If you're frequently using Facebook on your Android phone then you'll be glad to find out the application has been once again updated. The new version not only fixes several bugs but also improves functionality.
With the new version it is easier to share things as there is an improved sharing tool that adds privacy controls on posts and match your settings on the web site. You can now also tag friends and places in posts and use the iPhone-like pull-to-refresh action. Profile and Group Walls have been redesigned, photo browsing and notifications are improved and much more. Head over to the source link to update or check with your Market application to get the latest version.
It's been something of a long time coming, this emboldened Bold. We got our first glimpse of the thing in February, spent some quality time with it back in June, and since then have sat around eagerly awaiting its release. Now, here it is. From a distance, or at a quick glance, it looks little changed from 2008's Bold 9000. But get closer, pick it up, and the difference is astonishing.
RIM has gone to great pains to talk up this device's high-end design, its luxurious stylings, its sophisticated aesthetic. We're far from Vertu territory here, but the first time this phone hits your palm you know a lot of people spent a lot of time making it feel just right -- even if it still looks just the same. Of course, it's what's inside that counts, so join us as we find out whether the soft and hard bits beneath the surface can do the business too.
While the old Bolds lived up to their name by being a little rounded, kind of chubby, a bit bulbous, the new model is rather more svelte and sophisticated. Looking purely at its face it's hard to detect that anything has changed. You still have the same portrait QWERTY layout with the same basic button scheme, but where once lived a trackball now an optical trackpad sits. That's flanked by a solid bar of backlit capacitive touch buttons, newly monochrome and flush with the display. A curving bit of chrome separates those buttons from the keyboard, as before.
Pick the Bold up and turn it around a bit and the differences from previous models become apparent. The extent is now a classy rim of brushed stainless steel, one continuous band that we presume will offer some serious drop protection -- though we succeeded in not verifying that assumption in our time with this unit. That band is punctuated by ports, controls and buttons as needed. Up top is a single lock button, while the right side houses the phone's other controls. There's a volume rocker with a mute button nestled in the middle, and further down rests the Convenience Key, which by default activates the five megapixel camera. On the left side you'll find openings for a 3.5mm headphone jack and a micro-USB port, while on the bottom is a little, riveted inset that provides something of a minor visual distraction.
Around the back you'll find another big change: an slab of composite weave has replaced the Leatherette on the old Bold, ditching tactility in favor of an extra bit of class. But, the soft-touch plastic that provides the tapered edge, covering the gap between woven panel and stainless rim, does feel a little bit cheap by comparison -- as a Mercedes CLS might look a bit low-rent next to a Bentley Continental. Overall, though, it's a solid, stately feeling phone that offers little visual presence but plenty of good feel. And, at 10.5mm (.41-inches) thick, it's rather svelte, too.
The thing you'll want to touch first is, of course, the backlit keyboard, and we think you're going to like it. In fact, we'd go so far as to say this is among the best physical keyboards ever found on a phone, if notthe best. It isn't substantially different than the old Bold, just a smidge wider but using the same design of curved keys that are tapered, each one subtly reaching up to meet your thumbs on either side. It's definitely intended for use as a two-thumb affair, working best when you're messaging with both hands, and when used thusly it'll easily keep up with your most torrid BBM exchanges.
Around the back again, that hood-shaped wedge of carbon fiber-like material serves as the battery door, and an integrated conductive loop therein gives this thing the NFC chops its classmates the 9810 and 9850 lack. Lurking beneath here is a 1,230mAh battery, the same used on all three new handsets but a bit of a step down from the 1,550mAh unit found in the older, fatter Bold 9000.
Tucked beneath that is a microSD slot, where you can add up to 32GB of storage to boost the 8GB that's built-in, and a SIM slot. You'll be needing that to keep every one of this phone's radios singing, and there are many in this chorus line. In addition to dual-band CDMA / EVDO (800/1,900MHz) you're looking at dual-band UTMS / HSPA (900/2,100MHz) and quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1,800/1,900MHz), plus 802/11a/b/g/n WiFi at 2.4 and 5.0GHz. If you've got a frequency calling, chances are this thing can answer -- unless it's 4G, of course.
Move past the radios and things look less spectacular, as this is effectively a re-arranged version of the same hardware that's found in its sibling Torch handsets. From that perspective these are all basically the same phone, with a 1.2GHz processor, 768MB of RAM and so-called "Liquid Graphics" engine that promises to deliver smoother, more engaging performance. Did it? We'll see in the software section below.
Finally, when it comes to call quality, the performance here is top-notch. While we find our handset to have average abilities when it came to seeking out and hanging on to the signal Verizon is putting out, calls always went through loud and clear. The speakerphone likewise will do quite well for your next impromptu concall -- even in the big conference room. You know, the one with the tired, faux-leather chairs and the automatic projector screen that probably knocked the socks off of potential clients back in the early '90s.
Display
The new Bold offers a 2.8-inch LCD that may not be much bigger than that found in previous Bold models but is at least higher resolution: 640 x 480. It's hard to get too excited about stepping up to VGA in 2011, so forgive us if we're a little underwhelmed by the pixel count here, but resolution is more than adequate. In fact, its 287dpi rating is mighty close to the vaunted 300dpi supposedly needed to get us close to Retina territory. Coming from a big-screened slate of a phone you'll feel underwhelmed by the size here, but most BlackBerry users will appreciate the extra pixels.
If indeed you can get past the size you'll agree this is a very, very nice display offering plenty of brightness for sunny days, beautiful color reproduction regardless of conditions and viewing angles good enough to offer almost full-contrast -- even when you can see only a sliver of the screen. It's quite a looker, just a shame it's so small.
Camera
Where before the camera was situated smack in the middle, the 9900 series splits camera from flash, embedding the five megapixel sensor on the upper-right (when facing away from you) and the LED flash on the upper-left. When using the flash we found this created something of an unfortunate shadow on the right-edge of whatever we were imaging at close-range, but given this is an EDoF sensor you won't want to be that close anyway. In theory the camera has clear focus out to infinity, but the reality is EDoF makes macro shots impossible. In our sample gallery you'll see up-close shots of the flowers are blurred, and while your average executive won't be pulling this phone out of his trouser pocket to catch a passing daffodil in bloom, he probably will want to take close-up snaps of the business cards handed to him at last week's sales mixer. The 9900's camera isn't particularly well suited for the job.
Take a step (or three) back, though, and you'll take adequate, though washed-out images. Colors are muted and balance is straying to the warm side, but the results are presentable even if they scream "this was taken on a cellphone." Video is captured at 720p and that fixed-focus means you won't have to worry about the lens hunting while filming. Stay a few steps away and things stay sharp, but we did notice a lot of jiggle distortion in the resulting footage, so you'll need a steadier hand than we could manage when filming the sample above.
Also, there's no front-facing webcam, so don't hold your breath for video chat here.
Do you hate change? You are going to really love BlackBerry 7. The latest flavor of the OS got bumped from a minor to a major update for reasons that likely have more to do with marketing than hardware, but regardless of how you spin it this Bold is running what is, ultimately, a tweak to the BB6 that many of you know and have grown tired of. After playing with and (mostly) loving the gesture-heavy interface slapped over QNX to power the PlayBook we're naturally quite eager to see what's next for that little OS. Sadly, we're hearing we won't see anything like that on a phone until next year sometime.
So, for now, we're left with an OS that feels every bit the latest, minor revision in a long, long history of minor revisions. BlackBerry OS is showing its age in a not very good way. If you've been lately spending your time coddling something running Android, iOS, webOS or Windows Phone you're liable to feel like you stepped back in time a decade or so -- especially the first time you load up the browser, hit your favorite website, and get treated to a shockingly minimalistic WAP rendering. Gasp!
Despite that simple default rendering this is an all-new browser with HTML5 support. It can handle just about anything the Web can throw at it -- except for Flash -- and do so with aplomb. Even complex pages render quickly and are smooth to navigate around. If you can manage to pinch on this tiny display you'll be able to zoom in and out, and there's plenty of elastic bounce should you scroll to any of a page's four extents.
The OS's integrated search function lets you quickly hunt through contacts, favorites, e-mails, you name it. Now you can also search by voice, a feature that we found to be incredibly accurate at identifying whatever we mumbled into the microphone. The only drag here is that we had to accept not one, but twoincredibly long license agreements before enabling that feature. In fact you'll be scrolling through pages and pages of legalese just about every time you try doing something new on your handset. That results in, needless to say, a somewhat unpleasant user experience.
Finally, BB7 brings BlackBerry Balance to the mix, functionality that allows you to keep your work stuff from your home stuff. This can help you from losing your personal bits should an admin decide to remote-wipe your handset but, more importantly for the BES jockeys out there, it means users can be prevented from sending work information via personal challenges -- like, say, forwarding your company's internal Q2 projections out to everyone in your neighborhood investment club. In other words, it's a feature more intended for admins than those who are administered, and so nothing to get too excited about. Unless, of course, you're one of those admins.
If so, or if you are some other corporate user, as ever this OS offers a great experience for business. Open a meeting invite and it's easy to jump right into the concall from there. Should you put the other team on mute you'll get a reassuringly highlighted red indicator on the screen that's easy to see with a glance. (Important for those who like to do their best Crow T. Robot impression when the discussion gets a bit dull.)
Ultimately, the OS is quick and easy to jump around in if you know what you're doing, and if you're looking for productivity you can find it here. But, if you aren't, or you don't know your way around the world of BlackBerry, you'll find things ugly and unintuitive. There are too many lengthy, scrollable menus, too many hidden collections of options, and simply too little style to catch the eye of anybody who's been using a modern mobile operating system.
Software
If you're not sold on BB7, the application selection isn't liable to help matters. App World does offer a healthy choice, but the most entries are tiny little utilities with niche functionality that will leave you asking questions like "Do we really need an app dedicated to scanning Air Traffic Control at Ottawa International Airport?" In this case the answer is yes, someone does, but we can safely say that we could do without 3D Rollercoaster Rush Jurassic 2. This app is supposed to be the premiere title to show off the phones' new Open GL ES 2.0 support, and it sure does have polygons. It is also slightly less fun (and only slightly more interactive) than watching a video of someone else riding a rollercoaster.
In addition to proving that, yes, these phones can render 3D games, this title helps to highlight an issue with all three: they offer only 189MB of total storage for apps. It doesn't matter that this Bold has 8GB of internal storage, and it also wouldn't help if you threw in a 32GB microSD card. You'll still have just 189MB of space for all your apps. To be fair, each app can take up no more than 7MB of this, and the vast majority of App World selections are very small indeed, but this has forced developers to make compromises. In the case of this game, you'll have to download the app, install it, then launch it and wait while another batch of data (17MB worth) gets downloaded to internal storage. Even if you're grandfathered in to an unlimited data plan this step can only be done over WiFi -- and in the end you have a pretty boring game.
If you're looking for more fun, you'll find a full install of Documents to Go here, capable of creating and editing documents that fit the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint styles.
We can't say how much of this 9930's speed is due to the new hardware within and how much instead is thanks to the revised software, but we can say that this is a very snappy, responsive phone. It pops open menus, launches apps quickly and, in general, keeps the hourglass on the shelf -- where it belongs. A cold boot (after a pulled battery) takes a rather painful one minute and 45 seconds, but after that you're looking at less than five seconds to bring the phone back to life after turning it off. More than acceptable.
We ran the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark and managed a very good 2,648ms, and when running the phone through our intensive battery drain test the phone delivered an equally impressive 8.5 hours. (For reference, the QWERTY HTC Status managed just 3.5 hours on the same test.) We haven't had the chance to run our phone through too many charges but in the time we've had with it we've been quite impressed by how that cell fares in the real world too.
Wrap-up
The BlackBerry Bold 9930 feels like the beginning of a transition -- the last hurrah for an OS that isn't much longer for this world. Or maybe that's just us being optimistic. We'd love to have been able to use this phone with a more modern, more refined feeling OS, but as it is we have some great hardware running software that just won't appeal to anyone who has already left (or was never pulled in to) the BBM fold.
And maybe, for now, that's the best RIM can do -- stem the tide. The company isn't exactly losing its customers, it just isn't growing as quickly as the competition, and until it has a truly mainstreamable operating system it never will. So, don't look at the 9930 as a phone that'll end what ails RIM and introduce it into new markets. Look at it as the best damn embodiment of what BlackBerry is today -- and then join us all in crossing our fingers as we wait for the next release of BlackBerry OS, which hopefully will bring something truly different to the table.
Guess what, amateur shooters? The superzoom just got shrunk. Pentax has just outed a new compact that touts a downright impressive 18x optical zoomer (25-450mm equivalent), with the snooping lens married to a 16 megapixel sensor, a smattering of shake reduction technologies and a 3-inch HVGA LCD 'round back. Moreover, you'll find a nine-point autofocus system, face detection algorithms, an SDXC card slot and an HD video mode capable of snagging 720p clips at 30 frames per second. It's all set to ship next month in black, white and orange for $299.95 here in the States, with the full presser embedded just after the break. PENTAX ANNOUNCES THE OPTIO RZ18 WITH 18X ZOOM
GOLDEN, CO. (September 12, 2011)...PENTAX Imaging Company announced the Optio RZ18 digital compact camera. Featuring a slim, lightweight body, the new model offers a powerful 18X optical zoom lens covering focal lengths from 25mm wide angle to 450mm super-telephoto (in the 35mm format). The Optio RZ18 is the latest addition to the PENTAX Optio RZ zoom lens series, which provides photographers simple, effortless shooting of a wide variety of subjects and occasions, from travel and landscape to action and spectator sports.
The Optio RZ18 features include:
• Generous 18X zoom (equivalent to 25-450mm) with extra wide angle lens captures subjects near and far.
• High resolution 16 megapixel sensor for large prints or aggressive image cropping.
• Slim footprint for outstanding portability and inconspicuous use.
• Multiple PENTAX Shake Reduction (SR) image stabilization options, including sensor-shift SR, for sharp images in any lighting.
• Large 3 inch LCD with HVGA resolution (460,000 dots).
• Powerful automatic shooting modes such as Auto Picture and scene modes take the guesswork out of great photography.
• Creative special effects filters add artistic flair to the common snapshot.
• Advanced 9-point autofocus with a 4cm super macro mode.
• Face detection for perfectly focused and exposed portraits, includes a dedicated pet recognition feature.
• Widescreen HD video in 720p at 30 frames per second.
The Optio RZ18 will be available in black, pearl white or metallic orange for $299.95 USD in October 2011.
PENTAX Imaging Company is a leader in the production of a variety of adventure ready digital cameras including weather-resistant digital SLRs and stylish, compact, waterproof cameras, as well as lenses, flash units, binoculars, scopes, and eyepieces. For more than 90 years, PENTAX has developed durable, reliable products that meet the needs of adventurous consumers and businesses. With headquarters in Golden, Colorado, PENTAX Imaging Company is a division of Hoya Corporation.
On July 1, 2011, Hoya announced an agreement to transfer the PENTAX Imaging Systems business to RICOH Corporation. The effective date of the sale is set for October 1, 2011. Additional details may be found here: www.pentaximaging.com/news
As promised, the Acer Iconia Tab A501 is hitting AT&T just before summer draws to an official close. The carrier just announced it'll start selling the 16GB model next Sunday, September 18th for $480 -- or $330 with a two-year contract. When we first heard about this way back in March, we knew it would be a "4G" device, and today AT&T clarified that this means HSPA+, not LTE, so sorry to burst anyone's bubble. Even so, five months after the A500 went on sale it remains one of a select few slates with a full-sized USB port, so there's that to consider if you're still on the fence about getting a tablet. As planned, it'll ship with Android 3.0, and an Acer rep confirms 3.1 is coming via an over-the-air update, though she couldn't say when, exactly, that'll happen. You can sign up for a monthly plan, if you so choose, though you can also pay as you go, with $15 getting you 250MB and $25 expanding your allowance to 2GB. Customers who commit to two-year agreements will have the same choices, to be honest, except they'll also have to contend with overage fees -- $10 per gigabyte or $15 per 250MB, depending on the plan.
Update: We've added Acer's official press release below. Heads up: you'll notice that Acer lists the price as $499.99 for the 16GB model and $549.99 for the 32GB version. That's just the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP). It doesn't say so in the press release, but AT&T confirmed to us before we published this story that it will actually be selling the 16GB version only, and for $480 (again, that $330 with a two-year contract).
Update 2: We've swapped in AT&T's press release, which fully spells out the pricing.
MAXIMIZE ENTERTAINMENT ON THE GO WITH THE
NEW ACER ICONIA TAB A501
Acer's Popular 10.1-inch 4G Tablet with Android 3.0 OS Coming Soon to AT&T Retail Stores Nationwide and www.att.com
DALLAS, Sept. 12, 2011 - AT&T* today announced it will begin selling the Acer Iconia Tab A501, a 10.1 inch, AT&T 4G** mobile broadband capable tablet featuring Android™ Honeycomb, online at www.att.com and in AT&T company-owned retail stores nationwide beginning Sunday, Sept. 18.
Designed for both consumers and small businesses, the newest wirelessly enabled member of the Acer Iconia family of tablets gives customers the freedom to enjoy technology around the clock on the AT&T mobile broadband network. AT&T's HSPA+ technology with enhanced backhaul provides up to 4 times faster data transmission than AT&T's already fast mobile broadband network.
The tablet's 10.1-inch multi-touch screen provides precise finger-tip control for leveraging social media, email, productivity applications as well as games and entertainment. Powered by a NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 mobile 1GHz dual-core processor and integrated GeForce™ GPU, customers can enjoy high-definition video, speedy browsing, multi-tasking, digital media playback and flash-based sites, games and applications.
"For tablet users it needs to be always on, connected, and readily available to access the content they want, including entertainment, social networking, email and Internet browsing," said Glenn Lurie, president, emerging devices, AT&T. "We're connecting the Acer Iconia to the AT&T 4G network and we're offering several data options, both prepaid and postpaid plans, to ensure the best experience, the best value and the greatest flexibility for our consumer and small business customers. We also plan to prominently feature the Acer Iconia in our AT&T stores across the country."
"Fast and fluid, the Acer Iconia Tab A501 is one of simplest ways to stay informed and entertained whether it's playing games or viewing a video on its high resolution capacitive touchscreen," said Sumit Agnihotry, vice president of product marketing, Acer America. "This tablet is not only intuitive, but it's svelte, stylish and comfortable to hold and carry, which appeals to consumers on the go."
The Acer Iconia Tab A501 will be available at AT&T company-owned retail stores nationwide and online beginning September 18 for $479.99. AT&T customers may also choose to purchase the Acer Iconia at a discounted price of $329.99 after committing to a two-year agreement for a new $35, 3GB monthly data plan.
Customers who do not choose a long-term commitment may still select one of two existing monthly billing options:
- Postpaid: $14.99 for 250 MB or $25 for 2 GB. Customers on the 2 GB plan who exceed their monthly data allotment will be charged $10 per 1 GB of overage. Customers on the 250 MB plan who exceed their monthly data allotment will be charged $14.99 per 250 MB of overage. Charges will appear on customers' monthly wireless statements.
- Prepaid: $14.99 for 250 MB or $25 for 2 GB. Customers on the 2 GB plan who exceed their monthly data allotment may choose to purchase an additional 2 GB for $25. Charges will appear on customers' credit card statements.
Offering the simplicity of a single bill, the postpaid option will show up on customers' monthly wireless bill after the data is used. The new postpaid billing option will be available online at www.att.com and across AT&T retail locations.
For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.
In this episode of the Windows Phone 7 App Roundup we demonstrate five applications in 30 seconds each. These apps will keep you entertained, allow you to go on a geocaching adventure, and test your bandwidth. To downloadthese apps directly to your WP7 device, just click on the title of the application and the Zune software will automatically launch to the app in Marketplace. If you have the free Microsoft Tag app installed on your WP7 smartphone just snap a picture of the Tag image and the mobileMarketplace will navigate to that app.
Bandwidth Test allows you to test the bandwidth of your Windows Phone 7 smartphone. Just click on the run test button and Bandwidth Test will run the test using both a US and UK server. View the previous test results to make sure you are getting the correct speeds for your carrier or Wi-Fi network.
Geocaching is a really fun outdoor hobby in which you search using a GPS enabled device to find various treasures and landmarks people have submitted. There are over 1.5 million geocache sites on this app. Search for a Geocaching site in your area that looks interesting and click on it to get more information. Get detailed maps and directions to the geocache site.
Got News is one of the best news apps available for Windows Phone 7. The app uses RSS feeds to update through your favorite or the top news authorities from around the world. View the entire article using Internet Explorer and share the news with friends or other associates.
Want to know when your favorite shows are playing? With Prime TV you will be able to view the upcoming and past schedules of your most liked television shows. Just search for which shows you want more information on and Prime TV will automatically display episode information, video clips, photos, and the season schedule. View trending shows to see what other are watching.
Danger Wing is a fun shooter style game in which you must navigate a small space craft while destroying the enemy ships. There are many levels available and bosses can be rather challenging. Upgrade weapons to deliver a more powerful attack to help get through the levels more quickly.
