Just after Christmas last month, we posted some internal Rogers documents showcasing the BlackBerry Storm 9520, a GSM Storm variant that will feature 3G HSDPA and Wi-Fi. It appears now that the Storm 9520 is starting to peak out into public copy, as indicated by the image above. The image, sent to us by ‘Rogers Dude’ (but not RogersDude69 for some reason) appears to be part of a marketing package, meaning the Storm 9520 can’t be that far away if its on copy being sent out to stores.
Obviously, we have no release date yet for the BlackBerry Storm 9520, but we’ll see what our friends from Rogers can do.
The BlackBerry Cool staff made a resolution that 2009 would be a year of giving back to the BlackBerry community. So just because we’ve given away 2500+ free beta trials of the new BOLT browser in the past two days, don’t expect us to stop. Today we have BlackBerry Cool 15 presenter Ubiquitous Systems, with 200 closed beta invites for their SocialScope application. SocialScope is a social networking application that allows you interact with your Facebook and Twitter accounts at once. Interested? I thought so.
To sign up for the closed beta (I wouldn’t right now if you’re a BlackBerry Storm user), simply follow the link below and hope you’re one of the first 200 people (we’ll work SocialScope for more invites). If you missed out, worry not: our hands on impressions, a list of new feature additions (yep, SocialScope hooked us up with the newest build) and a gallery of screenshots are after the jump.
UPDATE: WOW, just got word from Bitstream that you guys brought down their servers! They’re upgrading them now for higher capacity, so if you received an error when trying to sign up, wait a while and try again!
When we wrangled the BlackBerry Nation 500 invites for the BOLT BlackBerry Browser private beta yesterday, we weren’t sure how interested you’d be. It turns out that you were very interested — Bitstream, makers of BOLT had quadrupled our invites to 2000, and that still wasn’t enough! So after a little bit of negotiating, we’ve gotten them to give us some more invites.
To get your copy of the BOLT beta, you must head on over to their download page and use the following referral code: ‘berrycool’. Do this even if you had already sent a request previously. Bitstream has now automated the request process, meaning you should get an email with the download link much quicker now.
While you’re waiting to get your dirty little mitts on that email, don’t forget to check out our hands-on BOLT browser impressions. Get to it!
UPDATE 2: I’ve added some quick initial impressions of the BOLT Browser after the jump. If there’s something you’d like to know about, post a comment!
UPDATE: Because of the huge traffic influx, we’ve heard that some of you are still waiting for your download link from Bitstream. To tide you over, we have a gallery of BOLT screenshots for you after the jump. Hold on tight!
One aspect of the BlackBerry experience that underwhelms, despite serious improvements recently with the Storm and the Bold, is the BlackBerry Browser. Browsing the web on your BlackBerry is packed with glitches and speed issues, making your BB a second-class citizen compared to the iPhone’s Safari browser.
Bitstream has just launched a private beta of a new J2ME browser called BOLT, which they claim is much faster than Opera Mini and utilizes less resources (thus saving on battery life). We’ve just installed it ourselves, so stay tuned for impressions, but if you’d like to be one of the first people in the world to try the new BOLT browser, head on over to the download page and use the following referral code: berrycool. Post a comment and let us know what you think!
Our friends at SLG Mobile (formerly BeamBerry Solutions) just pinged us that BeamReader, a huge favorite at the BlackBerry Cool 15 – and winner of an offer sheet from the BlackBerry Partners Fund – has left beta and is now officially available. BeamReader is a full fidelity native PDF viewing application for BlackBerry, meaning that all document rendering occurs on the BlackBerry without the need for server side pre-processing or even a network connection. The hallmark of BeamReader is its ability to render actual fonts embedded in a PDF document as opposed to using font substitutes that adversely affect the document’s look and formatting.
“We are delighted to introduce BeamReader to the BlackBerry market and firmly believe that a native full fidelity PDF reader makes the BlackBerry platform more complete for business users and more competitive with other platforms,” said Evgeny Lebanidze, President and CEO of SLG Mobile.
Popular BlackBerry entertainment brand Bplay has released their first BlackBerry theme of the new year: Deep Blue 2.0. Deep Blue 2.0 is similar to the original Deep Blue, but is now animated, giving it that high-tech, 2009 feel! Click the link below to download Deep Blue 2.0. (unfortunately not compatible with the BlackBerry 8830).
