The Rumours Are Over - BlackBerry Storm 2 Is Alive

Once again Kevin over at Crackberry has released some awesome news regarding the Storm 2. It is alive and well and on the way to production very soon. I hope Vodafone “Do an o2″ and let us all upgrade our contracts. If thats what you would like comment at the bottom and let us know.

Hopefully we will be able to report some specifications when they are released… It does like nice though doesn’t it!

This is from CB:

Here it is CrackBerry Nation, your FIRST look at the BlackBerry Storm TWO. I’m not even sure what to say here… other than a super trusty source sent us in these pictures of RIM’s next generation of BlackBerry touchscreen. Looking at the photos, you can see it shares its physical appearance with both the original BlackBerry Storm and the yet unreleased BlackBerry Onyx/Driftwood. It looks nice and thin. And the buttons at the bottom now appear to be a touch-sensitive part of the screen too?! More photos below. And more info is sure to come. Let the comments begin!

Image Gallery (Courtesy Of Engadget.com and Crackberry.com)

Storm 2 Rumors Galore

Unless you have been locked away for the last couple of months and have not been frequenting the many wonderful BlackBerry sites on the net, you will no doubt be aware of the speculation of an upcoming Storm 2.

I particularly like the image phonedig.com released, above, showing their mock up of how the Storm 2 could look. A slideout keyboard would be perfect in my oppinion.

Further information was released by RIM CEO Jim Balsillie confirmed that they are working on the next version of the BlackBerry Storm.

Balsillie said Storm sales “remain strong” and added “we have next-generation devices with that and the whole roadmap.”

This has been received with mixed opinion’s and I am personally leaning towards the train of thought that its not really a bad thing if an updated Storm is released in the near future. Phones tend to fall out of favour with users after a year of solid use anyway.

What I would like Vodafone, if they are going to be the ones getting the Storm 2 in the UK, to do is consider implementing a scheme that O2 carried out when the iPhone 2 was released. Everyone new the original iPhone was just lacking that little bit, and as a thank you to the loyal customers they let them restart their contracts with the new shiny iPhone in hand.

Vodafone must know that the Storm was not quite ready to be released and I am fairly sure if past experience of RIM’s resilience and undeniable brilliance in learning from mistakes, the Storm 2 will be a great success. If they could cut the people who bought the first phone some slack and give them like for like deal with the phone added in, signing back up to the 18 or 24 month contract.

I know i would certainly take that offer on. And I’m sure a lot more people are willing to give it another chance. Bridges have been burnt but can be built again.

BlackBerry Onyx, Driftwood & Magnum tipped as next releases

Some more upcoming device news for you that has been rumoured over at BGR! It is believed that the 3 smartphones are all part of the 9000 range.

According to the source, the Onyx, Driftwood and Magnum aren’t the only new devices coming out of RIM either.  A UMA-version of the BlackBerry Bold is tipped, likely for T-Mobile (or possibly Canadian carrier Rogers Wireless), while the BlackBerry Gemini is now believed to not just be a single device but in fact a whole range.  However it’s looking likely that the Gemini handsets will replace the Curve, as RIM’s low-cost offerings.

While the specs of the three handsets are believed confirmed, there’s still no definite word on whether RIM will actually release them, nor what sort of timescale we may be talking about.  Full details are below:

BlackBerry Onyx:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
• QWERTY keyboard
• 480×360 resolution screen
• Confirmed carriers: AT&T

BlackBerry Driftwood:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi with UMA
• QWERTY keyboard

BlackBerry Magnum:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
• QWERTY keyboard
• 480×360 resolution screen
• Confirmed carriers: AT&T

I wonder which of these devices will make their way onto the UK market. We talked about an upcoming Bold Touch a few weeks back and looking at the specs above I believe that would be the magnum and realistically that in my opinion would be one of the releases over here.

Verizon to Release Storm Mark II In September???

It has been reported over at Slashgear that Verizon have given the green light for the release of the BlackBerry storm 2 in september of this year. The information is said to come from “a source very close to the issue”.
SlashGear has been told that the new Storm 2 addresses one of the biggest criticisms of the first smartphone and of Verizon devices in general, in that it will support WIFI. From the article:

While we’re not able to name our source, we can say that we’ve no doubts regarding the veracity of their information. The source gave us their assurances that the Storm 2 would have WiFi, and would be an even better Pro-consumer device than the first Storm.

We wonder if RIM and Verizon will make any changes to the touchscreen, a common point of complaint for the first-gen devices; comments he dropped lead us to believe WiFi isn’t the only thing RIM and Verizon have up their sleeve with the Storm

I wonder if Vodafone UK are lining up this release and more importantly would you be a happy customer knowing that you signed up to a 18 or 24 month contract with Vodafone knowing that a newer, improved version will be released on 11 months after the original Storm was released.

I seem to remember this happened with the iPhone when it was first released over here… Apple realised they had shipped a donkey and rectified it, the key issue that they addressed with the new iPhone was that they (o2) gave the original customers the chance to upgrade in the middle of their contracts keeping everyone happy. Surely Vodafone would have to follow suit should they release Storm Mark II.

4.7.0.118 To Be The Next Official Storm Update From VodaFone UK

I have just finished my round of trawling the many different forum sites out there. And todays most notable news comes directly from the VF forum, by one of there more respected staff members Jon.

A member had put up a list that we published in the forums showing the fixes that 113 had brought to the table suggesting that this was the next release that Vodafone would be offering but to my amazement the usually very secretive staff let this one slip. This is quoted by the way:

Hi guys,

I can confirm that this is NOT the firmware we will be releasing. We’re still testing at the moment, but are currently up to version
4.7.0.118 - the final release will be either greater than or equal to this one, depending on how well the testing goes

As you’d expect, we’ll be announcing the new maintanence release as soon as it is officially released.

Jon

eForum Team

This is great news that there is something deffinately in the pipeline for an official release in the very near future!

Finally Skype Will Be Available For BlackBerry Phones!

Finally some good news for all you Skype fans out there! Skype has long been a firm favourite with PC users and although there have been a few skype applications for the BlackBerry Phones, IM For Skype, They have been fairly hard to set up and at $29.99, or around £21 in good old British currency a little bit pricey. The official version of Skype will be free and available sometime in May.

BlackBerry users will be able to get in on the Skype action as reported by Reuters who spoke with Skype’s Chief Operating Officer Scott Durchslag who also verified it would become available for iPhone and iTouch users as well.

One thing that was brought up was resistance from carriers to support the services as it may be revenue impacting for them to which CCS Insight Analyst Ben Wood declared carriers need not worry as the usage of Skype on mobile devices actually increases revenue for the carriers due to other services customers may utilize such as data. The only other concern may come from roaming agreements, but thus far have been unfounded and he used carrier 3 UK as an example where Skype has been used on their network with no detrimental effects.

Source [Blaz1e CB]

BlackBerry App World to launch April 1, says BusinessWeek

Found this over at Boy Genius…

Mark your calendars, BlackBerry fans: BusinessWeek says RIM’s going to launch the BlackBerry App World April 1 at CTIA. What’s more, the company is apparently planning on going after Apple by courting developers with higher profit margins and the relative sophistication of the average corporate BlackBerry user, which explains that minimum $2.99 paid app price we saw a few weeks ago. An interesting move to position the new service, but we’ll see if it takes hold with users — anyone ready to blow their budget on ‘berry software?

Im personally looking forward to this. I hope it really takes off and we start getting some quality programs available for our devices

Price Cuts For Potential UK BlackBerry Customers?

Price Cuts Looming? Is This The Age Of The Cheap BlackBerry?

I bought my first BlackBerry last year and have become obsessed by it so much so I created this website. The reason i was so late to the BlackBerry scene was the price and length of the contracts. I now know that its a price worth paying for owning something that actually becomes an essential everyday tool!

If you have been put off by the corporate image or hefty prices then help will soon be at hand! RIM are looking to push themselves further into the consumer market starting right here in the UK.

The European branch of RIM have a new managing director in the name of Chris Burke. Anybody who keeps up with

the business times will know he is the former chief technology office for Vodafone UK. The significance of that is they now have in charge, someone who understands how the UK market works and what needs to be done to.

His masterplan for the rest of 2009 are to get BlackBerry phones into far more hands, taking in midrange users as well as business people and high end ‘prosumers’ - the typical profiles of BlackBerry users. To achieve this, he wants to push operators to offer BlackBerry models with their flat rate and prepaid tariffs as well as high end plans, and will be cutting handset prices to encourage this. Customers will also be able to get a free BlackBerry with only a mid-priced postpaid plan, if Burke has his way

Times are hard with the Global credit crunch and if companies want to push their products then they know cost cutting will be needed!

We have already seen the tips of the price cuts in the form of Orange releasing a pay as you go service for the Blackerry Pearl Smartphone. A wise move in my opinion and i can see orange and RIM having real success with that one.

RIM also aims to get in front of more users by increasing its presence within large retailers like Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U, and in major supermarket chains like Tesco, says Mobile Today. It adds that the retailers will be expected to offer the phones with operator contracts, but also ‘SIM paired’ by Brightpoint and 20:20 Mobile, RIM’s two UK distributors.

RIM will also soon be opening its APP World, and hopefully that will bring something similar to what Apple have provided for the IPhone users. That should deffinately attract a new breed of Blackberry addicts just waiting to jump on you UK BlackBerry band wagon!

Danny

Apple fights back in the youtube bullet fight!

A few weeks ago we showed you a video that was flying around on youtube where the blackberry blasts the apple open. Now Apple have come out figting and made their own video in the Smartphone Phycological Warfare! If you want my oppinion RIM got there first and the video is far superior!!!

View Both Videos Below

New Apple Video

original BlackBerry Video

VLingo Support For Blackberry Storm?

A few months back i tried to load VLingo the Awesome Speech application that lets you say commands into the phone which activate certain functions like texting someone or searching the internet.

Unfortunately back then it was not supported for the OS 4.7 but after doing a little digging I have found out that it is now supported for 4.7. It did previously work but had a few glitches. The new 4.7 version works like a dream on the Storm.

From the Description:

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