“On the transition to CEO by Mr. Heins, Mr. Lazaridis said, “There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the Board and told them that we thought that time was now.”

January 22, 2012 21:39 ET
Research In Motion Names Thorsten Heins President and CEO
- Board Acts on Recommendation of Co-CEOs to Implement Succession Plan
- Mike Lazaridis Named Vice Chair of the Board
- Jim Balsillie Remains a Director
- Barbara Stymiest Named Independent Board Chair
- Prem Watsa Named Independent Director

WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Jan. 22, 2012) – The Board of Directors of BlackBerry® maker Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced that, acting on the recommendation of its Co-Chief Executive Officers to implement the succession plan they previously submitted to the Board, it has unanimously named Thorsten Heins as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Heins was also appointed to RIM’s Board. The Board acted after conducting its own due diligence. Both appointments are effective immediately.

Mike Lazaridis, former Co-Chair and Co-CEO, has become Vice Chair of RIM’s Board and Chair of the Board’s new Innovation Committee. As Vice Chair, he will work closely with Mr. Heins to offer strategic counsel, provide a smooth transition and continue to promote the BlackBerry brand worldwide.

Mr. Heins said he looks forward to continuing to work with Mr. Lazaridis, globally recognized as a technology pioneer. He said, “Mike created a whole new way of communicating and I look forward to continuing our close collaboration.”

On the transition to CEO by Mr. Heins, Mr. Lazaridis said, “There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the Board and told them that we thought that time was now. With BlackBerry 7 now out, PlayBook 2.0 shipping in February and BlackBerry 10 expected to ship later this year, the company is entering a new phase, and we felt it was time for a new leader to take it through that phase and beyond. Jim, the Board and I all agreed that leader should be Thorsten Heins.”

Jim Balsillie remains a member of the Board. “I agree this is the right time to pass the baton to new leadership, and I have complete confidence in Thorsten, the management team and the company,” he said. “I remain a significant shareholder and a Director and, of course, they will have my full support.”
Mr. Lazaridis said that he decided to move from Co-Chair to Vice Chair of the Board in order to return the public’s focus to what is most important: “the great company we have built, its iconic products, global brand and its talented employees.”

Mr. Lazaridis added, “Thorsten has demonstrated throughout his tenure at RIM that he has the right mix of leadership, relevant industry experience and skills to take the company forward. We have been impressed with his operational skills at both RIM and Siemens. I am so confident in RIM’s future that I intend to purchase an additional million of the company’s shares, as permitted, in the open market.”

Mr. Heins said he believes that RIM has tremendous potential. He joined RIM from Siemens Communications Group in December 2007 as Senior Vice President for Hardware Engineering and became Chief Operating Officer for Product and Sales in August 2011.

“Mike and Jim took a bold step 18 months ago when RIM purchased QNX to shepherd the transformation of the BlackBerry platform for the next decade,” Mr. Heins said. “We are more confident than ever that was the right path. It is Mike and Jim’s continued unwillingness to sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain which has made RIM the great company that it is today. I share that philosophy and am very excited about the company’s future.”

Mr. Heins said that RIM has a strong foundation on which to build. “We have a strong balance sheet with approximately .5 billion in cash at the end of the last quarter and negligible debt. We reported revenue of .2 billion in our last quarter, up 24% from the prior quarter, and a 35% year-to-year increase in the BlackBerry subscriber base, which is now over 75 million.”

Mr. Heins said, “BlackBerry 7 has been well received. We are very excited about PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry 10. The reception of our products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was encouraging.”
He continued, “RIM earned its reputation by focusing relentlessly on the customer and delivering unique mobile communications solutions. We intend to build on this heritage to expand BlackBerry’s leadership position.”

Mr. Heins said that RIM has grown quickly. “As with any company that has grown as fast as we have, there have been inevitable growing pains,” he said. “We have learned from those challenges and, I believe, we have and will become a stronger company as a result.

“Going forward, we will continue to focus both on short-term and long-term growth, strategic planning, a customer- and market-based product approach, and flawless execution. We are in the process of recruiting a new Chief Marketing Officer to work closely with our product and sales teams to deliver the most compelling products and services.”

Barbara Stymiest, who formerly served as a member of Royal Bank of Canada’s Group Executive and has been a member of RIM’s Board since 2007, has been named the independent Board Chair. John Richardson, formerly Lead Director, will remain on the Board. Prem Watsa, Chief Executive Officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings, also was named to the Board, expanding it to 11 members.

Speaking on behalf of the Board, Ms. Stymiest said: “We believe that Thorsten is the right executive to succeed Mike and Jim. He has 27 years of telecommunications experience, including four years at RIM in senior management positions. As a Board, we have been impressed with his outstanding management skills, his leadership and his accomplishments within the company.”

Ms. Stymiest also expressed the Board’s respect and admiration for Messrs. Lazaridis and Balsillie, the company they built, and the steps they have taken to position RIM for the future.

“They created RIM, nurtured it, and in the process not only built an iconic brand, but literally pioneered the smartphone industry,” she said. “It is Canada’s largest tech company and one of the largest in the world.”

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Step 1:
select the video you want a frame from in your camera roll and turn your phone on its side to enter landscape mode (so it’s wider than tall) the video automatically fills the entire iPhone screen.

Step 2:
use the scrub bat up top to skip to the frame you want to capture. Pause the video on this point

Step 3:
tap on the screen anywhere to make the video controls dissapear and all you can see just the video.

Step 4:
hold the sleep/wake button on top of the phone and then press the home button on the front of the iPhone and a screenshot is taken and saved to the camera roll.

You now had a still image of the frame on the movie you want!

I isn’t the same an iPhone photo though the resolution is less and it’s in PNG format but unless you get the photo on a computer and use a professional video editing program it’s the closest you can get.

Also the iPhone video is only 640×480 resolution so it won’t create anymore than a VGA resolution still from a video.

Att iPhone News, Hacks, App Reviews, How To and jailbreak

We love it when you send in your tips and hints, especially when they’re this cool.  Notice that the dual LED flash on the HTC Evo doesn’t work while filming video? Turns out that’s pretty easy to fix, using an app called LED light right from the Android Market.  No root, no muss, no fuss.  Hit the jump to get the links, and to see side by side examples with and without the camera flash. Thanks Jpeary!

Posted originally at Android Central

Sponsored by www.droidappshowcase.com

Android Central – Android Central

Apple CEO Steve Jobs appeared at the event in his customary black turtleneck and jeans to deliver the presentation. Much of the suspense was taken out of this year’s annual iPhone unveiling back in April after the tech blog Gizmodo published photos and descriptions of a prototype iPhone. “Believe me, you ain’t seen this,” Jobs said, according to reports.

The new device, which goes on sale June 24 and will come in black and white, will be 9 for the 16 GB version and 9 for the 32 GB version with a two-year contract from AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T), which is remaining the exclusive carrier of the iPhone for now. AT&T said current iPhone customers who are eligible for an upgrade before the end of this year will be able to get the iPhone 4 for the 9 and 9 prices when they sign up for a new two-year contract.

The company is getting rid of the iPhone 3G, and the 3GS is going to be on sale for beginning June 24. The phone will initially be available in the U.S., France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan, Jobs said, though more countries will be added in July, August and September.

The video calling feature, called FaceTime, will work only from one iPhone 4 to another and only over WiFi in 2010.  It will not be working on 3G cellular networks. “It’s WiFi-only in 2010, we’re working with the cellular providers to get things ready,” Jobs said, according to reports. 

Jobs had to halt his presentation when his iPhone 4 could not connect to the Web. “I’m afraid we have a problem and I’m not going to be able to show you much today,” he said. Someone in the audience yelled out, “Try Verizon (NYSE:VZ)!” Jobs asked audience members to disconnect from WiFi before he was able to demo some of the Web features of the phone.

The iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch display and runs on Apple’s A4 processor, which also powers the iPad. The device is 25 percent thinner than the iPhone 3GS, and has a glass front and back and a stainless-steel band that functions as the antenna system. The new screen has a 960 x 640 resolution, which quadruples the number of pixels available on the screen, which Apple calls a “retina display.” The display sharpens text, pictures and video, Jobs said. The iPhone 4 also has a larger battery that extends the device’s battery life. The phone’s camera has been upgraded to a 5-megapixel camera, with 5X digital zoom and can also record HD video at 720p/30fps.

Jobs also said that for .99, customers can download iMovie to the iPhone 4, which allows them to record, edit and post videos directly on the phone. The phone also comes with a gyroscope, which will allow developers to develop games and other apps to take advantage of the new motion controls.

Apple sold 8.75 million iPhones in the quarter, representing a 131 percent increase from the 3.79 million it sold in the year-ago quarter, and slightly higher than the 8.7 million it sold in the last quarter. According to IDC, handset vendors around the globe shipped 54.7 million smartphone units in the quarter, up 56.7 percent from the year-ago quarter, and outpacing growth in the overall handset market, which grew 21.7 percent.

The company is taking advantage of the surge in smartphone sales–the company’s global smartphone market share surged upward from 10.9 percent a year ago to 16.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010. Apple still trails behind Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) in global smartphone market share.

For more:
- see this AT&T release
- see more iPhone 4 pictures
- see iPhone 4 full specifications
- see the iPhone 3GS vs. iPhone 4
- see this Engadget post
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this WSJ live blog (sub. req.)
- see this Engadget live blog
- see this AllThingsD live blog

Related Articles:
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Apple’s iPhone shipments continue to soar
Real or not, Apple wants its iPhone back
With a possible June 7 launch, Apple raises iPhone expectations
AT&T hiking smartphone ETF to 5
AT&T’s de la Vega downplays prepaid growth, potential iPhone loss

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