3G

HTC To Build Windows-Based Palm Treo 670/700?
HTC are rumoured to have won the contract to manufacture the much-hyped Windows Mobile-based version of Palm’s Treo smart phone.
The combination of Windows OS and the Treo’s fabulous form factor could prove a real market winner, although the device’s release is believed to some way off.
An article in the DigiTimes Website reported that the Treo/HTC hybrid was announced in the Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial Times.
The Taiwan-based High Tech Computer (HTC) firm already manufactures its own popular suite of Windows Mobile-based smart phones and PDA-style communicators, which go under a mass of different names worldwide, depending on the mobile networks operators and handset vendors.
Their big-selling models include the XDA Mini (MDA Compact/ HTC Magician/ i-mate JAM/Qtek s100), XDASII (Qtek 2020/i-mate/Orange SPV M1000/Movistar tsm 500) and XDAIIs (MdaIII/iMate PDA2k/Qtek 9090/HTC Blue Angel/Audiovox 6600/Siemens SX66/Orange SPV M2000).
HTC also undertakes contract manufacturing on behalf of a number of partners, and was said to be producing the Palm OS-based Treo 650 back in September 2004.
Rumours quickly spread that HTC would be creating a Windows Mobile-based Treo called the Treo 670, with a host of fuzzy images purporting to be the new device appearing on the Web.
Both Palm and HTC have staunchly refused to confirm their collaboration.
There’s no denying that HTC would be a logical choice to create a Windows Mobile-based Treo, with some pundits suggesting that the company may have lent some Windows Mobile development expertise to Palm’s design team.
The Commercial Times article suggests that HTC may well have designed the 670 itself, working to the parameters of the standard Treo feature-set and case design.
Just as we went to press, another rumour flashed across the Web, with Cool Tech Times showing a fairly convincing photograph of what it reckons is the new Treo 700.
Naturally, large opencast excavations of salt are needed when it comes to these things, but for the record the site claims that the Treo will feature a 1.3 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom and EVDO capability (EVDO stands for Evolution Data Only, and is the wireless broadband protocol of choice for CDMA networks).
Although the design could have come straight off the screen of some time-rich spoddy Photoshop kid (and we definitely have some doubts about its authenticity), it’s still a pretty looking affair, reflecting the strong points of the Treo’s long standing design ethos.
Whatever the final Treo looks like, it’s only Palm’s hopeless feet-dragging over implementing consumer-demanded features like proper Wi-Fi support that reluctantly sent us to the Windows dark side a few months ago, so whenever the next Treo 670/700/whatever-you-want-to call-it ever surfaces, we’ll take a boxful please!
DigiTimes.com
12 August, 2005
Technorati Mobile Launches
Technorati has launched Technorati Mobile, a stripped-down version of the popular blog search facility designed to be viewed on mobile phones and handheld computers/smartphones.
In case you’re not familiar with the site, Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in what they describe as “the blogosphere”.
Sadly, that’s not some cool, far-distant planet where everyone wears hover-boots, but simply their word for online blogs.
Technorati works by tracking zillions of blogs and building a constantly updated database of blog entries, creating what they like to describe as a “live view of the global conversation of the Web.”
Making it easier for mobile users to access this service seems a smart enough idea, so Technorati Mobile serves up similar options to the main Technorati site, but in a frill-free interface.
The text-only home page offers a search box, a list of the top ten search terms from the past hour and a short listing of Web links under the title, “What’s happening on the Web right now in News, Books and Movies.
Three stories are displayed from each category, with links underneath leading to pages containing aggregated blog comment on the stories.
There’s also the option to get a further ten stories – with associated blog links – by clicking the ‘more’ link in each category.
Although the Technorati Mobile site is designed for mobile users, we mightily warmed to its simple, no-nonsense interface and found it preferable to their Web version.
So much so, in fact, that it’s now replaced their Web version in our PC desktop bookmarks!
Technorati
1 August, 2005
VeeStream Enables “i-Pod-Like 3G Music Video Service”
Vidiator Technology has declared a “world first” for their VeeStream mobile music video service, launched in Scandinavia.
There’s currently more than 50 live broadcast channels on offer, letting mobile subscribers “use their phones like i-Pods”, with an unlimited hard-drive housed on the mobile network.
The service enables subscribers to watch and listen to music through mobile streaming on their video-enabled mobile phones. After a free trial from May-Aug 2005, mobile subscribers can shell out a monthly fee under US $7.00 (~€6.00~£4.00) and gorge themselves on unlimited programming.
After launching with an audio service in May 2005, video is scheduled to follow in June with radio coming in July.
“Vidiator is one of the key partners who enable us to be the innovator in the Scandinavian Market,” insisted Shlomo Liran, CEO of 3 Scandinavia. “We are a mobile video company, not just a mobile voice company. Vidiator streaming technology makes it possible for us to deliver new services and to stay ahead of our competitors”.
The service uses VeeStream, a rich media streaming platform, which delivers high quality audio and video streaming content on-demand for 2.5G and 3G network operators, regardless of format player, handset or network.
The clever boffins at VeeStream claim to have solved the problem of network bandwidth availability by using ‘dynamic bandwidth adaptation’ (DBA) a patent-pending, open-standards based technology.
The real-time DBA does its stuff by optimising throughput over scarce radio frequencies, while creating a higher ratio of delivered streams than competing technologies.
With the 3GPP/3GPP2 compliant VeeStream being player-agnostic, mobile streaming can be enabled to a broader range of networks and devices, which should bring costs down for wireless operators.
“Vidiator is a solutions provider, not purely a software company,” said Connie Wong, Vidiator’s CEO.
“VeeStream is the most proven carrier-grade wireless streaming technology in the market due to its robustness, scalability and modularity. Carriers like 3 Scandinavia only have to ‘plug and play’ off their existing Vidiator streaming platform running other applications to add 50 audio and video channels, including live broadcast services like Big Brother.
This scalability enables quick time-to-market for new content, lowers system configuration and operation costs and boosts revenues”.
Personally, I’d rather sit bare bottomed on a bag of angry live crabs than try to watch Big Brother on a squinty little mobile phone screen, but there’s no denying that such pap can help drive network take up and revenues for 3 network providers.
Vidiator VeeStream
28 June, 2005
BB Mobile Demo Seamless 3G/Wi-Fi Roaming With Nortel
Nortel NT and BB Mobile are chuffed to bits to have achieved what they claim is the world’s “first seamless handoff of voice and data services between a third generation (3G) cellular network operating on the 1.7 GHz radio frequency band and a wireless local area network (LAN)”.
What this means in English is that in the future users will be able roam securely between 3G wireless networks and Wi-Fi networks or wireless LANs while checking out websites, blasting out emails, downloading files and doing all the other things that connected cats get up to on a high-speed wireless broadband voice and data service.
The triumphant test calls were made on a live Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) 3G cellular network and an 802.11 wireless LAN, with Nortel’s smarty pants software making it all happen.
This latest test follows on from successful wireless data transmission trials by Nortel and BB Mobile earlier this month.
In those trials, boffins were able to notch up Japan’s first 14.4 million bits per second (Mbps) wireless data transmission via the 1.7 GHz radio frequency band for mobile communications and Nortel’s high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology.
This managed to ratchet up speeds 30 times faster than commercially deployed networks using UMTS.
Peter MacKinnon, president GSM/UMTS, Nortel, throbbed: “This second demonstration with BB Mobile is an important step in meeting the demand for ubiquitous wireless broadband voice and data services regardless of network or device”.
“The results of these tests with BB Mobile also highlight the level of technological innovation we will continue to bring to Japan’s wireless industry to help drive network convergence and bridge the gap between wireline and wireless 3G networks,” added Nick Vreugdenhil, country manager, Japan, Nortel.
As an aside, we have to commend Nortel on producing the longest disclaimer message we’ve ever seen.
A note at the end of the press announcement: “Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events….”
Nortel then went on to cover every possible eventuality including – probably – an invasion of bug eye monsters, in a 700 word yawn-a-thon guaranteed to be ignored by anyone who sees it.
Oy! Company spokesperson! Shut it!
Nortel
Softbank
22 June, 2005
Sony Announce Four New Phones
On the same day that Nokia went forth and multiplied with seven new phones, rivals Sony Ericsson announced four new handsets, aimed at increasing its presence in the low end and mid-market sectors.
Sony Ericsson K608i The K608i 3G handset employs Sony Ericsson’s now-familiar dual use format, with the phone being used vertically for calls and horizontally for taking pictures.
The 1.3 megapixel camera includes an active lens cover for swift activation, with video calls taken care of via a dedicated video telephony button.
There’s a reasonably large 1.8 inch 262k colour TFT screen onboard, and the K608 comes bundled with the usual suite of business applications, PIM and PC-synchronisation tools (via USB or Bluetooth).
Gameloft’s Vijay Singh Pro Golf 2005 comes preloaded with the phone in the hope that customers’ chequebooks will form a yawning chasm in the direction of Sony Ericsson’s Fun & Downloads portals.
There’s 32MB of memory space on the phone for shunting on ringtones, wallpapers, still shots and video footage, with a built in music player and FM radio taking care of multimedia.
Sony Ericsson S600
The all-swivelling Sony Ericsson S600 phone is claimed to be “ready to party” with features “to enhance the lifestyles of those who live their lives to the fullest”.
Like an expensive marital aid, the phone also promises “maximum fun and excitement in an ultra stylish package” according to Sony Ericsson. It almost makes you wary of putting it next to your ear.
The tri-band phone employs the same ‘jack-knife’ mechanism seen in last year’s S700, although there’s no ‘Mean Streets’ spring-action on offer, which kind of spoils the effect.
Inside, there’s 176×220 pixel, 1.8″ wide, 262 K colour TFT screen with two stereo loudspeakers and a MegaBass function enhancing the sound.
The S600 comes with 64MB of onboard memory, but sadly, there’s no memory card on offer – presumably it’s been left off so as to not compete with the higher spec’ed K750 model.
Gamers might be enticed by the S600’s widescreen mode which enables games to be played horizontally on screen. There’s also support for multi-player peer-2-peer gaming via Bluetooth.
Finishing off the package is Bluetooth and USB 2.0 connectivity, a 1.3 megapixel camera, NetFront web browser, 40-tone polyphonic alert and a RDS FM radio.
Sony Ericsson Z520
Described as possessing “cool curves in a smooth shell”, the Sony Ericsson Z520 is a compact quad-band phone “for the fashion conscious.”
With worrying sexual undertones, Sony Ericsson’s announcement salivates over the “smooth sleek body” of the clamshell which, apparently, creates “a small and inviting handset” with the added bonus of an illuminated “rim of blue lights” (stop tittering at the back).
“The new Z520 is specifically designed for the stylish younger generation, particularly young women, who want to carry an attractive accessory just as much as a mobile communications device,” purred Jan Wareby, Corporate Executive, Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing of Sony Ericsson.
Flipped open, the twin-display phone offers a 1.8″ 128 x 160 pixel, 65k colour, TFT main screen, supported by a 101 x 80 pixel, colour secondary display on the outside.
The phone supports Bluetooth, music playback, SMS, e-mail, video/photo MMS and web browsing.
In keeping with its intended audience, the Z520 can be accessorised with covers in Pale Blue, Sandy Grey, Ceramic White, Espresso Brown, Peach, Mint, Pale Yellow and Pale Pink. But no Death Metal Black.
Sony Ericsson J210
Last and, quite frankly, least is the J210, a no-frills, bargain basement handset, aimed at “practical phoners who value simplicity and reliability” according to Jan Wareby, Sony Ericsson’s Corporate Executive Vice President & Head of Sales and Marketing.
The tri-band handset offers a basic set of features with a near-microscopic 600KB of user memory onboard.
Sony Ericsson
13 June, 2005
SGH-Z130: Samsung ‘Web friendly’ 3G Handset Imminent
Scheduled for release at the beginning of July is Samsung’s “Web friendly” SGH-Z130 3G handset.
The all-swivelling beastie features a rotating, high-resolution LCD screen (176×220 pixels), with full Web browsing support offered by the well regarded NetFront Browser by Access (as previously seen on Sony Clie PDAs).
As is the norm these days, a 1.3-Megapixel (1152 x 864 pixels) digital camera has been poured inside the SGH-Z130’s slim-ish dimensions (112x46x20mm, 120g), with all the multimedia tick boxes neatly crossed off:
Video recorder? Oh yes!
Music player with MP3/AAC/AAC+ support? Of course!
All jingling, jangling and beeping 64 polyphonic & MP3 ring tones installed? Absolutely!
Embedded wallpapers and Macromedia Flash? C’est naturellement!
There’s a fair bit of memory on board to handle all the multimedia fluff, with a total of 88.5 MB storage offering 80 MB for Image/Sound/Video, 4 MB for Java, 3 MB for Email and 1.5 MB for MMS with just enough room left over for 200 SMS messages.
The handset comes with built-in Bluetooth support (v1.1) and works with 2100MHz UMTS 3G as well as the 900/1800MHz GSM bands.
Sadly, despite the phone’s strong Web-focus, there’s no Wi-Fi on board and USB connectivity is stuck at Ye Olde v1.0.
The built in NetFront browser supports OMA Browsing 2.2, WML, HTML 4.01 and cHTML, and its “Rapid-Render” incremental rendering technology is claimed to accelerate the presentation of Web pages.
As with earlier versions of Netfront, there is a handy option to render Web pages to fit smaller screen widths, saving a ton of pesky horizontal scrolling.
NetFront is being touted as the only mobile browser to provide integrated support for Adobe Reader LE and the popular portable document format, PDF.
‘The SGH-Z130 is one of the most innovative 3G handsets on the market today, and ACCESS’ advanced NetFront browser technology extends this innovation by providing a comprehensive mobile Internet browsing experience,’ insisted Chulhwan Lee, of Samsung. ‘ACCESS and Samsung will continue to collaborate to bring advanced mobile Internet browsing solutions to mobile end-users throughout the world.’
SGH-Z130 specs
9 June, 2005
V600i 3G UMTS Phone From Sony Ericsson and Vodafone
Rather immodestly self-declared as ‘beautifully designed’, Sony Ericsson and Vodafone have announced their new V600i 3G phone.
Designed to take advantage of Vodafone’s live content streaming, the none-more-black phone ships with a veritable bucketload of multimedia features to keep even the most attention-deficient consumers entertained.
The phone sports a ‘direct video telephony button’ for quick access to the movie/video calling applications, with the 1.8 inch – 262.000 colour TFD screen acting as a viewfinder.
Naturally, there’s a camera on board, with Sony Ericsson bolting on a 1.3 MegaPixel jobbie with an active lens cover for quick snapping and protection
The V600i offers full 3G functionality, with Vodafone hoping that users will form a crack-like addiction to downloading the audio, video, gaming and other lucrative mobile wares for sale on the Vodafone live! portal.
Subscribers can also take advantage of the content streamed from the Vodafone live! site, including live sports and music videos.
As is de rigeur these days, the phone can be customised with downloadable wallpapers, with the 32MB internal memory capable of storing a whole symphony of irritating ‘individual’ ring tones.
There’s also a built in FM radio with a 3D Java gaming engine offering multiplayer gaming via Bluetooth.
But – hey! – life’s not all about fun and games for time-poor, cash rich execs, so there’s a suite of business applications onboard which can be synchronised with PCs via USB.
Cutting edge office hipsters keen to perfect that Nathan Barely look can also take advantage of the V600i’s Bluetooth support and strap one – or, what the heck, maybe even two – daft Bluetooth hands-free units to their ears.
The V600i will be available in Vodafone stores from early Q3 2005 onwards.
Sony Ericsson
Vodafone
8 June, 2005
Orange EDGE To Launch With TV In France Next Week
Coming hot on the heels of their 3G Mobile TV launch, Orange France has announced that their high-speed EDGE mobile service for consumers will go live next week.
Although EDGE technology is slower than 3G services it has the distinctive advantage of being cheaper and – unlike the “walled garden” approach of 3G – the technology gives customers direct access to email, the Internet and television.
Orange, the mobile phone arm of France Telecom, has shuffled its expectations of EDGE take-up in a downward direction from its initial forecast of 500,000 subscribers by the end of December.
“We expect to have more than a million high-speed clients (EDGE and 3G) by the end of May 2006,” Orange Chief Executive Didier Quillot told a news conference.
Quillot added that he expected the total to stand at between 500,000 and 1 million by Christmas 2006, with the number of EDGE subscribers reaching 2 million by the end of 2006.
Monsieur Quillot revealed that Orange had 110,000 3G subscribers by the end of May – nudging higher than their rivals, SFR, with 100,000 subscribers.
SFR expects to have scooped up around 500,000 3G subscribers by the end of the year.
Currently, Orange’s EDGE service offer coverage of some 85 percent of France’s population, against the 45 percent coverage offered by its 3G network.
3G coverage is expected to rise to over 50 percent by the end of 2005 and continues upward to around 60 percent by end of 2006.
Orange has stated that it will invest over 200 million euros in 2005 and 2006 to make its network compatible with EDGE.
EDGE stands for Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution and is a radio based high-speed mobile data standard, which enables television, video and music to be received on an Orange Intense mobile phone at any time.
Orange France
EDGE explained
3 June, 2005
MobiTV Powers Orange 3G TV
We covered the announcement of Orange’s 3G TV content to mobile handsets last week, but today we discovered who’s providing the content-to-mobiles technology powering the services.
Idetic, the company behind MobiTV, who are in turn Orange’s partners for the service, are the technical brawn behind the operation. Headquartered in Berkeley, CA they have been around since 1999, originally working on bandwidth optimisation systems for cellular networks.
We spoken extensively with Ray DeRenzo, former Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone America’s Global Platform and Internet Services Group, who joined Idetic as VP of EMEA (so he’ll have a somewhat less-wide business card these days), running through many areas of their business.
A fortuitous early deal with Siemens saw the creation of a smart proxy server product being bundled with Siemens hardware and begin actively sold, with Siemens effectively becoming a sales agent for Idetic system. This licensing deal gave them the breathing space, and cash flow, to further develop the system.
The roots of the system that is being used on the Orange project lay in a demonstration system for delivering content over IP connections to TV, originally created as a sales tool to sell their optimisation products.
During a demo with a major US broadcaster, the eyes across the table lit up, generating great excitement about using the system to syndicate broadcaster content to many platforms.
This pivotal moment for the company, altered the companies direction, expanding them in a new direction.
After much careful thinking and planning they’ve ended up with an end-to-end solution, spanning ingestion; digitisation; encoding; and distribution going initially to IP TV, now cellular and wireless.
In what must have been a pretty big transition for the technical-focused company, they launched MobiTV, hiring the BSD’s from Hollywood, TV and the cellular world. By gathering content distribution deals initially in the US, now Europe and soon Asian markets, they have placed themselves in an enviable position, supplying the delivery system and the content to be delivered – both sides of the transaction.
With expansion into Europe and Asia on their main, back in February, MobiTV swelled their ranks with some of the great and the good from the mobile world, one of which being our interviewee Ray DeRenzo. A smart move bringing in people who’ve been very close to the Giant.
Digital-Lifestyles spoke to Ray this afternoon who confirmed their first trip to MipTV this year had been highly rewarding with many of the content companies beating a path to their door. He commented that seeking content deals has been significantly easier in the US, as the content owners are consolidated into a small number of very powerful providers, differing from the significantly more fractured map of Europe.
Their heritage in the US has done them big favours. The deals that they have made there have enabled them to supply a similar service to the Orange TV service, in the US to Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless and a number of other regional carriers in the region carrying 23 channels.
These US roots could go someway to clarify why the Orange UK TV service is so weighted towards US content. Signing deals like CNN are a sure thing in many countries of the world.
The simplicity of the whole system is quite beautiful. Ingesting at satellite downlink sites in the US and Europe, this is transferred to their operations centre in the US where the content is prepared and distributed to cellular phone users handsets via their downloaded application. When content is delivered of the handset, the application takes care of the deliver of the content, DRM and rescaling of the video to the specific characteristics of the destination handset.
They’ve opted not to use the RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) standard as many other video streaming services have, but have decided to use their own packeted-delivery approach, which they claim is more bandwidth efficient than leaving the connection constantly open, as RTSP does. It would seem to make sense.
Orange have initially decided to only offer a bundle deal, £10 (~US$18 ~€14.5)per month including 20 hours of access to any of the TV content. MobiTV system is also able to offer many more payment options including one-off payment using micro-payments.
Depending on the handset that is used, MobiTV claim mobile views should be getting a frame rate of around 15 fps, which while it’s around half the frame rate of ‘normal’ TV, sound eminently very watch able – certainly a considerable improvements on the much maligned 1-2 fps of a couple of years ago.
The delivery of TV and video content to the mobile handset is currently white hot both in the content and mobile worlds – and it’s been getting that way for the last 18 months. What has yet to be consistently proven is the consumer’s appetite for paying for it – Will it have the run away success of SMS or only generate the mild interest of MMS.
We don’t know Idetic/MobiTV’s offering intimately, but from the overview we’ve had it certainly looks like an interesting offering.
Idetic
MobiTV
27 May, 2005
Vodafone 7100v Blackberry Review – In Everyday use
Part syncing a 7100 with a Mac.
I’m writing this review over a few days, using the 7100v instead of my usual phone. Today, I switched the 7100v on in the morning, received and replied to a few emails and set off for the day.
On the bus, I read the PDA edition of the BBC Web site using the built-in Web browser (more fully covered later). After lunch, I pulled it out of my pocket to check over the mail that had arrived. Imagine my horror when I spotted two huge, yellow lines covering the screen. On scrolling, these lines became more pronounced and seemed to spawn more of themselves, until they covered the whole screen. My first thought was that pixels in the screen were damaged, possibly as a result of me sitting on it, as it had been in my back pocket shortly during my lunch break. I tried switching the handset off and back on again, but the lines didn’t disappear. I was already thinking “Oh no, I’ve broken it” when I had the presence of mind to take the battery out. Miraculously, this solved the problem with the screen, suggesting this problem was possibly a software related one, as opposed to a hardware one. I never did track down what caused it but having bugs like this in released software is not a way to reassure customers that a product is beyond the early-adopter stage and while not a major problem. Occurrences like this one do make you slightly wary of purchasing such a device with your own hard-earned money.
Battery life
My initial experience of the battery life was very poor, with the battery dropping from full to empty within about 8 hours. After a few charging cycles, however, this improved dramatically, and the battery now lasts a good two days under relatively heavy use. This discovery came as a very pleasant surprise to me, as with my usage pattern the only other handset that I had managed to keep alive on a single charge for over a day was an ancient Nokia 6210. The one thing that is bad about the battery on this handset, however, is the time it takes to charge up: It takes around 6 hours (!), an unheard of amount of time in my experience of other handsets. This makes my customary “plug it in for an hour before I go out” habit worthless, as the battery doesn’t even come close to full in that time.
Screen
The screen on the 7100 is very impressive in its clarity and brightness – the contrast isn’t bad either. Images viewed on it look very solid, almost as if they are actually colour-printed backlit acetate as opposed to being displayed on an LCD.
The main downfall of the screen is when it is placed in sun-light: The screen is about 5mm below the plastic covering over the screen, and this covering isn’t of particularly high-grade plastic, leading to a badly obscured screen in bright conditions. The cover is also quite reflective, so often you can’t see anything on the screen at all. Indoors however, the screen looks great and everyone I’ve asked about it has been very impressed by it.
Web browsing/access
I have grown accustomed to doing a lot of my Web surfing on the move, or at least not while sitting in front of my computer, as I find it more comfortable that way. To me, it means that the Internet can truly take over from books and newspapers, because you can browse the Net on the sofa, while eating dinner, or anywhere else for that matter and aren’t tied to sitting in a rigid office chair staring at a screen.
As a result of this, the Web browser on the Blackberry was of particular interest to me. RIM seem to have paid particular attention to complying with standards in the design of the Blackberry’s software and this shows in the browser: It supports style sheets and javascript, both features very uncommon for a mobile device. Style sheet support means that, in theory, a Web designer can write one page that will look different when viewed with a small-screen device than when viewed with a full-size computer. This means that it is possible to, for instance, make a small-screen device employ a larger font when rendering a Web page than a computer, to take account of the small screen size. Sadly, sometimes sticking to standards isn’t enough, and this is the case with the Blackberry.
When Web pages are rendered, there are a lot of unnecessary images which would be represented instead by text. This text is usually shown in the ALT tags of the HTML from which the pages are rendered. On a lot of sites, there are a lot of navigation images, which are not good for render time on a low-powered device like the Blackberry: every time a page is opened containing images, these images are downloaded (this takes a long time with the Internet connection on a 7100v being at dial-up speeds). When downloaded these images are resized individually so as to fit on its screen.
Unless the sites that you wish to visit using your Blackberry are graphically very light with little images on them, you may despair of the slow speeds. Other handhelds get around the image problem by simply not displaying all images, only the ones that they think are vital to the site. While this can lead to problems like the right images not being loaded, these problems are uncommon, and the associated speed increase more than makes up for this.
There is a hotkey in between the answer and hang up buttons on the keypad of the Blackberry which opens the Web browser. This may suit some people more than others. Personally, I found it a bit annoying, and it would have been far better to use it as a selection softkey or at least make it configurable.
Part one of this review, looking at how to enter and retrieve information, was published yesterday. Part three will follow.
24 May, 2005