Apple iPhone 4 exclusive review

Apple’s iPhone 4 will make a mark on June 24th in 5 countries France, US, Germany, UK and Japan and for all the enthusiasts the pre-booking for the iPhone 4 will commence from June 15th.

The iPhone 4 is a stainless steel bound cased in a structural integrity with an antenna system.

The phone is crafted with glass covering in the front and the back. When compared to iPhone 3GS it is 24% leaner with just 9.33 mm thickness. Apple claims that iPhone 4 is the smallest, most powerful smartphone on the planet.

A 3.5” display with 78% of the iPad pixels it has a touch screen. The front camera has a resolution of 960 x 640 or 4 times the resolution when compared to its first three models.

It’s rated at 326ppi that is beyond the human eye distinction and termed as the “Retina Display”, reports Apple. The display technology is akin to iPad and offers an IPS Display which has 800:1 contrast.

The iPhone 4’s rear camera is of 5 mega pixels and apart from all the other obvious features it has been made compatible with iMovie, a movie editing application which is available for $4.99 in the App stores.

The iPhone 4 has been made handy for 3G browsing at 6 hours, offers 10 hours with Wi-Fi browsing, 7 hours of 3G talking, and 10 hours of video. The iPhone has been made available in both white and black colors.

MacBook Pro Core i7 review

While the MacBook Pro is just another Intel-based computer with standard internals, slightly inflated price tags, and a familiar (if legendary) design sense, Apple having the absolute corner on the market for building machines that legitimately run OS X can be a little rough on the upgrade obsessed. Waiting 10 months for a new computer, without an industry full of hungry competitors with wild alternatives to quench your thirst, can be difficult, and the January launch of Intel's new Core i5 and Core i7 chips for laptops further fueled the saliva. Still, Apple would like you to believe these new MacBook Pros with their 2010-ready internals and same-as-last-year good looks have been worth the wait. Find out for yourself in our full review after the break.

Look and feel

It's almost silly to talk about the look and feel of the MacBook Pro, because outside of the ExpressCard for SD card swap (grrr) and the sealed in battery (conflicted grrr), both of which happened in last year's refresh, the laptop has remained virtually unchanged externally for almost two years. Of course, that's not at all a bad thing. Despite many pretenders to the throne, Apple is still the class leader in looks, with an understated aluminum and glass design that isn't close to going out of style.

Still, we have a few gripes about the design in actual use that we wouldn't have minded Apple addressing in this round. First off, the sharp aluminum edges scream classy, but they also cut into the wrist when we're at an ergonomic disadvantage. We don't need pillows, but some mild concession to our human flesh would be nice. There's also the frustration of the too-close-together and too-few-in-number USB ports of the left side. It's one thing to have only two USB plugs, but when putting a thumb drive in one obscures the other you have a real problem. A standard HDMI port would also be nice, but we know Apple has its principles.

The other major problem we've had with previous generations of the unibody MacBook Pros is the use of the bottom plate as a secondary heat sink of sorts -- which turns our lap into a tertiary heat sink in the process. Happily we can say the situation has been much improved in the new version, at least in average use, though it's still possible to get the machine to uncomfortable temperatures with a little bit of effort. Sure, it's nice that there's hardly any fan noise ever, but at some point the laptop becomes hot on top as well, causing our left palm and wrist to sweat -- we'd say that's as good a time as any for the fan to kick into gear.

Keyboard, touchpad and screen

No big surprise, but we couldn't feel a single difference between the new keyboard and the last generation. We love the island keyboard aesthetically, but part of us still pines for those old, indented Apple laptop keys.

One of the biggest changes to the new models, as silly as it sounds, is the "inertial scrolling" Apple has added to the touchpad. This is very much like the motion on the iPhone (though of course you still use two fingers to scroll), or the motion available with some free-spinning scroll wheel mice, allowing the page to coast a little before slowing to a stop. It's completely intuitive, comfortable, and helpful, but if you loathe it for some reason you can turn it off in system preferences. According to Apple it's only a software change, but as far as this showing up on existing systems with glass trackpads, Apple's lips are sealed.

Sadly the review model we were provided doesn't have the new high resolution display option -- 1680 x 1050 instead of the standard 1440 x 900, which seems like a no brainer upgrade at $100 -- so we can't speak to that panel's quality. Still, our boring old pixel-poor display is still a pleasure, with 100 percent brightness often a bit much indoors, great color, and great viewing angle. Up next to our 6 month old previous-gen MacBook Pro, we'd say the colors are just a tad warmer and blacks just a tad deeper, but Apple claims the LCDs are at least specced exactly the same.

Performance, graphics and battery life

This is really where everything is at for these new machines. Apple's finally upgraded to the Core 2010 processors, which bring with them cores galore, along with Turbo Boost tech for automatic overclocking of the chip based on demand. Software utilization of multiple cores has come a long way, but it's still not perfect, so Turbo Boost switches off a couple of the extra cores when they're not needed to make room for overclocking of the remaining cores -- to pretty dramatic effect at times. We're testing out the top-of-the-line 2.66GHz Core i7 machine with NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512MB graphics, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB HDD, which retails for $2,199.

We aren't what you would call power users in a rendering-Pixar-movies sort of way, but we can still tax a machine just fine. We're usually running a couple browsers at once, frequently batch process piles of photos, edit videos the quick and dirty way in iMovie or QuickTime, and dabble with GarageBand from time to time. Slowdowns and hiccups are the norm on even the best machine with what we've got going on. Unsurprisingly, Core i7 hasn't made this all go away. Instead, it's just made it happen less. It's obvious that the machine can juggle just a bit more at once, launch apps a bit faster, pop open dialogues just a bit quicker, and so forth. Of course, this is all hard to quantify and is rather subjective, but we feel it.

To really bust on the processor more specifically we fired up some Flash video, pitting our new Core i7 Pro against an "old" MacBook Pro with a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of RAM. Both machines are actually pretty strong when running a single bit of Flash at a time, but it's when a couple dozen tabs are open all slamming the processor at once that things get difficult. We fired up Hulu in 480p (the new Glee episode) and a 1080p Avatar trailer on YouTube with both machines managing to keep both videos playing smoothly. Once we added a second 1080p YouTube trailer on each machine, however, the Core 2 Duo machine began to choke, while the Core i7 juggled all three videos successfully.

On a more empirical front we ran some HTML and Flash tests using GUIMark. With Firefox 3.6.3 and Flash 10.0.45.2, we managed 21.31 FPS on HTML and 21.04 FPS on Flash on the new machine, while the old MBP only managed 15.99 FPS and 16.1 FPS, respectively.

We also tried out a 720p video export in iMovie. Of course the GPU gets called in for previewing live effects and whatnot, and we found the entire UI very responsive, but video exports are still a CPU affair, and the new machine thrashed the old one with a 5 minute export vs. 9 minutes.

Here are some more standard benchmarks:

	GeekBench	XBench OpenGL	XBench CPU	XBench Thread
MacBook Pro 15 - 2010 (2.66GHz Core i7, NVIDIA GT 330M)	5395	228.22	218.96	486.60
MacBook Pro 15 - 2009 (2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA 9600M)	3700	163.44	188.62	319.58

Now to the issue of GPU switching. We had a long talk with Apple where they explained to us how this technology is different than Optimus (at least in the software implementation, it's obviously the same card underneath), and we're pretty impressed with what Apple has pulled off. Basically, Optimus turns on the GPU if its needed, and then runs both the Intel graphics and the discrete card simultaneously, pushing the GPU-produced imagery through the Intel chip before it hits your screen. Apple's solution actually switches fully between the cards seamlessly, with the Intel graphics on only in a power sipping mode but not in use at all for rendering when the NVIDIA GPU is in play. The other big difference is that Optimus detects its necessity based on a cloud-stored whitelist of apps that NVIDIA has, which could potentially become out of date or at least have difficulty in keeping up with app releases (though users get the flexibility of manually enabling apps). Meanwhile, Apple's solution is based on deeper OS-level stuff, with OS X figuring out what sorts of technologies an app is going to call on (like OpenGL, for instance) and turning on the GPU accordingly.

Still, there are drawbacks to even Apple's approach. For instance, a heavy hitter like Photoshop will turn on the GPU, even if you just leave it on in the background while you're working with some text. If you really want to sip power you'll have to quit any applications that use the GPU when they're not needed. The problem with that is that Apple isn't providing any way for people to know if an application is activating the GPU or not. We're sure there will be a 3rd party utility soon enough (Apple even agreed with our assumption), and we even understand why Apple might want to hide this info from Joe User, but we know plenty of power users who wouldn't mind having this info surfaced.

On a similar front, Apple has really outdone itself in restricting your GPU flexibility. There are only two options for automatic graphics switching: on and off. If it's on, it'll act as we've described, if switching is off then the GPU will run at all times. Apple says this only knocks the battery life down from 9 hours to 8, but since in real life we're not getting anywhere close to 9 hours of use, we're pretty sure we'd rather hang on to that "bonus" hour of juice at times and run integrated only. Part of Apple's reasoning is the fact that Intel integrated graphics are no match for the GeForce 9400M chip of last generation, but when you need to squeeze every last minute out of your battery, flexibility is key.

Luckily, most regular computing operations like browsing, writing, playing video (iTunes works fine with Intel's integrated graphics), and just hanging out work fine without discrete. In fact, one of the biggest GPU utilizers hasn't even hit the market as of this writing: Adobe's CS5 will make great use of the GPU, as do Apple's Aperture and Final Cut Pro. Games of course are the most reliant on a GPU, but unfortunately the state of gaming on the Macintosh is pretty abysmal. Your best bet is Boot Camp, and we haven't had a chance to give it a shot on this machine. As GPGPU computing (like the Apple-favored OpenCL) takes off, the GPU will be increasingly important to the average user, but for now automatic graphics switching is hardly an excuse for a regular Mac user to upgrade if they've already gone unibody.

So, how does all this added number crunching play out in battery life? Well, it's confusing, that's for sure. Since we don't have a reliable way yet of knowing when we're tapping into the GPU or not, it's hard to know exactly if what we're doing is helping or hindering battery life. Still, in regular use we're certainly not bumping past that magical 6 hour mark, and we'd have to really work for Apple's quoted 8-9 hours of battery. Through a day of "regular use," which involved some benchmarking and some iMovie, but mostly just web browsing and typing, with screen brightness hovering around 60-75 percent, WiFi on and an hour of Bluetooth we managed four hours and 34 minutes of juice. The video rundown test actually fared better, with five hours and 18 minutes of SD video with the screen at 65 percent brightness, WiFi and Bluetooth on. Those Intel graphics sure do sip power! Obviously what we assumed was "casual" use isn't so casual, and we'll be tweaking our usage of the laptop accordingly to figure out how much juice we can get -- until someone comes up with a hack to switch to integrated only, of course.

	Battery Life*
MacBook Pro 15 - 2010 (2.66GHz Core i7, NVIDIA GT 330M)	5:18
Sony VAIO Z (2.53GHz Core i5, NVIDIA GT 330M)	4:25
HP Envy 15 (1.6GHz Core i7-720QM, ATI HD 4830)	2:00

* Standard definition video rundown test, brightness 65 percent

It must be said, Apple's battery life is really industry leading when it comes to a Core i5 or Core i7 machine with discrete graphics, but compared to their already high benchmark from last generation, it seems less impressive.

Wrap-up

Basically, it's exactly what it says on the tin: a faster MacBook Pro. In fact, the biggest news here might be how little Apple is changing, or maybe the fact that the base model 15-incher is now $1,799 (instead of $1,699) due to the loss of an integrated-only option. It seems as if the tweaks Apple has made to the battery are more or less a wash, and while the added CPU power is certainly felt, there just isn't the necessary gaming contingent on the Mac to make the new GPU useful to most folks -- though the pro users that've been eyeing those pro mobile graphics cards available to their PC counterparts will certainly feel otherwise. Apple has carved an amazingly large niche out for itself by building incredibly expensive laptops incredibly well, and this generation is no exception, but we're not convinced there's enough here to warrant an upgrade for people who bit last year.

Lenovo IdeaPad U450p Review

Lenovo's IdeaPad U450p is their newest ultra-thin consumer-oriented notebook. With a 14-inch screen and Intel Ultra-Low Voltage Core 2 Duo processor, consumers can expect a mid-sized notebook that maintains a great deal of portability. Does a svelte exterior hamper the performance? Read on and find out.

Specifications:
Our Lenovo IdeaPad U450p review unit has the following specifications:

• 14-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting (220 nits, 500:1 contrast)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor (1.3GHz/3MB L2/800MHz FSB)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB graphics card
• 4GB DDR3-1066 RAM (2x 2GB)
• 320GB 5400RPM hard drive (Hitachi HTS545032B9A300)
• Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100
• Built-in Bluetooth v2.1+EDR
• 8X DVD burner
• One-year limited warranty
• 6-cell Li-ion battery (57Wh/5200mAh /11.1V)
• Weight: 4.6 lbs
• Dimensions: 13.3" (W) x 9.3" (D) x 0.9"~1.1" (H)
• MSRP: $949

Build & Design
The U450p feels much lighter and thinner in the hand than a typical 14-inch notebook. It features a traditional rectangular form factor and design with nothing in particular that stands out.

The notebook is made of high-quality plastic that is reasonably thick. Tapping the plastic with my fingernail did not result in any cheap rattling sounds. The plastic has a textured matte finish which limits the appearance of fingerprints and dust. The screen surround is the only component with a glossy plastic finish; it gets smudged up quite easily.

The chassis exhibited some mild bending when I grabbed the front two corners and twisted; this is typical of a consumer notebook and indicates that the internal frame is not as strong as it could be. The screen also had mild flex when twisted by its corners but was stronger than I expected given the thinness. Pushing in on the back of the display did not yield any ripples on the screen; that means there is some measure of protection behind the display.

Fit and finish is satisfactory; there are no rough edges and all areas of the notebook seem to have about the same level of quality. Overall the U450p neither impresses nor disappoints in the build quality department. It is more durable than its svelte shape implies and feels solid overall.

Screen & Speakers
The U450p has a 14-inch display with a glossy finish and 16:9 aspect ratio. It has LED backlighting for improved power efficiency. The screen has reasonable contrast and brightness though is not remarkable. Color reproduction is average; the display has a cool temperature at default settings. There are ten levels of brightness; I found that one notch above minimum was a good compromise between power saving and visibility while on battery.

Viewing angles are narrow; the display washes out and darkens quickly from above and below, respectively; there is noticeable color shift horizontally as well. The glossy screen finish helps colors stand out and improves clarity but results in a lot of reflections.

The U450p is available with one screen resolution only: 720p (1366x768 pixels). 720p is by far the most popular screen resolution for 14-inch consumer notebooks even though it's on the low side. We feel that 14-inch notebooks should have a 900p (1600x900 pixels) resolution at the very least. A 720p screen is best described as confining; using two windows side-by-side is difficult since there is not enough space to view them both without scrolling; it also means extra scrolling in web pages and documents. For example, only one-half of a Microsoft Word document can be viewed at once on a 720p screen.

The U450p has two stereo speakers located above the keyboard. Despite the "Dolby Sound Room" sticker they are nothing special; they sound tinny and have no measurable bass.

Keyboard & Touchpad
Lenovo generally impresses with its keyboards and touchpads and the IdeaPad U450p is no exception.

The U450p has a traditional-style keyboard, as opposed to an island or "Chiclet"-style setup. It has very good tactile feedback and a solid feel. Under normal typing pressure there is no flex. The keys have just the right amount of travel and are very communicative as a result; it is easy to tell when a key is fully pressed and keystrokes are registered. The keyboard is accurate and easy to type on quickly. The keys are made of solid-feeling plastic and give a high-quality feel.

The keyboard is quiet enough to be used in just about any environment; it actually sounds quite nice, adding to the tactile feedback.

The keyboard has a few oddities. On the plus side I liked the arched spacebar, arrow keys and rounded key edges; they all enhanced the typing experience. On the minus side I found the layout to be somewhat odd; the [Fn] and [Ctrl] keys in the bottom left corner are switched, which took getting used to. This is a holdover from Lenovo's business-oriented ThinkPad line; anyone who's used a ThinkPad keyboard will feel right at home. Additionally, the Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys on the right side of the keyboard have a non-standard arrangement and also take getting used to.

The touchpad is rather small but works well. Its matte surface is appreciated since it is easy to track on regardless of whether fingers are moist or dry. The touchpad buttons are quiet and have an excellent multi-level feel.
I did not have any general tracking issues with the touchpad. It supports multi-touch features such as two-finger scrolling and "pinching" to zoom but they work sporadically at best.

Ports & Features
The U450p has an acceptable range of inputs and outputs including HDMI (for connection to HDTVs), three USB 2.0 ports and VGA. The U450p surprisingly includes an optical drive, which is becoming less common - especially on thin-and-light notebooks. Several ports not on the U450p include eSATA, USB 3.0, and ExpressCard. All descriptions are left to right.

Front: 4-in-1 media card reader (MMC/MS/MS Pro/SD)

Rear: Battery pack

Left: Kensington Lock slot, AC-power, cooling exhaust vent, VGA, HDMI, RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB 2.0

Right: Headphone and microphone jacks, USB 2.0, wireless on/off switch, DVD burner

Performance & Benchmarks
The U450p is based on Intel's Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) platform; it has a low-power, dual-core processor and integrated ATI Radeon graphics. I used the U450p as my main notebook for the better part of a week and despite only having 1.3GHz of processing power (standard notebooks usually have 2.0GHz+), I found the performance was more than adequate for nearly everything. I experienced no lag opening or switching between applications and was able to play back 1080p video smoothly with no skipped frames. The hard drive was pleasantly responsive despite being 5400RPM (as opposed to 7200RPM).

We ran an extensive suite of benchmarks on the U450p to compare its performance to other notebooks:

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance results:

These performance numbers indicate the U450p has enough power for most applications. The integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics are significantly faster than the integrated Intel HD graphics found in most consumer notebooks but still not fast enough for most modern 3D games. Older games like Counter-Strike: Source run fairly well though.

Battery Life
The U450p has a six-cell battery (57Wh/5200mAh/11.1V). I ran two battery test scenarios; under the moderate usage scenario which included surfing the Internet and watching video I recorded three and a half hours; under the light usage scenario which included typing this review and no wireless Internet connection I recorded 6 hours. For general usage, you can expect about four hours out of the U450p.

I was expecting better battery life - Lenovo claims up to six hours, which is clearly at the upper end of what is possible on the included battery pack. The observed battery life is considerably less than what is offered by competing notebooks such as the ASUS UL30A, which gets over nine hours (with an admittedly larger battery). The Dell Inspiron 14z also gets better battery life, coming in at six hours with a battery pack less powerful than the U450p's.

Heat & Noise
Thanks to its power-saving components the U450p produces little heat. Mildly warm air is exhausted from a single vent on the left side of the notebook. Even after extensive stress testing the notebook did not get more than lukewarm on any surface. The fan is practically silent at idle and is barely audible at higher speeds. The U450p could be used just about anywhere without fear of disturbing others.

Conclusion
The U450p is a sensible choice for consumers searching for a thin-and-light notebook for home use and entertainment. It's very portable, though its battery life is disappointing compared to competing notebooks. The build quality is about average for a consumer notebook. The keyboard has excellent tactile feedback and the touchpad is easy to track on. The screen is clear and bright but should have a higher resolution for improved usability. Overall we find little to complain about and a lot to like, though nothing to get too excited over.

Pros:

• Thin and light
• Good keyboard and touchpad
• Runs cool and quiet
• Satisfactory performance
• Internal optical drive

Cons:

• Battery life not as good as expected
• Chassis flex
• Subpar speakers
• Low-resolution display

Reviews BlackBerry Curve 8520 - Fits Your Life

BlackBerry Curve 8520 - Fits Your Life

These days wherever you are people talks wildly about SMARTPHONE. To gets connected to people socially and update information in general. Today blackberry has introduced the new CURVE 8520 at its average price in between 10 to 13 thousand baht. Blackberry has recently introduced its market concentrating on younger market segment.

Even thought, Blackberry Curve 8520 has its lower price than other models but its function does not degrade. This new Curve 8520 has its screen QVGA screen of 2.46 inch. The new Curve uses the optical track pad to indicate your selection. 8520 also enable the connectivity via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth sharing. RIM has been composing and supporting

social networks through both E-mail service and Blackberry Messenger. This version of the Curve has stored the internal 2 million pixels camera with on board memory of 256 MB. It is an optional for user to slot extra Micro SD card to back up and store your media ...

Blackberry Curve 8520 smart phone has its new design feature to the previous version. The design is black shiny and outlined edges with black rubber around the device. This is a perfect material for protecting the convenience keys and it does fit in your hand right! RIM only produce new 8520 in two colors are black and white. The measurement dimension of its height 108.8 mm, width 60 mm and thickness 14 mm. The weight of the new curve including battery is 106 gm.

Most of the Blackberry models versions are stored the speaker above its logo. The speaker in every Blackberry models is stored beneath inner phone. The LED indication lead light showing the phone status is stored next to its speaker.

The TFT screen is 65K and resolution of 320 * 240 pixels. The diagonal measurement from point to point is 6.1 cm.

The controller is an optical stored beneath the screen, it design to look like it is flatten to the screen. The controller is surely look like touch screen, on the same screen itself has Calling, Menu (BB icon), Optical Controller (Track Pad), Return Key, and End Call (Device switch off).

The new 8520 keyboard is QWERTY, when on hand is convenience for typing and dialing. On keyboard there is a short cut for locking keypad, “sym” icon to bring up Symbol or Special characters, Speaker phone On and Off button, Shift button for capital letter, Alt button for more writing style, Enter key, “Del” backspace and “Space” for Spacebar.

On the back of the device, the Black rubber area is indicate above, bottom and side edge. On the top left corner has 2 million megapixels camera without flashlight. The back cover is printed BB icon; it can be easily open by lifting using your fingertip.

After lifting the cover, there is a microSD slot where it has been build to easily insert and remove the card. This is totally opposite to the previous version; you have to eventually lift the battery before you able to store your extra memory card.ทับอยู่

This newly 8520 is a device that influences music lover with Play/Pause (This button allow user to mute incoming call tone), Forward and Reverse track.

Microphone for both speaking and recording are beneath the device.

Left hand side of the phone thickness is able to connect blackberry earphone and below to plug in your USB and charger cable. And beneath the USB port is a convenience key, where you can set go to Option>Screen/Keyboard>Left Side Convenience Key Opens>Then, Select your prefer application.

Right hand side of the phone thickness is able to adjust volume and below to push convenience key, where you can set go to Option>Screen/Keyboard>Left Side Convenience Key Opens>Then, Select your prefer application.

Push the Blackberry key icon on your main keyboard to open up full application list (it does view in grids). User can easily scroll up and down, side ways to make selection. Track pad is your navigation key to all selecting application and function.

Contacts; is a function where user keeps storing and organizing contact list. To create new contact name and number, user can push Blackberry icon to view full menu and to select “New Contact”. At this stage, user can place thumbnail image of a person and able to add more little details.

Instant Messaging; is an option include all E-mail, MMS, SMS, BBM (Blackberry Messages), and including message setting.

Calendar; is a function able to mark a certain date, or week of appointment. It cans eventually sets an alert style by pushing the Blackberry icon on Keyboard to select full menu option.

Browser; has this application for user to connect to internet, to create new bookmark and to view your previous web entering.

Truemove wap; is an optional truemove service for downloading latest content.

Media; contains different list of multi media functions are Music, Videos, Ring Tones, Pictures and Voice Notes.

Map; is a program what have been stored to view your current location (in Thailand), to view your direction (real time) and also display in Thai language.

Clock; once user has entered clock mode will appears full screen with time. Clock interface can change up to 4 different styles are Analog, Digital, Flip Clock (is cool), and LCD Digital. Alarm mode and Stopwatch are in the menu function.

Camera; within camera function, user can easily switch to video camera by pushing Blackberry icon to call out full menu and then user will select video camera.

SMS and MMS; is an option include all E-mail, MMS, SMS, BBM (Blackberry Messages), and including message setting.

Navigation and Typing Tutorials; is an introduction to first time guiding to Tips and Tricks. User may find this introductory under “Setup Wizard”.

Search; is a tool helps user finding Messages, Encrypted Messages, Calendar, Contacts, MemoPad, Blackberry Messenger, and Tasks.

Music; a user can play current music separately from Media menu.

Messengers; optional OTA (Over The Air) downloads applications are Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, and Blackberry Messenger for only Blackberry smart phone device.

Applications; includes all stationary programs are MemoPad, Tasks, Calculator, Word To Go, Sheet To Go, Slideshow To Go, Video Camera, Voice Notes Recorder Voice Dialing, Password Keeper, and Call Log.

Games; just take a few minute to enjoy BB Games such as BrickBreaker, Word Mole, Sudoku and Klondike. Games are extra download, user can goes to Browser>click on Google search engine and write “OTA Cure 8520 Games”>then enter. Be remind to write OTA follow by device version and then user require (Game, Theme, Software, etc.), this additional will automatically download to your device.

Download; this is a folder where user download and will first be kept. It can be move to or between folders later on.

Setup Wizard; this function is enable your main setup for Language, Date and Time, navigation and typing Tutorials, Email Setup, Setup Wi-Fi, Setup Bluetooth, Import Sim Card Contacts, Font and Help.

Profile; is located on the main screen above on user left hand corner. Use track pad to select and make a change either Loud, Vibrate, Quiet, Normal (Active), Phone Only, and Off or Advanced to edit personally.

Manage Connections; function for user able to modify Service Status, Wi-Fi Setup, and Bluetooth Setup.

Options; is a list of all in smart phone setup listed in alphabetical order are MMS, SMS, Incoming Call Tone, Wi-Fi Connection, Voice Dialing, Security Option, GPS Extended Ephemeris, Theme, Language, Date/Time, Status (where your BB pin is), Memory, Screen/Keyboard, Mobile Network, Owner, Bluetooth, and Auto On/Off.

Keypad Lock; user can hold down an “A” letter on keyboard to lock, and to unlock press “A” and then Call sign. Above the device in the middle between Forward and Reverse track hold down to enable Stand By mode.

Device Switch Off; is to hold down Power or Call Off sign for a second until alert showing “Turning Handheld Off”. To switch the device back on, easily press the same button once.

* Incase of device frozen, to restart the device (Soft Reset) press alt>right Shift >del. Hold down until user see screen disappear with red LED light shown.

Main Screen Activity

On main screen, user will see there are six icons beneath appearing. These icons can rearrange by pressing option (BB icon) and click move. Normally, standard setup from factory default will have those six icons arranged are Messages, Contacts, Calendar, Browser, Truemove wap, and Media. Once the device has been setting up push mail service into Blackberry, a new envelope icon will appear. Your personalize Profile Setting is able to switch to different style by moving user track pad upward. To manage your wallpaper appearance goes to picture folder view current image and then select an option and click “Set as Home Screen Image”.

Blackberry Messenger

BBM has now release version 5 for all Blackberry user. BBM has the ability to text messaging using keyboard QWERTY, voice note recording and transferring maximum length of less than a minute. The alternative of other files sharing are Send Picture, Send Voice Note, Send File, and Send Location from Google map or Blackberry Map. Your image can caption and save for self-info display on BBM. BBM is enable user to chat within a group created.

E-Mail

Before using push mail from user existing account to must first simple setup step by step. First, go to Menu>Setup>E-mail Settings and then user will simply follow the instruction. Email service as push mail to Blackberry device can import up to 10 E-Mail accounts are such as Window Live (Hotmail/MSN/Live), Yahoo AOL, Gmail, and many more. Composing a new e-mail must click on (BB icon) and then click on Compose Email within the e-mail user have created on screen. Finally the e-mail is ready to compose and able to ass CC to other recipent as well. Attaching file, user command Track Pad to main body paragraph and push on to (BB icon) to call out Menu and scroll to find “Attach File”.

After all the E-Mail setup has completed, an icon of the new envelope with global sign shown. This does consider your E-Mail accout is active on your Blackberry device.

* In additon, if an error occurs after the setting user may see under Network Status just to be sure if it has been switch on. After, then repeat user E-Mail Setup again.

Contacts

An address book where most of all user can add contact; Title, Full Name, Picture, Company, Job Title, Email, Work, Work 2, Home, Home 2, Mobile, Pager, Fax, PIN and work Address. As if user would want to visible contact list from Sim card, then user must push (BB icon) and looks for “SIM Phone Book”.

Appointment and Meeting Alert

Calendar is where user can setup New Alarm alert, and beside that current date and week and time will be on top of the screen. Trackpad is user navigation to select a certain date and to create an alerting by going to (BB icon) and after select “New Alarm”. Calendar can be view deferently by clicking (BB icon)>Options>Grneral Options>Formatting.

User may type in either English or Thai to mark appointment or upcoming meeting to the current date, time, and even places.

Browser

User may use the smartphone device to connect to Internet using Browser via Wi-Fi. To connect using Wi-Fi, user may need to first setup the device to detect neariest wireless reception. The Wi-Fi setups will first guide user step by step to assure the device is detecting. Wi-Fi will automatically search possible wireless and will ask user to put in password. User may save the location username and password so next time it will remember.

If user Wi-Fi does not find any active wireless, from mobile service user can connect using EDGE or GPRS. Within the Browser user can create bookmark and view your recent web entered. To add more Bookmark user push (BB icon) and choose Bookmarks. This is an optional for user to create new sub-folder. User can type in Thai writing then follow by URL or the web address.

Pictures Album

Pictures album is under Media application; user may see three folders are, All Pictures, Picture Folders, and Sample Pictures in listed. User can access to shortcut entering to Camera mode above the listed. After enter into Picture Folders, images are view in grids depending on personal setting. User images Thumbnails Per Row can be set 3 / 4 / 5 per row. To active the slide show images user may do that by going to “ View Slide Show” and the “Slide Show Interval” can be adjust per view in second up to 15 seconds. While user in the Picture application by pushing (BB icon) there is a full menu represent image tools are Zoom, Rotate, Fit to Screen, View Actual Size, Set As Home Screen Image, Reset Home Screen Image, Properties (Image) and Set As Caller ID.

Videos player

Video can be read in these type of formats are MPEG 4 / H.263 / H.264/ WMV3. User Videos may store under mobile memory or the external Micro SD Card. Within the player, beneath the screen there is playing menu and time tracking. User can simply use Track Pad to scroll back or forward.

Music player

Music can be read in these type of formats are MP3, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AAC-LC, WMA9 (.wma/.asf) and WMA9 PRO/WMA 10. Under Music list will show user in type of prefers music playing as All Songs, Artist, Albums, Genres, Playlists, Sample Songs and Shuffle Songs. This Music player has similar feature to the Videos player but the only different is in the menu (BB icon). On the menu list there are option for player to play differently are Repeat, Shuffle or to Set As Right Tone.

Voice Dialing

User can make call or to check the status of the phone at current by speaking out “Call” then follow contact name or to check current phone status by saying “Check” follow by function such as Telephone Status, Service Status or Battery Level.

Camera

Camera in this latest Curve 8520 has resolution of 2 million mega pixels and it can be using both on camera and on video recording. User will use Track Pad to navigate up and down as commanding Zoom-in and Zoom-out. To push the Track Pad straight down will capture an image, and to give the camera different effects and other user preference options like Flash Setting, White Balance, Picture Quality, and Color Effect.

Camera Mode Quality

• Picture Size; (Large) 1600*1200, (Medium) 1,024*768 and (Small) 640*480
• Zoom; up to 5 times
• Picture Quality; Super Fine, Fine and Normal
• White Balance; Automatic, Sunny, Cloudy, Night, Incandescent and Fluorescent
• Color Effect; Normal, Black & White and Sepia

Video Mode Quality

• Video Format; (Normal) 320*240
  - Bitrate 779 Kbps, Frame rate 15.085 per second
• Color Effect; Normal, Black & White and Sepia
• Video recording include voice in 3GP format
• Zoom; up to 5 times (While recording user may not able to maximize or to minimi

Special thanks. : RIM - Research In Motion (Singapore)
http://www.siamphone.com