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Nokia N8 Comes Out of Hiding, Can it Save Nokia?

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I’m not really saying that Nokia needs saving. Definitely not. It’s just that when it comes to the smartphone market, Nokia seemed to have lost its grip. The smartphone market is now dominated by either the iPhone, Android phones and Blackberry. Nokia needs something to make a scene in this part of the mobile industry. Can the Nokia N8 which was just officially announced with power-packed features give Nokia a boost?

To answer that, how about if we take a look at what Nokia’s latest smartphone has to offer. Quite frankly, Nokia N8’s features and specs are quite impressive, topped by the new Symbian^3 for its OS. This makes the N8 as the first Nokia handset to sport the said new platform.

Aside from Symbian^3, the Nokia N8 also wallops a 12 mp camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash. Yes, dear readers we’re still talking about a mobile phone not a point-and-shoot digital camera.

Speaking of  camera, the N8’s powerful optics can also record high definition videos and then lets you edit them with a smart built-in editing suite preloaded on the phone.  The high-definition video suits well with the phone’s 3.5-inch HD capacitive touchscreen. And to make sure that you can watch your videos on your HDTV, the phone comes with a HDMI connector. Plus, the Nokia N8 can also be used as a portable entertainment centre wit Dolby Digital Plus surround sound and can be hooked into a dedicated Web TV application.

Of course, the Nokia N8 also supports Nokia’s Ovi services including maps and turn-by-turn walk and drive navigation.

There you go – Nokia’s latest arsenal ready to go full battle with other smartphones available in the market today? Does it stand a chance?  We’re really hoping so.

The Nokia N8 debuts on Q3 2010 for around 370 Euro. No words yet on which mobile carrier will be adopting it for release to the U.S. market. A really nice high-res photo of the Nokia N8 awaits you after the break. [Read more…]

Originally posted on April 27, 2010 @ 9:36 am

RIM Spills Out New BlackBerry Pearl 3G and Bold 9650

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Well, it looks like RIM is ready to take the business smartphone computing and prove to everyone of us that their BlackBerry device is still the king of smartphones, well at least ont he business market side. RIM just announced two new Blackberry devices – a new Bold 9650 and Pearl 3G which shall be available in two models as well.

So, what do these two new BlackBerry phones offer? First, let’s take a look into the Bold 9650. It’s the newest member of RIM’s BlackBerry Bold series. Surprisingly, instead of updating the Bold 9700, RIM decided to regress a bit an came up with the Bold 9650 instead.  But aside from their size and form factor, it looks like the 9650 and 9700 are almost similar in features and specs. The Bold 9650 is a CDMA-EV-DO world phone that supports HSPA and UMTS networks, Wi-Fi b/g, optical trackpad, GPS, 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, 512 MB flash memory, microSDHC card and running on BlackBerry OS 5.0. This baby will be available in the US in May.

Now we have the Pearl 3G, which will be available in two models – the 9100 with 20-key condensed QWERTY keyboard and the 9105 with the traditional keypads. Key features of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G include – a 3.2 MP camera with flash, GPS, optical trackpad, dedicate volume and media keys, 3G (UMTS/HSDPA) networks and Wi-Fi b/g/n. Yes, it supports Wi-Fi n and it’s the first BlackBerry handset that does so.

Both the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 and 9105 and Bold 9650 will be released sometime in May through RIM’s partner mobile carriers. Time to update your handsets folks.

via BGR

Originally posted on April 26, 2010 @ 5:35 pm

RIM Releases Twitter for BlackBerry App, and It Rocks!

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Update: Screenshots added plus link to the official Twitter Blog post announcing the BlackBerry App.

RIM has just released the Twitter for BlackBerry Mobile in beta. If your smartphone runs on BlackBerry OS version 4.5 or higher with at least 64MB of built-in memory, then you’re good to go. Grab the app from the BlackBerry App World, under the Test Center category. Well, of course you have to be a heavy Twitter

So, what should you expect from Twitter for BlackBerry app? Quite a lot of nice features which include the following:

  • Push notifications for Twitter DMs
  • Timeline support
  • View Following and Followers
  • Tweeting and Re-Tweeting
  • Send tweets to Facebook, Email, BlackBerry PIN, SMS, MMS and BBM
  • Keyword search
  • User search
  • Proximity search
  • Tweet Photos directly from the BlackBerry Picture folder
  • Trending topics – view a list of the top 10 trending topics in Twitter
  • Profile editing – edit your profile or change your profile pic
  • Seamleass integration into core BlackBerry apps such as Media, Browser, BlackBerry App World and Message list
  • URL Shortening – tweet or send DM of websites from teh browser using Bit.ly URL shortener

I told you, it’s quite a lot of features, right? It practically mimics what you can do on the Twitter.com. Even the layout is almost similar to the official Twitter layout – color, themes and all.

I downloaded the apps and installed it on my BlackBerry Bold 9700. One thing I can say is that this app gives  other third-party Twitter apps a good competition.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have support for multiple Twitter accounts.  Hope this feature will be enabled in succeeding versions too.

Originally posted on April 9, 2010 @ 3:27 am

AT&T Goes to Infinity and Beyond with New Social Recommendation Tool, Buzz.com

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AT&T has launched its newest interactive product called Buzz.com. Interestingly, aside from the similarity with Google Buzz, it seems that both service might tend to overlap in terms of function and purpose. AT&T’s Buzz is a social recommendation site with a dash of local search function. It’s a new service for sharing local tips or “buzz” with your friends.

Similar to most social media sites, Buzz.com also taps into the growing social networks. Hence you can register using your Facebook credentials. So, once you register to Buzz.com using your Facebook profile, you don’t really need to build a new community of friends or sift through rants and raves from strangers.

Buzz.com also provides personalized local search based on the recommendations of people you know and trust. Again, another vital ingredient of a successful social recommendation site.

David Krantz, AT&T President and CEO Interactive said that Buzz.com was built on the strong foundation influnced by AT&T Interactive’s leadership and success in local search.

“By offering buzz.com alongside our other local search properties like YP.COM, we create opportunity to reach a broader – and growing user segment that relies on their community to make decisions. For favorited businesses, it means immediate recognition of a loyal customer and positive exposure among a network of friends,” said Mr. Krantz.

[Read more…]

Originally posted on April 20, 2010 @ 5:47 pm

Apple Fans Rejoice! iPad 3G Ships on April 30

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Alright, to clear out confusion regarding the recent change in the delivery date of iPad pre-orders on the Apple Store, Apple made an official announcement stating that the iPad Wi-Fi +3G will ship on April 30 to those who pre-ordered earlier than this week. Likewise, it will also be available on Apple retail store at around 5:00 PM, on the same day that Apple starts shipping these iPads.

The confusion started yesterday, when Apple puts a May 7 shipping date for the iPad Wi-Fi+3G on the online Apple Store. Many thought that Apple moved the shipment date of the said iPad model to the said date.  Many got worried and irritated perhaps because those who pre-ordered the said iPad earlier thought that their magical device will not be ship during the last week of April.

It turns out that the May 7 shipping date apply only to those who just placed their order this week, starting yesterday. Among those people is yours truly.

Aside from this, nothing much has changed from the previous pre-conditions relating to the release of the iPad Wi-Fi+3G model. Price-wise, it’s still $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. In line with the release of the 3G iPad, AT&T also announced that it will be offering a “breakthrough” 3G pre-paid data plans for iPad users.

Now, before you jump for joy since April 30 is just a few days away and start ordering your iPad in the hopes of getting it on April 30, well you’re in bad luck as the April 30 shipment does not apply to you. If you order the said iPad now from the Apple Store, the May 7 shipment day applies.

And if you’re not from the U.S., it might interest you to know that Apple will start accepting pre-orders for the iPad on May 10 in Australia,  Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.  International pricing is yet to be announced.

Originally posted on April 20, 2010 @ 12:25 pm