Technology Guides

Blackberry’s first entrance into the touch screen phone market has made headlines all over the world. Competing directly with the iPhone and Google’s new phone, G1 by HTC, Blackberry can now officially say it has an all around phone capable of sending email and having multimedia capabilities. The Blackberry Storm is slightly smaller but a smidge thicker than the iPhone and it keeps the same rounded edges of the iPhone. It has a high quality resolution screen that is bright.

Blackberry Storm

One thing that is really cool about the phone is it has copy and paste features and can interpret html on the browser. There are two keyboards that pop up when you are using the phone for emails, texts and such. One is when the phone is vertical, you get a keyboard in the horizontal position that is Full QWERTY and the other one is in the vertical position when your phone is horizontal that is the true Blackberry keyboard with two letters per button.

It has the capabilities of a world phone, with GSM, HDSPA, 3G, and EDGE. Like the iPhone there will be a lot of add-ons like a docking station that turns the Storm into an alarm clock while charging the phone at the same time. The Storm is easy to use and intuitive but in my personal opinion I hate the fact of using a virtual keyboard and this phone has two of them. I like the feel and touch of a real keyboard. Verizon is going to release it around Thanksgiving in the U.S. and hopefully soon after that in Canada. It’s a great follow up to the Bold and shows Blackberry’s committment to challenging Apple and bringing more products to the consumer market. This signals the market shift for ordinary consumers getting Smartphones.

Popularity: 2% [?]

With Rogers bringing the iPhone to Canada on July 11th, the other service providers had to do something, and do something quick. So Bell presents to Canada, the Samsung Instinct. While it isn’t necessarily quick, as it debuts sometime on August 8th, the Samsung Instinct offers much of the same features that the iPhone does, representing a true iPhone killer in my mind. One key flaw that the Instinct has though is that it can’t be used as a tethered device where the phone is used to get wireless signals for a laptop. Another difference, although not that big in my mind is the fact it only supports up to 8GB of storage with it’s microSD card. With bigger and bigger mp3 devices out on the market, I can imagine this will be a selling point for the iPhone for many people.

Samsung Instinct

Potential customers will be enticed by the lower price point of the actual phone and plans. The phone will start at $149.95 with a 3-year contract but is available with 1,2 and no contract as well with the highest price point being $449.95. The plans are also cheaper than the iPhones’ starting as low as $40 a month and with more to offer, it’s obviously a much better deal. “The lowest price plan for the Instinct includes 100 minutes of local calls for $20; 1,000 minutes of voice calls from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. and weekends (Fridays from 9 p.m. to Mondays at 7 a.m.); an $8.95 monthly system access fee; 75 cents for 911 emergency calls, and the $10 unlimited Internet plan. The monthly total comes to $39.70 before taxes.”Globe and Mail.

The Instinct has a full-touch screen with haptic feedback, meaning it responds when keys are pressed, and connects to the EV-DO Rev A high-speed data network. It also supports Web browsing and Internet e-mail (including Hotmail and Gmail accounts), as well as attachments. Features such as the global positioning system as well as live and on-demand TV.

Update: Rogers has announced new lower data plans to combat the negative criticsm it has received for its pricing. It’s only a limited time offer from July 11 to the end of August and will be available to all 3G phone purchases in that time frame. Previously a 6GB data plan would have cost you $100 but now they are offering a $30 plan. It’s still no match for Bell’s offer of $10 for unlimited data but it’s a step in the right direction.

Popularity: 4% [?]

On July 11th, American and Canadian consumers will be able to purchase the 3G versions of the Apple iPhone. Even people who bought the 2.5G iPhone on or after May 27 will be able to switch their phone with the 3G phone for no cost at all except their old, inferior iPhone. In the US, it will cost consumers there $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB version and should be north of that, north of the border where I’ve been hearing $299 for the base version. Why should Canadians pay more for the phone though? We already pay more monthly with Rogers APRU (Average Revenue Per User) at $72 compared to AT&T’s current ARPU of just $49. With the new spectrum being auctioned off, it should lower prices but after the iPhone release, analysts are expecting an ARPU rise of $30 or more.

Back to the phone though. The Apple version of 3G technology will blow away the previous generation of that technology, EDGE, and even beat current 3G speeds with 36% faster pageloads than competitors like the Nokia N95. It will be open to 3rd party apps and the phone will be available internationally. Battery power wasn’t forgotten in the development of this version unlike the new Blackberry, which from rumours seems to lack a decent battery life. The 3G iPhone will have 300 hours of standby, 9 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 24 hours of audio, and 7 hours of video.

GPS is going to be standard, using A-GPS, which works in conjunction with regular satellite GPS data and cell towers for much faster location times. On top of that, they’ve thrown Wi-Fi into the mix to lock up your exact location. Apple isn’t fooling around here with so many solid features being rolled into one, at a cheaper and slightly smaller package. Although there isn’t a user interface change or exterior change, Apple still presents a good product to the market.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Rogers has finally put into place a contract with Apple to release its coveted iPhone onto Canadian airwaves. Rogers is hoping to include the iPhone as its star player in a lineup of touch screen phones set to be released this Summer. Rogers is still pushing for many things in the contract that will allow it more flexibility such as wireless plans and it has this power because currently it offers the only GSM network in Canada, pending a decision from Telus whether or not to switch to GSM. They will hopefully roll it out before Blackberry’s new device code named ‘Meteor’ was expected to be unveiled and around the same time Apple will offer an updated version of its iPhone making it compatible with 3G networks. Apple may have lady luck on its side as rumors continue to swirl on Blackberry delays pushing the release date to August instead of June.

We will continue to wait and see if Rogers will shift its ways as well as if Apple will budge at all on changing its way of standardizing the industry.

Popularity: 1% [?]

After much hype, the Blackberry 9000 has finally been released to peering eyes and what a beauty it is. A Blackberry that can be called “sexy” will be available sometime mid-year 2008.
With rounded edges and a new OS, the Blackberry 9000 is changing the face of Blackberry for the better. The Blackberry Curve 8830 and BlackBerry Pearl 8120 might be the ones on display at CITA 2008 and stirring up commotion but the 9000 is definitely causing its own tornado.

The new OS, revamped from top to bottom, Blackberry OS 4.5 has a more modern look, suited to the suits in the world. It gets rid of the cartoonish look that accompanied the older models but made up for it with rounded edges that seem to take away from the overall design. As earlier reported, the 9000 will sport both WiFi and HSDPA, 624MHz processor, and GPS. The big disappointment is the battery life. An anonymous RIM informant has mentioned the battery life is horrible and will make you turn your head back to the iPhone. Being a Canadian, I know that RIM will fix this, regardless if it’s an issue or not.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Many companies have been trying to copy and beat the iPhone but this is the first true competitor in my mind. Although the looks are not the best, the internal statistics blow away the iPhone any day. Due for release on November 4, 2007, Sprint is readying for a huge release that will determine whether it catches up to AT&T or stays behind them. So how does the HTC Touch stack up against the Apple iPhone?

Unlike Apple’s iPhone, the HTC Touch will be working on Sprints fastest network and it supports corporate email. A huge plus to this touch phone is the processor. So not only will it operate on a faster network which was a huge deal when the iPhone first came out, but it will also be fast when not using the network.

Also it has been released in Canada under Rogers and Bell Canada. My only worry is why would people buy it from Bell? It’s a business-like phone and business people travel to other countries making it immobile if it were under a CDMA network.

Popularity: 8% [?]

All the major phone manufacturers are all abuzz about creating an iPhone killer much like the digital music industry was trying to create an iPod killer. Now Microsoft might have finally succeeded at doing that with the new generation Zune as it’s currently hard to find in many US retailers. But that’s not the story for today. Today I am here to report on the Blackberry 9000 which is supposed to be an iPhone killer.

RIM is one of the only big name brands yet to come out with some sort of response to Apple’s iPhone. Now that is all about to change. Jim Balsille, co-CEO of RIM, and the most publicized out of the RIM top shots, has slowly been changing the direction of the company to a more consumerist market rather than the business one. With the huge success of the Blackberry Pearl, it only makes sense that they make this step to produce a product to match and beat the iPhone.

Popularity: 12% [?]