torch

Nokia Ovi Store hits 3 million daily downloads

Nokia's Ovi Store has officially hit 3 million downloads per day.

The Finnish mobile phone maker attributed the new milestone to higher global demand for its apps and new smartphones sporting the more user-friendly Symbian 3 operating system.

In late September, Nokia began shipping its N8 smartphone, its first to run under Symbian 3, followed a couple of weeks later by the second Symbian 3 phone, the C7. The new version of Symbian has brought with it a greater variety of new apps in the Ovi Store.

Nokia has also been working hard to lure in more developers. In … Read more

Apple hits ranks of top five mobile phone vendors

It sells just a single smartphone, but Apple is now the world's fourth largest mobile phone supplier, according to the "Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker" report released yesterday by IDC.

Thanks to record shipments of the iPhone 4, which arrived on the U.S. market at the start of the summer, Apple shot past several other mobile phone vendors, landing in fourth place ahead of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. For the third quarter, Apple shipped 14.1 million phones, 1.7 million more than RIM and 3.7 million more than Sony Ericsson, which fell out of the top five list for the first time since 2004. This was also the quarter in which the iPhone 4 reached 17 additional countries to establish its beachhead worldwide. With heavy demand for smartphones, Apple also joined RIM as the second smartphone-only vendor among the top five.… Read more

BlackBerry Torch gets software update

A software update is now available for the RIM BlackBerry Torch, and it should bring improvements to the overall performance of the smartphone.

The update (Release bundle v6.0.0.695, Platform v6.4.0.105/Application v6.0.0.246) will pushed out to users over the next week and a half and includes the following enhancements:

Quicker page loading and panning in the Web browser

Improved responsiveness after unlocking the phone

Faster launching, switching, and exiting of applications

Smoother transitions when switching between home screen panels

Faster rendering of thumbnails in the photo gallery

Improved audio quality

Smoother … Read more

Ask Maggie: On mobile frustrations

Smartphones are supposed to liberate mobile phone users, but often they just give wireless subscribers big fat headaches.

A cool new phone comes out and you're dying to get it. But wait. You don't have the right carrier and therefore your dreams of a fancy upgrade are dashed unless you switch wireless service providers. This is an all too familiar scenario for almost every wireless customer.

In this week's Ask Maggie column, I answer one reader's question about when I think the new BlackBerry Torch might come to Sprint Nextel. Currently, the latest BlackBerry from Research … Read more

Inside, BlackBerry Torch lags Droid, iPhone

The BlackBerry Torch 9800, though a high-end smartphone, is not in the same league internally as the Motorola Droid or Apple iPhone.

Let's state up front that the Torch is a BlackBerry, which is to say it's for the corporate market and doesn't necessarily aspire to be a more consumer-centric Motorola Droid or Apple iPhone. That said, the display and the internals don't scream cutting edge, either.

At 3.2 inches diagonally and with a 480-by-360 resolution, the Torch's touch screen does not compare very favorably to the 3.5-inch 960-by-640 resolution iPhone 4 screen or the 3.7-inch 480-by-854 resolution display on the Droid 2.

And the screen is really a window into a smartphone's internals, as typically the larger, higher-resolution displays require the latest and greatest silicon inside to power them.

Which brings us to the Torch's main processor: it's a Marvell application processor running at 624MHz, essentially… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1293: 3-D has arrived! (podcast)

It's long-accepted wisdom in the tech world that when the porn industry adopts a technology, that technology has arrived. Sadly for all of us, that day has arrived for 3-D. No, seriously. 3-D porn. Soft-core, thank goodness. Also, how HBO is trying to Benjamin us to death, why Windows Phone 7 might turn out to be cool after all, and the RIAA trying to force FM radios into all cell phones. No, really!

BlackBerry Torch already being sold at discount

The BlackBerry Torch, which launched Thursday, is being offered at a discount on Amazon.com and other online retailers.

According to Amazon's Torch page, the smartphone is being sold for $99.99--as of this writing. The device's official price is $199.99.

The smartphone from Research In Motion is being offered for $99.99 at Wirefly, as well. At AT&T stores and on AT&T's Web site, the device is still selling for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

On Monday, meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that analysts were disappointed with Torch sales. … Read more

Best Clogging the Tubes ever

This week's Buzz Report is one of our best ever, if you're a fan of highly inappropriate humor (and we are). Gadget of the Week: the BlackBerry Torch, plus we check out the news that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are working on banning BlackBerry there because it's too secure. We say goodbye to Google Wave, report the shocking news that the next iPad may have a camera, and take the FBI to task for spending more time on Internet censorship than solving crimes.

Then, things get really good. Clogging the Tubes this week is the amazing autotuned Bed Intruder song, … Read more

BlackBerry OS 6 hands-on

The RIM BlackBerry Torch will be the first device to run BlackBerry OS 6, but you won't necessarily have to get a new smartphone to enjoy the revamped operating system.

RIM said that BlackBerry OS 6 will be available for a select number of older models in the coming months, including the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and the BlackBerry Bold 9650 (as well as new and upcoming devices like RIM BlackBerry Pearl 3G), so if you own one of these phones, you'll be able to experience some of the new OS features as broken down here by CNET's … Read more

Dialed In: 137: When it's not about the iPhone

Believe it or not, we manage to make it through a whole podcast without barely mentioning the iPhone! Sure, it comes up just for a second, but we spend the majority of the time discussing desserts that begin with the letter "H". If anyone at Google is listening, we're down to "Honeycake" or "Hamantash" for the next Android update beyond the forthcoming "Gingerbread" release.

Speaking of Android, we spend time in this episode talking about how Froyo looks on the HTC Evo 4G. Kent thinks it looks great, but no one … Read more