Tag: Super

Latest BlackBerry Device Touted As Super Thin, Super Secure with a Super Cool Camera

Most Secure Android Phones - Latest BlackBerry Device Touted As Super Thin, Super Secure with a Super Cool Camera

If there is one thing BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) phones are known for, it is security. And the company’s new DTEK50 phone lives up to that reputation while adding a great camera in a super thin body. According to the company, the DTEK50 is the “world’s most secure Android phone,” which may make it one of the best moves BlackBerry has made in sometime as it continues to find its place in the smartphone market.

The Android operating system currently has more than 70 percent of the market, and it is growing globally as iOS is shrinking. One bone of contention with Android however has been security. So when BlackBerry started protecting Android on its Priv smartphone continuing that protection with the DTEK50, reviewers and potential customers began to sit up and take notice. So what is so super about the security, camera and size of the BlackBerry DTEK50?

Company Claims ‘DTEK is One of the Most Secure Android Phones’

BlackBerry DTEK for Android controls what is shared on your device and with whom. You might think you have control of your device at all times, but there are tens of thousands of apps out there designed to take control of many of the features on your phone. And if you’re not aware, these apps can turn your microphone on, send text messages, access your contacts and location and steal your personal information.

The DTEK application has an easy-to-use and visual user interface that lets you see the status of your phone immediately with four essential functions:

  • Monitor, giving you a security rating of your device so you can identify what kind of actions you need to take to improve the protection level of the phone with specific security measures;
  • Control, adjusting the security settings of your phone to improve its rating;
  • Track, monitoring what the apps on the device are doing with advanced tools that let you know what information they have accessed, how they’re using it and for how long. This includes whether or not the apps are accessing your camera, microphone, location and personal information; and
  • Alert, notifying you when a specific app is active doing something it is not supposed to be doing.

Most Secure Android Phones - DTEK by Blackberry's Security Rating
The security also extends to the screen, which has an oleophobic layer to help prevent the oil residue from your fingers from sticking to the glass. Believe it or not, the smudges left by those oils on the glass give criminals a way to access your smartphone. But if the oil doesn’t adhere to the glass, it doesn’t leave a smudge.

The Camera

The DTEK50 features an 8MP front-facing camera with flash and a 13MP auto-focus rear camera. The front camera is rated at f/2.2, and it can capture images at a pixel size with an 84-degree field of view. The camera also has automatic image and video stabilization, selfie flash and a wide-angle/panoramic selfie mode.

Most Secure Android Phones - DTEK camera

The rear camera is BlackBerry’s fastest-performing model. It uses a 6-element auto-focus f/2.0 lens with 4x digital zoom along with live filters to deliver professional grade photographs. It has dual toned LED flash, automatic face detection and a continuous focus and touch-to-focus feature which you can toggle to get the best image.

The Design

Most Secure Android Phones - DTEK is Thin

At 147 x 72.5 x 7.4 mm (5.79 x 2.85 x 0.29 inches) and weighing in at 135 g (4.76 oz), the DTEK50 is not the slimmest or lightest phone ever, but when you compare it to previous BlackBerry models, it is definitely much slimmer and lighter then the company’s previous devices.

Here are some of the more notable features for the DTEK50:

  • Display — 5.2″ 1080 x 1920 IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, scratch-resistant glass and the aforementioned oleophobic coating
  • Processor – Qualcomm MSM8952 Snapdragon 617 with Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 and quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
  • Memory and Storage – 3 GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage with a microSD that can support up to 2 TB
  • Connectivity – WLAN, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.2
  • Battery – Non-removable Li-Ion 2610 mAh battery with up to 17 hours of talk time on 3G

If the DTEK50 looks familiar to you, that is because it is a modified Alcatel Idol 4, a slightly different version of another recently released phone by a different company.

BlackBerry apparently decided to modify an existing device rather than going back to the drawing board and designing one of its own.

This allowed BlackBerry to quickly deliver a reliable phone that is much cheaper than the Priv’s $699 price tag.

Cost was one of the biggest complaints about the Priv when it was introduced last year.

At $299, the DTEK50 is more affordable, while still maintaining the BlackBerry security standard along with new features that were never previously a priority in the company’s phones.

[“source-smallbiztrends”]

Pokemon Go Is a Hit – Is Nintendo’s Super Mario Next?

Pokemon Go Is a Hit - Is Nintendo's Super Mario Next?

Flush with the stunning popularity of the Pokemon Go mobile game, Nintendo aims to make more from marketing popular characters such as Super Mario, taking a leaf from the Walt Disney playbook where Mickey Mouse and friends bring in billions of merchandising dollars each year.

But, where Disney’s animated characters often earn more than the films they star in, Super Mario, Pokemon and other Nintendo franchises have languished amid the Japanese firm’s reluctance to push them beyond its struggling game console platform.

The success of Pokemon Go – created by Nintendo, Pokemon Company and Niantic, a Google spinoff – may signal that Nintendo’s move to let its characters roam beyond that console universe could help revitalise a company that had grown from a card game maker in nineteenth century Kyoto to the world’s top computer game and console maker.

(Also see: Pokemon Go iOS: How to Download Pokemon Go for iPhone, iPad)

“We are now expanding how we leverage Nintendo IP in various ways beyond our traditional use of them predominantly within the dedicated video game platform business,” Tatsumi Kimishima, the company’s president, wrote in a message to investors.

It could be sitting on a goldmine.

“We believe the value of Nintendo intellectual property is enormous and will eventually be unlocked over a 3-5 year period,” Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a Monday research note.

(Also see:  This Pokemon Go Map Will Show You Every Pokemon Location)

A spokesman for Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy said: “We are seeing a resurgence of interest in Pokemon toys after the launch of Pokemon Go.”

Nintendo, which on Wednesday partly blamed a strengthening yen for its April-June operating loss, is said to be doing more to expand the reach of its popular franchise characters, which also include The Legend of Zelda.

“Nintendo used to have only few people in its licensing business and deal only with a limited number of merchandising companies,” said a toy company official, who asked not to be named as he is not authorised to talk to the media. “That’s gradually changing as the company has made it clear it will boost its IP business.”

(Also see: How to Download Pokemon Go APK, Install, and Play on Android)

Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the puppet-inspired Super Mario, has indicated Nintendo has more appetite now to allow its franchise characters to spread beyond console gaming, and into revenue generating licensing agreements.

“These projects will take time to bear fruit, but they are something to look forward to,” Miyamoto told Nintendo’s shareholder meeting late last month, adding Nintendo had started licensing characters for attractions at Universal Studios theme parks and was working to expand Nintendo products.

Faded Wii
Since its Wii game console boom faded four years ago and its successor, the Wii U, flopped, Nintendo has been buffeted by losses that have more than halved its cash pile to around $5 billion.

Nintendo sold almost 100 million of its Wii consoles between its late-2006 launch and end-2011, the year before the Wii U was released. Subsequent sales of the Wii U have added only 13 million units. As casual gaming has shifted from the living room to the smartphone, sales of its handheld 3DS video game system are just a third of the older DS model.

(Also see:  This Pokemon Go Map Will Show You Every Pokemon Location)

Wary of losing focus on its ailing console business, Nintendo has largely steered clear from producing games for other platforms or agreeing lucrative licensing agreements.

In the year to end-March, the company’s licensing revenue was just 5.7 billion yen ($54.2 million) – around 1 percent of overall sales, and a tiny fraction of what Disney earns from the likes of Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, Winnie the Pooh and, more recently, Star Wars.

Disney’s revenue from consumer products – from Mickey Mouse tea pots and tie clips to books, magazines and even English language schools in China – totalled $4.5 billion in its last full business year – around 9 percent of its total sales.

(Also see: How to Play Pokemon Go in India? Here’s Everything You Need to Know)

It was Disney’s fastest growing business segment in the year to Oct. 3, 2015, with operating profit up 29 percent from a year earlier. While the Toy Story 3 movie, released in 2010, earned Disney $1.7 billion at cinemas and from TV broadcasts, the franchise’s licensed toys, books and a smartphone app have brought in $7.3 billion.

That’s a merchandising masterclass that some investors reckon Nintendo will struggle to match.

“Monetising IP is a whole different thing from selling games,” said a fund manager at a Japanese asset management firm which owns Nintendo shares.

“They say they’re going to sell a wrist watch, but it’s adults who are playing Pokemon GO … and are they going to wear a Pokemon GO Plus watch?”

Tags: Apps, Gaming, Mario, Niantic, Nintendo, Pokemon, Pokemon Go, Super Mario
[“Source-Gadgets”]