iPhone 4 Antenna Issue, Steve Jobs Claims of Blackberry 9700 Antenna to RIM Official Statement

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If you guys have been following the news about the launch of the new iPhone 4, the euphoria of the users who got their hands the first iPhone 4 until the negative feedback of them because of the iPhone 4 antenna issue from Steve Jobs, the latest news about this iPhone 4 antenna issue is Apple explained that all smartphones have the same issue as iPhone 4. For those who are not following the news, the new iPhone 4 has a critical where gripping the phone at the lower left corner, where the external antenna is located. Gripping the phone while covering that part will cause signal loss as the human hand can cause greater attenuation compare to other materials, according to Apple.

This is Apple response to the customer complaints about the signal loss from Engadget. That is last month.

Recent news is Steve Jobs claim at Apple press conference on Friday that many popular smartphones suffer attenuation as iPhone 4 and one of them is Blackberry 9700. Apple also has put a dedicated page to educate the customers about antenna and signal loss http://www.apple.com/antenna/.

Here is statement from Research In Motion Co-CEOs about the iPhone 4 and Blackberry 9700.

"Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM's customers don't need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple."

- Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie

And this is from Blackberry 9700 users that do testing about Jobs's claim. If you have one, go on and test it out, to see whether it is right or not :)

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Tips: Optimize Blackberry's Battery Life

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There are several opinions of how to optimize Blackberry's battery life, and here I present easy tips that I do and they work for me. Here are the tips:

1. Switch to 2G Network
   yup if your Blackberry is capable to be in 3G network, the 3G speed is very tempting but it sucks more power from your battery at the same time. 2G network (GPRS/EDGE) will save more your battery life so if you use your Blackberry for merely chats and idle switch to 2G. When you need more speed to do more multitasking things, to download updates, to browse then you switch to 3G. 
2. Turn off Wireless Connection
   always remember to turn off your wireless connection when you do not need it. When switched on, it will draw more power as it keeps searching for available wifi around
3. Turn off Bluetooth
   turning off Bluetooth will help to save more your battery life. After done transferring or receiving files, do not forget to turn it off. 
4. Recharge your Battery Often
   yup you read it correctly, recharge your Blackberry whenever you have the time to full. The battery technology has grown a lot, with lithium and lithium-polymer you do not need to wait until the battery to completely drain to charge. You only need to drain completely and recharge when you use nickel-cadmium battery. All blackberry phones or even all phones available in the market use lithium or lithium-polymer, only old technology still use nickel-cadmium.
   No need to wait until the battery indicator turns red, just recharge and overcharge for few hours is ok. I normally charge my Blackberry from 11PM to 8AM everyday and my battery is still in good condition.
   
5. Change Your Brightness Setting
   Change your brightness setting to lower setting (Options > Screen/Keyboard). I set mine to the lowest. Make sure the setting Automatically Dim Backlight is On.
   Turn off LED Coverage Indicator will help to save more battery life as well.
   
6. Turn Notification Off for High-traffic Email
   If you subscribe to mailing list that has high-traffic or your email is high-traffic turning off notification for that particular email will help.

If you have more useful tips to optimize battery's life just share in the comments

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Blackberry 6 Teaser

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RIM just launched a new teaser for its Blackberry 6 and it's definitely going to be a new level of experience. The video shows the biggest new features like, the new webkit browser (hit here to see overview of webkit browser), aggregation of social network, and universal search. Enjoy

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Blackberry Webkit Browser Hands-on Review

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Just received news from driphter.com, that the owner willyboy6 did a review with webkit browser on Blackberry 9800. The browser is still under development but you can see a lot of new features and according to willyboy6, it has the chance to put this new webkit browser into older Blackberry devices. We'll see :)
For now, enjoy the review. Here is the link to the original post driphter.com

If you want to check the blackberry 9800 review, check my older post here

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My Email Truncated Again?

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Often in a long email, I receive, I need to press Get More to read the rest of the email. In some of those long emails, after reading all the way down in my Storm, I am greeted by "Truncated xxxx bytes". I look around to find a way the cause and how to deal with it. From my findings, this is caused by way the Blackberry Email System designed, it can only receive max 32 KB of compressed data in the email message body. Here is the document from Blackberry KB13677. Based on the article, the sad thing is there is no way around this, so, yup, you stuck with this issue.

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Video Overview Blackberry 9800

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Blackberry 9800 is one of the new products that RIM will be launched in 2010. The full specs not yet published but it is going to debut with OS 6.0, be the first RIM's device with a slider keyboard and have touchscreen and a trackpad. Below is the video overview of Blackberry 9800, enjoy

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New Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) Package from INDOSAT "Paket Irit"

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I got the news from INDOSAT mailing list that they launch a new BIS package soon but for those who cannot wait they can give it a try.
News from those who test it, the package is the same as BIS reguler package minus WiFi. It means you can browse, chat & social network with cheaper price in one of the biggest provider here in Indonesia. They call it "paket irit", it will be available as daily, weekly and monthly package
Here is the tariff details:

• Irit Harian Rp 4.500
• Irit Mingguan Rp 26.000
• Irit Bulanan Rp 100.000

If you want to try, you can call *123*6# then response "1" for Blackberry on Demand. Response "1" for Info, then "9" (you still cannot see the menu, but it's there). Choose "Irit Harian", "Irit Mingguan" or "Irit Bulanan" afterwards you will receive confirmation message.

Or you can SMS with format "Irit Harian" for daily, "Irit Mingguan" for weekly, and "Irit Bulanan" for monthly to 889

The confirmation message said Rp 4.500 for 1 week and the news said Rp 4.500 for 1 day. We will wait for official news from Indosat. Happy trying :)

Update: this package will give you all access as full package "BIS Reguler", from BBM, chats, Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc), Browser, Email with unlimited bandwidth via APN blackberry. The only difference is if your Blackberry has wifi capability, you can't use APN blackberry via wifi anymore. INDOSAT blocks APN blackberry via the wifi access. For some Blackberry handhelds, like mine Blackberry Storm, this limitation has no effect at all, as Blackberry Storm doesn't come with wifi.
People normally use wifi to connect when they are out of network coverage and/or in overseas. For the price of mentioned above, that is definitely worth it :)

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