BlackBerry Storm users on Verizon Wireless are still feeling the burn from the AT&T exclusive launch of the BlackBerry Torch. While not everyone has a hankering for a hybrid handset, owners of the Storm and Storm 2 were more than displeased to learn that RIM will not be updating either smartphone to the latest version of its OS, BlackBerry 6. While the imminent release of a new OS 6-powered touchscreen handset will merely be salt in the wound for some, others will be happy to learn that the Storm 3, so it would seem, is almost ready for prime time. The third coming of RIM’s popular touchscreen line, the BlackBerry Storm 3, has been spotted in Cellbrite — an internal system used by Verizon Wireless service technicians to transfer information between phones. In short, another piece of the puzzle is now in place and the BlackBerry 6-equipped Storm 3 may be hitting store shelves in the near future.

Read

If you are keeping up to date on your BlackBerry rumors for the day, you might have seen this photo floating around that was originally sent in to BerryReview of the BlackBerry “Storm 3″. If you got really excited at the possibility of that phone being the Storm 3, we have to let you know that the device in that photo, is not the BlackBerry Storm 3. Here is what you can expect in the Storm 3 — we have seen the device and multiple sources have informed us of the below specifications:

• Almost physically identical to the BlackBerry Storm 2. Literally. On first glance, we thought our guy was just showing us the current model.
• The device is a tiny bit slimmer, feels about the same weight, but also seems to be a bit lighter.
• The camera looks to be the same as the Storm 2, but we have to believe it is a 5 megapixel shooter. One source said 5 megapixels, the other didn’t know.
• 512MB of RAM
• OS 6
• The SurePress screen lives!
• Nothing we saw said anything about a Mobile Hotspot feature, but as that leaked slide indicated, it might be a feature coming after the device ships…

We weren’t able to snap a photo of the handset, but all in all, we have to say, we’re pretty disappointed. The fact that RIM continues to beat around the bush and offer up almost irrelevant product refreshes while the entire mobile smartphone market continues to push the envelope of user experience, specifications, design, and features worries us. So, we have to ask, is there anyone interested in a BlackBerry Storm 3 on Verizon that’s basically more or less the same phone you bought last year?

UPDATE: Well, the plot thickens. We have been told by an anonymous tipster that the Storm 3, as we have seen and heard it, might actually be a simple Storm 2 refresh. Almost a silent refresh, very different from the BlackBerry Storm 3 device. We’ll keep digging, but it gets weirder and weirder with RIM these days…

One of our Bell connects was kind enough to pass along an internal memo regarding the carrier’s upcoming release of the BlackBerry Storm2. According to the document, it will be available on April 13th for $349.95 on a 3-year contract before data subsidies are applied. Add in a voice and data subsidy and you’re looking at $199.95, a whole $40 cheaper than TELUS. Hit the jump to check out the all of the pricing options.

Thanks, Anonymous!

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?

Read

Recently, TELUS issued a press release letting Canadians know that their handsets are now being offered through Black’s, the nation-wide digital camera chain. This news in itself didn’t interest us in the least, but for giggles we clicked on through to Black’s website just to see what handsets it was going to be offering considering the odd partnership. What did we see in the line up? None other than a TELUS branded BlackBerry Storm2. Unfortunately what you see above is all we have for now as this sucker has not yet been announced by TELUS, but we have a feeling that will change very, very soon.

Thanks, Tony!

Read

Read

Lovers of all things BlackBerry might want to stop on by their local Verizon dealer this Wednesday as that’s the day “a powerful new Storm rolls onto Verizon Wireless’ network” (sorry, we couldn’t resist.) Going for $179.99 on a 2-year contract after a $100 MIR — no word yet on full retail — the Storm2 is everything that Storm 9530 users could hope for in that it is reliable, dependable and has Wi-Fi. We’ve got a production unit from Verizon that we’re currently testing and will publish a review of it shortly, but for now the best we can give you is a press release couple enormous press shots after the jump.

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and WATERLOO, ONTARIO — Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that the BlackBerry® Storm2™ smartphone will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications stores, online at www.verizonwireless.com, and through business sales channels beginning Oct. 28. The BlackBerry Storm2 with BlackBerry® OS 5.0 evolves the BlackBerry® touchscreen platform with hundreds of hardware and software enhancements – including new SurePress™ “clickable” display technology and built-in Wi-Fi® – delivering the exceptional multimedia experience and communications capabilities customers have come to expect from their BlackBerry smartphones.

Key Features:

• Smooth design and premium finish with sloped edges, chrome accents, glass lens and stainless steel backplate
• Large (3.25”), dazzling high-resolution 480 x 360 display at 184 ppi
• Capacitive touchscreen with integrated functions (Send, End, Menu, Escape) and new SurePress technology that makes clicking the display practically effortless
• 3G and global connectivity support for making phone calls in more than 220 countries and accessing data in more than 185 countries (with more than 80 destinations in 3G)
• Network Connectivity: EV-DO Revision A; UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz); and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks
• Supports Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• 256 MB of Flash memory
• 2 GB of onboard media storage and a microSD™/SDHD memory card slot with a 16 GB card included

Software Updates on BlackBerry Storm2:

• Features BlackBerry OS 5.0, which includes typing accuracy and selection improvements, as well as usability and visual enhancements such as inertial scrolling, spin boxes that make it easier to set dates and times, gradient shading on buttons, and more use of animation
• BlackBerry® Browser is improved with faster JavaScript and CSS processing as well as support for Gears and BlackBerry Widgets
• Customers running BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0 will gain the ability to set follow-up flags, manage e-mail folders, access remote files (Windows Shares), forward appointments, view calendar attachments, and more

Additional Features and Specifications:

• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, Image Stabilization (IS), flash and video recording capabilities
• Premium and easy-to-access phone features, background noise suppression technology, loud distortion-free speakerphone and face detection (proximity sensor) that prevents accidental clicks and blanks the screen while the customer is on the phone
• Media player for videos, pictures and music, plus support for BlackBerry Desktop Manager for both PCs and Macs, and BlackBerry® Media Sync, for easily syncing Windows Media® Player music with the smartphone*
• 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and dedicated volume controls
• Bluetooth® (v2.1) capable with support for Secure Simple Pairing, hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals
• Built-in GPS for maps and other location-based applications, as well as photo geotagging; and Verizon Wireless’ VZ NavigatorSM service is pre-loaded
• V CAST Music with Rhapsody
• Access to BlackBerry App World™, featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones, with categories including games, entertainment, IM and social networking, news, weather, productivity and more
• Support for Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Broadband Connect tethering service
• Removable, rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery that provides up to 5.5 hours of talk time or up to 11.2 days of standby time

Pricing and Availability:

• The BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone is available beginning Oct. 28 for $179.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement on a voice plan with an Email and Web feature or an Email and Web for BlackBerry plan. Customers will receive the mail-in rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. Data plans for the BlackBerry Storm2 smartphone begin at $29.99 when added to any Nationwide voice plan.
• New Operating System for Existing BlackBerry Storm Customers
• Existing BlackBerry Storm customers will be able to update their handsets to the new BlackBerry OS 5.0 software via Web software load (www.blackberry.com/update), BlackBerry Desktop Manager, or from Verizon Wireless’ download site (www.verizonwireless.com/storm). The software is available today.
• For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com. Business customers can contact their Business Sales Representatives at 1-800-VZW-4BIZ.

* Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies.

Read

While the launch of the BlackBerry Storm2 on Verizon is widely expected to take place on October 28th and the Bold 9700 is so close we can almost taste it, owners of current generation BlackBerry smartphones  — the Pearl Flip 8220/8230, Curve 8330/8350i/8900, Bold 9000, Storm 9500/9530 and Tour 9630 — should be pleased to note that RIM is all set for the launch OS 5.0. Specific dates aren’t easily pinned down as it more or less depends on the device one has and the carrier one is with, but thanks to our connects we know, for example, that Verizon will be dropping for the OS 5.0 for the Storm 9530 tomorrow evening with a fall back date set for Monday. Those that don’t have Desktop Manager set up on either their PC or Mac might want to get everything ready ahead of time as it looks for the most part that OTA software updates will not be made available. Oh well. OS 5.0 is oh so worth the hassle.

With the BlackBerry Storm2 getting nice and official over night, we here at BGR thought that it would be nice for us to take a moment and focus on just what its launch means for our loyal readers that aren’t living in The New World. Earlier this week, UK-based The Guardian proclaimed that the Storm2 would be announced by both RIM and Vodafone this week. Clearly this was the case as we now know it will be arriving on or around the 26th of October, but its report missed out on one huge revelation — Vodafone’s exclusivity on the device will only last “a few weeks”. This of course paves the way for other carriers such as O2, Orange and T-Mobile to get in on the Storm action. While all of the aforementioned Storm2 candidate carriers have remained mom mum on the matter, The Guardian is hedging its bets on Orange carrying the Storm2 in time for Christmas. What does this all mean for the UK? Well, when one considers that every major carrier is going to be offering the iPhone 3GS and has the option of picking up the Storm2, it looks as if a major price war is about to erupt in time for the holidays.

Read

While it’s certainly not much to go on, The Guardian is reporting that the BlackBerry Storm 9520 aka Storm2 will be announced this week by Vodafone UK. Specifics are scarce and it is not entirely clear as to when consumers will actually be able to actually purchase the next-gen Storm, but at the moment we’re more interested in another matter. You see, The Guardian seems to think that Vodafone subs will be able to walk away with a new Storm for free on all tariffs over  £30 ($47.40 USD). Now, whether or not these contracts are for the standard 18 months or painfully long (for the UK) 24 month affair might be an issue for some, but the fact remains that Vodafone seems to be clearly targeting O2 and its much more expensive Palm Pre.

Read

We’ve got some new info that leads us to believe the BlackBerry 9550 will be the model number of the BlackBerry Storm 2 due out later this year on Verizon and probably Vodafone. Besides a much better (hopefully) screen tech, the big news with the BlackBerry Storm 2 is the inclusion of Wi-Fi. Here’s a run down of the specifications for the BlackBerry 9550:

• CDMA 1xRTT/EVDO Rev. A
• Quad-band GSM/EDGE
• Single-band UMTS/HSDPA (2100MHz only)
• Wi-Fi b,g
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• 360×480 resolution capacitive screen
• OS 5.0

And oh yeah… remember those rumors of a BlackBerry 9520 (AT&T/Rogers 3G Storm)? We’ve confirmed that unit does in fact exist and could possibly be released relatively soon.

UPDATE: Not to completely confuse everyone, but we wanted to clarify that if and when AT&T, Rogers and other carriers get the Storm, it will be the Storm 2 (new version) not the first 9500/9530-based model.

SlashGear reported on a rumor they heard about the next generation BlackBerry Storm launching with Wi-Fi on Verizon Wireless. We’ve been able to confirm that rumor a pretty long while ago, so yes, the Storm 2 will launch on Verizon with Wi-Fi. SlashGear was correct in their report and it’s 100% confirmed. Something not reported though, and now confirmed to us by two independent sources, is the new screen tech involved. We’re told that it improves the screen enormously and makes typing really pleasurable. Better yet? You can leave it to RIM to come up with the dumbest names possible because we heard they’re ditching SurePress and calling this one TruePress. Don’t take that as fact, but it is interesting that both our sources had mentioned the same thing to us. So, the BlackBerry Storm 2 will launch with Wi-Fi and a brand new screen technology, and, if we were a betting bunch we’d wager it will have a 5 megapixel camera.

Don’t you just love rumors?

Late this afternoon, Canada’s TELUS Mobility formally announced that it too has launched the BlackBerry 8230 Pearl Flip. Starting at $49.99 on a three-year contract and going all the way up to $449.99 contract-free, TELUS is hoping the youth market in Canada will receive the clam shell smartphone with open arms — especially younger females considering TELUS’ nation-wide media campaign featuring the all pink Pearl Flip. While other carriers have pink variants of the Pearl Flip, TELUS is the only carrier whose device has pink on the external housing rather than surrounding the SureType keypad. Whether or not its efforts are going to be rewarded in full, TELUS can at least be pleased people are already excited by the low price tag and rumors of an ultra-cheap voice and data plan thought to be in the mid-$30 range.

We don’t yet know what OS the TELUS version is running, but we assume it’s one build better than what Bell released its Pearl Flip with.

Read

It’s no big secret that industry awards are often nothing more than a sham with awards earmarked here and there so that each company can walk away with another excuse for a bad press release. Some of the awards given out this past Tuesday at the Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona however, are making us scratch our heads more than usual. We don’t mean to single out any companies in particular, but when we saw that RIM’s SurePress got the nod for the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough we were absolutely flabbergasted. Breakthrough in what way? And don’t give us that whole “precision typing and navigation enables a whole [sic] range of applications and features that have not been possible on a touchscreen mobile device” spin that some random PR intern cooked up.

We honestly struggled for a long time to think of a single application for the Storm that is better than any of the alternatives for other touchscreen handsets and we simply couldn’t do it. Now before some of you go off and start whining about how “BGR hates BlackBerry” you should know how untrue that is — there’s room enough in our hearts and on our belts for all phones. If you knew how many BlackBerry devices we’ve owned (and still own) collectively, you’d know how much we love the ‘Berry. The simple fact of the matter is the more time we spend with SurePress the more frustrated we get with it.

We would love for a company to come up with a touchscreen that issued the same sensation one feels when typing on a physical keypad, but until it happens with a capacitive keypad we plain and simply aren’t interested in it. Why? Because technology such as SurePress slows down even the most basic tasks. Typing a quick email on the Storm can be rather frustrating as half of the time typing any text requires that you momentarily pause while the screen “clicks” and resets to its natural position, thus allowing you to type the next character. It’s definitely something that some people can live with, but we bet you would be shocked at the number of times we hear from people who have a Storm along with other touchscreen devices like the Touch Diamond, Omnia or iPhone and say they can no longer stand the Storm because of its keypad.

If only RIM would have set its sights less on trying to outdo Apple (denying the fact that RIM wanted the Storm to be an “iPhone” killer is preposterous) with gimmicky technology. It could easily have selected a pre-existing capacitive touchscreen and created a heavily modified OS to better suit it. Had it chosen to do so, we think RIM would have hit one so hard it might have hit the lighting at Tigers Stadium. But instead RIM wasted time, money and credibility because it tried to do something that it just isn’t ready for or fully-capable of doing. It’s a damn shame too, because we were really rooting for RIM to have a unanimous hit on its hands.

Read

Not wanting to be left out of the party, Bell has followed Telus’ lead and announced that it too has released the BlackBerry 9530 Storm in Canada. Available today in the Greater Toronto Area, the Storm will be “widely available at stores” across Canada tomorrow. If you live in a more rural area and prefer to order your phones online, then bell.ca won’t be listing the Storm until tomorrow. As for the cost of the phone, Bell is asking for 3-years and $249.99 in conjunction with a minimum of $45 of voice and data per month. ($5 more per month than Telus requires.) As for the levels of stock that each store will receive, we’re afraid that it’s not a whole lot because Bell has been emailing their most valued customers $50-off coupons for the Storm that are valid for all of January. All things lead us to believe that Bell is doing what Telus is doing — only offering the device to new customers until adequate levels of stock arrive.

Thanks, to everyone that sent this in!

Read