Boy Genius Report

Bell finally ditches the SAF

by Michael Bettiol on November 21st, 2009 at 2:08pm
Filed under: Bell, News 2 Comments

Anyone that happened to look at Bell’s monthly rate plans in the past few days might have noticed something a little odd — each plan is now $5 more expensive. The reason for this isn’t greed (well, it is, sort of) but because Bell made like Rogers and TELUS and killed off the much maligned $6.95 per month System Access Fee (SAF) and E911 fee meaning that subscribers of the new plans will have an extra $2.70 in their pocket each month. The first of the Big Three to drop the SAF was Rogers, who on October 5th raised the prices of its voice plans by $5 and replaced the SAF and E911 fee with the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee (GRRF). The GRRF ranges from $2.58 to $3.11 depending upon the province once resides in. One month later on November 5th, TELUS officially dropped the SAF when it introduced its Clear Choice plans. Again, each plan was increased by $5, but there are no gimmicky fees meaning that TELUS customers on the new plans are paying $2 to $3 less per month. Those who are on the old plans are under no pressure to switch to the new, SAF-free plans.

The Internet weighs around 450.5 billion kilograms?

by Andrew Munchbach on November 21st, 2009 at 11:32am
Filed under: Hardware 17 Comments

This is just too weird not to post. CNET UK has reported that the Internet has a weight, and by taking the sum total of all peripherals, computers, etc. you can actually formulate a number. So what do the intertubes weight? 498,438,559,990 kilograms to be exact. About 570,937,778 computers are connected to the Internet and are being estimated to weigh in at 22.83 billion kg, while 175,480,931 servers are said to weigh in at 1.75 billion kg. The reported weight also includes 6.075 billion kg in iPhones, 6.8 billion kg in BlackBerrys, and 87 million kg in cables. Somehow virus’ made the list with a weigh of 287,524 kg — huh? Now, we’re not sure how accurate their estimates are but they describe their report as both “precise” and “scientific.” We’ll let you guys scientifically hash out how precise the numbers are in the comments.

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Motorola Crush now available from U.S. Cellular

by Michael Bettiol on November 21st, 2009 at 8:31am
Filed under: CDMA, EV-DO, Handsets, Motorola, Press Release, U.S. Cellular 17 Comments

Motorola has announced that its brand new handset, the Crush, is available as of this week from U.S. Cellular. Going for $79.95 after a $50 mail-in rebate on a 2-year contract, Motorola is positioning the Crush as an affordable phone with a high-end design. Having said that, we can’t help but think only Motorola would think placing the lock and power buttons on either side of the earpiece is “high-end”. Having said that, the Crush has the following features: 2.8″ 240×400 WQVGA touchscreen display, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD support for cards up to 16GB and EV-DO Rev. 0 connectivity. Is anyone going to check this bad boy out, or does your heart yearn for something else?

Verizon now selling the BlackBerry Curve 8530

by Michael Bettiol on November 20th, 2009 at 8:46pm
Filed under: BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, CDMA, EV-DO, Handsets, RIM, Retail, Verizon 44 Comments

It might not be fancy or scream “look at me”, but Verizon’s now-available BlackBerry Curve 8530 is a smartphone that gets the job done. Kitted out with a 2.5″ display, 2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS and 256MB of flash memory, the Curve 8530 is also the first full-QWERTY BlackBerry from Verizon to feature RIM’s new optical trackpad and OS 5.0. Other than that, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Stereo Bluetooth, support for microSD cards and dedicated multimedia keys round out the rest of the phone’s features. Of course at $99.99 on contract there are a lot of better smartphones that are similarly priced, but for BlackBerry lovers fond of Verizon and always looking to save a bit of coin, you can’t really go wrong. Plus it comes in two colors: Black and Smoky Violet (imagine the color of your grandmother’s ugliest pant suit). Yay?

Wirefly’s Black Friday specials revealed

by Michael Bettiol on November 20th, 2009 at 5:25pm
Filed under: AT&T, Android, BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, Handsets, RIM, Retail, Samsung, Sprint, Verizon 14 Comments

So far, all of the Black Friday leaks we’ve seen haven’t been all that friendly to smartphone lovers, but according to our sources, Wirefly will be picking up the slack come Friday with the following deals:

Verizon BlackBerry Storm2: $0.99 for new subs / $29.99 for existing VZW customers (Friday only) followed by $9.99 / $49.99 until Monday

AT&T BlackBerry Bold 9700: $0 / $29.99 (Friday to Monday)

Sprint Samsung Moment: $79.99 / $99.99 (Friday to Monday)

If none of those phones catch your fancy, there are still some savings to be had as Wirefly will be waiving activations for AT&T and Verizon phones until Midnight on December 1st.

Read

Motorola DROID giveaway: Part 1

by Boy Genius on November 20th, 2009 at 3:20pm
Filed under: Android, Featured, Handsets, Motorola 96 Comments

Alright, here we go… We’ll be giving away three of the five Motorola DROIDs in our stockpile in this particular contest, and here is what you will need to know if you’re interested in entering:

We realize that a lot of you have been waiting for an iPhone competitor and that Apple’s device gets a decent portion of the spotlight (you can debate whether it is warranted or not in the comments), but since this is one of the first real alternatives for some people, we thought it would be great if we could help shine some light on the passionate and excited DROID-lovers out there. We’re looking for the best, funniest, strangest, most daring, and even dumbest videos possible featuring you or your friends, and the reasons why you think you deserve to win.

You could go to an Apple or AT&T store and read them the riot act on why you think the DROID is better than the iPhone (removable battery, the network, QWERTY keyboard — whatever) and capture this on camera, you could show us your current phone situation and plead your case, you could shave a BGR and Motorola logo into your head on film — we’re not joking. Whatever you want to do, we are willing to look at. Within reason.

We’ll pick the three most amazing videos we receive and post them in a follow-up post. Here are the official rules:

To enter, please submit your video by uploading it to a video sharing website like YouTube, Vimeo, whatever your choice is. You may password protect the video if you would like, just be sure to give us access.
Please email the link to your video to droidvideo at boygeniusreport dot com — if you email us an actual video attachment, we will delete it and not count it.
This contest is open to anyone in the U.S. over the age of 18 years old.
By submitting a video to the BGR DROID giveaway contest, you assume all responsibility and liability for your entry and indemnify BGR.
This giveaway will run for one week, until Friday, November 27th, 2009. We will announce the winners sometime shortly after that.
Feel free to talk about your submissions or ideas in the comments!

Inside a WIND Mobile retail store

by Michael Bettiol on November 20th, 2009 at 1:15pm
Filed under: Retail, WIND 25 Comments

While WIND Mobile might never launch thanks to parent company Globalive’s illegal ownership structure, that didn’t stop its CEO Ken Campbell and his entourage from celebrating the completed renovation of one of its retail stores. It’s a departure from the typical Bell, Rogers or TELUS location to say the least. BG thinks it looks like a “New York subway car in white lacquer” and Andrew said it’s nothing but an “Apple store with mahogany”, so naturally we’re curious to know what you think. So hit the jump, check out the pics and give us your thoughts!

BlackBerry Pearl 9100 gets pawed

by Andrew Munchbach on November 20th, 2009 at 11:14am
Filed under: BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, Handsets, Hardware, RIM 38 Comments

BlackBerry 9100

After RIM’s release of the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 flip-phone it was hard to tell what direction the former candy bar style handset was headed, and rumors of the models demise began to circulate around intertubes. However, the rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated as an updated 3G Pearl has been whispered for months, and it looks like RIM has gone back to the Pearl’s form-factor roots with its latest spin on the classic, the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 — code name Striker or Stratus. The 9100 prototype in question is a GSM device with RIM’s now standard optical trackball, SureType keyboard, 3G, Wi-Fi, and BlackBerry OS 5.0; it also incorporates many of the stylistic changes of the BlackBerry Bold 9700. We’ll stay on top of this one and provide you more details as they become available, but for now there is a short teaser video from salomondrin.net all queued up for you after the bounce.

Motorola Motus coming to AT&T? Full specifications

by Boy Genius on November 20th, 2009 at 9:38am
Filed under: AT&T, Android, Breaking News, EDGE, Exclusives, Featured, GPRS, GSM, HSDPA, Handsets, Motorola, Rumors, UMTS 27 Comments

motorola-motus

We’ve just received a full spec list for the very blurry Motorola Motus and it’s pretty interesting. Why, you ask? Besides AT&T 3G support, the specs are pretty similar if not identical to the Motorola CLIQ. Our connect didn’t flat out tell us that the handset would be hitting AT&T, but hey, we can dream right? Here are the full specifications for the Motorola Motus:

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Tri-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100MHz)
5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
256MB RAM
aGPS
Wi-Fi
3.1″ capacitive 480×320 display
Bluetooth 2.0
Weight: 133g
1400mAh battery
microSD slot
Qualcomm MSM 7201A CPU
MOTOBLUR

Last but not least, we’ve been told the Motus is not a slider but a unique “flip” phone. That’s all we’ve got for now, but we’ll keep you updated as always.

Thanks, Daddy G.!

Virgin Mobile Canada to carry iPhone 3G, 3GS

by Andrew Munchbach on November 20th, 2009 at 6:41am
Filed under: Apple, Carriers - Canadian 27 Comments

Looks like Virgin Mobile Canada is ready to break its iPhone hymen. Yesterday they announced that they will be offering both the iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS in retail stores in “the coming months.” Oh Sir Richard, how we love thee. We suppose you want details, but we don’t have any — the press release is a blistering 31 words and 198 characters long, hell if they had been a bit more succinct they could have just tweeted it — as Virgin Canada’s website has yet to be updated with the news. We’ll continue to follow this one as it develops.

OS update now available for Verizon Tours

by Michael Bettiol on November 19th, 2009 at 7:00pm
Filed under: BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, RIM, Software, Verizon 37 Comments

blackberrytourreview1

Not too much to say here other than an OS update for the Verizon BlackBerry Tour 9630, 4.7.1.61, has started to trickle out. Although it’s already available to download from Verizon’s website and through BlackBerry Desktop Manager, we’ve been told that a handful of users will receive on-device update notifications throughout the night with general OTA availability tomorrow. No change log has been released. Let’s just hope that it’s not much longer until OS 5.0 drops for your beloved tuh tuh tuh TOUR (yeah, we remember).

Ultra-blurry photo rumored to be Motorola Motus

by Marc Flores on November 19th, 2009 at 5:04pm
Filed under: Android, Handsets, Motorola, Rumors 51 Comments

If there was ever a contest for blurriest photos taken post-haste, this image of a Motorola CLIQ look-alike, rumored to be called Motus, takes the cake. There isn’t much to be said or gathered about the Motus so far, except that it looks like a CLIQ with a flat keyboard and no D-pad for navigation. Said to be coming out in Q1 2010, rumors also peg this device as packing Android 1.6 and a 5 megapixel camera, so it’s not as if anything terribly special is going on. Unfortunately, the image is far too blurry to really make out the left side of the keyboard and what the bright yellow spot is. Maybe image stabilization should be standard on camera phones now.

Thanks, Vitala!

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 aims high at $879, available Q1 2010

by Marc Flores on November 19th, 2009 at 4:05pm
Filed under: Android, HSDPA, News, Retail, Sony Ericsson 51 Comments

Sony Ericsson has us scratching our heads just one day after we spent some time with its new XPERIA X10 smartphone. During our lunch meet-up, SE told us it was hoping to work with U.S. carriers in getting the X10 into the pockets of Americans on the cheap. We’re still hoping that SE will make this happen, but a new rumor would see the X10 retail for a whopping $879 when it hits the market during the first quarter of 2010. We know that SE is hoping to get back on the relevance map and turn a profit while it’s at it, but a sky-high price tag on a device that failed to knock our socks off probably isn’t going to cut it with consumers.