It’s WES week, and surely you’ve heard all the big news. Yes, we’ve finally heard something official on the upcoming BlackBerry devices, the Bold 9650 and the Pearls 9100 and 9105. We’ll touch on them, just because we love any kind of news on devices, plus reveal some other developments from the week. It looks like we could see plenty new from RIM during the next eight months.
Pearl 9100 and Bold 9650 to drop in May
We’ve known for a long time that RIM would release the Pearl 9100 and Bold 9650 sometime in relatively early 2010. When will then be now? Soon. That’s what we learned at WES. I woke up on Monday morning to three press releases in my inbox, two of which announced the newest members of the BlackBerry lineup. We already know all we need to know about these two devices, since they’ve ben in development for many months. What we didn’t know, however, was pricing and release dates. Yet the press releases provided no further answers.
Mobile Syrup found out that Bell will release the device on May 13th for $79.99. Rogers should have the same pricing. Interestingly, Telus will undercut both of them by a significant amount, as they’ll offer the Pearl for $30. We still have no word on T-Mobile’s or AT&T’s plans, but I presume they’ll release the device in mid- to late-May.
As for the 9650, it looks like $199 on contract from Sprint on May 23. I expect something completely similar from Verizon.
Tip of the week: Control what appears in your BlackBerry inbox. From different call types to SMS, you can add or remove messages types from your main BlackBerry inbox.
OS 6.0 coming in the third quarter
In case you missed the post about OS 6.0, here’s the video:
RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaradis spoke about the company’s new initiatives, including BlackBerry App World — a million downloads a day. You can check out the summary at CrackBerry.
Pictures of the BlackBerry 9670 and 8980
Mmmm, pretty. Last week we caught our first glimpse of the BlackBerry 9670, the flip device that has some people wondering if RIM has lots its collective mind. I think it works well for the enterprise market, and since apparently Verizon specifically requested the device, I think it will fit just fine. Anyway, check out all the photos at CrackBerry. Those include the
RIM to add Concierge service
When I first saw the headline announcing RIM’s new Concierge service, I immediately thought of MobileCierge, a service of Handmark’s Pocket Express. It essentially acts like a virtual assistant, performing routine tasks that you don’t want to deal with. RIM’s service, as I soon found out, is nothing like this. Yet it’s still pretty cool in its own way.
The application records your BlackBerry activity and puts it on display. If you use Twitter, it will let you know who you’ve interacted with recently. You can find out what music you’ve been listening to most often, and plenty more. The platform might be a few months off, but it sounds neat. I do wonder, though, if third parties will have access to this data. If so, I’d probably opt out.
RIM introduces Mobile Voice System 5.0
If you’re not a BES user, then MVS probably won’t appeal to you. So, quickly, it’s a service that hooks a company’s phone system up to its BlackBerry fleet. The new 5.0 version adds Wi-Fi, which is perfect for international travelers.
A video of the inPulse Smartwatch
Via CrackBerry, a video of the inPulse Smartwatch. It looks pretty neat if you like big watches.
Roundup
- Poynt is awesome. And free. How can you go wrong?
- BlackBerry podcast app? Hells yes!
- I also have enjoyed ProOnGo Business Card Reader. Though I’ve used up 9 out of my 10 free reads.
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 4/26/2010
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 4/26/2010