30th October 2008 – O2 today announces that the BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8220 smartphone is available online at www.o2.co.uk and in O2 retail stores.
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 is the first ever BlackBerry® smartphone to come in the popular flip form factor. Sleek and stylish, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip offers a large, high resolution display, a second LCD colour display on the outside for dynamic viewing of incoming messages and calls, SureType® keypad that makes typing text and dialling numbers quick and easy, built-in Wi-Fi® and rich multimedia capabilities, that includes an easily accessible microSD/SDHC memory card slot that supports up to 16GB of storage.
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip is ideal for people who want a uniquely sleek and sophisticated clamshell smartphone, delivering the powerful capabilities of the BlackBerry® solution that include voice, email, messaging, organiser, Internet browsing and access to thousands of mobile business and lifestyle applications. It also boasts a robust media player for displaying pictures, listening to music and watching videos, a 2 megapixel camera with flash, digital zoom and video* recording, as well as a voice recording application. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone also works with the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application making it quick and easy to sync iTunes digital music onto the handset**, and comes with DataViz® Documents to Go® preloaded, allowing users to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the smartphone.
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip is available from free on certain O2 contracts. For more information on the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone visit www.O2.co.uk.
Thanks very much to Emma over at o2 for dropping us this press release today. I’m sure you will agree that this is a very nice handset to add to the o2 range and a world first for RIM. This is the only BlackBerry handset to feature flip technology which shows that RIM are diversifying their range to make it more appealing to more markets and if we look at the upcoming Storm touch screen handset then this only adds more fuel to the expansion plans by RIM.
The Unwired is reporting that during Motorola’s Thursday earnings call, Sanjay Jha, co-Chief Executive of Motorola and Chief Executive of mobile devices, said “Windows Mobile 6 has not delivered the experience that I think Apple has been able to deliver, but as you look at the plan that is Windows Mobile 7 and even 6.5, I think there are significant new added features which will help the platform”. According to Jha, Motorola will open a new office in Seattle “in order to work closely with Microsoft to deliver differentiation” via the Windows Mobile platform and a first Windows Mobile 6.5-based smartphone is expected in the second half of 2009. First we have heard of Windows Mobile 6.5 so hopefully we can get some more details soon.
Matt recently sent me a SanDisk Sansa View which made such an impression on me that I asked for another SanDisk MP3 player to review. Matt got hold of his contacts over at SanDisk and got hold of a Sansa Clip for me.
SanDisk Sansa Clip
This was great news but he then told me I had to do a review on it too which kind of scared me a little because I had only ever reviewed Phones before and admittedly I was a little worried about how this review would go.
The 10 Second Review
Device: SanDisk Sansa Clip Cost: £39.00 Available from: SanDisk Store Best of: Sound, Packaging, Price, Ease of Use, Ability to add music Worst of: No separate power cable
What’s in the box?
Quick Start Guide
Warning Leaflet
Special offer card from audible.com
Earphones
MicroUSB Charge / Sync Cable
SanDisk Sansa Clip
Mini Installation CD
Specification
4 GB internal memory (2 & 4 GB model available)
FM Radio
Built in microphone for recording
Four-line OLED screen
Easy-to-wear clip
Battery Life: Internal rechargeable battery lasts for up to 15 hours of continuous playback (Depends on settings and file types)
MP3, WMA, secure WMA and Audible file formats
2.2 x 0.6 x 1.4 inches
General
The SanDisk Sansa Clip is the smallest in the Sansa range and is very lightweight.
Taking a look at the front of the Clip there is a very small OLED display but not so small that it can’t be read or seen. A HOME button, jog dial and select button can also be found here.
SanDisk Sansa Clip Powered On
On the left there’s a MicroUSB port and an ON/OFF/HOLD slider switch which moves to left or right.
SanDisk Sansa Clip Left View
The right side has the volume rocker and the headphone jack socket.
SanDisk Sansa Clip Right View
The bottom and top of the Clip are very empty except some printed text on the bottom telling you the model number and I think the part number.
SanDisk Sansa Clip Front View
The back of the clip again is very straightforward and has just the namesake plastic clip and the SanDisk name printed with the size of the model.
SanDisk Sansa Clip Back View
Highlights and Lowlights
+ Superb sound + Ample Memory Capacity for Size & Price + Light Weight + FM tuner (20 Presets) + Voice Recording + Loveable Design with Fantastic Colour Options + Format compatibility (MP3, DRM WMA, WMA, Audible) + USB 1.1 and 2.0 connectivity + Can be used as a USB drive / mass storage + Can sync music with drag & drop or via software
– Only way to charge is via Data Cable
Sound Quality
The sound quality of the Clip is surprisingly up there with the View. Comparing the same MP3 track and using the same headphones the sound given from the Clip is very much like the sound like that you come to expect with the View.
There are various EQ modes and sound level adjustments available in the menu too which will help get the sound perfectly suited to various audio devices.
Review
When I opened the box of the Clip I was seriously shocked at just how little it was. Not many things this small have a screen of any sort and the OLED display hides itself with a mirrored front on the silver version and when powered on stands out very clearly.
The first thing I wanted to do after getting it powered on was to stick some songs on it so I took out the Data / Charging cable stuck into my USB 2.0 port on my Windows XP ran laptop and immediately it changed into sync mode and started finding the drivers etc….
SanDisk Sansa Clip Angled View
Transferring the music was simple, drag and drop…. no iccy manufacturers software to load / run.
After getting the music across I then disconnected the device safely using the safely remove hardware function on XP and plugged in the earphones to start my review.
I was impressed with how easy the menu system was and also how many features it had.
The music quality was awesome without even tweaking the EQ settings which made life a lot easier as I plan in giving this to my 7 year old daughter.
CONCLUSION
Once again SanDisk have done impressed me beyond what I expected. If you are looking for something small, lightweight and affordable with an excellent battery life then this is just what you need. The other good thing is the fact that you wont be rejected by your loved ones for not having an iPod as it’s sill very stylish.
Defo worth the money and a device that I would fully recommend to others
The guy’s at Techradar got out of bed early this morning and headed down to the T-Mobile flagship store on Oxford Street in London to see what was going on, it seemed the queue make-up was very different to the one outside the O2 shop for the release of the iPhone 3G, not least because the queue only comprised of around 25 people compared to the hundreds that flocked to get their hands on Apple’s latest offering. Overall, the launch was much as expected. Getting people through the doors was a little slower than some hoped, as processing transactions took around 30 mins in most cases.
On Monday night we gave you FCC photos of this new and rumoured device from Samsung (courtesy of windowsmobileitalia) and now tonight (courtesy of TIM and GSM Arena) we give you the phone in all it’s colour and glory.
It seems now to have leaked onto the website of Italian carrier TIM and is rumoured to be only 11.9mm thick. With a full QWERTY keyboard, tri-band GSM support and UMTS with HSDPA support it is also rumoured to have a landscape QVGA display.
Samsung GT C6620
All that being said, the Windows Mobile 6.1 powered Samsung C6620 is still a lower to midrange phone which is why it has no GPS or Wi-Fi connectivity. It also sports only a 2 megapixel camera which is rather lame these days.
Samsung GT C6620
The Samsung C6620 is still not available, but when it starts selling, it will retail for 199 euro with 1GB microSD memory card on a pre-paid basis.
Just received an email from Clove with some great news, “we can today confirm that as of next Tuesday, the 4th of November, we will have limited stock arriving. This exceptional unit has received phenomenal levels of interest and is the ultimate Windows Mobile device. If you want to get your hands on it as soon as possible you can order it right now here. I have ordered mine and hoping to get it on the 5th November, should help the day to go off with a bang!!
The Xacti HD700 is Sanyo’s weapon for its foray into the budget end of hi-definition consumer video. As seems to be the trend these days, it eschews traditional video tape for solid state storage for reasons of cost and robustness. In a rapidly growing market for cameras of this type how does it fair against recently reviewed competition?
The Sanyo Xacti HD700
What’s in the box?
Xacti HD700
Li-ion rechargeable battery
USB cable and converter cable
AV cable
HDMI cable
Mains charger
Charging cradle/docking station
Remote control
Strap
Soft case
Printed instruction manual
Quick start guide
Software CD inc’ Adobe Premiere Elements
Sanyo Xacti HD700 unboxing video
General
The Xacti is entirely unconventional in appearance. It’s a bit like a cross between one of those widgets Captain Kirk used to point at misbehaving aliens and some kind of water pistol. In fact using it is like holding a gun – point, aim and shoot. More about that later.
The design is clean, simple and compact. It’s not much bigger than some mobile phones when the screen is closed. For this reason it’s eminently pocketable in a way that most videocams aren’t and therefore ideal for my travels on my motorcycle. It fits easily in the small amount of underseat storage I have or in the tankbag on top of the petrol tank. Fab!
The specification can best be described as very comprehensive for a budget camcorder.
Controls
Rear: (Left) stills record, (centre) zoom control, (right) video record, (lower centre) menu activate, (lower right) record/playback select, (bottom) 5-way multi-navigation switch for selecting modes and menu items, (top centre) full auto mode switch.
Underneath: HDMI socket, tripod mount.
Left: Power/standby switch (under the screen when folded).
Video resolution (pixels): [HD-SHQ] 1280 x 720 (30fps, 9Mbps), [HD-HR] 1280 x 720 (30fps, 6Mbps), [TV-SHQ] 640 x 480 (30fps, 3Mbps ), [TV-HQ] 640 x 480 (30fps, 2Mbps ), [Web-SHQ] 320 x 240 (30fps)
Still resolution (pixels): [7M-H] 3072 x 2304 (low-compression), [7M-S] 3072 x 2304 (standard-compression), [5.3M(16:9)] 3072 x 1728, [2M] 1600 x 1200, [0.9M(16:9)] 1280 x 720, [0.3M] 640 x 480.
Lens: 6.3 – 31.7 mm (38 – 190 mm on a 35 mm camera), 5x optical zoom lens, f/3.5 (W) – 4.7 (T)
Photo range: Standard: 10cm (wide) / 80cm (Tele) to infinity, Macro: 1cm to 80cm (wide)
Video output interface: HDMI, Component Video, Composite Video, S-Video, NTSC / PAL (interfacing via included docking station or connecting adaptor)
Power source: Lithium-ion battery (DB-L40/1200mAh, included), Charging AC adapter included)
Dimensions: 2.9 x 1.4 x 4.3 inches (W x D x H)
Weight: 6.7 oz. approx. (main unit only), 7.5 oz. approx. (including battery and a standard SD card)
Highlights:
Easy to use, simple but not limited
Uses SDHC cards
Very compact
Good battery life
Docking station
Lowlights:
Build quality is a bit “loose”
No conventional viewfinder
Could be mistaken for a pistol in use!
REVIEW
The Xacti is so simple to use that my other half can use it whilst sat on the back of my speeding motorbike and wearing leather gloves. If a camera passes that test then it’s usable. The usability is key because I found it opened up a whole new way for me to use a videocam and the portability meant I was more able to carry it with me more often.
Fold the screen out and it switches on automatically to either present you with either stills mode or video mode. Start-up is quick and I never found myself waiting which, is a real bonus because a camera with a tardy start-up means you miss the action.
Filming is just a case of pointing it at the action and pressing the record button for either stills or video. There’s two buttons here and I think this is slightly less intuitive than it should be – instead of one button for stills and one for video, I would rather have a single trigger for both with a two-way mode switch that selected either stills or video. You might think that the choice of the word “trigger” is a bit odd – it isn’t. I used it because using the Xacti is a bit like pointing a gun and then pulling the trigger. In practice it soon becomes entirely natural and much less fatiguing than a more conventional videocam. Conversely, at the same time it also feels odd because it does look like you’re holding a gun and taking aim!
The Xacti is capable of recording in HD resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at 30 frames per second (fps). This is on a par with the competition and more than enough for action work. As I said previously, you should be aware that editing such large images is fairly demanding for any pc and some well-known photo-editing applications still aren’t HD ready. The Xacti has a variety of video modes that will also go down as far as 320 x 240 pixels at 30fps – ideal for YouTube or if you want to conserve space on the memory card. Talking of cards, the Xacti takes SDHC with an 8GB £10 card providing ample space and performance for nearly 2hrs of footage in HD mode.
Movie quality was fine. I had no criticisms of it at all. The anti-vibration feature wasn’t massively successful, although I think that using on a motorcycle at unfeasible speeds probably extended it beyond its design parameters (and no I am not going to fess up to how fast we were travelling – which reminds me – I must clean the bugs off the lens before returning it). The anti-vibration function is a digital one and does seem to have some minor effect upon sharpness of images but it worked well enough in general use.
As a stills camera the Xacti works well with a 7.1Mp sensor. It produces some decent results although composition is not always easy when having to rely upon an LCD screen in bright light. Of course, an optical viewfinder would help massively and this is something that is becoming increasingly rare on digital cameras and videocams. As I always say – if you want a stills camera then buy one, meanwhile the Xacti certainly is good enough for it to be your main stills camera if all you do is take snapshots.
Like the H10 I last reviewed, the Xacti has a 5x optical zoom. As I said before, this is quite limited when compared to conventional DV-cam opposition, but fairly typical for a budget camera. Again, like the H10, the lens zoom is a bit lethargic and something I think many cameras in this class suffer from. The slow zoom renders the camera less than ideal for sports footage. In normal general filming it’s less noticeable though.
Unusually for a camera in this price range, the Xacti comes with a very handy docking station for charging and connection to a desktop pc. This saves having cables hanging around.. Of note is the fact that the Xacti is Mac compatible. In this day of Windows-centric devices this is good to see and top marks are also awarded for including a comprehensive package of cables meaning that everything you might need is available out of the box.
The menu system itself is very easy to navigate and understand without having to refer to the manual although accessing it is a bit fiddly initially because the menu button is quite discrete. If you can use a conventional digicam then you can use the Xacti. That’s not to say it’s limited though – it isn’t. There’s enough flexibility to meet most needs in terms of customisation. If you are the sort of person who likes to avoid settings, then fear not – using a key on the screen it is possible to switch between simple menu mode and normal full menu mode. This has the effect of turning off all the detailed menus and restricting the user to just a few – quite handy if you want to stop a casual user from screwing up all your carefully chosen settings.
The battery is a removable 3.7v/1200mAh item which is charged via a conventional 5v power jack at the rear of the pistol grip. I never actually ran out of battery when using the Xacti so, it appears to have a good lifetime in general use. As readers of this erstwhile column will know, I loathe built-in, non-replaceable batteries so I was pleased to see that the Xacti is equipped with a removable battery. Whether a replacement is easily obtainable at a sensible cost is another matter altogether, but at least you have the option.
The overall feel of the camera in the hand is good due to its compactness and ergonomic design. However, it does all feel a little bit “loose” in terms of fit and finish. The screen moves when folded against the body, the battery cover is flimsy, the covers on the power jack and headphone socket are flimsy too and are just asking to be broken off eventually. The lens cover is a snap-on affair which is pretty shoddy and not in keeping with the rest of the camera. It is retained by a skinny strap that is more akin to a thread of cotton than anything else so it won’t be long before that is lost when it snaps. However, the cover does stay put and is not easily dislodged. Any owner would need to exercise some care to keep it in tip-top condition.
You can download a sample video – taken straight from the HD700 memory card with this link.
Conclusion:
Of all the videocams I have tested to date the Xacti is my favourite because it’s compact, easy to use and gives decent results that satisfy most of my needs. It is probably the best travelling videocam so far and because of this I used it more than the others. At about £250 from the likes of Amazon you get a comprehensive package and highly-specified and capable videocam.
As a regular user of Log Me In for my home PC’s this announcement caught my eye. Get fast, simple access to your remote Internet-connected LogMeIn computers whenever you want, wherever you are and soon with your iPhone or iPod Touch. If you haven’t used this before you install a small application on your client PC and then you can access it and take full control from a remote source through the Log Me In web interface, it works really well and has saved me lots of times before. You can register now for the beta right here.
As though we didn’t know this already, but HTC have via twitter announced that the Touch HD is confirmed as November for European and Asian markets. In a separate update they also announced that they will be having an informal meet up in Seattle on the 14th November without any more details than that.
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