NEW YORK (Reuters) – Research In Motion unveiled a new BlackBerry aimed at wooing consumers away from Apple’s iPhone and other rivals, but analysts said the handset won’t blow away the competition.

Even though the main features of the BlackBerry Torch, including a touchscreen and slideout keyboard, were well-known within the industry, investors registered their disappointment, driving RIM’s Toronto-listed shares down 4 percent.

The Torch will go on sale in the United States on August 12 for $199.99 with a two-year contract — about the same price as an iPhone. The new BlackBerry uses a revamped operating system and has a faster and easier-to-use Web browser.

Underscoring RIM’s intention to compete head to head with the iPhone, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company will launch the phone in the United States with AT&T Inc, the same carrier that has exclusive U.S. rights to the iPhone.

Analysts at Tuesday’s launch event in New York said the Torch does not represent a major advance but that its consumer-friendly features were enough to help RIM to catch up to rivals.

“RIM is playing catch-up. This is clearly the upgrade for BlackBerry users, but otherwise not a lot here is super exciting,” Altimeter analyst Michael Gartenberg said.

The Torch does not represent a “leap forward”, but will help RIM compete with rivals such as iPhone and Google Inc’s Android software, used in phones from several vendors including Motorola Inc, said NPD analyst Ross Rubin.

“This gets the experience competitive again — if they can do that with the efficiency and stability that RIM is known for, then it’s a positive,” Rubin said.

Some analysts have said the Torch’s success will depend how heavily it is promoted by AT&T, which said it collaborated with RIM on the device for thousands of hours.

AT&T described the device as the best BlackBerry ever but declined to say how much advertising the company will spend on the phone or how it would compare to the amount of money it spends on iPhone advertising.

“It will be as big a campaign as you’ve seen in some time,” Chief Marketing Officer David Christopher told Reuters.

BlackBerry’s nearly air-tight encryption has come under scrutiny in several overseas markets recently. The United Arab Emirates threatened on Sunday to ban some BlackBerry services unless RIM gives it access to encrypted messages. India’s Economic Times reported that RIM will allow Indian security authorities to monitor BlackBerry services.

RIM Chief Technology Officer David Yach declined to comment on discussions with specific governments.

“I believe they’ll have trouble pulling the trigger to shut down BlackBerry,” Yach said. “Most governments in the world rely on BlackBerry.”

NEW FEATURES

While the BlackBerry has long been the gold standard for corporate and government customers because of its speedy, secure email service, critics said it needs a big overhaul to expand its popularity beyond business customers.

One of the new features RIM touted is the ability to search any application, media content or contact by typing a word on in Torch’s “universal search” function.

BlackBerry Torch users can type messages on the screen or a slide-out keyboard. It comes with a 5-megapixel camera with a flash and a built-in GPS for location-based applications.

The new BlackBerry 6 operating system also offers an inbox where users can access updates from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in the same place as their emails.

“It’s a really special product because so much new goodness has been added to it.” said Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s president and co-chief executive.

The August launch was earlier than some analysts expected.

“I’m glad to see they got it out sooner rather than later,” said Nick Agostino at Mackie Research Capital. RIM’s success will depend on positive industry reviews and adoption by developers of applications, he said.

The Torch’s success could also hinge on RIM’s ability to convince software developers to create applications for the device. Analysts say a big part of the iPhone’s appeal is the huge choice of applications that it has to offer.

“Developers want to go where the consumers are and consumers want to go where the developers are. RIM is going to have to tell a very compelling story to attract the first batch of developers,” he said.

RIM fell 2.7 percent to $55.44 on the Nasdaq stock market. Its Toronto-listed shares fell 4 percent to C$56.75. AT&T shares rose 5 cents to $26.64.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew in New York and Frank McGurty in

Apple might have some amazing marketing for the iPhone 4 and it thinks that it can sweep the phone’s antenna reception issues under the rug, but Consumer Reports isn’t buying it. And it is recommending that consumers don’t buy the phone either.

After testing three different phones by its own engineers in its “radio frequency isolation chamber” (it sounds like something out of the 1950s, and the equipment looks that old too), Consumer Reports concludes that the signal degradation is very real when you put your finger over the gap on the lower left-hand side of the phone. (The external antenna wraps around the outer edge of the device). This is a devastating review coming from Consumer Reports.

Steve Jobs recommends getting a case for this issue, but Consumer Reports calls it a design flaw. It suggests a duct-tape fix. Already there are lawsuits brewing..

Other than the antenna problem, Consumer Reports loves the phone:

it sports the sharpest display and best video camera we’ve seen on any phone, and even outshines its high-scoring predecessors with improved battery life and such new features as a front-facing camera for video chats and a built-in gyroscope that turns the phone into a super-responsive game controller. But Apple needs to come up with a permanent—and free—fix for the antenna problem before we can recommend the iPhone 4.

It also continues to sell like crazy. So is the antenna problem real and widespread, or do people just not notice it or care because they figure it is AT&T’s fault?

So what’s it like to be one of 200 people in the world to own the $12,950 Leica M7 Hermes? Quite good, as it turns out. Vlad Dusil (that’s his name, so you know where to direct your envy) of Purse Blog is among the chosen few, but he has blessed us with a quick photoshoot and a cursory impressions piece of the hardware itself. He isn’t gonna use it, mind you, as it’s an investment piece — in his words, “This camera will remain in its cozy silk-lined box until I get a worthy cabinet to display it in for a while, then it will go back to rest in its dark box.” Can’t be sure we wouldn’t do the same thing, though, if we had the kind of disposable income that’d afford a $13,000 device.

Earlier this week Apple unveiled its long awaited tablet, now known as the Apple iPad. While much of the conversation has been around justifying the purchase, others have been more concerned with the name. First, there was a sketch on MADtv a few years back about an iPad feminine product, and now it’s coming to light that as of this writing, three companies (Fujitsu, MagTek, and STMicroelectronics) have been using the name iPad as either the name of their device, or as an acronym. 

Now the big question is whether or not Apple is violating any trademarks and if so, if the company will either have to change the name of its new tablet or reach a settlement. 

Since I’m not an attorney, I reached out to Doug Wolf, Co-Chair Trademarks, from Wolf Greenfield & Sacks for his opinion, and have quoted him below: [disclaimer: Doug has advised me in the past] 

    “Just because Fujitsu has the senior rights does not mean that they can stop Apple. They need to demonstrate that they are in a sufficiently close marketplace or other such factors so that the consuming public may be confused as to source. Would someone buying the Apple iPad believe it comes from Fujistu (or vice-versa)? Not sure that this is necessarily the case since the purposes of the goods seem to have some difference and the price points are probably significant.
Plus, the Apple product will have the housemark APPLE all over the place (and Fujitsu will have its mark) that many of the determinative factors in trademark infringement analysis may possibly favor APPLE. 

    One interesting note, but not of real trademark significance, is that Apple filed this application in Trinidad to establish an early date (July 2009) and then filed in the US. They also filed the mark in the name of a company called IP Application Development which is probably intended to preclude detection. They need to be very careful if they are going to transfer that mark to Apple, Inc. since they need to have set up IP as a legitimate business rather than
merely for filing and transferring the mark to Apple, Inc. later. If they created the holding company merely for the purpose of filing the application with the decision to transfer later, they could be jeopardizing their filing. 

    Finally, one of the problems with marks like IPAD is that the fewer the letters, the more likely you will have a crowded field. The Trademark Office basically gives no weight to the letter “I” since it has been determined to stand for electronic or internet. I understand the goal of Apple to continue its family of “I” marks, but it carries many difficulties in creating a distinguished brand when the number of other short “I” marks already exist.”

I then asked Doug if Apple runs the risk of losing this battle if more companies surface that have been using the name iPad. His response is below: 

    “No. Picking a 4 letter mark with the first letter being “generic” is very difficult, almost impossible to clear. I am sure that they have litigation in the budget and/or money to try to buy these other marks.” 

With Apple now being a $50+ billion company, according to Steve Jobs, I’d say that there’s plenty of money in there for some litigation. 

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Apple was previously in a trademark dispute with Cisco over the iPhone name, but then both sides reached an agreement, allowing each to be free to use the “iPhone” trademark on their products throughout the world. Will the same thing happen again for Apple? We’ll see soon enough.

Embattled ratings company Nielsen has published some Internet findings that may interest you. (If not, go make a sandwich or something.) The big finding is that mobile access to the Internet has jumped 34 percent compared to last year, and it looks like women, teens and, yes, seniors make up the bulk of that increase. The mobile Internet: not just a place for 20-something men anymore. Darn.

So what are people looking at while on the mobile Internet? Women are all about People.com and other celebrity nonsense. For shame, women, reading that trash.

Men, meanwhile, are all about, yes, GIZMODO! They also like Maxim (of course) and sports. I’m very happy to see Drudge in the top 10—I probably represent a full 10 percent of Drudge’s mobile visits!

All in all, nothing too crazy here. I don’t see Twitter anywhere in the top 10s, but that’s probably because Twitter didn’t really blow up till this past spring. Before that it was just the TechCrunch crowd on there, if you know what I mean.

You know, if it weren’t so early in the morning, we might just think Samsung’s latest Armani slider (more formally known as the SPH-W8200) was a gilded Instinct HD with a pull-down number pad. We’re going to do our best to pretend there’s really something more here, starting with the fact that the Giorgio Armani logo beneath the screen is probably worth more than half of our belongings… at least according to Craigslist. At any rate, the first glimpse at this here phone’s specifications has finally emerged, and while some tidbits are still up in the air, we do know that it’ll arrive with a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, a DMB TV tuner, 5 megapixel camera, HSDPA, Bluetooth and a microSD expansion slot. Too bad the price will inevitably overshadow all of that, but hey, fashion ain’t cheap — ya heard?

The 10 smartphones with the highest radiation
1. T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (1.55 W/kg)
2. Blackberry Curve 8330 (1.54 W/kg)
3. Palm Treo 600 (1.53 W/kg)
4. T-Mobile Shadow (1.53 W/kg)
5. Palm Treo 650 (1.51 W/kg)
6. Blackberry Curve 8300 (1.51 W/kg)
7. Blackberry Bold 9000 (1.51 W/kg)
8. Sony Ericsson P910a (1.50 W/kg)
9. HTC SMT 5800 (1.49 W/kg)
10. BlackBerry Pearl 8120/8130 (1.48 W/kg)

The 10 smartphones with lowest radiation
1. Nokia 9300i (0.21 W/kg)
2. Nokia 7710 (0.22 W/kg)
3. T-Mobile MDA Wiza200 (0.28 W/kg)
4. Samsung Impression SGH-a877 (0.35 W/kg)
5. Nokia 9300 (0.44 W/kg)
6. Samsung Propel Pro SGH-i627 (0.47 W/kg)
7. Samsung Gravity SGH-t459 (0.49 W/kg)
8. BlackBerry Storm 9530 (0.57 W/kg)
9. Nokia E90 (0.59 W/kg)
10. Nokia N96 (0.68 W/kg)

Other notables, from lowest to highest
* HTC Touch Pro (0.91 W/kg)
* Palm Pre (0.92 W/kg)
* iPhone (0.97 W/kg)
* Samsung JACK i637 (1.04 W/kg)
* T-Mobile’s Google G1 (1.11 W/kg)
* Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220 (1.14 W/kg)
* iPhone 3GS (1.19 W/kg)
* Samsung BlackJack II SGH-i617 (1.20 W/kg)
* Motorola MOTO Q 9m (1.30 W/kg)
* iPhone 3G (1.39 W/kg)
* BlackBerry Tour 9630 (unknown)

Safety tips
As part of the report, the EWG also provided eight safety tips for cellphone users who are concerned about radiation. Here is a quick list of the tips. You can click through to the original list for more detail on each of the items.

1. Buy a low-radiation phone
2. Use a headset or speaker
3. Listen more, talk less
4. Hold phone away from your body
5. Choose texting over talking
6. Poor signal? Stay off the phone
7. Limit children’s phone use
8. Skip the “radiation shield”

By Tony Smith
After a spate of incidents in France, a 15-year-old Belgium boy today claimed he too has suffered at the hands of an allegedly exploding iPhone.

So far there have been 11 reported cases of European iPhone screens which have spontaneously done crazy paving impersonations or – in a few extreme cases – suddenly shattered. All 11 took place in France.

Today, Belgian website De Redactie related the case of one Salvatore from Liege who claimed his iPhone exploded in his hand as he was making a call.

“Happily, the explosion happened inside [the phone],” he said.

The phone’s display was left “completely black”, Salvatore said. His hand suffered no harm, he said, but he suffered from headaches for some days afterward.

It’s not clear when the incident is alleged to have taken place, but the boy told the paper Apple has offered him a replacement handset if he sent his damaged phone back.

Meanwhile, Herve Novelli, France’s consumer affairs minister, will hold talks with Apple France’s chief to discuss the spate of exploding-iPhone reports, Reuters has said.

Apple has already launched its own investigation, but won’t comment further until the damaged iPhones have been returned for analysis. So far, it has maintained the incidents are “isolated”.