In last week’s News From The Wire we focused on the BlackBerry Pearl 9100. That’s one of two BlackBerry models slated for an early 2010 release, and since we haven’t seen a Pearl release since 2007 it’s probably the more exciting of the two. The other device, the Tour 2, a/k/a the Essex, will also hit shelves soon. I’ve expressed my dissatisfaction with a release so soon after the original Tour, but that doesn’t make it any less noteworthy. So what did we learn about the Tour 2 this week?
Verizon, Sprint preparing for the Tour2
During the course of device development, we’ve come to recognize certain milestones. There are the first pictures of the device in the wild. There’s the first listing on eBay. Then there’s the spotting of the device in a carrier’s computer system. That’s what we saw this week with the Tour2. In the least exciting screen shots ever, we see that the both Verizon and Sprint will carry the device. CrackBerry outed the Verizon model on Saturday, and just a day later BlackBerry Links caught the Sprint version. We still don’t know when these devices will reach an official release, but given the appearance in both systems, it shouldn’t be too far in the future.
Charging your BlackBerry: We saw two stories about new charging implements for your mobile device. First is Energizer’s EnergiStick, a small bugger that can give your Berry a little extra juice. The other is the RCA Airnergy, which charges your BlackBerry using WiFi signal. The latter, however, might be a bit of snake oil, according to a few commenters.
BlackBerry Curve 8910 spotted
Well, that was unexpected. We spent so much time getting excited about the Pearl 2 and Tour2 that we forgot about a number of other BlackBerry models rumored for 2010. Among them, the Curve 8910, which BerryReview spotted in the wild. Bla1ze had a look, and determined that we might have seen this before, as it looks like the unreleased BlackBerry Atlas. As the model number suggests, this will not have 3G, just EDGE. It’s also probably not headed for North America, but rather the Asian market, which makes sense. It’s hard to figure where this would fit in the US and Canada BlackBerry lineups.
Samsung readying 32GB microSD cards
Late last year we went over what memory card your BlackBerry can support. The new OS versions, including OS 5.0, support 32GB cards, but they’re not exactly easy to find. It looks like Samsung is ready to put a product on the market. They’ve announced they will begin mass production of 32GB microSD cards next month. They’ll be expensive at first, for sure, but this is a big step in terms of capacity.
A first look at the inPulse smartwatch
Yes, that is an inPulse watch pictured above, as reviewed by Engadget. You can check out more images at that post. It’s essentially everything we thought it would be. When you get a call, text message, email, or even BBM, the watch will display a notification. This includes the message sender or caller and a preview of the message. Sounds pretty basic. The watch face is a bit bulky, but other than that it looks pretty good. No word on release date right now, but we’ll try to get our hands on one for a review once it’s out.
In brief
To run down the remaining items of the week:
- I took a look at Glide Engage, a Twitter-like service that offers a lot more, including cloud storage. While I enjoyed the interface, Engage misses one critical element: a user base. Maybe as people tire of Twitter and its 140-character limit, they’ll find Engage a worthy alternative.
- Are you a battery cover geek? If so, BlackBerry Cool has a rundown of them.
- If you’re into subscription music services, check out Thumbplay’s new unlimited music service. You can get access to their whole catalog, on your Berry and on your PC, for $9.99 per month. That’s a good price for a store with a growing library.
- Is the Sirius XM app for BlackBerry coming soon? We got excited about the prospect in October, and it seems like we’re just a few weeks away from an actual release. Maybe? Please?
This post originated at BBGeeks.com – home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.
BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 1/11/10
This post originated at BBGeeks.com – home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.
BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 1/11/10