We are waiting to see the actual Storm in our hands and the news keep pouring in. Well it’s not exactly official news since no RIM representative revealed all of this. We take it as a human error. It’s not the first time that news gets leaked about a product right about the time we need it.

And this new piece of leaked news say that RIM will have an App-Store-like ready for the Storm. Unlike Apple’s store, the BlackBerry App Center will run on the carrier’s site. That means every carrier will have total control on any received applications from RIM. And unlike Apple’s store you will have to search, monitor and delete programs from the browser of the Berry you are using. That means the App Center can’t install applications directly.

So we are waiting for official news, and we might actually get them in a couple of weeks at the BlackBerry’s Developer Conference scheduled for October 20th. And we do have so many question left unanswered yet…

Personally I am uncomfortable with the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. It’s a great phone but I can’t but feel that RIM shouldn’t have created flip Berries. Berries should be something else. Think Curve, Bold or Storm. The phone is rumored to have a price already from T-Mobile. It will cost $150 with a two-year contract or $200 with a one year contract. Rather steep wouldn’t you say?

We’re waiting for an official T-Mobile announcement to confirm these prices. The phone is expected to arrive this year, so flip phone lovers can already get in line for it.

We are not sure what RIM is playing at here. The company had the ability to deliver the BlackBerry Bold already in Chile, but it sure is taking its time in getting its latest smartphone out here in the States. If that’s the situation here in the good ole’ USA, things definitely aren’t looking better for other countries too. The latest rumor brings us the news of a Bold launch in Japan, not this year apparently, but in the first quarter of 2009, a hell of a long time for something that has been in the news for too long already. NTT DoCoMo will be the privileged carrier to provide the device in the island country at an unknown price. We don’t think the Japanese are tech-starved in anyway, but wouldn’t it be better for RIM and for all of us to get the device out already, before we all move on and get hooked on to something better?
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It looks like we’re not going to see a BlackBerry Bold from AT&T soon. The Bold was supposed to be launched on October 2nd but due to OS-related problems AT&T might delay the launch. Device training was supposed to start on October 7th and since that has been postponed to a later date.

While there’s no official AT&T announcement regarding another Bold delay, we feel it’s coming. That’s even more surprising considering that usual AT&T testing and problem solving for a RIM device is about 2-3 weeks. What’s so special now? I really hope Verizon is going to get the iPhone too. Loosing that exclusivity deal might make AT&T see things from another perspective.

While the Bold is yet to arrive from AT&T in the USA, it looks like NTT DoCoMo is ready to offer the BlackBerry 9000 to its subscribers. It looks like Japan should be a logical move from RIM. But the Japanese market has been proven to be a tough market for RIM to crack.

The Bold is a truly unique device which is already being sold in various countries across the globe. If successful in Japan it might lead the way for other great RIM phones. The Pearl, the Curve and particularly the Storm might also be sent out to Japan if all goes well for Japan.

The Bold is going to be sold in Japan in 2009. Hear that AT&T? Even Japan is getting it?

Hang on to your shorts people, we still don’t know if the Bold is going to arrive in the USA soon. At the rate we are going we’ll probably end up talking about the sale of the Storm instead of the Bold.

The shot above tells us the Bold is going to arrive in Best Buy stores starting with October 26. It might be a human mistake. After all we’ve seen those kind of mistakes all the time. I can’t wait to report on which company sold more RIM devices. My money is on Verizon on this one as I am sure more people will get the Storm when it hits. Sure the Bold is a great phone, but AT&T delayed it way too much.

via BGR

Vodafone is the UK carrier which will serve Brits with Storms soon. While waiting for more information about the whole UK launch we have found some leaked pictures of the newest BlackBerry. (more…)

Verizon Wireless is getting ready to train its employees for the upcoming BlackBerry Storm. Training must be finished by November 2nd which means that November will be quite Stormy. The Touch Diamond is coming in December according to the training program.

Good thing this training program has just been leaked. At lease we can feel assured the Storm won’t be delayed. Hear that AT&T? How’s your Bold situation?

via Gizmodo

Much of the following is purely speculative but if proven true, we might just witness the best BlackBerry launch ever.

It’s being said that the Storm and the Thunder do not refer to the same device. It looks like the Storm and the Thunder are both new Berries, both with a full touchscreen. The difference you ask? The Storm would have a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Just for those which can’t make it without an actual keyboard. (more…)

As rumored before, Vodafone will pick up RIM’s BlackBerry Storm and offer it exclusively in the UK. It looks like the British carrier will dump the Thunder name in favor of the Storm. I’ve gotten used to the Thunder and now I’ll have to get used to the Storm.

RIM is said to announce the BlackBerry some time in October and the actual phone will hit the shops in November, well in time for the Christmas shopping spree.

What about other countries? Is RIM going to go to Chile again? (more…)

Apart from the black and red colors that the original announcement declared, it seems that Research in Motion is also prepping a silver version of its first clamshell, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, for specific markets. An official press release shows the Kickstart in all its silver glory and we have to agree that the silver does look good on the device including its SureType keypad and the dark black front facade. Anyway, we just hope that T-Mobile and Rogers start selling the device already, whatever color it may be in, as we just can’t wait to see how well RIM is going to fare with its first foray into the flip phone realm. One more picture after the break…
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India’s leading CDMA provider, Reliance Communications, has teamed up with RIM to bring BlackBerry devices closer to the masses by launching prepaid services for both CDMA and GSM networks. Up till now, BlackBerry smartphones were only available on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, two of the largest GSM providers in the subcontinent with postpaid connections, but with this new “pay as you use” service, Reliance aims to woo the 200 million odd people who still rely on prepaid connections.

Mahesh Prasad, Reliance Communications President for Mobile Data and Content Services said:

We recognize the needs of customers and believe a prepaid option enabled by Reliance Communications will significantly broaden the consumer interest in BlackBerry smartphones and expand our business opportunity.

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We told you earlier how Telus is going to bring the HTC Touch Diamond to Canada right? Well it looks like Rogers has similar plans for its subscribers. The HTC Touch Diamond has been seen in Roger’s internal docs as a “coming soon” device. The device will be available in a GSM version. There’s no news on actual release or pricing but we’ll find out soon. (more…)

According to the piece of paper in the image above, AT&T will be releasing quite a few phones in the upcoming months. Some of them are smartphones which we were waiting for quite a while now. One of them is the BlackBerry 9000 Bold which was delayed more than once by AT&T. It looks like it will come out only in November. That’s when Verizon will launch the Storm. I’d choose the Storm over the Bold and probably more people would too. (more…)

Sure RIM has great phones but I wouldn’t pay $17,000 for any of them, no matter how much money I’d have. But since on eBay everything is possible, a bid for the BlackBerry 8900 Javelin has been won at $17,100.00. Is that person that desperate to get the Javelin? Why not buy a better RIM phone? The Bold? The Thunder?

Or did somebody else buy the device? You know, from the competition? Considering that the Javelin hasn’t been released yet that might just be it.

Dubbed as yet another “iPhone killer,” the BlackBerry Storm has been raking up quite a erm…storm these past weeks. We already know much about RIM’s first full touchscreen device aimed solely at Apple’s pride and joy (aren’t there many other better devices already, which would make for better competition?) sans a price tag and a proper release date, but it seems like an official picture of the device in all its glory would be too much to ask. But even blurry pictures like these courtesy of Crackberry are satisfactory enough to fill the void until the device is unveiled in November. Blurry though they are, we can’t help seeing similarities to the newly announced HTC Touch HD, but then again, we get that feeling with almost all touchscreen devices nowadays. Skip over for move pictures…
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We’ve heard about AT&T selling the Bold since the beginning of time itself. Cut it out AT&T and start selling the device already! It’s available in Chile! Sure, you’ll say you don’t want any competition for the iPhone. Is that why you asked for the Bold for yourself? To make sure it won’t compete against the iPhone? iPhone lovers will buy Apple’s handset no matter what other offer is available. But BlackBerry fans will forget the Bold and head to Verizon Wireless to grab the Storm. Would you like that to happen AT&T?

It looks like AT&T plans to finally launch the Bold in the last week of September. The rumored price is $299.00 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with an unmentioned-in-length contract. I don’t know about you but until I’ll see it, I won’t believe it.

Here’s a piece of news I was waiting for quite a while to deliver. The BlackBerry Thunder, or as some like to refer to as the Storm, has been confirmed by Verizon Wireless. Like we have told you this past weekend, today was the day all of this was going to happen.

The Storm will be a quadband handset; it will sport a haptic touchscreen, a full HTML browser, a 3.2 megapixel camera and a high resolution screen. What’s more to ask? Decent GPS and WiFi. Unfortunately there’s no WiFi in the Storm. We could let this one slide for now although it’s not understandable.

Pricing and availability dates will follow by November when people will actually be able to get the handset.

If you’re a BlackBerry owner in Singapore, check back with SingTel as it will have Viigo ready for your smartphone.

Viigo value-added service will be available for all BlackBerry owners. With Viigo you can access local news, weather info, financial info and customized feeds. Over 5,000 channels filled with content are available.
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Hooray! It looks like an internal email from Verizon Wireless‘ barn hints to something important. In less than two days we’re going to see the Storm aka Thunder aka the first BlackBerry with a touchscreen and more. We’ve been waiting for such an announcement all summer long. We just didn’t exactly know where to look for it.

And there’s a bad news in all of that. The phone will be launch officially on Monday but the product will be finally sold starting with November 1st. You were getting all excited, weren’t you? Get ready for standing this winter. We’ll be back on Monday for more!