Oui, oui, it’s true. BlackBerry Storm will be available in France, through SFR’s offer in the near future. Just in time for the smartphone to make it on the shelves, near Christmas presents.
The phone is one of the most expected devices out there, as it is the first BlackBerry to come with touchscreen and give up its famous QWERTY keypad. This includes Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Flickr Photo Uploader, all for BlackBerry smartphones.
BlackBerry Storm will be available for preorders online, at SFR’s website, starting with the 20th of November. The price tag on the gadget will be of EUR 100 with a EUR 50 of discount. For this price, the user will be able to choose special offers for the operator’s services.
Recently we had some information running around and saying that Google’s Android platform will get Adobe Flash 10 perfectly running on it. Just a few days passed and we now have proof of the software running on the G1 phone.
We have Adobe to thank for the video here, as it just showed at the Adobe MAX 2008 developer conference how Flash 10 runs on Android. The developer showed off their latest technology running on Google’s phone and making one Apple and one iPhone very envious.
Flash Player 10 is extremely useful for running video playback, online games and multimedia features that many handsets out there depend on for entertaining their users.
Just like putting a lot of gold on a woman won’t automatically turn her into a lady, Motorola A1600 also barely earns the title of luxury phone, despite the precious metal and price tag suggesting this.
Motorola A1600 comes in a shiny version, with golden accents and smooth surfaces. On the back, a crocodile skin adds a half kitschy, half stylish effect. Specifications are less important, since this is an accessory rather than a mobile phone.
The clamshell will be out and available for USD 867. That’s less than a Vertu, but, then again, the phone is also less than a Vertu, isn’t it?
Japan faces major depression problems. So major, that they had to look for alternative therapy solutions. Mobile phones seemed to be most handy and now treatment takes place through them.
Japanese benefit from an interactive service which offers cognitive therapy sessions that identify a person’s level of depression by asking questions about his or her sleeping and eating habits, weight change, and emotional state.
The service can be seen as a complete treatment, or as a complementary one for those who have more complicated symptoms. Almost one million Japanese people receive treatment for depression, but their actual number is thought to be much higher.
The folks of Appscout.com took Google’s Mobile App with Voice Search for a spin on the iPhone and found out that it’s easy to use, quick and intuitive. Also, it’s integrated with Google’s services and it’s practically a feature of the Google app available on the iTunes App Store.
You’ll notice a microphone button on the right side of the app’s search bar, which enables the voice search function.
This works quite easily: state the search term near the iPhone and if the app doesn’t recognize what you say, it’ll ask you to speak again or cancel the command. If the app recognizes your search query, it’ll open a Google search page, which also displays a map. The latter will display the location you were looking for, if this is the case.
As the hands-on experience showed, the results are very accurate, specially when searching for locations, or any other object of interest for that matter. Of course there’s a complaint regarding the software, the fact that it can’t discern accents and may show erroneous voice search results.
All in all, the app behaves great and if the rather small issues it has get solved we’ll have a great piece of software on our hands.
Do you see the flyer below? It’s everywhere on the web, in mailboxes (real ones) and basically spread throughout most means of communication. However, if you got one of those, you’re not as special as you think you are, since it doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a BlackBerry Storm handset if you visit the Verizon Wireless store between November 17 and the 21st.
The “private sale” will have you showing up at the local Verizon Store only to find out that you’ll be included on a list of customers who’ll get a call on Friday in order to pre-order the BlackBerry Storm. If you call the number on the flyer there’s some more waiting for the done, as you’re put on hold and told to come back on Friday.
At least this is what a Boy Genius Report reader experienced, getting really angry at Verizon Wireless and their so-called invitation. Any similar experiences?
Mobile Asia Congress is the perfect time for China-related announcements, specially since it’s held in Macau and it turns out that Microsoft will announce the availability of Internet Explorer 6 on Samsung Omnia. This handset is offered by China Mobile, the country’s largest carrier and Microsoft is probably trying to get on their soft side in order to reach the vast number of the provider’s customers.
How about Opera Mobile 9.5? This browser comes pre-installed on the handset and I don’t quite see any reason for replacing it with IE6. What’s in it for China Mobile?
Inspired by Wired’s post(s) we decided to have a look at the gadgets “killed” by the cellphone. It’s obvious now that convergence is swallowing more and more gadgets and incorporating them into a single device, probably the mobile phone. And now let’s have a look at the devices “killed” by handset.
The PDA
Back in the days when Psion ruled the world, PDA meant everything for business men, as it held their calendar, address book and notepad. Now, most smartphones are PDA phones and the attributes of the above-mentioned device have become features on a BlackBerry, HTC Touch Diamond or even an iPhone.
Camera
Most modern phones incorporate a digital camera and Sony Ericsson have already started working on a 12 megapixel device, destined to hit the market in 2009. Who needs a camera any more? Even Kodak is in the game, working with Motorola and I even expect Nikon to enter the market some day, perhaps working with Nokia?
The UMPC
Too pricy, too big, featuring an uncomfortable keyboard, poor interface and poor battery… These were the UMPCs of the old days, but there’s no point in developing them now that we see smartphones getting introduced officially and demonstrating their calculus power provided by an 800 MHz processor, like in the case of the Asus P565 device.
The telephone
Is there anyone out there who uses a fixed phone any more? They’ve become more obsolete than paper mail and they got replaced by similar VoIP devices, but still cellphones will bury fixed phones any day now and for good. Their only advantage is the longer battery life and tons of offers and contracts meant to draw the public to fixed telephony services.
The MP3 player
There are probably as many handsets with cameras as there are with MP3 players nowadays, so buying an audio player of any sort becomes redundant if you own a phone. Some cellphones even come with mixing software and Track ID, so you can identify your favourite song and mix it up, like you were a DJ. Now what MP3 player does that?
The Pager
Kids playing Halo now didn’t even get to see the pager, probably the gadget that doctors loved most, aside from a TV playing ER. Since texting is the new global hobby, beepers have died, end of story.
The Wristwatch
Yes, some of us still wear watches, but just for their elegant looks, rather than their accurate display of the current time. You’ll see most watch owners pulling out their phones constantly in order to check on the time… Need more proof that the wristwatch is dead/dying?
Pocket Calculator
I can’t tell you the name of a phone that comes without a calculator nowadays and some of the handsets really feature scientific oness, which are far better than Casio’s yesterday devices that impressed accountants.
Alarm Clocks
I wake up every morning at the sound of my handset’s alarm clock, I use visual and audio mementos, simply because the phone is close to me or in my pocket all the time. Who needs alarm clocks any more?
SatNav
Well, the battle’s still going on right here, but we haven’t heard the last of GPS devices yet, specially on emerging markets. What more proof do you want that the satellite nav gadgets are dying, now that Garmin is getting ready to launch a mobile phone?
Books
Yes, it’s a hilarious inclusion in this top, but hey, when was the last time you read a paper/carton book? Nowadays, people read books on their cellphone, iPod, PSP and God knows what else. Some even write novels on their Nokia devices… but can it compared to turning a page?
Portable Consoles
I disagree with this one, but I have to admit that there are many people playing games on their mobile phones right now… I’m a PSP fan and will never give it up, because I think that the mobile videogames haven’t really reached the standards of the ones on portable consoles yet. God forbid they ever will… I want a portable XBOX!
That’s all folks, 12 gadgets/products killed by the mobile phone and if you can think of more, please leave a comment below and we’ll debate it.
Washington Post was wondering if one of the hottest mobile devices of the past years could become even better by getting that Flash support… It’s the iPhone I’m talking about and the neverending “Flash on Apple’s phone” drama.
Yesterday Adobe revealed the new Flash Player for Windows Mobile and Google Android devices, but there was no trace of an iPhone version of it.
However, one must keep in mind that Adobe are the good guys and they’re working on a Flash version for the iPhone, but Apple have an extremely strict TOS and they don’t quite dig third party software. It’s all about money: you play Flash browser games or watch Hulu.com videos on the iPhone and Apple loses a big part of their cash cow called App Store.
If the iPhone’s creator plans to compete with WM and Android devices, they should loosen that grip on software, as after all we’re dealing with Flash, a technology that exists on 98% of computers, according to Adobe.
Some people can entertain themselves by using the coolest gadgetry around it seems. Just check out the following dude who toyed with an Optoma Pico projector and a Nokia N96 in the funniest ways possible, also demonstrating the potential of the two devices:
He managed to surf the web from his bed, scare his sister with the projection of a ghost or project embarrassing text on the neighbours’ fence. Finally, the Optoma Pico user was able to “read the small print”, play an animation in the bath (why?) and project his face on his girl’s bottom.
In case you want to get technical, Pico offers DLP type projection and features an LED lamp, a 1000:1 contrast ratio and USB recharging. It comes with AV input (stereo audio plus composite video) and PAL/NTSC (576i/480).
The little gizmo only weighs about 115 grams and incorporates a battery that lasts for about 2 hours. More details here.
