tOMPSON’s blog

A lot new information for us BlackBerry fans while the WES is going on. While the BlackBerry Bold was officially announced on the first day:

BG wrote about another BlackBerry device coming out this year: The BlackBerry touchscreen device (codename Thunder) many rumors this year already talked about. Although I am quite sure I would prefer the Bold against the Thunder I am very curious about how the Thunder will look and feel like.

Meanwhile the first “sepcial customers” get the Bold while rumors predict that the Bold will be available some when between October and December this year. This seems way to far away - I need one now!

Another two interesting things from the WES: There will be multiple battery covers for the BlackBerry Bold in different colors feeling like some sort of leather. Unify4Life shows some interesting kind of software for the BlackBerry that allows to control your home entertainment system.

Something funny at the end: I think this video of the RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie shows that he has a lot of humor:

Tonight the BlackBerry Bold (formerly know as BlackBerry 9000) was officially announced by RIM. Go here for the official press release and check out the new dedicated site. Previously the hard specs already were around on the web:

• Size - Length: 144mm, Width: 66mm, Thickness: 14mm
• Weight (with battery) - 133g (same as the 88xx series)
• Memory - 1GB on-board plus 128 MB Flash
• Battery - 1500mAhr lithium cell
• Est. Battery Life - Standby: 13 days, Talk Time: 5 hours
• Network Support - UMTS: 2100 / 1900 / 850MHz, GSM: 1900 / 1800 / 900 / 850 MHz, GPRS, EDGE and HDSPA networks
• Wi-Fi - 803.11a/b/g enabled
• Display - HVGA, 480 x 320 pixels, Transmissive TFT LCD, supports over 65k colors
• Media Player, Video Support - DivX 4, DivX 5 & 6 are partially supported, XviD is partially supported, H.263, H.264 and WMV3
• Media Player, Audio Support - .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
• Media Player, Audio - BlackBerry Media Sync allows you to transfer your desktop iTunes music to your BlackBerry
• Camera - 2.0MP, 5 x digital zoom (with flash of course)
• GPS - internal GPS with extended ephemeris, BB Maps is standard
• Bluetooth - Bluetooth v2.0, all the normal stuff and Bluetooth Stereo Audio via A2DP and AVCRP
• USB Port - Enables charging and high-speed data synchronizations via USB “A” to mini-USB “B” cable
• Browser - HTML browsing, View Movies/Clips from websites built for mobile streaming, RSS feed support

My favorite features? Definitely the internal memory upgrade to 1GB, the new screen resolution and the possibility to synchronize iTunes with the BlackBerry (I am thinking about podcasts on my BlackBerry!).

Wow, it seems like a lot of “BlackBerry-things” are going on within the last days now that the Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Orlando is less than four days away.

Today I read on multiple blogs that the BlackBerry Unite software works with other carriers too. Until know it was just available for Bell. The BlackBerry Unite software is target at families and small teams. It is installed on a Desktop PC and allows to sync calendar, contacts and files from your PC over the air with up to five BlackBerry devices. It is also possible to sync and share calendars between users and manage the devices. The software comes without license costs!

Maybe I should do a test run of this solution … you can see a demo here.

Kevin from crackberry.com posted a first video tour through the OS 4.6 on his BlackBerry 9000 he purchased at ebay:

Wow, the device really looks fast.  A short review of the new browser show the cursor that is used to click on links and how youtube videos are automatically opened in the media player - with 3G it will be possible to experience streaming video on the BlackBerry!

Kevin from crackberry.com managed to get one of the three BlackBerry 9000 devices sold on ebay some days ago. He spent a crazy $828 and was lucky - yesterday his 9000 was delivered. Head over to his first post showing the “unboxing” of his new gadget.

Who needs this? BoyGenius has some pictures of a new BlackBerry flip phone coming late this year. Totally unexpected to me but it seems like this will fit into the prosumer area like the pearl. As for me it is irrelevant because I could not do without the full keyboard. Have a look for yourself:

What a great day for BlackBerry fans. First some pictures of the BlackBerry 9000 devices from ebay, and now BoyGenius got hands on an internal specs sheet for the upcoming OS 4.6. Very interesting are the browser enhancements:

• JavaScript 1.5
• CSS 2.1 (Lists, Box Model, Positioning, Floats, Visual Effects, Tables, Colors, …)
• DOM L2
• HTML 4.01
• XMLHttpRequest (Ajax on BlackBerry - yeah!)
• inline Streaming video

Seems like the browser will get some huge improvement! In the documents there is an example picture of the CNN page:

See this gallery for more details.

It seems like there are BlackBerry 9000 devices out in the wild. Someone tried to sell two devices on ebay but the auction has already been closed. The closeup picture from the auction shows a blurry image of the device with the protection foil on:

It seems like the pictures from earlier posts are pretty equivalent to the real device.

Meanwhile rumors for a second BlackBerry series with touchscreen are getting louder and louder. I am holding it with the guys from BerryReview: I would like to see a BlackBerry with a bigger screen an a keybard than a touchscreen device. I can not imagine that a touchscreen could replace the keyboard for writing emails.

If you have ten minutes left and you want to get some background information about Jim Balsilli, the co-CEO of RIM, watch this interview:

I liked it, it is not that kind of hardcore business or technical stuff and it shows a bit of Jim’s personality.

Engadget Mobile has some pictures of the next BlackBerry generation. I stumbled over a post on CrackBerry.com showing them and there is another page with pictures here.

In the following picture you can see a comparison of the two current models (Curve and 8800) and the new 9000 series device:

In my opinion it will take a while to get used to the look of the new one. I am wondering why they made the keyboard even larger and the display smaller and not the other way round.

The picture of the new battery (the left one) makes hope for higher battery lifetime.

The slot for the SD-card is now available without having to remove the battery. The keyboard looks better than the one of the 8800 and I hope it is as good as the one of the curve.

The new UI (theme) looks completely different. Too bad that the home screen is the only picture currently available. It would be interesting to see if the look inside the applications (message, phone, …) has changed too.