Nokia E6 Review

Since the Nokia E71 came out several years ago, I’ve been a huge fan of the Finnish company’s full qwerty handsets. They’ve continued that same legacy and after 3 years, we still see the same signature with the E6. Read our full review of the Nokia E6 below.

Very little has actually changed on the design of the Nokia E6 when you compare it to its predecessor. The hardware specs has improved a lot but a first look at the device by an untrained eye will definitely confuse them in a lineup together with the E71 and the E72.

The handset has a pretty solid body construction, built with a combination of metal back-plating and hard polymer. The power button is found at the top end, along with the 3.5mm audio port and a compartment for a microSD card slot, for easy access.

The micro-USB port is hidden on the left side while the volume control is on the right side along with a dedicated button for voice commands and a screen-lock slider.

The Nokia E6 sports a full qwerty keypad and a touch screen allowing you to navigate using the physical D-pad and the display, depending on the need. On the first few days of use, you might get confused with navigation because you switch between the buttons on the touch panel-like uni-button of sorts, the D-pad and the screen but you’ll soon get the hang of it.

The E6 is one of the very few breed of Nokia handsets that they’d often refer to as “Touch & Type” although they didn’t really put this label on the E6, much like the E7 (don’t really know what qualifies a Nokia handset to carry the Touch & Type suffix).

The shortcut buttons (Home, Contacts, Message & Calendar) are now part of the touch panel uni-button to give it a clean, clutter-free and more polished look (I still prefer the physical buttons on the E72 though).

The solid metal back-plating gives the E6 a more solid design and construction. The 8MP camera is raised a bit, along with the dual-LED flash and speakers. This also makes the E6 a bit heavy for its size, which coud be good or bad, depending on where you’re coming from.

The Nokia E6 now comes with the new Symbian Anna, a more streamlined fork of the Symbian OS line-up. You get four scrollable homescreens you can customize with icons, shortcuts and widgets. The OS is more fluid, organized and functional compared to other previous Symbian variants. The UI works well for full touchscreen, full qwerty or a combination of both, just like the E6.

The camera on the Nokia E6 has an 8-megapixel sensor. However, it’s fixed-focused and not autofocus so half of the time, your photos will be out of focus or blurred. It’s only good when your subjects are at certain distance. Close-up shots will mostly be un-usable though. It’s also a bit lacking in color saturation.

Sample photos take with the Nokia E6. Click on images to see larger version.

The E6 can record video up to 720p. It’s decent but a bit grainy at full screen. Still, for a business phone, it’s a much welcome upgrade.

As for apps, you have the Ovi store for that and there’s practically thousands of apps available there for you to download for free or for minimal cost. One of the two Nokia E6 review units I have has Joikuspot pre-installed from the Ovi store. I remember this 3G tethering software as my most favorite app way before Android and iOS were even popular.

The Nokia E6 has pretty good specs for its class. It’s not the fastest in terms of CPU clock-speed but it does the job really well. The basic phone functions like SMS and calls are pretty easy and fast to access and use (the shortcuts on the touch panel helps). Launching apps takes a bit of time (like 3-5 seconds) but that seems to be normal for most of Nokia handsets.

Nokia E6 specs:
680MHz ARM 11 processor
2.46-inch display @ 640×480 pixels
8GB internal storage
256MB RAM, 1GB ROM
up to 32GB microSD
HSDPA 10.2Mbps, HSUPA 2.0Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0 w/ A2DP
USB On-the-go support
8MP fixed-focus w/ dual-LED flash
720p@25fps video recording
2D/3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0
FM Radio tuner
Li-Ion 1500 mAh
Symbian Anna OS

Battery life is very good. I am able to get between 3 to 4 days of normal use on a single full charge — that’s with light browsing over 3G and a little gaming (Fruit Ninja fro Ovi). Nokia phones of this form factor normally get really good battery life, compared to most other smartphones that normally do between 1 to 2 days only.

The Nokia E6 will definitely find it hard to squeeze itself into a more crowded space today, compared to a few years ago. It’s practically in the same category as the Samsung Galaxy Pro, HTC Chacha and the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Long-time Nokia loyalists will definitely love it but will surely have a hard time convincing new users considering the alternatives int he market vis-a-vis the price point.

The Nokia E6 still has its charm — that familiar full qwerty keyboard, elegant yet business-style design, great battery life and a very dependable handset.

The Nokia E6 has a suggested retail price of only Php17,820 but you can get it in some stores for as low as Php16,000.

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TDK ST-800 HiFi Headphones

TDK launched a slew of audio accessories last week and though I wasn’t able to attend the event, they gladly sent over one of their high-end headphones, the TDK ST-800, for me to try out and test.

I have to admit that I’m not very familiar with TDK except of course that they’ve been making really affordable blank CD-Rs and cassette tapes for as long as I can remember.

So when they delivered this TDK ST-800 HiFi headphones, I was a bit surprised at the packaging. The headphones are definitely premium and targets those who prefer more power and performance than the usual headphones around.

The on-ear headphones are huge, a little on the heavy side with a bit of a short (around 1.5m long) cable which is protected by a thick, woven thread. If you need more length, they included an extension cord about 2 meters long in the box.

The headphones’ exterior are covered by leather stitched around the sides with the headband made of metal (most probably stainless steel) and some plastic. The ear cups have thick padding and protected by thin, smooth leather.

The headphones come with a built-in equalizer that’s attached into the cord. As such, you will also need some battery to power it up — using two AAA batteries tucked inside the left ear-cup. The volume control is found on the right ear-cup which you dial around to get the desired volume (pretty slick feature I’ve never seen in any other headphones).

Sound quality is pretty good, not the best we’ve tried but certainly nice. The bass is good in the middle but somewhat distorted at higher volume. It’s clear and crisp at the low end and at high volume could be ear-shattering.

The EQ plays a role in adjusting sound quality. It allows you to adjust treble and bass but that’s it. Switching it off is no problem while playing music but there’s a couple seconds of delay when you turn it On (probably while it’s powering up).

The TDK ST-800 has an output power of 250mW x 2, a frequency response 20-20KHz, input impedance of 32Ohms and a sensitivity of 1KHz for 111 +/- 3dB.

The volume dial will not work when the EQ is Off and the plate on the cup also turns the headphone to mute by pressing it down. Despite its weight, the ST800 feels comfortable to use but my ears become warm over time.

The TDK ST800 was announced back in January and was released a couple of month ago in the Philippines. The suggested retail price of the ST800 is about Php5,000 Php6,500. The TDK Life on Record Headphones are available in Astroplus and Digital Walker stores nationwide.

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Alcatel One Touch Blaze 990 lands, priced

Announced back in February, the Alcatel One Touch Blaze 990 was only released in the Philippines this July and it looks like it’s being positioned as a mid-range Android smartphone.

We received our review unit of the Alcatel One Touch Blaze 990 early last week but have not un-boxed it until the other day due to a long line of review units we have at the YugaTech HQ.

With some decent specs and screen size, the One Touch Blaze could be an alternative smarpthone for those looking at their first affordable Android phone.

Alcatel One Touch Blaze 990
3.5? capacitive display @ 320×480 pixels
600 MHz processor
200MB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
3G/HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot
Bluetooth 3.0
5MP autofocus camera w/ LED flash
Stereo FM radio with RDS
GPS w/ aGPS support
Li-Ion 1300mAh battery

The Alcatel OT Blaze 990 has a suggested retail price of around Php15k but they’re offering an introductory promo price of just Php9,999. Full review by next week.

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HSPA+ vs. LTE: 2G, 3G and 4G explained

All that confusion about mobile internet speeds and the upgrade to the 4G network has got us all excited and frustrated at the same time. I tried to explain it here before but I though this short video from HakTip should give us all a nice and simple explanation.

I have to admit I did not know EDGE’s theoretical speed could be faster than the old 3G. Though it’s been obvious from the start that Globe’s HSPA+ and Smart’s LTE aren’t really 4G, it’s just that 4G sounds better than 3.5G or 3.9G (so, okay they just rounded it up).

I’d like to stress what Jason said — the generation does not dictate the actual speed. This means 4G is no better than 3G since it’s the actual speed that’s what matters most, not the theoretical.

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Cisco to shed 14 percent of workforce

Cisco Systems announced today it would cut about 14 percent of its global workforce, or about 11,500 employees, as part of a widely expected reorganization.

The network-gear maker expects to save $1 billion a year by eliminating 6,500 jobs, including 2,100 employees who opted to participate in an early retirement program. The cuts, which were greater than the rumored figure circulating last week, include a 15 percent reduction in employees at the vice president level or higher, the company said.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company also plans to eliminate about 5,000 jobs by selling its set-top box manufacturing facility in Juarez, Mexico, to Foxconn. Cisco said employees at the Mexico plant would become Foxconn employees in the first quarter of 2012 and that no job cuts were expected at the facility as a result of the sale.

Cisco said it will take a one-time charge of $1.3 billion to cover the costs of the reorganization.

The company announced its intention to cut jobs to combat its ailing fortunes during its third-quarter earnings report in May. "The decision to include headcount reduction of our full-time and contractor workforce as a way of reducing expense is difficult," Cisco COO Gary Moore said at the time.

The company has had poor luck trying to moving into the consumer space, and in a disappointing move for some, recently killed the Flip camcorder to focus its attention on its bread-and-butter networking business.

But as Cisco moved into new markets, sales in its core businesses slowed and Cisco lost market share. While Cisco still dominates in the IP routing market, it has been more challenged in its Ethernet switching business at the hands of rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei.

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Atlantis astronauts bid station crew final farewell

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--In the dwindling hours of the shuttle program's last visit to the International Space Station, the Atlantis astronauts detached a bus-size cargo module from the space station today and mounted it in the shuttle's payload bay, wrapping up NASA's final shuttle station resupply mission.

The astronauts then gathered for a brief farewell to the lab crew before moving back aboard Atlantis to rig the ship for undocking early Tuesday. Landing at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 5:57 a.m. EDT Thursday.

Sharing a final round of hugs and handshakes, the Atlantis astronauts bid their station crewmates farewell today before returning to the shuttle to rig the ship for undocking tomorrow.

(Credit: NASA TV)

"I'd like to thank the commander of International Space Station, Andrey Borisenko, for your hospitality. You've been absolutely fantastic to us," shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson said as the two crews floated in the lab's forward Harmony module. "You and your crew have demonstrated not only ISS hospitality, but you've demonstrated fantastic Russian hospitality. It's been wonderful to be here with you, you have a wonderful home, you're taking fantastic care of it, and you're going to keep it looking good for generations of space travelers to come."

Space station flight engineer Ronald Garan spoke for the station's six-member crew, saying "It's been an honor having you guys on board. It's great being a part of this really important and historic mission. We just want to thank you guys so much for leaving the space station in a posture for continued use for the rest of the decade. It's been really great."

Garan thanked Ferguson, pilot Douglas "Chunky" Hurley, and flight engineer Rex Walheim before turning his attention to Sandra Magnus, the "loadmaster" in charge of orchestrating the transfer of five tons of equipment and supplies from Atlantis to the space station.

"And Fergie, thank you for your leadership, thank you for bringing the guys here," Garan said. "But of all your many, many accomplishments that you did on this mission, for us, from our perspective, the most important thing you did was bring Sandy here. Sandy, we cannot thank you enough for always keeping the big picture in mind. You were just absolutely amazing, we just cannot thank you enough for everything you've done for us."

Before the departure ceremony, a shuttle model signed by senior program managers was presented to the station crew, along with a U.S. flag that flew aboard the shuttle Columbia during the first shuttle mission in 1981. Mounted on the station's forward hatch, the longtime gateway between the station and visiting shuttle crews, the flag will remain aboard the lab complex until U.S. astronauts launched aboard new commercial vehicles retrieve it later this decade.

"When we close that hatch, when these guys go by, we're closing a chapter in the history of our nation," Garan said. "But in the future, when another spacecraft docks to that hatch with crew members on board and we open that hatch, we are going to be raising the flag on a new era of exploration beyond low-Earth orbit."

A few minutes later, after a final round of hugs and handshakes, the shuttle astronauts floated back aboard Atlantis for the last time. The main hatch between the two spacecraft was closed at 10:28 a.m., officially ending seven days, 21 hours, and 41 minutes of joint activity.

Atlantis delivered 9,403 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station inside the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module and more than a ton in the orbiter's crew cabin. By the end of the day Sunday, the astronauts had re-packed the cargo carrier with 5,666 pounds of trash, packing material, and no-longer-needed equipment. Experiment samples and a few other last-minute items were moved into the shuttle's crew cabin early today.

The Raffaello cargo module was detached from International Space Station early Monday and maneuvered back to the shuttle Atlantis' payload bay for return to Earth.

(Credit: NASA TV)

"One thing to note, we had a new item added to the transfer list today, that was item 9,006 and that was Sandy Magnus, to make sure she gets on the right side of the hatch when the mission is complete," space station Flight Director Courtenay McMillan joked. "But it turns out 9,006 is the total number of line items that have been tracked in (space station resupply) transfer lists over the course of the shuttle program, to the space station. So it's quite a lot.

"It's going to be a very odd morning to wake up and think we're not doing that part of the program again. All along the way there's going to be little moments like that where we realize, oh, we're not doing another docking like this. We'll be doing other dockings, there are other vehicles coming, but it's never going to be quite the same. It's a strange feeling."

Along with overseeing the transfer work in her role as loadmaster, Magnus took time out to cheer for the U.S. women's soccer team, which lost to Japan Sunday in the Women's World Cup final. Shortly after wake-up, she congratulated Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, a space station flight engineer.

"There was a lot of trash talk yesterday going on, and I don't mean debating the nuances between payload trash and common trash," Garan said in a morning tag-up with mission control. "But I have to say, first thing this morning Sandy came over and congratulated Satoshi. She was a really good sport."

"Yeah, we knew she was a good sport, and I'm happy to hear we have international harmony on the station," astronaut Dan Tani replied from Houston.

"Only in node two," Garan joked. Node two's official name is Harmony.

With the station's robot arm locked onto Raffaello, commands were sent at 6:14 a.m. to begin driving the 16 motorized bolts holding the module in place on the station's forward Harmony compartment. Magnus and Hurley, operating the robot arm from a work station in the Tranquility module's multi-window cupola, pulled the cargo module away at 6:48 a.m. and carefully moved it to its mounting point in the back of Atlantis' cargo bay. The move was complete by around 7:48 a.m.

It was the 10th and final transfer of a multipurpose logistics module in a decade of shuttle resupply missions. As Atlantis' mission winds down, emotions are running high in mission control at the Johnson Space Center.

"I think it's fair to say we experience vacillations between intense pride at how well this mission has gone and sometimes being somewhat freaked out, for lack of a more technical term," said shuttle Flight Director Kwatsi Alibaruho, "The finality of our service in this mission, the finality of the program, it hits you with greater force the closer you get to the end.

"My team has been absolutely fantastic, I couldn't be more proud of them. And in the midst of these emotions, from time to time I have that thought, oh wow, tomorrow's going to be my last shift as a space shuttle flight director. I get kind of freaked out and have this sinking feeling in my stomach that lasts about five or 10 seconds, then I go back to doing an impersonation of a steely-eyed missile man. So that's kind of what it's been like for me."

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Nokia beats Apple, Google as top brand in Philippines

A recent survey by Nielsen and Campaign revealed that Nokia is the top brand in the Philippines, across all markets (not just tech), beating Apple and Google.

The report, published last month (full story requires paid subscription here) puts Nokia as the #1 favorite brand in the country.

The top 10 brands that made it to the list are the ff.

Top 10 Favorite Brands
Nokia – 84%
Nescafe – 80%
Lucky Me – 75%
Energizer – 73%
Jollibee – 65%
Selecta – 57%
C2 – 51%
Gatorade – 51%
Cobra – 49%
SM Malls – 49%

Interestingly, Nokia is also the only tech brand that’s on the list. Not even Apple or Google, which usually get very good ratings in the US, made it to the top 10.

The survey was conducted from a random sample of 1,000 respondents in urban areas in the Philippines.

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IBM delivers strong Q2, ups 2011 outlook

Rafe: I'll be on Buzz Out Loud tomorrow, http://t.co/fuuivqJ with @brian_tong, assuming I can remember when the show starts.

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Acer Iconia Tab A500 is cheapest Honeycomb tablet

We’ve been playing with the Acer Iconia Tab A500 for over a week now and I must say this is a pretty decent Honeycomb tablet and probably the cheapest dual-core tablet in the Philippines with street prices as low as Php18,500.

The Iconia A500 is actually the first dual-core Honeycomb tablet to be released in the Philippines, sporting an NVidia Tegra 2 chipset. The Asus Transformer and the Samsung Galxy Tab 10.1 have been announced and previewed with the members of the media several months ago but have not yet been sold to the general public.

This 10-inch tablet isn’t the thinnest or lightest we’ve tested in its category but Acer managed to put in a decent effort with their first Honeycomb tablet and at a price point that’s very affordable (currently the cheapest) to most consumers looking for one. And for those who just want a taste of Honeycomb to play with (read: hack) and not put a big dent on the wallet, this could be the appropriate device.

And since the Iconia A500 is powered by an NVidia Tegra 2 chip, expect a slew of really nice HD games on the tablet that’s close to the quality of console games. Of course, that will still depend on how good the display is — and IMO, the Iconia A500 does it well enough (a bit washed out and hard to use outdoors even at brightest settings).

Acer Iconia Tab A500
10.1? capacitive display @ 1280×800 pixels
NVidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor
16GB & 32GB internal storage
HDMI port (1080p output)
Android 3.0 Honeycomb
Acer UI 4.5
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1,
GPS w/ aGPS support
HDMI with Dual Display
USB Host
microSD slot
micro USB port
5MP rear camera w/ flash
2MP front-facing camera
Android 3.0 Honeycomb

I wanted to do a full review of the unit in its stock form but this one that I borrowed was loaded with a custom ROM. If you want to check out the details of the tablet, I’ll just point you to the review over at Gizmo Owl (the nice dude who lent us this unit).

The Acer Iconia Tab A500 has a suggested retail price of Php21,900 for the 16GB and Php23,900 for the 32GB but you can get units for as low as Php18,500 on cash purchases. Until the Asus Transformer and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 finally arrives, looks like the Iconia A500 will be our only choice for a Honeycomb tablet.

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Dell Venue hands on, first impressions

Announced back in December 2010, the Dell Venue Android phone has yet to reach the Philippines. We got some hands-on time with it yesterday at the Dell Media gathering.

This 4.1-inch Android handset is the second one we’ve seen from Dell (following the Dell Streak 5 released back in April).

The Dell Venue looks promising; it’s not yet in the dual-core league but had it been released earlier this year, I’d say it will find its way to compete with the likes of the Desire S, Optimus Black and Xperia Arc.

Dell Venue
4.1? AMOLED display @ 480×800 pixels
Gorilla Glass display
512MB RAM, 1GB ROM
HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g, WiFi hotspot
Bluetooth 2.0 w/ A2DP
8MP autofocus camera w/ LED flash
720p video recording
1GHz Scorpion processor
Adreno 200 GPU
Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon chipset
Radio tuner
GPS w/ aGPS support
Adobe Flash 10.1 support
Li-Ion 1400 mAh
Android 2.2 Froyo

It doesn’t come with Gingerbread but should be able to upgrade once it becomes available (really depends how hard their R&D worked on them). And I think I saw Swype input built-in the keyboard options.

The Venue has that glossy-metal finish to it (though it’s all just made of plastic) and doesn’t look or feel plasticky at all. It’s got a bit of heft to it and despite the relative thickness (12.9mm), it still feels just right in the hands. I have to say the handset has the genetic make-up of an XPS.

The UI is also different from the ones I’ve seen or used before so it took me a couple minutes to get used to it. Even the positioning of the buttons on the touch panel at the front is re-arranged. The screen looked gorgeous with it’s AMOLED display.

I know everybody’s going dual-core nowadays so the Dell Venue will have to find a sweet spot price to fit in.

A local Dell rep offered this to me earlier this week (when I guested on News to Go with Howie Severino last Wednesday) so I’m pretty sure this handset will be released here in the Philippines very soon (probably next month). We also don’t have a price but hopefully, it will be lower than the Php27k SRP of the Dell Streak.

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BlackBerry Playbook Review

We’re all too familiar with Android tablets and the iPad so when we were introduced to the BlackBerry Playbook with its own mobile operating system, we paused for a while to re-think the UI, navigation and over-all usability. Read our full review of RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook after the jump.

RIM’s approach to a tablet is something that’s thin, light and very portable that’s why they invested in a 7-inch form factor instead of the more popular 10-incher segment. Of course, that’s not to say they might put up a bigger tablet in the future once this one pans out.

This move has its inherent benefits as well as disadvantages, depending on each individual case use. Larger tablets are more attractive to folks that look bigger screen real-estate whenever they want to watch movies, browse the web or play games. However, they are oftentimes heavy and bulky to carry around.

Like many other 7-inch tablets, the Blackberry Playbook offers a more jacket-pocket friendly mobile device (or for the ladies, the usual hand or clutch bag) light enough not to be too cumbersome for all-day use.

At first look, the Playbook does have that impression that it’s just a well-crafted digital picture frame. The glossy all-glass front panel and the simple, squarish design that’s devoid of any buttons or accent is the obvious culprit. The thick black bezel around the sides adds to the same impression.

On the top end, there’s a very small silver-metal power button beside the volume control and media playback (play/pause button) and at the far right, the 3.5mm audio port. At the bottom end are ports for the micro-USB and mini-HDMI. The absence of a micro-SD port is disappointing but how else can RIM sell the 32GB and 64GB variants if they’d include it, right? (That’s the same strategy Apple did with the iPad).

The tablet is very thin at just 9.7mm and weighs around 0.9lbs. It’s actually thinner than any other BlackBerry smartphone RIM has ever produced. The display crisp and bright and the screen is very responsive to the touch.

The Playbook runs on it’s own operating system, the BlackBerry Tablet OS, which is based on the QNX Neutrino OS. RIM will also be migrating to QNX with the upcoming BlackBerry OS 7 for their smartphones (with the upcoming BB Bold 9900).

IMO, the Blackberry Tablet OS truly represents what multi-tasking should be done on a tablet — applications actively run simultaneously on the screen and in the background. That means you can play Need for Speed while loading a YouTube video on a browser in the background and watch a movie at the same time. Oh wait, you can actually record videos with its 5MP camera in full HD while still doing all those.

The Playbook actually allows you 3 levels of application behavior — Showcase (all applications are active and never pause in the background, Default (an application in active in the background until another application goes fullscreen and Paused (all applications are paused in the background and activated when tapped). This setting helps you conserve power on the tablet.

The Playbook’s navigation relies on the edges of the screen (the bezel part) and gestures from that end activates several menus and controls the panels/windows for individual apps that’s running in the background.

It could be confusing at times but once you get the hang of it, works like a charm. The UI, while intuitive and elegant, could be a little challenging to some age group (my 7 year old niece had no problem navigating the iPad but I’m pretty sure he’ll easily get lost with the Playbook).

Central to the usability of a tablet is the collection of apps available to it. RIM has the BlackBerry App World for some time now but the number of available apps seems to be a bit lacking. Most of the basic apps are there — a native Facebook app, a couple of paid Twitter apps (Blackbird & Blaq at $1.99 each), the FourPlay app for FourSquare, Bluebox as a DropBox client and a few more. Prepare to shell out a couple of bucks to get the useful ones.

Compared to the Android Market and the iTunes App store, the BlackBerry App World pales in comparison. However, RIM is said to be working a software that will allow Android apps to be installed and run on the Playbook.

RIM BlackBerry Playbook
7? capacitive display @ 1024×600 pixel
1GHz dual-core CPU
1GB RAM
16GB, 32GB, 64GB internal storage
5MP rear camera
3MP front-facing camera
1080p Full HD video recording
HDMI port
micro-USB port
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1
BlackBerry Tablet OS

Unlike some tablets that offer a WiFi+3G variant, the Playbook is available in WiFi only models. What RIM did was introduce a built-in feature called BlackBerry Bridge — a wireless Bluetooth connection between your Blackberry phone and Playbook so you can connect to the internet using your phone’s 3G network. It also activates access to native email, calendar and BB Messenger. Would have been a nice idea but also crippling to many others who don’t own a Blackberry phone (gives us the impression that RIM made the Playbook for BlackBerry users only).

Here are some really nice features I found native to the BlackBerry Playbook:

WiFi Sharing. Allows the Playbook to share files and folders over local WiFi network so transferring movies, documents and music is very fast & easy.Internet Tethering. You can connect the Playbook to any phone via Bluetooth and be able to use the phone’s 3G to connect to the internet (tried it with a Nokia E6 and t’was very easy; no need for Joikuspot).Application Behavior. As mentioned earlier, this sets how applications behave in the background.

Movie and music playback on the BB Playbook is really good — movies run smoothly at 720p but you can hook it up to an external TV via HDMI for full HD 1080p playback. The speakers are placed smack in the front, right along the sides so the audio is directly straight to you (most other tablets put the speakers at the bottom or the back so the sound is often times muted or obstructed).

The built-in browser is pretty slick, fast and renders pages very well. It can even play YouTube HD at the full 1080p resolution and FarmVille for Facebook right on the browser.

Battery life is actually impressive for its size. The 5300mAh built-in Li-Ion battery can play about 6 hours of videos (that’s around 3 full movies) while browsing the web over WiFi on a single full charge.

The 5MP rear camera on the Playbook is arguably the best one I’ve tried on a tablet. It takes very decent stills and 720p videos. Here are sample photos and videos taken using the Playbook.

Don’t forget to tick the 720p video settings on YouTube.

The BlackBerry Playbook is a very promising tablet and is something worth waiting for. Simple, yet elegant design, sleek form factor, ideal weight and size, a powerful processor and flexible multi-tasking OS plus a selection of storage options up to 64GB. Its got its own share of shortcomings like the native BlackBerry features and the selection of apps in the BlackBerry App World (the BlackBerry Bridge is a useful feature when you’re already using a BlackBerry handset).

If RIM can really make Android Apps work on the Playbook, that would be awesome. RIM is also working on a software update to allow native applications (mail, calendar, etc) to work even without the BB Bridge.

The Playbook is not yet officially released in the Philippines but we’ve got word it might land in the country by end of July or probably early August. Globe Telecom is said to be the exclusive distributor of the tablet. The Playbook starting price is $499 for the 16GB model (it’s Php22k in Singapore so I’m guessing Php25k to Php27k here) and goes up to $699 for the 64GB variant.

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Russian campaign: Strip for Putin, win an iPad 2?

Putin's Army expects an iPad prize to bring out the bodice rippers.

(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

Leave it to Russia to combine nudity, politics, and gadgets. With a presidential election approaching in 2012, an active movement is under way to get popular former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin back into the presidential seat.

What better way to drum up support for the candidate than having women who support Putin appear to suggest stripping down for a chance at winning an iPad 2? According to an article in The Telegraph, a video proposing just that showed up on parliamentarian Kirill Shchitov's blog. You can check it out below. Don't worry. It's safe for work.

The busty woman in the video scribbles, "I will tear my clothes off for Putin" on a tank top with blazing red lipstick. The iPad 2 makes a sultry cameo appearance for incentive. (Clarification, 1:52 p.m. PT: There is some debate as to whether the girls in the vid are literally talking about stripping or are simply using a Russian pun for "I will tear" to say they love Putin so much they will tear anyone apart who is against him and show it by ripping their clothes apart.)

In any case, the video is definitely suggestive, as the girl featured in it says, "Please upload a video where you tear something or someone apart for your president" and she proceeds to tear her shirt apart. The campaign comes courtesy of a group that calls itself Putin's Army. Women are encouraged to submit videos of themselves tearing their clothes for Putin, and one lucky winner will take home an Apple tablet.

Putin hasn't yet announced that he will run for president, but perhaps this will nudge the notoriously manly man into an official decision.

Somehow, I don't think this sort of political movement would get very far in the upcoming American presidential election. Maybe we'll get "Bikinis for Bachmann" or "Overdress for Obama" instead.

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A Sony 3D TV, Blu-ray, PS3 and Move

We got a sweet two weeks with the whole gang from Sony (a 40-inch 3D LED TV, PS3, PlayStation Move and Blue-ray) and though I’ve only used it less half that time, I’ve really enjoyed every minute of it.

I already have a Sony PS3 for over a year now but haven’t played much with it except for watching Blu-ray movies.

So when Sony Philippines brought in and installed what they called the complete set of their Sony 3D World, I thought I’d be burning hours and hours of game time on the couch.

We didn’t have a lot of titles to start with but there’s enough DVDs here to be able to test out every single item on the set.

Little Big Planet and Grand Tourismo 5 on the PS3, Monsters vs. Aliens on the 3D TV, and Heavy Rain for the Playstation Move (which I could not make to work for some reason).

And since the PS3 can also play Blu-ray movies, I rarely used the dedicated Blu-ray player in the 2 weeks we had it.

The LED TV is only 40-inches across (not the biggest we’ve tested) but considering it can play 3D titles and also connect to the internet for you to watch YouTube HD straight on the gorgeous display, that certainly made up for it.

My personal preference though is leaned towards bigger 2D screens than wearing 3D glasses.

If you look at the back panel, you’ll see how slim this LED TV is (Full HD 1080p with 3D, Dynamic Edge LED backlight, Motionflow PRO 240Hz refresh rate, BRAVIA Engine 3, BRAVIA Internet Video, USB port, DLNA Certified). There’s also a dedicated USB port for the WiFi dongle. Those 5.1 speaker system did not come with the set.

You have to give it to Sony for being the only one who can offer a full suite of gaming and entertainment options for your living room. The whole set rounds up to about Php200,000 — not that affordable but you’re getting a top of the line entertainment set here.

They pull this out last week and I’m already missing playing Grand Turismo 5 (so I did the next best thing — take out my Lancer EX for a spin).

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