Just don't look under the hood.

With the first leg of the F1 Race just 30 days away in Bahrain, on-track preparations for the 2010 season began to step up a few weeks ago, a few enterprising companies also began to take advantage of the F1 fever by coming out with products related to the much awaited Grand Prix event. Case in point is Torque, who recently introduced their new product offering, the F1 Metal.


One look at the Torque F1 metal may remind you of one of Vertu's phone model last year.  I can say that the F1 Metal is ruggedly handsome and  beautifully crafted with its solid metal casing with a red and black leather accent at the back portion.   The phone's keypad is divided only into 6 buttons with 2 numbers sharing one button. it's minimal labelling makes it hard at first to know which of the buttons are pressed until you see what comes out of the screen.  

The F1 metal is a dual sim, dual standby phone with the basics of any Torque phone model feature such as FM Radio, bluetooth, motion sensor where you can change the radio station or wallpaper or music by just shaking the phone. A few improvements have been made on this phone model compared to the previous Torque phone models such capability to  customized the text tone.  User interface is basically the same from the old Torque models but Torque has made some improvement on the graphics. The SMS is still slow after typing in more than ten words per message, still one of those problems they haven't fix. 

But what i like about this phone is its feel, very heavy and solid and really looks expensive. It doesn't match the price  with it's  form factor! Would you believe, the Torque F1 Metal only costs P 3,999.00? During these uncertain times, sometimes it's more important how it looks than what is under the hood. 

Bringing Back to Life your old Pocket PC

I have an O2 XDA IIs that has been in storage for a few years now. This pocket pc model was launched by now the defunct O2 Asia last 2004. During those times, it costs a whopping Php50,000.00 per unit and primarily used by medical representatives for its powerful but very unstable Microsoft Windows Mobile 3 OS.  It has a built in retractable QWERTY keypad, WIFI, Bluetooth and a handful size of a unit.  

       

Came across recently of upgrading its operating system to a Windows Mobile 6.5, its like upgrading a PC OS from Windows ME to Vista.  After carefully studying its step by step instructions, I finally upgraded my unit and finally was able to use the new and improved interface of the Xda IIs.  The user interface is a lot different from the old one but I was able to install a lot of new pocket pc programs which the old OS cannot read due to its obsolete programming.  Aside from installing new programs, I was able to expand my memory by transfering theExtended Rom to the main memory.  

If you have that old pocket pc just gathering dust in your closet, try to revive it and upgrade its ROM to the latest release. But may i remind you, upgrading is not just for anyone, carefully research forums and download an authentic and recently release file where bugs and fixes have already been updated.  I suggest you go to http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php? pagename=HTC_Blueangel read carefully the instructions. Once you've started the process, there is no turning back and there is that danger of damaging your phone. But once you're successful with the upgrade, it's going to be a lot of fun using your old unit coming back to life!

Just had to find a way to replace my old worn out casing...

Tough as the Rover!

Sonim Technologies just recently announced their latest product offering together with British manufacturer of all terrain vehicles Land Rover. The rugged S1 Land Rover, comes with a protective case made of Xenoy, a high tech polycarbonate material allegedly 20 times stronger than metal and offers outstanding performance in applications that are exposed to harsh conditions. 

According to Land Rover, the S1 Land Rover is completely waterproof up to a certain depth, can withstand thermal shock (-20C to 60-100C), humidity and a 1.6 meter drop. Talk about durability! Most phones with a drop of 2-3 feet will leave you with a broken LCD or a new paperweight.

Confident with its durability, the S1 Land Rover was tested to its limit by having it ran over by a Land Rover,  roasted in an oven, soaked in beer, submerged in mud then have an elephant stand on the phone.

Launched last July 2009, it  hasn’t  reached our shores yet,  but it will have a price tag of approximately P26,000 to P30,000 once its locally available.

Dubbed as the world’s strongest or toughest phone, it sports of the usual features such as Bluetooth, a 2MP Camera with flash, torch light, a built-in GPS, WAP browser and an FM Radio (might not be handy if you’re in Mt. Everest).  It’s also equipped with an “extra loud ringtone” in case you need to find your phone under an elephant. 

Form factor a plus!

Recently got hold of the latest product offering from Torque, the D110 Metal. You will really love the look of this one, elegantly styled with its classic metal casing and wait till you get to actually hold the actual unit,  it’s a heavy unit for its size and thickness. It’s truly living up to its name - D110 METAL. Though the keypad buttons are a bit bothersome after a period of using it. At first you would think that those cute stainless buttons would make texting easier, but its tiring for the fingers after a brief period of using it. But I get to give it to the designers of this brand, this is really one beautiful handset.         

Looking under the hood, the D110 Metal is a Dual Sim Dual Standby phone, quadband, sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, its Bluetooth enabled even for a Bluetooth headset, it can play videos on its 2.2” QVGA monitor and play mp3/mp4/3gp files. It doesn’t have WIFI but you can connect to the internet using its GPRS/WAP connectivity function. I can say that this model just provides the basic comforts of a basic phone for calls and texting. After testing this unit for a few days, i noticed that the SMS is quite slow after typing in more than ten words or so.  After typing in a few words, you will notice that you are not already typing in the words in real time, there is a lag of two or more words.  People behind Torque should do something about this, its really frustrating sending SMS like this. 

One cute feature of the D110 Metal is its motion sensor. With just one shake of the phone, you can program the phone to either change the wallpaper, play the next music track, or silent your phone when you are in a meeting. 

If you are a style conscious person but don’t have the budget to afford those big name brands in the market, the Torque D110 Metal is just right for you. It retails only at P 3,299.00.  Heavy on the hands, but not on your pocket.

Another Mobile TV handset

We have seen a lot of mobile handset brands trying to penetrate the Cellphone TV market, but nothing can still beat those china brands that has proliferated in the local market for the past few years.  The only problem with those products is the quality of the TV reception you get out of these generic brands.  Torque has again came out with a new and updated version of its Torque DTV100 model, the DTV90. Though this model was priced a thousand bucks more than its predecessor, but it has updated some of its features to bring more viewing pleasure. The reception quality was quite exceptional compared to its older model. You can also adjust the quality of the reception (though I can’t still seem to get numbering of its quality adjustment). Also the orientation of the screen adjusts automatically from portrait to landscape everytime you change adjust the unit.  Channel reception though will vary on your location, just be sure on your first attempt to program the channels, you are in a very good location to get most of the local channels available. Based from experience, channels 7, 11 and 23 has the best reception quality within the Metro.    One thing I don’t like with the DTV90 is the mini USB type headset provided when you buy the unit.  I don’t know if you can get a superior mini USB headset in the local market, but for now I’m stuck with this kind of headset, one thing for sure sound quality is not good. The DTV90’s screen is a bit smaller than its predecessor, but the improvement in the clarity of its reception made up of  on its smaller sized monitor.  It has a 2 megapixel camera mounted on the front and back of the phone both capable of recording videos.

Aside from the TV feature, the Torque DTV90 sports all the basic features that you can get from any model from this brand, its Dual Sim Dual Standby feature, Quadband,  GPRS/WAP enabled, MP3/MP4/3GP video and audio player and its motion sensor feature, with just a shake of the phone, you can either program the unit to change the wallpaper, skip to the next music track, etc.

The DTV90 sells at P 4,999.00. At this price you can get 2 phones from any China branded handsets, just minus the warranty and servicing...