TaMccann
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BlackBerry reportedly loses execs responsible for social apps, BB10 Hub
BlackBerry has had trouble retaining executives as of late, and its situation may not be getting much better when the Wall Street Journal claims that two software overseers recently left the company. T.A. McCann (pictured at left), a VP who oversaw BBM and social networking apps, reportedly said goodbye two weeks ago. Marc Gingras (right), who masterminded the BlackBerry 10 Hub and came with the Tungle.me acquisition, supposedly quit in "recent weeks." BlackBerry hasn't commented on the rumored exits, although the Journal believes that both McCann and Gingras left voluntarily. If real, the departures aren't coming at a good time -- BlackBerry is in rough financial straits, and it needs executives willing to turn the ship around. [Gingras image credit: Kris Krüg, Flickr]
The Engadget Interview: RIM's T.A. McCann on how BB10 is going social
In case you missed Thorsten Heins keynote yesterday, RIM's betting on BB10 becoming the next big thing in mobile computing. Part of Thorsten's plan to put BB10 on top involves deep integration of third party social apps like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare into the new OS. BlackBerry has always been a productivity platform first and foremost, but with RIM touting BB10's abilities as a social platform, we wanted to know more about the plan to make it happen. So, we sat down with T.A. McCann, RIM's VP of BBM and Social Communities, to find out how he's going to reach his CEO's goal of a flowing, social OS and the challenges of getting there.
