handsets from Apple and various Android OS vendors like Samsung and HTC.

4,500 employees are expected to be let go for the next three quarters as the company reels from a recent almost $1 billion loss.

Source: Financial Post

CIBC Mobile payment app for BlackBerry Z10 now live

The much-talked about joint venture "SureTap" between CIBC and Rogers - which enables NFC payments among a variety of new smartphones - has finally landed on the BlackBerry Z10. As you can see from the diagram above; CIBC users' simply connect their debit cards to the app, and tap their devices at selected participting merchants to place - and complete - mobile payments.

The service was previously only available on the BlackBerry 9900 and select Android devices in the Rogers lineup.

Windows Phone hits double digit market share in some European countries

It might be seen as a slow ascend but Microsoft’s Windows Phone seems to have hit the double digit mark when it comes to market share in a couple of European countries—specifically, France where it has reached 10.8 percent and Great Britain where it has reached 12 percent. According to a report from Kantar, Windows Phone has hit a cumulative 9.2 percent in the other three of the “big five European markets” (namely, Germany, Italy, and Spain).

But this still puts Windows Phone as a distant third behind Android (70.1 percent) and iOS (16.1 percent). However, you can see BlackBerry falling further and hitting the 2.4 percent market share in those same markets just a smidgen ahead of “Other” mobile operating systems.

Photo source: Engadget

iGrann is as close as you'll get to a native Instagram app for BlackBerry 10

For as long as BlackBerry 10 has been in the public eye, so has the question 'when will it get Instagram'? Despite the folks at BlackBerry remaining mum on the subject - rather averting focus to the many-a-filters that come with the stock camera app - BB10 users' have resorted to creativity and began sideloading older Android apk's onto their devices, just so that they can say they have it. 

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