I really don’t know what to make of this story. BlackBerry tweeted out a statement this week confirming TCL will no longer be allowed to manufacture and distribute smartphones under the BlackBerry name, and that all current Android-powered BlackBerrys would be removed from the market as of August 31st, 2020.
Here’s the thing: no one knows if this means BlackBerry’s gonna die for good or if the company will go off and make its own hardware again. The company had to stop years ago because people moved on, but there seems to be some interest in modern-day BlackBerrys, especially since the ones TCL was selling were performing pretty well.
I guess time will tell whether BlackBerry Mobile will die for good, but I’d get they won’t. I feel like they’ll come back at some point with an in-house Android phone, even if it sucks.
In other news…
Alphabet reports $46.075 billion in revenue, details hardware, YouTube, Google Cloud earnings
I won’t dive too deep into this ocean-like story, but here it is in a nutshell: Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has reported $46.075 billion in revenue for Q4 2019, and for the first time ever, the company is detailing its earnings for some of its largest divisions including Google Cloud, hardware, and even YouTube.
Granted, we don’t have exact figures, but here’s the basis of it.
- Google Cloud is on a $10 billion revenue run rate.
- “Google other revenues” which includes hardware and the Play Store among other things, earned $15.15 billion, a gain of around $4 billion YoY.
- YouTube earns $15 billion in ad revenue annually.
Obviously, not all of this information details how Google and the rest of Alphabet did this quarter, but it’s interesting to see the company detailing some of its earnings in such a manner that we’ve never seen before. The reason behind the change might be to distract people from lower-than-expected revenues across the board, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Xiamoi launches Poco X2 with high-end specs for less than $300
In gadget news, Xiaomi has unveiled its new Poco X2 budget phone which will retail starting at around $225 in India and go up to about $280. What makes this handset worth talking about is its specs. The phone features a Snapdragon 730G processor, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, quadruple rear cameras with a 64MP main sensor, a 6.67-inch 120Hz Full HD display, a 4,500mAh battery, 27W fast charging, a headphone jack, and a fingerprint reader.
That’s a lot of specs, and the entire package will retail for under $300. The phone will more than likely never leave India, but sometimes, I wish companies would just set up an eBay store and sell these phones in the U.S. I’d love to get my hands on one.
Apple TV app now available for 2019 LG TVs
In a press release, LG has announced Apple’s TV app is now available on the company’s 2019 range of smart TVs. The app gives you access to all the content inside your Apple TV subscription, as well as the ability to rent or buy movies from iTunes. It’s available in more than 80 countries.
Google rolls out February 2020 security patch to Pixel phones
Finally, if you’re a Google Pixel phone owner, go check it for an update. The company has just started rolling out the February 2020 security patch with fixes for the camera, Assistant, and more on the Pixel 4 and 4 XL. Everyone else gets some nice security patches.
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