13Dec11 BlackBerry Continue the Touch Screen Drive with the Curve 9380

It would seem that BlackBerry have finally found success with their touch screen phones and are increasingly moving away from their QWERTY roots. This follows a rather dissasterous first attempt with the BlackBerry Storm (remember that? probably not!). The biggest change for BlackBerry seems to have been the release of their later operating systems (BB OS 6 onward) which were developed with “touch” in mind.

The BlackBerry Torch was the first BlackBerry to really make an impact with Touch Screen for RIM (using OS6) and was a big seller in spite of its hefty price tag. The torch is now in its thrid itteration and keeps getting better, however, whilst working on the Torch RIM did something rather surprising and released a FrankenPhone in the form of the Bold Touch. Quite what made RIM think users would want both a touch screen and a QWERTY is beyond me, its like serving pickles with custard, not a good mix! I mean, typically users want either:

  • A great QWERTY phone
  • A great Touch Screen Phone

And the Bold touch is neither really, well, I guess its still a good QWERTY, but the addition of a touch screen makes it over sized when most users clearly want something more compact and lets face it… understandable!

RIM must have learned a lesson or two from the not so succesful sales results from the Bold Touch and have now released the Curve 9380 touch screen, and this time its clear what the phone is!

Apperance wise it is very similar to the torch, only there is no slide out QWERTY, this is the first phone since the Storm that does not feature a mechanical keypad. Last time RIM tried this (with the storm) it went down badly with customers who liked the mechanical keyboard, which I guess is why RIM have been building dual purpose phones since.

So the question is whether this new Curve will hit the right spot with consumers. A lot has changed since the Storm was released and touch screen phones are fast becoming the standard for smartphones. How well BlackBerry can do in this market remains to be seen as this is not really where their herritage or brand identity lies. Furthermore, BlackBerry are very weak on apps when compared to Android or IOS (Apple). Sending mails from a touch screen is a nuisance if you are used to QWERTY, unless you have an Android with SWYPE enabled which works very well indeed.

RIM continue their focus on email and social which you can see from their official page (linked to above), but to be frank, these are some of the very few genuinely good apps available on the OS, that said, what do people really use their phones for? If you want a phone for “communication” be that voice, mail, text, im or social, then this is perfectly adequate. Lets face it, apps are great, apps are clever, but on an incy wincey little screen you are limited to what you can do with the cleverest app. In my opinion phones are… communication devices as opposed to being entertainement centres, publishing platforms etc.

Also let us not forget the fact that BlackBerry still have some things going in thier favour here:

  • Solid build quality
  • Strong brand
  • Unbeatable email integration
  • BBM

On top of which, RIM have no choice other than to compete in this market, it is the way things are heading and no manufacturer can afford to bury their head in the sand where touch screen technology is concernted. It is pretty clear that RIM have the ability to adapt to these changes, the question is whether their customers can!

In terms of value the Curve 9380 is pretty keenly priced being in the same price range as the Bold Touch (but being a much better phone in my opinion), and despite being “hot off the press” there are already some great deals to be found on comparison sites. I have to say I think the Curve 9380 is the best thing to come out of BlackBerry for some time. the previous Curve 3G did little more than add features that should have been present in the 8520, the Bold Touch we have already mentioned, leaving the Torch as the only really solid product to have been released prior to this. It is likely that RIM will continue down this track in future with a dual line in QWERTY or Touch (slide out Torch not witstanding) and there will be more models like this to enjoy in the future!

I hope this wone works out for RIM, they need a bit of luck following service outages and less than great sales over the past couple of years. I have always rated RIM myself and would like to be able to continue using them for a few more years yet, and this is the first handset I have seen that I can both afford which offers a viable alternative to the great green droid!

Anyway, if my ramblings have not put you to sleep yet, you can get a nice walk through from the guys at crackberry in the video below:

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10Oct11 Dark Circles Tips and Best Practices

What do you see when you look in the mirror? If the answer is dark circles, you’re probably not in the best of moods at the moment. Don’t be disheartened. There are a number of quick and easy fixes that would help to get rid of those unsightly crescents. Whether you choose to use natural methods or go out and buy one of the many products that are available at the store, there are some basic methods that one could use to prevent the dark circles.

- Sleep is extremely important in the prevention of dark circles. In fact, lack of sleep causes the skin to become pale. This is the main reason why dark circles appear darker. Get enough sleep and you’ll be fine.

- Keep hydrated. Hydrated skin is happy skin and prevents dark circles from forming while keeping the skin supple and elastic.

- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and diet is a vital part of preventing dark circles. In fact, it is said that lack of vitamins causes the skin to appear sallow and unhealthy.

- Keep out of the sun. Sunlight causes an increase in the levels of melanin in the skin which is pushed to the surface. The increased levels of melanin on the surface of the skin create a darker hue and causes dark circles. Wearing sunglasses and applying a generous layer of sunscreen would help to prevent dark circles altogether.

- Old age plays a role in the formation of dark circles. As we age, the skin becomes thinner and thinner which is why dark circles are easier to see in older individuals.

There are a number of other causes as well which would include allergies and poor nutrition etc. As a result, there are quite a few methods to get rid of dark circles once they’re already formed. One could choose to use natural methods or go down to the closest store and but one of the many mass produced products that are tailor made and designed to get rid of dark circles.

Overall, prevention would always be easier. It is far easier to prevent dark circles that to get rid of dark circles while they are already well established. In most cases, getting rid of dark circles is easily done with a bit of sleep and a whole lot of water. At the end of the, natural methods are better for the skin.

Posted by in Health
23May11 How can I reduce energy costs?

I’ve recently spent a lot of time trying to work out how I can improve my home during the winter months. The heating bill was huge, and I know that there must be some easy ways to keep down the cost. I don’t want to spend a huge amount doing it though – I’m not going to go as far as installing a wind turbine or solar panel for example – but the insulation in my home is so poor that it shouldn’t be hard to dramatically reduce costs.

I don’t have attic insulation which is one thing I’m definitely going to be installing – not just because of the energy it’ll save in the house but also because I’ve heard all about frozen pipes and they’re not something I want! I’ve also been reading about heat trace products which apparently do a similar job but more directly (they heat the pipe itself rather than keeping the air around it warm) but I’m not sure whether that’ll be overkill (I’d be interested to hear whether anyone else has used a similar system).

The easiest way for me to reduce my energy bills is just to avoid putting the heating on so much. I think the family and I have become so used to a warm house that we tend to put the heating on too much rather than just put on a jumper or sweater. Obviously when it gets really cold during the worst months then the heating is important, but it doesn’t need to be on all the time.

The hardest issue is probably that it’s easy to forget how cold it gets while we’re in a warm summer. I’m definitely going to keep a promise to myself that I won’t forget this time though! I’ll probably come up with something fun to do with the money I’ll save to provide a bit more motivation.

http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/insulation_airsealing/index.cfm/mytopic=11390
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7Feb11 Seamaster, Jazzmaster or Submariner? You decide…..

As some of you might know, I’ve spent the last few months trying to decide on a new watch. The problem isn’t that there are lots of options to choose from – there are surprisingly few that I really like and would pay a lot of money for – but I’m finding it impossible to pick between the final few options. Which one of the following do you think is a good choice? Keep in mind that I want a strong and durable (yet stylish) sports wrist watch.

Rolex Submariner 18K Gold model – OK, so maybe I’m being slightly optimistic looking at Rolex watches, but I think my budget could stretch to a second hand model. The Rolex Submariner is a fantastic collection of watches – even people who don’t know anything about watches can probably recognize them.

Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Olympic – I love the hands on this watch – in fact the entire design really appeals to me. Omega are sponsoring the next Olympics, hence the name of the watch. It comes with a self winding movement, chronograph functions and is water resistant down to 600m. Obviously, this is far deeper than I’d ever consider going, but it’s always nice to know you have the choice!

Hamilton Jazzmaster Seaview – This one’s completely different to the other two in design. The Jazzmaster Seaview a much simpler collection of watches, but still made to be scratch resistant and water proof down to 100m. I think it’s a much more stylish watch, and wouldn’t look out of place while wearing a suit. It still feels like a sport watch though (if you get the black model anyway).

So which do you think? Three pretty varied options there, so you can see why it’s difficult to choose! Any help would be appreciated……

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20Nov10 Fitness and the iPhone

The iPhone really has changed the way I think about fitness. In the past, if people wanted to get fit then they’d pay a lot of money for a gym membership and try using machines that they don’t really know how to use effectively. This results in poor workouts and a lack of any noticeable difference in fitness. This has all changed with the internet, and then again with apps on the iPhone.

Take iFitness for example. It’s only a few dollars, and once you open it up you get a list of loads of different exercises, workouts etc. There’s also a pictures for most exercises and step by step instructions so you don’t get it wrong. This is great for getting an effective workout and also for avoiding injury.

There’s also a Nike running shoe app which lets you track how far you’ve run, what speed you were running at, what route you took etc. You can even upload this information to a blog or website so all your followers can see how you’ve been doing. There’s nothing more motivating than knowing hundreds of people will be following your progress.

Of course, the iPhone is limited in what it is able to do, but it certainly makes getting fit a lot easier and more enjoyable. You need to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of downloading the latest apps because they look cool and then end up not using them. iFitness seems to be miles ahead of the competition at the moment, so if you download that (along with the Nike running shoe app if you’re a jogger) you should be good to go.

Are there any other good fitness apps for the iPhone? I’d love to hear which ones you use on a regular basis, as well as which ones were a letdown!

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20Oct10 Yahoo, Google and Bing

It wasn’t that long ago that Yahoo was the biggest internet company, but now it seems like they won’t be around for long. Google and Bing are the two major players now, and both are trying to outdo each other. I think that having to choose between Microsoft and Google isn’t exactly much of a choice, but at least there is some real competition now.

Microsoft probably isn’t as powerful as they once were, but they still have the monopoly on a large part of the PC market. I don’t think Bing is a particularly good search engine, but it’s better than the old MSN one ever was.

Bing is also a lot better than Yahoo. In fact, I believe they have now combined their results, so if you search Yahoo you’ll actually get Bing. I’m not sure whether this has happened yet, but it definitely will at some point.

Google is sometimes difficult to like, but it does provide good products. I use the search engine, Gmail, Google docs and various other apps almost every day.

Yes, it’s a bit worrying that Google has so much access to my data, but when they provide the best products it’s difficult to ignore. The search engine is still superior to any others in my opinion, although that could change in the coming years.

I don’t like Google instant though. If I start typing a search term that’s more than a few words, I don’t want the process slowed by completely irrelevant results. It’s a gimmick and nothing more. In fact, I’ve already turned it off. I’m sure it will be refined and get better over time, but who wants to wait for that?

I think a bit of competition in the search engine marketplace is a good thing. Other engines like Ask and Wolfram Alpha seem to have fallen away, especially after such a fuss was made over the latter. It’s a good idea, but it has a long way to go before it can be used for anything other than getting quick statistics about something.

So for the foreseeable future I’ll be using Google. Definitely keep an eye on Bing though, it may make more of an impact than most people expect.

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20Oct10 UK Weather Report!

Winter is arriving which is a bit of a depressing thought! There are things to like about the winter –snow (in moderation), Christmas etc – but on the whole I don’t know many people who prefer it to summer. Not that we get much of a summer in the UK anymore.

This year was marginally better, at least we did get some sunshine during July, but the last few summers have been terrible. People from the UK always complain about the weather, but everyone loves a bit of sunshine. That doesn’t stop people complaining that it’s too hot on the rare occasion we get sun of course, but that’s a different story altogether.

I think the problem is that last year we had an exceptionally cold winter, with lots of snow and disruption. It’s a bit of a novelty to start with, but after a couple of days the snow just becomes an annoyance! When you’ve had a winter like that, the last thing you want is to spend the summer inside because of rain and cold weather.

Anyway, enough ranting about the weather it’s not going to change (hopefully anyway, who knows with global warming). The weather here just makes it even more important to have a yearly trip abroad!

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12Oct10 Can BlackBerry Hold The Pace?

I am a big BlackBerry fan and have used their phones for some time now. I use email a lot and so having a full QWERTY keyboard is a big advantage.

One think I love about BlackBerry phones is the fact that despite the tiny size, and my relatively big fingers, the keyboards are easy to use.

BlackBerry keyboards are one of those things that “should not work” but do.

So, the release of the BlackBerry Storm was seen by many as sacralegious, a poor implementaion of a touch screen phone that played to all of RIMs weaknesses. However, smart touch screen phones are the future (or a big part of it) so this is a nut RIM have to crack.

Their latest offering the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is their answer. A well built touch screen smartphone, with a slim but robust slide out QWERTY keyboard.

I love the look of this phone and fully intend to get one, however, reviews I have read thus far are not complimentary. They complain of poor processing power compared to rival products, and an Operating system that many see as inferior to Android.

Many go so far as to say that the Torch 9800 is “obsolete” even before ot goes on sale.

I disagree with that, I think that the Torch 9800 is a great looking phone, and some of these reviewers need to understand that not everyone wants an app laden phone. I consider myself one of those people. I predominantly use my phone for email these days and am not particularly interested in Apps, or rather I wasnt, until I saw a friends HTC Desire, laden with free apps he acquired, some of which were very very cool.

Having seen the HTC desire first hand, I think RIM really do have to start thinking ahead more and produce handsets that are at least as powerful and versatile as those of their competitors. At least they do if they want to expand their business.

For my part, I will still order a Torch 9800 when my contract is up for renewal. Whilst the HTC looks nice (as does the i-phone), BlackBerry are still more in tune with my needsm but, I am an unusual type of customer, and I fear the masses will not see things the way I do.

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