The BlackBerry Curve 8300 is the littler sibling of the BlackBerry 8800. Most phones from BlackBerry are business centric, but the Curve incorporates multimedia features.
Silver tone makes for a cool, refined look. The slim profile means the Curve 8300 is very comfortable to hold and carry around. Its full QWERTY keys are small yet well shaped out. Tacticle response are brilliant.
The 2.5 inch 320×240 screen is adequately large and the images are crisp, good enough for the intended use: preliminary as a PDA phone. The 2MP gave us good results in daylight, but in low lit conditions, the images are washed out. The flash tends to over saturate the subject to some extent in close ups.
The mini USB port doubles as a charging point. You can use the device as a mass storage and access the

64MB of internal memory; memory expansion is possible via the MicroSD slot. The MicroSD slot, being under the battery compartment, isn’t hot swappable.
Media manager, based on Roxio Software, comes with the BlackBerry Desktop Manager Suite. This allows BlackBerry to integrate multimedia technology and capabilities like ripping audio CDs to the phone, managing playlists on it, and more. BlackBerry Curve 8300 comes with the personal manager and organizer apps that most smartphones come with. Synchronize the calender, memo, task-lists, etc. with your PC via Bluetooth or USB, or even with your corporate network if your company runs a BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
The speaker independent voice dialling application called VoiceSignal workes really well. The 8300 performed well in our network reception test, with very few call drops. There is no Wi-Fi or 3G support.
Priced at $599, The BlackBerry Curve 8300 is a good bye for those who demand executive features (PDA Functionality) and a bit of multimedia. However, lack of Wi-Fi should be noted.

Specifications at a glance:
Dimensions : 107mm x 60mm x 15mm
Weight : 111g
Network Support : Quad Band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900)
Display : 2.5-inch, 320 x 240, 16bit
Memory Slot : Yes, MicroSD
Camera : 2MP
Connectivity : USB, Bluetooth, GPRS, EDGE

Available Memory Cards for BlackBerry Curve 8300:
Micro-SD card
Micro SD memory
Memory Stick Micro
M2 memory
M2 card

Not all manufacturers are innovators of style. Ever since it launched the Chocolate a year ago, LG has been on to something is its new classy mobile line-up, of which the Black Label Series KE970 (a.k.a. shine) is what we got to lay our hands on. Encased in a full-metallic body with with a rich brush finish, the K970 is as rugged as a tank. It is wider than most mobiles. The highlight here is its 2.2-inch LCD, which not only looks good while it is on, but doubles up as a mirror when not lit up!
The keys offer good tactile feedback. LG has introduced the scroll button for the first

time, but we found it rather inconvenient: it is very frustrating to keep scrolling through long lists and Web pages. Probably because of the scroller, the UI is vertical menu-based rather then icon-based-rather unintuitive. The Shine has an excellent 2.0 MP camera with auto focus. It is certified by Schneidr Kreuznach, the German company that certifies photo-optics. The camera does live up to its hype, and is one of the best we have seen thus far. You can choose from a host of different resolutions and there are five white balance settings, along with a few artistic effects. The camera is a bit sluggish, though. The media player is decent. Bluetooth 1.2 with A2DP support lets you listen to your music in full stereo on a supported buletooth handset.
There is support to view most common office formats, but there’s just 50 MB of internal memory, and you’ll need to use the microSD slot to add more-irritatingly, it’s not hot-swappable. lost Mobile Track (LMT) function is inbuilt to allow you to trace the phone in case you lost it.

Available Memory Cards for LG KE970:
Micro-SD card
Micro SD memory
Memory Stick Micro
M2 memory
M2 card

SpeechVibe allows complete control over one’s PC using voice commands. You first create a voice profile, which doesn’t take too long-and you can start using SpeechVibe.
SpeechVibe scans the Start Menu, and launching an installed application is straightforward-just say, “Launch (application name)”. There’s something called the Mouse Grid, pictured below. It allows even mouse movements to be controlled by voice. This translucent grid takes up the whole screen and highlights point coordinates. You use the name of the coordinate-such as 3-29, 3-30, and so on-to tell SpeechVibe which action you want performed. So, for example, if your outlook icon is under coordinate 2-23, you say “2-23″ and Outlook will be launched. You can click, move, double-click, right-click, and perform drag and drop operations using the mouse grid. It is so precise, you can even create objects in MS Paint, as we’ve done here. Not that you’d want to paint this way, but it demonstrates the power SpeechVibe brings with it.
Browser and mail client support computers inbuilt; when you say “Go to {Web site}”, SpeechVibe launches the default browser. A window filled with sorted, numbered, and continuously scrolling favorite URLs is superimposed.You then open a Web page by saying “Pick {number}”. SpeechVibe also supports speech-to-text by superposing a “dictate environment.”This allows you to correct mistakes on-the -fly. An example of this is shown below: a speaker said “Tech Freek”, and the word was recognized-and there are several alternatives that you can choose from by saying the appropriate number.
SpeechVibe is not as accurate as expensive voice recognition software, but the features are innovative. These will take some getting used to of course.At just Rs 675, you might want to consider this one if you are in the market for speech recognition software.