Research In Motion on Tuesday announced a major milestone for its on-device software portal BlackBerry App World: 1 billion downloads served. ”The BlackBerry App World storefront launched a little over two years ago, and over that time, we’ve made many feature improvements, enhanced the look and feel, and added a ton of compelling apps,” RIM’s Alex Kinsella wrote on the company’s blog. “BlackBerry App World is now in over 100 countries, seeing an average of 3 million downloads...

The Guardian has posted the full text of what is reportedly a LulzSec IRC chat room log from May 31st to June 4th. LulzSec — the notorious hacking group responsible for recent attacks on Sony, the CIA’s website, and the U.S. Senate — has fired back claiming that the room’s sole purpose is for recruiting new members. The Guardian reported that LulzSec’s members include hackers “Kayla,” “Topiary” — who runs the group’s Twitter feed and writers the press rele...

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’...

The Nielsen Company reported Monday that smartphones now account for 28% of the cell phone market in the United States. Nielsen’s report also states that 41% of cell phones purchased in the U.S. over the past six months were smartphones. In terms of smartphone OS share, Nielsen paints a very different picture compared to earlier data presented by the NPD Group and Canalys. Nielsen’s data shows RIM still at the top of the U.S. smartphone market with a 30% share. Apple sits at number 2 with 28% and ...

It’s getting a little clearer now… We reported that the Storm 2 would be getting a follow up device that is very, very similar to the existing model. What is looking almost confirmed now, is that the follow up device is a Storm 2 refresh and not the BlackBerry Storm 3. A new leaked OS screen shot seems to confirm this by showing off a model number of 9570. If that sounds familiar, its because the current model number for the existing Storm 2 is 9550. It appears RIM really needs OS 6 to run on a mi...

BerryReview has been sent in an image of what their tipster is claiming to be the BlackBerry Storm 3. The device is reported to have a 3.7-inch display and 8 GB of internal memory; no processor, touchscreen, or other specifications were given. If the image is in fact real, we’re unclear as to why RIM would put an optical trackpad on a full-touchscreen device… your guess is as good as ours. Take a look at the above image and let us know what you think. (more…)

Today, Verizon announced a new video application that will allow subscribers of their FiOS television service to watch live, linear programming on an iPad. Before anyone gets too excited, the application — which is scheduled to be released early next year — does have one fairly enormous catch. As reported by Gigaom, “subscribers with an iPad will only be able to watch linear programming within their own home, which allows Verizon to authenticate and make certain that the users have acces...

It was mentioned in one of our whispers and now it’s here: Verizon has released a Push-To-Talk application for its fleet of BlackBerry smartphones. Free to download but requiring a monthly fee of $5 to use, Verizon’s BlackBerry PTT app allows for unlimited nation-wide calls to other PTT devices. Other key features include:Make group calls with up to 50 participants.Use Presence to see who’s available for Push to Talk calls.Manage Push to Talk contacts for your entire company online.Access email...

And just like that, today we have the third photo leak of the mysterious BlackBerry slider. Unlike the first time we saw it but much like the second, the device has been placed next to a Curve 8900 for the sake of a size comparison. On its side the slider is noticeably thicker than the 8900 , but today it has been turned on its side in order to let us know exactly how thick this sucker is. What this device is actually called is anyone’s guess, but the general consensus is that this is not the Storm3. So...

You might have caught our report on the much-rumored sliding BlackBerry device a couple days back. Some pictures just surfaced at BBLeaks, and while we’re not able to confirm their authenticity at this time, they do match up with the product that has been described to us. Sadly, if the photos are real (we’re hoping for RIM’s sake they aren’t), it truly seems like RIM really is stuck in 2005.UPDATE: BBLeaks told us they’re getting clearer images and video/s. This might be the real...

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: (more…)

Verizon seems to be planning on expanding its prepaid line-up and options for current and would-be customers by throwing BlackBerry into the mix. Word is that within the next three months, prepaid BlackBerry plans will become available, though we’re not sure if all devices would be included. Rumor is that the plan adds $35 on top of the voice package, which isn’t so bad when compared to other carriers and most post-paid plans. We’ve also received word that the prepaid bundles would match Ver...

So far, all of the Black Friday leaks we’ve seen haven’t been all that friendly to smartphone lovers, but according to our sources, Wirefly will be picking up the slack come Friday with the following deals:Verizon BlackBerry Storm2: $0.99 for new subs / $29.99 for existing VZW customers (Friday only) followed by $9.99 / $49.99 until MondayAT&T BlackBerry Bold 9700: $0 / $29.99 (Friday to Monday)Sprint Samsung Moment: $79.99 / $99.99 (Friday to Monday)If none of those phones catch your fancy, t...

Just a quick  little heads up for our Canadians brothers and sisters that at this moment may or may not be doing battle with polar bears on glaciers the size of Manhattan — TELUS has released the BlackBerry Storm2. Retailing for $599.99, the Storm2 is also available at the subsidized price of $199.99 provided one is willing to take on a 3-year contract with a minimum of a $50 voice and data plan. So what’s it going to be, Canada? Yay or nay? (more…)