Blackberry goes full touch
The big announcement at the January 30 launch of the Blackberry 10 operating system was Research in Motion rechristening itself Blackberry, after its core product. So we now have two big mobile companies named after fruits.
The first phones sporting the new operating systems — the all-touch Z10 and the QWERTY keypad Q10 — have been the buzz of the tech forums ever since the launch. The company is heavily promoting its Z10, the first all-touch phone from the Canadian firm. By now, most gadget enthusiasts are aware of the ‘flow’ and ‘peek’ functions of the interface and the other promised goodies. According to Blackberry sources, the phone will reach Indian shores a month after its international launch. The Z10 is expected to reach U.S. retail in March, and expect it to come to India in April. The newly re-launched Blackberry World, its market place for Apps, should hopefully be buzzing by that time.
The Butterfly Effect
HTC has launched its new phone the HTC Butterfly in India. Weird name for a phone, you think? It actually is the Indian iteration of HTC’s popular Droid DNA that has hit the markets elsewhere internationally. The 5-inch screen sporting Android phone comes with a dual-core 1.5 Ghz processor with a 2 GB RAM that should make this the company’s Android flagship in India even over its HTC One X plus handset. Its incredibly high pixel density count — at a whopping 441 ppi — makes it one of the most advanced screens in the market now. (Almost all other flagship phones meter in around the mid 300s.)
The phone has received largely favourable reviews and should add to the confusion of smartphone buyers what with the HTC WP8X already hitting all the sweet notes in the Windows 8 ecosystem. But the more the choices the better. The only “ouch” moment here is that the phone is expected to retail around Rs. 46,000.
Waiting for Windows 7.8 mobile upgrade
The Windows Phone fan club are having mixed feelings. While the newly launched Lumia series featuring Windows 8 operating system has generated a lot of positive buzz, those who purchase the previous generation of Windows phone have been left waiting forever for the upgrade from Windows 7.5 to Windows 7.8, which would allow them to experience the Live Tiles resizing option and make their phones a lot more customisable. Though Microsoft had announced that the Windows 7.8 upgrade would be released simultaneously with the Windows 8 launch, many users are disgruntled that the upgrades have not reached Indian shores yet across the Windows phone ecosystem.
