BlackBerry 8900 and BlackBerry 9000 from Rogers

So what’s the difference between an 8900 and a 9000? Besides 100? Size, baby. Rogers’ new BlackBerry Curve looms dangerously close as dummy units hit stores, offering a slimmer, sexier version of the BlackBerry Bold and attempts to butt heads with Telus and Bell’s BlackBerry Storm for holiday supremacy. Before you start throwing your chips in with the RIM’s touchscreen smartphone, we still haven’t seen how much of the OS RIM will be able to repair after the Verizon train wreck, and even then, most consumers will feel more comfortable buying a BlackBerry that’s a BlackBerry rather than a BlackBerry that’s an iPhone. It should prove to be an interesting holiday season in Canadian wireless.

This dummy unit graciously given to me by the Rogers folks here in Ottawa is noticeably tighter than my BlackBerry Bold. The smaller soft keys provide greater screen real estate (but still not quite as big as the 9000), and the headphone jack closer to the top of the device is more convenient, although the transfer of most keys to the right side of the device may cause an uprising amongst our left-handed brethren.

The keypad itself is considerably softer than the Bold, while still retaining some bounce. It’s definitely not as snappy as you might be used to on the old Curve models, but that’s not a bad thing by any means. The keys along either edge deserve extra mention, as they not only hug the rim closely, but they also feel slightly more elevated, offering a clear boundary for your thumbs to remain within the luscious pool of QWERTY goodness. The keypad borrows distinctly from its 8300-series predecessors, yet it is not without some influence from the Bold; the 8900’s keys have slight ridges to make sure your thumbs catch them, but the gaps between the keys will be what really keep you in line. They’ve also done away with the elongated Shift keys on the bottom-left and right in favour of standardizing with the Bold’s layout.

Aside from that, the top of the device borrows design directly from the BlackBerry Storm, with Lock and Mute keys emblazoned into a single seamless button, and melting into the rest of the device face. I’m still hankering to try a real 8900 to see how the trackball differs, as this atomic upgrade promises to be tighter, cleaner and more precise. The in-store rep confirmed $179.99 on a three-year contract, and hinted that it will be available as soon as tomorrow. With the BlackBerry 8900 showing up on Wireless Wave, I certainly believe it. Other price options include $549 on 1 year, $524 on 2 with no data, $499 on 2 with data, or $499 on a 3-year plan with no data. Overall, the BlackBerry 8900 Curve should appeal to those not willing (or able) to trust RIM’s new touchscreen blitz.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Rogers’ BlackBerry roadmap leaked
• BlackBerry 8900 Javelin gets hands-on review
• Rogers outs BlackBerry 8320 in blue
• RIM Ninjas Report Rogers 2009 BlackBerry Lineup
• BlackBerry 8900 gets pre-release hands-on review

Mohammed Shaffiq of Muslim organisation The Ramadhan Foundation told The Sun the figures were 'absolutely disgusting'. He said: 'It is glorifying terrorism - the makers should be ashamed. We should be coming together to unite against terrorism but how is that possible when children are playing with toys like this?' Last night the business's founder Will Chapman said: 'It's not my intention to glorify terrorism or Nazis - but kids love the bad guys. He added: 'I can see why people might get offended but that is not what I'm trying to do. We have sold thousands and thousands of them.'

Aside from new fish and new fishing spots, the update also brings a tournament mode to the game. In tournament mode, players can compete against the computer, against another player on the same iPhone/iPod Touch, or even via Wi-Fi versus other flick fishermen.

For those who are unfamiliar with the game, Flick Fishing is an intuitive and beautiful fishing game. Players have to find the right combination of bait, location and flicking & reeling techniques that works with each type of fish. It definitely does not get its name from the fact that players cast the line with just a flick of their wrist. Nope. Do you know why it’s called Flick Fishing?

Like all iPhone/iPod Touch apps, Flick Fishing is available at Apple’s App Store for $0.99. Honestly I don’t know how it plays, because I don’t have an iPhone, but Freeverse has a video demo over at their site so go check that out if you’re interested.

[via TUAW]

The technology of the super multi-layer read-only disc is based on Blu-ray Disc (BD) with a breakthrough in material of reflective layers, according to Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan. The specifications of the pick-up head (PUH) of the disc is the same as those for the PUH of blank BD discs, and therefore the Pioneer discs can be read on BD players.

How is this possible, you ask? I don't know for sure. In theory, it may be compatible, since they both use 405 nanometer heads, but then again, the track pitch is different (10 and 14 nanometer in the Pioneer super-disc versus 25 nanometer in a Blu-ray disc). But Pioneer seems pretty adamant about it in their statement. Maybe existing Blu-ray players would only need a firmware update? We will have to wait and see when it's released during the next year. [Digitimes]

* Disclaimer: I like Star Trek as much as I like Star Wars. I just like to piss off Chen and Lam.

I want to shout out to our current blogger Andrew, who has been helping me out while I am converting all the blogs in the network to “blog search engine”.  Well, I will also have updated version of the Zedomax Search Engine Wordpress Theme available free of charge.  (The current version has some bugs and I need to fix some CSS for IE6)

I am also planning a Pro-version of the Blog Search Engine Theme that not only includes the theme itself, I will include an E-book called, “Search“.  Basically, it’s all the secrets that I didn’t put in the free theme that’s on the E-book.

Here’s some of the features included:

1. Ability for people to vote on blog posts like digg.  (Simplified version)

2. Search engine features that can show your readers recent and popular searches.

3. SEO optimized blog that includes all the “right” plugins you need.  (I’ve realized that a Wordpress blog is nothing without having the right plugins, similar to having a stock Nissan-Z versus a Nissan-Z equipped with high perfomance clutch, intake, turbo, etc…etc…)

4. How search-oriented blog theme will help you make more money and grow web traffic faster.

5. Okay, enough business, Happy Thanksgivin’!

Basically, this new E-book will have all the information you will need to build a blog search engine, all the plugins you need, including how to hire bloggers, explanation of how search-oriented people tend to click on ads more, AND the secrets behind Google’s marketing.  I think I just figured out how to maximize your Adsense income, you can watch my video here.  (But that’s just the tip of the iceburg, I’ve got so many ideas in my bag, THAT will be in the E-book and the Wordpress Theme I will be selling)

I figured I need to actually charge people for the good stuff, otherwise no one will care.  That’s the only reason I am selling it, valued knowledge people can appreciate.

If anyone has any connections with major publishers, please send me an e-mail at zedomax [at] gmail.com since I am really planning to get this E-book published for real and have them available at your local Borders and Barnes & Noble.

Anyways, I am really tired this week and hopefully I will get all that blog search engine thang down by next week and get on the blogging-wagon again.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Zedomax Celebrates Thanksgiving!

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El Paso Tops in Text Messaging

According to AMD when Windows 7 hits market, widely believed to be mid-2009, DirectX 10.1 will be fully supported. According to AMD DirectX 10.1 will be used in the API for the Windows Desktop Manager in Windows 7.

Along with the use in the next generation Microsoft operating system, AMD claims that several games are coming that take advantage of DirectX 10.1. An example is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, which AMD says gets 10% higher frame rates on DirectX 10.1 versus DirectX 10. The writing between the lines is that many AMD video cards are DirectX 10.1 compatible whereas NVIDIA parts are not. This will mean NVIDIA owners need a new card to enjoy DirectX 10.1 benefits.

AMD