Mmm, can you smell that? It’s my most favorite smell in the world: new car smell. After running up the mileage way past warranty on the old BBCool, it was time to start fresh. While upon first glance the changes may seem entirely aesthetic, the new BlackBerry Cool is much more than a fresh coat of paint. We’ve completely overhauled the site from the ground up to make way for more improvements/cool features to appear in the coming weeks and months.
So please, do us a favor and kick the tires a bit; we’re sure to have missed some things along the way. If you notice any bugz/glitches/browser weirdness, please ping us using our contact form with the heading ‘NEW BBCOOL’. You can also post a comment and let us know what you think - please keep all criticism constructive.
Big shout out to the entire BBCool/Smoke Labs team for making this happen so fast!
Great news for iDEN BlackBerry users not on the Sprint network. RIM and NII Holdings jointly announced the impending release of the BlackBerry Curve 8350i in Latin America during Q1 of 2009. the iDEN BlackBerry will see release in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.
For those not in the know, the BlackBerry Curve 8350i is the first iDEN BlackBerry since the old 7100i, and features push-to-talk capability as well as Wi-Fi. There are about 10 million North and South American iDEN subscribers eager to get their hands on this device. You can read the full press release after the jump.
After spending time with the BlackBerry Storm during BBDC, it was a little hard to leave it behind. Thankfully, I did so with full knowledge that it would be returning to my awaiting hands very soon. Here’s the latest in BlackBerry Storm launch rumors for a variety of carriers:
PhoneArena is reporting that Verizon will begin selling the BlackBerry Storm in corporate Nov 15th and the following day at BestBuy locations. Ever since our initial Nov 4th post, the release date has been pushed back one day at a time. While we’ve been currently hearing the 19th from our sources, it’s close enough to not matter too much.
BlackBerry News seems to be wavering back and forth between a November 7th and 11th release date for the Vodafone BlackBerry Storm. CSRs place pricing at around £350 ($538 USD). Please take a look at BBNews’ photos for this post, it made my day.
As we reported earlier today, it appears that Bell may receive the BlackBerry Storm on November 21st, shortly after the two releases above. I wonder if Telus will try to undercut them by releasing on the 20th.
HSBC, the bank that everyone thought was switching solely to iPhones for business use, has launched the first UK business banking service optimized for Blackberry users. Optimized for BlackBerry 8xxx devices and above, HSBC users can access real-time balances and transactions for the last seven days on HSBC sterling accounts, and balances on foreign currency accounts. In addition, they will have access to balances on business and commercial credit cards, with seven days worth of transactions per cardholder.
This new service can be accessed from www.m.hsbc.co.uk using the same username and password as regular HSBC internet banking service.
The Boy Genius has gathered some more information from the swirling abyss whence all rumors spring forth, this time for Bell and Solo Mobile’s Q4 BlackBerry lineup. While top billing has to go to the BlackBerry Storm, on which BGR has tagged a November 21st release date, Solo Mobile subscribers should be happy a white BlackBerry Pearl 8130 arrive in their stockings as well.
You can see the full (rumored) device list after the jump, as well as some new Solo Mobile BlackBerry data plans.
Our boy Ronen from BerryReview noticed today that RIM has already put into motion the third party web signals push service announced this week at BBDC on mobile.blackberry.com. Here’s a list of the first six news/information offerings available:
NYTimes.com Bits Blog Notifier - Learn about news & analysis as it happens with NYTimes.com Bits Blog Notifier. With news & analysis on the tech industry through the day from NY Times writers & freelancers. Accuweather.com- Get free constantly updated forecasts pushed to your BlackBerry smartphone. View radar, 10-day & hourly forecasts & severe weather alerts. Reuters News Web Signals - Get breaking news with Reuters Web Signals on your BlackBerry smartphone. As news breaks, the Reuters icon changes & sends you to the story. FOX News Alert - Be the first to know when news breaks. Download FOX News Alert & get instant alerts to breaking news directly on your BlackBerry Smartphone. CBC - Receive the day’s top headlines and breaking news with the innovative CBC web signal for BlackBerry smartphones Thumbplay Web Signal - Get content releases from Thumbplay. The Thumbplay icon sends you to BlackBerry compatible content like music, ringtones, games, videos & more.
Head to mobile.blackberry.com on your BlackBerry Browser to download your web signals service of choice.
Our sister site QuicklyBored is interested in all things entertainment on your mobile, and I guess this applies. A company named Pinota (Finnish for “to stack”) has released the first and only adult entertainment network for BlackBerry.
Right now, they’re offering a sign up to be a beta tester at:
One of the true pleasures of being at the BlackBerry Developer Conference was the opportunity to finally meet RIM’s Developer Support Guru, Mike Kirkup. Mike is a great guy and one of the heroes that helped to make the BlackBerry Cool 15 possible. He’s also the man behind the Open Mike section of the BlackBerry Developer Newsletter, which has a special focus this month on BlackBerry Storm development. In addition to the BlackBerry Storm simulator video, the BlackBerry Developer Newsletter has Mike talking about ‘Compatibility Mode’ and Storm events at the BBDC, and links to a number of useful support documents about Storm development. Check them out below:
Much like Kevin, I too spent most of my time at the BBDC praising the two nice gents from Google, but soon left them alone after they refused my third request for a job (one day…). Turns out it was a good thing I left them alone, as they were busy prepping an update to Gmail Mobile 2.0. Gmail Mobile has always been a must-have app for Gmail users that want to keep their Gmails separate from their regular BlackBerry inbox, and the Google team has made it even better. The most notable updates are basic offline support and multiple account management, but you can see the full update breakdown after the jump!
Head to m.google.com/mail to download the new version. Google: my offer still stands. I will work for peanuts.
If you weren’t one of the lucky people attending the BlackBerry Developers Conference, take heart, RIM is bringing part of the experience to you! No, it’s not a free BlackBerry, but possible something much more valuable: the entire 2008 BBDC keynote audio. Weighing in at over 3 hours (!), the keynote has something for everyone: Mike Lazaridis’ inspiring address to developers, Rick Segal of the BlackBerry Partners Fund debuting the Dev Challenge winners and mentioning the BlackBerry Cool 15 about 15 times, (enough for a fun drinking game!) or the highly technical stuff near the end about Eclipse or MS Visual studio support.
If you weren’t one of the lucky people attending the BlackBerry Developers Conference, take heart, RIM is bringing part of the experience to you! No, it’s not a free BlackBerry, but possible something much more valuable: the entire 2008 BBDC keynote audio. Weighing in at over 3 hours (!), the keynote has something for everyone: Mike Lazaridis’ inspiring address to developers, Rick Segal of the BlackBerry Partners Fund debuting the Dev Challenge winners and mentioning the BlackBerry Cool 15 about 15 times, (enough for a fun drinking game!) or the highly technical stuff near the end about Eclipse or MS Visual studio support.
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