Mom uses BlackBerry to write novel – no ‘BlackBerry thumb’ reported

You'd think that writing a book day and night on a BlackBerry smartphone would eventually render your thumbs useless, but a woman from London has done just that, and now her novel is selling on Amazon.

If you were going to write a book, the chances are you’d sit yourself in front of a full-size keyboard connected to a full-size computer screen before you embarked on your full-size project. Not so Brit Georgina Campbell.

She bashed out a 55,600-word book on, of all things, her BlackBerry smartphone. The 41-year-old Londoner said the idea to put thumb to keyboard came about after watching the 2011 sci-fi movie Attack the Block. While daughter Lorra loved it, Georgina thought it was abysmal and so bet Lorra she could write something better. It was then she grabbed her writing tool of choice and started work on her novel.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Georgina said it took four months to complete the gritty tale of a group of girls growing up in inner-city London, writing it entirely on the phone’s native MemoPad app.

“When I started writing the book I would normally do it after a 12-hour shift at work and it would be a breeze – I loved it and wrote through the night,” she told the Mail. “It was almost like a holiday – I’d just sit down and start typing the book out on my BlackBerry using my two thumbs.”

Georgina said the phone was the ideal writing tool simply because it was with her all the time. “I was writing on the train, on breaks at work, waiting for a bus, having a bath, when I was walking around – anywhere. It completely took over my life – all I thought about morning to night was writing the book.” Four months after tapping out the first word, The Kickdown Girls made it  to Amazon.

Possibly the most remarkable part of the story, however, is that despite her round-the-clock commitment, her thumbs are still fully operational instead of finishing up as mere worn-down stumps; she didn’t even develop BlackBerry thumb, the repetitive strain injury linked to excessive use of the physical keyboard so beloved by BlackBerry users.

Whether Georgina’s work is better than the script of Attack the Block is something for readers to decide, though at the time of writing the publication is languishing at 257,164 in Amazon’s book chart and has no reader reviews.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/mom-uses-blackberry-to-write-novel-no-blackberry-thumb-reported/

Read More

Kanye West bestowed his presence at Samsung Galaxy Note 2 launch party, but will sales boom?

Samsung took a stop in New York City last night to launch the Galaxy Note 2, complete with a performance by Grammy award-winning artist Kanye West.

Like many other tech journalists in New York City, Tuesday was an average day filled with Apple iPad mini announcements, quirky science news about a talking Beluga whale, and some new Windows 8 laptops and tablets. Then, this came in the mail.

Good Afternoon, 

Thank you for RSVPing for the Samsung Galaxy Note II event on Wednesday! We wanted to invite you to stay after the press conference for a special performance by Kanye West.

Although we’ve already reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, our New York staff had planned to attend to event in case anything new would be announced. But after this email was sent out, tech media flocked to Moynihan Station in midtown New York to prepare for the long wait for Grammy award-winning artist Kanye West to drop a surprise performance slapped in the middle of the week.

What made Kanye Jesus Walk-ed his way into a Samsung event, or why Samsung chose to feature Yeezy as its special guest for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 World Tour is beyond us, but by 9 p.m., some members of the public also joined the party, filling the room with an energy and noise I hadn’t witnessed from a crowd of bloggers since Steve Jobs passed away. Also in attendance was also some of New York’s finest crew, including fashion editor Nina Garcia, Jersey Shore‘s Pauly D, and the New York Giants star wide receiver, Victor Cruz.

In a quick set that lasted just over an hour, Kanye West performed classics like “Heartless,” “Runaway,” “All of the Lights,” and “Through the Wire,” while bringing in a special guest of his own, 2 Chainz, to accompany a recent hit, “Birthday Song.” The set ended with a new record, “Clique” before West disappeared behind the stage without an encore. While the concert was certainly memorable and intimate (all things considered, the room was pretty small), did the crowd leave with an impression of Samsung and the Galaxy Note 2 in mind, or were they overwhelmed with the presence of the one and only Yeezy? I guess we’ll find out when the phone-meets-tablet hybrid comes available this November.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/kanye-west-bestowed-his-presence-at-samsung-galaxy-note-2-launch-party-but-will-sales-boom/

Read More

Foxconn factory at center of riot reopens, supply not affected

The Foxconn factory at the center of a large riot on Sunday night reopened on Tuesday, a company spokesperson said, adding that there has been no impact on supply.

The Foxconn factory at the center of a serious disturbance late Sunday involving thousands of rioting workers has reopened.

Company spokesperson Louis Woo told Reuters Tuesday that despite staying shut all through Monday, no impact on product supply is expected. “We have 79,000 people working in Taiyuan campus, and we always have spare inventory,” Woo said.

The trouble, which reportedly involved more than 2,000 workers causing widespread damage throughout the factory campus, was brought to a halt by around 5,000 police. About 40 people were injured, with countless arrests made.

China’s state-run news agency said the brawl started after a fight broke out between two workers in a factory dormitory. However, workers allege the incident erupted after a security guard manhandled an employee at the factory gates.

Foxconn, the world’s biggest component maker, is a major manufacturer for Apple, as well as other giants in the electronics industry. The Taiwan-based company has so far refused to say whether this particular facility, located in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, is involved in the production of Apple’s new iPhone 5 handset.

In an on-screen interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News program, one former Foxconn worker explained that new devices can cause great stress among workers, saying, “When a factory launches a new product, workers do overtime for long periods to test the production line until they are ready, which really puts pressure on the employees.”

He added, “A new generation of workers has higher demands. They know their rights and they’re more rebellious.”

Foxconn, which employs more than a million people across China, has been under the spotlight for the last few years following reports of employees suffering poor living and working conditions. More recently, the company has apparently been implementing changes in an attempt to improve the situation.

The Fair Labor Association said in August that Foxconn had been making good progress towards its goal of providing better living and working conditions, though if Sunday night’s disturbance can be attributed to a frustrated and beleaguered workforce cracking under the strain, it clearly still has some way to go until its job is complete.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/foxconn-factory-at-center-of-riot-reopens-supply-not-affected/

Read More

New Amazon TV ad reveals large-screen Fire tablet and back-lit ‘Paperwhite’ e-reader

An Amazon ad broadcast Wednesday night appeared to reveal a number of products set for launch on Thursday, including a large-screen Kindle Fire tablet and back-lit Paperwhite e-reader.

It looks as if Jeff Bezos and his team are having some fun, teasing TV viewers the evening before a big product launch with an ad featuring, apparently, some or all of its new devices.

Interestingly, a large-sized tablet makes several appearances during the 60-second ad – likely the much-talked about 10-inch Kindle Fire. There even appears to be a shot of someone tapping away on a keyboard connected to the device – could the e-commerce giant be about to unveil a keyboard cover similar to the Touch Cover accompanying Microsoft’s soon-to-launch Surface tablet?

The existence of the Paperwhite e-reader is also apparently confirmed in the ad, with a fleeting shot of someone holding a device with a super-white back-lit screen.

There’s no sign, however, of a smartphone, though the company is said to be in the process of making one.

Broadcast during Wednesday night’s Giants vs Cowboys NFL game, the 60-second ad (below) begins with boxes – lots of boxes (with Amazon printed on them, naturally) – and a voiceover saying, “We’re the people with the smile on the box. We’re the reinventors of normal.”

Various shots of various people with various devices follow – there appears to be a (new) 7-inch Kindle Fire, a larger tablet and a new e-reader. And lots of boxes.

It is of course possible that the ad wasn’t meant as a tease at all but was instead broadcast as the result of a scheduling error. Either way, we’ll all find out on Thursday exactly what the Seattle-based company has up its sleeve.

Digital Trends will of course be covering Amazon’s media event, which begins at 10.30am PT, so stay tuned for more information.

[Daniel Marchena via The Verge]

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/new-amazon-ad-reveals-large-fire-tablet-and-paperwhite-e-reader/

Read More