Archive for 2011

BlackBerry Torch 9860 available from Vodafone

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 smartphone hit Vodafone stores this morning and will be available online this weekend. 

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 offers the fast, fluid BlackBerry 7 experience in a stylish new all-touch design, powered by a 1.2GHz processor – available for free on £36, 24 month price plans including 1,200 minutes, unlimited texts and 500 MB of mobile data.
With a spectacular new 3.7″ display – the largest ever on a BlackBerry smartphone – the device is optimised for viewing and sharing photos, videos and powerful gaming experiences without compromising the essential tools unique to BlackBerry devices.
Like the Bold 9900 the Torch 9860 runs on BlackBerry 7 OS, providing new apps and technologies, as well as access to BlackBerry App World which gives you all you need to get the very most out of your smartphone.
Please check the Vodafone website for updates.

Our hands on video will be live in the morning. Please pop back and have a look.

Posted by: James

Samsung improves bada

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, today announced the launch of bada 2.0 SDK (Software Development Kit), an application development tool for Samsung’s mobile platform which is expected to expand the global distribution of bada smartphones. Three new Wave smartphones, powered by bada 2.0, will follow later this year, ranging from premium models with enhanced performance to entry-level devices that focus on affordability.

The expansion of the bada platform follows the success of the seven existing Samsung Wave devices, which have seen significant global sales. They have proved extremely popular in Europe, China and Southeast Asia thanks to their affordability and functionality, whilst the user-experience and touch interface have helped introduce existing Samsung feature phone users to smartphone services and application experiences.

bada 2.0 includes a number of new features, including multi-tasking, Wi-Fi Direct, Near Field Communication (NFC) and voice recognition. It enables owners of smartphone devices to experience advanced services such as mobile payment, transport pass-card recharge and file sharing without Internet networking. Improved support for web applications such as Flash and HTML5, means users can enjoy enhanced web capabilities, and anyone with a smartphone based on bada 2.0 will be able to run any web application developed with Flash or HTML.

Sony Ericsson boosts 2011 Xperia family with new experiences and new software

Listen up Xperia owners! Sony Ericsson today announced new functionality and features to its 2011 Xperia smartphone range with a comprehensive software upgrade from October 2011. Consumers with 2011 Xperia smartphones will benefit from improvements to Sony Ericsson’s unique Facebook inside Xperia offering and 3D camera functionality from Sony. The upgrade also allows consumers to enjoy the full benefits of the Android Gingerbread platform including Google Talk with Video Chat .
Sony Ericsson’s unique social experience provided by Facebook inside Xperia has been super-charged enabling Xperia users to like, share and discover on Facebook in a faster, easier and more intuitive way. The new functionality aims to make entertainment more social by giving users the ability to share and discover apps and games with friends through Facebook.
The latest camera enhancements from Sony introduce 3D sweep panorama technology so that images can be captured and then viewed in 3D by connecting the phone to a 3D TV using the HDMI output. 

“With this software upgrade, we are bringing a wealth of new and really entertaining experiences to all our 2011 XperiaT  smartphones, including those already in consumers’ hands today,”said Nikolaus Scheurer, Head of Product Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “Our users will get to enjoy new features from Google, an even richer Facebook integration, and enhanced camera functionality from Sony.”

RIM announce BBM Music

Research In Motion (RIM) have announced BBM Music, a new BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) service for socially connected music fans.

BBM Music is an easy-to-use cloud-based service that enables social and viral music discovery by allowing users to build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared amongst their BBM Music friends. The size of the music library continues to grow as new friends join the community and each user can select music from a catalog with millions of songs from leading music companies – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI.

“More than 45 million customers already love the social communication benefits delivered through BBM and we are thrilled to be extending the experience into a uniquely social and interactive music service,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “We have partnered with leading music companies to provide a ‘full track’ music sharing and discovery experience that will provide users with quality music on demand and allow them to connect with friends on a whole new level.”

A selection of Samsung Galaxy phones announced

Earlier today Samsung announced its new naming strategy for its Galaxy range of smartphones. In addition, Samsung announced four new members of the Galaxy smartphone family: the Galaxy M Pro, Galaxy W, Galaxy Y and Galaxy Y Pro, all of which run on the powerful Android 2.3 Gingerbread mobile OS.

Samsung has created a new system of naming its Galaxy smartphones, focused on its ever-expanding portfolio of industry-leading Android smartphones. The new naming structure will organise and group devices into five classes identified by a single alphabetical letter. Devices will then be further designated by an additional indicator which will identify specific functionality. The new strategy aims to help consumers identify the specification of the product they are buying quickly and easily.

INRIX Traffic App

Going for a drive? Why not use INRIX to check for traffic jams?

The way that we plan our journeys has changed dramatically in the last ten years. The tattered A-Z road maps have been discarded to the bottom of the car boot, replaced by smartphone apps and in-car sat-navs. The problem with these is that while they can be handy for navigation, they don’t actually help you avoid traffic. This is set to change with the launch of the free, INRIX Traffic application, available across BlackBerry , Android, iOS and Windows Phone platforms. The ad-free, handy app provides real-time traffic information and traffic forecasts allowing motorists to better plan their trips and save time, fuel and avoid unexpected delays along the way. If a person gets involved in a road accident, he can contact a salt lake city car accident lawyer to assist him and address the unfortunate situation. You can also hop over to the Leppard Law website when you need help from a criminal defense lawyer.

INRIX Traffic is a powerful app which gives users unparalleled insight into traffic conditions. Traffic information is crowd-sourced from the largest traffic network in the world and combined with traditional road sensor data, accident and incident reports to provide drivers with information they can rely on to find the best way to go.  The cleverest thing? INRIX’s unique predictive technology analyses common traffic-impacting factors such as day of the week, season, holidays and related days, current and forecasted weather, accidents and road works and unique local events like concerts and football matches to provide traffic forecasts up to 8 hours in advance. As U.K. motorists spend an average of 46 hours a year idle in traffic, download INRIX Traffic and start saving time, money and fuel today.

INRIX Traffic is available to download from BlackBerry App World, Android Market, iTunes and also on Windows Phone.

Posted by: James