Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been catching glimpses of the BlackBerry Style for so long we’re glad to see it finally hit the big time: reality. Yes, Sprint and RIM have just made the 9670 QWERTY flip phone official, so if you’ve been dying to grab one, well you’re going to get your chance. This bad boy runs the all new BlackBerry OS6, boasts a 5 megapixel cam, and two high resolution displays (one external, one internal). Other than that. you’ll find built-in GPS and WiFi, and a microsSDHC slot for up to 32GB of storage. You’ll be able to preorder starting tomorrow with a ship date of October 31st, and it’ll run you $99 on contract after a mail-in rebate. Full press release is below.

Continue reading BlackBerry Style officially launches October 31st for $99 on Sprint

BlackBerry Style officially launches October 31st for $99 on Sprint originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Research in Motion introduced its PlayBook tablet Monday, it was diving into a market already dominated by Apple’s iPad.

But there’s other competition too, either already on the market or soon to be: The 5-inch Dell Streak is available now, and Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab isn’t.

Since the iPad started shipping in April, Apple has sold more than 3 million devices. In June, Dell introduced the Streak, a device billed as a tablet but priced like a phone. Samsung hopes to bring its tablet, the Galaxy Tab to market in time for holiday-season shopping.

RIM announced its latest device, the 7-inch PlayBook, at its developer conference Monday.

The PlayBook won’t be available till early next year. But it’s not too soon to see how its promised specs stack up with the main competitors it will face when it comes out.

*Battery life  as specified by the manufacturer

See Also:

• Kno Creates 14-inch Tablet for Students
• RIM Unveils Tethered Tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook
• How the Tablet Will Change the World
• Build Your Own Tablet for $400
• Samsung Introduces 7-Inch Tablet to Rival iPad
• Dell’s Streak Tablet Is Priced Like a Phone

Photo: BlackBerry PlayBook/Research In Motion

Today at Research In Motion’s annual BlackBerry Developer Conference, CEO Mike Lazaridis announced the company’s new tablet — the PlayBook. The tablet will utilize an OS created by the recently acquired QNX (just as we’d heard previous to the announcement) called the BlackBerry Tablet OS which will offer full OpenGL and POSIX support alongside web standards such as HTML5 (which is all tied into RIM’s new WebWorks SDK). Lazaridis was joined on stage by the company’s founder, Dan Dodge, who said that “QNX is going to enable things that you have never seen before,” and added that the PlayBook would be “an incredible gaming platform for publishers and the players.” RIM also touted the PlayBook’s ability to handle Flash content via Flash 10.1, as well as Adobe AIR apps. The new slate — which Lazaridis described as “the first professional tablet” — will sport a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display, a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU (the company calls it the “fastest tablet ever”), 1GB of RAM, and a 3 megapixel front-facing camera along with a 5 megapixel rear lens (and yes, there will be video conferencing). There was no mention of onboard storage capacity during the keynote, though the devices we just spied in our eyes-on post are labeled 16GB and 32GB on their back panels. The PlayBook will be capable of 1080p HD video, and comes equipped with an HDMI port as well as a microUSB jack, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1. The device clocks in at a svelte 5.1- by 7.6-inches, is only 0.4-inches thick, and weighs just 400g (or about 0.9 pounds).

In terms of interface, the OS looks like a mashup of webOS and the BlackBerry OS, even allowing for multitasking via what amounts to a “card” view. Interestingly, RIM and QNX boasted of the PlayBook’s multimedia and gaming functions, but Mike Lazaridis also described the tablet as “an amplified view of what’s already on your BlackBerry.” That’s due largely in part to a function of the tablet which allows you to siphon data off of your BlackBerry handset via Bluetooth tethering and display it on your PlayBook (a la the ill-fated Palm Foleo). While the PlayBook doesn’t seem to rely on phone content alone, the press release from the company says that users can “use their tablet and smartphone interchangeably without worrying about syncing or duplicating data.” RIM didn’t hand out any solid launch dates beyond “early 2011,” and of course, there was no mention of retail price. We’ve got a slew of content after the break, including the PlayBook spec rundown, the company’s press release, and a full video of the device (and UI) in action — so take a look!

Continue reading RIM introduces PlayBook — the BlackBerry tablet

RIM introduces PlayBook — the BlackBerry tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like our pals at Research In Motion are taking the company name literally this week — they’ve got a pair of patent applications target ads to automobiles and pedestrians on the street by dynamically changing their information density. By taking a page out of Google’s book and measuring the relative position of GPS-equipped phones (or using traditional sensors should that fail), RIM wants to create digital billboards that automatically add details the slower traffic gets. In one example, a “Road House Restaurant” could display only the name and exit number of the joint in giant letters when traffic moves quickly, but pitch that delectable pecan pie more thoroughly when it’s stop and go — but RIM’s thinking a bit further than that, suggesting that when vehicles are particularly slow, you could pull out your phone and get a coupon by photographing a projected QR code. The future, ladies and gentlemen.

RIM tries to patent billboards that adjust to roadside traffic originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s felt almost as if the BlackBerry smartphone rumor mill has been a little too quiet — dare we say burnt out — since the Torch hit the scene (BlackPad notwithstanding, of course). That’s all changed with a pair of interesting leaks care of Boy Genius Report. Behold a successor to the Bold 9700, the R020. The tri-band UMTS / quad-band EDGE device is gonna disappoint some with the same 624MHz clockspeed and 2.44-inch 480 x 360 screen, but it does have twice the RAM (512MB), a 5 megapixel camera with AF and flash, and of course runs on BlackBerry 6. If the purported leaked slides are correct, a device of such magnitude should be launching in the October timeframe. Looking to the CDMA side of things — which means likely both Verizon and Sprint — we’ve got a 9670 “Oxford” (at least by codename) flip phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixel camera, 360 x 400 internal display (240 x 320 for the external), usual amenities like WiFi and GPS, and the hip new BB6. No touchscreen on either phones, as far as we can tell, but perhaps that’s a blessing for those that fret smudged screens.

BlackBerry Bold R020 and 9670 Oxford flip outed? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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