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Blackberry Storm Vs. iPhone 3G: Browser Wars

Written by Maximus on December 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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BlackBerry Storm 4.7.0.76 OS update leaks

blackberry_storm_76 Verizon’s 4.7.0.75 OS for the BlackBerry Storm is only just out, and already the sequel has made an appearance. Version 4.7.0.76 may only be a single point update on the current official release, but according to the BGR it makes a whole lot of difference. Screen rotation smoothness and battery life both get a much-needed boost, and the whole smartphone sounds much more responsive.

In fact, after a full day of use the Storm still has 50-percent of its power left, a big improvement on the standard firmware. There are also less obvious, but no less useful, tweaks, such as the font size automatically growing when you switch from portrait to landscape in the browser. It’s not all good news, though; overall data connectivity has become a little more sluggish, and the camera app has taken a turn for the worse.

Unfortunately there’s currently no way to get your hands on 4.7.0.76; nobody knows if it’s going to be an official release (the thinking is yes, but without confirmation we can’t say for sure) and BGR aren’t offering up their leaked copy. Hopefully before it hits handsets Verizon and RIM will have a chance to work on those few bugs identified.

For starters, switching portrait to landscape is even faster than on .75. We’re talking half a second to make a clean switch. No more “double keyboards” (half SureType, half QWERTY) on the screen.

After around a full day of use, our battery is sitting pretty at 50%. This is probably a 25% increase over .65. We can’t say how much better it is than .75 since that wouldn’t be fair seeing as how it wasn’t in use for long, but we believe there will still be an improvement.

There was this annoyance where you’d go to tap on an icon, it wouldn’t select if you tried to tap it fast. That’s all cleared up here…

This was in .75, but DTMF tones in the phone application no longer lag and cause you to hit the wrong prompts, etc.

The issue where the keyboard sometimes disappears when you are typing is still there.

In the browser, if you tapped once in the .65 build, the bottom navigational toolbar would hide and so would the top status bar. In .75, only the bottom bar would hide but the top bar would stay. Here in .76, both hide again.

In the browser, when you flip to landscape, the text size is increased tremendously. It scales up to fit the width of the page. Very helpful.

There has not been one reboot so far. In .65 there were probably two a day

There’s a weird bug where sometimes the back button doesn’t actually work. Can’t figure out what causes this to happen. Oh well.

When navigating through the music player, playing MP3s is probably 50% better than .65 and 20% better than .75. Very, very quick.

When navigating through photos, thumbnails appear almost instantly. Even on the Bold it sometimes took a while to load, and it loaded them one-by-one. Here they basically just pop-up after a second or two.

Overall data connectivity feels a little slower in our non-scientific tests. Web pages take a little longer to load and we get the infamous BlackBerry clock when sending messages and Messenger nonsense.

The camera application has way more problems than it started out with. For instance, the green autofocus rectangle no longer appears, the bottom navigational buttons flicker on and off, and it’s just all around chaos. The camera app in .75 was a little better than .65 so don’t get too worried, we’re sure this will be cleared up.

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Written by Chris Davies on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on BlackBerry and BlackBerry Storm and RIM and SMARTPHONE and Verizon and archive and carriers and leak.

BlackBerry Storm vs iPhone 3G

BlackBerry Storm vs iPhone 3G, Part 1 - Form Factor & Phone

BlackBerry Storm vs iPhone 3G, Part 2 - Messaging & Keyboard

Written by Maximus on November 30th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Terrorists turn technology into weapon of war in Mumbai

THEIR battle fatigues are jeans, T-shirts and trainers. They are the new breed of terrorist Â¿ using everyday technology as a weapon of war.

Among their arsenal of weapons are bags of almonds and BlackBerry mobile phones – almonds to keep their energy up, and the mobile internet connections to stay one step ahead of police and the military.

They are the new breed of terrorist – using everyday technology as a weapon of war.

Well-trained, focused and armed to the teeth, the small group of young but hardened Islamic militants slipped into India's financial capital undetected last week to unleash a wave of carnage.

Indian security officials said the attackers entered Mumbai by sea in small dinghies on Wednesday evening, having been dropped off near the coast by a larger ship.

They then split into groups: among the first targets was the Chatrapati Shivaji railway station, where at least two men opened fire with automatic weapons and threw grenades into a crowd of travellers in the main waiting hall.

They left behind a pile of nearly 50 bodies – and images of their young, calm faces caught by security cameras.

Evading capture as Indian security forces rushed to the station, the gunmen then attacked a charitable hospital for women and children, the Cama Hospital, shooting indiscriminately.

Again police responded, including the head of Mumbai's Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), Hemant Karkare, who was shot dead outside the hospital along with two other senior officers.

Another group struck at the Cafe Leopold, one of Mumbai's best-known restaurants and a favoured hangout of tourists and expatriates.

"They took weapons out of their sacks, lobbed three grenades and began shooting at anything that moved with their automatic weapons," a French tourist said.

Another group used a hijacked police vehicle for drive-by shootings before attacking the main targets, symbols of Mumbai's wealth and multicultural character.

The objectives were two luxury hotels – the Taj Mahal, one of Mumbai's most famous landmarks, and the Oberoi/Trident – plus a business-residential complex that also houses a Jewish centre and hostel for Israeli visitors.

Intelligence sources said some militants may have been in the city beforehand, pre-positioning arms and explosives and ready to link up with the boat squad.

Two of the killers were members of staff at the Taj Mahal hotel, according to one report, and two others were staying there as guests, enabling them to plan the attack and gain an edge over security forces by familiarising themselves with the layout of the labyrinthine Edwardian building.

Indian marine commandos who battled terrorists at the hotel, just across the road from the Gateway of India where terrorists had alighted by boat to begin their killing spree, said the gunmen were remorseless and well trained.

"Definitely they were trained,'' said a masked officer of the force.

''Not everybody can fire AK-series weapons.

''Using such weapons and explosives, it is obvious they were trained somewhere.

"These people were very, very familiar with the hotel layout.

''It appeared that they had carried out a survey (of the hotel) before.

''And they were very determined.

''Remorseless."

One of the rucksacks carried by one of the terrorists, later recovered by commandos, contained a Mauritian national's identity card, Chinese-made grenades, seven ammunition magazines, 400 spare rounds of ammunition, seven credit cards from different banks, dry rations and thousands of dollars in cash.

However amid the arsenal of military hardware, it was the use of humble mobile phones and internet technology that proved a key weapon – one which caught the anti-terrorist forces by surprise.

The use of BlackBerrys by the terrorists to monitor international reaction to the atrocities, and to check on the police response via the internet, provided further evidence of the highly organised and sophisticated nature of the attacks.

The gunmen were able to trawl the internet for information after cable television feeds to the two luxury hotels and office block were cut by the authorities.

The men looked beyond the instant updates of the Indian media to find worldwide reaction to the events in Mumbai, and to keep abreast of the movements of the soldiers sent to stop them.

Fighting room-by-room through two luxury hotels, over dozens of bodies and through darkened corridors slick with blood, the military forces came up against well-trained and determined gunmen.

Giving an account of the commando raid at the besieged Taj hotel, the leader of the elite marine commandos said his team saw about 50 bodies scattered through the hotel during the operation to flush out the terrorists.

Up to 15 bodies were found in one room, he said.

"They were the kind of people with no remorse,'' a disguised commando told reporters.

''Anybody and whomsoever came in front of them, they fired.

"They appeared to be a determined lot, wanting to create and spread terror."

He said the commandos had been hampered by not knowing the layout of the 400 rooms in the hotel and the fact that the exchanges of fire took place in darkness.

The terrorists were hurling grenades and firing from different floors.

Because they could not be seen, they were operating with ease, he said.

Because of their knowledge of the building, the terrorists were able to strike at will.

The commando said the assault team had noticed only three or four terrorists.

The gunmen probably were operating from different floors, he said, because they appeared very well versed with the topography of the hotel, where they were holed up for nearly 40 hours.

"When we first exchanged fire we could have got the terrorists, but for the hotel guests (in the line of fire)," he said.

"The bodies were lying strewn here and there and blood was everywhere.

"These people were very, very familiar with the hotel layouts and it appears they had carried out a survey before."

The gunmen moved from place to place with ease.

To further confuse the commandos, they switched off lights.

Many guests hid in their rooms until they were rescued.

Others were not so lucky.

Many guests said they cowered in the dark for hours, waiting to be rescued and fearing the militants would shoot them at any moment. Others desperately armed themselves with knives and meat cleavers.

"We heard some gunshots,'' said Faisul Nagel, a South African security guard who was in the Taj Mahal hotel with colleagues when the assault began.

''We barricaded the restaurant and we moved everybody into the kitchen."

Using tables and refrigerators to barricade themselves in, Mr Nagel said they armed themselves with the only weapons they could find.

"We basically put the lights off in the restaurant just to create an element of surprise.

''And we armed ourselves with kitchen knives and meat cleavers."

They ended up helping about 120 people escape – including a 90-year-old woman who had to be carried in her chair down 25 flights of stairs.

source

Written by Maximus on November 30th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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BlackBerry Curve 8900 quietly launched by Rogers?

It looks like Canada is getting the BlackBerry Curve 8900 before the US, thanks to Rogers Wireless. The largest Canadian carrier is said to already have units of the new Curve 8900 in stock, ready for the official release.

Of course, there’s no word yet on when the official release will happen. However, we do know the price of BlackBerry Curve 8900.

According to BGR, Rogers will be selling the smartphone for: $179.99 with a 3-yr contract agreement; $499.99 with a 2-yr contract; and $549 on a month-to-month agreement.

Rogers’ BlackBerry Curve 8900 is UMA-enabled, this compensating for the lack of 3G and making it perfect for all those who want to use the carrier’s Talkspot service.

Unlicensed Mobile Access aside, the 8900 also offers a 3.2MP autofocus camera, a full QWERTY keypoard, GPS and so on.

RIM’s brand new Curve is not yet featured on Rogers’ website, but if you’re near one of the carrier’s retail stores, the smartphone might be waiting for you there.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 hits Rogers Wireless

Rogers Wireless have launched the BlackBerry Curve 8900. Although no official press release has been issued by the carrier, the smartphone has apparently been listed in the Rogers Library database. Priced from $179.99 with a three-year agreement (plus voice and data tariffs), the 8900 has both WiFi and GPS.

rogers_wireless_blackberry_curve_8900-280x480

If a three-year agreement is too long for your tastes, Rogers will let you have a mere two-year contract in return for $499.99, again with voice and data packages. Month-to-month buyers will need deep pockets: the Curve 8900 costs $549 without an ongoing contract.

Supplies of the smartphone are apparently already being distributed to Rogers stores, and they’re also in stock at the main distribution warehouse for telephone orders. Initial predictions had claimed the Curve 8900 would only hit Rogers in January.

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Written by Chris Davies on November 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Verizon Wireless Stores, Kiosks Extend Hours For Holiday Shopping ‘Storm’

New BlackBerry Storm, Plus Special Limited Time Offers on Popular Handsets, Smartphones Featured For Thanksgiving Weekend Shopping Kickoff

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — With the holiday season’s hottest device, the BlackBerry® Storm™, here and special Thanksgiving weekend wireless sales about to get under way, Verizon Wireless has a message for its customers as well as those planning to switch to the nation’s most reliable wireless network: Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and kiosks are ready to meet your shopping needs.

Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and kiosks will extend their hours for the first holiday shopping weekend – Nov. 28-30 – and throughout the holiday season, giving customers more opportunity to demo the hottest device in wireless or buy any other device among a broad selection of specially priced handsets and smartphones, as well as gift cards, accessories and more. Store hours vary by location.

With high demand for the BlackBerry Storm this holiday season, customers who want to demo the new BlackBerry Storm can visit either their nearest Verizon Wireless Communications Store or kiosk or go to www.verizonwireless.com/storm to get familiar with the holiday season’s hottest new wireless device. Store personnel can place orders for customers or customers can order the Storm for themselves online for delivery by mail in plenty of time for holiday giving.

In addition to the BlackBerry Storm, Verizon Wireless Communications Stores will feature special holiday weekend sales on some of the season’s hottest phones, including the LG Voyager™ in Titanium for $79.99 after $50 mail-in rebate and new two-year agreement (Friday only in stores). Through Sunday the Palm® Centro™, the BlackBerry® Pearl™, enV2™ by LG and the Venus™ by LG will be available for under $50 after a mail-in rebate of up to $70 and a new two-year agreement.* Sale prices will be available starting Thursday, Nov. 27, for online shoppers. Stores also feature the complete line of handsets, PC cards and other devices to make it easy for customers to find the perfect wireless gifts for the entire family. For more information or to find store locations, visit www.verizonwireless.com.

* See newspaper circulars check, online or visit one of Verizon Wireless’ 2,400 Communications Stores or kiosks nationwide for details of these and other offers. Restrictions apply.

Written by Maximus on November 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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David Pogue calls the BlackBerry Storm the BlackBerry Dud..

If you’re still considering the BlackBerry Storm and you haven’t been dissuaded by the early reviews, perhaps you should read this scathing review by David Pogue at the New York Times. Entitled “BlackBerry Storm Downgraded to a Depression”, Mr. Pogue gets things going by stating the following:

“Well, there’s a new one, just out ($200 after rebate, with two-year Verizon contract), officially called the BlackBerry Storm.

But I’ve got a better name for it: the BlackBerry Dud.”

It gets better..

“The first sign of trouble was the concept: a touchscreen BlackBerry. That’s right — in its zeal to cash in on some of that iPhone touch screen mania, R.I.M. has created a BlackBerry without a physical keyboard.

Hello? Isn’t the thumb keyboard the defining feature of a BlackBerry? A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel. A Prius with terrible mileage. Cracker Jack without a prize inside.”

Oh man.. I couldn’t help but laugh when I read that last paragraph. I hate to admit it but David Pogue has a point here. When you think of BlackBerry, you instantly think of the QWERTY keyboard. It’s the keyboard that defines the BlackBerry. It’s ultimately the keyboard that distinguishes those that use the iPhone vs. those that use the BlackBerry.

In any case, it does appear folks should just stay away from the Storm altogether right now. A complete missed opportunity for RIM.

[Check it out]

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