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    Intel releases 525 SSD drive, wants you to put them in your ultrabook

    Gadgets Team
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    Intel releases 525 SSD drive, wants you to put them in your ultrabook

    Intel has just released their new 525 Series of SSDs recently. The new drive is Intel’s first 6Gb/s mSATA product that offers a low-power, small form factor SSD with performance in mind, and is geared towards OEM customers, channel and tech enthusiasts. Intel says that the new drives occupy only in one-eighth the space of a traditional 2.5-inch hard disk drive (HDD), which means it can easily be installed in ultrabooks or tablets.

    Intel says you’re looking at random read performance of up to 50,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) and sequential read performance up to 550 megabytes per second (MB/s), and that systems using the new drive will receive a performance boost for the most demanding applications and intense multi-tasking needs. This is coupled with random write performance of up to 80,000 IOPS and sequential writes of 520 MB/s to deliver a top-performing mSATA SSD.

    The 525 Series will come in a multitude of capacities, from 30 gigabytes (GB) to 60GB, 90GB, 120GB, 180GB and 240GB. No word on pricing as of yet, though the company has said that they should be shipping this product this quarter.

    42x superzoom Nikon Coolpix P520 announced

    Gadgets Team
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    42x superzoom Nikon Coolpix P520 announced

    Nikon recently announced several additions to its roster of Coolpix models, including a fresh pair of superzoom cameras. The higher-end model, the Coolpix P520, packs a powerful 42x optical zoom.

    The focal length of its NIKKOR glass lens ranges from 24mm to a whopping 1000mm (35mm equivalent). The lens also features vibration reduction (VR), with a special function for shooting moving subjects called Active Mode. Matched with its 18.1-megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor, the P520 attempts to give users sharp, high-quality images even when shot at a distance or in low-light conditions.

    The P520 features full manual controls for more advanced camera users who want total control over their image settings, while its Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities are meant to appeal to those who love sharing photos instantly through mobile devices. This camera is compatible with the separately sold Nikon WU-1a wireless mobile adapter which, when paired with the Wireless Mobile Adapter Utility application, allows you to send photos and videos wirelessly to any compatible mobile device.

    Other features include Full HD (1080p) video recording and a dedicated movie recording button on the body. Nikon also throws in a 3.2-inch swivel LCD monitor that can help when shooting at odd angles.

    The Coolpix P520 will be available next month and will retail at USD $449.95 (PHP 18,306 via direct conversion). No word yet on when it will hit our shores. It comes in three colors—black, red, and dark gray.

    Google Maps explores the Grand Canyon through Street View

    Gadgets Team
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    Google Maps explores the Grand Canyon through Street View

    Have you always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but you couldn’t because you weren’t experienced in the great outdoors or didn’t have the funds for the trip? Now you can explore the Grand Canyon in Arizona via Street View, without having to leave the comfort of your own home. The interactive images from the Grand Canyon cover more than 75 miles of trails and surrounding roads. This makes the map of this area even more comprehensive, accurate and easy to use than ever before.

    Google’s team strapped on the Trekker, a wearable backpack with a camera system on top. The Trekker is walked through pedestrian walkways or trails on foot, and automatically gathers images as it goes. The Android-operated 18-kilogram backpacks carried the 15-lens camera system and wound along the rocky terrain on foot. Enduring temperature swings and a few muscle cramps along the way, more than 9,500 panoramas of this masterpiece of nature are now available on Google Maps.

    Want to go to landmarks such as the famous Bright Angel Trail (above), the Colorado River, the South Kaibab Trail, Meteor Crater or any scenic overlook, and see it in full 360 degrees? A click of your mouse or tap of your finger will transport you any of these places. To access any of these images, you can simply search for the Grand Canyon in Google Maps, and once you’ve zoomed in on the area, drag the orange peg man icon on the left of your map screen onto an area that becomes highlighted in blue. From there, you’ll be able to pan around and check out the imagery in 360 degrees.

    When asked why they used the Grand Canyon as an example for Street View, Google said, “The Grand Canyon was the perfect place to debut the Trekker because the narrow trails, ridges, and pedestrian-only access demonstrates exactly why the Street View systems have evolved from a Car to a Trike to a Snowmobile for the slopes and now to a Trekker. The imagery of various trails along the South Rim is now available online through the Street View feature in Google Maps, enabling anyone across the world to virtually experience the Grand Canyon and its majesty.”

    The HTC Butterfly: An unboxing

    Ren Alcantara
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    The HTC Butterfly: An unboxing

     

    Ladies. Gentlemen. The HTC Butterfly.

     HTC has recently announced their latest entry into the Android smartphone arena, the Butterfly. This device separates itself from the multitude of Smartphones out there by having a huge, 1080p full-HD screen with a pixel density of 440ppi, in a device with a gorgeous 5 inch display. We were invited by HTC in a most solemn event: the Butterfly’s unboxing, and we’ve got a quick little article for you all, so you can see just how awesome this bad boy is.

    Before we got the the device itself, we were given a quick run-down of what the HTC Butterfly is and why it’s so special. Apart from the startlingly beautiful screen, the Butterfly comes with a few key things HTC loves to emphasize with their devices. That gorgeous screen is kept safe behind tough Gorilla Glass 2, and is host to a huge 2GB of RAM and a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with a clock speed of 1.5GHz. It also gives users a beautiful 8 Megapixel snapper with HTC’s own dedicated image chip, ad a wide-angle 2.1 Megapixel secondary camera up front. HTC’s partnership with Beats Audio means that the Butterfly comes with a dedicated internal amp to give users unparalleled sound quality. At that point of the program, we were all itching to see the device in the flesh, and HTC did not disappoint.

     

    They had, for us, a brand new Butterfly just waiting to be liberated from its packaging. We wasted no time doing so. The box itself is a simple slide-out affair. Once you open it, that massive 5-inch screen takes up most of the space inside.

    There really isn’t much room in that tray for anything else.

    Here’s the first look at the phone, with all the plastic trim still on. The unboxed model was the White/Silver Butterfly, and as we all took in the new gadget smell, we had a moment to appreciate pretty the butterfly looked, even in the packaging. There’s something about tearing into the box of a new device that brings you back to being at kid by the Christmas tree.

    Removed from the plastic wrapping and flipped over, you really get a very nice sense of how sleek the device is. HTC has taken design queues from their other models, and gave the Butterfly a beautifully curved back, creating the illusion of being thinner than it actually is. This shot also shows the volume rocker and speaker grille-like design on the edge of the device.

    Up top, you have the headphone jack, SIM tray and power button. You also get a better sense of that gentle curve that lets it sit so comfortable in your hand.

    Once everyone was satisfied with checking out the shell of the device, we powered it up and got a first look at that glorious Full-HD screen. We know there are individual pixels in that screen somewhere. We just couldn’t see them, as nobody had a microscope handy. (My favorite pen is in there for reference) The Butterfly is a pretty beefy device, but somehow, it manages not to look it.

    A shot from the bottom, to show the phone’s relative thickness, again with the same pen. You also get to see the internal mic and the door that keeps the charging port sealed. The Butterfly is rated to IPX-5 standards, which means that it can quite handily take a phone call in the rain or under a shower head, if things come to that.

    Here’s a shot of the main 8-MP camera on the rear of the device. Apart from taking full HD videos, the butterfly can also take snapshots while recording. It is also able to take burst photos, and slow-motion video. HTC has always made amazing cameras, and the Butterfly doesn’t seem like an exception.

    Here’s that amazing main camera in action. The cam takes a fraction of a second to achieve focus, and reproduces colors very vividly. You also have a manual mode to more precisely control your shots, if you so desire.


    As we were all admiring the device, another color variant was passed around. The Red/Black version was a real stunner. Everyone immediately gravitated towards the beautiful red variant. The photo doesn’t show it in all its glory, but seen live, the red on the back and sides of this version is a much deeper, richer shade. If you want attention, this is not a bad phone with which to try and get it.

    The fronts of the devices aren’t very different at all, save for a white bar just above the screen of the white model.

    Here’s the phone in my hand. As I mentioned earlier, it seems far smaller than it actually is, and only people with the smallest hands will have any trouble with the Butterfly.

    Overall, everyone at the unveiling was very impressed with the Butterfly. Both externally and on paper, HTC’s first foray into Phablet territory seems like a solid win. We haven’t gotten enough time with the new toy to form a solid opinion on it just yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do. Stay tuned for a full-on Gadgets Lab! The HTC Butterfly is available now at the HTC concept Store, and will be available at their dealers starting Monday, the 4th of February 2013 for PHP32,190.

    Simple online practices can keep your important info safe: Tips from Norton

    Gadgets Team
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    Simple online practices can keep your important info safe: Tips from Norton

    Norton claims that cybercriminals sometimes use holidays, festive seasons and popular events to trap unsuspecting users. Several holidays are coming up—why, Chinese New Year is just around the corner—and as such, we, the netizens, should know how to protect our data from treacherous cybercriminals. Norton gives us a leg up as they share with us some of the best online practices we should observe to ensure that our devices, files and information are safe and sound.

    One of the many activities we resort to in times of holidays or festive occasions is travel. Listed below are some pointers on how to keep our social networking sites and personal data secure when we’re traveling or on an out-of-town break.

    •        Privatize your social life – Make sure all your social media sites have the highest privacy settings to help avoid any unwanted parties catching wind that your house is empty.

    •        Free Wi-Fi isn’t always good Wi-Fi – Pay extra attention when connecting to a public Wi-Fi network because there are ways for others to access your accounts.

    •        Sign out before you walk out – Remember to log out of everything before exiting an internet café or hotel computer.

    •        Store your memories in the cloud – Don’t forget to continually upload your precious photos to the cloud because if your camera and/or smartphone is lost or stolen, so too are all your holiday memories.

    Special occasions sometimes call for gifts and perks. Here are some nifty tips on shopping over the Internet.

    •        Go with credit, not debit – It’s best to use a separate credit card with a small credit limit, instead of your usual debit card, to prevent thieves from accessing your main account.

    •        Look out for the “S” – Keep an eye out on the browser address bar before entering any personally identifiable information. The URL should start with ‘https’ with the ‘s’ meaning ‘secure’ versus ‘http’.

    •        Watch out for the spammers – Cybercriminals are fully aware of the searches we make online and know the kind of emails we wish would land in our inbox. Always be cautious of anything you receive from unknown recipients that seem just that bit too generous.

    Remember: You’ll be able to enjoy festivities to the fullest when you know that essential data are safe from the hands of opportunistic cybercriminals. These are basic, easy-to-remember steps you can take, but keep in mind that these simple measures can still provide an extra layer of protection for your most valuable information.

    Nikon announces the COOLPIX AW110

    Gadgets Team
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    Nikon announces the COOLPIX AW110

    Nikon has announced its latest offering in the point-and-shoot category, the COOLPIX AW110. The camera is built for the outdoors person—it’s waterproof up to 59 feet, shockproof up to 6.7 feet and freezeproof down to 14° Fahrenheit, making it ideal no matter where you go in the world or how you explore it—whether you’re a mountain climber, swimmer, or just on the go to your next destination. The AW110 also comes with GPS technology, allowing a traveler to track his or her adventure from beginning to end, down to the exact longitude and latitude where an image or video is captured. The COOLPIX AW110 also has WiFi connectivity, allowing the image data transfer of any outdoor adventure to compatible smart devices for upload to social networking services or sharing with friends and family through the Wireless Mobile Adapter Utility application. Wireless remote camera control is also possible using a compatible smartphone or tablet when using the application.

    There’s a lot of power behind its 6.9 oz (195 g) rugged exterior—the AW110 features a 16 megapixel backside illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor that helps create sharp, beautiful images and HD video even in less than ideal lighting conditions. The camera also has a NIKKOR 5x, f/3.9-4.8 optical zoom lens with lens-shift Vibration Reduction (VR) that allows the photographer to get close up to a subject from a distance, as well as the ability to record Full HD (1080p) movies with stereo sound. The COOLPIX AW110 features a 3-inch, organic LED (OLED) display for easy menu access and precise image preview, alongside an intuitive graphic user interface (GUI) that makes it easy to navigate several fun and intelligent shooting modes. If you’re new to photography, the COOLPIX AW110 has an Easy Auto Mode and the Smart Portrait System, while the more experienced photographers can also make use of special effects that can be applied to still images and HD video.

    There’s no word on when the COOLPIX AW110 will hit our shores, but it will be in U.S. stores by the end of February. It will be available in black, blue, camouflage and orange, and will cost US$349.95 (approximately Php 14,173).

    Gabe Newell says Apple is the biggest threat to the Steam Box

    Gadgets Team
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    Gabe Newell says Apple is the biggest threat to the Steam Box

    Valve CEO Gabe Newell doesn’t think Microsoft is the only catastrophe to gaming—he also took a shot at one of Microsoft’s biggest competitors, Apple, in a lecture to a class at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs, by saying that Apple was the biggest threat to Valve’s Steam Box. “The biggest challenge, I don’t think is from the consoles,” Newell said. “I think the biggest challenge is that Apple moves on the living room before the PC industry sort of gets its act together.”

    “The threat right now is that Apple has gained a huge amount of market share, and has a relatively obvious pathway towards entering the living room with their platform,” Newell said. “I think that there’s a scenario where we see sort of a dumbed down living room platform emerging—I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily. The question is can we make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves there, and also figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room?” This seems natural since the operating system that the Steam Box is going to use, Linux, is also a competitor of the Mac OS X as well as Windows. Linux has a small but steadily growing market share in the consumer market, while Linux is the OS of choice for servers and supercomputers.

    “I think a whole bunch of hardware companies are going to be releasing products in the next 12 months—you’ll hear it referred to as Miracast, [Project] Shield from NVIDIA, or lots of other people,” Newell also said. “There are going to be a huge set of products that say, ‘If you want something that’s incredibly cheap, at a price point well below anything that consoles will be able to reach, you’re going to take advantage of the PC that’s running somewhere in your house.’ It’s like one of those things where afterwards it will seem like it was very simple, when beforehand, everyone sort of denied that it was possible.”

    In 2011, Newell had concern that Apple would reach the living room first in an interview with the Seattle Times, stating that Apple’s platform, which is closed-source, will shut out the open-source creativity that Steam hopes to foster. Steam offers consumers the chance for smaller and independent game developers to develop games that Steam can distribute. The Steam community can vote on which games will be released through Steam via Steam Greenlight.

    “We’re happy to do it if nobody else will do it, mainly because everybody else will pile on, and people will have a lot of choices, but they’ll have those characteristics. They’ll say, ‘Well, I could buy a console, which assumes I’ll re-buy all my content, have a completely different video system, and, oh, I have a completely different group of friends, apparently. Or I can just extend everything I love about the PC and the internet into the living room,'” Newell also said in the lecture.

    Photo Credit: Polygon

    Windows Phone 7.8 update finally official

    Gadgets Team
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    Windows Phone 7.8 update finally official

    After a long wait, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.8 update is finally hitting Nokia Lumia devices everywhere. The new upgrade delivers some tweaks and UI improvements to Nokia’s Lumia line (which includes the Lumia 610, 710, 800 and 900) which includes customizable homescreens and lockscreens as well as MarketPlace improvements. Nokia hasn’t really specified who gets the update first, although we did confirm with local reps that there are already people in the Philippines who are enjoying Windows Phone 7.8 on local Lumia devices. If you didn’t get a prompt for your update yet, don’t fret – the update is being done in batches and will continue till February.

    How Tumblr updated the way users compose posts

    Gadgets Team
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    How Tumblr updated the way users compose posts

    In an effort to provide a more streamlined blogging experience, Tumblr has redesigned its post creation interface. Instead of being redirected to your respective composition page—whether it’s for a text post, a photo post, a video, a quote, a link or a conversation—users can now compose a post without leaving the dashboard. Clicking on the post category icons on top of your stream will result in a small pop-out composition window just above the first post on your dashboard.

    Before the update, users had to open the reblog option in another tab so that they don’t lose their place in the post stream on the dashboard when they wanted to reblog something cool or funny. Now, you can reblog posts directly on the dashboard so that when the deed is done, you can happily go back to scrolling down the post stream. Unfortunately, if you want to create a new post, you’d have to scroll back up to the top of the dashboard as the post category icons are not fixed on the page. Moreover, opening each of these icons in another tab only redirects you to another dashboard, instead of a full composition page.

    As expected, some users are not too happy about the update. One complaint that Tumblr users have been resonating on the web is that the new interface with less buttons reduces the usability of the site as a blog. The controls are minimal now compared to the previous interface where all the options and tweaks are laid out on the composition page. The option to change the custom URL, post date, and photo reply checkbox, for example, are hidden. Users need to click the gear icon on the upper right corner of the post window to access them.

    Could this update hint a step towards more lightweight microblogging, like Twitter? To be fair, Tumblr wasn’t a conventional blogging site like WordPress and Blogger to begin with. It’s a simpler platform with a more social approach. The new update might be frustrating to serious bloggers who use Tumblr as their primary platform, but other users may find it more convenient especially when it comes to reblogging.

    The photo upload update, however, is truly something to be grateful for, as it now makes it much easier for users to upload a photoset. In the old Tumblr interface, you had to select the photos you want to upload one at a time. Now, in the updated version, you can already select multiple photos and upload them all at once by dragging them from your folder to the browser window. You are also given the freedom to rearrange the photos as you wish, instead of just selecting a preset layout depending on the number of photos there are in a photoset.

    Additionally, The Verge reports that Tumblr also rolled out an update to its iOS app, adding a 17+ age restriction.

    What do you think about the Tumblr update? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

    The computer virus turns 31

    Gadgets Team
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    The computer virus turns 31

    With the invention of the personal computer also came the invention of the computer virus—and it turned 31 years old on January 30. Although the computer virus technically existed beforehand, this certain virus was the first to go out into the wild and affect consumer PCs. Was it invented by an experienced programmer at a top technology firm? Was it invented by anyone in the United States or the Soviet Union governments? The answers to both questions are no—it was invented by Mt. Lebanon High School ninth grader Richard Skrenta in 1982 in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

    Like many people who were catching on to the personal computer in the 1980s, Skrenta and his friends used to trade pirated software with each other, very similar to those who exchange torrents on the Internet today. The commercial Internet was still around a decade away, and ARPANET, a primitive version of the Internet used by the government, wouldn’t switch over to TCP/IP (the way we connect to the Internet today) until the following year. The exchange of the computer virus was done via floppy disks in its early years.

    Skrenta’s version of the computer virus was rather harmless compared to the devastation that they can do today. Today, a successful computer virus can bring entire databases to their knees and cause millions (if not billions) of dollars in damage as a result. Skrenta just added lines of code to the programs to the floppy disks he handed out to his friends as a practical joke. Skrenta’s friends were greeted with pop-up messages taunting them as they would boot up the games, much like the pop-up advertisements we used to deal with. His friends were annoyed with his jokes, and would stop taking disks from him.

    “I realized I could essentially get my program to move around by itself. I could give it its own motive force, by having it hide in the resident RAM of the machine between floppy changes, and hitching a ride onto the next floppy that would be inserted. Whoa. That would be cool,” Skrenta said. Thus, the first computer virus was born. It was 400 lines of code made on an Apple II computer, which might surprise some people, namely because it is a common belief that Macs do not get viruses. He dubbed it Elk Cloner, and after the 50th boot, one would be greeted with the message: “Elk Cloner: The program with a personality. It will get on all your disks. It will infiltrate your chips. Yes, it’s Cloner! It will stick to you like glue. It will modify RAM too. Send in the Cloner!”

    What happened to Skrenta? He graduated from Northwestern University and worked for tech firms such as Commodore Business Systems with Amiga Unix, Netscape, Unix Systems Labs, and America Online. He was also one of the founders of the Open Directory Project, an open content directory of World Wide Web links. Skrenta also has experience with founding tech start-ups—he founded Topix LLC, a news aggregation company. He also founded and is currently the CEO of Blekko, Inc., an Internet search engine.

    Some of Skrenta’s other projects include dabbling in the multi-user dungeon (MUD), a largely text-only predecessor to today’s massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG). He also developed TASS, the popular threaded Usenet newsreader for Unix systems. In 1989, he started working on a multiplayer simulation game, which became the pay-for-play play by email (PBEM) game Olympia, which was released in 1994 by Shadow Island Games.

    Skrenta also maintains a website and blog, Skrentablog, which you can view here.

    Monika Sta. Maria shows us the makings of a real champ in the Knock-Out Issue

    Gadgets Team
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    Monika Sta. Maria shows us the makings of a real champ in the Knock-Out Issue

    Everything has its own knock-out characteristic. That of Monika Sta. Maria, Century Tuna Superbod 2012, must be discipline.

    It takes determination to pack a good punch. “I work out everyday,” shares Monika, speaking like a real trooper. “As a model, you have to really work out. You’re hardly allowed to gain weight. You’d lose your job.” Monika disciplined herself in a strict regimen—engaging in a daily work-out routine and carefully watching what she eats.

    It was, in fact, Monika’s dedication in maintaining her active lifestyle that set her apart in the competition. Everyone admired her discipline, and she was rightfully awarded with the coveted title.

    With only less than a year after her victory, Monika’s still living in the aftermath of the competition. Be that as it may, she reveals that she’s up for a new fight as she takes on an unexplored career—television. “Gagalingan ko. I’ll do my best, find the right connections, and practice. If that doesn’t work out, maybe I could try my luck modeling abroad,” she says determinedly.

    But we know she need not worry. With grit like hers, there is no doubt that she’ll be able take on anything by the horns.

    Read the full article and see Monika’s photos in Gadgets Magazine’s February 2013 release—the Knock-Out Issue. 

     

    BlackBerry 10 official, here’s a quick run-down of the new features

    Gadgets Team
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    BlackBerry 10 official, here’s a quick run-down of the new features

    After a long, long time, BlackBerry’s newest OS is finally official. It brings a lot of enhancements to the fore, and it completely changes how you interact with your BlackBerry device. There’s a lot of things to cover here, so let’s get started:

    Gesture based

    Off the bat, one of the things we noticed with the new OS is how much it’s dependent on Gestures to get things done. The BlackBerry Z10 has few, if any, physical keys on the front of the device. It’s hard to wrap your head around it at first, but after the impressive demo during the BlackBerry 10 unveil, we’re sold. The company has really put a lot of thought into the new system which allows users to pull off some nice tricks. For example, you can take a peek into the BlackBerry hub while watching a video and see who has sent you an email, Twitter DM or whatever, all without pausing what you’re watching.

    The heart is the Hub

    The heart of the new OS seems to be the new BlackBerry Hub. It’s accessed by swiping up and to the right on the screen. On it you’ll see a plethora of emails, Twitter DMs, Facebook messages and whatnot, allowing you to be hyper connected to everything you care about. Swiping down from the hub allows you to see upcoming events and meetings that you need to see or go to, all without leaving the hub. Users will also be able to answer everything directly from the Hub, without opening an app – pretty cool if you ask us.

    App grab

    We’ve always said that excellent hardware is nothing without an ecosystem backing it, and it seems that BlackBerry knows this well. For the past few months, the company has been reaching out to developers and have been conducting multiple Hackatons to get apps ported from Android to their operating system. As a direct result, BlackBerry 10 has the strongest app ecosystem for a first generation OS compared to others, and has 70,000 apps on tap during launch. Here’s a short list:

    • Skype
    • Whatsapp
    • Kindle
    • SAP
    • Angry Birds
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Foursquare

    That app ecosystem will only get larger as the OS matures, and in the US, BlackBerry says that they will also be offering music, movies and TV shows to potential customers. The big question now is will the company offer the same content in other countries (like ours), or will we be relegated to just being able to purchase apps, much like the situation with Android now?

    The keyboard is the key

    BlackBerry devices has always been all about the messaging experience, and BlackBerry 10 is no different. Even on the touchscreen BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry has kept the iconic look of their keyboard intact. Their new touch keyboard also has powerful predictive tools that allow users to type faster. As you type, small words show up on the predicted next letter on the keyboard that you can then swipe up to include in your message. Made a mistake? You can just swipe to the left on any part of the keyboard and it’ll delete a letter. If you need to type a number or a symbol, you simply swipe down on the keyboard to make them appear.

    BBM anew

    BlackBerry’s BBM messaging service has been one of the things that fans have always raved about, and BlackBerry has seen fit to improve that experience. For starters, you can now call your BBM buddies, ala FaceTime on iOS. What’s nice is that one of you can also share their activity on the device with the other – for example, you want to show your buddy one of the apps you downloaded from the BlackBerry store, so you turn on screen sharing and he sees exactly what you’re seeing on your device.

    Work/Life Balance

    Before Android and iOS took over, BlackBerry devices were the workhorses of Enterprises and governments everywhere, so it only made sense that the company create a feature that separates their work life and their personal life.  The feature, called BlackBerry Balance, allows users to seamlessly switch between their work apps and their personal apps, without any data leaking from one side to the other.

    The best shot with TimeShift

    BlackBerry 10 also has a couple of neat tricks under its sleeve when it comes to their new and improved camera app, most notably the “TimeShift” feature. TimeShift is basically a feature that allows you to choose among a gallery of cached images prior to you pressing the shutter button on your device and making you choose the best one. It’s a nifty little app that is sure to improve people’s pictures (hopefully). You can also edit pictures straight from the device and add filters and whatnot to improve it if you choose.

    That’s it for BlackBerry 10 for now. We’re pretty sure we missed a couple of other features, but we’ll be doing a deep dive later on as soon as we get out review devices.

     

    BlackBerry Z10 official, 4.2-inch display, 1,280 x 756 resolution display, Snapdragon S4 Plus dual-core processor 1.5GHz, LTe

    Gadgets Team
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    BlackBerry Z10 official, 4.2-inch display, 1,280 x 756 resolution display, Snapdragon S4 Plus dual-core processor 1.5GHz, LTe

    Today’s the day kiddies, and BlackBerry has just made their Z10 official. Their newest and greatest device sports a 4.2-inch, 1,280×756 resolution display, which is a huge departure from today’s gigantic 4.7-inch (and above) flagship smartphones. The Z10 can stand with the best of ’em, as it has a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus paired with 2GB RAM. We have no idea as of yet what kind of internal storage this thing has, but you can be assured that you can bump up whatever storage woes you’ll have with the expandable memory slot on the Z10. Naturally, the new device will use RIM BlackBerry’s new OS, BlackBerry 10.

    On the communication side, the Z10 will have WiFi radios (WiFi a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and most importantly, LTE. As far as imaging goes, the Z10 carries an 8-megapixel camera, as well as a front-facing 2-megapixel shooter on the front. The device’s overall dimensions are 130 x 66 x 9.3mm – not the thinnest phone around, but it’ll do. There’s no unsubsidized pricing as of yet – in the US, it’s projected to retail for $200 with a two year contract, and will be arriving there in March. Customers in the UK will be able to get the device starting tomorrow, which tells us exactly where BlackBerry’s priorities are.

     

     

     

    RIM is now BlackBerry

    Gadgets Team
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    RIM is now BlackBerry

    RIM’s CEO, Thorsten Heins predictably opened the festivities for today’s BlackBerry 10 launch, and he just dropped a major bomb. It seems that they have now renamed the company, RIM to BlackBerry, as an obvious effort to align the company to their products. In the words of  their CEO, “It is one brand, it is one promise. Our customers use BlackBerry. Our employees work for BlackBerry, and our shareholders are owners of BlackBerry. From today on, we are BlackBerry everywhere in the world.”

     

    Smart’s iPhone 5 LTE FAQ: what you need to know

    Gadgets Team
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    Smart’s iPhone 5 LTE FAQ: what you need to know

    We just came from a press briefing of sorts with Smart and spent a solid hour grilling the company’s execs about LTE on the iPhone 5 and their plans with LTE in general. There’s a lot to talk about, but let us break it down for you.

    LTE on the iPhone 5 is still free of charge. That’s set to change in April 30, 2013, but for now you won’t have to pay a cent to enjoy LTE.

    All postpaid unli-data iPhone 5 users will be able to get LTE right on their devices without exchanging nano-SIMS or doing anything else. Someone pointed out that Smart somehow did not include Infinity Plan users in the original LTE rollout, though the telco said that that slight oversight will be addressed soon.

    Theoretically, other unlimited postpaid users of Smart will be able to get LTE down the line. The reason why Smart’s unlimited data iPhone 5 postpaid subscribers got LTE first is simple: their handsets already had LTE chips in them. Smart said that the LTE rollout for iPhone 5 users is just the first phase, and that they will allow other post-paid users into the LTE party sooner rather than later.

    As far using Smart’s LTE with an iPhone 5 bought overseas is concerned, it’s a mixed bag. If you buy an iPhone 5 from a country that has at least one LTE band that Smart also uses, it should work. Emphasis there on should – there’s a reason why both Smart and Globe went through the entire LTE certification process with Apple in the first place and that’s to ensure that the LTE experience on the iPhone goes off without a hitch. Best thing for you to do is to take your device to Smart and have them look at it. Same goes for Android devices that have LTE capability.

    There will still be data caps implemented when LTE goes full blast after April 30, though it’s still not clear how much is too much when it comes to data. There was suppsoed to be 1.5GB data cap on mobile devices after Jan. 31, fortunately for early adopters, Smart decided to extend the unlimited data promo until the end of March, 2013.

    We know that everything is bit confusing now as far as LTE is concerned, and it certainly seems like Smart is still trying to find the right balance for the new standard. We also heard from the company that they’ll also be rolling out LTE for prepaid subscribers as soon as possible, and that they will be also implementing LTE data sachets (similar to their unli-promos) soon.

     

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