Blackberry BlackBerry’s renewed enterprise push has prompted the company to hire a new chief operating officer with an entire career of corporate focus. BlackBerry announced Monday it has appointed Marty Beard as chief operating officer, effective immediately. Beard will oversee marketing, application development, customer care, and quality — all of which BlackBerry describes as “cross-functional …

Jolla’s Snapfish-based smartphone. Jolla Jolla, the Finnish handset maker that runs it smartphone on the open-source Sailfish operating system, is heading to India, the company confirmed on Friday. Jolla signed an agreement with Snapdeal.com, India’s largest e-marketplace, to sell its smartphone, also called Jolla, exclusively on the online service. Though details on availability and pricing were slim, Jolla said the …

Nokia Nokia’s streaming-music app MixRadio has become another casualty in Microsoft’s deep cuts, but the service will live on as a standalone platform, its chief executive has confirmed. Speaking to The Guardian in an interview published Friday, MixRadio chief Jyrki Rosenberg confirmed that “basically, we’re planning a spin-off” from Microsoft. He added that while the streaming music service will continue …

Josh Miller/CNET Hundreds of Samsung managers have reportedly returned part of their bonuses for the first half of the year as the electronics maker prepares to report worse-than-expected second-quarter earnings. Nearly 200 managers in the Samsung Electronics mobile division returned part of their bonus, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a source with knowledge of the give-back. Local media reports estimate …

Google shut down the file-sharing app Bump at the beginning of this year. Bump/Google When Apple introduced AirDrop, its wireless technology for sharing photos and other content between Apple devices, at last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Senior Vice President of Software Craig Federighi teased Android users for needing to “wander around the room bumping your phone” to transfer data. It …

Stephen Elop James Martin/CNET Microsoft exec Stephen Elop is making it abundantly clear: Microsoft has no intention of staying in the Android business. In a memo emailed to employees on Thursday, Elop said Microsoft’s devices business will concentrate “on the areas where we can add the most value” and noted that Nokia X smartphones, which run on heavily modified versions …

Samsung’s Gear Live Josh Miller/CNET In response to Apple and Nike’s growing relationship, Samsung is trying to create a similar deal with sportswear giant Under Armour, according to reports out of Korea. Lee Jay-yong, a top Samsung exec and chairman’s son, met earlier this month with Kelvin Plank, CEO of the U.S.-based sports clothing, shoes, and equipment maker. They discussed …

Line Japan-based messaging app Line appears to be mulling in an initial public offering in either Tokyo or the United States, or both. Line kicked off the process by submitting an IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, parent company Naver Corp. said Wednesday, according to multiple reports. While Line wants to list shares in Japan, unnamed banking sources told …

4G LTE, the high-speed wireless data connection available in some mobile devices via carrier networks, is set to expand its reach in the next several years, according to new data from research firm Juniper Research. By 2017, there will be 1 billion active LTE, or long-term evolution, connections worldwide, Juniper reported on Wednesday. That figure will nearly double to 1.8 …

The HTC One HTC Smartphone maker HTC, which has watched its revenue slide and competition mount, is losing two executives, according to Bloomberg. HTC Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho has resigned and will be replaced by Chairwoman Cher Wang, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the situation. Meanwhile, HTC president of engineering and operations, Fred …