Vodacom and Research In Motion have announced the launch of the new BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones in South Africa.

Johannesburg - Vodacom and Research In Motion on Tuesday announced the launch of the new BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones in South Africa.

Powered by the new BlackBerry 7 operating system (OS), these new smartphones extend the range of BlackBerry 7 smartphones available from Vodacom.

Vodacom’s managing executive, sales, Zunaid Dinath said, “We are excited to offer two new BlackBerry 7-based smartphones to our customers in South Africa. We trust our customers will be impressed by the smooth and integrated communications features, responsive interface, and stylish finish these new models offer.”

“We are pleased to work with Vodacom to introduce the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphones to customers in South Africa,” said Rui Brites, Director of Product Management for Africa at RIM. “Thanks to the new BlackBerry 7 operating system, these powerful new devices deliver a fast, rich and fluid experience.”

BlackBerry Bold 9790 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

The finely crafted BlackBerry Curve 9380 is the first touch screen 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, 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 favourite 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). BlackBerry 7 also supports the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, and comes with a variety of personal and productivity apps out of the box.

For more information about the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9380, visit http://za.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrybold9790 and http://za.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrycurve9380 respectively.

Yusuf Omar finds some not-so-good comparisons between Sony Ericsson’s newest Walkman phone and his ex-girlfriend.

Sony Ericsson’s second Android-powered Walkman phone, dubbed The Live, reminds me of my ex-girlfriend – curvy body, glossy finish and very loud.

When I first picked it up, I automatically tried to slide it open to reveal the QWERTY keyboard. But there wasn’t one. I’ve always avoided touch screens because of my builder’s hands – as with my ex, I always seemed to push the wrong buttons.

But, while The Live’s HVGA resolution 3.2” capacitive screen is very sensitive, you don’t need pinpoint accuracy to write messages. The predictive text feature not only guesses what you’re going to say nine times out of 10, but adds words it doesn’t know, like names and slang, to its ever-increasing dictionary.

Messaging on The Live is a truly multimedia experience to the point of nausea. Sometimes you feel as if it is behaving like one of those persistent salesmen, suggesting “Would you like to add a sound to that sms?” or “Would you like to upsize to a video?”

The phone software (Gingerbread 2.3) takes some getting used to, but once you are used to it there is no going back. It is so versatile; everything moves and all the menus can be changed to fit your needs, business or pleasure. Making the most of the screen, its corners are where you can stow away application shortcuts.

However, with only 320MB of RAM on the processor, the phone sometimes feels sluggish, especially when running multiple applications simultaneously.

The five megapixel autofocus camera can capture a 720p HD video recording, but the still shots are nothing to shout about, especially in low light. Focus goes out of the window and subjects often appear cross-eyed.

With its dedicated Walkman button, The Live differentiates itself from the rest of the Android pack with enhanced music features. It’s difficult to emphasise just how LOUD the phone rings or plays music. The xLOUD in-built speaker loudness booster means one could throw a small party in a park, bedroom or office just using the phone.

The notes lose their crispness if you turn the volume right up, but it is the most comprehensive loudspeaker the phone industry has seen.

TrackID is a brilliant feature as it means you can be sitting in a car or dancing in a club and record a snatch of a song. The phone will automatically search for the name and artists and give you the option to purchase the track.

This is precisely Sony Ericsson’s niche. It focuses on what it does best – music. Its Walkman brand with the orange logo is as old as tape recorders. And unlike my ex-girlfriend, this phone actually works. - The Star

Amazon's Kindle Fire had a solid debut, leapfrogging Samsung tablets to become the top-selling device after Apple's iPad, according to figures.

Washington - Amazon's Kindle Fire, which went on sale in November, had a solid debut, leapfrogging Samsung tablets to become the top-selling device after Apple's iPad, a market research firm said on Thursday.

The Seattle-based Amazon shipped 3.9 million Kindle Fires in the fourth quarter to grab 14.3 percent of the global tablet market, IHS iSuppli said.

The Cupertino, California-based Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads during the last three months of the year and saw its share of the tablet market fall to 57 percent from 64 percent a year earlier, it said.

Samsung shipped 2.1 million tablets during the quarter for an eight-percent market share, down from 11 percent a year earlier, IHS iSuppli said.

Samsung offers a variety of tablets powered by Google's Android software.

The Kindle Fire costs $199, less than half the price of the cheapest iPad.

It has a seven-inch (17.78-centimetre) screen, smaller than the iPad's 9.7 inches (24.6 centimetres), connects to the Web using Wi-Fi and is powered by Android.

According to IHS iSuppli, the toughest competitor for the iPad in the fourth quarter was not the Kindle Fire and other tablets but Apple's own newly introduced smartphone, the iPhone 4S.

“The rollout of the iPhone 4S in October generated intense competition for Apple purchasers' disposable income, doing more to limit iPad shipment growth than competition from the Kindle Fire and other media tablets,” said Rhoda Alexander, senior manager for tablet and monitor research for IHS.

Alexander said the Kindle Fire had a “respectable start.”

But its long-term viability “will hinge on the success of Amazon's business gamble, which depends on tablet sales driving substantial new online merchandise sales at Amazon.com in order to attain profitability,” she said. - Sapa-AFP

Two in three smartphone users are terrified of being without their handset, a study has shown.

London - Two in three mobile users are terrified of being without their phone, a study has shown.

Researchers found the number suffering from “nomophobia” - or a fear of being separated from their mobile - had risen from 53 to 66 percent in the past four years.

Young adults suffer the most, according to the study of 1,000 employees.

Among those aged 18 to 24, 77 percent were nomophobic.

By comparison, 62 percent of those aged 55 and over fear losing their phones, while 59 percent of 35 to 44-year-olds were found to be nomophobic.

The study, commissioned by SecurEnvoy, revealed that women worried about losing their phones more than men - 70 percent of the women surveyed were nomophobic, compared with 61 percent of the men.

And 41 percent of those polled had two phones or more in an effort to stay connected.

When asked if they’d be upset if a partner looked at the messages and texts on their phone, almost half said that they would.

Andy Kemshall, SecurEnvoy co-founder and chief technology officer, said nomophobia “shows no sign of abating”. He said: “[In 2008] it was men that were more afflicted yet today it’s women.”

He added: “What this study highlights is the extent people now rely on their mobile phones.” - Daily Mail

Doctors are reporting repetitive strain injuries and muscle problems among heavy users of tablet computers.

London - Addicted to your iPad? It could become a painful habit.

Doctors are reporting repetitive strain injuries and muscle problems among heavy users of tablet computers. Aches in the hand used to hold them, pain in the fingers used to type and swipe the screen, and arm and neck problems after hours with them propped up on knees are the most common complaints.

Some experts are now warning iPad owners not to type on their devices for long periods.

But Dr John Pappas, of the Beaumont Centre for Pain Medicine in Michigan, US, said: “You can avoid problems by following the same protocols suggested for laptops - buy the right accessories to set the screen at a comfortable working height and use an external keyboard.” - Daily Mail

For all its portability and user-friendliness, the iPad might present a hidden health problem...

New York - It was supposed to make life easier by freeing us from our desktop PCs.

But it turns out that, for all its portability and user-friendliness, the iPad might present a hidden health problem.

Researchers have identified a condition they are calling ‘iPad neck’, in which users develop a stiff neck and shoulders.

They claim that because most people hold the gadgets at a low angle or prop them up on their lap, they are forced to keep looking down, putting pressure on their neck joints.

Staying in this position for several hours can strain the neck and shoulders and cause pain.

To avoid any discomfort, iPad devotees are advised to prop the gadget up on a table with a case that tilts the screen up and towards them – rather like using a normal desktop computer.

The scientists, from Harvard University in the US, said the iPad and similar tablet devices are safe as long as users take regular breaks. Study author Dr Jack Dennerlein said: ‘The problem is getting stuck in these awkward postures for a long period of time. Keep moving when you use it and get a good case that feels comfortable.’

The researchers asked 15 volunteers to use an iPad and a Motorola tablet computer with and without a case and in a number of positions as they measured their head and neck movements.

The results showed that when the tablet was on a person’s lap or not propped up with a case, it caused the neck to bend more. Over time, this could cause pain and discomfort.

Dr Dennerlein, a senior lecturer on ergonomics and health, said: ‘Compared to typical desktop computing scenarios, the use of tablet computers is associated with high head and neck flexion [bending] postures, and there may be more of a concern for the development of neck and shoulder discomfort.

‘Only when the devices were set at their steepest case angle setting and at the greatest horizontal and vertical position did posture approach neutral.

‘This suggests that tablet users should place the tablet higher, on a table rather than a lap, to avoid low gaze angles, and use a case that provides steeper viewing angles. However, steeper angles may be detrimental for continuous input with the hands.’

An Apple spokesman was not available for comment. - Daily Mail

Pat Bilcher reviews the latest offering from the Acer Aspire notebook range.

The Acer Aspire S3 is the first notebook out of Intel’s new ultrabook category, and it’s a doozie. It is hoping this new notebook genre will stimulate sales in the PC market like the netbook did over the last couple of years.

The S3 is wafer thin and, thanks to its dual core i5 CPU, hybrid mechanical/solid state hard drive and pots of bundled RAM, it’s also pretty zippy. Add to this just over five hours of battery life and an extremely reasonable sticker price, the S3 is worth checking out.

Finished in a combination of alloy and plastic, it has a brushed metal finish and curvy lines, all of which are pleasing to the eye. You’d be forgiven for mistaking the S3 for a MacBook Air. Not only is it just 12.9 mm thick, it weighs only 1.3kg.

The S3’s keyboard looks and feels similar to the Air’s, although it isn’t backlit. As with the Macbook, the touchpad proved usable, even with the right and left mouse buttons integrated into the trackpad. The S3’s 13.3-inch display bordered on dazzling and delivered astonishingly accurate colour reproduction thanks to LED backlighting.

What really did surprise was the S3’s audio. Where most skinny notebooks tend to have thin, crappy and distorted audio, it delivered surprisingly rich sound.

Acer has incorporated a cleverly curved design to the S3’s outer body, which lets it accommodate two USB 2.0 ports as well as an HDMI port plus an SD/MMC card reader slot and headset/mic jacks.

Under the hood, the S3 comes with 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 as well as a 1.3-megapixel bezel-mounted webcam. Other connectivity options such as VGA and ethernet ports and an optical drive are conspicuous by their absence, but this is fairly standard with such a wafer thin notebook PC design.

Where Acer has really come through is storage – instead of using compact yet fast solid state drive, it has instead gone down the hybrid solid state/mechanical hard drive route. This is a clever move in that it allows Acer to offer a roomy drive without pushing the S3’s price into the stratosphere. It’s a 320GB drive, over double the SSD drive capacities typically offered.

Rounding things out, Acer has pre-installed a good selection of apps. These range from the genuinely useful (such as Microsoft Office Starter, plus a 60-day trial of McAfee internet security), through to shovel-ware (the Kobo App and Acer Games, plus a number of Acer utilities).

The S3’s dual-core Intel Core i5 – the same ultra-low voltage CPU as used in the MacBook Air –is a great choice as it doesn’t overheat and is easy on batteries. With 4GB of RAM on board, the S3 feels pretty zippy.

Verdict? The Acer Aspire S3 is the first ultrabook I’ve managed to get my hands on, and it definitely impressed. – New Zealand Herald.

Private schools throughout South Africa have told parents that their children will require iPads, according to a newspaper report.

Johannesburg - Elite private schools have told parents that their children will require iPads, according to a newspaper report on Thursday.

Kingsmead Girls' College sent a letter to parents informing them that iPad 2 tablets would be used for teaching Grades Six and Eight from July, the Times reported.

Saheti, in Bedfordview, and King David, in Linksfield, were also using the tablets.

Use of the high-tech gadgets - which cost R5 000 each - in elite schools was in stark contrast to many government schools where simple teaching support material was often hard to come by.

Education psychologist Melanie Hartgill said the move would increase the information divide between rich and poor schools.

“The rapid adoption of information technology infrastructure at private schools is widening the gap between the haves and have-nots.”

One disadvantage of tablet teaching was that listening skills could be under developed.

IT expert Arthur Goldstuck said an advantage of the technology was that children with handwriting problems were able to keep up with the class through typing.

Director of electronic education for the education department, Phil Mnisi, said a white paper was produced for the introduction of internet connectivity to schools.

At present only 23 percent of schools had internet access.

Equal Education spokesman Doram Isaacs said 3600 schools did not even have electricity, and it would be decades before South African schools caught up with present technology.

He said poor schools should still be experimenting with technology such as tablet education. - Sapa

South Africa’s leading gadget magazine has announced the country’s best gadgets for the year.

Johannesburg - Stuff, South Africa’s leading gadget magazine, has announced the country’s best gadgets for the year.

Sony Ericsson featured among the 11 winners from 74 contenders shortlisted in 11 categories as well the results for the Product of the Year in the Best Youth Phone category which involved a survey among a group of over 5 000 South African consumers.

The 2011 Gadget Awards saw the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active coming out tops for the Sports & Fitness Gadget of the Year. The Xperia Active is a dust proof and water resistant compact smartphone for those with an active lifestyle.

The Android device sports Reality Display with a Mobile BRAVIA Engine and a 5mp camera with HD video functionality. Xperia active uniquely incorporates wet finger tracking, to ensure the phone works perfectly when either the screen or a user’s fingers are wet.

The Xperia PLAY was awarded top place as Product of the Year in the Best Youth Phone category in a consumer survey. The Xperia PLAY is the first PlayStation Certified device with access to most major titles on the Android Market.

“Sony Ericsson is extremely proud to be accoladed for these two awards and we look forward to going into 2012 on a positive foot and raising the bar with new and innovative products.” commented Colin Williamson, marketing manager at Sony Ericsson South Africa.

Hitachi will “terminate television production by the end of September” in Japan.

Tokyo - Japanese high-tech giant Hitachi said on Monday it will stop making televisions by the end of September as intense price competition hurts TV earnings at many electronics manufacturers worldwide.

Hitachi will “terminate television production by the end of September” in Japan, said Sayori Nishino, a company spokeswoman, having already outsourced overseas TV manufacturing to foreign firms in 2009.

But it will still sell televisions branded with its “Wooo” logo made by contractors.

For Japanese manufacturers in various sectors the surging yen has weighed on sales in foreign markets by making Japan-made products more expensive, as well as reducing the value of repatriated earnings.

Ratings agency Moody's last week downgraded both Sony and Panasonic, citing losses in the two firms' TV divisions, among other factors.

Television manufacturers around the world have been badly hit by rampant competition and minuscule margins, making profits difficult to squeeze out with consumers increasingly unwilling to shell out sky-high prices for sets. - AFP