Senior analyst Pierre Ferragu also cut Bernstein’s 12-month price target to $10 US per share. Previously, Bernstein had rated the shares “market perform” with a price target of $15. It also cut his Canadian price target to $9.66 Cdn from $14.49.

Initial enthusiasm for its new Blackberry 10 devices appears to be waning and the company is “now set to disappoint investor expectations for the second half,” Ferragu writes in a note to clients.

“Our latest channel checks suggest that consumer take up is slow and we believe adoption of BB10 in the enterprise may be slow and only partial,” he says. “Our checks with operators and distributors in Europe also point to a slow take up of BB10 devices by consumers, and confirm the slower ramp of the Q10.”

The lack of traction is starting to appear in the form of discounts applied to the new BB10 devices, Ferragu says.

The report also raises concerns over the prospect of BlackBerry losing ground with corporate clients.

“We also see increased risk of only partial adoption of BB10 among corporate customers,” Ferragu says. “Blackberry 10 is being tested at only 60% of Fortune 500, which implies the share of defectors could be very large.”

Where’s the truth? I must admit that I am helping customers dump BlackBerry for iPhones and Android phones by implementing ActiveSync on their Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers. But there are going to be companies out there that won’t dump the folks from Waterloo under any circumstances. So I suspect we will have to wait until their numbers hit the street to see where the truth is.

“Hello IT Nerd. I read your blog often and I had a question for you. I just updated my installation of Java and it opened a web page offering to remove older versions of Java. Do I need to do that?”

Thanks for reading my blog!

The page that this reader is referring to is this one. It’s a Java based uninstall tool that is designed to find older versions of Java and remove them. It appears to have popped up to users when Java released their latest update a day or two ago. Though I will admit that it may have been there for much longer and simply wasn’t presented to users when they updated. You should use it as there are plenty of exploits out there that leverage older versions of Java. In short, if you want to be secure and you have to run Java rather than remove it, you should use this tool.

There is one catch though This tool is Windows only. If you’re running anything else such as a Mac or a LINUX box, you’re forced to remove older versions manually. Not the biggest deal in the world for those who are technically skilled, but it would be nice if Oracle brought this same functionality to other platforms.

Volvo has thought of this and have come up with a couple of systems to keep you safe. The first system that we’ll look at is called City Safety and here’s how it works.

You are driving down a busy city street. The car in front of your brakes suddenly. If you can’t react fast enough, you will hit the car and cause injuries to yourself and the occupants of the other car. This is where City Safety comes in. If City Safety determines that a collision is likely, the brakes are pre-charged and the driver is warned of the danger. If the driver remains inactive, City Safety engages the brakes automatically. While this system will work up to speeds of 50 KM/H, the system may actually help you to avoid an accident if the speed that you’re travelling at is 15 KM/H or less. If you’re moving at something faster than 15 KM/H and the collision is unavoidable, the system will reduce the speed of your Volvo so that the force of the impact is less. That means that any injuries that are a result of the impact are less severe.

Now let’s look at Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection With Full Auto Brake:

Pedestrian And Cyclist Detection With Full Auto Brake works like this. The system consists of a radar unit integrated into the car’s grille, a camera fitted in front of the interior rear-view mirror, and a central control unit. The high-resolution camera makes it possible to spot the moving pattern of pedestrians and cyclists. If a cyclist or pedestrian heading in the same direction suddenly swerves out in front of you as you’re approaching from behind and a collision is imminent, there is an instant warning and full braking power is applied.

Now you might be wondering how effective these systems are. Consumers Reports reported on a study done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)  on City Safety  and here’s what they had to say:

Analysts looked at claim data for 2011-2012 Volvo S60 sedans and 2009-2012 Volvo XC60 SUVs and compared the results to Volvo models without City Safety. They found drivers are less likely to be in a crash with City Safety, than without.

There was a 16-percent lower claim frequency for property damage liability in the S60 and 15-percent less in the XC60. For bodily injury liability, the S60 had 18-percent fewer claims and the XC60 had 33-percent fewer claims than vehicles without the technology. Claim frequency under collision coverage was 9 percent lower for the S60 and 20 percent lower for the XC60.

At the very least, City Safety will save money and perhaps lower insurance rates for you and other drivers. More importantly, both City Safety and Pedestrian And Cyclist Detection With Full Auto Brake can potentially save lives. Something that is not trivial in my mind.

These systems are now available either as standard equipment or as an optional feature in most Volvo cars. These two systems continue the tradition of Volvo being a leader in terms of automotive safety. Which should put Volvo to the top of your list if you want a car that protects those inside the car and those outside it.

Their cornerstone product, Scala Enterprise is now available for download. This latest release of the Scala Digital Signage Software Suite comes loaded with benefits and new features including the following:

• Only 4 easy steps to publish engaging digital content
• Creating amazing interactive and dynamic content with HTML5
• Improve your ROI with more affordable Android player options
• Create business opportunities and customize for your unique needs with enhanced APIs
• The world’s most stable, scalable and proven platform

Not only that, Scala’s intelligent signage solution, Scala iS, will also be offered with Scala Enterprise. Aimed at retailers and quick service restaurants needing optimized digital content at the point of decision, Scala iS uses “big data” and predictive analytics to drive targeted, personalized customer engagement. The net result? You can join the users who already see productivity increases of 35-40%.

You can find more information and the link to download Scala Enterprise at 
http://scala.com/enterprise
. Release notes can be found at 
http://scala.com/releases
.

Organized to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of Safer Internet Day, The Child Internet Safety Summit will address the urgent concerns faced by parents and teachers in the UK and Europe in relation to child abuse online.  The day-long event will be attended by approximately 300 education and online safety professionals and will offer keynote sessions from industry leaders including Claire Perry, the UK government advisor on childhood and John Carr, the UK government advisor on online child safety, amongst others.

AVG is going to be a key player at this conference by delivering a keynote speech at 11.20am on July 11^th, to discuss the barrage of online threats facing children, and the action needed to ensure their online safety and privacy:

“With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets and the rapid increase in Internet usage, the debate over children’s safety online and how they engage with technology has never been more important,” said John Giamatteo, Chief Operating Officer, AVG Technologies. “We are passionate about supporting Internet safety and believe the Child Internet Safety Summit 2013 will serve to further reinforce the importance of education and the ways in which we can help to reduce the threats to children online.”

Additionally, AVG executives Siobhan MacDermott, Chief Policy Officer; and Jim Brock, VP of Privacy Products, will go on to host an interactive privacy seminar which offers attendees firsthand access to industry-leading experts on online privacy and security policies. Clearly AVG is bringing all the required resources within their company to make an impact at this summit. I think it says a lot about AVG, doesn’t it?

Another thing that I liked was the fact that while the screen did attract fingerprints, the rest of the case did not. Plus the case felt solid and well put together. It felt nice in my hand and fit easily in my pocket which is not a surprise since it’s smaller in terms of length than my iPhone.

The software that comes with it is exactly the same as the Z10 that I reviewed not too long ago. You can take a look at part one of that review to see my thoughts on it as they haven’t changed with the Q10. The fact that it isn’t any different isn’t a bad thing. In terms of speed, it is quick just like the Z10. On Rogers LTE I got an average of 61 Mbps downstream and 11 Mbps upstream. That is quick! If you get this BlackBerry, speed will not be a problem. If you want to save some cash, it does 802.11 B/G/N as well. Plus it has NFC as well for mobile payments among other functions.

In terms of photos, it has the same 8MP camera as the Z10 and produces the same stunning results. I used it all week to take pictures for my review of the Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit and got very good results. Just to illustrate the detail, take a look at this picture of the headlight. Make sure that you click on it to get the full detail and you’ll see the words “Since 1941″ in the headlight.

I didn’t notice that when I looked at the headlight with the naked eye. but when I  was putting together the Jeep Grand Cherokee review, I saw it. Also, note the clarity of the photo. There’s no artifacts or anything of the sort. Clearly the Q10 excels as taking still photos.

Now when it comes to videos it’s equally as good. I’ll let the results speak for themselves. Make sure to set the video to 1080P and set it to full screen.

The sound quality is good and the video quality is good as well. No complaints here other than the same complaint I made about the Z10. When uploading to YouTube, there is no progress indicator. Simply a notification in the Hub saying the upload is complete. BlackBerry really needs to rethink that.

Some important specs at this point. It has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage built in. Want more? You can put a 64GB MicroSD card. That’s great for anyone who has to store a lot of content on their smartphone.

How about battery life? This BlackBerry can all day and then some without a charge. Impressive. Sound quality? It’s as good as the Z10 and that’s not a bad thing at all. Criticisms? The closest thing to one that I had was that I was looking for the trackpad that older BlackBerry products had. Perhaps out of habit having used BlackBerry products until very recently. I missed it despite the touchscreen. I suspect some people may feel the same way and that might be a bit jarring for them at first.

So my verdict? This is the best BlackBerry that I’ve seen. Existing BlackBerry users who have been waiting for a keyboard based BlackBerry finally have their BlackBerry. Will it steal users from other smartphone platforms? That’s a different story. I think it will grab some new fans. But we will see how it does against the competition from Android and iPhone. If BlackBerry can put out more smartphones like this, they have a chance. It is enough to make BlackBerry fans wish they came out with this phone 2 years ago. Had BlackBerry done that, they wouldn’t be an afterthought in the smartphone market like they are now.

One thing that I found annoying in stop and go traffic was this: I’d tap the accelerator and I’d glide forward. But there’d be be a “thunk” sound and I’d feel a bit of a lurch forward as it the SUV had problems deciding what gear it needed to be in. I’m not sure what’s responsible for this. But I think that Chrysler needs to look at this as it’s about the only negative thing I had to say about the Grand Cherokee. One thing that annoyed my wife, and she insisted that I add to the review was how high off the ground the SUV was. For her, wearing a skirt and getting in and out of the SUV is “interesting.” Plus using the proximity card to enter the garage in our condo required her to put the SUV into park, remove her seatbelt and lean out the window while opening the door. Not ideal from her standpoint. I guess that’s one of the side effects of being 5 foot 6 in a very large vehicle.

How about the final fuel mileage? I averaged 12.9 L/100 KM in mixed city and highway driving. I believe that could have gone lower, but a trip into the stop and go traffic hell known as downtown Toronto put an end to that. Still, given that this is a big and heavy SUV, it was still impressive. If I compare it to the front wheel drive Ford Explorer with Ecoboost that I drove last year, it drank 1 L/100 KM more in fuel. But I’ll point out that the Ford was only motivating two wheels and had a lot less horsepower and torque. That makes the results that I got in the Grand Cherokee which had all four wheels going and had way more horsepower and torque even more impressive.

So would I buy one? Yes. Here’s why:

• The fuel usage is something that I could live with which is something that I have never been able to say about any other SUV of this size.
• It handles shockingly well which is something that I have never been able to say about any other SUV of this size.
• It has a ton of cargo space.
• It has class leading off road features. Some of which I can see myself using during ski season.
• The technology is top shelf and easy to use.
• The craftsmanship of the interior is top shelf and very impressive.

While what I was driving goes for just under $63K, you can get into a Grand Cherokee for just under $40K. Or you can go straight to the SRT version starting at $63K which comes with a 6.4L V8 HEMI. Thus, you’ll likely be able find something that fits your budget, or your need for power.

If the goal was to have the Jeep Grand Cherokee be the leader in this class, I say mission accomplished. I have to say that the Grand Cherokee Summit can safely be considered to be class leading in every respect. Anybody else who is in this class should be afraid. Very afraid.

We’re also kicking off launch today with a $100,000 commitment to local SPCAs in the region. The FidoCARES donation reflects the company’s commitment to giving back to its customers and their communities. More info on this donation in our press release.

Now that’s socially responsible. Now if you want to visit a Fido location, here’s a list of what’s up and running:

• Halifax Shopping Centre –  Halifax, NS
• Sunnyside Mall –  Halifax, NS
• Champlain Place – Moncton, NB
• Regent Mall – Fredericton, NB
• McAllister Place –  Saint John, NB

More locations will launch this summer including one Fido kiosk in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and an additional 20 third-party locations.

Need more info? Check 
http://www.meetfido.ca
.

• Telus customers will be able to buy the new iPads at TELUS retail locations. For more information on pricing please visit 
  https://mobility.telus.com/en/ON/ipads/ipad_mini.shtml
   or
  https://mobility.telus.com/en/ON/ipads/ipad_retina.shtml
  .
• Rogers customers will be able to buy the new iPads at Rogers retail locations. For more information on pricing please visit 
  http://www.rogers.com/web/content/ipad
  .

Both companies will have them available shortly and both companies will offer a range of data plans that are available without a contract so customers can activate or cancel a plan at any time.

Oh, if you’re new to iPad you can get the 411 on the iPad here. Check it out if you’re in the market for an iPad.