According to latest figures from the research firm Raymond James, BlackBerry is steadily gaining its Canadian market share back. From its sunk market share of 6%, it managed to grow to 13.5% of the Canadian market.

As you would expect, Apple and Samsung are ruling the market, accounting for 40.1% (down from 44% in Q4 2012) and 31% (also down from 35% in Q2 2012), respectively.

Many Canadian organizations like Canadian Tire, BMO and Torys LLP have outwardly declared support for the BlackBerry 10 platform and are procuring the Z10 and Q10 smartphones for their employees.

While we still don’t have the sales numbers, we do know that carriers have got a “very positive response” to the new BlackBerry devices with Q10 selling especially well, according to the company’s CEO…

[Via: MobileSyrup]

We must say the Square Stand + iPad installation reminds us little on the iMac but I guess that was the idea — to piggyback on the proven design Apple fans are used to.

In the official press release, Square co-founder Jack Dorsey described the $299 Square Stand as “elegant, fast, affordable and easy to use,” and as such – perfect for any merchant whether it sells cupcakes, cardigans or cappuccinos.

In addition to card swiping capability, the Square Stand can also sing along a receipt printer and barcode scanner, both of which are available for purchase from Square.

Finally, it’s worth adding that the stand currently selling is only compatible with second- and third-generation iPads (it has a 30-pin connector), with a model supporting the fourth-gen iPad’s Lightning expected to be launched later in the year.

It is said that there will be few different Galaxy S4 Active models: SGH-I537 is believed to be heading for AT&T in the States, while another model (GT-I9295) will be released in Europe.

Samsung will likely unveil the new water/dust-proof phone in the next few weeks alongside the Galaxy S4 Mini and Galaxy S4 Zoom. The former is a smaller version of the Galaxy S4, while the latter should add an optical zoom to the mix. These two will also have a slower-than-Galaxy S4 hardware under the hood.

[Via: PhoneArena]

GIV Mobile is a virtual operator (MVNO) relying on T-Mobile’s 4G network to provide users with two easy-to-grasp plans:

• $40/month Unlimited Everything – which includes talk, text, MMS, International text and web (first 250MB up to 4G/3G speeds) on all 4G enabled phones and smartphones.
• $50/month Unlimited Everything – that extends fast 4G/3G mobile data allowance to 2GB.

After choosing the plan, customers can select up to three charities from eight different categories that will receive a monthly donation. Charities include:

• Animal Welfare: American Veterinary Medical Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, PetSmart Charities, WCS Wildlife Conservation Society
• Arts, Culture & Humanity: The Academy of Natural Sciences, Archaeological Conservancy, Fractured Atlas, Little Kids Rock, StoryCorps
• Education: Children’s Scholarship Fund, Donors Choose, Kids in Need Foundation, Scholarship America
• Environment: American Rivers, The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, The Wilderness Society
• Health: Alzheimer’s Association, American Cancer Society, Commonweal, Patient Services Incorporated, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital
• International: Camfed USA, Doctors Without Borders, Direct Relief International, United States Fund for UNICEF
• Human Services: American Red Cross, The Children’s Aid Society, Dress for Success, Feeding America, National Alliance to End Homelessness, Ronald McDonald House Charities
• Public Benefit: American Endowment Foundation, Carnegie Institution for Science, Mercy Housing, Taproot Foundation, United Way Worldwide

In addition, on a bi-annual basis, GIV Mobile will have a period of open submissions during which members can nominate new organizations for inclusion…

The first game to be published under this program will be Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage by Nitrome Ltd., followed by Tiny Thief by 5 Ants. The former follows the adventure of a lone Viking, combining a unique ice slicing mechanic with an offbeat humor; while the latter is a medieval adventure featuring stealth-based puzzles.

According to Rovio’s Director of Development Kalle Kaivola, the idea is to help select indie game developers get more exposure on the market. In that sense, we shouldn’t expect Rovio Stars to mimic major publishers, launching a bunch of games all the time. Instead, the program will focus on a small, select number of games, with each Rovio Stars launch being an event of its own.

We’ve no doubts these guys know what quality means and are looking forward to try out many of the games they have in the pipeline…

Neil Shah, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, goes on to add that the Android platform accounted for 43% share of the entire smartphone industry’s operating profits that have reached $12.5 billion worldwide in Q1.

Another Strategy Analytics’ Senior Analyst, Woody Oh, argues that Samsung has its efficient supply chain, sleek products and crisp marketing to thank for its current position.

With just 3% of the market, LG is the second largest Android smartphone maker. It delivered a small profit during the quarter, as it currently lacks the volume scale needed to match “Samsung’s outsized profits.”

Finally, the research firm’s Executive Director Neil Mawston concludes that Samsung is not only the undisputed king of the global Android smartphone industry, but that it also likely generates more revenue and profit from the Android platform than Google does. In that sense, it may use this position to influence the future direction of the Android ecosystem…

We’re still not sure when that will happen exactly but we’re betting HTC’s engineers are already playing with the latest version of Google’s mobile platform and are fine-tuning the software as we speak. The final stage is usually the most time-consuming as it includes identifying and removing all of the bugs, while making final tweaks to the firmware to make for a more stable users experience. Plus, HTC may also want to include some of its own software updates and make the update that much better.

As usual, we’ll keep following this story and will get back to you as soon as we have something new to add. Stay tuned in the meantime, k?

[Via: PhoneArena]

Last time we’ve heard, the bigger model (Galaxy Mega 6.3) should’ve been out in week 19 (May 6 – May 12), while Mega 5.8 should’ve start selling on May 13th. That, apparently, wasn’t the case as both devices are still not available for purchase. In fact, European retailers suggest that the Galaxy Mega devices won’t be launched this month at all:

• In the UK, the Carphone Warehouse says it’s going to stock the Galaxy Mega 6.3 only starting July.
• In the Netherlands, the Mega 6.3 should’ve be out in week 23 (June 3 – June 9), while the smaller Mega 5.8 will arrive on July 22nd.

Again, both Galaxy Mega devices come with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, 8-megapixel rear cameras and optional LTE connectivity. The smaller model has a 5.8-inch qHD screen, 1GHz dual-core processor, 8GB of internal memory; while the bigger one sports a 6.3-inch 720p HD screen, 1.7GHz dual-core processor, and 8 or 16 GB of internal storage…

[Via: Unwired View]

According to the AllThingsD report, the Yahoo’s board has approved the deal, which will likely be announced on Monday morning.

Sources close to the matter said that Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer has decided that buying Tumblr was going to be “the stake in the ground of what her strategy is going forward for Yahoo.” That strategy involves attracting younger audiences to Yahoo’s properties.

This is Yahoo’s biggest acquisition in the last couple of years; up until this point, Mayer has initiated a number of smaller deals, mostly in the mobile space.

We don’t have the complete picture of Yahoo’s strategy, but it looks like Mayer is preparing the company for a big mobile push. And we think she’s onto something…

Tumblr has a reported valuation of $800 million, and its (soon to be delighted) investors include Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners and the Chernin Group.

• BlinkFeed improvements
• New Sprint Zone client
• Improved Back and Home key sensitivity

The last mentioned is pretty much the only thing worth mentioning as it will address an annoyance users have been reporting for some time. The problem was that touch targets are seemingly not big enough, and this update will fix that by possibly increasing the size of the target.

In any case, we advise you to push the button the second your HTC One informs you about the new software waiting for download. Just make sure your battery has enough juice to complete the update process…

In addition, this smartphone also comes with a large 5-inch 720p HD screen, 1GB of RAM, 8-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing one, 2,500mAh battery and 4GB of internal memory. Size wise, it measures 144x75x8.5 mm and has a weight of 135 grams. Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is running the show out of box.

As for the price, the Panasonic P51 is selling for INR 26,900 (about $517) and the retail package includes a magnetic flip cover and stylus. It’s unclear whether some other markets will get this phone as well. We would assume Panasonic wants to bring it to more emerging markets but we can’t be 100% sure that will actually happen…

[Via: GSMarena]