With the Bold and the Storm coming, BlackBerry users will want to take advantage of RIM’s application store. However the store is not going to be available just yet. RIM has announced its arrival for March 2009. That means that developers can submit their applications and content for the store in December 2008.

RIM will get 20% of the fees charged for various applications. The BlackBerry Application Center will use PayPal for payments as it won’t develop a platform similar to iTunes. RIM will offer carriers the opportunity to provide carrier-customized application centers for application support.

So the Storm is coming soon and the application store isn’t? How uncool is that?

Well we have this weird picture up here. It’s a 3G Bold/Storm/Javelin phone with a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard. It’s supposed to be called the Pluto but it might as well be called the Magnum, or maybe even both.

The new RIM device is likely to be announced sometime in May 2009 at the WES. The Magnum might just be the mix between the Bold, the Curve 8900 and the Storm. The Magnum is rumored to be smaller, faster and, well, touchier? There’s no point in guessing here. We need some serious leaks people! Any RIM associates that care to elaborate on this matter?

via CrackBerry

Pageonce has released an interesting application for BlackBerry smartphones, also known as PPA - Personal Productivity Assistant.

According to Pageonce, this mobile application is suppose to make the life of BlackBerry users much easier, by providing a better internet experience. One of the advantages is not having to type the same username/password combination every time to login on a website. Other positive points include keep track of frauds, improper financial transactions, and more.

If you’ve got accounts in many different banks/websites, Pageonce is able to offer access via a single application. The accounts can be divided into 4 categories - finance, utilities, travel and shopping - and a few examples include AT&T, Bank of America, Amazon, eBay, Blockbuster, and more.
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We don’t know if this is accurate or not but it looks like Rogers Wireless has made up its mind on the gadgets it will sell in Canada next year. If you are in Canada for the time being and you are looking for a BlackBerry device, maybe you should wait a while

People say the Curve 8900 will arrive in Q1 2009, the custom-for-Rogers? Storm in Q2, the 9220, Magnum aka the Curve 8900 with 3G in Q3 and the 9900, Pluto aka the Bold with touchscreen. Wow! Now let’s see Rogers confirm it all!

The Storm, the one and only BlackBerry with a touchscreen, is going to arrive in November. That much we know. But the Storm isn’t only going to hit Verizon stores. Best Buy is going to receive it too in November 16th. According to the stock sheet above, that’s when the handset will arrive. Not necessarily when it’s going to actually be sold.

The good thing is that you’ll have plenty of stores to find a Storm. Question is, will RIM be able to keep up with demand?

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I’ve announced the Bold so many times you shouldn’t even read this one. We might see AT&T pushing the release date along like they did before. Now it’s October 27 according to leaked info. Like I didn’t hear that one before!

AT&T had no problems throwing a welcome Bold party with the main guest missing, so we shouldn’t be surprised by anything the carrier will do concerning the Bold. On the other hand we know that Orange has pulled the Bold for various technical issues. What say you?

It seems like Research In Motion is going full speed with their touch screen phone. Their latest phone, the BlackBerry Storm, is only about a week old, and news have been pouring out about a possible follow-up to the handset.

The Boy Genius blog reported Friday that RIM is preparing a 3G GSM version of the touch-screen BlackBerry Storm. Currently, the Storm, which was released last week for Verizon Wireless’ network, only works on CDMA-based 3G, or third-generation, networks. But a day after, it reported that RIM is making an HSDPA version of the phone, which means that it could operate on AT&T in the U.S. and Rogers Communications in Canada. The GSM version of the phone, which is being called the BlackBerry 9900 Pluto, is expected to look a lot like the current BlackBerry Storm.

There’s no word on an exact launch date, but The Boy Genius blog said it expects RIM to announce the phone at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium in May.

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Boy does AT&T know how to promote its devices. Although the BlackBerry Bold is not ready to be launched yet, the carrier has went ahead and hosted its official release party as scheduled. I guess it must have been disappointing for the crowd present in New York to realize they were not going to leave the party with a new Bold in their hands.

AT&T wants to release the Bold sometime in November but I don’t think that’s going to be as successful at that time. After all, the Storm is coming, and when it’s going to hit, it will impress lots of people.

A couple of days ago people said Rogers would be launching the Storm despite the fact the touchscreen doesn’t exactly fit the Canadian network. But Rogers confirmed that the BlackBerry Storm isn’t headed its way. Elizabeth Hamilton, spokesperson for Rogers Wireless said to BGR, the blog that started the whole Rogers Storm thing:

Saw your post and you’re right, the customer service representative made a mistake. As you know, I won’t comment in advance on what our holiday lineup has in store, but I can confirm it does not include the BlackBerry Storm.

So there you have it boys and gals, you’ll have to wait for the Storm a little longer.

Is RIM going to launch a Bold-like BlackBerry device with touchscreen support anytime soon? Is AT&T going to pick it up? Is the new device going to arrive earlier than the actual Bold?

We have this photo which, as usually, is really really blurry. Or it’s very badly photoshopped. You get the point. People say the device in the picture was announced at Wireless Enterprise 2009. If you happen to be present at WES then go ahead and talk to RIM representatives and drop us a line.

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Rogers is reported to be looking into the BlackBerry Storm business. Not only to they want it, but they want it badly. The rumor is based on a phone call to a Customer Service Rep who said that a touchscreen Berry is coming to Rogers by Christmas. Despite the fact that the Storm doesn’t have 850/1900 MHz bands of HSDPA? Despite the fact there’s no WiFi? I’d say Rogers should be thinking twice before upsetting its subscribers! Would you get a 3G-less, WiFi-less Berry with a three year contract plan? Yeah you would, but only in Chinese China!

Apparently, Orange UK has temporarily stopped selling Research in Motion’s much anticipated Blackberry Bold. The cause? Unspecified 3-G related problems on the handset. This happened last Friday, but will hopefully resume sales when a software fix becomes available.

A statement from Orange stated that: “Orange UK is committed to providing the BlackBerry Bold to its customers in the U.K.; however, Orange UK and (BlackBerry manufacturer) RIM are currently working on providing a maintenance release of software to address some reported 3G-related concerns.”

The said 3G problem has been limited to UK Orange customers only so its possible that this is an isolated incident. Its also comforting to know that Orange UK and RIM are taking customer’s concern seriously and felt that they need to address this issue first before selling more handsets. Even more surprising is that Orange UK and RIM apologized to customers for any inconvenience and they expect to provide a software maintenance release soon. This is surprisingly a better response to, say Apple, with its iPhone 3G issues.

And no prizes for guessing to what other touchscreen device Gray Krakow of the The Street compares it to at the beginning of the video. The BlackBerry Storm seems to be pretty impressive and pointed out is its ability to duplicate a “real hardware feel,” a good display, and its remarkable web abilities. Add GPS, WiFi, and anywhere roaming and you get a great touchscreen smartphone with the best of BlackBerry’s business features. Still, no word on pricing or availability from Verizon or RIM but we’ll tell ya when we know.

If you are one of those eagerly awaiting the new BlackBerry Curve 8350i, continue waiting. But to ease the wait a bit, Sprint has just unveiled a new site where interested customers can sign up to be notified when the Curve 8350i will hit the stores and also catch a small demo of its push-to-talk feature in action. PTT aside, the BlackBerry Curve 8350i also has GPS, WiFi, a 2-megapixel camera, and Group Connect functions. The signup page can be found here.
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The current economic crisis is definitely affection major companies. RIM is no exception. Their shares have dropped down to $53 which apparently caught Microsoft’s attention. Word is that if RIM’s share drop below $40, Microsoft is going to make a move. They will make a $50 bid per share and hope to acquire RIM.

Imagine RIM phones running on Windows Mobile! Imagine a Zune phone! But then again we’ve seen Microsoft blowing the Yahoo deal earlier this year so we wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t get to buy RIM after all. That’s what we hope predict to happen.

It looks like RIM isn’t going to pause for air although it has designed one of the its best handsets yet. While we haven’t actually touched the Storm and the phone might show some flaws eventually, we’re sure RIM has a hit already. They did have other remarkable devices but the Storm will surpass them in popularity.

And word on the street is that RIM is working on the successor of the Storm. It’s going to be a touschscreen phone with a 5 megapixel camera, 1GB of memory and an almost HD LCD. People say a third generation Storm is also designed.

We’re waiting for more proof to support all this. After a Storm 2 should be expected. Just like the iPhone 3G was expected to arrive.

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It seems as if the much anticipated launch of the Blackberry Pearl Flip is close at hand. Articles, rumors, unboxing videos and photos of the smartphone have started appearing on the Web, including those from the Boy Genius Report and PhoneDog.com, complete with T-Mobile packaging. Of course, the rumor that T-Mobile is going to launch the smartphone has been around for a while, its easy to assume that the launch will be sooner rather than later.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 was announced at CTIA Fall 2008 and is the first BlackBerry with a clamshell design. T-Mobile will be the first U.S. carrier to offer the model.

Dare I say AT&T might be right when they say the Bold isn’t ready for the U.S. market? Hell no! I am sure they are delaying the launch for a certain fruity reason.

But according to a leaked memo, Orange has decided to temporarily pull the Bold off their shelves. It looks like there are some issues with the device. The whole crisis might be solved in a few weeks as RIM will provide solutions for the undisclosed issues.

What issues?

It’s not just Vodafone and Verizon that are getting the Storm when it will finally hit. Canadians are in it too. Bell and Telus are the carriers that have already announced the Storm for their Canadian subscribers.

I’d be surprised to see Rogers roll out a Storm. After all they have the iPhone to suck the blood of its customers with. So I guess we have to wait for official pricing and particular plans right?

It seems emulators are really popular these days. If you’re tired of playing with your G1 emulator, go get the Storm emulator now. That’s right, RIM has a BlacBerry emulator which will let you get a sneak preview of what the touchscreen device will feel like. Sure you won’t have everything available but there are enough things to try out. Probably you want to touch that screen already, but the emulator won’t emulate that feeling on your PC!