Blackberry Z3 Launched in India, A comparison with Motorola G

Blackberry has launched its new mid-range smartphone in Indian market, Blackberry Z3, which was formerly launched in Indonesia. Recently Indian smartphone market is offered a choke-full of affordable handsets that packs high-end features from international brands like Motorola, Nokia and now Blackberry. Blackberry has been loosing its customers for some time now especially in the high-end market. After the introduction of Blackberry 10 OS, BB phones now supports Android apps as well but that didn’t help blackberry to come up with other manufacturers in the market. Blackberry had a decent customer base earlier but with the arrival of new Operating Systems like Android, Windows Phone etc Blackberry had become something meant only for business people. They also introduced touch devices to the trending market but followed their signature design like qwerty keypad, wide screen, touchpad etc. But the problem was that a lot of qwerty devices were made available by manufacturers like Nokia and Samsung whose price were far below than Blackberry phones and the world preferred to use full-touch devices instead.

One of the key feature that made Blackberry stand unique from others was its messaging service, Blackberry Messenger. but Blackberry made it available for some Android and iOS devices and soon will be launched for Windows Phone 8.1 devices.Apart from the phones,  BBM is a huge success. 60 percent of service’s active users are using it daily, which is a big deal considering Instagram, which have about 50 percent of their userbase using it everyday.  All these factors made Research in motion(RIM) on the cliff-edge of the smartphone market. Blackberry has also introduced two powerful full touch devices last year, Blackberry Z10 and Blackberry Z30, but couldn’t create any move in the market. lately it was also rumored that RIM is going to shut Blackberry down.

Blackberry has recently partnered with Foxconn, an electronic company that contracts gadget manufacturing. Some notable products they make include iPad, iPhone, XBox One etc. Blackberry will continue to design the software, Blackberry 10 OS, while Foxconn will design the hardware. In the case of Z3, at such a price tag from Blackberry, the phone is meant for developing countries. Blackberry is trying their chance with mid-range phones, like what Motorola  did recently with the launch of Moto G. Z3 runs on BB10 OS which offers a true touch-screen experience, as the OS is based completely on touch interface. Thus providing a seamless touch experience. Comparing Z3 with Moto G, you may feel Z3 a bit overpriced, but it is a worthy buy.

COMPARISON

	Blackberry Z3	Motorola G
Display	5”  220ppi 540 x 960 pixel	4.5” 329ppi 720 x 1280 pixel
Processor	1.2 Ghz dual core krait mm MSM 8230 Adreno 305	1.2 Ghz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Adreno 305
RAM	1.5 GB	1 GB
Camera	5MP with LED Flash MP front cam	5MP with LED Flash MP front cam
Operating System	Blackberry 10 OS	Android 4.4 Kitkat
Battery	2500mAh	2070mAh
Price	15990	12499
Other Features	Wireless Fidelity Bluetooth 4.0 NFC HDMI support	Wireless Fidelity GPS Bluetooth 4.0 Dual Sim

The Blackberry will appeal mainly to Blackberry fans who value the Blackberry 10 OS’s advanced security features. Other consumers might prefer the Moto G over it as it has a better display and superior performance.  Blackberry CEO John Chen said, “We’re no longer worrying whether we will be around. Now, we’re ready to fight back.”

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10 Free Apps for Photo Editing on the Move

Editing photos is like applying finishing touches to a painting. Photographs often don't look as good as they could unless you apply that finishing touch. Since most people use their smartphones to take pictures, we have shortlisted the best photo editing apps that you can use on-the-go to take your photography to the next level.

1. VSCO Cam (iPhone, Android)

VSCO (pronounced visco) Cam started out as a paid app but went free last year. It is one of the best photo editing apps on iOS and Android if you want advanced controls. VSCO Cam has a great collection of filters, which are better than those on Instagram. While some filters are free, you'll have to pay for many others. Don't let this dissuade you from trying the app, as the free filters are good enough for most people.
VSCO Cam's editing tools include brightness, contrast, saturation, tint, crop, rotate, sharpness, highlights, shadows, among a few others. As evident, it has enough tools for professional photo editing.
However, beginners will take some time to figure out how to use VSCO Cam because the app relies on icons and code numbers instead of words. For instance, filters have names like B1, X1, etc., which may be hard to remember initially. All editing tools are icons (sharpness is a triangle, saturation is a rectangle with a gradient, etc.) and it may take you a little while to go through all the tools and find what you need.

Click here to download for iOS
Click here to download for Android

2. Snapseed (iPhone, iPad, Android)

VSCO Cam has almost everything you'll need, but it isn't yet available on tablets. If you want a great photo editing app for the iPad, Snapseed is a good choice. Snapseed's interface is intuitive. Once you add photos to the app, select manual tuning and swipe upwards or downwards on the picture. This shows you different variables such as contrast, saturation, etc. Select any one and simply swipe towards the right to increase its value or in the opposite direction to reduce it.
This app is walking the tightrope between ease of use and advanced functionality. So far, Snapseed has got the balance just right. For power users, Snapseed has the selective adjust feature. This lets you change contrast, etc. on any part of the photo, without editing the whole picture. Snapseed's filters range from great (Grunge, Retrolux, Vintage) to average (Drama, Black & White). VSCO Cam has a better variety of tools, but Snapseed makes it easier to access all of its tools.
Snapseed is available for iOS and Android.

Click here to download for iOS
Click here to download for Android

3. Adobe Lightroom (iPad)

Lightroom and Photoshop are the reasons behind Adobe's iron grip on the desktop photo editing market. Lightroom for iPad isn't good as a standalone photo editing app, but it shines when used in conjunction with Lightroom for Windows or Mac. This means that you will need an Adobe subscription (around Rs 2,000 per month) to make the most of this iPad app.

If you are a subscriber or don't mind getting a subscription, Lightroom for iPad lets you synchronise edits between your desktop and iPad. The problem is that Lightroom for iPad lacks the advanced editing tools that are cherished by those who use the desktop app. If you want to make a quick edit, or apply a preset effect, Lightroom for iPad saves you the trouble of returning to your desktop. Lightroom is one of the few apps that support RAW files, which might appeal to those who use DSLR cameras. For those who want advanced editing options, Adobe's Photoshop Touch is a better (paid) alternative on the iPad.

Click here to download for iPad


4. Instagram (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone)

Apart from being one of the world's most popular photo communities, Instagram is a fast, hassle-free photo editing app. Its filters are adequate for most people, but not for power users. If you are into black-and-white photography, you might want to try other apps because Instagram's filters aren't the best.

Click here to download for iOS
Click here to download for Android
Click here to download for Windows Phone


5. Pixlr Express (Android, iOS)

Autodesk's photo-editing app Pixlr Express is quite useful when you want to remove unwanted spots or marks from photos. Whether it is dust on your camera's lens or flash burning out a small portion of the image, Pixlr Express is a good app for image correction. Available for both Android and iOS, Pixlr Express has easy to use tools, which help you touch-up images quickly. It has enough tools for power users too, coupled with Photoshop-like effects such as pencil, poster, sketch and halftone, among others.

Click here to download for iOS
Click here to download for Android


6. Flickr (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone)

Like Instagram, Flickr has a great community of photographers. Unlike Instagram, however, Flickr has advanced editing tools, which is better for enthusiasts. Another advantage is that Flickr doesn't restrict you to square photos. Its built-in filters are fairly good too. The only major negative is that Flickr's Windows Phone app isn't as good as iOS and Android variants.

Click here to download for iOS
Click here to download for Android
Click here to download for Windows Phone


7. Photo Editor by Aviary (Android, iOS, Windows Phone)

If you are a Windows Phone user, Photo Editor by Aviary is one of the best apps for tweaking pictures. Although the app still works well, you should know that its developers stopped updating the Windows Phone version last year. This app - under active development for iPhone and Android - also makes it easy to add text, drawings and stickers to your photos. Apart from these, it has all basic editing tools such as filters, effects, crop, rotate, etc. It doesn't have much in the way of advanced options, but that shouldn't be a problem for casual users.

Click here to download for iOS
Click here to download for Android
Click here to download for Windows Phone

8. Repix (Android, iOS)

If you like pretty apps, then both Repix, and the next app in the list, will appeal to you. Apart from great design, Repix has some cool filters, basic editing tools (brightness, saturation, etc) and even effects such as flares and posterize. If you want more filters or effects, you can purchase those through the app.

Website


9. Litely (Android, iOS)

Litely is similar to Repix, but it has fewer features and is easier to use. You can easily apply preset effects to any photo. A two-finger swipe shows you a before and after view of the picture. This makes it easy to see how an edit has changed the picture.

Website


10. Photo Studio (BlackBerry 10, Android)

BlackBerry users don't have access to many great photo editing apps. However, Photo Studio is a fairly good option for those using BlackBerry 10. It is a simple image editor that lets you take pictures and apply effects and frames to those. Although its collection of filters is better than those on Instagram, the app lacks advanced editing tools, apart from one that lets you correct RGB levels. This means that those who want fine control over their images will be disappointed. Photo Studio also lets you make collages and apply sketch effects to your photographs.

We hope that these apps helped you make your photographs look professional. In case we missed any of your favourite editing apps or if you liked our choice of apps, please leave a comment to let us know.

Click here to download for Android
Click here to download for BlackBerry

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Will BlackBerry ever resurface as the preferred business smartphone?

Most of us can’t help but notice how BlackBerry the once-dominant Canadian smartphone maker is desperately trying to get back into the game – the one that it lost to the iPhone and several Androids.

We witnessed the transition of BlackBerry from being the quintessential and coveted smartphone, to being an insignificant number in the whole smartphone pie. Is it too late for BlackBerry to regain lost share? We take a look at the situation, from a complete gadget-critic’s point of view.

What went wrong?

We don’t want to keep harping on the fact that BB was late to react to the first iPhone, but that’s where it all began. The first iPhone debuted in mid-2007; the Z10 arrived in January 2013.

So while Z10 with the new OS was late to arrive in the premium smartphone market, BlackBerry was ousted in the budget and mid-range segment by a number of Android devices.

Sure, for a BlackBerry, the Z10 was good – we loved the gesture based navigation, the build quality and the BlackBerry Hub (the all-encompassing notification hub). The camera just about cut it, and screen quality too was decent. And, of course, a reworked BBM was appreciated.

The app ecosystem, however, seriously lacked options for users. For a while, we cut BB some slack, agreeing that it was still too early for the new OS to have as many apps as say iOS or Android.

But when you’re in a market that’s as competitive as this, you can’t use the newbie excuse for long. And BB failed to work on it even by the time Q10 and Q5 were rolled out.

And then there was the price – even some hardcore BB fans were seen shaking their heads in disbelief after learning about the price (considering what the device offered). For a consumer, it just didn’t make sense to pay ?40,000 plus for a BB handset with features that they could get on a device that was significantly less expensive. That was just too much for a smartphone with BBM (WhatsApp wasn’t present on the ecosystem initially). Just those few initial bad notes ruined what could’ve been BB’s symphony of survival.

Bad balancing

The devices that BlackBerry claimed were made to strike the perfect balance between ‘work and life, just fell short on the ‘life’ part. BlackBerry was, and will always be known for its secure BlackBerry Enterprise Servers (BES), which was the reason why BB became the must-have corporate phone in the first place. But then once you got back home, the BB10 device just wasn’t enough fun.

And now even though the prices for Z10, Q10 and Q5 have been slashed, BlackBerry still doesn’t have enough market share for its BB10 devices. That’s primarily because office mails and apps can be installed and synced on other smartphones too, say an iPhone or an HTC One.

What’s next?

With Z30, BlackBerry proved that it can keep up at least in the hardware department – the 5-inch device comes with a brilliant screen and good processing power for hardcore multitasking. But hardware isn’t the only thing that matters – a smartphone should be fun as well.

It’s time BlackBerry created something new, because on the ‘life’ part of their smartphones, they should have something more than BBM to show off (and that isn’t exclusive any more either).

It needs a sort of reinvention – it needs to come out and offer new features – features that are new, practical, and those that the customers can readily fall in love with. The company really needs to ask this question to itself once before they roll out every device – what will this device offer that its competition doesn’t have.

Before its decline, BB had become a very popular device with younger customers. Even if the company decides to make its way through that price segment, it has some serious competition, in form of the new Nokia X series and seriously powerful budget smartphones such as Moto G.

We see a tiny ray of hope in the form of BlackBerry’s announcement about two new devices, the Z3 and Q20 at MWC this year. While these two devices will hit the Indonesian markets soon, there’s no word on these devices’ pricing and availability in other markets, including India.

With migrating loyalties amongst the buyers of today, for BlackBerry, time is everything. If it brings out either the Z3 or the Q20 right away, it might pick up sales in markets where there’s still some BB presence left. If it waits for Christmas, well, we don’t think BB10 will turn two.

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