BlackBerry’s new torchbearer
The BlackBerry Torch is the first touch-enabled slider phone from Research In Motion and the first to feature its new operating system, BlackBerry 6.
But does this mean that the BlackBerry is a match for the latest Android smartphones and the iPhone 4? We have a hands-on look at the BlackBerry Torch in the Personal Technology section of this week’s Business Life in the FT.
Text that’s as good as your word
Software that automatically transcribes speech it hears still seems to have a long way to go judging by the inaccuracy of voicemail transcriptions on Google Voice and similar services.
But it can be a different story and a better read if the software is trained to know your voice, as in the new version of Nuance’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking, reviewed in the latest Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section
BlackBerry Torch keeps RIM in smartphone contention
If Research in Motion had rolled out the Blackberry Torch a year ago when RIM first began serious work on the device, it would have been a showstopper.
As it was when Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s co-chief executive, unveiled the device at a New York event on Tuesday, there were few if any surprises though some eyebrows were raised by the news that AT&T which already boasts the iPhone in its smarphone portfolio, would be the exclusive network partner in the US. (AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega was on stage at the launch event to say nice things about RIM and the new device.)
Taking the lug out of laptop luggage
It seems you can have it all with laptops these days – thin and light notebooks that are equally light on the wallet and offer long battery life as well.
In this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section, we look at the new, more affordable Portégé range from Toshiba and how it shapes up against offerings from Apple, Dell and Lenovo.
All-in-one is one for all
All-in-one computers, which combine monitor and PC components in a single unit, are getting added appeal with multi-touch screens.
In this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section, we look at options from Acer, Apple and Sony.
Best of the internet on your TV
With Google TV coming to screens near you in the autumn, internet-enabled television is set to attract a lot of eyeballs.
For those that cannot wait for the Google/Sony/Logitech/Intel product, there are already plenty of set-top box options for streaming movies and adding internet content channels to your TV. We explore some of these in the Personal Technology column in Friday’s Business Life section of the FT.
Switch on to holiday mode
Summer holidays are upon us and in this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section, we look at the gadgets to take and how to protect them from sun, sea and sand.
There are reviews of ruggedised cameras, protective casings, charging on-the-go and how to avoid a big roaming cell phone bill on your return.
Microsoft Office 2010 gets connected
Ahead of next week’s consumer launch of Microsoft Office 2010, the Friday Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section looks at the improvements and web extensions to this venerable suite of productivity programs:
“When I first got a personal computer – an Apple II, nearly 30 years ago – I played Pong for fun, used WordStar for word processing and put numbers into VisiCalc, the pioneering spreadsheet program.
Eventually most so-called personal productivity applications coalesced into heavy-duty software suites such as Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office, Apple’s iWork and the open-source Open Office. Today, one of their biggest challenges is to compete directly with web- or cloud-based versions, such as Google Docs .”
Should you take another tablet?
Tablet PCs were heavily featured at the Computex trade show in Taiwan this week and the Personal Technology column in Friday’s Financial Times looks at an offering from France – the Archos 7:
“If there was ever any doubt about whether there was a market for a multimedia tablet, the announcement earlier this week that Apple had sold more than 2m iPads in its first two months on sale would seem to have settled the argument.”
HTC Evo shows our 4G phone future
The first fourth-generation cellphone in the US – the HTC Evo on Sprint’s WiMax network – is a fast, video-rich smartphone that can turn itself into a Wi-Fi hotspot. Read our Personal Technology review from the Business Life section of Friday’s FT:
“Even without its 4G mobile broadband capabilities, HTC’s Android-powered EVO 4G smartphone is an impressive touchscreen-based handset because it combines many of the best features found in other devices to produce what could start a whole new category, which might possibly be called ‘superphones’.”
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