i watch this movie by recommended from my mates, he said that the movie are a great indian movies. so i watch it impatiently and find it very interesting. and i search on google about this 3 idiots movie reviews, read it!!!
3 Idiots Director: Rajkumar Hirani Cast: Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Boman Irani Rating: 4.5
What’s It About: Bring out the bugles for the biggest celluloid celebration in a long, long time. God bless Rajkumar Hirani for ending an otherwise mediocre Bollywood year on a smashing note.
You go in to see 3 Idiots expecting the genius combination of Hirani and Aamir Khan to weave magic on screen.
But despite the mental conditioning, the impact of the film is so overwhelming that it leaves you spellbound for hours after it has ended.
Based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel, Five Point Someone (though only a miniscule part has been adapted from the book; the rest is all original), here’s a story of three friends studying in an engineering college Rancho (Aamir Khan), Farhan (R Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi).
Rancho is the rebel among them always questioning things and believing that learning is more than just the usual mode of education.
He encourages his friends to look beyond the ordinary and soon earns the wrath of the college director Viru Sahasrabuddhe (Boman Irani).
Despite his fun and frolic, Rancho always surprises everyone by topping the class. He even manages to win the affections of the director’s daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor). But Rancho’s greatest contribution lies is making his friends realise their true calling.
The twist comes when on Graduation Day. After being awarded the Student Of The Year title, Rancho mysteriously disappears into oblivion.
Years later, Farhan and Raju, finding a common thread, embark on a journey to find their friend. 3 Idiots is a story of friendship, hope, aspirations and most importantly, the goodness of life.
With 3 Idiots, Rajkumar Hirani proves beyond doubt that there’s no better storyteller than him in the present generation.
This isn’t an easy film to make the interplay between characters and the narrative is interestingly woven.
The film switches from present to flashback mode often but not once does Hirani lose the momentum. The medley of emotions that he brings forth as he establishes the film’s structure is indeed commendable.
Like the peppy Aal Izz Well song drawing towards a tragic climax it’s so cleverly done that it has the desired effect. There are scenes that’ll make you laugh, they’ll make you cry and they’ll make you think.
Hirani does it all so beautifully that you want to go back to college and relive all those moments.
The falling in love, the harassment by professors, the secret drinking sessions, the ragging of fellow students it’s all there.
Hirani also sends across a message on student pressures but there’s no preaching here it’s all done in his inimitable style.
Most films have their own set of ‘highlight’ scenes.
3 Idiots is different because every scene is special and brings with it something that’s out of the ordinary.
But there are a few that have a far lasting impact the entire ragging sequence; the camaraderie between Rancho and Pia; Chatur’s (the ‘brainy’ student) hilarious speech; the entire black-and-white depiction of Raju’s family; most of the scenes between Rancho and Viru; the sequences that lead to Raju’s recovery in the hospital and many more. After a point, you just stop counting.
Dialogues are snappy and totally effective (“In India, you get a pizza in 30 minutes guaranteed but not an ambulance”). The soundtrack, background score and cinematography is top class.
Among the performances, Madhavan delivers his most retrained act ever. He takes the film back and forth with his narrative and is splendid even with comedy.
Sharman Joshi is brilliant, especially in his breakdown scenes. Boman Irani is sincere as expected, with his lisp act getting all the right nuances.
Kareena Kapoor gives her finest portrayal in recent times as Pia. Her “dhokla, fafda, thepla, khandwa, khakra” scene is simply too delicious. Here’s a performance that proves why she’s indeed the best we have.
The life and soul of 3 Idiots is of course Aamir Khan. His perfection lies in the fact that he makes everything look so easy and spontaneous.
And at all the right moments, he brings the film alive with his sheer brilliance. From his look to his walk to his manner of speech, Aamir breathes life into Rancho and that’s what stays with us.
If you thought Aamir Khan couldn’t get any better than he is, think again. Aamir is the heart and soul of 3 Idiots and he proves why he’s simply a class apart.
What To Do: Book your tickets for consecutive shows because one viewing isn’t enough to savour 3 Idiots. Quite easily, this is the film of the year. Nothing else comes even close.
Debut Volvo XC90 R-Design makes its first appearance in Bollywood with 3 Idiots
3 The number of cities that Aamir travelled to in disguise to promote an alternate reality game (Varanasi, Palanpur and Sourav Ganguly’s house in Kolkata)
Rs 50 Cr The cost of making the film
10 Lakh The number of copies of Five Point Someone sold in India since 2004
Green Garden Hotel, one of Bali’s premier budget hotels, offers quality service, great value for money and a prime location. The unique selling point of this hotel is its friendly Balinese hospitality. Green Garden Hotel, among the popular family-run hotels in Bali, couples comfort with affordability, and truly makes a home away from home. The Location of Green Garden Hotel makes it a preferred haven for leisure travellers. The hotel is located right in central Jalan Kartika Plaza, 200 meters away from South Kuta beach. The tranquil ambiance creates a feeling of being far from the hustle & bustle of Kuta. Though Green Garden Hotel is not located bang in the middle of the town, the shopping precincts and restaurants are situated only a stone’s throw away. A short stroll would take you to the renowned Kuta Beach with all its famous beach attractions.
Green Garden Hotel offers 30 well-appointed rooms surrounding its central swimming pool. All the rooms are clean and fitted with all Western facilities. The interior of the rooms is tastefully decorated and a harmonic combination of cream and beige color exudes warmth and sophistication.
The amenities and services of this hotel are arranged to suit tourists’ every need. You can gorge on lip- smacking Indonesian specialties as well as Chinese, Continental and home-style meals in the restaurant. Its bar serves cold beers, great cocktails and fresh fruit juices. In fact, Green Garden Restaurant is probably one of the busiest restaurants along Kartika Plaza street with local home-style meals.
DIRECTIONS TO PROPERTY
Please ensure to submit full flight details at least 48 hours prior to arrival. Drop-off service from hotel to airport is provided on complimentary.
Airport taxis are available in front of arrival gate. It costs only USD 5 for a short 5-minute drive to the hotel. From the Denpasar International Airport, take a left turn to Kartika Plaza street (also known as Dewi Sartika street). Follow the main street for approx 5 km, Green Garden Hotel is located on left hand side of the street, 50 meters after Bali Dynasty Resort.
Barcelona – Opera browser finally showed agility when running on the iPhone in the event Mobile World Congress 2010. Opera browser claimed six times more speeding than Safari, the browser that become the sole option that Apple gadgets.
MWC 2010 in the event that took place in Barcelona, Opera has demonstrated how serasinya Opera Mini with the iPhone.
But because Apple does not necessarily accept a rival browsers in their platforms, Opera browsers were not entered into the App Store.
“This will then be submitted (to Apple), but we have not decided when. We want to further refine these products. We will not make it if we do not intend to register it,” said Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder of Opera Software.
According to Von Tetzchner, Opera Mini runs six times faster than Safari on the iPhone when using the 3G network.
After just an hour with an iPad, I came away with a preliminary verdict: Despite some flaws, this is one slick device.
Steve Jobs intrigued me in his slow, showman-like presentation when he said the $US499-and-up iPad is “so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone.” The comparison to an iPhone makes sense, given the minimalist silver-and-black style of the iPad. (more…)
Now that the mania of Apple’s iPad (such a bad name) announcement has begun to calm and people are checking bank accounts instead of RSS feeds for more information, big-name critics are pulling out their swords and taking swings at Apple’s latest creation. The overall reaction has been, in a word, underwhelming. What was hotly anticipated has mostly turned into cold soup. So what happened and what is being said?
There is, without a doubt, much disappointment surrounding the iPad. Bloggers curb-stomped it for its shortcomings:
No multitasking
No Adobe Flash (yet)
No camera or iChat capabilities
No HDMI port
4:3 aspect ratio
Still dependent on AT&T’s 3G service
Dependence on adapters
… and the list goes on.
What I found interesting is that the “big-name” critics took a more compassionate view of the iPad. David Pogue from the New York Times outlined three phases of “the standard Apple new-category roll-out,” starting with feverish speculation and hype, then hands-off negativity, then release-date positivity. Pogue urged caution from the knee-jerk types: “it’s too early to draw any conclusions.” Furthermore, he writes, “as we enter Phase 2, remember how silly you all looked when you all predicted the iPhone’s demise in that period before it went on sale.”
Om Malik had a positive take on the iPad over at Gigaom. He loved the single button, landscape and portrait modes, Web browsing experience, Maps, and the ability to “plow through” e-mails. Still, a hint of wariness came at the end of Malik’s brief first impression when he said, “If I didn’t own a Kindle or an iPod touch, the decision to buy an iPad would be an easy one. But I own both, and even if I only owned one of them, it would be a tough decision.”
Who better to weigh in on the iPad than Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak? In this video, Wozniak commented on the possible future of the iPad but lamented its productivity capabilities — specifically its inability to edit movies or fiddle with music.
Tech guru Walter Mossberg approached his first impressions of the iPad evenly without making overly harsh judgments. The keyboard and the tablet’s size, in his opinion, may be the iPad’s biggest downfall. “Finally, while it’s too early for me to say without lots of testing, the size of the iPad’s virtual keyboard may be a liability. I found it almost too wide for thumb typing, and a colleague who’s a whiz at touch typing and tried it briefly found it awkward to type on. Apple is offering an auxiliary physical keyboard that docks with, and charges, the iPad. But you won’t want to lug that around.”
You might be wondering where TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington fits into this hoopla. As of this writing, Arrington hadn’t given his two cents (or two thousand dollars) to the iPad, though he’s likely writing his tome now. I’m more interested than usual about Arrington’s take given that his own tablet, the CrunchPad, went down in flames.
Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times ran down the laundry list of oft-repeated iPad shortcomings, but hinted at its hopeful possibilities. “… depending on how it’s exploited, eventually it could be much more.”
The round-up of other influential tech blogs brought the same lukewarm response I believe we should expect from what looks to be a wishy-washy on-the-fence device. Gizmodo, quite simply, hated it. In a very long, multi-person take, Engadget was kinda “meh.” ZDNet, like many, urged caution. And the editors here at PC World teetered toward the negative in multiple editorial takes.
So that’s the general take on Apple’s latest product. What’s even more appealing to me is getting the audience’s reaction. So what do you think about the iPad?
Fujitsu has come out with the new LifeBook P8010, which will surely push your life in the fast tracks. This new notebook combines the best of design, elegance, portability and performance, all in one and that too at an affordable price. This new machine will surely provide you with the experience of advanced computing and once you use it, you will not settle for anything else. This notebook comes with such features which we are used to see in the larger and pricier notebooks.
The LifeBook P8010 runs on the Intel Core 2 Duo with a processing speed of 1.2GHz. The LifeBook has an installed memory of 1 BG and the HDD is of 80 GB capacity. The TFT active matrix screen produces brilliant images and is of 12.1 inch dimension. This LifeBook notebook is on the lighter side of the spectrum and is all of 2.9 lbs. The LifeBook comes with an optical drive and an integrated webcam. The memory can also be expandable up to 4 GB. The LifeBook features a fingerprint sensor to keep the notebook and the data within as safe as possible. The LifeBook has Lithium ion batteries and a 56kbps internal modem for your communication needs.
By now most of us have heard this story in one fashion or another: when Steve Jobs and Apple were in the planning stages of the iPhone, the first carrier they brought the device to was America’s largest network, Verizon. Even if you haven’t heard how the tale ends — Verizon refused and Jobs took his multi-billion dollar ball to AT&T — you surely know the outcome. The iPhone has soared to become the ultimate smartphone, the must-have accessory that everyone from celebrities to your mom wants — nay, needs — to have in their pocket. It’s changed the landscape of modern cellphones, put a serious dent in the sales of competing devices (just recently overtaking the venerable RAZR as the best-selling domestic handset), and unquestionably raised the bar when it comes to expectations for features in new handsets.
It may seem unfair to open up the review of RIM’s latest BlackBerry — the Storm — with a history lesson on the iPhone, but if you understand the market which Verizon and RIM hope to capture, then you understand the Storm, and it helps put this critique in perspective. The Storm, a widescreen, touchscreen device boasts many of the same features as the iPhone, but adds innovations like a clickable display, and comes packed with RIM’s legendary email and messaging services. Mainlined into the biggest (and some say best) network in the States, the Storm is an almost deafening blast to the competition at first glance, but does it hold up on closer inspection? Read on to find out.
BlackBerry Storm in pictures
Industrial design
The Storm is a striking device. From the second you lay eyes on it, it’s clear that a lot of time and care went into crafting this phone. The majority of the front panel is display, a large 3.25-inch (480 x 360) touchscreen sitting just shy of flush with a silver bezel that runs around the sides, top, and bottom of the device. The bands seem to be plastic, not metal, and trace the outline of the moderately thick (0.55-inch) phone, looping around the back, while the rest of the surface is a high gloss, piano black plastic. Below the screen are four familiar BlackBerry keys (phone, menu, back, and end / power), along the left is a convenience key and a micro USB port (RIM has eschewed the more common mini USB slot for the lower profile of the newer variation, though that seems to be the way the industry is headed), and on the right side is another convenience key, volume rocker, and (yay!) 3.5mm headphone jack. Around back, the battery cover is made from solid piece of brushed aluminum, and the camera and flash sit atop the plate, covered by a glossy plastic strip. Along the top of the phone there’s a single LED to the right, and lock and mute keys incorporated into either side of the casing like soft rockers — a nice touch. Generally, the construction of the hardware and components used seem higher in quality than previous devices from the company, with buttons that click tightly and a heft that tries (and succeeds) to communicate an understated class.
It’s not completely rainbows and unicorns, however. We noticed backlight leaking in through the sides of the screen, which partially killed the continuity of the design (and had us raise eyebrows at build quality), and the screen sort of slides around when it’s pressed down and held (more on that later). No deal breakers, but certainly a couple minor niggles we wish we hadn’t seen.
Touchscreen
The touchscreen is where most of the attention on this phone will be focused, and rightfully so. Unlike similarly stacked competitors (the iPhone and Instinct come to mind) the Storm doesn’t just boast a capacitive touch display, it also utilizes a completely unique “click” technology called SurePress which actually allows you to click the screen down like a mouse button. The purpose of this technology, ostensibly, is to provide two aspects to touch screens which are currently lacking in most devices: the ability to “hover” without selecting or moving an on-screen element, and the physical sensation of “clicking” when you type or navigate. The Storm’s screen certainly provides those two things in spades, but our question is whether or not they actually improve the experience of using this sort of device — and in our opinion, they do not.
Before we plunge into why we feel the hardware doesn’t work here, we need to preface it with some information about the software. You can’t really talk about one without the other.
What you first should know is that the operating system used on this phone is almost identical to previous BlackBerry OSs — notably 4.6, as seen on the Bold. The main reason for stating that is because you must understand the basis for the UI design. All modern BlackBerrys use a QWERTY or SureType keypad coupled with a trackball for navigation, in addition to heavy emphasis on a pop-up menu accessible by the “menu” key from pretty much every section of the OS. The difference in 4.7 is not a paradigmatic shift away from this approach, rather, the company has added touch and multitouch functionality to take the place of trackball movements. What this means is that unlike the iPhone, which is most certainly the closest competitor on the market to this phone, the Storm’s UI is not custom built for touch navigation — touch navigation is added after the fact. Things which flow naturally on an iPhone — flicking through lists, scrolling for a contact, moving around in a webpage or looking through photos — feel inelegant and uncomfortable on the Storm. There’s no inertia to movement, no assurance that your finger is the lynchpin to control of the device. The screen is sensitive enough, surely, but how its software reacts to those touches makes all the difference, and here the feeling is that you’re never completely in charge of the phone.
BlackBerrys have garnered an almost mythic stature as the phone for email and messaging. One of the components of RIM’s success for that model has been the inclusion of QWERTY keypads (and more recently the halved QWERTY SureType keyboards) on their phones. As any email addict will tell you, very few devices can compete. The slant from RIM’s PR on the Storm is that the new clickable touchscreen delivers another high caliber typist’s dream to their roster — but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Rather than the click making things easier, it actually makes them more difficult. As you press down to engage a “key,” you’re required to release before moving to another, which means that you can only type so quickly. In our tests, we were constantly frustrated by the staggering, laggy movement when trying to type with any speed. You have to let the click depress before you can strike another character, and that makes for a stuttery input process. Additionally, hovering over characters is represented by a blue glow, which looks nice when moving around, but in practice doesn’t do a very good job of letting you know what key you’re touching. We had spelling errors aplenty. All of this would be helped greatly by an intelligent software component that guessed what you meant to type — much like the iPhone’s predictive element. Unfortunately, what RIM provides is more of a glorified T9, which means if you type “fo,” it doesn’t know you meant to type “do.” Ultimately we found ourselves slowly and carefully pecking out messages that should have taken less time to put together, clicking screen or not.
Otherwise, there are a few great implementations of the screen — copying and pasting, which is the norm on RIM phones, is fully represented here with elegant multitouch functionality. You just grab the beginning and end of a section of text you want to snag with two fingers, and a menu pops up along the bottom for copy / paste duties. In the browser, you can hover above a link with your finger before clicking it (a big help on crowded pages), and you can double tap (not click) to zoom into pages, though there’s no way to back out other than hitting the minus magnifying glass. We don’t think the technology used for the screen is a dead-end by any measure, but it has a long way to go before it’s honestly competing with the iPhone for virtual keyboard domination. Right now it’s a nice idea with less in the way of usability than we need. If speed isn’t a concern, you’ll probably find it manageable, but for BlackBerry addicts and those accustomed to typing on the iPhone, this will be a disappointment.
Besides the new technology behind the display, the screen itself is fairly tremendous. Colors are rich, and contrast is solid. The brightness isn’t quite as eye-searing as the iPhone at full tilt, and doesn’t even approach the supernova 8830 we’ve got here, but frankly, how bright do you need it? Everything looked sharp and clear, though we’ve gotten a little spoiled by the Bold’s incredible pixel density, and now other phones seem to pale in comparison.
Software
As we said, 4.7 isn’t a huge step up over 4.6, but there are a number of improvements worth mentioning. Navigating through menus and the home screen is still very much a typical BlackBerry experience though. The phone has two levels of “application” screens, the initial landing screen, which gives you eight app icons of your choosing, and a deeper level which displays all of your folders and programs. You can use the touchscreen to hover (or select) each of the icons, giving it that blue glow, but we found it annoying that you couldn’t drag your finger across the selections and have the glow follow you (as it does when typing). It gets stuck on the first thing you touch, and you have to re-press to move to another icon — it seems like it would be more convenient to have the selection follow your movements, but the phone doesn’t seem to know the difference between a quick flick up or down and a selection. You click down on the screen to launch an app or make a selection in a list, and you can swipe up and down to move through the list of apps, though it’s not nearly as smooth as it should be. BlackBerry fans used to a real keyboard and shortcuts might find themselves a bit lost here when trying to get around quickly — you can set one of the convenience keys to pop open the virtual keyboard, but it doesn’t seem to recognize long presses, shortcuts, or find-as-you-type contact searches like traditional RIM devices (typing on the Storm just takes you to the dialer, why we don’t know).
Most components of the UI which require scrolling don’t seem drastically changed, but you can now jump through lists by up-down gestures. Again, we found that the lack of inertia made this seem stiffer than expected, though it worked well enough when moving around the phone. RIM has added a few visual tweaks to the OS on the Storm, like crossfades and sideways swipes of pages which admittedly give it a bit more polish, although they seem largely superfluous (don’t worry, we feel the same way about the iPhone’s zooms and scrolls). Overall, transitions between screens and inside of apps do seem a bit more sluggish than the performance on the Bold, but whether this is due to those new effects or a higher CPU load given the touch recognition and screen size, we can’t say. We did find ourselves missing the speedy response of a traditional BlackBerry, and also felt like responses lagged behind our movements enough to be annoying. There seemed to be a few noticeable bugs floating around, and at least one that ground the phone to almost a halt — when quitting the browser on a page that was still loading, it turned the navigation on the home screen to molasses. Another flaw we had crop up was accelerometer related, an irksome bug that rendered the portrait-to-landscape switching (and vice versa) non-existent. We can’t say if that was hardware or software related, but the details count, and those little snags take points away.
Thankfully the browser has been considerably updated. If you have any experience with RIM’s last attempt at mobile browsers (the Bold), then you know what manna from heaven any fixes would be. 4.6’s browser is, in a word, unusable. Load times are painful, rendering is only sometimes accurate, and mostly it’s just a tortuous mess to get around in. We can honestly say that the Storm’s implementation is leaps and bounds beyond what the company has previously offered. Pages load quickly and are generally formatted correctly, navigation is much snappier (zooms don’t take hours to redraw), and scrolling is tolerable, if not as buttery smooth as we prefer. And ultimately, that’s a point that must be made — while the browser is much better than earlier versions, and is an admirable attempt, it’s still a bit behind Mobile Safari and the G1’s Webkit-based “Chrome light,” lacking support for more advanced features like multiple tabs. Why RIM doesn’t build something from scratch (or buy a license from Opera) is a question for the ages — we can’t imagine anyone has any real affection for this experience. Still, for casual tasks and most browsing, you could certainly do worse, and it’s nice to know that a lot of energy went into this update.
On the messaging and email front, very little has changed here from earlier RIM phones, save for some of that visual flair. Particularly when it comes to email, the use of screen real estate and selection of fonts seems dated when compared with the iPhone. We won’t complain about the email service itself, delivery of messages was rock solid (of course), but a quick glance at the iPhone versus a quick glance at the Storm provides a strong juxtaposition of design languages. Reading email on the BlackBerry was an inconsistent experience, and highlighted the feeling that not too much trouble had been taken to freshen up this UI and format it for the bigger screen. Under the hood, we found account management simple enough, but those looking for solid Gmail integration (like, say, all the people Verizon and RIM hope to lure away from Apple’s camp) will be seriously let down. There doesn’t seem to be any decent alternative for getting Gmail the way you’re used to, save for Google’s own app (which is remarkably good save for a few issues).
On that note, third-party software is still a bit weak for the platform, and essentially non-existent for the Storm itself. It doesn’t look like using this phone will break any (or most) of the software already out for BlackBerry devices, but there’s also not much taking advantage of the new format and screen real estate. In particular, something like the Facebook application — which Verizon and RIM are pushing hard with the launch of the Storm — is a poor stand-in for the iPhone offering, sporting exactly the same functionality it does on an older RIM device. Reps from the company assured us that their version of the App Store was coming, and they do have a tidy application manager on the phone already, so we’re hoping that third parties really step up their game with the introduction of the Storm.
Because the phone is being marketed as a convergence device, it’s got an extra emphasis on media functions. In truth, the media players / browsers are almost identical to 4.6’s options, though again there’s some nice visual flair added. The bigger screen allows for larger artwork to be shown off, and it’s a match made in heaven for video playback. Management of media is still pretty standard — we copied files back and forth between the microSD card (8GB is included with the phone), but there’s no flashy Cover Flow or anything. In fact, we noticed a slight graphic glitch when moving from portrait to landscape, which might be nothing, or may be due to the fact the phone has no hardware acceleration for graphics.
All in all, the software feature-set the phone ships with is incredibly strong. There’s a broad selection of applications, including the “To Go” suite that allow you to view and edit Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents. Average (and even not so average) users will be hard pressed to find something that’s missing, and RIM makes it easy enough to grab key software if someone wants it. You have to hand it to them, they cover pretty much all the bases… save for one nasty omission.
We were a bit stunned to find out that we couldn’t sync the Storm with our Mac out of the box. We don’t mean “hey we couldn’t sync with iTunes” (we’re not insane), we mean, “hey, we can’t sync this, at all, in any way.” For the few Mac users that also happen to dig BlackBerrys, there’s a piece of software RIM offers free of charge called PocketMac, which does a half decent job of at least throwing your contacts, calendars, and other assorted must-haves onto your device — but you’re out of luck if you buy a Storm. Apparently, the software needs an update badly, and if you expect to enjoy the same service it provides to something like a Bold, you’ll be surprised and annoyed (as we were) to find this doesn’t let you sync your data. For that, right now, you’re going to have to go download (and pay for) something like Missing Sync. It’s pretty outrageous to us that in crafting a device so obviously aimed at the iPhone’s marketshare no one thought to make it accessible to Apple users even a little. Look, we know it’s not a huge segment of the market, but it’s there, and if history has taught us anything, it’s a segment to be reckoned with.
Phone / Data
When it comes to sound quality and reception for making actual phone calls, you can’t beat this combination. RIM phones generally have loud and clear earpieces and speakerphones, and Verizon — love it or hate it — has a great network. Those two facts are certainly apparent when it comes to the Storm. We found the earpiece to be plenty loud, and the speakerphone equally booming. If we had a complaint, we’d say the mid-range was a bit shrill on the phone. The Bold, by comparison, has a much warmer, well-rounded output. Still, that’s a pretty minor complaint, and if you’re looking for sheer network-clutching goodness, this is a pretty damn good choice. In addition to Verizon’s CDMA, EV-DO, Rev. A madness, the Storm sports a GSM radio (a number of them), so you can grab HSPA in the rest of the world, and truck on some sweet, sweet EDGE here in the States.
Speaking of that EV-DO, the download speeds and network stability of the Storm seem pretty tight. Although the phone omits WiFi, as long as you stay inside decent Verizon coverage areas, you won’t feel that sting too badly.
Camera / GPS / Battery life
In general, picture quality was excellent on the camera, which offers a healthy 3.2-megapixel resolution. The only problem we had — and it was a big one — was the fact that it took ages to focus and snap a shot. There were numerous times when trying to photograph something that we lost the shot because of the length of time it took the camera to kick in. In broad daylight, things fared a slight bit better, but when using the flash, it was pretty hard to get good results. This seems like something that could take a simple software tweak to fix — we know the camera looks nice, we just need it to take photos faster. A lot faster.
One of the nice things about the Storm is that it’s not just capable of doing still photos, but can shoot video as well. Results are mediocre, allowing capture up to 320 x 240, with quite a bit of heavy artifacting. Still, knowing that you can pull this out to grab something reminds us — yet again — that this is a necessary basic for modern cellphones.
Using the device for navigation garnered excellent results in terms of signal reception and tracking, but having to slug through the abysmal Verizon Navigator software isn’t exactly joyous (dudes, that intro animation is the worst thing we’ve ever seen). It would be nice to see some third party options on the device for PND duties, though at least Verizon tries to throw a lot of content into the mix (movie times, traffic, local search), no matter how heavy handed it feels (real, real heavy handed).
Since we had a very, very limited time to test the phone, we can’t really give you solid figures on battery life. In casual use, however, the Storm seems to be going strong even after a heavy workload: browsing, media player, and phone calls. We’ve had the phone on and chugging all day, and it’s only seeing about about a 30 percent drop in life so far. If this keeps up, you can color us officially impressed with the juice you can pull out of this thing.
Wrap-up
It’s clear from the device itself and the massive promotional push that both RIM and Verizon are giving the Storm that they view this as a proper threat to the iPhone’s dominance in the smartphone market. Over the last few weeks we’ve been bombarded with commercials, leaks, press releases, and special events all celebrating the arrival of the Storm, both here and abroad. So it seems fairly obvious that yes, the companies believe they have a real contender on their hands — and in many ways they do. The selling points are easy: the phone is gorgeous to look at and hold, it’s designed and backed by RIM (now almost a household name thanks to their prevalence in the business and entertainment markets), and it’s packed with features that, at first glance, make it seem not only as good as the iPhone, but better. The only hitch in this plan is a major one: it’s not as easy, enjoyable, or consistent to use as the iPhone, and the one place where everyone is sure they have an upper hand — that wow-inducing clickable screen — just isn’t all that great. For casual users, the learning curve and complexity of this phone will feel like an instant turn off, and for power users, the lack of a decent typing option and considerable lagginess in software will give them pause. RIM tried to strike some middle ground between form and function, and unfortunately came up short on both.
Going into this review, we really wanted to love this phone. On paper it sounds like the perfect antidote to our gripes about the iPhone, and in some ways it lives up to those promises — but more often than not while using the Storm, we felt let down or frustrated. Ultimately, this could be a great platform with a little more time in the oven, but right now, it feels undercooked — and that’s not enough for us.
It’s a great thing the infamously minimal German humorous character doesn’t translate to its top-end accommodation. The 5-star hostels in Berlin are among the best and most fairly priced anywhere in the world.
Low on chortles
okay, so that the service staff isn’t exactly stand-up comic material. Then again, why would you look for that in 5-star hostels in Berlin? You could get that in hostels anywhere in the world.
In fact this brings to me an interesting point about 5-star hostels in Berlin, or any other hotel actually. The more money you pay, the less you may expect in the form of smart repartee from the hotel staff. Hotels are about service, about enjoying the whole travel experience. Why else would they ask me to enjoy my stay here at the uniquely decorated Palace hotel in Berlin? Yet I fork out hundreds of additional dollars for an enticing, ornamented, wonderful, and opulent room, as well as free use of the thermal baths, sauna, and solarium, but have a thoroughly dour time!
Not even at the best of the 5-star hotels in Berlin, the Adlon Kempinski, am I able to get a giggle out of anyone apart from the janitors. Try as I might, I couldn’t get a laugh out of anyone. I suspect it has something to do with the hotel’s really significant, classy history. I could use a heavy iron pinch bar, but even that in the hand of a 200-pound pro-wrestler would hardly be sufficient to bend the corners of the staff’s mouth into a little upward half-smirk. What do I have to do to get a giggle around here?
I sauntered up to the front desk of the Schlosshotel im Grunewald, one of the finest 5-star hostels in Berlin. ‘You know where I can get a good giggle around here, pal?’ I asked the receptionist.
‘Your ad boasted of intimacy.
You’re after…
Yes, even at the Schlosshotel im Grunewald, one of the swankiest 5-star hostels in Berlin, a giggle is as tough to find as plutonium.
okay, so we’ve established that we won’t exactly be staying at the comedy club or getting a laugh a minute. After all , who would mind having to give up laughs in exchange for state-of-the-art comforts and round the clock pampering? The 5-star hostels in Berlin provide those. Actually, not only will 5-star hostels in Berlin make you feel like royalty, they’re going to let you experience Germany’s culture first hand, too! One of the 5-star hostels in Berlin, the Swisshotel Berlin, even provides guests with the opportunity of viewing the original artworks of Markus Lupertz. His paintings adorn the walls of each of the hotel’s room. Not only that, you get to eat like royalty too! The Swisshotel Berlin boasts of a menu designed by Anton Mosimann, the official cook of Britain’s Royal Family.
Another good thing about the 5-star hotels in Berlin is they are very reasonable. For instance, you can get a room in any of the 5-star hostels in Berlin, like the 4 Seasons Berlin which is right in the center of the city, for as low as fifty six Euros a night! That’s’s less expensive than paying rent! If you have cash to burn, the Kempinski Hotel in Bristol places you smack-dab within the money-burning district of Berlin, the Kurfurstendamm. You won’t be getting any giggles, but at least you should purchase shoes to your heart’s content, whether you want them or not.
If you are after indulgence , however , 5-star hostels in Berlin are the places to go to. Looking for Cheap Berlin Hotels 5 Star? Visit Hotels In Berlin Compare Prices now! Whether it’s a Paris bed and breakfast you want or something else, our hotel finder will help you find the ideal home away from home.
The Nokia N97 is the tip of the spear in Nokia’s smartphone lineup. It is the most powerful, smartest and fully featured phone of the company. It is also the first Nokia phone to make use of a large touch-display and that alone has raised the expectations from die hard Nokia fans that have refused to switch over to the iPhone. And Nokia has put quite a lot of work and thought in the N97. I had a first look when Nokia was still developing the N97 and I was looking forward to get my hands on the final product. In this review, I will tell you how I used it, and how well it did. Does the Nokia N97 live up to the hype?
Context
Rushing a review is great to get links, but not the best way to get a good feel for something, so I used the Nokia N97 for a few weeks, mainly as a smartphone with Exchange support. Web browsing was tested regularly to read news and check various sites. Facebook was accessed via the Facebook application included in the phone.
Phone Highlights
3.5″ Touch Display
32GB internal storage + 16GB optional storage vis flash card
5 Megapixel Carl Zeiss Lens
GPS
WIFI, Bluetooth
3.5G
FM Radio
Complete specifications (pdf)
Phone Basics (Very Good)
As with any phone, the first thing that I check is how good the sound quality is, and how easy it is to dial a number or a contact. The good news is that the sound quality is good, although the volume is not very loud. It would be nice to have a more powerful sound output.
Dialing a number is quick and relatively efficient. There’s no need to use the physical keyboard as the virtual numeric pad works great and there was no typo whatsoever while dialing numbers.
Dialing a contact is a bit more complex, if you have a bunch of them. From the contact list, you can scroll and click, or type a name and click. Typing a name requires the use of the physical keyboard, which is not very practical if you phone was closed. The T-Mobile G1 suffered from the same lack of virtual keyboard. Every qwerty slider phone should have one.
As you try to dial, the phone will ask you if you want to place a video call, each time! I’ve not seen anyone use video calls (ever), so I think that Nokia should have the option to skip that question. After a week, it was getting on my nerves.
Answering calls is easy, so is placing people on hold, or hang up. Good job Nokia. Locking and unlocking the phone is also easy and foolproof, thanks to the side button.
Physical Design (Good)
The Nokia N97 is a nicely designed phone. The design is agreeable to look at, and the build quality is good, except maybe for the battery cover which has a plastic feel – but it needs to be flexible because it’s *removable*. The display is a mixed bag: it has a resolution of 640×360 but the colors seem a little faded and the clarity seems inferior to other touch phones. I suspect that one of the display layers has something to do with this. Two people that I’ve shown the phone to immediately made the same remark as well.
Next to the speaker, you will notice a front-facing camera and a proximity sensor. The 5 Megapixel camera is in the back, protected by a sliding lens cover. There’s a “camera” button that makes taking picture more natural than taping on the screen (which often induces a last minute shake that could makes photos blurry). The keyboard sliding mechanism feels solid.
The Nokia N97 is a little thick (15.9mm). The bottom part is basically as thick as my Blackberry curve or an iPhone, and the display is 3mm (or so) thick on top of it. These 3mm represent what it takes to add a physical keyboard to a phone like that. The T-Mobile G1 is even thicker at 16.35mm. If you want a big display and a full keyboard that’s the price to pay right now.
In the past, I have criticized Nokia for their use of proprietary power connectors, but here they use a standard micro-B USB connector and a standard voltage, which makes it compatible with my BlackBerry chargers or any USB micro-B cable. Cool move, Nokia.
Touch Phone (Just OK)
For many things (but not all), the Nokia N97 can be used as a pure touch phone. The company has done an “ok job” on the tactile user interface. It’s mostly intuitive, except for the setup menus (I question their logic). Nokia uses a double-tap system to avoid accidental clicks vs. drag interpretations (see video). For example, in the menu, if I want to go to my contacts, I need to click once to select “contacts”, then click a second time to actually launch the application. Depending on your tastes this can be great or annoying. We’re not fans of it, but I got over it.
The switch to Landscape Mode is just not hapenning here… …but opening the keyboard does force it change.
The portrait/landscape switch works most of the time, but it sometimes won’t switch from portrait to landscape and you will have to open the keyboard to force it to do so.
The display of the N97 provides a tactile feedback upon clicking. It’s interesting, but it won’t help with typing speed, if you wonder. It might be something that we want to disable to expand the battery life a bit.
Some functions like “Unlock” or “Menu” are accessible only by the hardware buttons, which is weird, considering that most people would expect everything to be accessible via the touch display. It’s not a roadblock, but it’s not completely intuitive.
Responsiveness (Average)
Switch to fullscreen to see all the details
There’s nothing as frustrating as a slow phone, right? The Nokia N97 is a mixed bag when it comes to responsiveness. Most of the time, it is responsive and does what I want, but if there are a few applications running it will get slow. I understand that it’s better to have less apps opened, but it’s “only” a few apps. Secondly, it’s too much work to go and close them one by one, so I suspect that most people will do exactly what I did: nothing. All phones should have a “close all apps” icon on the homepage.
Homepage Widget (Well Implemented)
Widgets are popular these days. Samsung and Sony Ericsson (Xperia) are big believers of Widgets, but the N97 has the best homepage widgets implementation that I have seen so far. On many phones, widgets are messy (like the OMNIA), but Nokia has done a good job at maximizing the use of screen space. I like the default homepage that includes Facebook, but I noticed that the widget was often out of sync with the real-time content (this is true for Exchange as well). That should be fixed. It would also be nice if we could interact with the widgets directly from the homepage, like updating a Facebook status or a Tweet from the homepage.
Keyboard (Average)
Having a physical keyboard is just great for heavy texters. The N97 keyboard suffers from the same issue than all sliders have: the buttons are very thin, which reduces the typing speed – at least, for me. To be fair, this is one of the better slider keyboard that I have played with recently. Also, the keys are spaced just a little too far apart, making the finger travel much and that makes the typing slower too. The space key is oddly placed too. As an alternative, I would propose having an Sym, Shift and Func (to get the blue characters) on both side of the keyboard and place a recessed trackball, instead of using directional “joystick”.
For those who text in the dark, the keyboard has a beautiful backlighting and the two-tone (white and blue) characters make it very readable. Other phone makers should definitely take notice.
Text/Email (Good)
The N97 has a lot of email options and the one that I prefer for work is Exchange: it is well implemented and works flawlessly. Emails arrive instantly and the only thing that I noticed is that upon a soft reset (battery removal), the phone does not cache the Exchange email and spends time doing a “sync” from scratch (that can take a couple of minutes).
I also setup a GMail account. From the @gmail.com address, the N97 was able to preset all the mail server settings. All that I had to provide is my email and password. By default, that email was setup to use the 3.5G connection, so you might want to set it up with the “default” connection, to make it work over WIFI as well. All in all, the setup couldn’t be much easier.
Mapping (Great)
The N97 comes loaded with Nokia Maps, and I can say that it is my best “out of the box” experience with a default navigation app. Unlike Google maps, the Nokia maps are cached on the device itself, so once they are onboard, they are not downloaded (over the air) again. Better yet: you can pre-load an entire city, country or the whole world (4GB) so that Nokia maps doesn’t load the maps while you’re traveling. That cuts down on roaming charges, waiting time and frustration.
Nokia Maps is fast and lets you scroll the map smoothly. Upon a zoom in/out it will take a second readjust the level of details (see video). I found the compass be not very useful in pedestrian mode. Using it makes the map rotate left and right -all the time- which doesn’t help the overall map readability. Nokia should also improve the search and use a single text field like Google Maps does. It is also not possible to select an origin/destination directly on the map. That would be easy to add.
Nokia Maps can send .lmx files that contains a geo-position, but unfortunately, there are no popular applications out there that read them, so you’re stuck with sending it to your Nokia-wielding friends.
Overall, Nokia Maps is a great mapping software and one of Nokia’s finest application. I only wish that Nokia would make it available to other platforms like Google does.
Web Browsing (Very Good)
The Nokia N97 has a good browser, it worked with pretty much all the sites that went to, including Yahoo Finance and Google Docs. Y! Finance is usually an interesting site to try on a phone because it’s hard to render on small displays. The N97’s resolution is high enough to display it correctly, so that’s a win. It is possible to log into Google Docs and view text documents, but sheets did not work, even in read-only mode. Adobe Flash Lite is supported. You can go on YouTube, follow links to YouTube and do things that you would normally do on a computer, without going through a YouTube “app”.
YouTube is the real deal: no “app” required
Ovi Store (Bare Minimum)
Ovi Store is a very basic implementation of an app store. The bottom-line is that there’s nothing very exciting about it and most of the coolest application are already embedded in the N97 (my own preferences here, obviously). Browsing the store is a bit tedious and slow, I guess that I would rather browse apps on a PC and download something from there. “Existence” is often superior to “perfection”, but I hope that Nokia will improve the store soon.
Data Connection (Normal)
These numbers can vary depending on your location and quality of signal. I wish that I had more time to run around San Francisco, but this is what I got at the office:
3.5G: 630Kbps
WIFI: 1.4Mbps
Note that it is technically possible to use the Nokia N97 as a 3.5G modem. It works only via Bluetooth, which tends to deplete the battery faster. I think that a USB tethering option would come in handy in the future. The modem drivers are in the Nokia PC Suite or can be downloaded separately if you don’t want to install all the software package.
Camera (Very Good, for a phone)
It won’t come as a surprise that Nokia has a good 5 Megapixel camera. Of course, Megapixels don’t mean much in terms of quality, but in my experience this is “good” to “very good”. The flash works well too. In my tests, I found that the N97 had a photo quality superior to the Blackberry 8900 that we usually use to live blog. To see more photos, including full-size ones, head to our Flickr page.
I had some issues with the video recording: the auto-focus never worked (!). Nobody else seems to complain, and Nokia has not replied to my email on the subject. At the moment, I’ll file this as a “problem with our unit”, but drop a comment if you noticed this elsewhere.
Multimedia (Just OK)
With 32GB of internal memory and the possibility of adding 16GB more via a microSD card the storage is great. With Windows Media Player (iTunes is not supported), it is relatively easy to sync files with the N97 (who uses WMP to manage media files?). Make sure that you connect with the “Media Transfer” option and the N97 will appear in Windows Media Player. From there you can drag and drop things that you want to sync. It takes seconds to sync a dozen .mp3 files. WMA files with DRM won’t work (Rhapsody…). As you can guess, the sound quality was definitely OK and will be limited by your earplugs, unless you are walking around with expensive audio gears.
You can play music while reading your emails if you want. If a call occurs during the playback, the music will stop and will restart where it stopped.
The video playback demos included in the phone were working fine and looked like they were running at 30 frames per second. The image quality is just OK – not great like it was on the HTC Touch Pro. After playing with the Samsung OMNIA HD, it’s hard to be impressed. The N97 video playback is good enough to enjoy a TV show. On the video side, the big question is where the content will come from. Users rarely take the time to convert their desktop videos to a mobile format, even if there are good options out there to do it. The store content was very interesting to me, but you might find something there…
Another thing of interest is the Radio. it works really well and tunes itself to available local stations. The sound was very clear on the few stations that were found immediately. Cool stuff.
Battery Life (Average)
During the test, I found the that average battery life was about 1.5 to 2 days with my usage (see “context” up there). Obviously, this will vary a lot depending on your own usage, but the bottom line is that most people would charge it daily, but if you forget it, you won’t have a dead phone in the morning.
Nokia PC Suite
The Nokia N97 can be used in conjunction with the Nokia PC Suite, a client application (for Windows) that helps you manage your phone for the comfort of your PC via USB. The last time that I looked at the PC Suite, it was solid and these days, I prefer to do everything directly on the phone, but you should know that it exists. Right now, the last thing that I want to do with a smartphone is to install a bunch of stuff on my PC to manage it.
Conclusion (Average to Good)
Nokia is playing catch up in a market that has become extremely competitive in the past couple of years. In that game and at that price, there’s only one thing that really counts: the user experience. The Nokia N97 is not a “bad” phone and it doesn’t deserve the some of the harsh reviews that I’ve seen recently. In fact, it has good hardware, great storage, and nice design. It is also better than the Sony Ericsson Xperia. The pricing however, is way too steep ($599 unlocked).
The user interface (UI) is mostly OK, although I wish that it could be used solely with the touch display. There are inconsistencies that should be fixed and Nokia should seriously think about upgrading its user interface design by making it be more intuitive and look more modern.
Nokia fans who were anxiously waiting for the N97 will probably forgive its shortcomings, but I’m personally having a hard time to be really excited as there are excellent alternatives out there (at attractive prices). If you are already in love with the N97, I bet that you won’t change your mind in light of this review and that’s OK. For those who are on the fence, I guess that you will stay on the other side.
Now it time to compare just a little bit between the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic and the Apple iPhone, Neil Bergh from Hightechz.com sent us this comparison, so we would like to thank him in advance. Please read his review titled “Is the new Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic better than the iPhone?”
I find myself reading on several websites that the new Nokia 5800 is the first real competitor against iPhone. Usually there are a lot of opinions and subjective statements from either side, and of course it’s difficult to do a proper evaluation when the new Nokia isn’t even out yet. However I though I should do my best to do a proper comparison of the two mobile phones.
1. The camera.
I think the Nokia 5800 wins this round. It is provided with a 3.2Mpix camera with Carl Zeiss Optics and dual flash. The iPhone on the other hand mounts a basic 2Mpix camera, without flash.
2. Input methods.
Nokia 5800 has the new handwriting feature, similar to the palm computers. I haven’t tried it myself, but if it works properly I’m sure it will be very practical instead of typing if you want to write a quick sms or note. The new Nokia also has a plectrum. This one I’m not so sure about. It doesn’t seem extremely useful. But of course if you don’t need it just throw it away.
3. Battery.
Nokia seems to be better at this one as well. However we can only go on the specifications for the Nokia 5800. The iPhone specifications mention a standby time up to 300h, audio playback up to 24h and a talk time of 5-10h depending on if you use 2G or 3G.
In the specifications on the Nokia website for the 5800 they claim it will have a standby time of 16.7 days that should equal approximately 400 hours. Talk time very similar to the iPhone and audio playback of 1.5 days which should be 36 hours. Although as I said before these are specifications. As we all know it’s usually much lower than this especially when you have used your phone for a while. So there is not many conclusions we can draw from this more than that Nokia claims to have a little better general battery time.
4. Video recording.
This is interesting. The iPhone is not capable of video recording yet. Sure on jailbroken phones I have read it could be possible but the Nokia 5800 has video recording as a standard application. You should also be able to do video calls with your friends which is not possible with the iPhone.
5. The display.
The Nokia 5800 has a smaller display than the iPhone, 3.2 inch against the 3.5 inch for the iPhone. However the resolution is better on the Nokia 5800 with 640*360 pixels against 480*320 pixels for the iPhone.
6. The price.
Nokia claims the price will be 279 euro. Which should be less than the price of the iPhone? I guess this is one of the main advantages of the Nokia 5800. They are quite similar but the lower price probably appeals to a wider range of customers. Sure we don’t know how apple will react. Maybe they will lower their prices as well. But for now it’s a big advantage for Nokia.
7. The music.
Apple has a huge advantage in their established iTunes website. However Nokia has a music store of its own. When you buy your Nokia 5800 you will get free music for a year, which of course is very generous. Sure apple has an advantage in this area; they do have their background in mp3 players and iTunes. Although it seems like Nokia is working very hard in this area with their music shop and the increased battery hours while listening to music.
8. General things.
A disadvantage with the iPhone has been that it can’t send MMS. However the Nokia 5800 is able to do this. The Nokia 5800 also has a GPS. I have read that there is some kind of external GPS you can buy for the iPhone but for Nokia it’s included. Although Nokia lacks a few things that the iPhone has, for example it doesn’t support multi touch which many people like about the iPhone.
As a conclusion I find that there are a lot of similarities between to two. At least the Nokia 5800 shouldn’t be worse than the iPhone, but cheaper. If everything that they claim is true, you sure get a lot for your money buying a Nokia 5800.
