Brad Reed

@bwreedbgr brad@bgr.com +Brad Reed

Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.

Business
July 17, 2014
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Microsoft Nokia Layoffs Ballmer

Microsoft is paying dearly for Ballmer’s final huge mistake

By on July 17, 2014 at 3:10 PM.

Microsoft is paying dearly for Ballmer’s final huge mistake

One big takeaway from Thursday’s terrible news that Microsoft is laying off 18,000 employees is that the company now sees former CEO Steve Ballmer’s decision to buy Nokia as a Gob Bluth-style huge mistake. 12,500 of the affected employees came from the Nokia devices and services division, which amounts to around half of the roughly 25,000 employees that Microsoft absorbed when it officially acquired Nokia earlier this year. More →

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Accessories
July 17, 2014
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Best Kickstarter Projects OwnPhones

Brilliant wireless earbuds can be custom-designed to fit exactly in your ears

By on July 17, 2014 at 1:17 PM.

Brilliant wireless earbuds can be custom-designed to fit exactly in your ears

Do you still use classic headphones instead of earbuds just because most earbuds tend to fall out of your ears when you’re on the move? If so then you may want to check out a new Kickstarter project called OwnPhones that will let you 3D print earbuds that will fit exactly into your ears’ shape and size. More →

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Business
July 17, 2014
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Microsoft Nokia Layoffs Elop

Here’s what Elop told the 12,500 Nokia employees who just got axed

By on July 17, 2014 at 9:45 AM.

Here’s what Elop told the 12,500 Nokia employees who just got axed

It’s safe to say that Stephen Elop really isn’t very popular in Finland, especially after Microsoft announced on Thursday that it was laying 12,500 people who currently work for its Nokia devices and services division. Since Elop is both the former CEO of Nokia and the current boss of Microsoft’s devices and services division, we were very curious to get his take on this week’s massive layoffs that hit his division harder than any other. More →

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Gaming
July 17, 2014
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Microsoft Xbox One Sales Double

Ditching Kinect may have saved the Xbox One from falling permanently behind the PS4

By on July 17, 2014 at 8:45 AM.

Ditching Kinect may have saved the Xbox One from falling permanently behind the PS4

So far it seems like Microsoft’s decision to unbundle Kinect from the Xbox One has been a good one. Microsoft said this week that monthly sales of the Xbox One in the United States more than doubled ever since it decided to start offering the console by itself without the Kinect sensor for $400, or $100 less than what the console cost with Kinect. More →

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Business
July 17, 2014
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Microsoft Layoffs 18,000 Employees

Microsoft announces massive round of layoffs, including 12,500 Nokia employees

By on July 17, 2014 at 8:14 AM.

Microsoft announces massive round of layoffs, including 12,500 Nokia employees

As expected, Microsoft on Thursday announced a huge round of layoffs that will see roughly 18,000 employees lose their jobs. Of these layoffs, 12,500 will come from Microsoft’s Nokia devices division, representing yet another major blow to the one-time mobile phone giant. In his announcement of the layoffs, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that they were necessary as part of “starting to evolve our organization and culture.” More →

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Internet
July 16, 2014
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Netflix FCC Net Neutrality Filing

Netflix would rather the FCC do nothing than authorize ‘fast lanes’

By on July 16, 2014 at 10:30 PM.

Netflix would rather the FCC do nothing than authorize ‘fast lanes’

It’s safe to say that Netflix is still really not a fan of the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to possibly allow for Internet “fast lanes” where ISPs can charge content companies more to get their traffic delivered more quickly than on the “standard” Internet. The Verge has spotted Netflix’s official filing with the FCC discussing its proposed new net neutrality rules and the company basically says that it would be better if the FCC just did nothing instead of making things worse with its current proposal. More →

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Security
July 16, 2014
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Best Password Tips Microsoft

Now they tell us: Microsoft says strong passwords are overrated

By on July 16, 2014 at 6:45 PM.

Now they tell us: Microsoft says strong passwords are overrated

You know all the time and trouble you put into making and memorizing unique strong passwords for every website you visit? Well, Microsoft says a lot of that was likely misspent energy. The Guardian informs us that new research from Microsoft (PDF) shows that we probably shouldn’t use strong passwords for all our websites and that having weak passwords will suffice in many circumstances. More →

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Internet
July 16, 2014
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Chattanooga Tennessee Municipal Broadband

Congresswoman bravely stands up for ISPs’ rights to deliver inferior service with no competition

By on July 16, 2014 at 5:30 PM.

Congresswoman bravely stands up for ISPs’ rights to deliver inferior service with no competition

Chattanooga, Tennessee’s municipal broadband network offers affordable broadband service that just happens to deliver the same 1Gbps peak speeds as Google Fiber. Given this apparent success story, you would think that state government officials would be happy to see other municipalities experiment with building their own fiber networks or to at least let Chattanooga expand its fiber service to more areas. But you’d be wrong. More →

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Business
July 16, 2014
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Why Is Comcast So Bad

Comcast employees explain why their customer service is so terrible

By on July 16, 2014 at 3:34 PM.

Comcast employees explain why their customer service is so terrible

How is it possible that Comcast’s customer service is so relentlessly terrible? Hint: It’s not because it’s hired a disproportionate number of people who are psychotic. If you look at reviews of Comcast on Glassdoor, we can see that even current and former employees of the company think it does an absolutely terrible job of delivering quality customer service. What their reviews basically boil down to is that Comcast doesn’t offer enough resources or training to its staff to prepare them to deliver quality service and it puts too much emphasis on trying to upsell customers on more expensive service bundles at all costs rather than addressing needs and concerns. More →

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Apps & Software
July 16, 2014
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Microsoft Cortana Vs. Siri

How Microsoft plans to give Cortana more brain power than anything Siri can muster

By on July 16, 2014 at 2:49 PM.

How Microsoft plans to give Cortana more brain power than anything Siri can muster

Microsoft’s Cortana assistant has earned a good deal of praise in the early going and the company this week unveiled plans to make it even better. Microsoft says that starting this fall, Cortana will have access to a huge trove of academic information through a new Bing feature that will have “academic data tightly integrated and prominently featured on its search pages.” Microsoft says that this new feature will be part of its Microsoft Academic Search initiative that aims to make scholarly research an integral part of Bing search results and not its own separate category as we see now in Google Scholar. More →

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Apps & Software
July 16, 2014
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Best Chrome Extensions Old Compose

Here’s the best way to make Gmail as awesome as you remember it

By on July 16, 2014 at 12:21 PM.

Here’s the best way to make Gmail as awesome as you remember it

When Gmail was first launched, it was the best thing to happen to email in just about forever. Over the years, though, Google started tinkering with it to the point where it became less and less like the clean, distraction-free interface that we all fell in love with a decade ago. Thankfully for us, the team at Old Compose have just completely rebuilt their Chrome and Firefox extensions to give you the best way yet to make Gmail just as awesome as you remember it by bringing back the big compose window that Google unceremoniously dumped last year. More →

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Apps & Software
July 16, 2014
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BlackBerry Assistant Announced Siri

BlackBerry at long last unveils its answer to Siri and Cortana

By on July 16, 2014 at 9:20 AM.

BlackBerry at long last unveils its answer to Siri and Cortana

BlackBerry is a bit late to the party when it comes to unveiling its own voice-enabled personal assistant. Even so, the company nonetheless took the wraps off its new BlackBerry Assistant feature on Wednesday that will give BlackBerry 10 users the same voice-enabled functionality that iOS users have long enjoyed with Siri and that Android users have long enjoyed with Google Now. More →

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Mobile
July 15, 2014
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Sprint and T-Mobile won’t let themselves get left behind by Verizon and AT&T again

By on July 15, 2014 at 7:30 PM.

Sprint and T-Mobile won’t let themselves get left behind by Verizon and AT&T again

Sprint and T-Mobile know they can’t just stand idly by like they did in the 2008 when both Verizon and AT&T cleaned house in the hugely important 700MHz spectrum auction that gave America’s top two wireless carriers a big advantage in building high-speed LTE networks. Now The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint and T-Mobile are joining forces to together raise $10 billion to spend on spectrum holdings in the the upcoming 600MHz auction. More →

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