The new Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard will revolutionize the industry because it represents a paradigm – away from common input devices we use daily. Comparable to the size of a small television remote control, portable keyboard that allows ease of use by people with disabilities and all but eliminates concerns over the health of standard keyboards. Moreover, since the plans for a laser display, you will never experience the syndrome of “locked” key. Clean and Green – Back to the Future!

Everyone remembers the futuristic cartoon “The Jetsons” and their technological innovations with daily activities: the flying machine, the robot maid and guard dog, funicular railways and many other devices work, saving. As children, we wanted to see the day when we would live in a world where life was controlled with the use of a single button. But in reality, in this period, the automated technologies were in their infancy and the use of computers around the world was at a minimum.

Revolutionary

Computer and video games were groundbreaking inventions, because they have changed the way we work and had fun. A bit ‘like the pen and the pencil had made, compared with a pen and ink. Computers were a step beyond the conventional output devices used during the period of time and made us feel like we’re moving towards a futuristic world. The typewriter, which was the first success with mechanical hand movements to communicate complex thoughts, it was eventually deleted in the mode of production and daily use. If you ask 10 years, to describe the machine called a typewriter, you have to have a look of puzzlement.

In fact, the typewriter is still around! Yet, not limited in its original capacity, name and form bulky. They have evolved into computer. The computers are designed in a manner similar to typewriters, so that users can easily adapt to them. The computer keyboard kept the same format as “qwerty”, like its predecessor – the typewriter – and the rest is history! The computer offers features far more than the typewriter, which eventually caused it to become obsolete. So in order to evolve the modern thought of changing the status quo, it must be convinced that any new idea being introduced is easily adaptable, as well as “best of” what is already in use.

A portable keyboard designed by Standard laser display

Today, advances in electronics and digital technology have revolutionized the modern laser bluetooth keyboard standard. There will come a time in the near future, when the device I’m using to type this article, become “passe.” The new Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard is an invention that will revolutionize the computer industry because it is portable, relatively easy to use, and has long term benefits on the human body and the environment.

The laser projects a virtual keyboard infrared keyboard display standard on any surface (preferably flat). This means that the traditional format of “qwerty” keyboard that you learned in high school, is beamed onto any surface, such as a display “holographic”. This optical device detects and inputs the human hand / finger movements simulating keystrokes on a conventional keyboard. Bluetooth technology allows you to use this with desktop computers, laptops, PDAs and Blackberry. As I write this, I wonder if the future of musical instruments, in particular, the plan will be the same again!

Health benefits for industry and personal use

There are many other advantages of this technology. First, the aspect of health! With the spread of H1N1 and other airborne pathogens, people are increasingly wary of their surroundings. It is not uncommon today to see people wearing dust masks and with a lot of hand sanitizing solution. Nobody wants to take the “super bug”. So the question is: “What this has to do with the standard keyboard?”

Well, the answer is very simple! ** In recent studies, the keyboards have been classified as the dirtiest toilets **

Were found to contain E. Coli (you know, the bad bacteria that just do not see it that gets on your hands after using the bathroom and not sanitizing properly), staph infections, MRSA – the flesh eating bacteria, stomach flu, and the list continue indefinitely. the keyboard is like a handshake or a kiss. When they come into contact with one, is to share all that is hidden on it. Think of the many times have you seen a family member or co-worker leave the bathroom and not washing his hands. Or what about when so and so sneezing (which published 100,000 droplets of germs in the air). If they use the computer, then its very likely that there are the seeds deposited on the keyboard – the long, single-button device that we use to make our lives easier. A shift to the use of new technologies to eradicate the problem. The bluetooth virtual keyboard is the solution because there are physical components that bacteria can get in touch with. Until that is projected onto the surface is clean, then you’re 100 percent sure. Companies in the near future will be deploying this device because it can help prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses, as well as assisting employees with physical limitations.

Ergonomically sound – people who suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome will find that the virtual keyboard is relatively easy to use. Also, when the device is used, people suffering from CTS symptoms can not be blamed, Equipment Company.

Supports the Green Movement

Last but not least. This technology supports the “green movement”, because there would be no plastic keyboards on the left to detoxify or contaminate the environment. Everyone knows that plastic takes a considerable amount of time to degrade. Yet, while in the landfill, the distribution of plastic chemicals that are absorbed into the soil and possibly even groundwater. So basically, in our quest to live comfortably, it tends to cause more problems than we have initially experienced.

Moving to a cleaner, greener, ease of use of the product – the virtual keyboard will revolutionize the way we use computers daily. Not only does the computer offer bluetooth virtual keyboard a paradigm shift for input devices, it is very possible that the item could also be developed into a virtual display. Imagine casting a pseudo keyboard, along with a small projector – coming from a single device, the size of a small remote control.

Incoming search terms:

• laser keyboard
• virtual keyboard
• latest keyboard
• laser keyboards
• future keyboard
• virtual laser keyboards
• projected keyboard
• holographic keyboard
• virtual keyboard laser
• virtual laser keyboard history
• iphone 5 holographic keyboard
• keyboard back
• latest keyboard technology
• optical virtual laser keyboard
• how develop virtual laser keyboard
• use of laser in industries
• virtual
• virtual image
• bluetooth laser keyboard
• laser projection keyboard

BUILD & DESIGN

While many current Android devices are thinly veiled attempts to mimic the iPhone, the Droid Pro clearly has another target: the segment of business users that are mostly addicted to the BlackBerry and it’s constant email access.

I’m not a BlackBerry user myself, but I am a member of the demographic that must have a keyboard, preferably in a one-piece design like this. So I came into this review curious about the Droid Pro, both because of it’s slightly unusual design, and because it seemed to have the qualities I look for in a smartphone: a great spec sheet, simple design, and — hopefully — a solid operating system.

Screen
A key difference between the Droid Pro and its rivals is that while QWERTY-bar phones often include a relatively small  screen with a landscape orientation, the Pro has a larger portrait-oriented screen. This makes it a little longer than it’s relatives within the class, but considering everything that is packed into this device, the Droid Pro is actually surprisingly compact.

Compared directly to my usual phone, a Samsung Jack, the Droid Pro is about a third of an inch taller — and that’s it. They’re the same width, and roughly the same thickness, though the Droid Pro is actually a tiny bit thinner over most of the casing, with a small bulge along the top rear. Even granted that my Jack is cheaper and is a year old, I was pleasantly surprised by the size.

Despite it’s compact footprint, it squeezes in a 3.1 inch, half-VGA screen — not the largest or highest resolution on an Android-based device, but roughly comparable to the first three generations of iPhones.

Keyboard
Given the device’s size constraints, I had been half expecting the keyboard to be cramped. So it was another pleasant surprise that it was, in fact, every bit as usable as the better thumb keyboards I’ve tried out.

Good key travel, key separation, and feel. The number keys are spread out along the top row, instead of being placed in a conventional grid formation. The good news, though is that this is made up for by a large and very usable on-screen keypad available from the phone dialer application. Or, you can just speak the number that you want to call — but we’ll get to that later.

Other Buttons & Controls
One of the ways the Droid Pro saves space is by not having a directional pad or directional control of any kind, which is a departure for most QWERTY-bar style phones. At first, I didn’t think that I was going to be happy about that omission. Now, after having gotten to use it a bit, I’m not nearly as put out as I expected to be. Yes, there’s some situations where it would be nice to have a physical directional control — particularly navigating cramped web page elements, or relocating a cursor for text entry. But for the most part I’ve gotten along quite well using touchscreen gestures for scrolling and practicing accurate fingertip clicking.

My biggest complaint about the Droid Pro’s design lies in the four navigation buttons right above the keyboard. Because they’re part of the screen, and therefore touch sensitive, it’s fairly easy to accidentally “push” them if your finger brushes the screen accidentally. Since the center two buttons — those most likely to be hit accidentally — both take you back out of the application you’re using, it can be very annoying to have to go back and re-start what you were doing. Since you can’t vary the sensitivity of these buttons — and they really do have a hair trigger — the only real cure for this is time and practice, to get used to having them there and not letting your fingers stray.

With the memory card tucked under the battery cover, the only open ports are the Micro-USB plug on the lower left hand side, and the 3.5 mm audio jack on top. It’s nice to have a standard audio plug again, though I wouldn’t object to having all the plugs on the bottom, so that I could have a nice car dock for the thing, but that’s rather a nitpick.

Overall, the build quality feels good, the design is sleek and very usable, and it packs all it’s features into a very reasonable size and weight.

PERFORMANCE

Even if you thought the physical design of the Motorola Droid Pro was a bit basic, you’ll love what’s under the hood. On paper, this model has almost everything you could possibly want packed into a business phone.

It starts with a hardware set designed for performance: a 1 GHz TI OMAP 3620 processor and 512 MB of RAM, plus 1.5 GB of internal storage for your data. There’s also a 2 GB microSD card included.

All of this stacks up to mean amazing performance. Full-screen transitions, sliding gestures, window animations, even with plenty of stuff running in the background, it was all as smooth as an oil slick behind a Zamboni. I’m certain that there’s some situation or program which could slow this thing down, but I couldn’t find it, even when running high end games or applications.

Wireless/Call Quality
Add to that high performance base the standard wireless accessories: CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A for-voice and data on Verizon in the U.S., GPS with network-assistance and geotagging, WiFi b/g/n, and Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR.

Then you start on the rarer components. A secondary cell phone connection in the form of quad-band GSM/EDGE and tri-band HSPA adds worldwide coverage: unlike most Verizon phones, you can take this phone overseas and it will still work.

Mind you, if you intend to use Verizon’s overseas roaming service you’re going to be charged by the limb, but that’s kind of to be expected. You can, of course, get the GSM module unlocked, and then use cheaper prepaid services around the world, at the expense of not having your usual phone number.

It also features dual CDMA antennas for better than average signal performance, giving me multiple bars in areas that are normally sketchy.

Productivity
Despite the fact that I’ve been neck deep in mobile technology for many years, the Droid Pro is actually my first extended chance to use a device running Google’s Android OS. I was very curious to see how it would turn out, since I hadn’t really developed a firm impression or opinion of the Android platform from the brief look and play opportunities I’d had.

My first impressions were extremely positive. Granted one has to attribute a lot of the software experience to having good quality hardware behind it — the smooth-as-glass performance, the advanced looks, and the robust storage all help to ease the learning curve. But more important than the performance is the true software experience. Complete interoperability between applications, down to the level of being able to hand off a scanned barcode from one app to another from a different, competing developer. Or the integration of OS-level security into the mix to allow you the protection of guaranteed apps, as well as the freedom to go beyond what Google gives you.

Speaking of apps, they’re the centerpiece of the experience. The minute that I got into the Android Marketplace, I think I fell in love. It is, to put it simply, the sort of one-look-one-touch system for finding and installing applications I’ve been looking for for years. Or put another way, the thing that Microsoft never did for Windows Mobile, and should have. If it had, the company might have been in the position Google is right now, instead of having to jettison their entire former platform and start over.

The apps that come with the Droid Pro are basic but good — a complete Office suite and PDF viewer, multiple-account email client with support for a variety of platforms, navigation apps (both Google’s own and Verizon’s VZ Navigator), along with the usual packing peanuts.

Unsurprisingly, the device’s email implementation is most friendly toward GMail. Since I normally use Exchange Server synchronization on my Samsung Jack, I attempted to set up the same, only to discover that it’s a little more complicated. Not that I should be surprised, since Exchange is a Microsoft platform, and here I am asking it to play nice with Google. Eventually, I got it working with the help of the instructions off the Motorola website, but the lesson is to plan for a little more complexity when interfacing across platform brands. Nevertheless, it does work out of the box, even before the wandering eye is drawn to Google’s support framework.

Here’s what I did: I touched the button on the phone marked “Marketplace.” About ten seconds later I was scrolling through a list of hundreds of brilliant, absolutely free applications, all of which could be downloaded and installed in the background with two button presses, while I kept searching for more apps. It’s hard to overstate how easy to use it is.

And these aren’t your run of the mill free calculators and miniature pocket dictionaries. These are some amazingly powerful applications. One of the first ones I downloaded was Google Translate — and if you’ve never actually seen this app in action, it is hard to describe just how impressive it is. Speak any phrase into it, and within seconds it can read aloud a proper translation for the phrase in the language of your choice. This ranges from “Where is the airport” to “Do you enjoy anchovies on your pizza?” For that matter, it will tell you how to ask about anchovies in Welsh or Yiddish.

Or let’s talk about Google Sky Map. This free app uses the device’s internal gyrosensor to track where exactly you’re pointing the thing, and act like a perfect window to display constellations through, and can adjust the orientation automatically based on your GPS location.

Or ZXing Barcode Scanner, which can use the camera to automatically read and look up both 2D and 3D barcodes, including the QR codes that provide instant links to application downloads or websites. And it reads them right off the computer screen.

From Google-search-by-voice to recording DVD-resolution video; from being able to solve complicated math questions almost as fast as you can read them out loud to being able to signal in Morse code using the camera’s LED flash, the standard software package is impressive, and the available add-ons are even more so.

I also need to mention the voice command integration. The impressive part about the Droid Pro’s voice command system isn’t that Android has it — we’ve been experimenting with voice-commanded computers for a very long time. The impressive part is how ruthlessly accurate it is. I have yet to have it get a word wrong when I’m enunciating properly, and it’s still far better than 90% when speaking casually. In fact, I just read the previous sentence to it, and it picked the thing up word for word. I even tested it with obscure, easily missed words like “ferrets,” “anchovies,” and “Wookie.” For the record, it had the most trouble with “ferrets,” which it mistook about half the time for “parents.” But it recognized “Wookie” fine.

In a much more practical application, right out of the box you can order it to dial your contacts by name — without recording voice tags or doing any other setup work. Once it had slurped down my contact information, I simply said “Call Adama,” and my regular cell phone was ringing. You can also dictate text messages and emails with a fair degree of accuracy — not something that you’d need to do in most circumstances, but highly useful if, say, you’re driving somewhere and need to write an urgent reply.

Entertainment
The Droid Pro isn’t sold as a multimedia phone — it’s solidly targeted at business users, a fact Motorola isn’t shy of, emphasizing the bundling of Office applications and the strong password administration support. But make no mistake, if you don’t mind the slightly smaller screen, you can have a very happy multimedia experience.

To emphasize that, the Droid Pro comes equipped for working with Digital Living Network Alliance products, a system for allowing various entertainment products to work together. For instance, being able to stream video from a set-top digital video recorder, or use the Droid Pro to control the interaction of other DLNA equipment like a remote. Lacking any other DLNA-certified equipment, I couldn’t really test this, but the concept looks like it could be brilliant if it takes off and is implemented well.

Even the default browser is quite comfortable, more so even than my usual standby of Opera Mini. I suspect that would change outside of 3G range and the high browsing speed it provides, but for now, the dynamic zoom and automatic reflowing win the day.

As mentioned above, the Droid Pro is faster than hell. And it handles all it’s applications like a champion, even the high end ones that it’s not marketed towards.

Battery Life
The only sour note I have to sound about the Droid Pro’s performance is the one which, when you think about it, is fairly obvious. The more you use all that amazing hardware, the faster you’re going to eat the battery.

I had my review unit fully charged at 2:30, and by 7 PM with all the playing I had done, the battery was down to 15%. I’ve seen worse, but it’s certainly nothing to write home about. I’m accustomed to getting a full day of heavy use, but that expectation isn’t based on a larger screen and what is, in fact, a relatively small battery for the hardware it’s powering.

There’s a nifty little OS component that will tell you in detail what is consuming your battery life. To no surprise, 65% of my power drain was in the form of the screen. The Droid Pro does have a setting to automatically adjust the screen’s brightness, however the automatic setting is too low for my taste relative to the ambient lighting, and unlike on other devices with a light sensor, you can’t give it any guidance as to whether you’d like it just a little brighter or darker than its defaults.

It doesn’t help that Android’s default menus and screens are almost all white text on black backgrounds, making them much harder to see in a lit environment. Indeed, I had to turn up the brightness considerably to be able to see clearly, which led me to my second noteworthy complaint. Specifically, Android doesn’t make it easy for you to choose anything but the default color scheme. There is no way built into the device to choose different colors, and even with some of the third party launcher replacements, you can only get part of the way. I installed ADW Launcher, which allowed me to change the color of the app drawer, but menus were still all white text on black backdrop.

This may seem like a little thing, but it’s important because it has to do with user comfort. Users shouldn’t need to crank up their screen brightness to compensate for absurdly dark colors they can’t change. When you’re not dealing with that, the automatic screen brightness is much more to my taste.

As far as the larger power issue goes, there are some settings you can tweak to help reduce battery drain, such as the frequency of data and GPS updates, there’s supposed to be an extended battery option available soon through Verizon, however it’s rated at 1820 mAh, only 28% larger than the standard 1420 mAh cell. I’d really like to see an option to add a little padding to the entire back of the device in trade for, say, 2 to 2.5 times the standard battery power. That would give the power hogs like myself the guarantee that we could get through a rough day without worrying overmuch about conserving juice. If I’m lost and depending on the GPS, or making a lot of calls to manage a situation, I don’t want to worry whether the battery will hold out.

While these two things are my biggest issues with the Droid Pro as a device, in the big picture they’re relatively minimal. Both can be either fixed or reduced by software eventually, and frequent charging is a reality of life for smartphone users, particularly high end ones.

CONCLUSION

I have to say that it’s been quite a long while since I got the raw thrill from playing with a gadget that I have from the Motorola Droid Pro.

While it’s obvious that the state of the art in mobile tech improves, the difference is more than just a hardware upgrade — it’s the fact that the Droid Pro and the Android platform are well thought out and robust in ways that others simply aren’t.

The difference is like driving every day in a basic sedan, and then suddenly being handed the keys to a well built luxury car. It shows you all the little things that you didn’t realize could be done so much better. And while in the end you may not technically need those things, I dare say that most people would choose to have them.

The Droid Pro delivers a solid business-oriented device that also makes plenty of room for recreational use. I’m sold.

Pros:

• Great hardware specs
• Sleek, easy-to-use design
• Excellent operating system

Cons:

• Can eat battery power quickly
• Some buttons too easy to push

This smartphone boasts a touchscreen, optical trackpad, and slide-out QWERTY keyboard giving it a unique form factor. It also features a revamped operating system complete with new browser designed to be more social media centric.

BUILD & DESIGN

The Torch is a Touchscreen slider with a full keyboard and optical trackpad, a design that Research in Motion has never used before.

Like all of the newest harvest of BlackBerrys, there is plenty of faux chrome finish to go around. Also like the current generation of BlackBerrys, the styling becomes boring after approximately one second of looking at it.

This is RIM’s first slider, and the company has done a fairly good job with this design. The sliding mechanism is smooth with the right amount of resistance. But there are a couple of issues: the device lacks a designated touch point to slide open the device, resulting in thumb smudges on the screen, and using the mute/lock rocker button on the top is awkward when the screen is extended.

Despite these minor detractions, RIM’s designers did a good job of allocating enough space above the top-row of the keyboard with the slider open, which has been an issue on other sliders.

Overall the Torch feels well built, and is about as heavy as the competition. With the slider closed, it’s 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.6 (111 x 62 x 15 mm).

Screen
The 480×360 3.2-inch Touchscreen is lacking in both size and resolution. It’s about par for the course compared to other BlackBerrys, but compared to Android OS devices and the iPhone 4 the quality of the screen seems almost an afterthought. If there were one deal breaker about the Torch, it might be the screen.

The touch aspect is comfortable. It is not as responsive or as smooth as the iPhone 4, but it proves usable for any application. Unlike RIM’s failed attempts at touchscreens with the Storm and Storm 2, the device is more responsive when shifting from landscape to portrait, and is otherwise reliable and predictable.

Keyboards
The portrait-oriented sliding QWERTY keyboard is reminiscent of one on the the BlackBerry Bold 9700 — it’s a joy to use, and has almost no learning curve. Typing speed and accuracy is phenomenal compared to the virtual keyboard of other devices, like the iPhone.

Its virtual keyboard, on the other hand, is less impressive than other devices’. Despite offering interesting customizations such as AZERTY, QWERTY, QWERTZ layouts and predictive, corrective, and direct input modes, the Torch’s on-screen keyboard’s typing speed and accuracy pales in comparison to the competition. Still this isn’t as big a deal as you might think — beyond the occasional website or email address, I found myself switching the physical keyboard for almost all of my typing.

Other Buttons & Controls
The optical trackpad below the screen works as promised with no surprises or complaints. While some may wonder why it’s included at all, I find it enhances productivity and efficiency while using the device. While scrolling through long lists is easier with the touchscreen, quickly and accurately selecting a few characters to copy is made easy via the trackpad. Furthermore with the option of using the keyboard and the trackpad exclusively the Torch suddenly becomes a great reading platform for longer emails or web pages.

The Torch retains the traditional volume buttons and convenience key on its right side, and a mute/lock rocker button on top. There is no left-hand convenience key which is a little frustrating — how else will BlackBerry nation accidentally trigger the “Say a command” prompt?

PERFORMANCE

One of the things that sets the BlackBerry Torch apart from the others is the new OS 6.0 operating system. This takes the Torch’s hardware advances and wraps them in a new user-friendly user interface.

Current BlackBerry users may find some of the menu layouts and options settings to be confusing. To overcome this issue OS 6.0 boasts a search bar that allows users to quickly find what they’re looking for. There are a slew of new sounds, and editing ring profiles is easier than ever.

Where the OS really shines is in its interfaces. Users can just as easily manipulate the phone via the keyboard and trackpad as they can the touch screen.

There are now several homescreens that users can swipe between (or toggle between with the trackpad). Tapping a screen will enlarge it and reveal all of its contents.

Wireless and Call Quality
RIM has fully equipped this device with what are now basically wireless necessities: 802.11 n/g/b, Bluetooth 2.1 with file transfer profiles, and support for GSM, EDGE, and 3G bands on AT&T in The States.

Another aspect of the iPhone RIM (happily) failed to replicate was the antenna issue plaguing its rival, the iPhone 4. Wireless signal quality was consistent in all environments tested. By now good call quality with balanced sound and plenty of oomph in the speakerphone department has become old hat for RIM. The Torch proudly upholds these qualities.

Browser
The new BlackBerry OS 6.0 web browser is a much faster, more feature laden, and better looking browser than any of its predecessors. With additions such as tabbed browsing, pinch-to-zoom, and faster queries, the browser is arguably the biggest improvement in this new operating system.

I found that although it still occasionally hung while trying to chew through difficult sites, it was a much rarer occurrence than in previous versions.

RIM claims its newest web browser is media rich, but it doesn’t really stand up to that claim.

Entertainment
RIM has included a dedicated Media homescreen, revamped the user interface on some of its classics like BrickBreaker, and has added a YouTube shortcut, but otherwise the entertainment options have remained largely unchanged.

With a 4 GB microSD card and headset included, the Torch is definitely easy to put media on and enjoy on the go. Despite this, this is still not a purpose-built media device, so power users will not want to ditch their iPod just yet.

The BlackBerry social feed is a new feature that integrates updates from several social media sources including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and several messaging clients including BBM. There’s an additional option to add RSS feeds which give users one display to see all the things they’d otherwise cruise multiple apps for. A nice addition, but its notification settings should be tweaked to allow fewer interruptions with what some may consider “unimportant” updates (sorry NewsFeed fans!)

Productivity
With its push email filtering and message-flagging options, RIM is at the top of its game in the email department. The options are so plentiful that going back to email on the iPhone feels like going back to sending paper letters.

BlackBerry OS 6.0 maintains its over-the-air (OTA) contact synchronization via providers such as Google’s Gmail.

The standard DataViz DocumentsToGo suite for viewing Microsoft Office Documents is present, and handling file types in attachments is easier than in previous BlackBerrys.

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and SMS/MMS messages enjoy a revamped user interface, with the former getting a few improved features such as chat-like windows, group messaging and easier attachment options. There’s also a group SMS option. Although these features are interesting, their practical application is fairly limited.

Camera
The Blackberry Torch has a 5.0 megapixel camera with flash and video. It doesn’t have a way to easily focus pictures, however, which is a shame, as pictures end up seeming like they were taken on a smartphone rather than a 5 megapixel camera.

Pictures are shown from the Torch and the iPhone 4 for illustrative purposes.

Battery Life
The Torch manages to get decent battery life out of a relatively small battery. With casual use I was able to get more than one day without having to recharge.  As a primary phone however, you will want to charge it every night.

The battery charges via micro-USB located on the left hand side of the device that allows for comfortably charging while talking.

CONCLUSION

If RIM set out to create an iPhone/Android OS competitor, it’s probably failed. It’s unlikely that someone considering one of those devices would see the BlackBerry Torch and think “this is for me.”

What RIM has succeeded in doing however, is creating a BlackBerry that BlackBerry users will want and enjoy. Although it might not gain RIM marketshare, it will definitely aid in retention.

I’m hoping that the next version of this will have better styling, a front facing camera (think video BBM), a bigger and higher resolution screen, and more innovative pairings between the updated operating system and the updated hardware.

As a BlackBerry user who added an iPhone to its arsenal primarily for its gorgeous display, the Torch teases me — it’s good, but it could have been so much better.

Pros:

• Updated operating system and web browser
• Unique and useful form factor
• Speed and reliability live up to the BlackBerry standard

Cons:

• Screen size and resolution need improvement
• Tried and boring styling
• UI could be smoother in some instances

These days, we rely on our gadgets more than ever before. So if it was lost, stolen, damaged or simply stopped working, it’s good to know you’re covered with BlackBerry insurance.

Incoming search terms:

• gambar BlackBerry torch
• gambar bb torch
• Different Blackberrys

Although badged as a Bold, the styling dimensions and feel of the device point more to a revamped BlackBerry Tour than a CDMA-based version of Bold 9700, which is offered by the GSM-based carriers AT&T and T-Mobile.

The Bold 9650 currently retails through Sprint for $200 and Verizon Wireless for $150.

BUILD & DESIGN

The Bold 9650 is nearly identical to the Tour — the only discernible design update is the addition of the optical trackpad.

This model is heavier and bulkier than the Bold 9700 though still manageable in a pocket or purse.

Screen
RIM has been doing a great job in the display department as of late. The 2.4-inch 480×360 screen is crisp, bright, and manages browsing sessions well.

Like all BlackBerrys, the display will adjust to ambient light.

Keyboard
The Bold 9650 sports the better of the two keyboards RIM currently produces. It is accurate, responsive and quick.

Its rubbery keys are row-separated by a depressed chrome bezel.

Trackpad
When RIM first introduced the trackpad, I was blown away. There was almost no learning curve and I found the experience to be intuitive and accurate.

This isn’t true with the Bold 9650 trackpad. I found it to be jumpy and hard to manage. Despite tweaking settings and adjusting pressure the experience simply wasn’t as flawless as I’ve seen in the past. It’s not a deal breaker but will take some getting used to your trackpad’s unique attitude.

Etcetera
Sadly, the Bold 9650 sports the worst design feature of the Tour: a micro-USB charging port located on the right side of the keyboard. This makes it nearly impossible to type on the phone while you’re charging it, a flaw which is not present on the Bold 9700.

The 9650 sports a rocker key in its top edge to lock and mute the phone. Strangely, the rocker lock initiates a different lock than the keyboard lock — users can’t unlock the device with the keyboard after locking it with the rocker key. It would have been nice to see rocker key customization options, like the convenience keys on the side of the phone.

PERFORMANCE

The BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a solid performer in almost every category. As a messaging-centric device its web browsing capabilities are weak, but for most uses the 9650 is a smooth operator.

I did experience some glitches requiring the device to be powered on and off. Resets were relatively quick and occurred without any data loss.

Wireless Data
The Bold 9650 boasts 802.11b/g, GPS, Bluetooth with profiles for streaming music, and support for UMTS/HSPA, CDMA/EV-DO and GSM based networks. In layman’s terms, this means that this smartphone is one of the few offered by Sprint and Verizon that can be used outside of the United States.

The addition of Wi-Fi is a welcome improvement over the Tour, and is probably the biggest reason to choose this model over its predecessor.

The streaming audio profiles work wonderfully; I was able to stream high-quality Pandora radio over my car’s audio system after initial pairing.

Call Quality
Call quality is spot-on with this version of the Bold. From low to high volume the speaker supports a range of sound from deep to high. The speakerphone is sufficiently loud as well.

Messaging
The strongest point of the BlackBerry is its messaging. Connections to Gmail accounts sync messages and contacts seamlessly. A message sent from a computer will show up as a sent message on the device, which creates an incredibly useful completely current email record at all times.

SMS conversations are bubbled to seem like instant messenger chats, and instant messaging clients (AIM, GTalk, Y-Messenger, ICQ, MSN) all integrate well into the BlackBerry message indication system.

A neat feature I recently discovered in the newest version of the BlackBerry OS is the ability to port SMS contacts into the BlackBerry Messenger interface. This feature combined with the ability to place BlackBerry Messenger contact icons on the home screen mean that users can place messaging icons for any of their contacts on the home screen for even quicker access. A job well done, RIM!

Entertainment
The entertainment options on the Bold 9650 come from the BlackBerry OS and from prepackaged Sprint apps. Offerings include the standard slew of games, (Brickbreaker, Word Mole, Texas Hold ‘Em, Sudoku, Klondike) , Sprint apps for NASCAR mobile, Football, SprintTV, an upcoming Sprint Music Store, Pocket Express aggregator, and others. Social networking apps are also included.

The web browser is the same standard one on most BlackBerry OS 5.0 devices come with, with minor cosmetic changes. As I mentioned earlier, this app is one of the weakest features on the phone, and isn’t even in the same league as the browsers offered by the iPhone or Android OS devices.

Productivity
The productivity apps, like the entertainment apps, are standard issue. The most useful apps are the Documents To Go suite by DataViz, which let you work with Microsoft Office files on your smartphone.

Other useful tools include multiple calendar support, contact grouping and Sprint navigation.

The biggest productivity asset of this device however is the BlackBerry OS 5.0 interface, which is an improvement over previous versions.

Camera
The 3.2 megapixel camera on the Bold 9650 features auto-focus, video recording and flash.

Using the camera has been made easier with this model. Previous auto-focus BlackBerrys required users to first focus and then completely press the key to capture an image. With the Bold the process has been simplified to a simple point and click – the device will focus itself.

Battery Life
With casual phone, messaging, and browsing use I observed just less than 18 hours of usable time from fully charge to battery-induced radio off. So you can probably expect to charge this device every night.

CONCLUSION

It’s true that RIM hit the mark with the BlackBerry Bold 9650. Unfortunately, that mark wasn’t very high. As a messaging-centric device, the Bold is great. However, being a great messaging device isn’t enough anymore to capture the consumer end of the market. As competition from Android and other platforms becomes stronger, RIM needs to innovate and add something truly unique to the experience in order to stay relevant.

The 9650 is an improvement over previous generations, but it’s only a marginal improvement over the Tour and no improvement over the Bold 9700.

It’s hard to look at the Bold 9650 and the competition and make an unreserved recommendation for the Bold. If you’re a business user it’s a different story, but for consumers, I’d say check out the competition before jumping aboard the BlackBerry bandwagon.

Pros:

• Feature-laden CDMA equivalent to Bold 9700
• Strong Gmail integration
• Can roam outside of the U.S.

Cons:

• Tired styling
• Jumpy trackpad
• Awkward charging port placement

The original Bold 9000 set the bar in terms of delivering a reliable, high performing device that sported the best feature set RIM had to offer. Just a year later, the Bold2 offers an enhanced feature set and an improved design that instantly leaves the original Bold feeling, well, old.

BUILD & DESIGN

The Bold2 may be the best looking BlackBerry yet. The most notable contrast with the first-generation Bold is its overall size. It’s thinner, shorter, and less wide than the Bold. It’s also less wide than the BlackBerry Tour, though not by much.

Its distinguishing features include subdued chrome accents around the bezel, a faux-leather backed battery compartment, black matte convenience keys on the sides, and of course, a track pad where users have become accustomed to seeing the iconic but sometimes finicky BlackBerry Ball.

Also changed in this version is the layout of the camera and flash on the back of the device – they’re now side by side rather than above one another. The Bold2 also has charging contacts on the side of the device that are discussed more below. The most practical change in styling is a redesign of the battery compartment which now feels more secure and in solid.

Screen
The screen is simply amazing. The iPhone’s screen was great, then the Bold took the same resolution and packed it into a smaller, richer screen. The Bold2 has done the same thing, but more so. Graphics are detailed, and smooth and pictures and web pages render sharply.

Of course, the screen itself is smaller than its predecessor, and is on par with a Curve 8900 or Tour so you’ll want to think twice if you’re primarily concerned with browsing. If this is your primary concern you might want to think twice.

The screen is bright enough, but does seem less bright than the Bold… though that device was almost too bright.

Track pad & Keyboard
To fit the smaller form factor the keyboard had to be scaled down, though not at the cost of usability. The keys maintain the rubbery, responsive feeling from the Bold, albeit smaller. If you are used to a BlackBerry Curve or even a Tour, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with this keyboard. If you’re coming from a Bold, you’ll notice only a slight difference, and if you’re coming from a Storm you’ll be thankful (for more reasons than just the keyboard) that you made the switch.

The trackpad is a delight to use, and has almost no learning curve. I liked it on the Curve 8520, and I love it on the Bold2. It’s responsive, accurate, doesn’t stick, is less likely to be damaged. Moreover, it simply looks better than the ball. I did notice that BrickBreaker was a little more difficult with the pad, perhaps its biggest flaw. In the future the pad could be improved if it scrolled when the user rested his/her finger on the edge of the pad.

The 9700 sports two programmable convenience keys — one on each side – as well as volume rockers, and a top mute/lock rocker. I did notice that the volume keys were sometimes slow to respond, or required me to hit them more than once before they responded.

Accessories
Like the Bold, RIM has built in charging contacts into the sides of the Bold2, intending it to be used in a charging cradle. Though useful, it is annoying that due to the different size, the latest model won’t charge in the original one’s cradle.

Like some of its contemporaries, and unlike the Bold, the Bold2 charges using a micro-USB port, so depending on what you’re trading up from, you may have to invest in some new accessories.

PERFORMANCE

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 overall offers solid performance in every area I’ve looked. The hardware and software combination work well together, and I haven’t experienced any major glitches.

Wireless
T-Mobile users will be happy to know that the Bold2 has better wireless access than their current BlackBerry, thanks to the 3G coverage. Though the coverage is increased, it’s still not on par with AT&T or Verizon in my test area.

This issue is somewhat overcome by being able to call over Wi-Fi (T-Mobile only). Wi-Fi calling is not always flawless; if your signal is weak there is noticeable quality degradation. On more than one occasion, my call was dropped when switching from Wi-Fi to cell tower.

Call Quality
Though the coverage isn’t always stellar, the call quality is consistently good. Calls are loud, and the sound is well balanced.

When using the speakerphone at the loudest volume, calls were tinny as compared to the Bold. This was a problem I noticed on the Storm2 as well; hopefully it isn’t indicative of things to come from RIM!

When making calls using the 3G signal on the Bold, the device can get uncomfortably hot. This problem seems to have been addressed in the new offering.

Like is its predecessor, the 9700 offers visual voicemail, another feature that will likely become standard on all ‘Berries in time.

Software
This BlackBerry sports the newest 5.0 operating system, and there are some notable improvements over the previous generation. Menus are easier to navigate and better looking. RIM borrows from the iPhone OS in areas such as time/date selection, which are now offered as a rolling wheel. My favorite feature of the 5.0 is the ability to more easily customize ringing profile settings. There are some features that were previously unoffered as well, such as the ability to set vibration to short, medium, or long sessions.

Another major improvement over previous versions is the ability to wirelessly sync contacts with Google accounts. The option to auto-sync is given after setting up an eligible email account, and it’s a great way to consolidate your address books.

Browsing
The smaller screen size is noticeable when browsing, and not in a good way. If no mobile version is available, pages that load are more zoomed out than the Bold, and from there you have to zoom in to the section you want. This process is manageable, but can easily be frustrating if you plan on doing a lot of browsing.

Additionally there are some media types and some pages that don’t play well with the BlackBerry; again, if browsing is your main concern this probably isn’t the device for you.

Messaging & Productivity
This is a BlackBerry, so of course messaging is quick and reliable, and RIM packs in plenty of options including threaded text messaging, email, and instant messaging options including BlackBerry Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo.

The 9700 also offers the DataViz Documents To Go Office Suite that allows you to view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, and even send as attachments.

Media & Camera
The Bold2 can play basic media: audio files, movie files, etc. There is a standard headphone jack on the side. Due to the smaller form factor your headphones will not plug completely into the slot — some of the stem will be exposed). It doesn’t affect the audio but it does bother me.

This phone ships with the same ugly headphone/mic combination as other BlackBerrys. This is unfortunate because the headphones that came with the original Bold are far superior in comparison.

This BlackBerry comes with 256 MB of internal memory, and it has an microSD slot. It is bundle with a 2 GB card and is expandable up to 32 GB, giving you plenty of room for MP3s and video. The slot is accessible by removing the battery cover (but not the battery). It was located on the side of the Bold 9000, but given that most users don’t switch cards very often it won’t be a big annoyance.

The camera is vastly improved.  It boasts 3.2 megapixels, auto-focus, flash, and video recording. The downside the camera is that you can only auto-focus by using the right convenience key. I’ve had experiences of these keys failing over time. If that were to happen here the user would be unable to take advantage of this great feature.

Battery Life
The Bold 9700 uses the same huge battery as the Bold, but it seems to last a little longer, I’ve been getting as much as two days, depending on use.

CONCLUSION

In just a little more than a year RIM has proved that it can improve on a design that was already great. If you can afford it, there are very few reasons not to get the BlackBerry Bold 9700.

The browsing experience isn’t on par with some competitors, but that’s not why you buy a BlackBerry. There is a decent number of apps available, but again that’s not RIM’s core competency. The Bold2 has a great track pad, excellent form factor with a very solid feel, an improved OS, and I’ve experienced nearly no glitches. I can’t wait to pick mine up.

Pros:

• Smaller form factor
• Trackpad not a trackball
• Better camera
• 3G and Wi-Fi calling (T-Mobile)

Cons:

• Accessories not backward compatible,
• Poor browsing experience
• Speakerphone quality degrades at high volumes