How do Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie still have jobs? 

— Daring Fireball’s Jon Gruber, wondering how the RIM co-CEOS are still in charge after seeing this Bloomberg article about RIM falling below book value (the sum of all their assets) today.

 RIM was bringing knife-making skills to a gun-making market battle. 

— Daring Fireball’s Jon Gruber reflecting on a post he wrote in 2008 about a computer company well-versed in designing and engineering handheld devices entering the smartphone market.

Even RIM doesn’t want their tablet

Photo by CNNMoney

One of the perks of being a tech journalist are all the new toys we get to try out — companies generally send us products for a week or two, and after trying them out they’re sent back to the company (it keeps us honest).

Except for this PlayBook. It was given to us for Julianne to review, and every time we contact RIM asking where to send it back to we don’t get a response. I’ve been keeping it in a drawer at my desk, pulling it out only when sub-standard products are released and I can say “But at least it’s not as bad as the PlayBook!” It is the herpes of tablets - once you have it, you can’t get rid of it. And unlike herpes, even the person who gave it to you doesn’t want to see you again.

RIM, I beg of you, please take this back. Seriously. At least so I can stop coming up with bad herpes jokes. - Matt

Update: Our pleas were heard! A RIMM rep emailed us with an address so we can send the PlayBook back from whence it came.

Here’s Julianne’s review:

Review: BlackBerry PlayBook should be RIM’s white flag

We’ve been playing around with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for a few days. Frustratingly, its impressive specs are undercut by missing apps like email, calendar, and BBM. Here’s our vid review of the tablet, which goes on sale today. -Julianne

Kodak knows what’s cool: a billion dollar$

Everyone’s favorite tech companies are fighting as always, suing each other over various patents and large sums of money. This time it’s the somewhat unlikely matchup of Kodak vs. Apple and RIM. And the Kodak CEO said yesterday that a cool BILLION WITH A B bucks is at stake.

Turns out Kodak has a patent for image preview in camera phones. You might be thinking: O RLY? You can patent that kind of thing?

Really. In fact, Kodak has already won $550 million in royalties from Samsung and $414 million from LG over this very issue.

But Kodak had been having a tougher time with its litigation against the iPhone and BlackBerry makers. Back in January, a judge with the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Kodak’s patent infringement claim against Apple and RIM was “invalid.” Kodak stock tumbled 13.4% after the announcement (which came the same day as crappy Q4 earnings).

But the whole sordid tale isn’t over yet — it seems Kodak still has a chance to win. Kodak CEO Antonio Perez chatted with Bloomberg about why the company still has a chance, and “deserves it.” 

“It” being $1 billion in revenue from royalty payments after the win, of course.

Bloomberg says the U.S. International Trade Commission is slated for a 5 p.m. decision on whether it will plan a full review of the judge’s previous “invalid” finding.

So maybe the commission will find the invalid ruling…invalid, and then maybe they’ll keep considering Kodak’s claim, and THEN maybe Kodak will net a billion dollars. Speculative, no? But investors still love it: Eastman Kodak shares are up more than 10%.

Kodak didn’t reply to a request for comment, and we’ll see what happens with the ITC’s decision after the bell today. But Kodak stock is down a whopping 35% year-to-date, so they could use the boost — and the influx of cash.

I just hope Kodak doesn’t go the patent trolling route. In a way it’s easy cash, I suppose. But it’s also an easy way to lose the admiration and respect that takes a company so long to build. -Julianne

Update: Kodak just emailed me this statement.

Julianne: Like you, we read the Bloomberg report mentioning an announcement today. We have no direct confirmation of that [the 5 p.m. ruling] from the ITC Commission. If, indeed, we learn the news today, we will have a statement.