Day: September 7, 2006

“Research in Motion (RIM) has announced the long-anticipated BlackBerry Pearl 8100.The novelty provides the sleekness and multimedia capabilities that consumers seek, while also staying true to the unique BlackBerry experience that business users have come to love. It is RIM’s first handset with a great emphasis on multimedia capabilities.The Pearl boasts of a large color 240 x 260 pixels screen, 64 MB of inbuilt memory expandable through the micro-SD card slot, Bluetooth 2.0, and a 1.3-megapixel camera with flash. The handset not only provides basic quad-band GSM/GPRS cellular connectivity but also supports EDGE for better download speeds.Just like the BlackBerry 7100 series, the novelty comes with a SureType QWERTY keypad. In addition, it a features a supple, responsive trackball as well as a pair of dedicated “menu” and “escape” keys. Nearly forgot to mention an integrated light sensor that automatically adjusts the screen and keypad brightness for optimum viewing.The Pearl comes with a media player and stereo headset jack so users can enjoy their favorite music and videos on the go. MP3 and ACC music files and MPEG4 and H.263 video files are supported. Measuring 4.2 x 1.97 x .57 inches, the handset weighs 3.1 ounces.The BlackBerry Pearl will be available from T-Mobile in the U.S. beginning September 12. It will also be available in October from Rogers Wireless in Canada and a variety of carriers in Europe. Availability in Asia-Pacific and Latin America is expected later this year.”Features Phone, email, text messaging (SMS and MMS), browser, instant messaging and organizer applications in a single smartphone 1.3 megapixel camera with built-in flash and 5x digital zoom Media player with audio and video playback in a variety of formats BlackBerry Maps, the best way to find your way Speakerphone and Voice Activated Dialing Pearl-like trackball navigation systemDynamic, highly responsive experience when viewing attachments and graphics, browsing the web and running applications Innovative SureType keyboard technology Bluetooth headset, hands-free and serial port profiles supported High resolution LCD screen with light sensing technologyPolyphonic, MP3 and MIDI ringtones 64 MB of memory and expandable memory via microSD cardExceptional battery performance Quad-band support for 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks” Check it here:

” Updating and enhancing of any operating system are the things that seemingly will never stop. Groundbreaking changes get introduced in case a company is about to shift up the version of its OS, like it happened to Windows Mobile 2003 upgraded to Windows Mobile 5.0. However, when various fixes are many, but at the same time they cannot constitute a new version, already existing operating system obtains a suffix, indicating its advanced capabilities – for instance Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. Minor tweaks tend to pop up frequently and aim mostly at patching up actual version of operating system.In Windows Mobile’s case such updates go by the name of Adaptation Kit or Adaptation Kit Update (or simply AKU abbreviation, which we will use throughout this review) – they usually patch up existing bugs and enable several new features. Each newly released AKU pack retains fixes found in previous versions of AKU, so in order to emphasize the most crucial fixes carried by AKU, the company sometimes turns to Feature Pack (FP) term, adopted from S60 platform. Significance-wise, Nokia S60’s FP and Windows Mobile’s AKU are on a par with each other, thus FP term applied to Windows Mobile has more of a marketing move rather than actual necessity in it.Read this very interesting article here:

“Palm today reported preliminary financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2007, ended Sept. 1. Full results will be reported Sept. 21. Based on preliminary financial data, Palm expects revenue to be in the range of $354 million to $356 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2007. This compares with earlier guidance of $380 million to $385 million provided June 29, when Palm reported its fourth quarter fiscal year 2006 results. The revenue shortfall was primarily due to lower Treo volumes in carrier retail channels. Earnings per diluted share are expected to be $0.13 to $0.14 on a GAAP basis and $0.18 to $0.19 on a non-GAAP basis, in line with the company’s previous guidance. “We will soon address the market dynamics responsible for our first quarter revenue shortfall with two major product launches, one that improves our pricing position and both which extend our carrier relationships to global markets,” said Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer. “Overall smartphone sell-through was up quarter over quarter, and our balance sheet is in excellent shape.” Full results for the company’s first quarter of fiscal year 2007 will be announced on Thursday, Sept. 21, at the close of the market at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time.” via palminfocenter.com

” Today our readers have a unique opportunity to cast a first look at three brand-new models before their official announcement. One of the most important happenings, which are about to take place, is introduction of a new HTC’s indexing system – whereas the first two models, similarly to Motorola’s RAZR, carried own codenames (MTeoR, TyTN), the new products lack personal titles and feature alphanumeric indexes instead, so that smartphones get “S” letter, while Pocket PC – “P”. Apparently, this way is much easier and requires less efforts, however there are several other reasons. The first one lies in complexity of personal titles, which are basically hard to pronounce; another one has nearly the same nature – it is not easy to make up titles for every new model, as if that’s the case, the company is to consider countless marketing-related aspects. So in the end, new indexing system allows HTC’s marketing department to breathe with relief and at the same time confuses end-users a bit (as it differs so much from familiar personal titles). The four-digit index following the type-determining letter is quite obscure as well – does the company plan to release so many models (Nokia has nearly exhausted the four-digit index only recently, after many years of non-stop releases and on top of that it makes a little use of letter)? Are we to see 100-200 new devices by HTC in the following years? Personally, I can rightfully cast doubt on that.Read this great article here: