Today’s mobile news roundup: RIM delivers better than expected quarterly report; Google’s new Field Trip app; and Sony announces unlocked Xperia acro S.

RIM delivers better than expected quarterly report

Research in Motion surprised analysts with their second quarter report which showed a loss of only $235 million – about half of what analysts expected.  They also reported revenue of $2.9 billion, two percent higher than predictions.  The slight increase is attributed to the increasing number of subscribers in developing regions such as Africa and Asia.

“Subscribers grew to approximately 80 million global users, revenue grew sequentially from the first quarter, cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments increased by approximately $100 million to $2.3 billion, and carriers and developers are responding well to previews of our upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform,” said president and CEO Thorsten Heins.

“Make no mistake about it, we understand that we have much more work to do, but we are making the organizational changes to drive improvements across the company, our employees are committed and motivated, and BlackBerry 10 is on track to launch in the first calendar quarter of 2013.”

Google’s Field Trip app

Google released a new app for Android devices that allows users to learn more about places and things around them without even trying.  The Field Trip app is only available in Google Play but John Hanke, the brains behind this new app, said that it will soon be available for iOS devices.

The app works by gathering data from the APIs of various services, such as Arcadia for history, Zagat and the Food Network for restaurants and bars, Songkick for local music, and Atlas Obscura for interesting and obscure sights.  Field Trip runs in the background so when a person passes by a store or a restaurant, a card showing information about the place pops up, or if you’re wearing headphones with your smartphone, the app will spontaneously read out the information.

Sony announces unlocked Xperia acro S

You might think paying $600 for a smartphone is a bit steep, but think of it this way: at least you won’t have to be tied to a carrier.  That’s just one of the benefits if you get Sony’s unlocked Xperia acro S, aside from the fact that the device is water and dust resistant.

“The Xperia acro S has the highest level of water resistance of any smartphone, so you can drop it in your drink, then shake it off and carry on,” Sony said in a news release.

Aside from that, the devices features a dual-core 1.5-GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, 12.1-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and autofocus with 16x digital zoom and 1080p video recording.   Plus it has an NFC chip and HDMI support.