Refurbished, schmeburbished. Pick up a free BlackBerry Bold and slap the $5-per-month insurance on it if the idea of not having a brand new phone makes you queasy. The phone normally runs for $299 new or $199 refurbished with a two-year contract.

Looks like the deal’s good for new AT&T customers today only.

FREE BlackBerry Bold(TM) Refurb Package [AT&T via BGR]

I’ve never purchased a phone from an online retailer before, so I’m a bit skeptical of this screaming deal over at Letstalk, but if $300 is too steep a price to pay for the Bold (review) then you’d be out of your mind not to scoop this up. The starting price on Letstalk is $100 cheaper than AT&T and they’re even offering free shipping. Read More

How can I put into words how I feel about the BlackBerry Bold? In short: I love it and never ever want to let it go, ever. For any BlackBerry user/fan the Bold is everything you’ve wanted and expected from RIM. Sure, it took a little longer than we all expected, but it’s definitely worth the wait. It’s far superior in every respect from anything that RIM has put out on the market. Of course, those of you with a hankering for a touch-screen need not apply. The Bold is for the hardcore CrackBerry addict or is it?

Let’s begin. Read More

It’s been a long time coming and while the rest of the world has had the Bold for months, those of us crackberry heads will finally get it on the 4th of November. We were lucky enough to snag one early and I’m giddy like a 4-year-old with a mountain of tooth-decaying candy on my bed. It’s fast, powerful and oh-so-sexy. I present to you, dear reader, the BlackBerry Bold for AT&T. Read More

According to iSuppli the BlackBerry Bold has a BOM of $169.41, which might lead you to believe that RIM’s margins for the device are huge when compared to the selling price here in the US. AT&T will be selling the device for $300 with a 2-year contract or for $550 without (I think). Best Buy has it up on their website now for $660 and CompUSA is selling it for $800. The most expensive component on the Bold is the processor from Marvell Technology which costs $34.34. The display from Samsung costs $16 and the 2-megapixel camera is $9.90. Check out the entire breakdown after the break.

I wonder how much RIM actually profits per handset. Comparatively, the iPhone 3G costs roughly $4 more to manufacture than the Bold. Read More

RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis made it known today that AT&T is still testing the Bold to ensure that it’s sub-par 3G network can support it and those of us waiting for it to come out won’t go ape shit like we did when the iP3G came out. In all fairness, it was more or less Apple’s fault and not AT&T’s, but I’m grumpy and just want this damn phone to come out.

“There’s great scrutiny, as you might know, on that network and a certain device. So I guess everyone wants to be sure on every last test,” Lazaridis told The Associated Press.

I don’t see the Bold having any issues and neither does Lazaridis.

“We’re very meticulous about what our product does,” he said.

AT&T flack Mark Siegel said the Bold would be coming out this year, but declined to comment on whether or not it was still being tested.

Maybe we should just ask John Meyer whether or not the damn thing works.

Will the madness ever end? BBNews is stating that inside sources have informed them that AT&T will begin training reps on the Bold beginning the 16th with a launch on the 20th. Apparently the delay was due to AT&T employees not signing up for training. Huh? Oh, and the Bold launching with AT&T is said to have a white keyboard, which is complete BS. Just you wait, I know I’m right about that. I don’t care whose damn fault it is, I want my damn Bold and I want it now!

If this is true then I’m going to kick someone’s ass. BBNews has word from a “high-level insider” that the Bold will never make its way to T-Mobile. Instead, T-Mo will focus on that craptacular looking clamshell Pearl 8220, which will supposedly support 6-way calling. I find no solace in knowing the Curve II will be hitting landing in November. None at all. I guess I’m switching carriers. Damn it, but I want an Android phone. Two carriers it is!

[Update]: Wait a second. I saw a Bold with T-Mobile branding last month when visiting with Slacker and this doesn’t necessarily mean the aforementioned rumor is debunked, but you never know. It does make me wonder why RIM didn’t provide the Slacker guys with an AT&T branded one instead of what could be construed as a European T-Mo Bold. Hmm.

After the Android announcement, I think I’m back to the “eh” mentality as far as the BBB goes. I’ll still get one, but the enthusiasm I once had for the RIM device has slowly diminished to nothing more than a “I guess it’s still cool even though it’s launched in India and Japan, but it’s nowhere to be seen in the US” sort of deal. Anyway, October 26 seems to be the new date, according to an internal Best Buy screen grab acquired by the BGR, but he says it could be coming a week or two before that.

Drum roll! Or not!

Presenting the commercial for the BlackBerry Bold, which aired during the season premiere of Heroes on Monday night, a show I can honestly say I’ve never seen.

We don’t know what’s the hold up, either.

According to a press release obtained by the BGR, AT&T was scheduled to announce the Bold’s October launch yesterday, but for some reason the press release was not put out. At least we know for certain that when it does launch it’ll set you back $300. It’s also packed with a 624MHz processor, 1GB of memory, built-in Wi-Fi, GPS (AT&T Navigator Global Edition), and, of course, it will run on AT&T’s 3G network.

Interest in the BBB is at an all time low. BlackBerry News is reporting that the 3G BlackBerry from RIM is now being pushed back to September 1 or later. I’m not sure about you folks, but I’m over it.

Not satisfied with The Boy Genuis Report’s exhaustive BlackBerry Bold review? Lucky you, BGR has given another walk through, this time just on the handset’s browser.

Highlights: though many pages still loaded wonky and sites that have special BlackBerry views had trouble loading, the “Bold does a pretty decent job at banging sites.” Tested sites includ: surprise, The Boy Genius Report, loaded OK, still with some spacing and text rendering issues; eBay, not so hot, lots of missing content; The New York Times, one of those special BlackBerry sites that once you clicked through a headline was unreadable; and CNET, again missing and misaligned content.

Check out the full review for screen shots and an iPhone comparison.

Oh, those naughty bloggers. How hardworking PR people must hate the rumors incessantly bubbling up based on every offhand remark or misspoken word. In this case the buzz has been around the much-anticipated Blackberry Bold being delayed until August, though if you ask them, August was the target all along. RIM PR guy Erik van Drunen says:

We didn’t say anything about ‘July’ or ‘August.’ It will become available in August. So we’re still on track for [availability] this summer,

Well, there you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth.

I got a little face time with the BlackBerry Bold today and came away impressed. The BlackBerry Bold is a new step for RIM. Whereas the Pearl aimed at the non-smartphone user who wanted some email functionality, the Bold clearly aims at a new audience – the extreme emailer in a casual business. Whereas most of the line is built for IT guys and members of the khaki-clad workforce, the Bold promises something a bit more than email and instant messaging.

Read More

The connection in my hotel here in Berlin is slow as molasses or FF is being weird, so my apologies for the strange screen cap.

While everyone else is frothing over the iPhone 3G, I’m patiently waiting for the Bold to hit the streets. AT&T now has it up on their site, so jump on over and check it out. Nothing new, though. The specs we’ve all been expecting and heard about are still there.