RIM BlackBerry BOLD 8900 Review: Dare You Go! (PDA, unlock, Repair, Auckland)

Some handsets will work their socks off to have their fifteen minutes of fame, others are simply born into stardom. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is certainly fortunate to carry a name that stands for popularity and excellence in the RIM family of phones. But this kind of fame can be less a blessing and more of a curse if the successor fails to live up to the standards set by its illustrious namesake.

These high expectations have quite often turned otherwise decent handsets into a byword for failure. It's simply not enough to provide incremental improvements when upgrading an iconic handset. The iPhone somehow gets away with that, but Apple usually does. But for regular mobile phone manufacturers it takes something new and it certainly takes something better for the successor to achieve the same kind of success.

Key features:

2.44" 65K-color TFT landscape display with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels

Comfortable four-row full QWERTY keyboard

Quad-band GSM support and tri-band 3G with HSDPA

Wi-Fi and built-in GPS and BlackBerry maps preloaded

3.15 autofocus megapixel camera, LED flash

624 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM

BlackBerry OS v5

Responsive trackpad navigation

Hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)

DivX and XviD video support

Good web browser

Office document editor

3.5 mm audio jack

Decent audio quality

Smart dialing

Great battery life

More compact body and lighter weight compared to the Bold 9000

Good build quality

Main disadvantages:

Many features are locked without a BlackBerry Internet Service account (plan)

Mediocre camera performance and features

No FM radio

No video-call camera

No TV-out functionality

No built-in accelerometer

No built-in compass

It's pretty obvious where the RIM R&D team is heading with the BlackBerry Bold 9700. It's hard to really overhaul a handset that was considered almost perfect by most of its users without testing their loyalty, so they embarked on optimization instead. It's not a bad formula for success to just keep the same functionality, stick it in a smaller, fitter body and improve the performance wherever possible.

One glitch or an important feature sacrificed to fit the compact package and the plan goes down the tubes. The smartphone market is increasingly competitive and smaller companies like RIM know they have little room for error. The new Bold 9700 looks fit and hot, no doubt about that. Let's see if it performs to our expectations, and yours.

Note: If you have any question about Apple iPhone 3G, 3GS or Apple iPhone 4 repair, unlock, jailbreak or broken screen replacement, feel free to get in touch with Abby Technology Limited.

We specialise in the mobile phone repair, BlackBerry Storm repair, Blackberry Pearl unlock, UK cell phone network unlocking and Apple iPhone repair in North Shore, Auckland; Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch, New Zealand.

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Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand

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Trees and Houses, Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand, Winter 2009, David Lim

(Winter 2009). These are untouched pictures of trees and houses in Mt Roskill area, Auckland, New Zealand. Note the azure blue sky of New Zealand.

LG GD510 Pop: Mobile pop culture (Vodafone, Mobile, Phone, Repair, Unlock)

Introduction

It looks like LG have been playing their own version of will it blend. There's no need to tell you they're not playing for fun - they're rather trying to squeeze some more cash off a couple of hot-selling handsets. So, here's the deal. Get your blender, throw in an LG Arena and a Cookie and set the speed to "budget". And there you have it - an LG GD510 Pop - ready to be served to the happy masses. The "pop" LG are going for is definitely "popular", as opposed to the "popstar stuff" some of you may have hoped for.

You can go ahead and call it the new Cookie, or the low-cost Arena, but the LG Pop is quite obviously keen to have its own purpose and personality. The optional battery cover fitting a solar panel and the all-round eco-friendliness are one way for it to stand on its own two feet as a phone.

Apart from that, the Pop is just another midrange touchscreen. And this is by no means a guilty verdict. The LG Cookie used to be just another touchscreen too. Certainly not now - over 5 million units sold later. The Pop is perhaps setting its hopes high as well. Let's see if the classic unisex design, the feature mix and the affordable price tag can do it for it too.

Key features:
3.0" 256K-color TFT LCD touchscreen display (240x400 pixels)
3.15 megapixel fixed focus camera, QVGA video @ 15fps
Quad-band GSM support
Bluetooth with A2DP and microUSB v2.0
microSD card memory expansion
Standard microUSB port
FM radio with RDS
Widget interface and LiveSquare homescreen
Accelerometer sensor for automatic screen rotation and turn-to-mute
Landscape on-screen QWERTY keyboard
Office document viewer
Smart dialing
Nice battery life
Optional solar panel battery cover
Allegedly affordable price
Main disadvantages:
No 3G support, no Wi-Fi
Display has poor sunlight legibility
No DivX/XviD video support
Camera lacks autofocus and flash
Video recording maxes out at QVGA@15fps
No standard 3.5mm audio jack
There's something about the styling of the Pop that might misguide users to expect Arena-like functionality. In fact, the only Arena stuff inside is the S-Class-styled main menu - the rest of the interface is like on the LG Cookie. The important features for the mass user are there but the expected price bracket doesn't really imply high-end specs.

Many people might miss the camera autofocus and 3G support. And yes, some would have been delighted to get Wi-Fi support on the spec sheet. To us, the most important omission - given the potential target audience - is DivX/XviD support. Anyway, the reason for all that is more than clear: specs are sticking to the basics to keep the price tag comfortably low.

We guess, there's no reason to construe the GD510 Pop as an upgrade to the LG KP500 Cookie. The Pop is simply the next LG handset to try and tap on the demand for basic affordable touchscreens. An inevitable response to what Samsung are doing with the Star, the Preston and the Corby. To set it apart from the Cookie, the Pop was given some of the LG Arena styling, an optional solar panel and has taken an altogether greener stance.

We praised the Cookie for its handling and style, and the Pop has quite a lot to live up to. The first impression is promising enough though. The Arena-like looks and absolutely minimalist exterior may receive a warm enough reception.

More on the LG GD510 Pop coming up after the jump. We can safely say the LG Pop looks above its class but let's see how it handles.

Lock Your Spot before 15 May, 2010 and change your life 360 degree from 16 May 2010. It will change the way you feel, act and live! Tell your friends now or someone else will!

Lock your spot before May 16, 2010 and change your future forever! What - Who - Give -Watch

Note: If you have any question about Apple iPhone 3G, 3GS or Apple iPhone 4 repair, unlock, jailbreak or broken screen replacement, feel free to get in touch with Abby Technology Limited.

We specialise in the mobile phone repair, UK cell phone network unlocking and Apple iPhone repair in North Shore, Auckland; Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch, New Zealand.

__________________

This post is sponsored by:

Abby Technology Limited

Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand

Mobile: +64212640000, abbytechnology[a]gmail.com

Car wash at Dominion Road, Balmoral, Auckland, New Zealand (April 2010)

Wash my car, it was two (2) years since I wash it!

It's Gr8 News 4 Believers - Da Bible Sent 2 u in Txt

An Australian group has translated the entire Bible into SMS format, enabling verses to be sent direct to mobile phones. In the latest twist on the scripture, the Bible Society in Australia is offering all 31,171 verses in the abbreviated text style. True believers can now encourage each other with lines such as "4 God so luvd da world" and "In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth". The service claims to be "100% faithful" to the original. But receiving the entire Bible by SMS would take more than 30,000 messages and cost almost A$8,000 (£3,432). Source: Guardian News & Media 2008. Published: 10/7/2005

Add power to your mobile phone: Qualcomm's SnapDragon

First on the list of common annoyances are underpowered smartphones that take too long to perform tasks or crash when more than two applications are open. One potential answer could be Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset which its makers claim is about 50% more powerful than those in current smartphones.

The first versions of the chipset run at 1Ghz and help to power hi-res graphics, new user interfaces, while running Windows Mobile.The Toshiba TG01 is the first handset to sport it. Qualcomm is working on a version that runs at 1.5Ghz - which, it claims, will be broadly equivalent to the processors found in most netbooks.

Enrico Salvatori, vice president at Qualcomm, said the chipset's ability to support applications is what makes "the mobile internet user experience compelling". "The Snapdragon is delivering high performance in terms of multimedia, video, high definition, encoding and decoding, and supporting of a camera", he said.

Qualcomm has also developed Mirasol screens that draw their inspiration from structures found in nature. The screens use tiny amounts of battery power and can be seen in bright daylight. Reflective properties on the device's screen produce brighter images outdoors, according to Cheryl Goodman-Schwarzman from Qualcomm MEMS. "Colour comes in to the display, and it reflects back out colour. The brighter the light, the clearer the display," she said.

Nokia E-71 PDA Phone: Power Tips and Shortcuts, David Lim, Auckland, New Zealand, GDI

It had been almost a month now since I switched from my good old Nokia N95 to the Nokia E71; I am still very excited about this little cool machine. I have search on New Zealand's Vodafone site and cannot find much power tool or shortcuts.

Well, these tips are well known, but for people who doesn’t know yet, here some keyboard shortcut for Nokia E71:

- Quick double press on the bottom left ‘number shift’ key locks it. Most useful when particularly navigating around the GMail app to invoke actions instead of keep pressing the button before every keystroke.

- Copy and paste can, in some situations be done with Ctrl+C (but you need to hold down Func+Chr+C to get this on the keyboard). You can highlight text (in edit situations) by holidng the shift key and moving the direction pad. Copy will appear as on of the softkey labels.

- Page up and page down are Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down. Again you access control by pressing the function key first (so Fn+Chr+Up on the keyboard). Doing this directly is awkward. You can press Fn then Ctrl+Up. If you doble tap the function key it becomes sticky (i.e. like cap locks and as describes above) and you can then do multiple page up and page downs easily.

- From the idle screen hold down # to switch between silent and general profiles. Press and hold down * to switch bluetooth on and off.

- Press Fn Key + Return Key for quick Mark/Unmark of items like Msg. emails etc. for deletion or moving.

- On keys that show a symbol or number, hold down the key to get it.

- When in locked mode you can hold the large center ’select’ key to get a large back lit time and date display w/o unlocking or needing to re lock.

- Pressing Shift + Backspace = delete letters after cursor

- In Notes and Messaging, press Fn (most left bottom button) + Spacebar = gives input option such as turn on/off predictive text, settings, writing language, input method.

- Hold down left soft key to read out new text messages.

Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Share for 2008 (David Lim, Auckland, New Zealand)

Nokia 40.9%

Samsung 16.4%

Motorola 9.7%

LG Electronics 8.6%

Sony Ericsson 7.9%

Others 16.4%

Source: Strategy Analytics