I have been using a BlackBerry Storm for about a month now and have came to like the phone. While I don’t have an iPhone love affair going on, it’s a solid phone I wouldn’t not recommended. (understand?) It has its quarks like any phone, but the single most annoying feature could – and should – be resolved by Research in Motion.

You see the Storm auto rotates everything unlike the iPhone where only certain apps switch to landscape view. That’s fine with me for apps and such. Auto rotating the main menu/app menu doesn’t add any usability and in fact, is frustratingly annoying. Half the time the phone takes a few seconds to change orientation causing random bad thoughts to race through my head while the phone decides what to do. But mainly, there is no reason to have the home screen rotate and RIM needs to address this aggravating trademark of the Storm.

Oh. Your. God. If you’re standing, sit down. If you’re sitting down, stand up, then sit down again. Huge, huge news: U2, once Apple’s favorite band, has now signed a deal with Research in Motion, which will sponsor the band’s upcoming tour. It’s called the 360º Tour, and it starts its North American swing in September in Chicago.

RIM took the wraps off of App World yesterday and now we are getting the first taste of what’s to come. It seems that the minimum paid tier (apps can be free, btw) for an app is $2.99, which is catching some of us off guard as Apple’s App Store has been widely successfully with $.99 and $1.99 apps. That extra dollar might make people stop and think about purchasing the app rather than buying on impulse alone.

Workaholics rejoice. Lenovo notebooks will soon be able to sync with BlackBerry handhelds thanks to the power of Bluetooth for automatic and instant access to enterprise email. The sync is designed to work without any user intervention too and according to the press release, even works when the notebook is powered off. The software is set to roll-out in the second quarter of this year but it still isn’t clear if it will work with existing ThinkPad’s right from Lenovo without the help of an enterprising hacker or two.

Kevin over at CrackBerry spotted this white Pearl Flip during RIM’s BES presentation today and posits that RIM could be releasing it sometime in the near future. Makes sense considering the bazillion colors they have for the candybar Pearl.

The day has finally arrived, folks. RIM’s BlackBerry Curve 8900 is officially available for the masses from T-Mobile here in the States. You’ll have to shell out $300 but there is a $100 MIR bringing the grand total to $200 with a 2-year contract. Well, what are you waiting for?

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No matter who you are, which carrier you’re on, or which hardware you carry: network outages can find you. More at 11.

RIM really dropped the ball after launching the Bold with the shouldhaveneverbeenlaunched Storm. But I’m happy to say that they’ve come back into our good graces with the launch of the T-Mobile Curve II otherwise known as the 8900.

For all intents and purposes the 8900 is a baby Bold. It lacks 3G but makes up for it with UMA support which means you can take it overseas and not incur horrendous roaming fees. Sure, it costs an extra $10/month (unlimited UMA calls that aren’t taken out of your regular minutes) but maybe you live in a dead zone. Simply having the ability to use Wi-Fi for data and voice is a huge plus for T-Mobile. This was one of the major reasons why I chose to stay with T-Mobile instead of jumping ship to AT&T for the Bold.

The following are my first impressions compared to the 8320 and Bold.

RIM’s BlackBerry Storm, the biggest lump of crap to come out of Canada since Celine Dion, sold 500,000 units in its first month. Everyone who was everyone basically told RIM that this was a heap but did they listen? Nope.

“I found myself wanting to throw it in the ocean due to my frustration with its overall usability,” said Steven Golub, a longtime Verizon customer from Morristown, N.J., who bought the Storm the day it was released, but returned it a few weeks later.

Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research in Motion, has admitted that they just barely got the Blackberry Storm out by Black Friday. The mad rush to release a product before a major shopping day cramps the normal development and testing cycles, which lead to more and more bugs being included in the shipped product. Balsillie says this is the “new reality”, basically telling consumers to suck it up.

Yeah, we’re still waiting for our 8900 review unit from T-Mobile even though regular Joe Schmoe can order one over the phone now, but what can you do? If you’re feeling frisky and adventurous you may want to try installing OS 4.6.1.133 on your Curve II. We’re not sure what the difference is between the pre-loaded OS and this one but I’d think it’s a marginal upgrade at best. You never know, though.

Whispers of Visual Voicemail coming to the BlackBerry Bold have been lingering for a few weeks now, and now things are about as concrete as they come.

“Bring us your innovative genius,” says RIM.

The BlackBerry App store is slated for a spring launch (exact date has not been confirmed) and RIM announced today that they’ve sent notice to their developers to begin submitting applications. Let’s just hope the devs haven’t flown the coop in anticipation for Palm’s webOS.

Some five-employee company you’ve never heard of is bullying the US International Trade Commission in order to ban the importation of certain devices from the likes of RIM and Nokia. Why, you ask? Because this company thinks these foreigners have violated one or more of its patents. Just who is this knave? Find out, after a few words from our sponsor.

President-elect Barack Obama loves him some BlackBerry. And who can blame him? Apparently the Secret Service can, as they’re trying to wrest it from his grasp. In these litigious times, the Executive Branch is understandably eager to stave off as many Freedom of Information Act requests as it can, and the President’s email-on-the-go would likely be a popular target for such requests.

Rumors have been floating for weeks now and we knew the 8900 would be coming sometime in early ‘09 and tonight T-Mobile has made it official. However, the 8900 aka Curve II aka Javelin will not be hitting store shelves on the 11th or 18th according to the press release. T-Mobile is being coy and saying it’s coming sometime this month. It could happen on those dates, but T-Mobile isn’t confirming anything today. No word on price either. Official specs after the jump:

If this screenshot from TmoNews is legit, which I’m inclined to believe it is then (even though they originally said it would be the 18th as well as BGR) the 8900 will be in my nerdy paws a few days before the expected February 11th launch. I don’t see a whole lot else that we didn’t already know about the Curve II. I just wish it were 3G. *sigh*

In a wide-ranging interview, CNet talks with Research in Motion about all things Blackberry. Trailing only Nokia in terms of sales volume, RIM has a lot reasons to feel good. According to Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO “[t]he cell phone market in the US declined by 5 percent compounded per annum in the past five years, but the smart phone market grew 58 percent.”

Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, also declares that “[Blackberry Storms] are Netbooks. They are just smaller.” Do you buy that, dear reader? Do you think the Storm offers all the computing conveniences of something like an MSI Wind, or is this some new use of the term “netbook” of which we were previously ignorant?