Here come some numbers with decimals, so get ready. BGR is speculating that batches of the BlackBerry Storm that had been shipped with OS version 4.7.0.82 may have caused some sort of glitch. And when BGR asked Verizon about the official OS version, Verizon told them it was 4.7.0.65 – that’s lower than 4.7.0.82, mind you.
I might not be a fan of the Storm but that doesn’t mean it won’t be flying off the shelves come tomorrow. You see, it’s not meant to be a gadget lover’s device. Just hear me out then flame away if you feel the need to. RIM felt the urgency to fill the gap between they’re entry level Pearl phones and their higher-end Bold. They obviously felt threatened by Apple and rightfully so. Hell, everyone else did and they began pumping out all sorts of touch-screen devices to combat Apple and everyone has failed. As I said in my review, the Storm is at the top of that pile but that means nothing at this point.
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The ‘iPhone killer’ label (which I hate using – BTW) has been thrown around since the first touch-screen device hit the market after the original iPhone was launched last year. Unfortunately, nothing has been able to live up to the hype. Both consumers (you) and techies (us) have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the Storm in the hopes that it would knock the iPhone down a peg, or even level the playing field. I don’t want to dash your dreams, but the Storm is not on par with the iPhone. It is, however, the closest device available on the market today to compete with the iPhone. But that’s not saying much. Imagine the iPhone being on top of a mountain with the rest of the touch-screen devices at base camp. The Storm sits atop all the rest, but it’s still at base camp.
Video after the jump.
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We may or may not have one lurking around the office, but in case we do, what would you like to know about it? Let us know in comments.
Smaller, lesser known (to Joe Blow consumer) tech companies have been known to take on the big guys with lawsuits that may or may not hold up in court, but this one seems to hold a bit of water. At least it appears that way based on the Reuters and WSJ reports on the matter.
Spansion, an offshoot of AMD, is accusing Samsung and four of its U.S. subsidiaries of infringing on multiple patents and demands reparations from the South Korean electronics juggernaut. Two separate lawsuits were filed today with the International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court in Delaware. Spansion chose to file with the ITC because they’ve been known to hammer down a tad faster and have the “power to impose exclusion orders” on those being sued, which would put a hamper on Samsung and many companies who rely on their flash memory chips. That list of companies includes Apple, Asus, Kingston, Lenovo, PNY, RIM, Sony and Sony-Ericsson, which means many of our favorite gadgets may not be imported to our great country.
Update: Press release has just hit the wire, included after the jump. Read More
The Storm touches down at Verizon on November 21 for $200 after a MIR and 2-year contract agreement. [Update]: $35 activation fee.
Zee Germans get the first crack at the BlackBerry 8900, to which RIM has added the Curve moniker. It’s very similar to the BlackBerry Bold, but only has EDGE (instead of 3G). That, and its camera is one notch higher than the Cruve’s 2-megapixel one, coming in at 3.2 megapixels with flash. Fancy man.
It’s scheduled to ship this month for €5 ($6.27) with a two-year contract. Or, you can buy one without any contract at all for €320 ($451).
Someone, either AT&T or T-Mobile (or both) will probably bring it over here, too.
The BlackBerry Bold has been a long time in the making but AT&T finally has the so-called “unequivocally the best piece of hardware that RIM has ever put out” up for sale at ATT dot Com. It’s yours with a two-year contract price of $299 and free shipping. Sure, it might be a 100 bones more than a iP3G but don’t you think the Bold is a bit more upscale for corner office types?
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
Have I mentioned lately how much I love Blackberries? Well, I do.
The Pearl series will never have a place in my pocket, but 70 percent of the population in the US who own a mobile phone carry a clamshell. To bridge the gap between the consumer sector and business sector, RIM introduced the Pearl and Curve models. The Pearl Flip 8220 is the device RIM hopes will saturate the market even further.
This won’t be a traditional review in the sense that I asked a current Pearl owner whether or not he would switch and what he thought about the Flip version.
Breken, a friend with a Pearl, pointed out what he did and didn’t like about it compared to his Pearl 8120. Read More
Why is it that the BlackBerry Storm doesn’t have Wi-Fi? If you believe BoyGenius—and how could you not!—it’s because Verizon Wireless doesn’t want it to have Wi-Fi. That’s a fine conspiracy theory, yes, but consider the following:
• Name one CDMA BlackBerry with built-in Wi-Fi. You can’t.
• Doesn’t VZW require you to have a BlackBerry data plan? So it’s not like having built-in Wi-Fi prevents VZW from making money
Now, whether or not VZW was concerned with battery life and/or performance is another matter, but to imply that VZW is some James Bond villain hoarding all the Wi-Fi is silly, I think.
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
AT&T just told us that the BlackBerry Bold will be released on November 4 for $299. That’s the same price as the 16GB iPhone 3G, natch.
That’s the official date. No rumors, no “sources,” none of that nonsense.
Be there, or not.
If BGR is right, and he generally is concerning RIM activities, AT&T will be launching the BlackBerry Bold on October 27, 2008. No word on why exactly the launch was pushed back from the last date of October 20, but at this point we will take whenever for our BlackBerry craving readers.
The blurry photo gods have smiled upon us this morning. Or, more accurately, their Photoshop-using cousins have smiled. I don’t know, someone’s happy Up There.
Word on the street is that RIM will announce a Storm-like device at Wireless Enterprise 2009, known by the cool kids as WES 2009. Neat.
There’s also musings that RIM will take it to Palm by releasing a Bold-like device, but one with a touchscreen.
Then again, RIM takes something like forever to release anything these days, so we probably won’t see any of this till 2034.
Pigs flying over Montana? John Biggs turning down a free watch? These are all events that might just happen before the zombie apocalypse, with the RIM event a tad more likely than the other two. Bears are tearing up tech stocks and with RIM down 45% over the last four months to $67 a share, some analysts are predicting a Microsoft takeover. One guru is even stating that he is “fairly certain” that there is standing offer for RIM at $50 a share if the stock drops to $40. That way, the company is getting a $10 premium over market value and with the stock hovering around $67 a share, this might be sooner than expected. Still, there would be tons of lawyer battles and court hearings along with years of integration before we would see anything from the acquisition.
Our amigos at Gizmodo have a hands-on with a Verizon Wireless-branded BlackBerry Storm, and it’s gotta be in the top 100 most interesting things you’ll see all day.
To be fair, the phone at least looks halfway decent.
Giz’s Buchanan notes a feature that will no doubt annoy several would-be Storm owners. Unlike how on the iPhone you can sorta “glide” from letter to letter while typing, the Storm makes you “confirm” that you’ve touched a character.
Yes, the screen is a giant button, one you have to punch for basically every action, even every letter you type, completely breaking the touchscreen paradigm.
So again, the phone doesn’t sound halfway bad, but you really do wonder if the Storm is too little, too late for RIM. Lord knows Verizon Wireless hopes it’s not.
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.
The ninja was right. Why RIM felt the need to go out and make an iPhone competitor is beyond me.
via CrackBerry
