Hasta La Gadget!

We just spent some time with Ryan Bidan, senior product manager for the PlayBook, who gave us a hands-on demo of BlackBerry Messenger on RIM’s little tablet. It’s not a native app — it requires the PlayBook to be paired with a BlackBerry smartphone via BlackBerry Bridge. The functionality is being pushed out “tonight” with a Bridge update on the handset side, and an OS update on the tablet side. So if you and your PlayBook have been longing to get your BBM on, today’s your lucky day — assuming of course that you have a BlackBerry phone on another network than AT&T. Expect a standalone app sometime in the future, but in the meantime hit our video above for the full demo.

BlackBerry Messenger on PlayBook hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 18:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Blackberry Bold 9900 and 9930 seem competent

RIM has just announced the BlackBerry Bold Touch. The new handset comes in two versions: the 9900 is the GSM 3G and 4G version, and the 9930 is the CDMA world-phone, with quad-band GSM and and dual-band UMTS.

With those various confusions dealt with, let’s take a peek inside. The Bold Touch runs on a 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, has 768MB RAM (and storage of 8GB to 32GB), a 5MP camera (which shoots 720p video), a 2.8-inch, 640 x 480 (287 ppi) display, all crammed into a pedestrian, thin-ish, corporate-friendly shell.

The Bold Touch also ships with a new version of the BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 7. This brings a new, HTML5-compatible browser, voice search and a smart feature which lets you seperate business and pleasure, segmenting things like Twitter and Facebook into their own ghetto. You know, because Twitter and Facebook are never used for work. I kid. This compartmentalizing means you can carry just one phone and be certain your drunken party videos will never turn up when you’re in a meeting.

It looks like a strong but unspectacular update from RIM. Which is of course exactly the kind of update its market — the IT department — loves.

Available this summer, price tba.

BlackBerry BlackBerry product page [BlackBerry]

BlackBerry Bold press release [BlackBerry]

See Also:

• BlackBerry Bold Loses Against iPhone in Browser Race
• BlackBerry Bold Now Free At Wal-Mart
• BlackBerry Bold in Trouble? Orange UK Suspends Bold Shipments …

We’ve seen it photographed, videotaped, and even, briefly, up on RIM’s own website. Now it’s up there to stay, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 (aka the Bold Touch) have been made official as RIM kicks off BlackBerry World in Orlando. As expected, the phone packs a 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor that has only a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen with a 287dpi pixel density to worry about. On the back is a five megapixel camera and inside is 8GB of internal storage (with microSD expansion) and NFC circuitry. At 10.5mm it’s RIM’s thinnest handset yet, featuring a stainless steel circumference and a fiberglass back, while up front of course it makes room for a full QWERTY keyboard. The 9900 supports HSPA+ connectivity to get its 4G on, while the 9930 is the world variant, adding dual-band CDMA and quad-band GSM to the mix, and both do 802.11a/b/g/n along with Bluetooth 2.1. Both, quite naturally, include the new BlackBerry 7 OS, including a faster browser and voice-activated search. Another picture and full specs are listed after the break, which will have to do you until this handset releases sometime in the summer, meaning this could be your next great beach accessory for those working vacations.

Update: Full press release and more images after the break.

Continue reading BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 (Bold Touch) official

BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 (Bold Touch) official originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What happened to the HTC Trophy, long overdue on Verizon 3G? How about the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, mysteriously missing a Verizon release date long before Japan’s catastrophe? Will Verizon commit to carrying the BlackBerry PlayBook this year? Just how much will LTE data cost for the Xoom and its tablet friends?

We may finally have some of the answers, thanks to Verizon’s fancy new online catalog. RIM’s tablet, the PlayStation Phone and the HTC Trophy are all listed as “coming soon,” and that’s not all — both the BlackBerry Bold 9650, Curve 3G 9330 and the Droid 2 Global are all “while supplies last,” suggesting successors may be inbound. Meanwhile, tablet LTE data plans look like they’re going to cost the same as 3G ones — $20 for 1GB, $35 for 3GB, $50 for 5GB and $80 for $10GB as usual. LTE netbooks will only be able to take advantage of the two highest-priced plans, but there are a pair of them on the way, including the 11.6-inch HP Pavilion dm1 (with a 1.6GHz AMD Fusion chip) and the 10.1-inch Compaq Mini CQ10 with an Intel Atom N455 processor.

Mind you, the catalog’s URL explicitly mentions “2011 Winter,” so it’s quite possible that “soon” won’t be as soon as you’d like, but to get a peek at all the goodies, check out the gallery below or shoot on over to our source link.

[Thanks, Thump3rX17]

Verizon doc suggests BlackBerry PlayBook, HTC Trophy and Xperia Play ‘coming soon’, prices LTE tablet data and intros 4G netbooks originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 May 2011 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CrackBerry has just dropped word via “numerous sources” that RIM will be revealing the next iteration of its mobile OS at the fast approaching BlackBerry World conference — and no, it’s still not QNX. Despite consistent rumblings that upcoming devices like the Bold Touch, and Monaco would be launching with OS 6.1, it seems that RIM has decided to re-brand the update completely as BlackBerry 7, perhaps to increase the value proposition and differentiate new devices being announced along with it. However, the site also speculates that current phones running BB6 may not get any BB7 action right off the bat — which could make sense, given that new features like NFC are only present in upcoming devices. All this is naturally unconfirmed, but if this is indeed yet another version of the BlackBerry OS, well, that certainly won’t help the platform get any more developer love.

RIM to launch 6.1 update as BlackBerry 7 OS at BlackBerry World next week? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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