BlackBerry asked for preliminary expressions of interest from potential strategic buyers. This buyers can buy the whole company or parts of it, which would be alternative to the preliminary agreement reached weeks ago with a group, led by Fairfax Financial Holdings (BlackBerry’s biggest shareholder), to take the company private for ca. $4,7 billion. Potential strategic buyers are Cisco, Google, Intel, LG, SAP and Samsung. The potential buyers have been especially interested in BlackBerry’s secure server network and patent portfolio. Analysts are saying that BlackBerry’s assets include well-regarded services business that powers its security-focues messaging system worth $3 bn – $4,5 bn; a collection of patents worth $2 bn – $3 bn and $3,1 bn in cash and investments. BlackBerry has a special committee with the assistance of independent financial and legal advisors, which is conducting review of strategic alternatives. Financial advice is providing JPMorgan Chase and RBC Capital Markets. Legal advice is providing Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Torys LLP. Continue reading »

Currently the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch is only fully compatible with Galaxy Note 3 but the company is looking into the possibility of making this smartwatch compatible with its smart TV, as well as other networked electronic devices. Galaxy Gear would probably work nicely as a controller for electronic devices and if it gains the ability to hook up to a smart TV, it would essentially act as a remote that they can carry with themselves easily. More information will be available later this month at the Samsung’s first ever developers’ conference in San Francisco. Continue reading »

The Korea Times is reporting that unnamed Samsung’s official said: “We’ve acknowledged that our Gear lacks something special. With more investment for user interface and user experience, Samsung devices will be better in terms of customer satisfaction.” At the same time in the article, Samsung’s vice president of strategic marketing is saying that the watch is definitely receiving a warm response. Continue reading »

Samsung will release the new Galaxy Note 10.1 on the October 10th to buyers in the US. This will be the WiFi-only model and few outlets will start offering pre-orders tomorrow at midnight. It will be available in jet black and classic white, with the 16GB unit retailing for $550 and 32GB going for $600. You will also get three months of Hulu Plus, a year subscription to Boingo hotspots, 50GB extra Dropbox storage, 12-week subscription to the New York Times and full year of Bloomberg Businessweek. Continue reading »

Samsung presents new laptop, the ATIV Book 6 and it hits all of the major feature points that your average laptop consumer is after. This model packs a 15.6-inch (1920×1080) Touch-Enabled Glossy Fisplay display with 10-Point Touchscreen, Intel Core i7-3635QM Quad-Core processor with Intel Ivy Bridge/HM76 chipset,720p HB webcam, AMD Radeon HD 8770M graphic card and 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM. Continue reading »

Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch will be available to customers in Canada on October 4th. It features a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display, 320×320 resolution, 4GB of storage space and 512MB of RAM. It weighs 74 grams and has a 1.9-megapixel camera (is acble to record videos in 720p HD)

This smartwatch has a battery with capacity of 315 mAh and costs $300. Continue reading »