Review and technology

A New Berry?
Millions of people might be addicted to their BlackBerry devices, but the fact remains that when it comes to usability the devices from the Canadian firm Research In Motion (RIM) have been left behind by Apple and Google. But RIM now responds with a new operating system (OS).

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 along with the Storm 2 are the first two devices to feature the newer, snappier OS, though RIM says several other popular devices like Curve 8900, Bold 9000 and Curve 8530 could also get the upgrade. Essentially, everything seems to run faster now. For example, BlackBerry devices were notoriously slow in indexing media; that happens in a jiffy now.

Then, the old browser was dreadfully slow and could not resolve web pages with Java; the new version is much faster. The mail interface is also improved and coupled with a new release of BlackBerry Exchange Server for the backend allows users to organise and sort their mail a lot better than before.

• Better browser, faster all-round performance
• Still has a way to go to catch up with the iPhone and Android

Battery Power!
When Apple updated its MacBook Pro family of laptops last month, the smallest member of the family, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, did not get one of Intel's new family of processors like its bigger siblings—the 15-inch and 17-inch machines with i5 or i7 processors.

This is possibly because the device could not support both a new processor and a discrete graphics card like the bigger computers. But the smaller machine still does have a few pluses. In addition to its relatively light-weight thanks to its aluminium unibody construction, it has stellar battery life—one upgrade the "new" 2010 model got. Apple claims 10 hours and, you know what, they're not too far from the truth. The only issue is that the 13-inch model is very expensive.

• Superb battery life, very light construction, excellent construction quality
• Very expensive
• Price: Rs 72,900 inclusive of taxes (2.4 Ghz model)

Application
An application which backs up data from your mobile device and locates it when it gets lost. All for free! This is an application for Android, BlackBerry and Windows mobile devices, with an upcoming iPhone release (using Symbian Series 60, we feel bad for you!). The application backs up your contacts and your call records and can also back up your pictures which you can then access from the website, www.mylookout.com.

It also can do a virus-scan for all the applications that you are downloading into your device, particularly useful if you download "unofficial" applications not approved by the manufacturer. The service has a locator, useful if your phone is lost or stolen. If you lose or misplace the handset, you can go online and get the device to give out a very loud alarm (the service calls it a "scream"). All this, and free. You can go to the website for a download link or download it from the device's download site (e.g. Android Marketplace).