Long looked-for, the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 has finally arrived in town, and it’s putting on quite a display. As the replacement to the RIM BlackBerry 8830 World Version, the Tour offers 3G world roaming capabilities and brings a number of improvements in all three departments of design, features, and functioning. While we’re upset by the lack of Wi-Fi and other minor annoyances, the pros much outweigh the cons. It’s one of the strongest smartphone offerings from Verizon Network, and its business customers will be well-served by this device. The RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 will be offered from the carrier starting October 23, for $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $70 mail-in rebate.

Design
The RIM BlackBerry 9630 Tour looks like the lovechild of the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 and the RIM BlackBerry Bold, inheriting several of the finest qualities of the two smartphones. In terms of dimension, the Tour is more parallel to the Curve 8900, however a little bigger and heavier at 4.4 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick and 4.5 ounces. (The Curve comes in at 4.2 inches tall by 2.3 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 3.8 ounces.) Even now, the piece of equipment is a great deal more pocketable than the Bold as well as the BlackBerry 8830. Plus, the extra weight gives the phone a satisfyingly genuine feel, and the back of the phone also features a inequitable soft-touch appearance for extra toughness.

The BlackBerry Tour’s design is a nice grouping of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (pictured here) and the BlackBerry Bold.

The Tour features the unchanged display as the Curve 8900. It measures 2.4-inches diagonally and shows 65,536 colors at a 480×360-pixel resolution. Images and text seem to be crisp and bright, and and colors explode off the display.

Akin to the Curve and Bold, the Tour features an updated customer interface that’s rather straightforward and easy to pilot. Several of the menu icons come across alike, so they can be hard to differentiate at a peek, but overall the client interface is incredibly straightforward and simple to navigate. You can reorganize the icons and arrange them in folders, and as always, you can tailor the home screen with backdrop images and themes.

Below the display, you’ll come across the Talk and End keys, a menu shortcut, a back button, and a trackball navigator. Pressing the Alt and menu key will bring up an application switcher where you can toggle between tasks, but we found it more suitable to allocate the switcher to one of the convenience keys located on the left and right sides of the phone. To program these buttons, just go to Options > Screen/Keyboard and scroll downward to the left and right convenience fields to assign an app or task to the controls.

The BlackBerry Tour’s QWERTY keyboard is quite simple to operate.

For text entry, the Tour offers a 35-key QWERTY keyboard that is reminiscent of the one found on the Bold, which is a useful thing. Obviously with the Tour’s more small frame, the keyboard isn’t absolutely as large as the Bold’s but still features good-size buttons. To avoid them from feeling too level, the rectangular keys have a slight ridge and a white backlight makes the words and numbers (highlighted in red) simple to understand in darker environments. We were quite happy using the Tour’s keyboard. Plus, the keyboard just had a more high-quality feel compared with the Curve’s where the buttons felt a little plasticky. Our only slight grievance is that the outside keys are a little hard to press, since the downward incline of the buttons make them a tad flat against the edge of the telephone.

Other features of the BlackBerry Tour’s design incorporate lock and mute buttons on top of the device. In addition to the aforementioned convenience key, there’s a volume rocker, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Micro-USB port on the right. Lastly, the camera and flash are located on back, while behind the battery cover, you’ll discover the SIM card and microSD expansion slots.

Verizon packages the RIM BlackBerry 9630 Tour with a load of accessories, including a travel charger, three global adapters, a USB cable, a stereo earphones, a 2GB microSD card, a SIM card, a swivel holster, a Global Support Kit, a software Disc, and reference material. For additional add-ons, please check our cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.

Features
As the stand-in to the RIM BlackBerry 8830 World Edition, the RIM BlackBerry Tour offers dual-mode functionality (supporting dual-band CDMA and quad-band GSM networks) meant for world roaming capabilities and ships with a SIM card. With this capability, the phone switches automatically between CDMA and GSM networks to offer seamless international roaming–all while keeping the unchanged mobile phone number. In addition to voice coverage, the BlackBerry Tour supports the 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA band, so you can pick up 3G support overseas, while working on Verizon’s EV-DO Rev. A network nationally. In all, you’ll get voice coverage in 220 countries and data coverage (e-mail and Internet) in 175 countries. Be positive to check the international roaming rates for voice calls and text messages before you head off on your journey: Verizon’s rates can get pretty expensive in some areas, ranging from 69 cents up to $4.99 per minute. You can locate the carrier’s international plans here.

The RIM BlackBerry Tour offers world roaming capabilities and ships with a SIM card.

Other handset features include a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dial, and text and multimedia messaging. The Tour also supports Visual Voice Mail, but be aware that this service costs an additional $2.99 per month. The cellular phone book is only limited by the available memory with room in each entry for multiple numbers, e-mail addresses, work and home address, job title, and more. For caller ID purposes, you can attach a contact photo, group ID, or a custom ringtone.

While offering 3G support, the BlackBerry Tour does not have integrated Wi-Fi, but this isn’t a case of Verizon crippling the feature; Sprint’s version of the Tour also lacks Wi-Fi. You do get Bluetooth 2.0 with support for wireless headsets, stereo Bluetooth (A2DP/AVCRP), hands-free kits, phone book access, serial port, and dial-up networking. The latter allows you to use the Tour as a wireless modem for your laptop, but to use the feature, you will need to sign up for Verizon’s Mobile Broadband Connect plan, which ranges from $39.99 per month for 250MB of data up to $59.99 for 5GB of data.

GPS is also onboard. The smartphone uses both satellites and cellular triangulation to find your position and can supply navigation via several methods. The smartphone ships with BlackBerry Maps, where you can get maps, text-based turn-by-turn instructions, and seek for local businesses. However, for real-time voice-guided directions, you will need to subscribe to a location-based service, which Verizon provides through VZ Navigator. The service costs $9.99 a month; regrettably, our review unit was not set up with the service to test it out.

Of course, what would a BlackBerry be not including e-mail? The BlackBerry Tour can sync with your company’s BlackBerry Enterprise server, with support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise, to provide corporate e-mail in real time. With BlackBerry Internet Service, you can also log on up to 10 personal/business POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail accounts. There’s also an attachment viewer for opening Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, PDF, JPEG, GIF, and more. Thankfully, there’s more instant messaging support as well, so in addition to BlackBerry Messenger, there are also preloaded clients IM for Windows Live, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, and AIM.

To supplement the attachment viewer, the smartphone ships with DataViz Documents To Go Standard Edition, so you can now edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files as well. If you want the capability to create new documents, you will have to upgrade to the Premium Edition, however. Staple personal information management tools, like a Calendar, a task list, a memo pad, a voice recorder, a calculator, will also help keep you on track. Recognizing the growing popularity of social networking sites, Verizon and RIM has also included Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr on the BlackBerry Tour for effortless access.

In addition to the preloaded apps, the BlackBerry Tour supports the in recent times launched BlackBerry App World. The catalog has a plain, but easy-to-use, interface and features a fairly comprehensive database of applications, which you can view by category, top downloads, or featured items. You can also explore by title. We downloaded several programs over Verizon’s 3G network, including Slacker Radio, the Weather Channel, and AP News, and had no problems. The ghastly news, however, is that like the T-Mobile G1, you can’t save apps to the microSD card, so you’ll have to download them to the phone’s main memory, which isn’t that much at 256MB.

At the same time as the app store has plenty of entertainment apps, there are some onboard options as well. The BlackBerry Tour features a built-in media player that can play countless music and video formats, as well as MP3, WMA, WMA ProPlus Bluetooth, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+ files, and MPEG4, WMV, and H.264 video clips. There’s a search function, playlist creation, shuffle and repeat, and you get a full-display mode for video playback. You can buy and download songs over the air through V Cast Music or stream music from numerous sites. The included software CD also contains a copy of Roxio Easy Media Creator, so you can create MP3s from CDs and add audio tags. Make good use of that 2GB microSD card and save all your multimedia files on there. If you need extra, the expansion slot can accept up to 16GB cards. Video and TV buffs might be disappointed to learn that the Verizon BlackBerry Tour will not support V Cast Mobile TV, whereas Sprint’s version of the Tour will support the carrier’s mobile TV service.

Picture quality was run of the mill, and there’s a bit of shutter lag.

The BlackBerry Tour comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera with 2x zoom, auto focus, flash, and image stabilization. It can also record video and geotag photos using the phone’s GPS. Despite the image stabilization, we found photo quality to be a little unclear. There’s a bit of shutter lag so it may be that we pulled the camera away too soon, but that in and of itself is annoying. Video quality was actually more impressive. The picture had some expected pixelation but was generally clear and it did well even in darker environments. For enterprise customers whose workplace bans camera phones, Verizon will also offer a version without a camera.

Performance

We tested the dual-mode (CDMA 800/1900; GSM 850/900/1800/1900; UMTS/HSDPA 2100) RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630 in San Francisco with Verizon Wireless service and call quality was excellent. We heard our callers loud and clear; in fact, it was almost too loud so we had to take the volume downward a couple of notches. There are also settings to boost the audio by boosting the treble or bass, but we didn’t feel the need to so. Our callers also had positive comments and said calls sounded quite clear. However, they could tell when we switched to the speakerphone unannounced. While the audio was not quite as pristine, we were still able to carry on with the conversation. On our side, the calls had enough volume but sounded just a bit hollow.

We paired the smartphone with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active headphones.

Armed with a 528MHz Qualcomm processor, the BlackBerry Tour was able to keep up with our day-to-day demands and was quite a fast little device. We encountered minimal delays, and we were able to switch between tasks with no problems. Verizon’s EV-DO Rev. A network also provided fast as well as reliable coverage here in San Francisco. App and music downloads were pretty swift. It took 52 seconds to download the Slacker app, while a 1.94MB song took 1 minute and 27 seconds from V Cast Music. Thanks to the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack, we were able to plug in our Bose On-Ear headphones and enjoy rich-sounding tracks. Video playback was also smooth with synchronized picture and audio.

Using the Tour’s full HTML browser, Aws Wireless full site downloaded in 38 seconds–quite impressive considering other 3G smartphones have taken up to a minute–while CNN’s and ESPN’s mobile sites came up in 7 seconds and 15 seconds. We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again. BlackBerry’s Web browser isn’t the best. It’s come a long way and it’s much less maddening to navigate with the onscreen cursor and different page views, but still there’s a lot to be desired.

Since our evaluation unit didn’t include VZ Navigator, we couldn’t really test the voice-guided navigation. Then again, we used BlackBerry Maps, which was able to present accurate directions to our destinations. The GPS reception was pretty good; from a cold start, the cell phone was able to discover our location within two minutes and subsequent starts were a little faster at about a minute or less.

The RIM BlackBerry Tour comes with a 1400mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 5 hours and up to 14 days of standby time. In our battery drain tests, the BlackBerry Tour beat the rated talk time by 1.5 hours.

What?s all the Publicity about? Citizens have been driving for years with distractions. Now all of a sudden with all the media buildup cellular phones have become the poster child for distractions. What about all the other distractions: eating in the car, putting on makeup, combing hair, reading the paper, shaving, changing clothes, waving at people, waving at other cars, putting on shoes, spanking your kids, trying to find your purse, searching for the remote to the radio, trying to read the GPS etc?etc. I can think of about fifty without even trying. But now technology has spun out of control and we?re texting all over the place. I can tell you it?s because when we?re in the car that?s the only time that we have to text and talk. Other than that, I?m busy. Once the car stops I?ve got things to do.

Let?s Be Sincere. Driving while texting or talking is unsafe and the only way that I can think of to minimize that danger is not to text while driving, or with the use of a headset. That of course is not the only solution but perhaps you?ll be able to keep your eyes on the road. Every cellular phone user should invest in a headset preferably a Bluetooth. How hip is that? Instant hands-free. You can?t get any cooler than that. At first glance I didn?t even consider the use of a headset. I didn?t get it. I didn?t want to change. After all I?d used a cell phone since ?89 so how dare I change. I must have a device to my ear. Why? Must every person know that I?m on the phone?

It?s the Law. In several States it?s now against the law to use a cell phone without a bluetooth hands-free device while driving and the laws differ from City to City and from State to State. California was the first State to have the California Wireless Telephone Automobile Safety Act, New Jersey and the District of Columbia have a hands free law, and several cities in Texas.

What are you waiting for? An collision, well by then it?s too late and the life you save just possibly will be your own. Can you picture taking the life of someone else because of a cell phone? I can?t even picture such a tragedy. So for the sake of others and my peace of mind I?ve invested in a Bluetooth. My first Bluetooth, wow, it?s been 20 years and I?m in the end taking some responsibility as a cell phone user. I?ve purchased the Noise Assassin from Aws Wireless. It?s supposed to be the best. I?ve used it a week and it?s Grand. This is the best thing since Chocolate. I?m hooked.

Accessories such a coat, purse, or shoes can either complete or dress up an outfit. Cell phones have almost as many accessories as Barbie does. Accessories can be practical, ornamental, or just available. In the cell phone world there are practical accessories that help you to operate the phone safely and those that allow you to carry it safely.

Some, like downloadable ring tones, are there for you if you want them. I have put accessories into groups to make them easier to describe. There are operational accessories that include battery chargers. Chargers are phone and model specific so that they are not interchangeable.

Hands free kits can be bought that are easily installed in your vehicle. These will let you talk on the phone and keep your hands on the wheel. The signal between your phone and cell tower can be strengthened with the use of antenna boosters. Where there are weak cell phone signals these are really good.

There are specific batteries from your cell phone?s manufacturer and for your specific cell phone. Until you can recharge your cell phone battery there is an attachment that will your weak battery a boost. There are speaker phone kits. Rather than drive with one hand and hold the phone with other, these attachments let you talk on the phone and keep your hands on the wheel.

Place dashboard mountable holders well within arms reach. There are a number of styles of cases and holders. The eyeglass case and horizontal case are alike. Pocket eyeglass cases are similar to vertical cases. Cell phone holsters can be worn across your shoulder like a policeman or on your belt.

Wear multi-use cases on your arm, your wrist, or your thigh. Not only will these cases hold your cell but they will hold your license and a few dollars. These types of cases will hold your cell, your license, and a few bucks. These cases hold your cell phone, your license, and maybe a few bucks.

Velcro(tm) are generally found on these cases. You can find accessories for your cell that are technical in nature. Internal accessories include downloadable ring tones and games to help you pass the time while you are waiting. These ring tones can include holiday songs, the traditional ring, or The William Tell Overture.

Cell phones are little computers that are internet ready, organizers, calendars, note recorders, and to do lists; they are no longer just phones. They now have phone directories, recordings of missed calls so you can return calls later, and they record the identity of callers.

There are antenna boosters that strengthen signals and radiation shields to reduce radiation exposure. Cell phone accessories include covers and face plates. There are front and back pieces to phone covers.

Face plates, some with designs, go over the keypad and the front of the phone. Cell phone accessories include very cute plush animal covers. They are both functional and cute, and the phone goes in the back of the animal. The animal acts as a cushion for the phone in case its ever dropped.

Prices of cell phone accessories and cell phones can vary. Most accessories are optional and some are simply fun. It is important to remember that not all cell phone accessories are interchangeable. You should learn all about your cell phone and how it operates.

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Considering the innumerable varieties of cell phones in the market, it is quite a challenging task to choose the best one. However, the basic criterion of selecting the best cell phone is to be absolutely clear about what your needs are. The best cellular phone is the one that is absolutely right for you. And, of course, you can only have the best cellular phone when you pay for what you want.

Tons of offers are also available. There are free cellular telephone offers, prepaid cellular, digital, mobile, web enabled and many more. No one can tell you which cell phone is best for you because every one has different needs when it comes to their cellular telephone. Some people want absolutely basic features while others want a lot of totally fantastic features. Some need a cellular telephone for e-mail, faxing and surfing the Internet. Many people want it to be top of the line while others prefer simplicity.

The process of buying a cell phone is so confusing. There are simply so many different handsets, networks, deals and call costs to consider that buying the right phone for your usage and budget can be very difficult.

Here are a few tips to help you choose the best cell phone. First of all, decide how much you want to spend and be clear on the features you need. Remember that the more the features, the higher the cost.

Purchase a battery with a decent battery life and judge the mobile phone by the talk time it gives. The bare minimum should be 2 hours of maximum talk-time plus 90 hours of maximum standby time.

Shop and compare for pricing and service. These days, quality phones are very cheap. There is a proliferation of cell phone makers including Nokia, Motorola, Ericson, Siemens, Samsung, Sony, etc. More importantly, cellular plans have come down enormously in overall price with some caveats.

Some standard features include caller ID, phone book with fast dial, call waiting, voice mail and auto-answering. Some also have other added features like your first incoming minute free. The high-end cell phones will have voice-a ctivated dialing, SMS, 2-way paging, games, scheduling calendars, digital organizer and all the standard features. The main thing is to see what fits into your life style best and also to be sure when and if the features expire.

While making a cell phone and service plan decision, remember that everybody’s needs are different. So what’s good for your friend may not be the best choice for you. Your best bet would be to search online for websites with good cell phone comparisons in order to get a quality cell phone offer.

To make sure that your cell phone comparisons are complete look at Nokia cell phones, Ericsson cell phones, Sprint cell phones, Motorola cell phones and Samsung cell phones. Research the different free cell phone offers, prepaid cell phones and service plans from brand names like AT

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There are a couple of different ways that cell phone bugs can be used. There are fairly inexpensive low-tech cell phone bugs, and there are more expensive and much more rewarding, devices that can be used to hear what you need to hear, but that others might try to keep from you.

The first category of cell phone bugs is not really a cell phone at all. It merely looks like a cell phone. It can receive calls, and it will call you automatically, but this phone is not meant to be carried with you. This bug is meant to be ?forgotten? or ?charging? at the home or office. It plugs into a splitter that shares a phone jack with a regular phone. When a call is made, you can listen in to both ends of the conversation by use of your bug. The bug will even call you when the subject places a call so that you can listen in.

One of the cell phone bugs that require you to take a more active role in listening is a cell phone that is equipped to pick up transmissions by cell phones around it. Cell phone calls are among the easiest to intercept, as the sound is carried on frequencies right through the air. All you have to do is be in the vicinity of your subject and then dial in to your cell phone bug. It looks as though you are talking on your cell phone, but really you are listening in on a conversation.

Finally, the most advanced of cell phone bugs let you listen in, even if you are on the other side of the country ? or even the other side of the world. This type of bug works like a regular cell phone. Give it to your subject, and then you can listen in to what she or he is doing whenever you want. The phone has a standard number, that anyone can call, and a secret number that only you know. When you call the secret number, a microphone is activated and you can listen in, not only to conversations held on the phone, but also to what is going on in the same room as the cell phone.

These devices are innocuous and common. They look like what everyone today has and seems to need. You cannot go wrong when you get the information you need using cell phone bugs.

(c) 2005 Copyright www.spyassociates.com. This article is about: Cell Phone Bugs.

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Cell phones run on various kinds of batteries depending on the manufacturer, phone size or shape and features. There are basically four types of cell phone batteries: Lithium Polymer, Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride and Nickel Cadmium.

Lithium Polymer is the most recent type and applies the latest technology in DC power. This type of battery is light in weight and will not explode even if pierced. The battery elements are enclosed in platic pouches and do not have memory defects. They last about 50 times longer than Nickel Metal Hydride batteries.

Lithium Ion is also memory efficient and longer lasting than Nickel Metal Hydride batteries but they are quite lighter. They tend to be expensive and would only fit new models of phones. Most Lithium-ion batteries apply a fast charge technique to quickly charge up your cell phone up to 80% capacity and then slowly bring it up to full power in about two hours.

Nickel Metal Hydride is also memory efficient and lasts longer than the NIM type about 40 times. This type of battery is good for people who need rapid charging and if used with a car charger can be fully charged under 1 hour. The special formula permits the concentration of energy in a single pack ? sometimes about twice the power of Nickel Cadmium. This type is preferred by a lot of mobile phone users because it lasts long and is cheap. Again, they are non-toxic and appeals to environmentalists.

Nickel Cadmium are the oldest type and has a lot of memory defects. Another severe disadvantage is that they will have to be totally discharged before you can charge them again otherwise you may irreversibly damage them. Again this type is highly toxic due to the presence of Nickel Cadmium and is gradually being phased out by cell phone manufacturers.

Batteries typically have 300 to 400 charge cycles in their life span. It is so because anytime you charge your battery, the battery loses away some of its potency and thus become diminished in power.

Cell phone batteries can be pretty expensive items if you consider the fact that a Nokia 3310 battery can cost up to $24.95. Here are a few tips to prolong the life of your battery:

Dont allow materials to get stuck on the terminals as that causes the battery to lose contact with the terminals resulting in improper connection.

Keep the batteries in a cool place and allow them to adjust to room temperature before charging as the sharp rise in temperature upon charging can damage them.

The life of your cell phone depends on the potency of your battery. Knowing how they operate and how to care for them can ensure that your cellular device runs and runs well for years.

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