The HTC Legend has made another pre-announcement appearance, this time appearing in full marketing regalia on a dutch website. According to Dutch wireless carrier KPN, the Legend is expected to debut in March with a list of specs that are relatively bland. Similar to previously leaked live shots, the Legend will sport a form factor that resembles the GSM Hero with an optical trackpad instead of a trackball, a slight chin, and a sleek looking unibody aluminum frame. The remaining specs include a 3.2-inch AMOLED capacitive 320×480 touchscreen display, Qualcomm MSM7727 600MHz processor, 5.0 megapixel camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and Android 2.1 with Sense UI. Look for the Legend to become official next week during MWC 2010.

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Alain Segond von Banchet, Channel Sales manger for RIM in the Netherlands, reportedly spoke freely about the BlackBerry Storm 2 during the TeleVisie 2009 Expo in the Netherlands yesterday. Segond von Banchet supposedly revealed that the Storm successor will launch in late 2009 or early 2010 with KPN, a move away from the exclusive Vodafone launch seen with the original Storm. He also confirmed that the Storm 2 will contain an improved touch input method, which we spoke of yesterday, so consider this a third source of confirmation. Now here’s where things get sketchy. Segond von Banchet supposedly also claimed that RIM will be slowing down the release schedule for devices in 2009 with no new devices except for the Storm 2. Considering we all know the Niagra alone is well on its way to two US carriers, at least one confirmed in 2009, this report loses a bit of credibility lest he was speaking only about the local market in the Netherlands. Either way, RIM and its partners seem a bit loose lipped regarding the unannounced Storm 2 — very, very uncharacteristic.

[Via Unwired View]

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No doubt there were a lot of peeved BIS users the day RIM enabled BES 5, but don’t fret – RIM finally just took the wraps off the latest edition of BIS, albeit in a not-so-public way. Discussed in a Knowledge Base article, RIM highlighted a lot of the new features non-corporate BlackBerry users can look forward to. The bad news? Apart from complimentary one way syncing of Gmail accounts via IMAP instead of POP and the ability to edit signatures via the WAP browser, there is really nothing here to get excited about. Well, unless you’re Dutch. Hit the jump for the whole enchilada.

• Display of password characters
  • BlackBerry smartphone users have the option to display password characters when configuring email addresses with the BlackBerry Internet Service. This feature makes it easier for BlackBerry smartphone users to integrate third-party email addresses, especially when using a BlackBerry smartphone with the SureType® input method.
• Improved descriptive support and error messages
  • BlackBerry smartphone users that have integrated a third-party email account using Post Office Protocol (POP) receive a personal identification number (PIN) message that includes instructions on how to leave email messages on the messaging server for successful delivery to the BlackBerry smartphone.
• Option to change signatures from the BlackBerry smartphone
  • BlackBerry smartphone users that use Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) automatic login can change the signatures for email messages using the BlackBerry smartphone.
• Improved language support
  • Dutch is now an available language for the BlackBerry Internet Service 2.6.
• Gmail integration using IMAP

  • BlackBerry Internet Service 2.6 uses Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to integrate Gmail® webmail accounts. This integration protocol introduces the following benefits:

    • Elimination of sent email messages appearing as received email messages in the message list on the BlackBerry smartphone

    • One-way synchronization of read status, sent items, and deleted items.
  • To use these improvements, BlackBerry smartphone users must remove and reintegrate their Gmail webmail accounts.

Delighted? Disappointed? Think there’s something specific the company omitted? Feel free to hit the comments section and vent.

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