BlackBerry bosses jam in effort to win love from app developers
RESEARCH in Motion (RIM) is in something of a funk, with its share price more than halving this year and customers switching over to the iPhone, a trend not helped by the delay of the next generation of BlackBerry phones until next year.
However, the company’s slide does not appear to have dampened spirits. RIM’s management have got together to record a cover of REO Speedwagon’s seminal “Keep On Loving You” to encourage app makers to develop software for the new devices, altering the words in the power ballad to fill it with programming jargon.
The “Because it’s the only thing I wanna do” line has been changed to “Our updated SDK is really cool”, while “I don’t wanna sleep” is now “The API’s complete”.
The accompanying music video, featuring product vice presidents Chris Smith, Martyn Mallick and Alec Saunders on guitar, keyboard and vocals has become an overnight YouTube sensation.
It’s tough working in the City – early starts and late nights entertaining clients can make for a rather long day. However, airline Cathay Pacific is offering the perfect short-term solution for City workers’ perennial tiredness. It is inviting anyone working in the area to visit the roof terrace at City shopping mall One New Change to test out the comfort of its new flat bed airline seats. The offer, which coincides with the launch of its new business class cabin on the London Heathrow to Hong Kong route, is only open on 2 to 4 October between 11.30am and 5pm. So get in quick if you fancy a well-deserved midday nap. If that’s not enough to tempt you, light refreshments are on offer too.
And if you want more than a catnap, then South Place Hotel – the City’s first ever independent luxury boutique hotel – could be just the place. Located between Moorgate and Liverpool Street, the hotel opened just after the Olympics on 3 September. Last night, however, marked its official launch party. City folk were there in force including Henry Angest, the chairman and chief executive of Arbuthnot, and Express Newspapers chairman Richard Desmond. Besides the free-flowing Moet there was plenty to keep attendees entertained with cabaret and circus acts as well as spy-themed cocktails – in keeping with the party’s vintage spy theme.