Sprint will launch the BlackBerry Curve 9350 on October 2

Contrary to previous rumors, Sprint's new BlackBerry Curve 9350 did not become available earlier this month. That said, the carrier has certainly not forgotten about the affordable smartphone running BlackBerry OS 7 and sporting that ‘classic' BlackBerry form factor.

Thanks to a leaked Sprint document (shown below), we now know that the Curve 9350 is set to become available on October 2. That means that if you were waiting to purchase this device, in ten days your wait will be over.

Pricing has remained unchanged. Sprint will still ask $79.99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate) for the Curve 9350. That price is valid only if you sign a new two-year service agreement.

The Curve 9350 is one of the cheapest new BlackBerry smartphones, and as such it should become one of the best selling. So let's hope that the image you see above isn't a hoax and it will launch soon. Although it should be noted that the BlackBerry Curve 9350 can in no way have a “faster touchscreen”, as noted in that document. It's impossible, because the Curve 9350 doesn't have a touchscreen. So we'll assume that the poor choice of words was referring to the trackpad instead.

Anyway, we'll find out soon enough if this was real or not. So stay tuned.
source:Unwired View

BlackBerry Torch 9860 launches in India, priced at Rs. 28,490

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 has been officially launched in India today. It follows in the footsteps of two other recently unveiled BlackBerry smartphones, the Torch 9810 and the Bold 9900, which have already made it to India. All three aforementioned devices run the latest BlackBerry OS 7, of course.

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 is the successor to the failed Storm series, and as such is a ‘touch only' device. So there's no physical QWERTY keyboard anywhere to be found on it.

The Torch 9860 has been priced at Rs. 28,490 (which translates into approximately $599 or €435) and is now available across India. It has a 3.7-inch 480×800 touchscreen, a 1.2 GHz processor, a 5 MP autofocus camera with 720p HD video recording, 4 GB of built-in storage, 768 MB of RAM, microSD card support, 14.4 Mbps HSDPA, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 1,230 mAh battery.
source:Unwired View

T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve 9360 available for $79 on September 28th, swanks it up with merlot variant

Attention power users and devotees of physical portrait QWERTYs, RIM's outing yet another member of its Curve family this month. Running the Waterloo-based company's latest BB 7 OS, Magenta's BlackBerry Curve 9360 actually goes up for pre-sale today, but you'll have to count yourself amongst the enterprise set for the early access perks. For the rest of us, the carrier's set a September 28th launch for the standard black version of this 2.4-inch, touchscreen-less handset. But that's not all - perhaps following up on the latest fashion-centric trend, the company's also releasing this mid-range entry in a wine-soaked hue of merlot on October 12th. Regardless of your style preferences, the phone'll be available for a wallet-pleasing $79.99 on a two-year contract (after a $50 rebate). So, were not sure if this was worthy of the 'Apollo' moniker, but at least our in-house Ms. Cleo was right on the money.
source:Engadget

BlackBerry Torch 9860 Hits India

RIM has just announced the availability of their new BlackBerry Torch 9860 in India. The handset can be yours for Rs. 28,490 (about $599). In case you didn't remember, this smartphone offers a 3.7-inch 480 x 800 touchscreen display, a 1.2GHz processor, a 768MB RAM, a 4GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, a 5MP autofocus camera with 720p HD video recording, 14.4 Mbps HSDPA, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1,230mAh battery and runs on BlackBerry OS 7. [FoneArena]

BlackBerry Curve Touch 9380 'Orlando' poses for the masses, invites you to look... but not touch

There's a new BlackBerry coming to town, and as you're likely aware, it's the first touchscreen-based Curve from Research in Motion. The folks BGRhappened to score a few still shots of the pint-sized companion, where it's situated next to its larger Torch sibling for comparison. The specs remain the same since we last checked in with the device, though as a quick point of clarification, its HD video capture is limited to 720p - as if you reallyexpected full 1080p. We can't include all the snapshots here, but it's rather obvious this isn't your father's BlackBerry.
source:Engadget

BlackBerry Bold 9980 spotted next to T-Mobile Bold 9900

Remember the funky looking BlackBerry Bold 9980 that is said to be designed by Porsche? Well, more high quality photographs of the phone have surfaced again, and this time it is placed side by side with a T-Mobile Bold 9900 phone for comparison of size and parts. In addition to more detailed photographs about the phone, there are screenshots showing the phone powered on and running BlackBerry OS 7.

If the phone was a fake or some “Shanzai” copy, whoever created it sure put a lot of effort into duplicating the operating system as well. In fact, it seems to be very much a BlackBerry phone wit if wasn't for the futuristic looking keyboard and overall design. Perhaps it could have been a prototype model that never made it past the testing stages. What do you think of the Bold 9980? Check out the full set of comparison photographs.
source:Ubergizmo

RIM co-CEO: BlackBerry PlayBook price cuts coming

During RIM's second-quarter earnings call, co-CEO Jim Balsillie noted that the company plans to offer price cuts on the not-so-popular BlackBerry PlayBook in the form of rebates, and an incentive program for enterprise sales. Additionally, Balsillie mentioned that there will be a major software update for the PlayBook coming soon. RIM reported during its earnings call on Thursday that it only sold 200,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets into channels during its August quarter, after having shipped 500,000 units in the fiscal first quarter. Wall Street was expecting PlayBook shipments to total 700,000 units in the quarter.
source:Boy Genius Report

RIM to cut PlayBook prices and release massive update

We all know that RIM hasn't been doing too well, thanks to its recent Q2 financial report where it announced losses and the disappointing sales of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. RIM had only shipped out 200,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets in Q2 - a far cry from the 490,000 tablets that analysts expected the company to move out. Well, in order to turn the tablet into a success, the company is going to do what a lot of companies seem to be doing recently - give it a price cut.

However RIM won't be cutting the price of the tablet directly - the discount will be given through incentive programs, rebates and deals. It wasn't mentioned how much this discount will be but we should find out in due time. In addition to the announced price cut, RIM also mentioned that it will be releasing in October: a huge update to the PlayBook that brings all the long-awaited missing features to the tablet: a native e-mail, calendar and contacts app, the Android app player, and video store with 10,000 videos. We can't wait.
source:Ubergizmo

Hands on with the BlackBerry Curve 9360

During a press event in New York City on Wednesday night we met up with Research In Motion to check out the BlackBerry Curve 9360, the latest of its BlackBerry OS 7 devices. Unlike the Torch 9850x9860 and the Bold 9900, the Curve 9360 does not offer a touchscreen display. This wasn't a deal breaker, though, as it was one of the nicest Curve models we've seen to date. The 9360, which had Rogers branding, had the same top-notch keyboard as the Curves that came before it, although we prefer the Bold 9900 keyboard just a bit more. The interface felt rather smooth but we're still not excited about the lackluster operating system. Sprint has announced that it will carry the device in the U.S. for $49.99 on contract, but it recently bumped the launch date from September 9th to sometime in October for unknown reasons. Our DSLR was on the fritz so we had to use a good old point-and-shoot, but nonetheless.
source:Boy Genius Report

BlackBerry market share in Q2 may have hit single digits

Research In Motion on Thursday reported another disappointing quarter. BlackBerry subscribers were up 40% year-over-year in the second quarter but RIM's net income plummeted by 60%, margins were squeezed, average selling prices of BlackBerry smartphones dropped and RIM managed to burn through more than half of its cash in a single quarter. Concerns are mounting, analysts are barking and RIM's stock fell off a cliff in after-hours trading. Tossing yet another concern onto the pile, RIM's global smartphone market share likely dipped into the single digits last quarter. Read on for more.

Independent analyst Horace Dediu on Friday noted in a post on his Asymco blog that RIM's share of the worldwide smartphone market may have finally fallen into the single-digit range this past quarter. The vendor shipped only 10.6 million handsets in its fiscal second quarter, missing its own forecast of between 11 million and 12.5 million units, and missing even some of the most conservative analyst estimates as well.

“In terms of the competition, 10.6 million units is less than half what Apple or Samsung sold in its prior quarter,” Dediu wrote in a blog post on Friday. “It's also less than what HTC sold. RIM's volume rank will likely go to fifth place as a smartphone vendor.”

Though RIM's BlackBerry subscriber count surpassed 70 million during its August quarter to reach an all-time high, BlackBerry handset shipments in the fiscal second quarter were down 11% compared to the same quarter in 2010, and down 18% sequentially. “In terms of market share, we'll have to wait for the competitor data over the next six weeks but the market has been growing at an average of 77% for four quarters so any continuation of this trend would imply RIM's share dropping to single digits,” Dediu noted.

According to recent data from market research firm Gartner, RIM's BlackBerry platform represented 11.7% of the global smartphone market in the second calendar quarter of 2011.

Market share woes aside, the analyst calls RIM's sharp decline in profitability the “biggest shock” among the bad news from yesterday's earnings report. “It seems that operating margin dropped from 21% to 13%,” wrote Dediu in his post. “The company did incur some one-time charges for recent layoffs, but even without that charge, the margins would be around 16%.

“This is most alarming. The reason for such drops is that as volumes decrease fixed costs don't decrease as rapidly or at all,” the analyst noted. “The company still needs to keep sales, administration and engineering staff around and they become a larger part of the operating expenses (vs. the component costs which vary with volume of goods sold).”
source:Boy Genius Report

BlackBerry PlayBook price slashing begins: $249 and up for Rogers workers

Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie revealed on the company's second-quarter earnings call that RIM would soon be dropping prices on its BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. While the new price points have not yet been disclosed, it looks like the first move in carriers' efforts to clear their shelves actually started this past Tuesday. Long-time RIM comrade Rogers has launched an internal sale on each of RIM's three PlayBook models, and company employees are now able to purchase the slate at discounts of up to 50% off. Normally $499.99, the 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is now just $249, the 32GB model drops to $349 from $599.99, and the high-end 64GB PlayBook drops to $399 from its normal $699.99 price tag. While it is unclear what RIM plans to charge end users for the PlayBook moving forward, these prices could give us an idea of what's in store.
source:Boy Genius Report

Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Torch 9850 Will Be Available For $199, Starting 8th September!

The BlackBerry Torch 9850 is one of the first devices to feature the all-new BlackBerry 7 OS. It sports a magnificent 3.7" industry-standard capacitive touchscreen display. While the display is certainly the biggest-ever on a BlackBerry till date, it boasts a resolution of 800×480 pixels.

A 5 megapixel camera is beautifully inscribed on the back of the phone. It is capable of 720p HD video recording and of course, comes with a LED flash. Under the hood, a 1.2GHz processor effortlessly drives the new and even-more-intuitive BlackBerry 7 OS.

Other interesting features of the Verizon BlackBerry 9850 include an improved browser, 3G connectivity, the usual set of sensors and quad band support including UMTS, HSPA, GSM, GPRS and EDGE connectivity.

Connectivity options include Bluetoth 2.1, Wi-Fi and onboard GPS. There's 16GB of storage space with support for expanding memory by up to 32GB using a microSD card.

Here's an excerpt from the press release by VZW:

"Verizon Wireless today announced the new BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 smartphone will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com on Sept. 8, and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Sept. 15...  BlackBerry® Balance is now integrated, allowing secure access to business information while preventing it from being copied into, sent from or used by personal applications.  Customers can stay connected to their personal and business lives while in or out of the office."

RIM has also packaged some even more interesting features which include BlackBerry Balance - a feature that allows secure access to business information whilst prevent apps to store personal data, Liquid Graphics technology for high-quality fluid-smooth graphics, latest version of BBM, better social networking apps and much more.

The Verizon BlackBerry 9850 release date, as of now, will be September 8th for online stores and September 15th for the brick and mortar VZW stores across the States. As of now, the device will be available for $199 against a two-year customer contract with VZW. Additionally a $39.99 impression in your monthly bill will get you 2GB of data with the Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk Plan.

Click here to know more.
source:Technology Nerd

BlackBerry Torch 9850 Reviews

RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9850 is the company's third smartphone to launch with a full touchscreen form factor, following the original Storm and the Storm 2, and it's the first to launch on Sprint. The 9850 packs brand new hardware and the new BlackBerry 7 operating system into a thin industrial design, but is it enough of an improvement over the earlier Storm devices to warrant your upgrade? Can it compete with other touchscreen smartphones? I've been using the Torch 9850 for the past week and my full review of the smartphone follows below.

Hardware When I went to Toronto in early August to see RIM's brand new family of BlackBerry smartphones, I walked away most impressed with the Torch 9850. It was thin, I loved the hardware buttons, the onscreen keyboard seemed to work well and I appreciated the rounded edges. After spending a week with the Torch 9850 and the Bold 9930 side by side, I've found myself gravitating to the Bold 9930. The Torch 9850 clearly has a high-end design, but it's not as polished and luxurious feeling as the Bold 9930.

The top of the phone can be pressed to activate the phone's lock mechanism. The right side is home to rubber volume up/down toggle keys, a camera quick-launch button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Torch 9850 has a 3.7-inch 800 x 480-pixel resolution touchscreen display that was more than bright enough for viewing under direct sunlight. It also has four hardware buttons for placing and ending calls, accessing the menu and stepping backwards through menus. There's an optical trackpad in the middle of all four buttons which worked well but, given the phone's touchscreen, it wasn't necessary most of the time.

There's a 5-megapixel camera and single LED flash on the back of the Torch 9850, and the soft touch finish gives it a nice premium touch. The top, bottom and sides of the phone also have a faux chrome finish, although that has been known to chip off of BlackBerry phones over time. I like the new Torch hardware, but there's too much plastic in comparison to the brushed metal RIM used on the Bold 9930.

Software The Torch 9850 is great until you turn it on. The absolute weakest part of the package is RIM's BlackBerry 7 operating system. It's painfully stale and even though the Torch packs a 1.2GHz processor, the phone often displayed the infamous spinning pinwheel that lets you know it's stalling on a task.

BlackBerry OS 7 is not a large improvement over OS 6. In fact, it looks exactly the same when you turn the phone on. There are still eight visible app icons on a menu bar that can be raised or lowered with a single tap. Swiping the menu left or right reveals four other app drawers: Frequent, Downloads, Media and Favorites. BlackBerry OS 7 allows you to deactivate any of those drawers by hitting “Menu” and then “Manage panels.” The operating system offers several other features, but it is still slow and far behind competing operating systems from Apple, Google and Microsoft. Wallpaper lovers be damned, I'm still shocked at the waste of space on the home screen. I'm kicking a dead horse, but RIM needs to move to QNX, stat.

The phone's software keyboard was adequate although keys were a bit small for my tastes. I found myself frequently making errors with the Torch 9850, despite its auto-correct feature, and I was often annoyed while typing anything at all. Sprint had sent along the Bold 9930 with my Torch 9850, so I used that phone's stellar hardware keyboard for nearly every task that involved a significant amount of typing.

The Torch 9850's WebKit web browser is much better than the one found in BlackBerry OS 6. Most websites loaded just fine and I was able to pan around them with minimal lag most of the time. The browser still doesn't support Adobe Flash content, but that's certainly not a deal breaker.

I need to address BlackBerry App World because it's the second biggest letdown about the Torch 9850 aside from the software itself. There are simply not enough good applications available for download. The App World is chock full of mediocre apps, few of which interest me in any way. RIM's BlackBerry App World is lagging far behind iOS and Android, and I hope RIM has bigger plans for QNX.

Data and Call Quality

Calls placed on the Torch 9850 were solid. Voices sounded clear and I didn't have many complaints other than the volume buttons were a bit harder to press compared to other phones. I loaded a number of websites rather quickly over Sprint's EV-DO 3G network and was generally pleased with the data performance. I do wish the carrier worked with RIM to release a 4G WiMAX version of the phone since it has a number of 4G Android devices that will offer faster speeds out of the box for a lower price. While it supports 802.11b/g/n networks I'm shocked that it doesn't offer a mobile hotspot option for sharing the 3G connection with other Wi-Fi devices.

Camera I took the Torch 9850 to the beach with me for the weekend and used it to snap a number of photos. I liked how fast the camera was able to capture shots. I did not find the photos particularly impressive however, and the flash often blew out my subject in darker scenes. The Torch 9850 can be used to record 720p video, although I found the quality was not as good as the videos recorded with a number of Android phones I have on my desk. The video was noticeably grainy but I did appreciate the continuous auto-focus.

Battery I still miss the times when I could go more than two days with my BlackBerry Bold 9700. The Torch 9850 was easily able to make it through a full 24 hours of moderate usage before I needed to charge it again. It also idled very well, so I'd expect it to last longer with light use. If you stick with BlackBerry over Android or iOS for its battery life, you should be generally pleased with the Torch 9850′s performance.

Conclusion During my review I was approached by a BGR fan asking to see my BlackBerry Bold 9930. “I also have the Torch 9850,” I told him as I took it out of my pocket. He looked at both of them and said, “Yeah, this isn't for me, I'm definitely more excited for the Bold.” That's exactly how I feel about the Torch.

The 9850 is decent enough if you require a full touchscreen display, but if you need a BlackBerry and are on Sprint, I'd recommend the Bold 9930 any day, hands-down. It has the best keyboard I've ever used and the design is much more beautiful.

RIM created the Torch 9850 to go toe-to-toe with the dozens of full touchscreen smartphones on the market that run iOS, Windows Phone and Android. Unfortunately, because BlackBerry OS 7 is so far behind the pack, the Torch 9850 simply can't compete.

source:Boy Genius Report

RIM's new BlackBerry phones faring well with enterprise, consumer adoption slow

Research In Motion's new BlackBerry 7 smartphones are seeing strong initial sales among businesses looking to upgrade from older BlackBerry smartphones, however consumer sales have been weak according to Canaccord Genuity. In a research note, Canaccord analysts Mike Walkley and Matt Ramsay found during channel checks that upgrade sales of BlackBerry 7 devices in North America were quite strong with enterprise customers in August. Specifically, Verizon Wireless saw strong Bold 9930 upgrade sales among its substantial enterprise customer base, while AT&T and Sprint saw mixed sales. T-Mobile's $300 Bold 9900 has not been selling well according to Canaccord's checks. Read on for more.

“Our August checks indicated strong initial Bold 9930 sales to the large installed Verizon enterprise base, but most store managers indicated limited sales to consumer customers that continue to choose the iPhone or Android smartphones versus BlackBerry,” the analysts wrote. “With the Bold 9900 the first compelling new BlackBerry in nearly two years for Verizon customers, we were encouraged as our checks indicated Verizon's large BlackBerry enterprise base appears to have strong demand for the first BlackBerry OS 7 device on Verizon's network. However, our more consumer-centric retail store checks indicated smartphone consumers continue to overwhelmingly choose the iPhone 4 or new Android smartphones versus the $250 Bold 9900.”

Walkley and Ramsay continue, noting that initial sales of AT&T's $50 Torch 9810 have been strong among consumers, though margins are likely tight considering the original Torch 9800′s $200 price tag. Canaccord believes RIM was forced to match the price of AT&T's iPhone 3GS and HTC Status in order to attract consumers to the new Torch. Enterprise interest in the device has been lacking according to the firm's checks, possibly due to businesses waiting for AT&T to launch the new Bold.

“Our checks at T-Mobile indicated weak initial sales for the Bold 9900, as Android smartphones maintain their top share at this carrier,” the note continues. “We believe the $300 price for this new BB 0S 7 device also contributed to the soft initial sales, and we anticipate T-Mobile will need to lower the price to match its competitors. Finally, our checks at Sprint indicated limited initial supply of Bold 9930 ($200) and the Torch 9850 ($150). While many stores sold out of initial quantities, most stores indicated very limited units at launch (<10 on average per store). As such, Sprint store managers indicated Android smartphones continue to sell much better than BlackBerry.” BGR has independently confirmed with multiple sources that Sprint retailers have received extremely limited inventory of RIM's new BlackBerry 7 smartphones thus far.

source:Boy Genius Report

Evernote released for BlackBerry PlayBook

According to Evernote's official blog, its popular cloud storage, note-taking, app, is now available for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. Previously available on other mobile devices that run iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7, Evernote is finally here for the QNX device. Since it's the first release of the app for the PlayBook, it has most of Evernote's basic functionalities, and isn't fully fleshed out like its counterparts yet - but you can expect it to catch up within the next few releases.

Here's what's available on the Evernote for PlayBook app: a two-column UI (snippets on the left, full notes on the right), the ability to create notes and attach files to them, and search and sort functionality. Evernote for the PlayBook is available now and can be downloaded for free from the BlackBerry App World.

source:Ubergizmo