Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - Research in Motion steps up rivalry by releasing new Blackberry Curve 8900 to compete with iPhone over holiday season. The new Curve is suppose to have a better camera, built in GPS and a refined media player.
Fake calls is the funniest iPhone app I’ve seen so far. It’s not free, but only 99 cents. Basically if you get caught on the worst date ever or just want to have a reason to duck out of a meeting or end a pointles conversation (with Naveed)….this app can help with a bit of a fake out.
Just tap the app, triggering “Fakecall mode.” Within seconds, the phone’s call screen appears, the phone rings and the buttons to accept and decline calls surface. The look and sound are really believable.
Or you could stop being dishonest and just tell someone that you have to leave. And give (or don’t give) them the reason
Independent warranty provider SquareTrade has released a report showing that iPhones are more reliable than either BlackBerry or Palm Treo devices. I don’t know if this is actually valid??!! I currently own an iPhone and it is not perfect yet! MobileSafari still has its bugs and 3G can be better (blame it on Rogers!!)
The report, titled “iPhone More Reliable than BlackBerry, One Year In“, analyzes failure rates for more than 15,000 new cell phones covered by SquareTrade warranties. SquareTrade found that after one year of ownership, iPhone owners were half as likely as BlackBerry owners to have a phone failure, and one-third as likely as Treo owners.
Hahahahaha — they obviously haven’t talked to Sami yet. It took him 3 iPhones to get a stable iPhone.
Today, RIMM released its new BlackBerry Storm smartphone. This is their first phone to elminate the physical keyboard. The initial reviews are the Storm is different and better than Apple’s iPhone (I hope not!). Like the iPhone, the Storm uses a touchscreen. Unfortunately, the Storm cannot do finger-pinch/stretch iPhone trick of enlarging or shrinking the screen contents. But the new Storm lets you edit by cutting and pasting. No need to worry, Apple will develop its cut and paste feature on a future firmware upgrade. The Storm is a true world phone with 3G capability, but the Storm lacks Wi-Fi. The Storm has all the features you expect from any smartphone now including GPS, a video and music player, Bluetooth and a 3.2 megapixel camera. I believe the new Blackberry Storm will give Apple’s iPhone a run but will not surpass them. Believe me, Apple has developed lots of secrets for the iPhone that have not been released yet.
The BIG QUESTION: Will business users who spend time on their previous generation Blackberry keyboards be willing to switch to a touchscreen???
If you want higher quality, visit the Virgin Canada site.
This iPhone case looks identical to my iPhone case (minus the peeling).
The GrooveShield Form is very straightforward: it’s shaped in such a way that it hugs your iPhone 3G perfectly and protects the back, corners, and edges from scratches and general wear and tear.
Because of its thinness, the GrooveShield Form almost looks like it’s part of the case, and in fact many people who’ve seen ours thought we had some special-edition ninja iPhone–which is exactly what you want a case to look like.
UPDATE: Blackberry Bold phone to hit shelves Thursday. On Thursday, RIM’s most advanced smart phone to date, the BlackBerry Bold, will officially hit Canadian store shelves when the device goes on sale through Rogers Wireless, the telecom giant confirmed Monday. No pricing details have been officially released, but analysts are anticipating the Bold will cost between $199 and $399 on a three year contract.
The new BlackBerry model should be coming to Canada sometime this week. Too late for me. Switched to a 16 Gb white iPhone after 2 years with a Blackberry on my pocket. The Apple device is very different from a Blackberry and I’ve had no problems with the phone on the Rogers network. Many are complaining about the iPhone 3G’s reception problems, which are now believed to be the result of a problem with the Infineon chipset inside the unit. Business Week reported Thursday that Apple and Infineon are working on a software fix for the problem, which Apple has yet to officially acknowledge. I believe Apple is already working on a fix for the 3G signal loss problem (mostly common on the AT&T 3G network…Does AT&T have the sufficient bandwidth to meet all these 3G Users??). My phone works well with the Rogers network.
My only complaint about the iPhone is battery life. The iPhone won’t last a 2 days without charging. If I leave for work in the morning, surf websites, check email, talk on the phone and listen to the music, it is almost dead by the next afternoon. It all depends on what you use the phone for. Touch keyboards do take some getting used to, but so did the Blackberry pad.
I believe the Bold will sell well, but only in the business-oriented market. Rumour has it that Citigroup is going to which from Blackberry’s to iPhones. There are bugs with the iPhone 2.0 but then critics are always there to rip open all Apple products. Don’t get me started on Windows Mobile 6!!! NEXT QUESTION!
So those bastards said that I was eligible for an hardware upgrade to the new iPhone, but not for $199. They told me that I was only on Tier 1 which is not enough to get the iPhone for $199. Thats bullshit because if I’m willing to buy the phone as well as the $30 data package, isn’t that enough money for them??!! Don’t worry, I will give them a call tomorrow….complain and let them know that I have three services with Rogers and I already spend enough for all three services!! I will keep you all posted!!
Customers are not restricted just to the 4 iphone bundles that were announced & are able to select from most of our other voice & data plans. We do not have an unlimited data plan, although we are looking at potentially tweaking some of the data plan bucket sizes. More to follow.
Bruce M. Mann
Vice President Investor Relations
Rogers Communications Inc.
T. 1.416.935.3532
E. bruce.mann@rci.rogers.com
Copy and Paste from Smithereens blog:
Let them know what you think of the the data rates in the comments.
The hell with Rogers!! $60 minimum plus no call display!! and its not unlimited data!! what the hell is Rogers thinking!! All the info is also available over on the Rogers web site.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics from South Korea released the Samsung Omnia SGH-i900 (similar to the Samsung Instinct) early Monday, before the mania of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference began in California. The touch-screen smartphone runs on Windows Mobile 6.1, has visual voice mail, 3G capability, Bluetooth, an FM radio, and GPS functionality. It also doubles as a music player with 16GB.
How it will the company’s new smartphone compare with the new 3G iPhone Apple???
So the news is out….Steve Jobs finally announced to the world the new 3G iPhone today at WWDC 2008. And it does indeed have quite a few improvements over the current generation iPhone. Most obvious was its 3G capabilities! The 3G iPhone is now listed on the online Apple Store, but it cannot be pre-ordered yet. The main question now is…how much will the data plan cost??? Will Rogers offer a decent data package??
Gizmodo is reporting Tuesday that someone “very, very close” to the 3G iPhone launch has confirmed that Apple will unveil the new iPhone during the June 9 keynote address at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. The phone should be available right after the keynote, Gizmodo reports.
Unfortunately, we know very little about Apple’s new products until the words tumble out of Jobs’ mouth.
According to Electronista, the iPhone will be released in June with $7 data package (the least expensive data plan of any carrier announced to date, Electronista has heard.) Sources from inside Rogers claim that the device should be available the same month as an expected US release of an updated, 3G-capable model rather than as part of any possible staggered launch. Pricing is still unavailable, though currency values are likely to place the cost of the phone itself closer to the eventual US figure.
Data, however, is expected to cost less than for American customers, those same tips indicate. The sources claim that the iPhone will qualify for Rogers’ $7 on-device browsing plan, which currently allows all phones offered by Rogers (excepting BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices) to access the web as much as they like through the carrier’s officially-sanctioned browser. Whether Rogers will allow YouTube, the App Store, and other official but non-web devices to fall into the unlimited plan is unknown, though unlike with other phones Rogers will not have the choice of installing or customizing the web browser or other applications.
