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More BlackBerry Slider Phone Pictures Emerge

Just a slightly a week after we managed to get hold of some pictures of a BlackBerry slider phone, more pictures of said device have surfaced. In the latest batch of leaked pictures, you’ll be able to see the side profile of the phone, compared with a BlackBerry Curve 8900. It seems that this device is probably not the Storm 3, but possibly another version of the BlackBerry Bold, especially if you take into account its identical style to the current Bold 9700. Apparently there was a UAProf found on RIM’s site for a 9700a that sports a HVGA+ portrait display, which is obviously different from the current Bold 9700’s landscape display. Picture of the rear view of this BlackBerry slider showing off its new F-S1 battery after the jump.

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Android’s American market share soars, WinMo pays the price

Mobile manufacturer and platform market share stats for the US are in for the month of January thanks to comScore, and as usual, they tell a fascinating (and somewhat unpredictable) story of what’s actually going on at the cash registers. Motorola — which has long since fallen off its high horse on the global stage — still maintains a commanding presence in the American market by representing some 22.9 percent of all subscribers, though that’s down 1.2 percent from October 2009; that’s particularly interesting in light of the Droid’s success, and a possible sign that smartphones still aren’t on the cusp of dominating the phone market overall. Samsung recently touted the fact that it had held onto the States’ overall market share crown, though Sammy was undoubtedly referring to sales, not subscribers — in other words, there are still a ton of legacy RAZRs out there inflating Moto’s stats.

Turning our attention to smartphone platforms, BlackBerry OS, iPhone, and Android all saw gains, while Windows Mobile and Palm both saw significant downturns. You might use Palm’s loss of 2.1 percent of overall market share in a single quarter as a big nail in webOS’ coffin, but we’re inclined to believe this includes legacy devices — and considering the huge installed base of Palm OS-based handsets (Centros, for instance) that are coming off contract these days, it’s neither surprising nor alarming to see that kind of drop. Android’s gain, meanwhile, likely comes in large part from WinMo’s whopping four percent loss — it’s no secret that WinMo 6.x is well past its expiration date with customers leaving in droves (even before Windows Phone 7 Series announcement), and our informal observations lead us to believe that many of those folks are heading for Android. After all, it’s kind of convenient that Android gained 4.3 percent and WinMo lost about the same, isn’t it? BlackBerrys still dominate the American smartphone landscape, and the iPhone market looks like it might be mature for the time being — Apple added just 0.3 percent to its market share in the quarter, possibly a sign that folks are holding out for whatever Cupertino brings us come Summer. Is this a sign that Palm needs to step up its game yet again? Undoubtedly — but at the same time, we wouldn’t call the loss of those Palm OS subscribers a death knell just yet.

Android’s American market share soars, WinMo pays the price originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gearlog, Fortune  |  comScore  | Email this | Comments

RIM Data Outage Still Ongoing For Some Users

Are you still having trouble with your BlackBerry’s BIS and BES connections? Some users are apparently still having problems, and it seems to be affecting devices on Wi-Fi. According to the complaints, data will work occasionally when it’s connected to Wi-Fi, but will not work when Wi-Fi is disconnected. There isn’t any official word on this issue yet from RIM, but hopefully it gets sorted out soon.

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BlackBerry Pearl 9100 to come in SureType and QWERTY flavors?

Remember Nokia’s E52 and E55? Espoo took an interesting tactic with these two: start with the same basic phone and operating system, but offer it with two different keypad layouts (in fact, HTC did the same with its Touch Dual). It’s not a bad idea — different strokes for different folks, right? Indeed, not everyone can really get into RIM’s SureType layout, but the Pearls that usually underpin it have a distinct opportunity to appeal to a wider audience. To that end, an OEM full QWERTY module for the unannounced Pearl 9100 has made an appearance on Chinese accessory reseller TrueSupplier’s site that suggests RIM’s learned this lesson and might be prepping to offer the newest model in two different versions. What’d be tragic here is if only one flavor was offered on each carrier that picked it up — and given RIM’s history, that wouldn’t surprise us — but for now, we sticking with the “choice is a good thing” line.

BlackBerry Pearl 9100 to come in SureType and QWERTY flavors? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CrackBerry, CIO  |  TrueSupplier  | Email this | Comments

Full QWERTY Keyboard For Upcoming BlackBerry Pearl 9100?

There isn’t any official confirmation on this just yet, so take it with a pinch of salt, but a picture of what is supposedly a replacement keyboard for the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 is making rounds on the Internet, and if it’s legit, it seems that you might be able to get a full QWERTY keyboard on your 9100. As we’ve seen before this, the 9100 should be using RIM’s SureType keyboard, probably after taking into account the narrowness of the phone, but if this fits on the BlackBerry Pearl 9100, you might actually have the option of getting the device with a full QWERTY keyboard instead. Would such a device appeal to you, or are you happier with the SureType keyboard?

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Team Canada BlackBerry Bold 9700

The Winter Olympics might be over, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have fond memories of this recent sporting event. FutureShop has cobbled a customized Team Canada BlackBerry Bold 9700, which pays homage to the fact that RIM offered members of the gold medal winning Canadian Mens Hockey Team with the Bold 9700 as seen here, alongside a custom paint job and name on the back. Staff at FutureShop can snag one of these for themselves by being in the top 20 in BlackBerry hardware sales. We do expect this to pop up on eBay sometime in the near future with an exorbitant opening price.

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More BlackBerry slider pics appear — is this the next Bold?

What looked like a drizzle last night seems to be turning into a full on downpour. The folks over at BlackBerry Leaks have gotten themselves even more facetime with that mysterious BlackBerry slider device — and it looks a lot better than we thought. Right now the theories are flying about just exactly what kind of phone this is, with BBL suggesting it might be the next phone in the Storm family, while Kevin over at CrackBerry has it on good authority that this new handset will be part of the Bold line. Kevin also says that the rumors he’s heard on this device call for a 360 x 480 touchscreen display (sans SurePress) and expectations for BlackBerry OS 6.0 to be onboard. The pictured phone apparently has a battery issue which is keeping it from powering up, but hopefully someone will find a way to spark this thing to life and we can get some more solid info. For now, check out one more pic after the break.

Continue reading More BlackBerry slider pics appear — is this the next Bold?

More BlackBerry slider pics appear — is this the next Bold? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget app for BlackBerry gets updated to 1.0.1

Hey BlackBerry friends — we’ve got some news for you. The Engadget application (which is also available for the iPhone / iPod touch and webOS devices) has gone and gotten itself a little update on RIM’s platform. It’s nothing crazy, but we’ve made some bug fixes, and more importantly, added support for 5.0 devices (Bold, Curve, and Tour)! The devs also thoughtfully included keyboard shortcuts (T, B, N, P, and the spacebar) in this version for your convenience. All you have to do to get your hands on this baby is point your phone’s browser to our download page, or if you’ve already got the app installed, it should prompt you for an update automatically next time you open it. Storm users — we are working on a version for you as well, and everyone who is curious about the Android app: you should see it released this month!

The Engadget app for BlackBerry gets updated to 1.0.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry slider photos leak out!

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/BlackBerry_slider_photos_leak_out’; You can consider our minds completely and utterly blown tonight, as we’ve just stumbled upon these photos of what appears to be a new BlackBerry device… a vertical slider. The source (BlackBerry Leaks) doesn’t seem to be able to confirm the legitimacy of the photos, but we’re mostly convinced that this is some variation of a RIM device. While BB Leaks speculates on the possibility of this being the Storm 3, Kevin Michaluk over at CrackBerry suggests this might not be a device headed to market, rather an early version which has been scrapped, similar to that Magnum handset that floated onto the internet recently (though Kevin suggests that our friends in Canada may very well have plans for something in this form factor). What we can say with assurance, however, is that this device coupled with those new BIS 3.0 Gmail integration upgrades, that forthcoming RIM WebKit browser, and a rumored new OS would help push things into the territory of that dream smartphone we pleaded for back in 2008. Coincidence? We think not.

BlackBerry slider photos leak out! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM dev webinar hints at BlackBerry OS of the future?

See that Storm-esque device there? You may have noticed that the home screen looks positively nothing like the experience you’re used to — and that’s because it’s not. Shown off as part of a slide deck in RIM’s “Super Apps” webinar for developers last week, the company’s official explanation is that this is a pure, off-the-cuff mockup, not indicative of anything they’re working on for future devices or releases of BlackBerry OS. To be fair, when you take the shot in context with the bullet points and the fact that this presentation was geared squarely at devs, we can imagine that they really were just using it to get folks’ creative juices flowing — but it makes you wonder, doesn’t it? There’s enough active and location-aware content here to make even a heavily-widgeted Android home screen drool, so seriously, why not do this in 6.0, RIM?

RIM dev webinar hints at BlackBerry OS of the future? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CrackBerry, BerryScoop  |  BlackBerry  | Email this | Comments

RIM BlackBerry slider coming soon

There is no confirmation of a new BlackBerry slider smartphone from RIM, but such a handset has a very high chance of being introduced in due time. Apparently, it will be a portrait-oriented slider that will run on the BlackBerry 6.0 operating system, boasting support for Wi-Fi 802.11n connectivity. Strangely enough, the resolution remains in the dark ages at 360 × 480 pixels. No idea on whether this is a touchscreen display handset, so we’ll just have to wait until the device rolls out officially.

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Blackberry BIS 3.0 out next week?

Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) is the platform that connects RIM devices to the web, without going through a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES). BIS is used by wireless carriers, while BES is used by corporations. Anyway, version 3.0 of BIS is rumored to come out next week, according to Blackberry fan sites. If you are a GMail user, things will be much better as BIS 3.0 has better email sync, including label support. A later 3.1 version will be even more Google-friendly, with Calendar sync (support for Yahoo and Hotmail is also rumored). Hopefully, more improvements will happen, but at the moment, that’s all we have on the rumor mill.

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