Posts tagged smartphones
Ultra books live up to the hype at CES 2012; tablets Excite
Jan 12th
Are the highly-hyped “ultrabooks” worth it? That was the question swirling many minds heading into the desert surrounding the Consumer Electronics Show. After viewing several models, this technology will be among the top five newsmakers of this year’s CES.
6 things RIM needs to do to turn its fortune around
Jan 5th
by Kye Husbands
Seems like every blog we do of late is about RIM, because it’s difficult to watch a giant go down without a real fight. We have long communicated that BlackBerry desirability – ideal phone choices by customers at myCELLmyTERMS when creating a proposal – has been steadily declining to under 10 per cent at the end of the last quarter.
The Financial Post is reporting that RIM lost more marketshare in the US, going from 7.1 per cent to 6.5 per cent. Why this really sucks, is that the smartphone market is still growing by leaps and bounds, so losing market share in a growing market is a real sign of trouble, but trouble has been brewing for over a year, as we watched the desirability fall to all time lows of under 10 per cent on our network.
The solution seems so simple however, rally all of your staff to get get some new phones out to market and as soon as possible. For RIM getting ahead of the curve in the smartphone space would be ideal, but the challenge with waiting for the right pitch to hit a home run is that you miss out on all the RBI opportunities. It’s a gamble and a big one to wait for perfection in an ever changing space and some things are a must have, but let’s hypothesize for a sec.
What does RIM have to do with the BlackBerry to get ahead of the curve:
- Quad-core phones would be nice
- 18MP Camera or something crazy like that (front and rear facing)
- HDMI output or something of the sort
- New Operating System (BlackBerry 10K) with improved usability all the way around and snappy. (i.e. Not like OS 6.0 which freezes all the time)
- Improved virtual keyboard – (BTW – Please move the world icon from where it is, somehow I always found a way of switching to chinese when sending an email)
- Some real wow factor (ex. like a Virtual Assistant, A few killer apps, bigger screen phones)
I don’t have all the answers and neither does RIM, so let’s hope that they do the right thing and get a few phones out to market that are good enough to lay a solid foundation and build on that. Clearly we can’t expect everything at once like a vibrant developer community and thousands of apps, but we need to see some evidence of work being done to spark confidence.
BlackBerry gets it right with Curve 9360
Dec 7th
by Yale Holder
For fans of the BlackBerry Curve series, the 9360 model gets a decent grade for its purpose - a value based messaging cell phone. Its affordable at $50 on a 3 year contract or $350 without any contract or tab discount. Let’s review some of the key features of this phone as compared to its predecessor.
What I like?
The curve always seems to be short changed compared with the BlackBerry Bold models and always seems to have something missing – a camera with no flash – 3G with no Wi-Fi or vice versa, and the design wasn’t too slim or sleek looking. Well RIM fixes most of these issues with the Curve 9360, here are the key features that I do like: Read the rest of this entry »
Securing the Ubiquitous iPhone
Nov 21st
by Claudiu Popa
According to popular expert opinion, there are seven areas in today’s mobile devices where vulnerabilities can create security or privacy breaches. Nowhere is this more rational than in the paragon of mobile digital success: the iPhone.
Claudiu Popa
Nothing short of a juggernaut, new versions of the quasi-ubiquitous device have all but evaded attempts at hacking it by consistently introducing innovative new features and by leveraging a strategy of built-in obsolescence.
It follows then that each of these areas corresponds to ways to specific security controls at that level, tactically building a ‘defense in depth’ approach to securing the iPhone. In the name of brevity, here are these safeguards: Read the rest of this entry »
3 things you should know before jailbreaking your iPhone
Oct 18th
by Yale Holder
I’ve had a scary experience unlocking iPhones that I hope no one else has to go through.
Having unlocked phones already, mainly BlackBerry phones, I thought that unlocking iPhones would be just as easy and not as complicated – boy was I wrong. Here is what I learnt… Read the rest of this entry »
iPhone 4S packs in over 200 improvements
Oct 11th
by Kye Husbands
Looks like we all got it pretty wrong today with Apple’s non announcement of the highly anticipated iPhone 5. What we did get, however, was a serious upgrade to the existing iPhone4 in the same package called the iPhone4S.
The new iPhone 4s enhancements are really all about the guts, you know the inner workings, but for many a little soft on the glory. You see, once a new design for the iPhone was off the table or a new iPhone5 many peoples expectations were thrown a curve ball, so everything else seemed pale in comparison. Read the rest of this entry »
Six iPhone 5 features we expect to see
Oct 4th
by Kye Husbands
After months of speculation, and I mean major speculation, Apple sent out invitations today for its October 4 “Let’s talk iPhone” event, so Kudos to my partner, who hit the nail on the head with the October prediction.
The iPhone5 is probably the most anticipated cell phone ever to launch, given Apple’s resounding success in the mobile space and the rapid adoption of smart phones. Read the rest of this entry »
Six-year-old kid sells $10K worth of Apple products
Aug 16th
By Kye Husbands
With all the attention recently about RIM’s struggles (i.e. the BlackBerry maker) the question many have asked, is whether or not RIM will be able to compete with the likes of Apple or Google going forward? I don’t have a crystal ball, however, I do have an interesting story.
I had the fortune of observing what I would call a sociological experiment, so let’s answer that question, by telling the story of a six year old boy that my family just wanted to keep a little more occupied during the summer, in a household of diehard BlackBerry users, supposedly addicted to BBM.
Couple quick notes. My aunty has eight kids all between the ages of 21-36, many of whom now have their own kids. With boyfriends, spouses, kids and friends the numbers get huge, so my observation is based on 25 family members linked to this household.
If you have a six-year-old boy, or you’ve ever taken care of a six-year-old boy, then you know how difficult it is to keep them quiet, especially during the summer months. Enter Sebastian, your “average” high energy six-year-old boy who pretty much hates reading, loves video games and is somewhat addicted to gadgets and technology.
So how do you entertain a six year old boy?
Read the rest of this entry »
5 reasons to check out the HTC Evo 3D
Aug 10th
The HTC Evo 3D
By Yale Holder
One of the latest “superphones” will be launched this August on Rogers’ network, the HTC EVO 3D.
What makes this cell phone one of the best Android phones to hit the market this season is it unique 3D enabled display (no glasses required). Even the HTC Sense 3.0 interface has a 3D feel to it. Here are 5 key features of the HTC EVO 3D: Read the rest of this entry »
Can’t figure out which Android phone to choose?
Jul 26th
By Kye Husbands
With phone manufacturers pumping out Android devices it’s no wonder we get this question so frequently. With multiple manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola, Samsung to name a few all making devices with the Android OS and each one adding their own touch to differentiate their phones, the decision becomes a little more complicated.
Here are a few quick things to note about Android if you don’t quite know where the heck Android came from – seemingly – all of a sudden.
