Research In Motion the maker of the BlackBerry email solution is the darling of the Canadian economy. I worked for them for almost two years after my graduation. The company is a mix of the best talent in Canada and a young vibrant group of 20 somethings. If I was to buy shares of RIM back in Jan 2005, I would have made 400% gain. I really miss my BlackBerry and their corporate culture.

Today they released news of their new handset the BlackBerry Bold, model number 9000. This handset is not much different from the Curve but does have a significant upgrade in specs:

• Networks: UMTS: 2100 / 1900 / 850MHz, GSM: 1900 / 1800 / 900 / 850 MHz, GPRS, EDGE and HDSPA networks
• Wi-Fi: 803.11a/b/g enabled
• GPS: Internal GPS with BlackBerry Maps
• Size: Length: 144mm, Width: 66mm, Thickness: 14mm
• Weight w/ battery: 133g
• Battery: 1500mAhr
• Battery Life: Standby 13 days, Talk time 5 hours
• Display: HVGA 480×320 pixels
• Media Player Audio supports: .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
• Media Player Video supports: DivX 4, Div X 5 & 6 are partially supported, XviD is partially supported, H.263, H.264 and WMV3
• Camera: 2.0 megapixel with 5x digital zoom and flash
• Bluetooth: Version 2.0 supporting stereo audio via A2DP and AVCRP
• USB/Data Transfer: USB port charges as well high-speed data transfer via USB A to mini USB
• Browser: HTML browsing will allow viewing of movies and clips from websites builtfor mobile streaming, RSS feed support as well.
• 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory
• 16GB microSD/SDHC card support
• 624-MHz StrongARM processor with full MMX

They sure have moved away from only catering to hardcore business email users, this BlackBerry will also appeal to the regular consumer. With a nice camera and now the ability to support iTunes with Media Sync, this will definitely be a worthy competitor to the 3G iPhone. The processor is two times faster then the BlackBerry Curve, for fluid, vidid video and multimedia purposes. It is announced that AT&T will be the exclusive retailer in the US and im sure Rogers will be the first to get it here in Canada. In the mobile space, RIM is certainly my favourite.

The highlight of my trip was defintely the Extreme ATV Tour. The guide from American Adventure Tours  was very cool and  picked us up from our hotel. We drove about 20 minutes out into the desert beside the Women Correctional facility. This tour is defintely not for beginners and I would suggest to take their other tour and not slow down the pace for others.

The ATV itself was a 4 wheeler and we went all the way up the mountains and full speed across a dry lake bed to Buffalo Bills Casino in the middle of the desert! I was told that sometimes they bring you up to the mountain top to take in the view but because we had some stragglers we were not able to do that route.

Its an exhilarating experience and I recommend it to everyone.

The other highlight of the trip for me is of course all the gambling! However, being a Computer Science major I only take calculated risk and would rather play poker against other players rather then against the house. Ihad the pleasure of playing at the Wynn, Excalibur, Planet Hollywood, Treasure Island, Mirage. My only souvenir for this trip was 1 dollar chips from each of the casinos I played at.

So that was my Vegas trip, I miss the warm sunny weather already

I am back from my trip to LA and Las Vegas. I was in LA to visit the Capcom mobile office in Westwood. It was awesome to finally meet all the people ive worked with over email and the telephone for the past 2 years. Sitting in the empty corner office with a breathtaking view of the Beverly Hills was defintely memorable.

We took a early morning flight to Las Vegas and immediately got into a cab and headed to the Gun Store. Capcom held a carrier appreciation event where we made targets of zombies in our game and let our carrier affiliates shoot real guns and real bullets. I must say, if you have never shot an assault weapon before, it is very wild! There were 5 guns in total to take a crack at. My favorite was the Ar-15 which is a modified version of the M16, it has a laser scope and was super loud, the AK 47 had a mount at the front and that thing can blast anything up smithereens! You have to wear goggles and ear phones, sometimes the bullets go flying into the air and can land on you and the sound is deafening. We gave away an XBox 360 to the person who shot closest to the bullseye.

We then checked into the Wynn hotel on the strip. Now I have been to Vegas last year on vacation but was never able to stay in these high class hotels and I must say the rooms are worth it. But theres a gazillion things to do in Vegas, you wont even be in your room!

The main reason for the trip was the CTIA wireless convention which was held at the Las Vegas Convention Centre this year. It was my first time to a trade show and it was very well planned and organized. I was able to see a few products which were new but the majority of mobile phones I already have worked with for the past couple of months. Most of the booths were hyping WiMAX… I thought that was old news? LG had the best booth, really concentrated on mobile TV and they showcased 3 different technologies. Samsung’s 08 lineup of phones was awesome and will likely drive Motorola out of the handset business for sure.

We managed to catch a few shows while in Vegas: Penn and Teller and Spamalot.

Penn and Teller was very entertaining and was more show then magic. However I think Teller’s slight of hand is amazing and for a silent act he pulls it off. One of the coolest things about their show is that they sometimes explain or show you how they do a trick, but its so difficult you still wouldnt be able to do them without lots of practice. They were nice guys and were inthe lobby after the show to give autographs and talk to the audience.

The other show was a Tony award winning musical Monty Pythons Spamalot at the Wynn hotel stars John O’Hurley as King Arthur.I know him as John Peterman, Elaines boss in Seinfeld. The show was hilarious and over the top, with references to everything from Mariah Carey to the current political candidates Hillary Clinton.

The highlight of the trip however was the Extreme ATV tour across the desert. Part 2 soon.