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- Boingo Offering Free Wi-Fi To Nintendo 3DS Users
- RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350 (Sprint)
- Samsung DoubleTime (AT&T)
- HTC Rezound (Verizon Wireless)
- Top 6 Social Media Marketing Trends of 2011
| Boingo Offering Free Wi-Fi To Nintendo 3DS Users Posted: 10 Dec 2011 01:03 PM PST Boingo Offering Free Wi-Fi To Nintendo 3DS Users
The 3DS already gets free Wi-Fi at various locations including AT&T hotspots, Best Buy, and Simon Malls. You can use the 3DS to browse the Internet using the built-in browser but I wouldn't depend on it for mission-critical activities. It is, however, a nice feature if you're thinking of downloading a game during a layover or need to update your Pokedex. The free service partnership will last indefinitely past the holidays. (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF | ||||||||||||||||||||
| RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350 (Sprint) Posted: 10 Dec 2011 08:29 AM PST RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350 (Sprint)
Slim design. Near-perfect keyboard given the phone’s size. Great call quality.
No 4G or HD video recording. Few third-party apps.
The BlackBerry Curve 9350 is great for email, texting, and (finally) browsing the Web, but even this latest version feels like a leftover from three years ago. Other smartphone platforms may get all the buzz, but BlackBerrys are as reliable as ever—if no longer cutting-edge. The BlackBerry Curve 9350 for Sprint ($49.99) is a good example. If you text or email a lot, want a physical keyboard, and want your phone to be as small as possible while remaining comfortable, the Curve 9350 is a shrewd budget purchase; just don’t expect much in the way of leading features or third-party apps. Design, Call Quality, and Apps The Curve 9350 is a dual-band EV-DO Rev. A (850/1900 MHz) device with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. There’s no 4G WiMAX support. Voice quality is fine; callers sound clear and warm in the earpiece, and transmissions are also clear. Reception is average; I’m still waiting for a Sprint BlackBerry to match the Pearl 8130′s reception strength from several years ago. Calls sounded fine through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4 stars) and voice dialing worked well without training over Bluetooth. The speakerphone is excellent, with plenty of gain and a clear, undistorted tone. Battery life was good at 5 hours 50 minutes of talk time. RIM’s BlackBerry 7 OS may be new, but it’s mostly more of the same. On the plus side, you get an upgraded 800MHz processor, BlackBerry 7′s new icon groups, and a good selection of preloaded software, including Slacker, Facebook, and Twitter apps, RIM’s Social Feeds aggregator, and a vastly more capable WebKit browser than what earlier BlackBerrys came with. You also get all the usual BlackBerry-related benefits, such as push email for up to 10 accounts and plenty of remote management tie-ins for enterprise. But there’s a serious lack of third-party apps in BlackBerry App World, and the ones that are there are no match for their Android and iOS counterparts. Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions Curves no longer suffer from low-end cameras, either: The 9350 has a 5-megapixel sensor, continuous focus, an LED flash, image stabilization, and geotagging. It’s not the best 5-megapixel camera I’ve tested, but as long as you have sufficient light, you’ll have no problem getting quality shots both indoors and outside. Shutter speeds are a bit slow, so you may want to snap a second photo as a backup for important pictures. Recorded 640-by-480-pixel VGA videos played smoothly at 30 frames per second, and the image stabilization is a godsend—particularly if you like coffee as much as I do. I still prefer the T-Mobile version of this device, the BlackBerry Curve 9360 ($79.99, 3.5 stars), because of that model’s UMA-based Wi-Fi calling. But Sprint has more coverage nationwide, so it’s arguable if the Curve 9350 needs it. Regardless, the Curve 9360 is a nice upgrade if you have an older Curve or Pearl, or a particularly stubborn texting phone with handicapped software. Otherwise, Sprint has killer Android phones like the HTC EVO Design 4G ($99.99, 4 stars) andMotorola Photon 4G ($199.99, 4.5 stars), with the latter securing our Editors’ Choice award. Both devices can run hundreds of thousands of third-party Android Market apps, and have much larger touch screens, faster processors, and 4G data speeds. There’s also the Apple iPhone 4S ($199.99-$399.99, 4.5 stars), which features an absolutely gorgeous display and more apps than any other smartphone platform. Spec Data
 RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350 (Sprint): FrontThe RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350 measures 4.3 by 2.4 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.5 ounces.  RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350 (Sprint): AngleThe Curve 9350′s four-row keyboard features raised keys and a gentle curve. It’s near perfect, given the phone’s small size, but some may prefer the larger Bold instead.  RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350 (Sprint): CameraThe 9350 has a 5-megapixel camera with continuous focus, an LED flash, image stabilization, and geotagging. It’s not the best 5-megapixel camera I’ve tested, but as long as you have sufficient light, you’ll have no problem getting quality shots both indoors and outside.  RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350 (Sprint): AngleThe Curve 9350′s 2.4-inch LCD sports an upgraded 360-by-480-pixel resolution; while it’s not a touch screen, the trackpad makes it pretty easy to navigate the OS, and old BlackBerry hands will feel right at home. (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 10 Dec 2011 08:19 AM PST Samsung DoubleTime (AT&T)
Inexpensive. Decent QWERTY keyboard.
Sluggish performance. Outdated OS. Poor camera. Secondary display is awkward to use. Limited multimedia file format support.
The Samsung DoubleTime has two displays and a keyboard, but that isn’t reason enough to buy it. The Samsung DoubleTime ($49.99 with contract) has a hidden surprise inside: a full QWERTY keyboard with a secondary display, turning it into a micro-laptop. Unfortunately, it doesn’t deliver the performance to go with its ambitious look. Even if you absolutely need a keyboard, you can find a bettersmartphone on AT&T than the DoubleTime. Design, Screen, and Keyboard Unlike many keyboarded phones, which slide to reveal a physical QWERTY keyboard, the DoubleTime flips open to reveal a keyboard and secondary screen. The keyboard itself is pretty good, with four rows of well spaced, large keys. Above the keyboard are four function keys, since you don’t have access to the ones on the front of the phone. The keys are a bit flat, but you grow used to typing on typing on them quickly. The second touch screen is the same as size and resolution as the primary screen. The problem is, it’s extremely awkward to interact with. The screen is set back too far, and angled so it’s much less pleasant to use than a phone that features just one screen and a slide-out keyboard, like the Samsung Captivate Glide ($149.99, 4 stars). And it’s not like the second screen doubles your productivity. When the keyboard is open the primary screen goes black. Call Quality, OS, and Apps Reception is average, and call quality is just OK. Voices sound clear and understandable in the phone’s earpiece, but volume is extremely low. The speakerphone is just loud enough to use outdoors, but voices sound somewhat distorted. Calls made with the phone feature good noise cancellation, but voices are thin. Calls sounded much better through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars), and voice dialing worked well. Battery life was good, at 8 hours 31 minutes of talk time. But overall this is a phone for typing, not talking on. The DoubleTime is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm S1 CPU and runs Android 2.2.2 (Froyo). Now that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) has finally landed, that places this device two steps behind the current generation. That endangers the DoubleTime’s compatibility with new apps and exiles it from the latest features. That 600MHz processor is growing long in the tooth as well. Though once a staple of midrange Android phones, it lags behind new devices. Though the DoubleTime benchmarked on par with other low-end Android phones, you can feel a lag in performance even when swiping through home screens. Though it isn’t running stock Android, Samsung hasn't modified things too heavily, and its typical TouchWiz UI extensions are nowhere to be found. There are five customizable home screens you can swipe between, and Samsung has preloaded a couple of useful widgets on them, including weather reports, news, and Facebook. There's also some undeletable bloatware, but luckily it has been kept to a minimum. Like most other Android phones, the DoubleTime has a great browser, along with comprehensive email, Exchange, and Outlook integration. Google Maps Navigation, which features voice-enabled GPS directions, is free, and you have access to over 250,000 apps in the Android Market. We wouldn’t try to run high-end games on this device, though. Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions Standalone video support is lacking. The phone is only able to play back MPEG 4 Simple Profile and H.264 videos at resolutions up to 800-by-480. The DoubleTime wouldn’t play back AVI, DivX, or XviD video file formats at all. The 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera has no flash and a somewhat slow 1-second shutter delay. Test photos look poor, with washed out colors and an overall lack of detail. The video camera is even worse. It only records QVGA video. Though they play back at a smooth 30 frames per second, videos are just slightly larger than a postage stamp and look very fuzzy. AT&T has so many phones that there just isn’t a good reason to recommend the DoubleTime. If you want a phone with a physical keyboard, your best bet is the Samsung Captivate Glide. It has a gorgeous 4-inch display, solid keyboard, faster data speeds, improved media playback, and a much better camera. If you’re looking to keep things inexpensive, the Sharp FX Plus (Free, 3.5 stars) is a free keyboarded Android phone that features an easier-to-use slider design along with better multimedia features than the DoubleTime. And if you’re willing to drop the keyboard completely, you can pick up a free Samsung Captivate (4 stars), which is a terrific multimedia device with a much nicer display and camera than the DoubleTime. Spec Data
 Samsung DoubleTime (AT&T): FrontThe Samsung DoubleTime measures 4.5 by 2.5 by .6 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.2 ounces.  Samsung DoubleTime (AT&T): KeyboardUnlike many keyboarded phones, which slide up to reveal a physical QWERTY keyboard, the DoubleTime flips open. This makes the secondary display necessary, or you’d just be starting at a keyboard and the back of the primary display.  Samsung DoubleTime (AT&T): LeftThough the DoubleTime isn’t running stock Android, Samsung hasn't modified things too heavily, and its typical TouchWiz UI extensions are nowhere to be found.  Samsung DoubleTime (AT&T): AngleThe DoubleTime’s 3.2-inch primary display is a standard 320-by-480 pixel resolution, which is starting to look a bit dull in comparison to the higher resolution displays that can be found on many new devices.  Samsung DoubleTime (AT&T): CameraThe Double Time’s 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera has no flash and a somewhat slow 1-second shutter delay. Test photos look poor, with washed out colors and an overall lack of detail.  Samsung DoubleTime (AT&T): AngleThe DoubleTime’s keyboard is pretty good. It’s got four rows of well spaced, large keys. Above the keyboard are four function keys, since you don’t have access to the ones on the front of the phone. The keys are a bit flat, but you grow used to typing on typing on them quickly. (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF | ||||||||||||||||||||
| HTC Rezound (Verizon Wireless) Posted: 10 Dec 2011 08:10 AM PST HTC Rezound (Verizon Wireless)
Unbelievably sharp screen for videos and Web browsing. Beats Audio is great for bass fiends. Fast 4G LTE data. Distinctive red accents stand out.
Expensive. Heavy. Camera and camcorder disappoint given the high specs. Weak speakerphone.
The HTC Rezound is an amazing Internet and multimedia machine that fits into your pocket, but it’s a bulky piece of kit. The high-definition smartphone era is upon us. The HTC Rezound ($299.99) is the first cell phoneto hit the U.S. market with a true 720p screen. It’s also the first phone with Beats Audio, which promises enhanced sound quality via both software and a matched set of headphones. The Rezound has a few flaws, and it’s pricey, but it’s a powerhouse smartphone nonetheless. Design, Connectivity, and Call Quality The 4.3-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel Super LCD display is pretty amazing. At 341 ppi, it’s now the densest phone screen available, outpacing the Apple iPhone 4S ($199, 4.5 stars) with its 326-ppi Retina Display. It’s also higher resolution than many 7-inch tablets, which are generally 1024-by-600. You’ll notice the pixel density in the Web browser and while watching video, but it doesn’t jump out at you in other contexts. While the colors aren’t as vivid as what you’ll see on Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus displays, it’s still plenty bright and colorful. Typing on the screen using HTC’s stock keyboard is easy in both portrait and landscape modes. The Rezound is a dual-band EV-DO Rev. A (850/1900 MHz) and single-band LTE (700MHz) device with 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. It’s not a world phone, as there’s no GSM radio. Verizon’s fast 4G LTE network, which is now available in 160 cities across the U.S., delivers an average of around 9.5Mbps down according to our 21-city nationwide tests. The Rezound also works as a mobile hotspot for up to 10 Wi-Fi-enabled devices with the appropriate plan. The Rezound connected to my WPA2-encrypted Wi-Fi network without trouble. Voice quality was okay overall, with a bright, somewhat midrangey tone in the earpiece. I heard a little static around some syllables, but it wasn’t bad. There was a ton of gain available; watch the volume control, or you could put your hearing at risk. Transmissions through the mic sounded fine, and reception was good. Calls sounded clear through an Aliph Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4 stars). The voice dialing failed to recognize my commands most of the time, but at least you can trigger it over Bluetooth. The speakerphone was weak, with a thin tone and not nearly enough volume for use outside. The 1620mAh battery ran for an excellent 8 hours and 37 minutes of talk time. Hardware, Apps, and Audio That said, browsing the Web on a 720p phone is what you’d expect: awesome. You can fit desktop pages comfortably enough, at least in landscape mode, to view them at full width and still manage to read the text. HTC’s own apps are fun to use and integrate social networks well, and Android Market contains over a quarter-million third-party apps. It’s possible you’ll run into some compatibility issues with apps that can’t handle the high-res screen, although I didn’t stumble on any during the review period. For multimedia, there’s 12.68GB of free internal storage; HTC also throws in a 16GB SanDisk microSD card, and my 32GB card worked fine. The slot is behind the battery, though; swapping cards requires a reboot. The Beats Audio headphones—this phone’s other star distinction, after the 720p display—look sharp, with their red wires and finely-crafted earbuds. The wires include a little remote control with a mic that answers calls and controls the music player app. You want bass? You get bass, including some serious low-end extension with the Beats Audio software enhancer enabled. I’d call the resulting sound “hi-fi” more than audiophile, because both frequency extremes sound overly boosted—though sometimes that can be a good thing with rock and hip-hop tracks. Without Beats Audio enabled, the headphones by themselves sound more muffled than what you’ll hear on a good Shure or Etymotic set. Suffice to say it’s an acquired taste. Music tracks also sounded fine through Samsung Modus HM6450 Bluetooth headphones ($99, 4 stars), for what it’s worth, though the Beats Audio enhancer only works with wired earbuds. Video, Camera, and Conclusions The camera and camcorder didn’t hold up very well in testing. The 8-megapixel, auto-focus, f/2.2 camera includes a dual-LED flash and a 28mm wide-angle lens with a panoramic mode. Test photos looked good with plenty of light, both indoors and out, but began to fall apart as the sky darkened. Some dusk shots looked blurry and lacked detail, and indoor photos in medium light were pixelated and had a yellowish cast. Recorded 720p and 1080p videos were just okay, with blurred details, some dark areas, and a not-quite-smooth 23 frames per second frame rate average for both resolutions. There’s also a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats. The Rezound supplants the HTC Thunderbolt, as the Rezound has a sharper display, weighs less, features the latest version of HTC Sense, and comes with better headphones, although the Thunderbolt is still a nice smartphone if you want to save $150. The Droid RAZR keeps its Editors’ Choice crown, thanks to its slimmer and lighter design, equally brilliant (if lower resolution) display, lower price, and Motorola’s comprehensive Webtop ecosystem of accessories, although the Rezound comes with the Beats Audio earbuds and that amazing 720p screen. We haven’t tested the Verizon Wireless version of the Apple iPhone 4S, but if it’s like the Sprint version, it offers a superior camera and 1080p camcorder (complete with image stabilization), not to mention the best app store on the planet. But it has a smaller screen and much slower 3G data speeds. And how about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus? That one is just around the corner, with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and a true 720p display as well; hang on tight for our upcoming review. If you want high-definition video and great quality audio today, the Rezound is a solid choice—just give it another week to see how the Galaxy Nexus turns out. Spec Data
 HTC Rezound (Verizon Wireless): FrontThe HTC Rezound measures 5.1 by 2.6 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs a hefty 6.0 ounces. It’ss mostly black, with a rubberized back panel, and sharp-looking red accents on the earpiece speaker, camera lens, capacitive touch buttons, and Beats logo.  HTC Rezound (Verizon Wireless): CameraThe Rezound’s 8-megapixel, auto-focus, f2.2 camera includes a dual-LED flash and a 28mm wide-angle lens with a panoramic mode. Test photos looked good with plenty of light, both indoors and out, but began to fall apart as the sky darkened. Some dusk shots looked blurry and lacked detail, and indoor photos in medium light were pixelated and had a yellowish cast.  HTC Rezound (Verizon Wireless): HeadphonesThe Beats Audio headphones look sharp, with their red wires and finely crafted earbuds. The wires include a little remote control with a mic in the wiring that answers calls and controls the music player app.  HTC Rezound (Verizon Wireless): AngleWithout Beats Audio enabled, the Rezound’s headphones sound more muffled than what you’ll hear on a good Shure or Etymotic set. Suffice to say it’s an acquired taste.  HTC Rezound (Verizon Wireless): FrontThe Rezound’s 4.3-inch, 1280-by-720-pixel display is pretty amazing. While the colors aren’t as vivid as what you’ll see on Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus displays, it’s still plenty bright and colorful the Rezound offers much sharper resolution. (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 6 Social Media Marketing Trends of 2011 Posted: 09 Dec 2011 04:49 PM PST Every so often you experience a year in which everything in the marketing world changes because of rapid innovation in digital and in social media. This wasn't one of those years. Instead, 2011 will likely be remembered as a year of incremental upgrades in various social media platforms. This was not a year like 2006, in which Twitter was introduced, or 2009, when the world first got a glimpse of Foursquare. The big new launch of 2011 may be Color, a company that got "$41 million in funding for nothing," in the words of David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media with 360i, a digital marketing firm. Ian Schafer, CEO of digital agency Deep Focus, says 2011 was a year in which "roots grew deeper" in social media, but nothing fundamentally changed. "It was less 'What's the next Facebook?' and more 'What's Facebook gonna do next?'" he says. All of which is not to say that those incremental improvements weren't significant. Some of the changes listed below could pan out to be key inflection points in the history of social media marketing. Most will not, though, and will be about as memorable as the average tweet. 1. Google +The biggest news in social media marketing in 2011 was the introduction of Google+, Google’s would-be competitor to Facebook. Google launched the social network in late June with a great deal of fanfare. In typical fashion, the launch started out as an invitation-only network and then admitted the general public in September. Marketers didn’t get to sign up for brand pages until late October, though, which may have been a tactical error on Google’s part, hindering the network’s growth and angering brands. At the moment, it’s not clear what Google+’s advantages are over Facebook, except perhaps when it comes to SEO or Circles, a feature that marketers have yet to fully exploit. “Unlike Facebook, it makes it easy to talk to people according to their interests, instead of sending everything to everyone,” says Robert Ray, president of Gyro, an ad agency in San Francisco. “This level of personalization helps change marketing from unwanted noise into more humanly relevant communication.” 2. Facebook’s OverhaulThe flurry of changes that Facebook announced at f8 in September were late to bloom, but finally went into effect in December. Going forward, though, marketers are going to have to completely change their strategies on the platform. For instance, a “Like” isn’t going to be as meaningful when you can turn any verb into a button thanks to Facebook Gestures. Meanwhile, Timeline is going to give marketers another crack at creating their brand pages. Those pages had better produce a stream of interesting content though, because if they don’t, they’re not going to make it into their fans’ News Feeds. 3. Twitter’s AscendanceTwitter introduced some advertising platforms in 2010, but 2011 was the year that they became a mainstream social media channel. That maturation was reflected in the pricing for such ads. When Promoted Trends launched in April 2010, for instance, they cost $25,000 to $30,000 a day. By June, though, Twitter was charging $120,000 for such placements and had worked with 500 advertisers on 6,000 campaigns. Twitter also opened sales offices in London and New York. It also became more of a vehicle for ad campaigns. Audi referenced a Twitter hashtag in its Super Bowl ad, for instance, and many others ran online and offline campaigns that encouraged tweeting. 4. Daily Deals ShakeoutAt the beginning of 2011, it looked like Groupon was going to be the next Facebook. The company’s owners had turned down a high-profile $6 billion offer from Google and competitors were emerging from every corner. But during the year, Facebook killed off Deals, its would-be competitor to Groupon, and Yelp scaled back on its daily deals offerings. Groupon’s IPO eventually turned out to be successful, at least at first. But in the words of David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at 360i, “Ultimately there was the realization that it's more about couponing 2.0 and not the next coming of commerce.” 5. Augmented Reality Goes MainstreamIt’s hard to get consumers to talk about your brand on social media via their mobile phones. That’s because there’s little opportunity to do so unless those consumers happen to be checking in to a location. In 2011, marketers discovered another way: augmented reality. AR has been around for years, but in 2011, the technology got a big boost from Starbucks, which ran an AR campaign during the holiday season called Starbucks Cup Magic that let fans animate coffee cups with their smartphones. After they were done, consumers could share the experience on Facebook or just send an ecard to their friends. 6. Novelty AppsUsing apps to market your product is a relatively new idea. The first apps, like Kraft’s iFood Assistant, were designed to be useful. But by 2011, a lot of the new apps were intended to be jokes that you could pass along on social media. For instance, Jell-O’s “Jiggle It” app, which shows a glistening Jell-O cube dancing to the song of your choice, doesn’t perform a useful function, but has some pass-along value. The same goes for Geico, which released two joke apps this year, including the Caveman Photo Crasher app featuring photobombing Cavemen, and BroStache, which similated a mustache when you put your smartphone up to your face. (c) 2011 3tlink.info Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF |
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