Research In Motion Expands BlackBerry 7 Portfolio with the New BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 Smartphones

Research In Motion (RIM) today announced two new smartphones based on the BlackBerry® 7 operating system (OS) - the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9790 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9380.

The new smartphones offer impressively slim and stylish designs with enhanced communications, multimedia, productivity and social connectivity features. The BlackBerry Bold 9790 is both powerful and compact, offering users a fully loaded, high performance smartphone with the dual benefits of a high resolution touch display and a highly tactile keyboard. The BlackBerry Curve 9380 is the first-ever BlackBerry® Curve™ smartphone with a touch display. It continues to deliver the powerful social experiences, ease-of-use and smaller handset size that distinguish the BlackBerry Curve family, while also offering Curve users the choice of a larger display and an all-touch design.

"We are very excited to expand the BlackBerry 7 portfolio with the new BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380,” said Carlo Chiarello, Senior Vice President, Handheld Product Management at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry smartphones offer a uniquely refined mobile communications experience that people love and we think many customers will be thrilled by the faster performance, beautiful touch displays and compact designs available with these new BlackBerry 7 based models.”

BlackBerry Bold 9790 Smartphone with Touch Display and Keyboard
True to the BlackBerry Bold brand, the new BlackBerry Bold 9790 smartphone is powerful, full-featured and built with premium materials and finishes. It combines a high-resolution and highly responsive touch display with a highly tactile keyboard and a precise optical trackpad, but comes in a narrow design that is easy to carry and exceptionally comfortable to hold. With the BlackBerry 7 OS and powerful 1 GHz processor, the BlackBerry Bold 9790 delivers fast, smooth performance for browsing the web, running apps, working with documents, and enjoying multimedia. It includes 8GB of onboard memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB of additional storage.

All-Touch BlackBerry Curve 9380 Smartphone
The finely crafted BlackBerry Curve 9380 is the first all-touch smartphone in the BlackBerry Curve family. It features a highly responsive and brilliant 3.2” high resolution display and comes with preinstalled social networking apps, including BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger), Facebook®, Twitter™ and Social Feeds apps, that offer a fun, easy and smoothly integrated mobile experience. This compact and stylish handset also features a 5MP camera with flash and video recording, allowing users to easily capture and share their favorite moments with family, friends and colleagues.

Powerful BlackBerry 7 OS
The BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 are both powered by the new BlackBerry 7 OS, which delivers a faster and richer user experience with improved browsing, voice-activated searches, and support for Augmented Reality and NFC (Near Field Communications). It also includes the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, and comes with a variety of personal and productivity apps out of the box.

BlackBerry 7 also introduces an enhanced browser that provides a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience. The browser includes a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript compiler to improve the load time speed of web pages and it offers optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences. The popular universal search capability has also been enhanced with support for voice-activated search, so users can simply speak to begin searching their device and the web for information.

The BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones include built-in support for Augmented Reality and NFC, allowing users to connect with the world around them in fresh new ways. With the Wikitude Augmented Reality application, users can find nearby BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) contacts in real-time, read reviews on restaurants close to them, or get the story behind an interesting landmark and points of interest. NFC also enables many new and exciting capabilities, including the ability to make mobile payments, pair accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.

BlackBerry 7 includes a number of preinstalled applications and integrated functionality for increasing productivity and easy sharing and collaboration right out of the box. The Premium version of Documents To Go is included free of charge, offering users powerful document editing features as well as a native PDF document viewer. BlackBerry® Protect is pre-loaded*, offering customers the peace of mind that personal data can be backed up and secured in the cloud. BlackBerry® Balance is integrated in BlackBerry 7, allowing users to enjoy the full BlackBerry smartphone experience for both work and personal purposes without compromising the IT department’s need for advanced security and IT controls. The Social Feeds (2.0) app has been extended to capture updates from media and favorites all in one consolidated view. The Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones (2.0) app introduces features like Facebook chat and BBM integration that makes it easier for users to connect with their Facebook friends in real time.

Availability
The BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones will begin to be available from various carriers around the world over the coming weeks. Availability dates for specific devices from specific carriers will be announced in conjunction with RIM’s partners.

Additional Information
For additional information please visit www.blackberry.com

Samsung Develops New Secu-NFC Chip with Enhanced Security Features for Mobile Payment

Samsung Electronics announced on Nov 15 that it has developed a new system-in-package (SIP) near field communications (NFC) chip namely the SENHRN1. The new Secu-NFC chip combines a NFC controller and a secure element storing personal information and security keys with advanced encryption technologies, a prerequisite for reliable and efficient mobile payment on NFC-enabled mobile devices. Samsung’s new NFC solution will be on display at CARTES 2011 from November 15th through 17th at the Samsung booth # 3 C 035 in hall 3 at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center.

Source - Samsung

LG Adds Advanced features to Optimus 3D with Enhanced Gingerbread Upgrade

The enhanced Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgrade developed for LG Optimus 3D will include new and improved features such as enhanced network speed, better 3D experience and improved multimedia functions.

LG’s customized Gingerbread upgrade for Optimus 3D will not only include improvements from Google such as enhanced power management, advanced copy/paste and user interface (UI) improvements, but also enhancements from LG, such as:

Enhanced HSPA+ Speed via Faster Packet Data Services -- Internet browsing and real-time streaming have become smoother and more seamless with up to 21Mbps HSDPA;

Enriched 3D Experience with 3D Video Editor and Full-screen UI Preview -- With 3D Video Editor, users will be able to easily create and edit 2D as well as 3D movies on their Optimus 3D. The preview screen has become wider with a transparent UI, enabling users to capture better quality 3D content;

Improved Multimedia with 2D Video Stabilization and Faster Gallery Activation -- Optimus 3D owners will now be able to record high quality video in 2D mode with the video stabilization feature, previously only available in 3D mode. Gallery loading time has also been reduced.

“These enhanced features included in our customized Android 2.3 upgrade will allow users to further integrate 3D into their everyday lives, as we make the technology more accessible and enjoyable on smartphones,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “We believe that 3D is here to stay and glasses-free 3D on portable devices is to experience the future.”

The upgrade will also include additional features such as improved video recording and longer MP3 playback time. The upgrade will be available starting in Europe from the Open model in the week of November 21, followed by other markets until the end of the year.

Source - LG

Nokia Research Center releases Nokia GEM phone concept

This is the new Nokia GEM concept device. What if *every* part of your next phone was a touchscreen?

Launched to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of Nokia Research Center, the Nokia GEM concept phone is the ultimate customizable device. Taking it's name from a polished precious stone, GEM can be admired from many sides. See the video to see how this concept could be used.

Source - Nokia

Nokia Research Center releases Nokia HumanForm

HumanForm was created in a joint effort between Nokia Design and Nokia Research Center to translate the most promising new nanotechnologies into meaningful user experience, prototype those for decision making; and transfer and set aspiration for future portfolio.

Project is a key to bring significant user experience benefits to the market thereby creating mindshare and value share through nanotechnology enabled experiences.

HumanForm is a visionary solution for a dynamically flexible device beyond touch screen and voice communication where technology is invisible and intuition takes over. Natural interactions are enabled with kinetic user interface.

HumanForm concept and a follow-up Nokia Kinetic Device prototype were launched in Nokia World 2011.

Source - Nokia

Verzo launches Kinzo Android smartphone, Let's stand up against the big ones

Convinced that the world needs a change from time to time and that the smaller ones who tend to be perceived as weak and irrelevant sometimes need to stand up against the big, the VERZO is coming to the market with its first smartphone called Kinzo. Since the very beginning we wanted to create a phone that would be open to its owners at least as much as the Google Android OS is open to its community. Based on this open source software we wanted to build a phone that would not be the slimmest, the best in performance or the most expensive, but to create a phone that would go its own way and never leave it.

This way is based on differentiation from the great and seemingly untouchable brands by original design and most of all by active communication with clients. We do not want to develop and sell VERZO in the common way: Here you have the new generation of a phone, it's the best, the most amazing, buy it and for the love of god, leave us alone! We too have our vision which is represented by the Kinzo model, but we also respect and value the opinions of our customers more than anything else.

That is the reason why we are starting the sale of our first model of a smartphone, whose parameters might make the big brands smile for now, but only until you understand our message: The Kinzo is coming to the market with a carefully selected mix of hardware, software, accessories and price, all of which gives you enough space to affect its future development. Together with the community we shall fill the Kinzo and all later VERZO models with widgets, applications and other tweaks to get VERZO to a place on the market where there will be no disdain. Come and build a new brand of smartphones with us.

VERZO and Kinzo in questions and answers

What was supposed to be mentioned in our standpoints, philosophy and world view can be found in the introduction and in our first press release. There is no use in wasting words and using empty phrases, so let us give our first product – the Kinzo smartphone – space to speak for itself. All the technical, practical and other important information can therefore be found in the next paragraphs in the form of questions and answers. So let's get started:

Question 1: Who is behind VERZO?

On the top of the pyramid is an American company called VERZO TECHNOLOGY LLC. This is the founding company for VERZO Technology s.r.o. – a company based in Prague, Czech Republic. If therefore we say that the VERZO project is a Czech-American one, it is probably the best name for it. The VERZO Technology s.r.o company supervised the development of the design of the phone and the VERZO GUI, and is currently managing the production process and forming the distribution strategy. The VERZO project involved top designers, developers, graphic designers and managers, who have utilised their long experience in their respective fields and brought dynamics and courage to the project.

Only the design of the Kinzo was done outside the VERZO – in the Novague design studio. The aim of the VERZO TECHNOLOGY, LLC is to enter the smartphone market, develop and broaden the product base and become publicly traded company on the American stock exchange.

Question 2: What are the parameters of VERZO Kinzo?

This question can be answered simply: Optimal. Kinzo is not a smartphone that would like to look down on others, boast about how many cores its processor has, how many megapixels the cameras have, how the display is the brightest with the best resolution and so on. The hardware was chosen so it does not limit its users in any aspect, but also not to promise things that cannot be delivered. We wanted to avoid the situation when you would be in need of a processor with better performance, when you would be limited by the size or resolution of the display, or when you would be missing some core feature. At the same time, we did not want to create a smartphone that would be too complicated to use, its battery life too short, but would be full of cores and cameras, and you would not get any accessories except for a charger and a display cleaning cloth worth a few cents.

VERZO Kinzo Specifications:

• OS: Google Android 2.2
• Processor: 1GHz
• Size: 131.6 x 72.3 x 12.3 mm (height x width x depth)
• Weight: 155g (with battery)
• Display size: 4.3"
• Display type: TFT, Capacitive Multi-touch screen
• Display resolution: 800x480 pixels
• Camera: 5Mpix (back), VGA (front)
• Battery: SONY Li-Ion 1530 mAh
• Internal memory: 512 MB + 8GB Micro SDHC memory card included
  (Kinzo supports memory cards up to 32 GB)
• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi
• GPS

Question 3: Who is our VERZO Kinzo's competition?

First of all – we are not going to compete with an iPhone. For one, Apple with its current iPhone has quite a head start in development and funding. Also, Apple is mainly trying to appeal to people who put style, design and prestige first. And finally, it is not an android-based device. We think that we should compete with smartphones, which have something in common, therefore VERZO belongs more to the company of smartphones like: Sony Ericsson Xperia ARC, HTC Desire HD, Motorola Milestone, LG Optimus 2X, Nexus One, HTC Desire S, etc. In comparison with these, VERZO Kinzo can offer mostly matching parameters for the same or a slightly lower price, with an extremely rich offering of accessories, free of charge.

Our goal at this time is not to enter the battle for more cores, brightest display or the best camera. We understand that the users are looking for a technologically advanced device, however, we refuse to accept that the quality of a good smartphone should be based only on the number of pixels or the quantity of cores in the processor. In other words – single core processor of 1GHz can many times do a better service than its n-core colleague. Our journey leads through step-by-step advances in parameters, the development of the community and additional widgets.

Question 4: What is included in the price of VERZO Kinzo?

We would like to say that we wanted to make the opening of a new package with the new smartphone into a grand occasion. Global brands have very strict shareholders, who affect the look of the packages not only for smartphones, but for electronics overall. VERZO does not want to give you a cheap carton box with mostly nothing in it. In our luxury package you will find more than just the phone – we also provide many original accessories!

The accessories include a luxurious genuine leather case made in the EU (we always want to have at least one item from the EU or the US in the pack), the smallest USB charger you have ever seen, a luxurious car charger from polished steel, quality headphones, an 8GB Micro SD card and a car holder for your Kinzo. With every new Kinzo you will also be given an offline Navigation app from Sygic with the maps of the whole EU or USA (based on your location). And this is still not all. Every new Kinzo comes with a stylish car holder.

Question 5: What is the price of VERZO Kinzo?

VERZO Kinzo is coming to the European market with the price of 420 EUR and for the customers in the USA the price is set to 459 USD. The price includes the Kinzo phone and the rich accessories as mentioned in the previous answer.

Question 6: How are the purchase and the shipping going to be processed?

The sales start on the 11th of November 2011 via the official VERZO online store accessible at www.verzo.com. In the next weeks we are planning to expand the sales to chosen local retailers and mobile providers. The list of our partners will be constantly updated and available at www.verzo.com. VERZO is shipping the Kinzo worldwide for free. You will not pay a single dollar or euro more.

Question 7: How will the customer service be carried out?

If you experience any difficulties with the Kinzo (which can happen even though we have strict quality control), we will try to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. First you will be directed to our tech-support online, who will attempt to identify the problem. If the technician is not be able to resolve the problem, he will ensure that the device is picked up and sent off to a service and later returned to the customer. You will not have to trouble yourself and look for a place to have your phone serviced. VERZO wants to be in touch with its customers directly and have the possibility to react and help as quickly as possible.

Question 8: What is it exactly this „VERZO community"?

In the VERZO community is where one can meet all the other owners of VERZO devices, who decide to actively participate on the future of the brand. VERZO community starts with the TellME application, which is activated with the registration of a user and the Kinzo smartphone on the official website www.verzo.com, from where it can be downloaded to the phone itself. This application provides the basic means of communication between the users and the VERZO brand.

The users are given the possibility to suggest variety of improvements and mainly applications and widgets, which will be voted for by the rest of the community. The users thus decide which application and widget will be realized. The winning idea or suggestion will be later on available for download for the rest of the users in the following update. The VERZO brand is decided to take a good care of the community and further improve it with the existing and upcoming applications and suggestions.

Question 9: What is it the 'VERZO GUI'?

VERZO GUI represents our way of thinking about the world of smartphones and most of all our idea about the perfect look of a Google Android OS. VERZO GUI starts with the model Kinzo in its basic layout – with a modified main screen and the status icons, with its own weather widget, contacts visualization, background and some other features. The development of the VERZO GUI will continue in the future, while taking into account the desires of the users. We could have changed the whole system ourselves while hoping that the users will get used to it, but we have decided to show the directions and ask our users about their ideas. What do they like and dislike? What do they find useful and what rather useless? That is the idea behind the VERZO GUI.

Other related questions

1. Why does the Kinzo have a 4.3" screen?

We believe that the modern multimedia phone needs to have a big screen to be able to fully utilize its potential. That is why we have chosen the 4.3" screen. The size of the screen directly influences the size of the phone itself.

2. How long will the battery last when using Kinzo?

It is similar or even better than other comparable smartphones on the market. Kinzo has a 1530 mAh battery, which ensures that the Kinzo will be up and running for over a day while used under regular conditions. If used intensively for phone calls, e- mails and web browsing, the Kinzo will have to be charged on a daily basis, however, it will always be up and running at least from dusk till dawn.

Source - Verzo

Samsung Galaxy Note Launches in China amid Great Fanfare

Samsung Galaxy Note, currently the most buzz-making Android-based touch screen gadget which incorporated competitive "edges" of Tablet PC and smartphone into a single device, is landing on China after its high-profile debuts in Europe and East Asian markets of late -- Oct 27 launching events in U.K. and Nov 8 in Indonesia.

Samsung announced it was officially launching its Galaxy Note in Asian markets including mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And it held "Galaxy Note World Tour" event in celebration of its official launch in one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

The launching event proved a huge hit -- mirroring a surging popularity with Samsung's experiment mixing a Tablet PC with a smartphone -- with over 700 media officials, IT experts and dignitaries from Samsung presenting at the event.

This Gingerbread based portable gadget showcases the largest 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display and lets users interact with others via online gaming platforms owing the Game Hub. It packs in a 1.4GHz dual core CPU and can work on HSPA+ or LTE networks.

There are a number of 'S' apps such as the S Memo, the S Planner and S Choice apps store in this digital convergence device. All these 'S' labeled apps are designed especially for the S-Pen. And the S-Pen is a wonderful digital tool to realize your passion for scribbling. With the S-memo app, You can draw and sketch as if on paper and also take screenshots and edit them with the help of the S-Pen.

Source - Samsung