Gadget Rage

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Blackberry hits 5MP with "Torch"

Blackberry has revealed its newest phone on the block, the Blackberry 9800 Torch. This slider phone from RIM has an elegant look, and sports a full QWERTY keyboard, touch screen display, an optical trackpad, and is built on the new Blackberry 6 OS.
Waiting to get my hands on this one!

More details from Daily Tech below:

The BlackBerry Torch is a "slider" phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad. Naturally, the phone also sports a touchscreen dispel (3.2", 480x360), 5MP camera, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3G connectivity, 512MB/512MB (RAM/ROM), 4GB flash, and a 4GB microSD card

The phone weighs 161 grams and measures 111 x 62 x 14.6 mm. The Torch comes equipped with a 1300 mAh lithium battery, and as a result, GSM talk time is rated at 5.5 hours while standby time is rated at 17 days.

The BlackBerry Torch also has MediaSych functionality which will allow it to sync wireless to your home music library via Wi-Fi.

Most importantly, the Torch ships with RIM's BlackBerry 6 OS which incorporates an all-new web browser, "next generation" messaging system, integrate search right from the home screen, and a "feed application" to capture all of your Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace social networking updates.

We'll keep you up-to-date with the latest BlackBerry Torch information as the press conference gets underway.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Do we have a Blackberry tablet on the way?

Interesting piece of information. Even though the touch screen Blackberry Storm wasn't a hit, inspite of its features, lets see the technology that has been used for this device. Am waiting.....

Mashable's news piece......

BlackBerry tablet rumors continue to gain momentum, with a new report indicating that the device, possibly to be called the BlackPad, is set to hit stores this November.

According to Bloomberg, Research in Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry, is planning on releasing its tablet device this fall. The device will reportedly feature a 9.7″ screen, roughly the same dimensions as the iPad. The device will also feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity options, with the option of using an existing BlackBerry smartphone as the data connection.

Rumors of a BlackBerry tablet have been swirling for quite some time, but Bloomberg is citing two sources familiar with the details. RIM could not be reached for comment, but declined to speak with Bloomberg as the company doesn’t comment on rumors or speculations.

RIM recently took over the domain BlackPad.com, fueling speculation that this will be the moniker for the new device. As CrackBerry.com notes, however, RIM has more than 4000 registered domains; “BlackPad” may not end up being the name for the fabled product.

Bloomberg’s sources say that the device will feature front- and back-facing cameras for video conferencing. Rather than bundling the device with a 3G data connection, it will use Wi-Fi or connect to a BlackBerry phone via Bluetooth to tether a data connection. Although the tether option is potentially less expensive for consumers (who wouldn’t need to have another subscription to use the BlackPad), we’re not really sure why a 3G radio would be omitted as an option.

The biggest question we have about a BlackBerry tablet involves the keyboard. If you’re into physical keyboards, in our mind, the BlackBerry stands out among other devices with this feature. However, physical keyboards and tablets don’t really mesh. In any event, we hope RIM doesn’t decide to include the click-screen that make the BlackBerry Storm and Storm II such “fun” to use.

Incidentally, RIM has an event Tuesday, at which point the company is expected to unveil its latest BlackBerry smartphone, the 9800. The device will feature a slide-out keyboard alongside a pure touch screen. Whether or not a slide-out keyboard would work on a larger form remains to be seen.

Does this Make Sense?

RIM is busy readying BlackBerry OS 6.0 for release; the new OS, which includes a new browser, better media options and tighter social network connectivity, looks like it just might be what RIM needs to recharge the BlackBerry brand.

However, we question the need for an RIM tablet. Even before the iPad was officially announced, a larger-form iOS device made sense because of the large ecosystem of games, media players and entertainment content that were already available from the iTunes ecosystem.

BlackBerry doesn’t have that same ecosystem. Sure, a BlackPad could be a great device for watching video and surfing the web, but the BlackBerry’s best features have always been based around instant messaging, e-mail and getting things done. That isn’t to say that that experience can’t translate well to a tablet. With the right software support and screen resolution, the BlackPad could be a great mobile word processor. But the use cases for consumers don’t seem as apparent they do with other devices.

Ultimately, we think price is going to be a big factor in the success of a BlackBerry tablet. I know lots of BlackBerry users who have purchased an iPod touch or an iPad, but I don’t know if Android or iOS users would jump at the chance to get a BlackBerry powered tablet.

What do you think of the BlackPad rumors so far? If RIM made a tablet, would you be interested in buying one?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Dell Streak

by John Biggs on July 20, 2010

The Dell Streak, the 5-inch tablet that won the hearts of the technorati last month, is coming to the US and we had a chance to play with it over the past few days. The Android-powered tablet is no iPad but a worthy entrant in the tablet olympics.

The device has a 5-megapixel camera, touchscreen, and built-in GPS. You can use it to watch movies and listen to music and it has a fully-featured webkit browser running on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, making it quite speedy. The device features a built-in GSM modem so you can connect to 3G networks and make calls, making the Streak look like a comically big EVO 4G, except without the 4G.

ZDNET: Amazon's e-book sales surge: Was it the Kindle or the iPad app?

Amazon is selling 1.8 e-books for every hardcover and the conventional wisdom dictates that the Kindle device is driving those sales. However, it’s quite possible that the Apple iPad is driving Amazon’s e-book sales as much if not more than the Kindle.

The company said Monday that the Kindle, which will now run you $189, is at a demand tipping point. Amazon, which never gives you hard figures on Kindle sales, said units have tripled since the price was cut from $259 to $189. The natural assumption is that more Kindles equate to more e-book downloads. That’s true, but consider:

Over the past three months, Amazon has sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books;
Over the past month, Amazon sold 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books.

The rub: Amazon’s price cut was a month ago and definitely helped accelerate things. However, the Kindle to hardcover book ratio was already at an inflection point three months ago. What happened a little more than three months ago? The iPad launched. On April 3, the iPad debuted and sold 300,000 devices. Eighty days later Apple sold, three million iPads.

Meanwhile, Amazon was all set with its snazzy Kindle iPad app. Looking at the figures, it’s reasonable to suggest that the Kindle price cut was icing on the e-book cake and the iPad app juiced e-book sales. The last time Amazon shared the e-book to physical book ratio was in the fourth quarter. At that time, Amazon sold 60 e-books for every 100 physical books (the company was only comparing paid books with digital and physical editions).

The most plausible reason for the e-book jump is the iPad. Jefferies analyst Youseff Squali connects the iPad dots:

We believe that Kindle’s e-book sales are benefiting from the launch of the iPad, since the Kindle e-book store offers a broad (and probably the richest) selection, with over 630K titles, which iPad owners can easily chose from.

Our current estimates for 2H10/FY11 could also prove conservative as we assume only 10% Y/Y growth in Kindle device sales with no contribution to e-book sales from the iPad. A more probable scenario, based on a higher unit sales of Kindle and e-books, yields an additional ~$100M and $200M upside to our revenue estimates for FY10 and FY11.

Squali reckons that there will be roughly 4.62 million Kindles in circulation by the end of the year. Given that figure, it’s likely that the iPad led to Amazon’s e-book inflection rate.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Blackberry Bold 9700 Smartphone Review From Tbreak

The original Blackberry Bold 9000 was RIM’s flagship device when it was released about a year back. Soon after, the Curve 8900 followed with a higher-res screen and double the onboard application RAM. And then came the Tour with multiple radios but that was never officially released in the UAE. However, even though other Blackberry Smartphones had technically surpassed the Bold 9000, it retained its status as THE Blackberry device. Its slightly larger size and bling factor commanded respect and that certainly helped attract attention to it.

Ironically, when I reviewed the Bold 9000, I found its size to be a too big for my linking. However, over the course of a year, I fell in love with its size- especially since it accommodated a larger sized keyboard that I still think is the best keyboard I’ve ever used on any Smartphone. With me today, I have the follow up to the original Bold- modeled as the Bold 9700 and we’re going to find out if this shiny new Smartphone can live up to the expectations set by it’s older sibling.

Like the original Bold, the 9700 is RIM’s flagship device at the moment. It features a 628MHz CPU with 256MB of application RAM, a 2.4″ screen with an HVGA+ 480×360 resolution, a 3.2 MegaPixel Camera, 3G/HSPA, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS and the new trackpad that replaces the outgoing trackball. To top it, RIM adds a new 1500mAH capacity battery which should solve one of the complains with the Original Bold.

Although the specifications have received a much needed boost, RIM has cut the size of the Bold which is a bit of a shame. The larger sized Bold with its full leather back was instantly recognizable but unfortunately, the newer Bold 9700 can easily get lost between the Curve 8520 and the Tour. Its almost identical in size to the Curve but a bit more weighty. Also, instead of the full leather back, you now have a narrow strip running vertically through the center. The smaller size also effects the keyboard- I used the device for about a week and although the keyboard is comfortable, the smaller sized keys caused me to misspell words more often than I would have on the original Bold 9000.

Don’t get me wrong- the 9700 is still an extremely sexy and good looking device. Like most Blackberry Smartphones of late, it has the Lock and Mute hidden buttons on top, a covnenience key on each side, a mini USB connector and a 3.5mm headphone output jack on the left and volume keys on the right. Like the 8520 I reviewed some time back, the side keys appear as though they’re hidden inside the rim which certainly adds to the look without taking away any of the functionality.

The speed of using the Bold 9700 is insanely fast- I did not notice any lag switching between applications even when I had about a dozen of them running in the background. The screen is also excellent. Although its a bit smaller in size than the original Bold, its higher brightness and resolution make text and pictures looks incredibly sharp. I also think the trackpad is an excellent replacement to the trackball as I had mentioned in my 8520 review and is definitely the way going forward. Sound quality on the Bold 9700, at times, sounded a bit damp to me but others had no issue with it.

The 3.2 Megapixel camera on the Bold 9700 is pretty much the same as the one found on the Storm 9520 or the Curve 8900. Its good enough for a camera phone but never expect a camera phone to replace your SLR or even a good Point and Shoot. Outdoors and with daylight, you should get decent pictures however at night or in a darker environment, even with the flash, the photographs are not comparable to a dedicated good quality digital camera. Again, this is not something restricted to Blackberry but most Smartphones have this problem.

The Bold 9700 does not come with much storage RAM like the Storm but you have a MicroSD slot under the batter cover. This is also a step back from the original Bold as you have to remove the battery cover every time you want to access your memory card. For me, this was not an issue as I’m very much a plug and forget kind of guy but for those of you that keep changing their SD slots, this could become a bit tiresome.

RIM deserves a pat on the back on the battery life on the Bold 9700. While the original Bold could barely keep up for a full day if you used the device heavily- and this seems to be the norm with many Smartphones of today, the Bold 9700 has no problems giving you two work days very easily. During the weekend, I managed to go for three days without charging the device.

In summary, the Bold 9700 is the fastest Blackberry to date offering all the features you could expect out of a QWERTY Blackberry device. While it excels the original Bold in every technical aspect, its the design of the original Bold that has somewhat left a legacy behind it which the 9700 cannot match. You’ll love the 9700 if you’re moving from a Curve but for the original Bold 9000 users, it might take some getting used to. Priced at AED 2,600/- the Bold 9700 is now available at any Etisalat store.