Hello, my name is Jonathan, and I was a BlackBerry addict. Forget having every BlackBerry the company released, including different variants of models that didn’t ever appear in the U.S., like the BlackBerry 8707g. Forget being one of the first people to discover BlackBerry Messenger and convert family and friends to the service, even though it was probably the slowest thing ever to run on a BlackBerry 7290. Forget getting a bunch of celebrities to attend the BlackBerry 8700 launch party in New York City just so I would be one of the first people outside of RIM to have an 8700. I even once paid to have a BlackBerry 8700 forged out of solid white gold, which barely functioned since gold doesn’t play nice with antenna (an early lesson on wireless communications — maybe the first real antennagate?). I had a dedicated BlackBerry Enterprise Server for over four years — I was so in. Read on for more.

So then, I started using another smartphone, but it wasn’t as advanced in some areas that I really relied on all the time. I began carrying two smartphones instead of just one, and eventually my BlackBerry was used simply for email and BlackBerry Messenger because other operations became terribly inferior. There came a point, however, when carrying two smartphones, even though I was used to it since years earlier when I had a StarTAC and Timeport P935, became tiresome. It’s a little over the top, even for someone like me, and my BlackBerry was practically useless for me once all of my contacts began switching.

We all know what happened and is happening with Research In Motion, though one thing that’s said I don’t believe is accurate. RIM didn’t stop innovating. The accurate statement would be: RIM stopped innovating where it needed to. The great thing about the BlackBerry 9900 is that it’s sure to be the best BlackBerry yet, and there is not one single person who gave up a BlackBerry for another smartphone who isn’t interested in the BlackBerry 9900, if even just a little bit. There’s something about that keyboard, there’s something about emailing on a BlackBerry, there’s something about phone calling on a BlackBerry, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a BlackBerry 9900 to review. It’s entirely possibly someone from Waterloo put something in my water, I’ll fully admit, but I checked, and the bottle was sealed.

This isn’t confirmed, but with RIM rumored to be exploring sliding-QWERTY devices for a pretty long time, one of our BlackBerry connects dropped some info on us and we wanted it to share it. Here’s what we know:

• It’s a portrait-oriented slider. While most people assume a device with slideout keyboard would end up being something like HTC’s devices, we’ve been told this particular handset is more like the Palm Pre in terms of layout.
• The phone will run BlackBerry OS 6.0
• The rumored device will 100% support Wi-Fi 802.11n
• The resolution unfortunately has not improved, it is still 360×480.
• No word on if this will have a touch screen, but we’d assume so, and our source alluded to this possibly being what the rumored BlackBerry Magnum/Dakota evolved into. Not saying there won’t be a Bold-like device with touchscreen, optical trackpad, and physical keyboard, but this might be released first.
• If it does have a touch screen, this could in fact be the mythical BlackBerry Storm slider — picture a Storm 9520 with a slide up Bold-esque keyboard.
• The phone will not be a Verizon exclusive — it’s supposed to be a GSM/HSPA device.

That’s all we’ve got for now, folks. What are you thinking? Does this remotely interest you, or could you care less about the hardware at this point and just hope that RIM can make some pretty big strides as far as their OS is concerned?

Image for illustrative purposes only.

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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So… one of our ninjas just hit us up with some really interesting BlackBerry info. While the specs of the following codenames are confirmed, releases are not, and as such, this should be used for information sake. Here’s what we got:

BlackBerry Onyx:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
• QWERTY keyboard
• 480×360 resolution screen
• Confirmed carriers: AT&T

BlackBerry Driftwood:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi with UMA
• QWERTY keyboard

BlackBerry Magnum:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
• QWERTY keyboard
• 480×360 resolution screen
• Confirmed carriers: AT&T

Now, those are three different devices with practically the same rough specs. We’d wager than the BlackBerry Magnum and Driftwood are the same device just meant for different carriers. Possibly the Driftwood for T-Mobile let’s say, and the Magnum for AT&T (who doesn’t offer UMA). Is that the BlackBerry with touch screen and physical QWERTY? Probably.

Also, we learned that RIM might be slowly refreshing the Bold with a UMA-capable version. Again, we’re not sure if that’s just a version meant for T-Mobile or maybe Rogers or this will be a global refresh (we doubt the last part).

Remember the BlackBerry Gemini? Well, it seems as if that’s not just one device, but rather an entire line of devices. Don’t get too excited, though. We’re told it could possibly just be a refresh of the Curve line-up. (Low cost handsets). The same could also be done with the Pearl line-up.

To recap: the Onyx, Driftwood and Magnum devices are all in the 9000-series family, all have 3G, and all should be absolutely delicious.

Next time when you post a photoshopped image of a BlackBerry, make sure you don’t leave the mic hole from a BlackBerry 8800 on the bottom. It’s a dead giveaway. So is it 100% photoshopped? No. But we’d go as far as 99.99% since we made this in about 8 minutes and the original picture just doesn’t feel right. Who knows.