Archive for August, 2010

RIM the BlackBerry 9800 Torch

The BlackBerry 9800 gets named the ‘Torch’. Full press release of the BB 9800 follows. We’ll have some hands on time with this handset later and will post images and video shortly!

RIM announces BlackBerry 6

Following on from the BlackBerry press event in London which was supposed to be a live link of events from New York (it went pear shaped) we have the following BlackBerry 6 announcement for you:

BlackBerry press event coverage

As we mentioned yesterday, RIM are holding a BlackBerry press event today in New York starting at 11am EST (4pm UK time). What we didn’t tell you though, as it was a bit of a guarded secret, is that there is also going to be a press event here in London that will be timed to coincide with the New York event.

Now, we’re still not 100% sure what the event will be about, we can make several guesses of course but to find out for sure we have roving reporter James en-route to the event. James will be tweeting throughout the event and I’ll also be publishing updates to this post as things unfold so be sure to come back after 4pm and to keep refreshing this page for updates!

James’ coverage follows:

Android leads the growth in smartphone market

The smartphone market has grown 64% this year, though it’s Android who steal the show. Although its development rate has been rapid to say the least, with some analytics suggesting it’s too fast, the consumer market seems to suggest otherwise. Canalys reports that Q2 shipments of Android devices are up by, wait for it, 886%! That’s compared with the same quarter of 2009, and the epic sales growth has no doubt been helped by the release of high end smartphones coming left right and centre from HTC, Samsung and Motorola to name a few. With countless Android beasts rumoured for release in the near future, we can only expect Android sales to continue rising.

Post by: Vince

BlackBerry press event tomorrow

You may remember that last week we mentioned that RIM had asked some members of the press to a special event in New York which takes place tomorrow. RIM have not said what the event will entail and it could be made up of several things.

We may get an official release date for BlackBerry 6. The same applies for the 9800 Slider. Could it be the 9670 Clamshell? The Bold 9780, or even the Curve 9300? I really do hope it is not just the Curve 9300 as frankly that is not very exciting at all.

Fingers crossed that the people attending will be able to get their hands on the 9800 Slider and with it running BlackBerry 6 get a good feel for where BlackBerry devices are heading in the future.

We will have all the latest news right here so please be sure to keep checking back with us tomorrow or follow us on twitter for updates.

Posted by: James

Why the British Government still uses IE6: it’s too expensive to upgrade

After reading the headline you may be wondering why money has anything to do with upgrading a browser – after all, they’re free to download and install. Well, 6000 government workers also think the same way, and so signed a petition to urge the government to upgrade away from the nine year old browser. However, the seemingly simply proposal has been rejected with this statement:

"To test all the web applications currently used by HMG departments can take months at significant potential cost to the taxpayer. It is therefore more cost effective in many cases to continue to use IE6 and rely on other measures, such as firewalls and malware scanning software, to further protect public sector internet users."

Hmm. We all know that IE6 is a pain to webmasters, and the government’s decision isn’t helping the situation. It also shows how poor the applications they use really are – how many web programs do you have that break upon an upgrade in your browser?  The excuse is that it’s not ‘cost-effective’  to upgrade, but does that mean that they expect it to get any cheaper if they leave it? Everyone knows that’s not the case – in fact it would probably get more expensive when newer applications are brought in. From that statement, we can only assume that if they’re not upgrading now, because its not cost effective, then it looks like the great leaders of our great nation will be using IE6 to infinity, and beyond.

Post by: Vince