Posted on October 18, 2009, at 12:42 am .
Police in Bedfordshire, UK, have recently completed a project to outfit 1,100 frontline officers with BlackBerry smartphones.
By rolling out the BlackBerry solution, officers are able to increase visibility in the community and improve operational efficiency. With a BlackBerry, a frontline officer can now access operation critical applications and systems. While on patrol, the BlackBerry empowered officer as remote access to the Police National Computer (PNC), the forces crime management system, intelligence database, warrants, Police National Legal Database and its custom-built briefings application.
It is estimated that a BlackBerry saves each officer half an hour to an hour each day. This means big savings during an economic time when the UK has admitted it will have to make tremendous cuts in public spending, which will inevitably affect the police budget.
The Bedfordshire police Inspector Jim Hitch says: “I liken this to the change from Police boxes to Police radio. That was a huge step and quite expensive and had its doubters who asked why we needed radios. What we’re moving to now with these devices is a similar sort of scenario. There are people doubting and asking why we need them but I think that will become clearer and we will depend on these devices more and more and wonder how we ever did without them.”
[Via]
Posted on July 27, 2009, at 9:44 am .
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 has been announced in both the UK and North America today. The latest device in the Curve series is an evolutionary step for devices with a new trackpad and a rubber bezel.
The device should be available for purchase in the UK at the beginning of August and T-Mobile has set a launch date at August 5th. Just over a week away!
The BlackBerry 8520 features:
Full-QWERTY keyboard and touch-sensitive optical trackpad for reliable, responsive typing and navigation
256MB Flash memory and a 512Mhz next generation processor for enhanced performance
Premium phone features including voice activated dialing, and Bluetooth (2.0) support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals
2 MP digital camera with zoom and video recording
Advanced media player for music, pictures and videos, with dedicated media keys and a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, plus BlackBerry Media Sync, which makes it easy to quickly sync music from iTunes or Windows Media Player with the smartphone
Access to BlackBerry App World™, featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones. Categories include games, entertainment, social networking and sharing, news and weather, productivity and much more
BlackBerry Internet Service support for access to up to 10 supported email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL and Gmail; and BlackBerry Enterprise Server support, which provides advanced security and IT administration features for corporate deployments
Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, supporting cards of up to 16 GB today and expected to support next generation 32GB cards when available; a 1GB card is included
Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
Quad-band world phone: EGDE/GPRS/GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
Personally, I thought the lack of a flash on the camera was strange. Why go all this way to build a consumer device, and leave out a key feature that consumers like?
Will you be trading in your BlackBerry Curve 83xx for the 8520?
Posted on July 22, 2009, at 2:12 pm .
EDITORS NOTE: This article was provided by Flash Networks to demonstrate how their optimization techniques speed up mobile browsing.
Only one-third of mobile Internet users are satisfied with the user experience. Speed of response is the number one complaint. As a result, operators are continuously competing to advertise the fastest download rates and invest significant resources in upgrading their networks. How much of this investment is really reflected in the end user experience?
Available bandwidth vs. actual speed
Research conducted in the UK in June 2009 by broadband benchmarking firm, Epitiro, revealed that the average download rate in high speed networks (HSDPA) in the UK is just under 1 Mbit/s (0.9 Mbit/s, to be exact), only 24% of the advertised download speed and 34% slower than speeds achieved on equivalent ADSL broadband services.
While bandwidth dramatically increases as networks evolve, website download time is not reduced to the same extent. In a comparison of HSDPA 7.2 with HSDPA 3.6, download time was reduced by only 6% (based on lab results from large Asia Pacific mobile operator), demonstrating that bandwidth is not the main bottleneck anymore.
Click through to continue reading about the discrepancy between the user experience and bandwidth
Posted on June 22, 2009, at 9:12 am .
Poynt is a great app that you can use daily. When we took a look at the app at WES 2009, we saw a ton of cool features, many of which have not yet launched but should be unofficially coming this summer (just a guess). Currently, you can search local businesses, people and movie theaters. Soon, you’ll have access to a complete restaurant search and booking service powered by Open Table.
Other features include:
GPS functionality has been optimized to provide faster accurate locates.
Cell-site locates allow Poynt to quickly access a user’s general location while awaiting a GPS lock.
Poynt is fully integrated with both BlackBerry Maps and Google Maps.
Poynt integrates with Gokivo Navigator to provide turn-by-turn voice navigation.
Users can add frequently accessed listings to their BlackBerry Contact List, providing convenience for future lookups.
Poynt is a free app and it’s available by hitting m.mypoynt.com from your BlackBerry browser.
Posted on June 15, 2009, at 11:43 am .
How have you been liking your BlackBerry Curve 8310? It must be hard living without 3G or WiFi but at least you’re working with a sweet keyboard. You can’t go wrong with the classic 83xx QWERTY.
Upgrade your BlackBerry Curve 8310 with an official OS update to version 4.5.0.163 which is now available from 02 UK.
Worried about updating? It’s so easy. You can read a How To or just follow these simple steps:
- Download the OS file.
- Run the file.
- Connect your BlackBerry.
- Run Desktop Manager.
- Search for updates and install.
Download OS 4.5.0.163 for your BlackBerry Curve 8310 from O2 UK.
[Via]
Posted on March 6, 2009, at 12:19 pm .
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is the perfect beginner’s smartphone. It comes complete with camera, video recording, Wi-Fi capabilities and expandable memory. The device is available for £139.99 and it comes with £20 top up voucher.
Posted on February 17, 2009, at 10:50 am .
It’s not just developers who can earn cash from mobile apps, the pleebs can too! O2 in the UK has unveiled an app store that lets mobile phone users earn money by testing apps for their handsets and providing feedback to the developers. So all that time you spend in the blogosphere, testing Betas and giving back to the community can finally pay off. The site is live for customers and O2 has been asking for developers to contribute since back in December. Check out Mob4Hire for an idea of how the payment system will work.
[Via]
Posted on January 28, 2009, at 3:22 pm .
Orange UK has confirmed that the Blackberry Pearl 8120 will be available on a Pay As You Go plan. From early February, Orange will be the first operator in the UK to offer Blackberry on Pay As You Go. The handset will cost £145, and the monthly BlackBerry Internet Service will cost £5. There will also be a color exclusive to the Pearl – indigo! Depending on how this launch goes, Orange UK will consider extending the offer to other Blackberry models in the not too distant future.
Stay tuned to Orange UK’s official site for the press release tomorrow.
Posted on January 12, 2009, at 1:41 pm .
Even though Orange is thinking about pulling the BlackBerry Bold from its device lineup, the carrier is still fully committed to BlackBerry, though at a decidedly more low cost scale. Our pal Ronen from BerryReview has noticed that Orange UK has posted the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 in Titanium and Indigo as ‘coming soon’ with a pay-as-you-go option. As you probably remember, RIM ceo-Jim Balsillie indicated during the fiscal Q3 2009 conference call that pre-paid BlackBerry options would be a growing trend worldwide.
Pricing information is unavailable at this time, but you can hit the link below to sign up for email notifications from Orange.
Orange UK BlackBerry Pearl 8120 Pay As You Go
|via BerryReview|
Posted on January 5, 2009, at 10:04 am .
When we first reported that Orange UK was suspending BlackBerry Bold shipments due to ongoing technical problems — unexplained crashes, poor reception and dropped calls — it was a serious blow to RIM. Flagship products are supposed to be, well, a company’s standard bearer, and (on Orange UK at least) the BlackBerry Bold was waving the white flag.
However, at the time the issues were attributed to a launch OS that was… less than robust. Orange reinstated the BlackBerry Bold with the updated OS 4.6.0.162, but this has apparently not solved the problem. We hope for RIM’s sake that they can get this situation under control before Orange pulls the Bold permanently, but Orange customers deserve a BlackBerry that works. Perhaps an update to a new OS (4.6.0.190 perhaps?) will get the job done.
|via Telegraph UK|
