The BlackBerry Thunder is the Storm 9350 (and the Thunder?), Aug 27

You might remember that poll awhile back regarding getting instructional videos right on your device… Well, it looks like the folks at BlackBerry Made Simple listened, and are now offering over 65 of their files in a BlackBerry-friendly format. This is a great idea for training folks on simple BlackBerry tasks, since they’re not only learning a thing or two about video playback in the process, but it guarantees they can review lessons whereever they are. It’s a solid deal deal for both individuals who need a few crash courses and enterprises who are looking to keep their help desk calls down. Head on over to BlackBerry Made Simple to try out some of their free sample videos.

MTN has launched the BlackBerry 8320 and BlackBerry 8120 to South African customers, expanding on their existing GPS versions of the Curve and the Pearl. It’s been awhile since we had heard from MTN, but it’s good to see the African market is still getting some of the newer devices, but will they be getting the BlackBerry Bold any time soon? RIM’s COO Don Morrison has high hopes for their progress into Africa, and a BlackBerry 9000 launch there could go a long ways. Find more info on the MTN BlackBerry 8320 here (available in gold and black) and the BlackBerry 8120 here (available in titanium and black).

(via ITNewsAfrica)

The latest report from mobile advertising agency AdMob ran through some numbers based on the four billion ads they’ve served up. As you can see, Nokia remains top dog in mobile browsing activity, capturing a solid 34% of the global share thanks primarily to heavy adoption in Africa and Asia, followed up closely by Openwave (AKA WAP) at 29%. BlackBerry took a sad little 3% slice of the pie, right along side Motorola, Palm’s and Apple’s browsers. The BlackBerry 8300 and BlackBerry 8100 are still on the American Top Ten handsets list, though the top four spots are taken by Motorola. Even internationally, the Pearl does alright, getting 9th. place. In terms of geography, Indonesia has seen about ten times more traffic than last year, and Asia on the whole has seen a significant increase in activity.

(AdMob via Electronista)

I just got wind of this free new service from Positive Networks which authenticates log-ins by calling the user’s phone number. Just answer your phone after logging-in and hit the pound key to finish the process. PhoneFactor has just partnered up with LogMeIn to get this service out there for free to existing subscribers, who already enjoy secure remote desktop access. This is a dead simple and easy way for enterprises to ensure only the right people are getting into the network, and nice little bonus to folks who are already using LogMeIn. Try out PhoneFactor for free here.

(via BusinessWire)

QuickBooks, a financial app that had previously been anchored to the desktop, is now going mobile with BlackBerry and the iPhone. Financial data fed in through their service will now be available via web on your BlackBerry at IntuitLabs.com. Using the mobile site, users will be able to review accounts receivable and payable, vendor and customer locations through Google Maps, profit and loss numbers, and lots more. For an initial foray into mobilizing software, a website seems like a sound way to go.

(via MarketWatch)

After replying to Mark’s comment about BlackBerry needing an app store, it occurred to me that there are some resources right on RIM’s site that not everyone might know about. While they might not be widely publicized, there’s still a lot of info out there ripe for the picking - you just have to know where to look. Even if you’re not a noobie to the BlackBerry scene, there might be some spots here you haven’t checked out before…

Check out the top five hidden gems of the BlackBerry world…

If you weren’t already keeping tabs on the U.S. elections news through Viigo, Google now has a mobile site to help you keep up to date. The site’s not much to look at but there’s plenty there, including links to McCain and Obama’s YouTube video channels, check out what they’re reading through Google Reader, the latest election news items, and even mobile maps around convention centres. Head on over to m.google.com/elections on your BlackBerry to get all the latest coverage and info.

(via Official Google Mobile Blog)

Telstra’s been trickling out their BlackBerry Bold to enterprise customers for a few weeks now, but it looks like they’re holding off on giving out any more until the next software upgrade which should fix some streaming video issues.

“RIM is developing a software upgrade to optimize media streaming on the device,” Telstra spokesman Peter Taylor said. “This free firmware upgrade is around the corner and a handful of customers have chosen to wait for this before rolling out the new BlackBerry Bold to their teams. … “The BlackBerry Bold has not experienced any issues with bugs at all. All four local carriers will be launching the product, Telstra and Optus both currently have the product available in the marketplace,” a RIM Australia spokesperson said. “It’s very common for different carriers and networks to have specific requirements for software. Handset manufacturers then tailor software specifically for a network or a carrier.”

AT&T customers are still glaring at us Canadians and our shiny new toys, as they’re dealing with the exact same kind of of software delays. Optus has had the Bold publicly available for some time now, without any issues to report whatsoever. Obviously different carriers will have different requirements, which accounts for the different launch dates internationally. We can only hope that American customers won’t also have to wait until September for the first big patch before the Bold is released.

(via Australian IT)

Back in 1991, the National Association of Broadcasters attempted to lobby the FCC against pay-to-use news services over cellular networks, which would have been bad news for BlackBerry if it had gone through.

The NAB said that the cellular operators are misusing their spectrum. “Cellular spectrum should be reserved for the two-way communication for which it is designed,” said the NAB. “One-way transmission of news, sports, weather and traffic would be a misuse of this spectrum and a needless duplication of broadcast services.”

Yep, the NAB didn’t want any data services sent over cell networks, which would include that handy push e-mail we all know and love today. Too bad for them that one didn’t pan out, eh? Think they would have smartened up over the last decade? Guess again. They’re still combating the use of wireless white space by Google, Dell Microsoft and others for data services for fear of its interference with existing broadcasting in the spectrum - essentially the same premise as back in ‘91. Good luck with that one, guys.

Thanks Josep!

(BNET via Saschameinrath)

A new BlackBerry theme came out today for the Pearl, Curve and 8800-series which will tickle pink any nostalgic gamers out there. Every icon is an animated sprite from a certain game involving certain Italian plumbers stomping on certain turtles attempting to rescue a certain princess. While “Classic Video Game Theme” might be a thinly-veiled attempt to evade IP lawyers, it’s still a slick looking theme. As far as I’m concerned, it’s only a matter of time before Nintendo’s legal banhammer comes down on this one, so pick it up while you can!

Zen style

• Download the Classic Video Game Theme for the BlackBerry 8800-series and Curve
• Download the Classic Video Game Theme for the BlackBerry Pearl

Today style

• Download the Classic Video Game Theme for the BlackBerry 8800-series and Curve
• Download the Classic Video Game Theme for the BlackBerry Pearl

Icon style

• Download the Classic Video Game Theme for the BlackBerry 8800-series and Curve
• Download the Classic Video Game Theme for the BlackBerry Pearl

RBC’s Michael Abramsky is encouraging investors to look beyond the BlackBerry Bold as an indicator of RIM’s future progress, citing the BlackBerry 8200 (Kickstart) and BlackBerry 9500 (Thunder) as the big things to be looking forward to.

Abramsky considers ‘concerns over BlackBerry Bold’s pricing, features vs. iPhone 3G as overdone,’ arguing that the Bold is ‘an evolutionary 3G Blackberry targeted at upgraders and prosumers/business users while the iPhone 3G is a consumer-focused device targeted at media-centric
Smartphone consumers.’

The ongoing iPhone 3G comparison is a little bit off - we definitely felt more at home putting the BlackBerry 9000 against the Nokia E71. The real head-butting won’t come between Apple and RIM, Abarmsky argues, but rather between the two of them and Nokia and Motorola. They are the bigger fish in the consumer pond, and could easily become targets as RIM and Apple gain traction in that market. Abramsky’s holding an ‘outperform’ rating for RIM’s stock with a $165 price target.

(via Barron’s)

The BlackBerry Bold finally launched in Canada this week, but spotty attendance at Rogers outlets and potential 3G coverage issues could rain on the parade. Best Buy and Future Shop are getting their stock imminently, and it may be up to them to salvage the situation in RIM’s home and native land. The BlackBerry 8220 and BlackBerry 8210 that were once known as the Kickstart have begun popping up on a few sites, potentially confirming the mid-September launch date. We go over all these stories and more in this week’s BlackBerry Cool Podcast.

Click here to listen to the BlackBerry Cool Podcast: Episode 38

At the request of Mike, I’ve cooked up a few BlackBerry Cool wallpapers based off our very excellent BBCool t-shirt. We’ve got wallpapers for your Pearl, Curve, 8800-series, Bold, and even Kickstart, Javelin or 9500 if you happen to be packing one. Never changed your BlackBerry’s wallpaper? No problem - we’ll walk you through the steps to give your home screen a nice new look.

If you especially dig BBCool, we’ve also got a few desktop wallpapers to chose from. Want another size? Leave a comment!

BlackBerry Cool wallpapers and instructions behind the jump!

With RIM’s first HSPA (the BlackBerry Bold’s flavour of 3G) device now available internationally, and so many worries about coverage arising, it’s time to take a look at some subscriber numbers. Last year, 11 million cell phones were running on the 3G technology, but now we’re looking at 50 million handsets cruising on HSPA networks. That substantial increase is supported by 191 service providers and over 740 devices.

“These figures highlight the global success of Mobile Broadband and the fact that we are continuing to see greater and greater economies of scale,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. “This is driving down the cost of devices and equipment and enabling more and more users across the world to enjoy easy access to media-rich services anywhere at anytime.”

This gives us a lot of hope for better connectivity on the BlackBerry Bold and future 3G devices, but by the looks of the BlackBerry Javelin and BlackBerry Kickstart, the 9000 may be the only HSPA BlackBerry until the BlackBerry Thunder in mid-October.

(via cellular-news)

In order to rope in a few corporate contracts, Taiwan Mobile now has a promotion to give away the BlackBerry 8120, BlackBerry 8300, BlackBerry 8707 and BlackBerry 8700 to enterprise customers who are willing to sign up for a monthly NT$1,499 ($US 47.70) plan. Taiwan Mobile is aiming to crank up their enterprise activations tenfold before the end of the year, which, while ambitious, could very well happen with a promo this enticing. Australia’s having a similar promotion with the BlackBerry Bold, which will likely see a lot of success. If you’re in an enterprise in the neighbourhood, you can contact Taiwan Mobile here to get started.

(via DigiTimes)

What, you think we didn’t have one before today? While we’re still not sure when you’ll be able to walk into a Rogers store to actually buy the shiny new device like Simon did, today still marks the official launch of the BlackBerry Bold on Rogers. In honor of this special day, we’ve decided to post our exhaustive review, if only to whet your appetites.

And boy, has this day been a long time coming: three years in development, three months since its official announcement at WES 2008, and three times the hype of any other BlackBerry release. The first in RIM’s next generation lineup of smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold has been labeled everything from an enterprise company’s desperate push into the prosumer space to a true iPhone killer. Most of the BlackBerry faithful are just hoping that it turns out to be a worthy merger and evolution of the BlackBerry 8800 and Curve device lines. This review will settle the debate.

Be forewarned, our review of the BlackBerry Bold is fairly large. However, we’ve broken the review down into specific sections for quick and convenient access to the information you seek. Make sure to post a comment to let us know if there’s anything we’ve missed, anything else you want to know about, and whether or not you feel RIM’s new flagship device meets the hype.

Enough talk! Behold, the BlackBerry Bold.

Click here to read BlackBerry Cool’s Ultimate BlackBerry Bold Review

John Boynton, chief marketing officer from Rogers and RIM’s Patrick Spence introduced the BlackBerry Bold to press in Toronto today, and they went through a brief spiel about the partnership between the two companies, and how awesome the Bold and/or Rogers is. It’s a rocky launch for the BlackBerry 9000 in Canada, for sure, but Best Buy and Future Shop will both start receiving their stock tomorrow.

Despite much ado, the Canadian BlackBerry 9000 is ready to roll. Getting shipments in has been a bit of an issue for Rogers, considering this Bold, bought at Ottawa’s flagship Rogers Plus, was one of two available…. Still, you can order yours online from Rogers here, and you’ll get it when you get it.

Stay tuned for more pictures of the BlackBerry Bold from Rogers Behind the jump!