Review: BlackBerry Bold 9700

No one can argue about the stranglehold Research in Motion has on the corporate world. True, the iPhone may be popular with hipsters and teens, but in the office BlackBerry still remains king.

Last summer RIM made a move to turn the corporate device into a more multimedia friendly phone, letting the world know it wasn’t just for executives anymore. Thus the Blackberry Bold was born. Now the company is looking to build on the success of the Bold, with the introduction of the Bold 9700. RIM has made a few tweaks here and there creating an even sexier, dare we say bolder, Bold. But is it worth upgrading to? Read on CrackBerry lovers, read on.

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Building The Better Stoplight

Waiting is a hassle. Whether it’s at the drive-thru, being put on hold on the phone or even toasting bread, it’s always a pain. At least with a microwave, you have a timer to tell you when your food will be ready. Computers have innovated to add a progress bar to at least give you some indication that your download/installation/DVD burn is working toward your end goal. Transfer that kind of thinking to the real world and you’ve got this new stoplight design. Because people will wait for ever as long as they can watch something counting down.

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Steam Drops the Banhammer on Cheaters

It was nice knowing ya! That’s the message Infinity Ward is passing along to cheaters today as it sends out the first wave of Modern Warfare 2 bans.

Infinity Ward says it has been using Steam’s VAC anti-cheat system for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 to sniff out cheaters. Once it finds them, it tosses them in the trash like yesterdays lunch. According to Infinity Ward’s community manager Robert Bowling, 2500 players have already been banned from the game’s online servers.

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Nintendo Investigates Emulator on Nokia Smartphone

Oh Noes! Someone may be in trouble. The Big N is investigating after a Nokia blog post showcased the device supposedly playing retro Nintendo games through the use of an emulator application on the new N900.

According to Edge, the blog showed a video of someone playing Super Mario Bros. 3. To make matters worse, the screen also displayed buttons which open up emulators for other systems including Nintendo’s Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, NES and SNES.

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Kindle Even More Popular Than iPod?

Is Kindle really the most requested gift this holiday season? That’s what Amazon is claiming.

In a press release this morning, Amazon maintains “Kindle continues to be the most wished for, the most gifted, and the #1 bestselling product across all product categories on Amazon.”

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Why Twitter and Billboards Don't Mix

It sure sounds like a great idea to have live “tweets” from your television news station appearing on billboards across the city. But in reality it can cause some embarrassment.

A university student in Mobile, Alabama noticed this billboard from LOCAL15NEWS and couldn’t help but take a picture. Take a look at the headline, and then look at the picture to the left. Yes, those are the station anchors pictured on the ad.

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Self-Healing Paint For Your Cell Phone

Our cell phones take a beating. They get dropped, thrown into purses and pockets where keys and coins can scratch them. Now imagine if your phone could lose the scratches and heal itself. It’s possible.

Advanced Softmaterials Inc has been working with scientists from the University of Japan to come up with a self-healing paint. Scratch Shield paint can heal itself from minor scratches in a day, and major scratches within a week. It’s already being used on Nissan vehicles, and soon it will appear on cell phones.

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Game Reviewers to Give Up, Start Farming

Well, that’s it: I’m useless. Asrecent survey by Cowen Group suggests that gamers are much more likely to believe word of mouth than the ratings reviewers give to new releases. According to the survey, genre, previous experience with the franchise, and price are all more important when gamers make their purchase decision.

Respondents also placed a high value on marketing graphics or how the game looked when the saw it in store. This means a discounted sequel, looking pretty in the shop window has a better chance of flying off the shelves than a sleeper “hit” that’s consistently loved by reviewers.

I guess I should be outraged here, but… duh.

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Judge ditches work for Modern Warfare 2

With the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, there were probably many who suddenly developed the 24-hour flu. But probably very few of them had their absences remarked upon by a newspaper.

Meet “Will”, a 48-year-old UK judge. This avid gamer waited outside an HMV to pick up the game at midnight. He then played long into the night and into the morning killing bad guys. In fact, he played so much that he had to call in sick because he was too tired.

It’s usually not a problem to call in “sick” once in a while. But it’s probably different when you’re a judge presiding over cases and making judgments that influence people’s lives.

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Final Fantasy Toilet Water

The Final Fantasy marketing machine just keeps on churning out products. We’ve seen figurines, clothing, drinks, and now…eau du toilette!

“Lightning” named after a character in the series will be available in three distinct scents. One will be a mix of “yellow peach and citrus” another “Lily of the Valley” and the third a mix of jasmine and musk.

Each bottle will contain 5oml of eau du toilette and will sell  for around $83 each. Look for them online one month after Final Fantasy XIII launches in Japan.

For some strange reason, this one will probably be a hit. Any Review Crew readers anxious for this?

[Via RipTen]