RIM reports delays, layoffs, and dismal earnings; how YouTube stars get made.
RIM posts dismal earnings, delays BlackBerry 10 operating system [FORTUNE]
“I am not satisfied with these results and continue to work aggressively with all areas of the organization and the Board to implement meaningful changes to address the challenges, including a thoughtful realignment of resources and honing focus within the Company on areas that have the greatest opportunities,” [CEO Thorsten] Heins said in a written statement.
On YouTube, amateur is the new pro [THE NEW YORK TIMES]
Then there are the YouTube stars — people like Ray William Johnson, Mystery Guitar Man, Smosh, Michelle Phan, the ShayTards, Jenna Marbles, Freddie Wong, What the Buck or Philip DeFranco. If these names mean nothing to you, trust me: these are famous, successful YouTubers. Their videos get millions of views, and because they get a share of the resulting ad revenue, they are almost certainly among the “hundreds” that the company says earn six figures or better from their videos.
Nexus 7 review [THE VERGE]
Google’s Nexus 7 isn’t just an excellent tablet for $200. It’s an excellent tablet, period. In fact, it’s the first Android tablet that I can confidently recommend to buyers — and not just because it’s got a low price tag (though that certainly helps). It’s a well-designed, powerful, and useful product, with lots of bells and whistles that makes it feel like a device that should be more expensive than it is.
AOL reorganizes into membership, brand and ad units [TECHCRUNCH]
After yesterday’s $400 million share buyback, some more news today from our owners, AOL: it’s reorganizing into three operating units, plus a separate one for corporate support of all three: they will be called AOL Membership, Brand Group (which includes content like TechCrunch and Huffington Post), and the Advertising.com Group. Tim Armstrong, the CEO, has also appointed Artie Minson to the role of Chief Operating Officer overseeing the three operating units. Before this, he had been the CFO, a position where he already had some control over operations, for example leading its legacy dial-up business.
How Google pulled off insane Project Glass stunt demo [PCMAG]
How did the production team manage to maintain a signal from the rooftop to the airship circling above downtown San Francisco? Calling it a “very challenging” wireless environment, Brin pointed to team members holding handheld transmitters to beam a signal to the Zeppelin, where the skydivers were hooked up via their Project Glass goggles. Brin, meanwhile, had ditched his clear Google Glass spectacles for a pair of augmented reality shades that looked a lot less geeky, if you ask me.
