Archive for April 23rd, 2010

Another Palm exec is out… and CEO Jon Rubinstein is next?

Things must be getting a little weird at Palm right now, as every day seems to add a new piece to an already confusing puzzle. In just two week’s time the company has gone from a potential free agent, to a lone wolf, and then back to prospective purchase. Adding more noise to the proceedings, TechCrunch is now reporting that another senior staffer has hit the road, and this time it’s Caitlin Spaan, Palm’s VP of carrier marketing. Her name gets added to what looks like a growing list of recent Palm departures (not to mention that entire marketing department we hear has been canned). More troubling than that news, however, is a rumor which also appears on TC suggesting that CEO (and putative savior of the company) Jon Rubinstein may be on his way out as well. This report is pure hearsay at this point, but if true would be a major admission on Palm’s part that its plans to kickstart the ailing company nearly two years ago are failing (or have just plain failed). Of course, we need to stress that this news just rumor at this stage — the company offered no comment to Business Insider — and until we get more solid word, it should be treated as such. As for us, we’re hoping the company can pull something salvageable together from this mess and figure out a way to compete at a level of increasingly more difficult stakes.

Another Palm exec is out… and CEO Jon Rubinstein is next? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments View full post on Engadget Mobile

Santa Clara County police now looking into the lost iPhone prototype

About eighteen seconds after word got out that a prototype of Apple’s next iPhone had been lost, found, and then subsequently sold to Gizmodo (for somewhere around $5,000), commenters and pundits everywhere started asking: is all this legal? There are a bunch of complicated laws involving the ownership and selling of lost goods — not to mention lost top-secret intellectual property — and this iPhone seemed to be sitting in a pretty nasty gray area.

Turns out, the people of the Internets aren’t the only ones interested — the Santa Clara County police are curious, as well.

The folks at CNET spoke to a source at the Santa Clara Police department, who said that a “computer crime task force led by the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office” is now investigating the matter.

It’s not at all clear who (if anyone) they’re aiming the law hammer at, be it the gent who found the prototype for turning around and selling it, or Gizmodo for buying it. Either way, things get even more complex when you bring in the First Amendment and freedom of the press; what if Giz won’t reveal who sold them the iPhone? Is that protecting a source, or some sort of crazy mixed up obstruction of justice?

Giz took things to a new level, for better or worse, in purchasing the prototype and publishing what they did — and if any legal action goes down as a result, it’ll undoubtedly set a precedent. With that said: In the long run, it’s just a phone. No one died, nothing too earth shattering was revealed from a trade secret standpoint was revealed (Gasp! New shape!), and Apple got their prototype back. Sure, it’ll make Apple’s June announcement ever so slightly less exciting — but is that worthy of a mark on someone’s criminal record?

View full post on MobileCrunch

Samsung’s ARM roadmap lays coordinates through 2013: Aquila, Venus, and Draco (oh my)

Ah, leaked company presentation slides, they have a clarity only Mr. Blurrycam would despise. EETimes got a batch of them from Samsung dated November 2009 making the rounds, but more important than revealing its equal love for both Roman and Greek mythology, we get a glimpse at its then-planned ARM chip roadmap (yeah, another one) through 2013. In a nutshell, for the Cortex A9 crowd we’ve got the 800MHz dual core “Orion” due for mass production in Q1 2011, a 1GHz single core “Pegasus” for Q4 2011, a 1GHz dual core “Hercules” for Q1 2012, and for sometime in 2012 / 2013, a 1.2GHz dual core “Draco” and quad core “Aquila.” Fear not, Cortex A5 fanatics, you’ve got gifts as well, in the form of 600MHz single core “Mercury” and dual core “Venus” chips, slated for 2010 / 2011 and 2012 / 2013, respectively. We don’t expect the nomenclature to extend beyond internal usage, but frankly, who cares — it’s the devices that count, and unfortunately all we can do is doodle our future gadget hopes and dreams onto scraps of paper while we wait.

Samsung’s ARM roadmap lays coordinates through 2013: Aquila, Venus, and Draco (oh my) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments View full post on Engadget Mobile

Palm Shake-Up Imminent, Rubinstein May Be Out

Palm right now is a disaster. Its sales are going nowhere, its market share is plummeting, and try as it might, it can’t even find a buyer. Industry sources tell us that a major restructuring and management shakeup is imminent and CEO Jon Rubinstein may be replaced.

This is still a rumor at this point, but it makes sense. Palm is suffering from a ton of unsold inventory, and it cannot keep up with Apple, Android, or Blackberry in the smartphone wars. Palm clearly needs to be bought at this point if it is going to survive, and Rubinstein may not be the right person to make that sale. Rubinstein came from Apple, where he was head of hardware. He was recruited by Palm’s biggest investor Elevation Partners. Rubinstein is great engineer, but not a great marketer. It appears he is having trouble selling Palm, even as a distressed asset.

The writing is on the wall. Palm’s executive talent is already beginning to walk out the door. Palm still has some valuable assets in terms of products, patents, intellectual property, and a recognizable brand. But Rubinstein may not be the best person to make a sale happen. He was brought in to take on Apple, after all. Not to sell damaged goods.

I’ve reached out to Palm for comment.

[crunchbase url="http://www.crunchbase.com/person/jon-rubinstein,http://www.crunchbase.com/company/palm" name="Jon Rubinstein,Palm"]

View full post on MobileCrunch

Palm deploying crack team of kind strangers to give you stuff

If you’re walking around with your Pre or Pixi prominently displayed and some dude comes up to you and tries to hand you a bag, don’t freak out: odds are you’ve merely been selected for one of Palm’s “random acts of wow.” The company is playing coy about where these people are or for how long the promotion is going to last, but apparently they’ve got people all over the world on the prowl for Palm users that look like they could use an accessory or three, with gifts ranging from stickers all the way up to pricey Touchstones and everything in between. So keep that mace / pepper spray / stun gun holstered for a second until you figure out what’s going on, alright?

Palm deploying crack team of kind strangers to give you stuff originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments View full post on Engadget Mobile