Less is more

Blackberry Q10

Frankly, I don't get the hype about the Blackberry Z10.  As smartphones go, it is a perfectly adequate mobile device with all the necessary features except a physical keyboard.  If you put your new Z10 down on the meeting table beside the Apple iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One, would you be able to tell it apart from the field at a glance?

If you want your smartphone to stand out from the pack, consider the Blackberry Q10.  Running the updated Blackberry 10.1 OS, the Q10 flaunts a physical QWERTY keyboard.  For the true Blackberry loyalists, this is the Blackberry you have been waiting for!

I can tell you are excited, and you should be.  But temper your excitement just a bit.  The Q10 is a capable smartphone.  It will do everything you NEED it to do, and it will do so, well.  It will not blow your mind.  Don't feel bad though, chances are it won't blow your pocket either.

The Q10 sports a square (yet another distinctive feature) 3.1" super AMOLED display with a 720 x 720 pixel resolution.  It has got a micro SIM card slot, micro SD slot and a micro HDMI port.  I may be wrong, but I didn't see a micro HDMI port on either the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S4.  (And cables are much more reliable that wireless technologies like AirPlay and AllShare).

You'll find front and rare facing HD cameras and a decent 1.5 GHz processor.  Like it's big brother, the Q10 has all the Blackberry OS 10 popular features like my personal favourites, Time Shift, Balance and BBM Screen Share, along with the heavily touted features like Hub, BBM Video Share and Tag. Q even has some additional features like typing straight to an email from any screen.

But let's get back to what sets the Q10 apart, its remarkable Blackberry keyboard.  In the few moments I was able to hold the handset, thanks to Troy Cocking at LIME, the large, tactile, keys caressed my finger tips.  It was so easy to type using this physical keyboard.  If you thought the keyboard on the Bold 9900 was the best keyboard on a smartphone ever, you will love the tweaks on the Q10 keyboard.

Of course, the best keyboard and good specs mean nothing if the phone freezes up like Siberia every time you try to complete a task.  I didn't have enough time to put the phone through the paces myself, but I do note that I haven't heard any complaints from the early demos.  Troy assures me that this new BB OS 10 is just the right type of cool.

If you are so inclined, here is the best reason to get the Blackberry Q10: it stands out and it gets the job done for likely half the price of the candybar copycats.

Tech Time: Blackberry OS 6.0

With the increasing popularity of innovative smart phone platforms like iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile, Research In Motion (RIM) have had to step up their game to remain competitive, and they do this with the soon to be released Blackberry OS 6.0.

The very first thing that users will notice is the redesigned home page which is highly customisable. Long overdue feature like an updated media player, universal search and powerful browser bring the new OS inline with features already available on iPhone and Android devices.

Blackberry uses OD 6.0 to improve some features for which BB already has the lead, making a great user experience even better. The new embedded image feature will boost the robust Blackberry email while the wildly popular Blackberry Messenger (BBM) gets s sexy new look and easier interface.

Smart phones have revolutionaries the way we communicate; mobile social networking is critical to the success of any handset. Blackberry recognising this truism, has integrated social networking into the OS has offers simultaneous posting to multiple social networking platforms.

The official announcement is expected later today with a roll out perhaps as soon as later this month. RIM is also expected to announce the launch of the Blackberry Bold 9800 also called the Torch, RIM’s first slide phone set to rival the iPhone 4.

Windows 7 Tip: Click on the Options tab in the Windows 7 calculator of a range of different calculators. This offers many different unit conversions (length, weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage rates and more. Source: Tech Radar

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Tech: IT Easy - Get a life | And your phone is not it

When the realisation dawns on you that all your contacts, pictures and emails are gone, it can be devastating. Admit it, our phones are an integral part of our lives. Personally, I can't even remember what life was like before the BlackBerry phone. But it is not the phone that is so important, it's the information contained within that is truly part of the fabric of our lives.

Yet, we treat our phone with such scant regard. We leave them at the bank, the restaurant and our friends' house. We keep them out in the open and thieves steal them. We simply forget where they are. Fortunately for us, technology can find our phones for us.

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Send feedback to: techiteasy@carlettedeleon.com

Tech Time: Protecting Your Phone

If you are prone to losing your Blackberry, RIM has found a solution for you; of course, iPhone found it first.

Later this year, you will be able to install Blackberry Protect and app which will help you “wipe, lock or locate” a lost device with the help of your PC (sorry Mac users). To make it work, you’ll be required to download and install the Blackberry protect app to your handset and your PC.

You can use the programme to help you locate a lost phone in a couple of ways. First, you can view the location of the phone on a map or your can activate the “loud ring” feature which will override any prior audio setting which might have been on the phone. If someone else has found the phone, you can send them a message – a custom message you compose can appear on the phone’s screen, even if the phone is locked.

Speaking of locked, if you forgot to lock you phone before losing it, use Blackberry Protect to lock it remotely or, for an extra level of protection, wipe all the data on the phone. Wiping all your data on the phone itself does not mean that you have lost all your data. Blackberry Connect allows you to back up you contacts, calendar, tasks, browser bookmarks and text messages over WiFi or 3G to the cloud, making the information instantly accessible if you wish to migrate the data to a new device.

These features are all similar to Find My iPhone successfully introduced by Apple earlier this year. Though the Find My iPhone app is free from the iTunes store, it only works with a US$99 Mobile Me subscription. Regardless of platform, these “wipe, lock and locate” features only work if the phone is on AND connected via WiFi or 3G. BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) users, iPhone users and adventurous third-party software adopter already have access to these features, but the introduction of Blackberry Protector in the fourth quarter will provide a sense of security for the causal BB user – that is, if they don’t mind all their data being stored in the cloud.

Windows 7 Tip: Win+M minimizes everything

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