Cell Phone Review: BlackBerry Storm 9500 review: Berry-go-round

It's not everyday that you see a BlackBerry review on our homepage but it's not like RIM routinely churn out devices like the Storm either. Messaging is still the legendary name but… well… touchscreen is the game. Keeping the business appeal of its siblings, the 9500 Storm sure stands out in the Berry crowd. But it also tries to set itself apart from the other touchscreens by promising a whole new touch experience. The Canadian manufacturer RIM is walking an unbeaten path by adding unique clickability to the fluid precision of the capacitive touchscreen technology.

The award-winning SurePress screen may not be everyone's cup of coffee but we're not talking teacup either, just yet. Key features: * 3.25" 65K-color capacitive touchscreen of 360 x 480 pixel resolution * A new touchscreen experience thanks to SurePress screen * Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 2100 MHz 3G with HSDPA support * 3.15 MP autofocus camera, LED flash * BlackBerry OS 4.7 * 624 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM * Built-in GPS and BlackBerry maps preloaded * 1 GB internal storage * Hot-swappable microSD card slot, ships with an 8GB card * Landscape virtual QWERTY keyboard goes as close to hardware keys as we have seen * Great build quality * Solid looks * 3.5mm standard audio jack * Bluetooth and USB v2.0 * Really nice web browser * Document editor * Excellent audio quality Main disadvantages: * No Wi-fi * No email support without BlackBerry Internet Service account * Interface not as quick as competitors *

Chubbier than most touchscreen phones * Mediocre camera * No FM radio * No Flash support * Fingerprint-prone front panel * No video-call camera Now, this isn't one of those all-about-email BlackBerry reviews where the 9500 Storm gets only compared to its own kind, for the lack of meaningful competition. We are more than confident that the Storm does its BlackBerry thing just fine, so instead of focusing on it we'll try to give a different view of the device.

Our objective is to see how it fares against all those other "regular" touchscreens that have the crowd's attention: Apples, Renoirs, Omnias, Diamonds and the likes. Well, our approach may seem like comparing apples to oranges but only at first sight.

The first thing about the Storm 9500 is the attempt to reach beyond the core group of diehard BlackBerry users. We're talking stealing some market here, so if Blackberry are playing to win, they should well be ready to take some hard beating too. First-rate email is nice and all, but the Storm will only be as good as its user interface and multimedia. For the rest (which means WLAN too) there's Curve and Bold.

Swine Flue the Baics (Auckland, New Zealand, Mexico) Facts

Symptoms usually similar to seasonal flu - but deaths recorded in Mexico

It is a new version of the H1N1 strain which caused the 1918 flu pandemic

Too early to say whether it will lead to a pandemic

Current treatments do work, but there is no vaccine

Good personal hygiene, such as washing hands, covering nose when sneezing advised

FLU PANDEMICS

1918: The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times. Caused by a form of the H1N1 strain of flu, it is estimated that up to 40% of the world's population were infected, and more than 50 million people died, with young adults particularly badly affected

1957: Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The impact of the pandemic was minimised by rapid action by health authorities, who identified the virus, and made vaccine available speedily. The elderly were particularly vulnerable

Nokia 1100 gets highly sought after for its potential criminal use.

One of the most popular handsets in the world - Nokia 1100 has found itself in the middle of a banking fraud scandal, according to a Dutch investigator. Allegedly, criminals are paying an arm and a leg for working second hand units of the once-50-euro handset that are manufactured in Nokia plant in Bochum, Germany.

Investigators are observing huge amounts of money being offered for the outdated handset recently. The largest recorded sum up to now is 25,000 euro (about 32,000 US dollars), which is about 11 times its weight in gold. According to the investigators the criminals are looking to acquire only units that are manufactured in the Bochum plant of the company.

The supposed reason behind this peculiar requirement is that those handset most probably come with flawed software or hardware, which allows them to be hacked and used to make a working copy of someone else's phone line.

When set up this way, the Nokia 1100 receives the same calls and most importantly text messages that the original recipient gets, without them ever suspecting anything.

The loophole that the criminals are allegedly using is that many European banks now send temporary transaction authentication numbers or mTANs as SMS to the account holders as a security feature for authorizing online money transfers.

This is where the supposedly counterfeit-capable Nokia 1100 handsets step in. As they receive the SMS intended for the authorized account holder, criminals can acquire a working mTAN and initiate a transfer after they have stolen the needed online ID credentials in some other way.

At this stage Nokia have refuted those accusations claiming that they have not identified any flaw or wormhole in their phone software that would allow the alleged use cases.

However, the investigations still continue.

2008 Corruption Perceptions Index

Where do you live on this earth? Are you proud of the country you are living in now? See below, the top ten countries percepted as least corruptible in the world!

Facts and figures do not tell lies ;-)

Source: Transparency International

Country Rank	Country	2008 CPI Score	Survey Used	Confidence Range
1	Denmark	9,3	6	9.1 - 9.4
1	New Zealand	9,3	6	9.2 - 9.5
1	Sweden	9,3	6	9.2 - 9.4
4	Singapore	9,2	9	9.0 - 9.3
5	Finland	9,0	6	8.4 - 9.4
5	Switzerland	9,0	6	8.7 - 9.2
7	Iceland	8,9	5	8.1 - 9.4
7	Netherlands	8,9	6	8.5 - 9.1
9	Australia	8,7	8	8.2 - 9.1
9	Canada	8,7	6	8.4 - 9.1
39	Taiwan	5,7	9	5.4 - 6.0
40	South Korea	5,6	9	5.1 - 6.3
45	Bhutan	5,2	5	4.5 - 5.9
45	Czech Republic	5,2	8	4.8 - 5.9
47	Malaysia	5,1	9	4.5 - 5.7
80	Thailand	3,5	9	3.0 - 3.9
141	Philippines	2,3	9	2.1 - 2.5
178	Iraq	1,3	4	1.1 - 1.6
178	Myanmar	1,3	4	1.0 - 1.5
180	Somalia	1,0	4	0.5 - 1.4

David Lim, Auckland, New Zealand.