Reviews

Conclusions from testing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery

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BlackBerry_Bold_9700_battery

Testing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery has been an interesting experience. I always thought consumer electronics manufacturers embellished their battery life expectancies in order to impress the buyer. In this case, RIM has actually slightly under-stated the Bold 9700’s battery life, and really proved themselves to be an honest company when it comes to their battery life marketing. Could we say the same for Apple? I challenge TIPB to do the same with the iPhone, and see if it can play 39 hours of music off radio and last 29 hours with heavy usage. Speaking of Apple…the BlackBerry Bold 9700 lasts longer than the best iPod.
Click through to read more about the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery

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Stress Test: How long can the BlackBerry Bold 9700 play music? (Part 2)

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BlackBerry_Bold9700_battery_test

UPDATE: The Bold 9700 battery just died. The BlackBerry Cool official time is 19:22, exactly 29 hours. This is 29 hours while using the device heavily. Let’s see an iPhone do that!

UPDATE: 16:19 and 26 hours into the test, with 10% battery left. Part 2 of the test has sort of changed. It started off as a test of the music playback under more strenuous network conditions and has turned into a test of how long the battery will last under power user conditions. I’ve been playing music, tweeting, taking pics, using Google Maps, running several other apps simultaneously, making and taking calls and constantly pulling data from both Maps and Twitter. There was a break when I went to sleep but I left all the connections and apps running so it was still very much active.

UPDATE: 14:16, 24 hours into the test, and the battery is at 25%. Something I’ve noticed is that making calls depletes the battery much faster than anything else. I knew this intuitively but the test really made it obvious. Streaming music doesn’t seem to have much impact on battery life at all.

UPDATE: 10:40 went through the night and we’ve been back on WiFi, radio for a couple hours. At 30% and around 20 hours we’re definitely going a full day no problem.

UPDATE: It’s 02:29, 12 hours into the test. The batter reads 40% and I have been using a very decent amount of apps and data. Holding the BlackBerry Button, it shows the following apps: Messages, UberTwitter, Home Screen, BlackBerry Messenger, Media, Radio Companion, Setup Wizard (I switch devices a lot), Visual Voice Mail, Google Maps, Browser, Gmail and Phone. I’m going to give the updates a rest until around 8 AM.
Click through for more about the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery life test

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T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9700 impressions, video and pics

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The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the latest update to the Bold series and it’s all the specs you would expect from a Bold device, slightly upgraded and in a smaller form factor. Like many of the devices we have been seeing from RIM lately, it is a hybrid device, combining the power of the Bold with the design of a Curve 8900.

The Bold 9700 from T-Mobile ships with OS 5.0.0.330, which is a welcomed update to the device. What is less positive about the launch is that the device doesn’t ship with the latest version of BlackBerry Messenger. The T-Mobile Bold 9700 ships with BlackBerry Messenger version 4.7.0 rather than 5.0 (this is based on the device I’m holding in my hand). Ideally, T-Mobile and RIM would have at least had a warning message of some sort that tells users where they can get the latest version of BBM.
Click through for more impressions, pictures and video of the Bold 9700

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Verizon BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 impressions and details

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blackberry storm 9550

The new BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 by Verizon is shaping up to be the BlackBerry touchscreen device we’ve all been waiting for. I remember back when Mike Lazaridis was taking criticism for the original Storm and his response was “sorry it was the number 3 selling smartphone in North America. I wish it could have been number 1.” Well this is the second time out the gate and they definitely have it right this time.

Will sales of the Storm 2 beat the original Storm? If the hardware is the deciding factor I would say yes. But what about all those who have bought the original Storm? How many will upgrade? How many new touchscreen BlackBerry users will this device convert? These are all questions that will have to wait to be answered until after the device launches, which we expect to happen in early November. Some are suggesting late October and this could also be true. We’re seeing a lot of leaks happening which means we are approaching launch date. Until then, lets take a look at the pre-release version of the Verizon BlackBerry Storm 2 aka 9550.

Click through to read more about the Verizon BlackBerry Storm 9550

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Remote Desktop for BlackBerry by SHAPE reviewed

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RDM_screenshot_7

RDM+: Remote Desktop for Mobiles, from SHAPE Services is exactly what its name implies, a remote desktop manager, and a pretty good one at that! As we go through this review, keep in mind you will have to install the computer-side client on the machine you want to remote to.

Here’s the quick rundown of features:

  • All connection types are supported: BES, BIS, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi and HTTP connection are supported.
  • Blackberry joystick and keyboard navigation.
  • New Feature for Storm! Enlarging Glass:Touch and enlarge any fragment of the Desktop.
  • User interface is available in two languages: English and German.
  • Quick commands. You can use quick commands for starting/stopping system services and processes, viewing the list of desktop windows, checking system performance, displaying system information and rebooting or shutting down your computer.
  • One-time fee. All further updates are free.
  • All data, screen images, mouse movement and keys are encrypted for security reasons.
  • You can create a password when starting up application. Without this password no one can access your client address book.
  • Executing any console commands (like ping, netstat, ipconfig) is available.
  • History feature allows to find and re-send stored commands.
  • Full-screen view and zooming. In full-screen mode you can see the remote screen on the entire screen of your device. Zoomed mode lets you see enlarged fragment of the desktop in more detail. In zoomed mode you can also scroll the desktop up/down, right/left.
  • Switch between different modes using the predefined and your own hotkeys and create device-specific keys for mouse click and open desktop menu.
  • Navigational mini-map of your desktop which appears in the right upper corner while you scroll. Wi-Fi detection on your device.

Continue reading a review of Remote Desktop Manager for BlackBerry

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Photobucket Mobile Uploader for BlackBerry impressions

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jeans

We have had the Photobucket Mobile Uploader here at the office for some time now and it’s a great application because of it’s simplicity.

We all know photobucket as one of the biggest and best managed image hosting and sharing sites out there. Photobucket Mobile Uploader is an application geared towards getting your pictures off your smartphone automatically. It quietly uploads them every ten minutes to your your choice of Photobucket account, email, and PC . You can also force an update if you need to post a pic right away.

The app is simple and clean with no hiding of options with a menu hierarchy. There are also no pop-up “are you sure?” bubbles which makes sense because the only time you’re going to actually be in the application is for configuration. The uploader allows to to use your camera freely while it takes care of the photo management.

After snapping a few photographs, I realized that I didn’t give a second thought as to when my next sync or file transfer will be: it was all taken care of.

If you’re a T-Mobile customer, pick your device and download Photobucket for Blackberry.

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Verizon BlackBerry 9550 aka Storm 2 – What Do You Want To Know?

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Verizon Storm 2 - 9550

Although it seems like an eternity, the BlackBerry Storm has only been for sale for almost a year.  RIM went back and reworked with mechanics of their touch screen and cooked up a new(er) operating system. 

Now, we at BlackBerryCool.com have gotten our hands on a pre-released 9550.  Yes, the screen rebound is much better, thanks to the shortened travel distance, and we’re enjoying the more responsive keyboard.  Both of these aspects have been significantly improved. 

Instead of writing a review of a pre-release device, we’d like to know what burning questions you have about the device.  We’ll work to answer them.  Again, considering that this is a pre-release device, there are still bugs, quirks and gremlins clearly running wild. 

So drop us a line on what you’d like to know and we’ll do our best to answer your questions!

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Empower Threaded SMS Viewer Review

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empower_screenshot021

One of my favorite apps on my BlackBerry is the new BlackBerry Messenger 5. The features, UI, and style all make messaging an awesome experience. One of my favorite features is the threaded messaging capabilities used. Sadly, this is a feature left behind when it comes to SMS on the BlackBerry. Supposedly, this is a feature soon to be coming to BlackBerry OS 5 in the future. While we wait for RIM to introduce truly threaded SMS I went on a search for third party apps to bring this much needed feature to my phone.
Continue reading the Empower Threaded SMS Viewer Review

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Custom BlackBerry Showcase: Black Denim and Turkish Snakeskin

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snake

Snakeskin battery cover, yellow scroll ball, and Turkcell carrier bottom panel.

In the past couple of years we’ve seen BlackBerry go from a business-oriented uber pager, into the swiss-army knife of smartphone entertainment and productivity it is today. With so many high-end devices on the street, my Bold is no longer as special as it was when it first launched late last year. Time for a change that will elevate my device ten floors above the pedestrian and into the penthouse.

The Bold was the first BlackBerry that could be easily customized with interchangeable battery covers. On launch they had red and blue faux leather, now there are dozens of battery covers available from gold snakeskin to pink denim. We got our custom kits from Cellular Nationwide Network: an OEM parts distributor with a thorough selection of BlackBerry custom parts and quick shipping.

For these custom devices we wanted to switch the silver bezel and buttons out for a matte black set, I also wanted to switch carrier tags to add some international flavor. Ordering a battery back is simple enough but for these other modifications we’re going to have to so some disassembling and warranty voiding. Taking the device apart was simple enough, putting it back together is a little tough so here’s a disassembly guide just in case.

I would like to note how light the BlackBerry Bold’s guts are without the battery and external housing. To me the bold is a computer in every sense, but taken apart it weighs about as much as an Oreo.

denim-2
Black denim battery cover, black scroll ball, matte black bezel with blank carrier bottom panel, and a set of black buttons.

If you’ve done any BlackBerry case modifications that you’d like to share please email us at tips(at)blackberrycool(dot)com.

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Top 10 themes for the BlackBerry Tour 9630

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blackberry_tour_9630

There aren’t many great themes available for the BlackBerry Tour 9630 just now. Developers are still catching up after the Plazmic CDK was found to be incompatible with the Tour. BlackBerry Cool has put together 10 of the best themes we could find for you to browse. If you know of others you like, feel free to comment.
Click through for the top 10 themes for the BlackBerry Tour 9630

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