RIM’s biggest problem: It’s still scrambling to catch yesterday’s hottest mobile app

The moment I first realized that RIM (RIMM) was truly in enormous trouble was back in 2010 when I heard then co-CEO Jim Balsillie downplay the importance of apps. Yes, you read that correctly. Balsillie actually told attendees at a Web 2.0 summit in 2010 that the Internet itself was the most important “app” for mobile devices and contended that the “Web needs a platform that allows you to use your existing Web content, not apps.” My feelings on this matter were only solidified when I attended the BlackBerry World conference in May 2011 and watched RIM executives proudly announce that the Playbook tablet would soon get its own version of Angry Birds sometime in the near future. In reality, Angry Birds didn’t release for BlackBerry until late December of that year, or two full years after it was originally released for iOS.

[More from BGR: WhatsApp goes free for iPhone for a limited time]

All of which brings me back to RIM’s current state: Despite the great looking hardware and user interface pictures we’ve seen from new BlackBerry 10 smartphones so far, the company still has an app problem. I was reminded of this when I read a post over at CrackBerry titled, “There’s still a chance for WhatsApp on BlackBerry 10.” The issue here isn’t whether RIM eventually does or doesn’t get WhatsApp on its platform — the issue is that RIM always seems to be one step behind when it comes to getting the hottest apps of the day on its devices.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]

The most absurd example of this, of course, is Instagram. Yes, it’s very likely that BlackBerry 10 will support the popular photo-sharing app right out of the gate given the company’s partnership with Instagram owner Facebook (FB). But we still have no official confirmation that Instagram will be a BlackBerry 10 app just over a month before the new platform launches, and this is symbolic of the fact that RIM is always stuck at the back of line when it comes to app developers’ priorities.

Simply put, RIM can’t possibly hope to compete with Android, iOS or even Windows Phone 8 if its users will always wonder if they’ll be able to do all the cool things with their phones that their friends can do. In the unpredictable Wild West of today’s app market, where new apps seemingly go viral overnight to become global powerhouses, platform developers need to make sure they have quick and simple ways for app developers to port over their software. And until RIM figures out a way to get this done, it still has no shot in the long term.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Americans answer D.C.’s siren song of employment, strong economy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thirteen years ago the band The Magnetic Fields crooned that the U.S. capital city is “the greatest place to be,” in the indie love song “Washington, D.C.”

Recently, a growing number of Americans are singing along as they move to the District in search of jobs, economic opportunity and cultural attractions.

In a study on migration provided exclusively to Reuters that is set to be released next month, United Van Lines found the District of Columbia tops all 50 states for the number of people moving in during 2012.

The city has held that spot for five years running, with 64 percent of the household moves in Washington coming from outside the city in 2012.

United Van Lines is the largest moving company in the country for households.

Oregon ranked second, followed by Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina. Washington is a city that does not belong to a state, but is subject to loose control from the federal government.

“Washington, D.C., is unique because over the last five years its unemployment rate was not hit as hard by the Great Recession,” said Michael Stoll, chair and professor of public policy at the University of California at Los Angeles about the study. “But I think the other thing is that the city has remade itself from the one we knew 10 to 15 years ago.”

Washington has shed its reputation as the crime capital of the country, and it has developed a high technology corridor and other businesses that are both stable and hiring, said Stoll.

Also, many members of the Baby Boom generation are moving in as they retire, taking advantage of the free museums, monuments and cultural events the city has to offer, he said.

The rising popularity could yield a result also unthinkable less than two decades ago.

“D.C. will not just be a place of tourism. It will be a major economic engine, which many of us haven’t thought of it as being before,” Stoll said.

A U.S. Census report released on Thursday also showed the city is gaining new residents. Washington’s population increased 2.15 percent between July 2011 and July 2012, a rise second only to North Dakota.

The District’s population increase of 5.1 percent from 2010 to 2012 was the biggest in the country, the Census found. It had had 632,323 residents as of July 1.

The city has a large international community, largely due to the presence of foreign embassies and organizations such as the World Bank. The Census found people from other countries made up 32 percent of the net migration from 2011 to 2012.

According to a Labor Department report released on Friday, the District’s unemployment rate fell in November to 8.1 percent from 10.1 percent the year before. Local political leaders point to a development boom and one of the highest median incomes in the country – $ 63,124 – as other draws to the city.

On a national level, Stoll said, the migration patterns show Americans are seeking economic opportunity in places where new manufacturing and technology enterprises are building up. The patterns reveal a swelling group of aging people who are retiring and looking for affordable and comfortable places to live, as well.

He added that many people who wanted to move to California, but were put off by the state’s economic woes, turned their moving vans north to Oregon.

New Jersey topped states for outward moves, in 2012, the United Van Lines study showed, largely due to a shrinking factory sector. It was followed by Illinois, West Virginia, Michigan and New York.

Washington’s popularity surge recently created a paradox in the city’s economic success story. Last month, the Brookings Institution concluded three U.S. metropolitan areas are in economic recovery, but did not include Washington because its population burst drove down its gross domestic product on a per capita basis.

(Reporting By Lisa Lambert; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Colorado Woman Billed Medicaid for Dead Father

A Colorado woman was convicted this week for felony forgery for submitting fraudulent documents to Medicaid regarding personal health care services provided to her father after he died. It was the second announcement of Medicaid fraud-related convictions made by the Colorado Attorney General’s office in less than a week. Here are the details.

* According to the office of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, 52-year-old Viola Kwong pleaded guilty to felony forgery in Denver District Court on Tuesday. She was sentenced to pay $ 16,000 in criminal restitution and perform 50 hours of public service. The restitution reflects all of the money illegally received by Kwong.

* Kwong will also be placed on supervised probation for four years, is responsible for all court costs and probation supervision fees associated with her case, and will pay a civil penalty of more than $ 37,000 to the Colorado Medicaid program, the Attorney General’s Office stated.

* The Attorney General’s Office stated that Kwong had requested services for her elderly father through a Medicaid program that allows the Medicaid client to direct his or her own home-based medical care.

* Because Kwong’s father was too ill to manage his care, Kwong was authorized by the program as his personal representative, in charge of obtaining those services for her father.

* Kwong’s father died on July 23, 2010, but Kwong continued to submit documents about personal health care services that were being provided to her father until Nov. 8, 2010.

* Suthers stated that the restitution ordered was “another significant recovery for Colorado’s Medicaid program.”

* Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing initially referred the case to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

* Last week, the Attorney General’s Office announced the conviction of occupational therapist Cheryl Moss, 47, for felony theft and felony forgery. Moss pleaded guilty to forging treatment records and fraudulently billing the Colorado Medicaid program for services she did not perform.

* Moss agreed to repay the program $ 54,332, serve 60 days home detention and perform 300 hours of community service. She was also ordered to pay an additional $ 46,000 to resolve any potential civil issues and to report her conviction to the agency charged with licensing occupational therapists in Colorado.

* According to the Attorney General, Medicaid is health insurance for qualifying low-income, disabled individuals, and children and families. Covered services include hospital care, skilled nursing home care, residential adult family care services, hospice, mental health, dental and eyeglass services. Each state administers its own Medicaid program.

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Major jobs boost in UK North Sea

21 December 2012 Last updated at 11:20 ET

Statoil is to invest £4.3bn in a North Sea oil field, bringing hundreds of jobs to the north east of Scotland.

The Norwegian company said the investment in the Mariner field was the largest new offshore development in the UK in more than a decade.

Statoil expects to start production from Mariner in 2017, pending final approval by the UK authorities.

More than 700 jobs will be created, including 200 onshore posts in Aberdeen.

The field is expected to produce for 30 years, with average production of about 55,000 barrels of oil a day from 2017 to 2020.

The Mariner Field is located on the East Shetland Platform of the UK North Sea, about 150km (93 miles) east of the Shetland Isles.

Statoil is the operator of the field, with 65.11% equity. Other partners include JX Nippon Exploration and Production (UK) Limited (28.89%) and Cairn Energy (6%).

The development concept includes a production, drilling and quarters (PDQ) platform based on a steel jacket, with a floating storage unit (FSU).

More than 140 reservoir targets are planned for Mariner.

‘Good fit’

Executive vice president for development and production international in Statoil, Lars Christian Backer, said: “Statoil has extensive heavy oil experiences from offshore fields in Norway and Brazil.

“The Mariner field was discovered in 1981 and Statoil entered the licence as operator in 2007 with the aim of finally unlocking the resources.

Continue reading the main story

The North Sea is a core area for Statoil, and we look forward to taking a leading role in further developing also the UK part of this basin”

End Quote Lars Christian Backer Statoil

“We are satisfied that we now are able to make an investment decision for a profitable development of the Mariner field.”

He added: “The Mariner project is a good strategic fit for Statoil.

“We are the world’s largest offshore operator and have a portfolio of attractive projects in some of the most prolific basins in the world.

“The North Sea is a core area for Statoil, and we look forward to taking a leading role in further developing also the UK part of this basin.”

Industry body Oil and Gas UK welcomed Statoil’s announcement.

Economics director Mike Tholen said: “The largest offshore development in the UK for a decade, Mariner requires pioneering technology and will bring hundreds of high-skilled, long-lasting jobs across the country, hundreds of millions of pounds in additional tax revenues, as well as crucial security to our energy supplies.

“Expected to produce oil and gas for 30 years, this project – and others recently given the go-ahead on the UK continental shelf – will help to boost production and stem the decline we have seen in recent years, so helping the full economic benefit of our reserves to be realised in time.”

‘Tremendous news’

Energy Minister Fergus Ewing described the investment as “tremendous news for Scotland’s energy industry”.

He said: “There remains more value still to be extracted from the North Sea than there has been to date.

“With up to 24 billion barrels of oil still to be recovered, with a potential value of around £1.5 trillion, North Sea oil and gas is attracting record investment levels with capital investment of £8.5bn in 2011 and an expected £11.5bn in 2012.

“This announcement builds on positive announcements by Global Energy Group and Dana Petroleum this month, who are investing further in Scotland to capitalise on the potential of our energy resources, which will remain an enormous economic resource for decades to come.”

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Canada spending growth sluggish in November, Mastercard says

(Reuters) – Canada‘s holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in November with retail sales rising only 1.3 percent from the previous year, compared with 4.2 percent growth a year earlier, according to data released by MasterCard on Thursday.

Still, the shopping season was still young in November. MasterCard Advisors, the payment company’s research and consulting division, found that in recent years, holiday shopping peaks from December 20 to December 22.

“Many Canadians may have gotten an early start with Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, but it’s still a very young phenomenon in Canada,” Senior Vice-President Richard McLaughlin, said in a release.

The Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving is the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season south of the border, and in recent years retailers have imported Black Friday sales to Canada.

Some also promote online sales the following Monday.

Canada’s online retail sales continued to grow in November, increasing 26.4 percent.

(Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Peter Galloway)

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Facebook releases ‘Poke’ for the iPhone to compete with Snapchat

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Ashton Kutcher files for divorce from Demi Moore

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ashton Kutcher filed court papers Friday to end his seven-year marriage to actress Demi Moore.

The actor’s divorce petition cites irreconcilable differences and does not list a date that the couple separated. Moore announced last year that she was ending her marriage to the actor 15 years her junior, but she never filed a petition.

Kutcher’s filing does not indicate that the couple has a prenuptial agreement. The filing states Kutcher signed the document Friday, hours before it was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Kutcher and Moore married in September 2005 and until recently kept their relationship very public, communicating with each other and fans on the social networking site Twitter. After their breakup, Moore changed her name on the site from (at)mrskutcher to (at)justdemi.

Kutcher currently stars on CBS’ “Two and a Half Men.”

Messages sent to Kutcher’s and Moore’s publicists were not immediately returned Friday.

Moore, 50, and Kutcher, 34, created the DNA Foundation, also known as the Demi and Ashton Foundation, in 2010 to combat the organized sexual exploitation of girls around the globe. They later lent their support to the United Nations’ efforts to fight human trafficking, a scourge the international organization estimates affects about 2.5 million people worldwide.

Moore was previously married to actor Bruce Willis for 13 years. They had three daughters together — Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle — before divorcing in 2000. Willis later married model-actress Emma Heming in an intimate 2009 ceremony at his home in Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands that attended by their children, as well as Moore and Kutcher.

Kutcher has been dating former “That ’70s Show” co-star Mila Kunis.

The divorce filing was first reported Friday by People magazine.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP.

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Lauded cancer researcher, Springfield native, dies

A Springfield High School and Wittenberg University graduate whose research transformed the treatment of breast cancer and saved and prolonged the lives of women afflicted by it died Sunday in Cincinnati.

Elwood Jensen was 92.

Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Receptor Field,” Jensen was one of three researchers to share the 2004 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, what some call the American Nobel Prize.

The University of Cincinnati, where Jensen was a distinguished professor of cancer biology, noted that just one other of its graduates had won the honor, Albert Sabin, who developed a vaccine for polio.

“Some have estimated that his work annually saves or prolongs the lives of more than 100,000 women,” the university said in announcing his death.

A 1936 graduate of Springfield High School, Jensen was honored in 2008 as one of the Springfield City Schools Alumni of Distinction and he made periodic visits and lectures at Wittenberg University, one of five institutions to award him an honorary doctorate.

A 1940 graduate of Wittenberg, he went on to earn a Ph.D in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago, where he enjoyed a long career as a teacher and researcher. His interest in studying hormones began during 1946, when he spent a year as a Guggenheim Fellow at the Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich.

After his 1990 retirement from the University of Chicago, Jens also taught at Cornell, the University of Hamburg and the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm and did research at the National Institutes of Health.

In 2003, the University of Cincinnati honored him by organizing the Jensen Symposium on Nuclear Receptors and Endocrine Disorders, which drew more than 300 top researchers from around the world.

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Steve Jobs’ super-yacht impounded

21 December 2012 Last updated at 12:29 ET

Venus, the minimalist high-tech yacht commissioned by the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, has become embroiled in a row over a disputed bill.

French designer Philippe Starck claims Mr Jobs’ heirs still owe him 3m euros of a 9m euro fee for the project, according to Dutch paper Het Financieele Dagblad.

Mr Starck called in the debt collectors and had the yacht impounded,

The Port of Amsterdam confirmed that the boat is not allowed to leave.

Jeroen Ranzijn, spokesman for the Port of Amsterdam told the BBC: “The boat is brand new but there is a 3m euro claim on it. The parties will have to fight it out.”

Roelant Klaassen, a lawyer representing Mr Starck’s company, Ubik, told the Reuters news agency that the boat would remain in port pending payment by lawyers representing Mr Jobs’ estate.

“These guys trusted each other, so there wasn’t a very detailed contract,” he said.

Mr Starck was unavailable for comment.

Gerard Moussault, the lawyer representing the owners of the Venus told the BBC: “I cannot comment at all on this, sorry.”

The sleek, 260ft-long (80m) aluminium super-yacht cost 105m euros ($ 138m; £85m) and was launched in October, at Aalsmeer, The Netherlands.

Mr Starck is known for his striking designs for the Alessi company, including an aluminium lemon squeezer that is shaped like a spaceship.

He collaborated with Steve Jobs for five years on the project, describing the boat as “showing the elegance of intelligence.”

The vessel is minimalist in style and is named after the Roman goddess of love and its windows measure 3m (10 feet) in height.

Mr Starck has said that Venus “looks strange for a boat” but said its shape comes from design ideas he shared with Mr Jobs.

Mr Jobs died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 and never saw his boat go to sea.

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Italy PM Monti resigns, elections likely in February

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti tendered his resignation to the president on Friday after 13 months in office, opening the way to a highly uncertain national election in February.

The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, has kept his own political plans a closely guarded secret but he has faced growing pressure to seek a second term.

President Giorgio Napolitano is expected to dissolve parliament in the next few days and has already indicated that the most likely date for the election is February 24.

In an unexpected move, Napolitano said he would hold consultations with political leaders from all the main parties on Saturday to discuss the next steps. In the meantime Monti will continue in a caretaker capacity.

European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have called for Monti’s economic reform agenda to continue but Italy’s two main parties have said he should stay out of the race.

Monti, who handed in his resignation during a brief meeting at the presidential palace shortly after parliament approved his government’s 2013 budget, will hold a news conference on Sunday at which he is expected clarify his intentions.

Ordinary Italians are weary of repeated tax hikes and spending cuts and opinion polls offer little evidence that they are ready to give Monti a second term. A survey this week showed 61 percent saying he should not stand.

Whether he runs or not, his legacy will loom over an election which will be fought out over the painful measures he has introduced to try to rein in Italy’s huge public debt and revive its stagnant economy.

His resignation came a couple of months before the end of his term, after his technocrat government lost the support of Silvio Berlusconi‘s centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party in parliament earlier this month.

Speculation is swirling over Monti’s next moves. These could include outlining policy recommendations, endorsing a centrist alliance committed to his reform agenda or even standing as a candidate in the election himself.

The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) has held a strong lead in the polls for months but a centrist alliance led by Monti could gain enough support in the Senate to force the PD to seek a coalition deal which could help shape the economic agenda.

BERLUSCONI IN WINGS

Senior figures from the alliance, including both the UDC party, which is close to the Roman Catholic Church, and a new group founded by Ferrari sports car chairman Luca di Montezemolo, have been hoping to gain Monti’s backing.

He has not said clearly whether he intends to run, but he has dropped heavy hints he will continue to push a reform agenda that has the backing of both Italy’s business community and its European partners.

The PD has promised to stick to the deficit reduction targets Monti has agreed with the European Union and says it will maintain the broad course he has set while putting more emphasis on reviving growth.

Berlusconi’s return to the political arena has added to the already considerable uncertainty about the centre-right’s intentions and increased the likelihood of a messy and potentially bitter election campaign.

The billionaire media tycoon has fluctuated between attacking the government’s “Germano-centric” austerity policies and promising to stand aside if Monti agrees to lead the centre right, but now appears to have settled on an anti-Monti line.

He has pledged to cut taxes and scrap a hated housing tax which Monti imposed. He has also sounded a stridently anti-German line which has at times echoed the tone of the populist 5-Star Movement headed by maverick comic Beppe Grillo.

The PD and the PDL, both of which supported Monti’s technocrat government in parliament, have made it clear they would not be happy if he ran against them and there have been foretastes of the kind of attacks he can expect.

Former centre-left prime minister Massimo D’Alema said in an interview last week that it would be “morally questionable” for Monti to run against the PD, which backed all of his reforms and which has pledged to maintain his pledges to European partners.

Berlusconi who has mounted an intensive media campaign in the past few days, echoed that criticism this week, saying Monti risked losing the credibility he has won over the past year and becoming a “little political figure”.

(Additional reporting by Gavin Jones, Massimiliano Di Giorgio and Paolo Biondi; Writing by Gavin Jones and James Mackenzie; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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