I have to say, a couple of years ago I’d be updating my site with Blackberry news every second week, a new device here, a new something there.  But the last year has been very light on.

The Pearl 3G is a nice device, but it’s nothing revolutionary.  It’s the Original pearl with 3G (Finally) and the trackpad (also good!), and it’s a sleek device – great stuff.

The Bold 9700 was a standout – a real joy for the lineup, the 9000 Bold was (and still is) quite dated.

But other than that – what has there been?

Blackberry 9800 Torch

Rumours of a ‘slider’ device have circulated for some time, and the first ‘spy’ shots I saw were not great, looked like a cobbled together concept device.

Finally though, it’s a reality. AT&T in America and Blackberry today launched the Torch 9800 Blackberry Smartphone.

Research in Motion (RIM) have already announced that it will hit Australia “in the coming months” on Optus, Telstra and Vodafone.

UPDATE:

Ross Fielding, Executive Director, Telstra Mobility Products said:

We’re excited to confirm that Telstra will bring the new BlackBerry Torch 9800 to our Next G Network customers later this year.
The Torch elegantly solves the dilemma many of our customers tell us they face — choosing between a touch screen and a physical keyboard on a smartphone. By combining both a full touch screen for easy web browsing with a slide-out QWERTY keypad, the Torch is set to be popular with people who love to email and surf the web. We’ve already sampled the Torch’s web browsing experience on our Next G network and we think our customers will be impressed — it really flies.

It is, as anticipated a slider device, more than a Boldon many fronts – the Camera is improved to 5Mp and continuous Auto Focus which is a welcome addition, WiFi ‘n’ is included which is fantastic, double the onboard memory and double capacity SD card included (4GB).  This is all great.

Blackberry 9800 Torch

There are some real catch up features here, the camera, the universal search among possibly others, are catch up features to the iPhone 4, strange, given the criticism of Apple for always leaving features out (more on that another time).

The device LOOKS huge, it looks bulky but I guess only a hands on test will confirm or deny that.

Blackberry 9800 Torch

The 9800 Torch is the first Blackberry to run the new Blackberry 6 Operating System which should be a vast improvement, however, once again, we’ll have to wait and see on that.  No judging this book by it’s cover.  However, the WebKit browser should give one of the best web browsing experiences – something Blackberry has long long been behind the 8 ball on.

Even if it is a catch-up device, it’s about time!

Blackberry 9800 Torch

I just wish sometimes RIM would stick to it’s core, and release a touch screen 9700 – That alone would make the device experience better.  But, that’s just my opinion:)

Telstra’s T-BOX hits stores today, and in conjunction with that, a new range of Bigpond Plans has been announced.

The three new bundles now have Unlimted Local Calls and either capped or unlimted STD Calls – The 25 Gig bundle has double the data allowance it had previously..  In another step toward real Telstra bundling, the 100Gig plan has unlimited calls to any Telstra Mobile from the home phone – which is quite compelling for some people I would think.  And finally, the 200Gig bundle has unlimited calls from your home phone to ANY mobile in Australia.  This is good stuff from Telstra!

More details follow:

From the telstra announcement:

Telstra Home 25GB Value Bundle at $109 per month for 24 months plus $35 upfront. This plan includes:

• BigPond Elite™ Liberty – 25GB
• T-Box or T-Hub
• Unlimited local calls and $1 STD calls

Telstra Home 100GB Ultimate Bundle at $139 per month for 24 months plus $35 upfront. This plan includes:

• BigPond Elite™ Liberty – 100GB
• T-Box or T-Hub
• Unlimited local and STD calls
• Unlimited calls to any Telstra mobile from your home phone

Telstra Home 200GB Ultimate Bundle at $159 per month for 24 months plus $35 upfront. This plan includes:

• BigPond Elite™ Liberty – 200GB
• T-Box or T-Hub
• Unlimited local and STD calls
• Unlimited calls to any Australian mobile from your home phone
• $10 monthly credit towards International Direct Dial calls.

Our bundles are all flexible, you can replace the included T-Box by a T-Hub for the same price (your choice), or you can have both the T-Box and T-Hub by paying an additional $35 upfront then $11 per month on a 24 month plan or $299 upfront. You can even take up a Bundle without the T-Box or T-Hub if you prefer.

Of course the new bundles come with some minimum prices over 24 months. They are $2,171 (Home 25GB Value Bundle), $3,371 (Home 100GB Ultimate Bundle) and $3,851 (Home 200GB Ultimate Bundle). These minimum costs exclude usage and a $9.95 delivery fee.

Interesting to note that given the T-Box and T-Hub are both the same price, they are interchangable within the plans.

Let me know what you think – will you be getting one?

I will!

Update: Let me put that all in some perspective from my point of view.  I’m currently on the “BigPond Elite Liberty* (25GB) – ADSL 2+” paying $90 per month.  It’s quite frankly an expensive plan, but the unmetered content combined with the features of the T-Hub and I was happy.

Now, add to it the unlimited local calls, and all the line rental stuff – I’m paying $20 more for unlimited local calls.  And if I were starting with no “T-” device, I’d pick the T-Box ahead of the T-Hub, however, I’m fortunate that I already have a T-Hub, so would take the included T-Box in this bundle, and my wife can happily make unlimited local calls (to her mum!).

The higher plans are tough to justify for me, becuase we don’t have Telstra Mobiles – however, there might be the formation of  a compelling reason to do what everyone should do at contract time – sit down and work out your TOTAL communications costing – see what’s best.

In a move that frankly will hit right at the hip pockets of shareholders in TomTom, Navman, Garmin and co – Nokia has gone one up on Google.

Google’s Android based Turn by Turn Mapping is free in the USA, but Nokia has announced Free Mapping using OVI maps Globally.

This means that on the Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia E52, Nokia E55, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic and Nokia X6 – Ovi Maps will provide walk and drive navigation free.

The full press release is below.

This is yet another evolution in this battle, but let me remind everyone – downloading maps live as you go has two disadvantages – 1/ If you’re not in a data area, you’re not going to get a map!, and 2/ There is a COST to you to download the data – be sure you’re on a good data plan – that said, we’ll likely see mapping data included in plans or offered as an add on just like Telstra does with WhereIS maps.

I like the sound of this Hybrid system which allows you to ‘download’ the maps and use the navigation in Offline mode – lets see how that works!

What do you think? is this the future of Sat Nav?

Some great links from around the interwebs:

SANTA’s FLIGHT PATH:

http://mirror.airservicesaustralia.com/santa09/santa09.asp

Watch a quick video which shows Santa’s flight path – as confirmed by Air Services Australia and the Air Traffic Controllers themselves!

And the US NORAD is tracking Santa Live:

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

He’s off on his journey as at 6pm Christmas Eve Sydney Time…

(thanks to my Beautiful Wife Amanda for these links!)

and for those with an iPhone:

Search the App Store for SANTA and you’ll find a SANTA TRACKER which has a blog, and real time location for Santa, PLUS it allows you to put together a Naughty and Nice list which might be a good way to show the kids where they sit right now!!

Something that has been available in the US for as long as Twitter has been around has finally come to Australia – for Telstra Mobile customers…

Twitter via SMS

Telstra today announced they are the first in Australia to make Twitter status updates available via SMS.  Telstra will now send Free SMS updates from Twitter to your mobile phone.

Plus, you can send an SMS to update your status, direct message others and some other features – sending updates cost the same as standard SMS messaging.

This follows the launch of Facebook SMS which allows you to receive free SMS notifications when friends update Facebook status, wall posts and other things.

Telstra customers who are Twitter members can activate the new SMS notifications service by sending a blank SMS to 01980 89488 (01980 TWITT). SMS charges apply.

What I find interesting is that Telstra make this available Free, although once you think about it and realise people will use SMS to reply and update status, the increased potential for revenue here far out weighs the cost of providing the free service.

Expect other carriers to follow suit.

Fortunately you can choose which users updates are sent to your phone, otherwise it would be a barrage of SMS messages for those following a hundred or so people!

Let me know if you’ve given this a go.

UPDATE:

Interesting to read the blog piece, and the ‘recommended’ accounts for Australia

@australian (News from The Australian newspaper)
@delta_goodrem (Musician)
@kyleandjackieo (Australia’s #1 radio show)
@DanniiMinogue (Team Minogue judge for The X Factor)
@KevinRuddPM (Prime Minister)

Logitech today announced a raft of new discounted prices on it’s range of audio gear (mainly headphones etc) as of Tommorrow (December 1)

Speakers included, but the bulk of the products are the Ultimate Ears Range of Headphones which are quite good in blocking out sound and also giving you a more comfortable fit – so well worth considering.

Logitech Ultimate Ears

I think it’s a much needed price drop, given not a lot of people move away from the ‘standard’ headphones that come with most devices including mobile phones, so this makes it a much more achievable step to a better quality performance.

Expected Prices are below:

Points to COLES ONLINE for this idea…  Decorate your Christmas Tree Online.

Fun for the kids, and if you are buying everything from scratch it will help you get a sense of what that might cost…

Have fun!

http://www.coles.com.au/Christmas/Christmas-Products/Wrapping-and-Decorations/Decorate-Your-Tree/Christmas-Tree.aspx

Expect a storm around Virgin Blue over the next day or so, with what appears to be a monumental stuff up with their email database.

Late this afternoon, an email went out to what appears to be a huge number, if not the entire VELOCITY REWARDS email database – that is, everyone who is a Velocity Rewards Member (Virgin Blue Frequent Flyer).

Thanks to one Twitter user Michael below is the email:

Virgin Blue's Velocity Reward GOLD UPGRADE EMAIL

And this was much to the surprise of many recipients, some who had never travelled Virgin Blue using their rewards account, and thus were barely eligible for ‘SILVER’ membership let alone ‘GOLD’.

To make matters worse, existing ‘GOLD’ members also received the email.. One complaining in an Online Forum:

I just got the email too — except that i was ALREADY gold til dec 2010.

I had 92,000 status credits with DJ (nearly DOUBLE gold) when they rolled over a week or two again. If you’ve all been upgraded to gold, i’m seriously going to never fly DJ again as a matter of principle.

It seems Virgin Blue has a lot of work to do to recover from this.

A retraction was sent out soon after, but not soon enough for the many disgruntled people who had themselves a boost for Friday afternoon thinking their travels would be ever more relaxing with access to the Gold members lounge.

The retraction was as follows:

Virgin Blue's Velocity Reward RETRACTION

The retraction is one, thing, add to that the VirginBlue’s Twitter status message apologising and a note on the Velocity Rewards website, and you’re starting the slow crawl back to the hearts of your members.

Virgin Blue's Twitter ApologyVirgin Blue's Velocity Reward Program Website Notice

Virgin Blue's Velocity Reward Program Website Notice

However, judging by the number of Virgin #Fail messages on twitter, this won’t be over in a hurry for Virgin Blue.

What can they do?  This is possibly as simple as Human Error – Is the prompt retraction enough to avoid them having to actually upgrade everyone who received the email?

How does a database so big so easily get accidentally sent the wrong message?

Again, I am tipping this is human error.  Question really isn’t how did it happen – no doubt three new hoops will be put in place before another email is ever sent – but how do you make up for the utter disappointment suffered by the people who received it, were quite chuffed, but then were literally rejected.

A free single pass to the Gold Lounge? Even that would be difficult to sustain.

This will be very interesting to follow. 

Thanks to Scott Korman for the tip off to this story!

While It’s not applicable to Australia yet, give it time, we’ll have it – Google has announced Google Maps | Navigation – Turn by Turn navigation just like your ‘tomtom’ or ‘navman’ sat nav system, except in your phone.

Or to be more precise, in your Android 2 Phone.

The Youtube introduction is below, and yes, it’s impressive.  But – lets put this into perspective.

Android 2.0 is for the DROID phone – which is not even rumoured for Australia yet, though I have no doubt it will come soon.  That is just ONE phone, and the majority of Smartphones are iPhones and Blackberry’s.  Again, I have little doubt that once the dust settles a free downloadable app will become available for them too.

So why isn’t this the absolute best thing since sliced bread?  I – Like you, hate the tought of paying to upgrade the maps on my navigation unit – so I’m happy to have them a little old, just like keeping an old Refedex (Street Directory) in the car.

Why do other Turn by turn apps for say the iPhone cost so much, while Googles could easily be free? – Because they don’t NEED your mobile internet connection – and thus, there is no required ongoing fee.

To even get started with Google Maps Navigation you must have the Internet available on the handset – of course with a Droid, and iPhone that’s common place, but the cost of data is soon spiralling out of control.

We need some urgent changes to the way data is sold on Mobile plans here in Australia before this will take off to the masses.

Exciting -Yes.  Hype – Yes.  Worth Trying – Yes.  Worth daily monitoring your data use –  Definitely.

Congrats to Google for blowing the lid on this one – Mapping upgrades are outrageously overpriced. This will serve to smash down prices on both upgrades and new units.

Once you watch below, you can also see how new navigation units in the future, if they want to compete in this space, are going to need better access to on route searching, live data, and traffic.

It’s an exciting space – I just continually worry about all the things we are having to pay to use in the future, and how dependent we become on our Mobile carriers. All telcos are going to have to do serious work on their backhaul capabilities if this is going to work on a mass scale.

Tell me what you think in the comments below…

Radio 2GB Sydney today announced the addition of a Technology show, “Your Tech Life” to its weekday line-up at 7pm every Thursday Evening.

Hosted by Trevor Long, Your Tech Life will provide live talk back help and guidance to Sydney consumers as well as featuring news, information and reviews of the latest Technology and Gadgets.

Trevor Long hosted 2GB’s technology program in 2007 and 2008, which at the time was broadcast  between 10 and 11pm. Your Tech Life’s earlier time-slot provides for increased exposure and wider potential audience.

The program’s website yourtechlife.com will provide audio highlights, podcasts, program fact sheets and technology news and reviews.

In addition to the one hour radio program and website, Trevor will present “Tech Life Tech Tips” Technology information vignettes, running 30 seconds which will be heard across the week on 2GB and sister station 2CH.

In announcing the program, 2GB Program Director Ian Holland noted it can be difficult to keep up with all the latest news in technology, “Our audience are among some of the highest discretionary spenders in the market, Your Tech Life will provide useful product advice and assistance for all their technology needs. “

“Trevor’s previous experience and passion in this field, as well as the success of his last program on 2GB make him the ideal presenter of this program”, Holland said.

Trevor Long is a passionate Technologist with over 13 years experience in the media. There are not many computer problems Trevor can’t fix! He is also a self-confessed gadget nut and there isn’t many new gadgets he hasn’t road tested himself.

Trevor says “Technology is so exciting because it is constantly changing; upgrading, diverging and I can’t wait to keep the listeners informed on all the latest news and reviews.”

Your Tech Life broadcasts weekly on Thursdays at 7pm on 2GB 873, online at 2gb.com and will be podcast on iTunes.