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13 S IMPLY ABU DHABI The Handset Looks like every 21st century city slicker in the UAE and UK together with all gadget and gizmo lovers have been waiting eagerly for this bright little spark from Blackberry – Research In Motion has catapulted itself forward in the war of touch screen technology with the launch of its latest smart phone, the new Blackberry Torch. The BlackBerry Torch is a solid, weighty and promisingly robust device with a beautifully designed 3.2-inch touch screen dominating the front fascia – underneath this is the all so recognisable optical track pad accompanied by four horizontally placed touch buttons. The side panels consist of three embedded shortcut buttons on the right, a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top right and a micro USB port on the left. There aren’t any multimedia keys on top of the device, but a thin subtly placed metal strip does include controls to enable silent mode and to lock the screen from accidental calls or messages. Aesthetically the device’s casing is completed by a shiny metallic composite, almost Darth Vader like, as previously seen on the BlackBerry Curve 3G, and to seal the product, there is rubberised back battery casing. It’s probably worth mentioning that the SD memory card slot resides underneath this back cover, therefore no requirement to remove the battery to change cards. The slide mechanism opens and closes via an up and down motion with an almost satisfyingly smooth and naturally flowing motion to showcase the elegant QWERTY keypad beneath, consisting of a full set of easy to use and recognisable buttons. The keys are lightly raised inwards to assist usability making it comfortable to type out those ever so important messages to your friends and family. Like it’s nemesis there is an an onscreen virtual keyboard and dialler. Operating System The real X-Factor about the Storm, is that it gives Blackberry the opportunity to show off their latest operating system aka Blackberry 6, presenting the ever so demanding consumer with a genius touch screen interface. The technological evolutionary process has definitely kicked in and you can instantly see the transformation from boy to man, as the home screen boasts five different menus, all accessible and scrollable by finger tip motion movement from left to right. Hmmm, similar to their iPhone world dominating nemesis? Who cares it works and works with style!!!! Chose from Favourites, Downloads, Media, Frequent or simply All. You can even customize the visual display of each menu to your liking. Each individual menu houses a number of sub categories that can be moved around and tailored according to your choice – tap and hold an icon to launch a mini-menu giving the option to mark as favourite; move; move to folder; hide; launch; delete; help or switch app. It’s a fully detailed system that’s user friendly, well-delivered and permits a great level of personalisation. The top menu bars are equally interactive. You can press anywhere along the top row (battery level; time; signal bar) to open a key settings menu, providing the opportunity to change wifi, blue tooth and internet connections and set alarms. The bar immediately beneath it illustrates the current profile in addition to any call, text or email notifications, if you press on the alerts a drop-down menu appears permitting you to view missed calls and messages in depth. I’d like to think of the next feature as the Torch’s very own little internal search engine. The bar also has a universal search feature displayed in avatar of a magnifying glass. A tap of this little icon prompts search field enabling you to look through the entire contents of this very smart phone! The results of a search appear in a box below the search field and if you are using the keypad the search is automatically activated when you commence typing. There are also options to search YouTube, Google and Blackberry App World. BLACKBERRY TORCH the r e v i ew