Gadget review

RIM, the makers of the Blackberry smartphone, has just unveiled its latest BlackBerry Tourch 9800 smart phone. The new Handset is the new BlackBerry to incorporate a full 3.2in touch screen display in addition to a full Qwerty slide out keyboard. Users can now choose between typing messaging on the physical keyboard or on the capacitive touch screen.

This smart phone still retains it’s trademark optical trackpad for smooth navigation and messaging. Also new on the Torch is the BlackBerry 6 operating system, which has a redesigned interface that works with the touchscreen and trackpad interface. The new Operating system is also said to simplify the management of users to seamlessly message across BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook and Twitter.

Additionally the new operating system comes with a new Universal Search tool to search for any content on the handset or the web. According to them ( RIM ), BlackBerry 6 can also render webpages faster with its new Webkit-based browser that features tabbed browsing and easy navigation using the pinch gesture to zoom and an auto wrap teat feature for better webpage presentation.

This Gadget also come preloaded with applications that range from entertainment to social networking applications such as Facebook and YouTube. Other features include a 5 Megapixel camera with Flash and autofocus as well as built in GPS for location based applications and geo tagging. For further info, you can visit www.blackberry.com

The iPhone lost it spot as the top selling phone to the Blackberry Curve in the first quarter of this year, but that doesn’t necessary spell the end of the iPhone’s market dominance, said Ross Rubin, an analyst for the researchers NPD Group. According to NPD survey, the five top selling smartphones between Jan09 an March09 were the Blackberry Curve, iPhone 3G,BlackBerry Storm, Blackberry Pearl and T-Mobile G1 with the Anroid operating system.
The Curve was the big winner for two main reasons. One was Verizon’s “Buy one, get one free” deal for the Blackberry. Another one is the Curve is available through four major carriers while the iPhone remains exclusive to At & T.
But not to take anything away from the capabilities of the Curve, Rubin said, “it’s lightweight, inexpensive and thin, and embodies the characteristics that make the Blackberry a popular phone.”

The fact that the Curve shot ahead on an aggressive promotion signals promise for the much-awaited Palm Pre.
“When a carrier supports a device, it does well,” Rubin said, assign that sprint had promised record spending to market the Pre.
The Pre may be the iphone’s most prominent challenger in coming months. As a conclusion , we see smartphones continue to gain share in the overall handset category.

The smartphone, the Blackberry storm, will be available later this year in selected markets. The storm resembles the iPhone but its colour touchscreen differs in that it is “clickable”. The screen depresses slightly when touched like a typewriter key.
RIM ( maker of the Blackberry) president Mike Lazaridis described the touchscreen as a “truly tactile touch interface” which “ solve the long standing problem associated with typing on traditional touchscreen”.

User Navigate on the touchscreen by using their finger like a cursor, scrolling, highlighting panning and zooming and clicking on selections. Other futures of the storm include wireless e-mail through high speed 3G mobile broadband networks, an HTML web browser which allows audio and video streaming and SMS.MMS and IM messaging.

It also features a media player,a 3.2 megapixel camera,a video camera and GPS capability along with Black berry maps. RIM did not provide a price for the phone or release date except to say it would be available by the Christmas holiday season - AFP

A lifestyle product for executive! This gadget retains the pearl trackball of its predecessor that, coupled with sharp half-video graphics array display and the full Qwerty keyboard, provides for a user friendly handling. Side mounted keys give you one click access to key features such as camera and voice dialing, and everything is intuitive to use and simply presented.

There’s six shortcut menu options at the bottom of the screen of the home screen, with one click access to often used features like keyboard lock, messaging, contacts, calendar browsing and maps. For the full menu list, just click the Blackberry soft menu key to get all application icons.

Surfing the internet is a whiz as the Blackberry Bold offers high speed down link packet access data speeds and Wi-Fi. Just like on the PC, a blue bar at the bottom of the screen indicates the loading speed of the web page. Other than functioning like mouse, the trackball can be used to navigate sites in “page view” or “column view” and to easily zoom in and out of content.


Mobile messaging, as expected of Blackberry, doesn’t disappoint in the blackberry Bold. There’s push email that’s compatible with corporate servers. This is in addition to personal email, the ability to download and send attachments, instant messaging with the Blackberry Messenger as well as SMS and MMS.

“Actually there are many new functions in this version that we can explore by our self. “