For all of those still rocking the 9000, rejoice!  AT&T has decided not to forget the on of the original gamerchangers, and updated you to 5.0.0.822 today.  Most companies are notorious for updating older phones or phones that have left the spotlight, so it’s nice to see that AT&T has not done this.  Let us know of any changes you find!

via: BerryReview

Some of you may have noticed straight off the bat that the title says leaked, so please take the following with a grain of salt (even though it’s most likely true).  Back to the news though, pups!  The Bold 9700 is arguably the best BlackBerry on the market right now, and can be ticked off as a win on RIM’s chalkboard.  Taking that into consideration, whoever decided to simply refresh the 9700 and not make any huge leaps forward should be fired.  What we have before this is official documentation that states that the 9780 will be a 9700 with 512mb of RAM, a 5 mega-pixel camera, and BlackBerry 6.  We wish we could tell you that the successor to the 9700 would be another game changer for RIM, but we’d be lying. Come on, RIM, give us something to get excited about.

via: Boy Genius

If there is one thing RIM really needs now, it’s a carrier to support them and provide their products with some brilliant marketing. AT&T have finally released a flashy commercial for the BlackBerry smartphone of the season, and it’s a start.  It’s a nice ad, but it just doesn’t POP. RIM is in dire need of some POP beyond what the device does itself. This will be the first BlackBerry with BlackBerry 6, as well as the first to integrate the BlackBerry keyboard will a full-on touchscreen.  Let us know what you think of the 9800’s star performance in the comments below!

via: RIMarkable

After AT&T and RIM announced the new BlackBerry Torch 9800 it was just a matter of time until other carriers around the world would do so as well. All Canadian carriers have confirmed they will carry the Torch 9800 though there is no official release date yet. The usual mention “in the coming weeks” probably points to a launch at the end of Q3.

Official Rogers announcement: Redboard Blog
Virgin’s announcement: Twitter

Not just those of you living in Canada have something to be happy about: Orange UK and Vodafone UK have will carry the Torch 9800 as well.
For both there is no details on availability or pricing. Orange UK announced that it will be offered to its customers soon while Vodafone UK placed it on their website, where it says “Coming soon to pay monthly”. You can register for updates on availability on the Vodafone UK page.

Vodafone and Verizon have always worked pretty close together and now it will be very interesting if we get to see the Torch 9800 on Verizon as well. Also I’m pretty excited if Vodafone will announce the Torch 9800 for other countries as well since I’m still in Germany and waiting for it desperately.

via: thecellularguru, mobileburn, BBleaks

Lots of news and exciting stuff today! Ralph de la Vega (AT&T president) and Mike Lazaridis (RIM President & Co-CEO) were on stage bringing us the Torch 9800 and BlackBerry 6. Let’s wrap it up to the most significant things:

The Torch 9800 was named after a company called Torch Mobile (who specialized in Webkit browsers) which became part of the RIM family, and also because it’s the first BlackBerry to have the new Webkit browser. It’s also RIM’s first ever combination slider and touch screen device.

Launching with the 9800 there will be BlackBerry 6 and it has some hot new features:

• Universal search – Just open it up and search your BlackBerry; feeds, settings, email, web, calendars, text messages even App World – in short: simply everything. And it’s simple to use: Slide the Torch open and start typing, that’s it! Apps can also tie into universal search bringing back all kinds of results.

• Unified Social Feed – Using feeds, Twitter, Facebook, Google Talk, everything in one list, also featuring seemless integration across  applications.

• Redesigned Media Environment – Working via WiFi for seemlessly syncing to your PC – Bluetooth for connecting to your car or Bluetooth headphones. They are also introducing the ability to look at your pictures by folder or date, and the ability to do multiple selections via two finger tap and take actions on your selection. Also there is now a podcast app which let’s you browse, subscribe, and wirelessly download podcasts. Pick of the crop for me is the WiFi music sync. With the new Desktop App you will be able to sync your whole music catalog, or just tag songs for a later sync. So when you’re out and want a certain song, just tag it and when you get home it’ll be instantly synced.

• Redesigned Homescreen – Featuring notification previews: A tap on the preview bar reveals information about your notifications. Also we got to have more content on the homescreen, individual contacts and bookmarks can be placed on the homescreen following a swipe to the left for showing frequently used items or a swipe to the right to reveal your favorites.

The UI was completely redesigned, following the principle “fresh but familiar”, so it’s remaining familiar to former BlackBerry users. Their main priority was to deliver a great user experience for existing as well as new customers. I really think RIM did a great job from what I’ve seen so far.

Another great thing is the Webkit browser. It features HTML5 support so now there’s the ability to make apps with HTML5 and CSS and then distribute them through App World. It’s not as lame as it may sound because it’s not just a webpage as an app, they can run in the background, access files and media, use location-based services, get notifications, etc. You get the idea.
Something very important for me was that Apps written for earlier versions of BlackBerry OS will run on 6, so we won’t lose what we paid for. I’m really excited now, these features sound so great. It was actually more than I expected, still I think I need to play around with this myself to see if all those features become useful to me in daily life.

Are you excited yet? I sure am! Can’t wait for it to hit Germany. And you lucky guys won’t have to wait that long for the Torch – it goes on sale August 12th for $199 with a two year data plan. Don’t forget to tell us your thoughts in the comments!

via: Engadget

Remember when the Storm2 9550 and the Curve 8530 were released? It was not that long ago, was it? Yet Verizon seems to be giving those two an End of Life after not even a year. It would only seem logical to EOL these two if there were some replacements on the way. The Curve 9300 series should replace the 8530, and the Storm2 is getting a refresh for OS 6 (maybe this is the Odin refresh we read about?).
The exact details of the EOL notices are the following:

BlackBerry Curve 8530:
The Curve2 is end of life – Final Shipments August
Refer to the “Stock Check” tool in POS for on hand availability
Device will retire on 8/1, replacement coming in Q3/Q4

BlackBerry Storm2 (9550):
The Storm2 is end of life – Final Shipments August
Refer to the “Stock Check” tool in POS for on hand availability
Device will retire on 8/15, replacement coming in Q3/Q4

When I first read this I was speechles. Since the Storm2 hit the German market, I wanted to have one and now that I have one, it will be replaced? I was so excited when I heard that OS 6 is finally on its way to the users and now – looking at my “old” Storm2 – my excitement just hit the basement and is hiding far beyond zero. It’s cool to have an Odin Refresh, really, yet I don’t want to spend so much money, just so I can have a Storm2 “refresh” that is capable of running OS 6.

Do you think it’s worth it? Feel free to express your thoughts in the comments.

via: BlackBerryCool

When we first saw a leaked picture of the Bold 9780, I was disappointed. I thought the device brought only a few but major changes to the “old” Bold 9700 (namely more memory and OS 6), making it completely obsolete. Now is that the case?
According to the information we have, BlackBerry 6 needs at least 512MB of memory to work properly and anything below is of no use. That’s a point which you might not be pleased to hear if rocking a Bold 9700. To me it seems like the Bold 9780 will just be a replacement, bringing only OS 6 to the “old Bold”. Photos leaked by Driphter show it running OS 6.0.0.79.

I can still remember when I got my Bold 9700. I ordered weeks before launch and I was waiting for the shop to open and to finally get it in my hands – felt like the best BlackBerry ever, really fast, really good shape, etc.. (not to mention the money spent on it!)
Now it seems to me RIM is going for this new trend that a lot of phone companies are going for: releasing a new device rather than bringing updates to an old one. Well, it’s just a thought and we will see what the future really brings. There’s also the possibility that the Bold 9700 really just wasn’t capable of running OS 6 (wondering though if there will be any good ports or hybrid-OS in the future).
If I was still owning my beloved 9700, I’d really not like to hear this news.

Any on of you 9700 owners out there sharing my thoughts? Give us your thoughts and opinion in the comments.

via: BlackBerryRocks

Hey ladies and gents.  This is Gunnar, and today is your lucky day.  Today, from 3-5 PM Eastern, I will be opening up my Gtalk for you to ask any questions you would like to.  Send me a DM on twitter @lovexxreverie with your name and Gtalk and I will add all of you accordingly.  This is an open invitation to anyone who would like to know any experiences or opinions I may have, or just talk.  It’s all up to you!

Remember when we first got all excited about some leaked Storm 3 specs? Well, there seems to be even more excitement on the way. Salomondrin got his hands on some specs that are still rumors, yet exciting as ever!

Here are some Storm 3 specs and info that I’ve heard so far repeatedly from my sources:

1. Its being tested by a very limited team (preventing leaks).
2. The phone’s shell is still the Storm 2′s shell with different guts though (To make it hard to identify if the phone is lost or photographed).
3. It does have a 1ghz processor.
4. 8 GB internal memory.
5. 512MB flash memory was what they saw first, but apparently they are now playing with these test phones and have over 1GB of flash memory.
6. It won’t run on OS 6.0. Its gonna be running on an OS of its own. <– Really exciting
7. The phone does have the ability to run widgets and you can personalize it A LOT.
8. 5 MP camera still on it as off now, but like we saw on the 9670, this can change.
9. The screen will be something new we haven’t seen yet (new input mechanism) ,but it won’t work like the Storm 2. Yes, it will have SURE-PRESS, but I’m not sure how they are archiving it this time.
10. Its gonna be Verizon’s 1st or 2nd LTE phone. They aren’t sure if the Android phone will be first or the Storm at this point.

I’m especially excited about the OS it will be running and the screen it will have. Since I’m in Germany and there’s no big news about LTE here, I’m not that impressed but I’m pretty sure you might be. The other leaked specs like the 1ghz processor, the internal memory, and the flash memory seem to be confirmed though we don’t have any waterproof information yet. The hardware sounds amazing, and I hope RIM does their best to create matching software that still features everything we love about BlackBerry.

What do you think? Does this sound like the touchscreen BlackBerry you always wanted?
Give us your thoughts in the comments and our forums! Feel free to tell us what you wish for Storm 3 to have!

Editors Note: The specs sound solid, but call us skeptical when it comes to the OS situation. While it’s certainly possible that RIM has been working on a secret OS deep inside Waterloo, we’re not sure if we buy into it. Sal is typically very reliable with his information, so we’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt; just don’t be shocked if the OS portion turns out to be false.

via: Salomondrin

Put on your tinfoil hats and whip out your salt shakers, its rumor time! While we’ve known for some time that the 9800 Slider would be an AT&T exclusive in the United States, we hadn’t heard much about availability in the Great White North. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you happen to not be on Rogers) we finally have a smidgen of news (read: rumor) to report. According to Canadian blog Mobile Syrup, one of their sources is reporting:

“…the 9800 could be exclusive to Rogers only due to Bell and Telus already has touch screen BlackBerrys (Storm 1 and 2).”

While we aren’t overly impressed with the source, we have to agree with their logic. With both Bell and Telus (and Verizon in the US) already selling one of RIM’s touchscreen devices, it makes sense to launch their new flagship on a carrier where it won’t be competing with its cousins. There’s no word on the length of the potential exclusivity deal, but we’d expect something in the three to six month range.

How about it folks, does this impact your Slider plans or were you already prepared for this to be a Rogers-only party? Let us know what you think in the comments!

via MobileSyrup