We knew right when we exclusively revealed the BlackBerry Monaco and Monza back in January that the devices would likely shed the “Storm” moniker, and now it’s looking even more likely. BlackBerry enthusiast blog N4BB cites multiple sources in suggesting that RIM may have finally landed on a new brand for the full touchscreen smartphone it is preparing to launch later this year: “Volt.” The report is unsure at best however, suggesting that RIM might instead choose to slap the Tor...

With BlackBerry World 2011 coming to a close, you knew there had to be some unannounced news waiting to come out of the conference, right? We have been told by multiple sources that RIM is planning on releasing its followup to the BlackBerry PlayBook around the holidays this year. That’s clearly less than a year from the April launch of the original PlayBook — and the 4G versions aren’t even out yet — but there is a key differentiating factor here… the screen size. It’s entire poss...

We broke the news on practically all of RIM’s 2011 BlackBerry smartphones, and even scored some hands-on time with more than a couple of them. We wanted to take a minute to highlight the new products coming out of Waterloo now that all of the phones have leaked in some form. Remember, a lot of these are codenames that obviously won’t make it to retail — this is how the company keeps track of the devices internally and sometimes a single product can have multiple codenames. (more…)

You remember the BlackBerry Touch — also known as the Monaco or Monza — don’t you? Of course you do. The device we brought you exclusive images of last month has been nabbed again, this time on video. The two-plus minute clip showcases the device running BlackBerry 6.1 and, from what we can see, it looks to be pretty snappy. The video’s narrator is speaking in Thai — which is not a language in our linguistic wheelhouse — so we’re just going to have to let you observe and pass judgeme...

Part of RIM’s upcoming 2011 BlackBerry lineup we leaked in January contained the company’s latest evolution of a full touchscreen device, the BlackBerry Monaco / Monza. Both names are codenames that signify different carriers the phone will land on, we’re told — Verizon Wireless will get the Monaco while the BlackBerry Monza is the  global GSM version. In any case, the BlackBerry Storm is a thing of the past and RIM finally realizes that its SurePress innovation wasn’t innovative at...

Last month, BGR exclusively reported preliminary details surrounding an upcoming smartphone from Research In Motion codenamed the BlackBerry Monaco. Due for launch from Verizon Wireless in September of this year according to our report, the Monaco could be the third installment in RIM’s Storm series. Now, the Monaco has been caught on film for the first time. As expected, the front of the device appears to be similar in design to the BlackBerry Torch, minus the physical QWERTY keypad, of course. Like t...

Research In Motion Co-CEO Jim Balsillie on Wednesday confirmed that upcoming new BlackBerry smartphones will contain Near Field Communication chips in 2011. During a keynote shared with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and NTT DoCoMo CEO Riuji Yamada at Mobile World Congress, Balsillie said “many, if not most” of his company’s smartphones released this year would include NFC capabilities. This confirms details from BGR’s exclusive report last month, which revealed several BlackBerry devices sl...

Two weeks ago, BGR revealed several upcoming smartphones BlackBerry maker RIM had baking in the oven. Tonight, the CDMA side of the equation has been filled out following a leaked internal slide deck obtained by Crackberry.com. Joining the Bold Touch (Dakota), the next-generation Curve (Apollo), The Torch 2 and the Storm 3 (Monaco) are a swarm of CDMA handsets destined for U.S. shores. The Montana will launch in August of this year as the CDMA counterpart to the Dakota. Like the GSM Bold Touch, the Montana wi...

We unveiled nearly all of RIM’s 2011 lineup over the past day or so, and we wanted to highlight the devices as well as give you a bit more background and personal thoughts on them — and of course, more photos. For starters, though, let’s talk about RIM’s NFC implementation and its real world use cases… we have been told RIM is planning to use NFC for pairing and streaming control with accessories, in addition to peer-to-peer information exchange. What does that mean? Well, you’...

Back in September we got our hands on some official AT&T documents which indicated that the LG Monaco, now being called the IQ, would be hitting AT&T’s lineup sometime in late November. However, as November draws to a close, we have yet to see any signs of said handset on Ma’ Bell here in the States. Enter, Canada. It appears as though our friends from Telus are preparing to roll out the LG IQ just in time for the holiday season. As previously reported, the specs on this full-QWERTY slider...

As you might have imagined, the unending leakfest continues today with information about two more handsets headed AT&T’s way. First up is the Pantech Aladdin, a QWERTY slider with HSDPA connectivity, 2.2-inch QVGA display, 1.3 megapixel camera, aGPS, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, microSD expansion, threaded SMS, and support for Napster, eMusic and other forms of Windows DRM. This entry-level handset will fall in line with the Pantech Matrix / Matrix Pro and is expected later this year. Also expected to drop ...