The Blackberry Tour is one of RIM’s latest devices and aims to bring much needed improvements to the popular Smartphone series. That said, it should be noted that this is not a Blackberry Curve replacement. Although they share similar dimensions and design cues, the Tour is a whole different story compared to its brother the venerable Curve 8300.
DESIGN:
If you take a look at the Curve and the Tour it’s clear to see they have an obvious resemblance, but at the same time, admire the differences between the two. The Blackberry Tour would remind you of what would happen if the Curve and Bold made love and out popped a baby phone. The device is sleek and slender measuring just 4.4 inches high by 2.4 inches wide and only 0.6 inches thick. Weight is a mere 4.58 ounces.
The screen is 2.6 inches with 480 x 360 pixels and over 65,000 colors. The phone features a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and image stabilization, video capture, 2x digital zoom and geo tagging. Also included is a Bluetooth 2.0 chip which accepts hands free, stereo headset and Phone Book Access. A standard 3.5mm jack is also included. The different networks supported are CDMA 800/1900 with support for EVDO. Rev A. a SIM card slot is also included so roaming is supported on the 850/900/1800 and 1900MHz GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks.
» Read more: Blackberry Tour 9630 Review
Microsoft has long been a major player in the Smartphone software industry. In fact they were one of the first (just behind Palm). However, in recent years, they have seen a slew of attacks from other players. Blackberry has become the defector king for those concerned about security and messaging. Android has come out of nowhere to court some of Microsoft’s major partners, whereas Apple has created a Smartphone that even a baby could use. Palm on the other hand has shocked everyone with their Pre, the one device that can truly be called an iPhone killer.
With the new onslaught Microsoft has sought to ramp up production on its Windows Mobile platform. Windows Mobile 6.5 is supposed to be the next step just before Windows Mobile 7 which will finally bring long awaited features such as multi-touch, better browsers, etc, to the fledging platform. So how does it stack up? Is it a worthy upgrade from Windows Mobile 6.1?
» Read more: Windows Mobile 6.5 Review
Things haven’t been going too well in Microsoft’s OS department. The software giant has in recent years faced steep competition from Apple. And although Cupertino has failed to make a serious dent in Microsoft’s market dominance, they have been more then able to tarnish the crown of Redmond.
With the release of Windows 7 later this week, Microsoft hopes to dispel some of the doubts that have been placed on its OS. So how does it stack up? Is Windows 7 a memory hog like Vista, and more importantly can systems older then three years run the 7th installment of Windows?
DESIGN:
Windows 7 has seen one of Microsoft’s more radical changes to the UI of its operating system. While it’s still easy to tell that this is 100% Windows, things have changed since Windows 3.0 and Microsoft has taken note of that. One of the best examples of this is the redesign of the start menu as well as task bar. In older versions of Windows (even Vista), grouping programs were a lot more complicated. For instance more then 5 windows had to be opened before similar windows were grouped. That has changed in 7. Not only does the taskbar group programs, but programs, documents, videos, music, pictures etc. can be pinned to the taskbar (kind of like the same way on the Mac OS). If you rather the past, this can always be reverted to the regular taskbar setup.
» Read more: Windows 7 Review: My thoughts after using for 7 months
The new PSP Go is a not a replacement to the original PSP (now PSP 3000). Sony classifies it as an alternative, mainly something that is more portable, and we might add a little more expensive. Starting at $250 the PSP Go has taken on the price of the original PSP when it was first released. Sony hopes that through a tight integration with PlayStation Online as well as PS3 they can get more then a few of these consoles off the shelves.
DESIGN:
The PSP Go is a radical change from the original PSP. While it is clear that the PSP Go and the original PSP are siblings there are quite a few differences between both systems. For instance the screen is smaller then the original (although the resolution is the same). The PSP Go has a 3.8 widescreen TFT LCD display (16:9) which boasts 480 x 272 pixels. The PSP 3000 carries a 4.3 widescreen TFT LCD with 480 x 272 pixels.
The controls have been changed also. Instead of being on either side of the screen they now slide out from underneath the screen. However, they are all located in approximate locations except for the analog stick, select and start buttons which are located towards the center. The left bumper and right bumper buttons are still located at the top of the screen. But the volume, WLAN and other controls are located at the top of the device. The device also supports Bluetooth 3.0 meaning that a variety of compatible Bluetooth headsets can be paired.
» Read more: PSP Go Review: A closer look at the new Sony PSP Go
Google Chrome is one of the premier browsers nowadays and is in much demand due to its popular features such as fast browsing, low resource usage, clean/minimal user interface and ofcourse the trustable google brand. Google Chrome has seen immense growth since its launch and has a market share of about 3% right now. The official Google Chrome website lets you download the latest stable version or the beta version. If you decide to download through there, you will download a small file around 500kB which itself is only the google chrome installer and not the actual browser. The installer will then download the browser which should be around 8MB. » Read more: Download Google Chrome Offline Installer
