Here’s a brief rundown of the week that was from your friendly family of bloggers in Ottawa, Canada. Below you’ll find news from our WinMo and mobile entertainment blogs, with a bunch of great BlackBerry Cool content after the jump.
I’m sure this will make all of our UK readers happy. Yesterday we published Vodafone UK’s official launch date for the BlackBerry Storm 9500, November 14th, but noticed that their Storm pre-order page contained a November 18th date. After contacting Vodafone for clarification, we received this timely response:
Hello,
You will be able to go to store and buy a BlackBerry Storm on 14th November. The pre-order phones – and there are 1000s – will be despatched next week and we expect customers will have their pre-order by next weekend. The 18th is just a precaution in case customers are not in to take delivery of the phone at the weekend and delivery needs to be attempted again the following week.
Notice to UK BlackBerry Cool readers: stay at home to make sure you get your BlackBerry Storm!
UPDATE: Umm, make that five new videos. We’ve just added videos from CNN and Stuff.tv after the jump.
It looks like everyone and their dog has gotten their hands on a Vodafone BlackBerry Storm 9500, which launches in the UK on November 14th. Following the 4 minutes of BlackBerry Storm video heaven we posted about yesterday, no less than three other UK mobile sites — KnowYourMobile, MegaWhat and T3 — have posted their own videos. Of the three, MegaWhat’s is probably the most informative, while KnowYourMobile’s demonstrates what purchasing music through Vodafone’s store will look like. We’ve put T3’s first, however, for two reasons: it features a super cute British tech nerd, and she calls the Storm a “stunning piece of kit.” Bloody brilliant. You can see the other two videos after the jump.
Sad news for Telus fans hoping to see the BlackBerry Storm 9530 on the Canadian carrier sometime near the impending Vodafone Storm launch (somewhere between November 14th-18th). We received this email today from a faithful member of the BlackBerry Nation:
Hi, I’m currently a Telus Corporate Store employee and I can guarantee you that the release date WILL NOT BE Nov. 17. I had just attended a Q4 Rally which was at the Ontario Science Centre in which on our PowerPoint slide, the indicated date will be in fact, Dec. 8th. I was unable to photograph the actual slide due to security reasons but the loot and goodies I picked up from the event should be sufficient evidence that I am in fact telling the truth. Within the picture is my lanyard needed for the night for entry to the Rally, and plenty of goodies from the companies which are under the Telus brand and useful specification information sheets.
So there you have it, folks, December 8th. A month away, but still in time to make the Storm a perfect stocking stuffer. I guess that’s why Telus changed their BlackBerry Storm Page to read “in time for the holidays” from “coming soon”.
You can follow all the latest Storm launch date news on our BlackBerry Storm Roundup page. Check out another photo from our tipster friend after the jump.
Vodafone UK officially announced the launch date of the BlackBerry Storm 9500 today via press release. However, while the press release announcement states that the Storm will be available November 14th, Vodafone’s BlackBerry Storm pre-order page puts the date as the 18th. Is this a simple typo or the sign of a delay?
For what it’s worth, Verizon also published a new Storm release, containing new data plans for ‘world travelers’. The Global Value Plan offers discounted roaming charges on calls made to and from 130 countries for $4.99 a month, while the GlobalEmail Data Plans are available for $69.99 a month data-only or $64.99 a month with a voice plan. You can read both press releases below.
If the 4 minute video we posted yesterday wasn’t enough for you, UK gadget site T3.com has posted a full unboxing of the Vodafone BlackBerry Storm. Note that the Storm is a RIM-issued model, and thus the actual Vodafone model will likely see different packaging at release. Still, unboxing pr0n is unboxing pr0n. Wondering when you can get your hands on this beauty? Check out our BlackBerry Storm Launch Roundup.
Vodafone has placed official pricing for the BlackBerry Storm 9500 up on their website. For members of the BlackBerry Nation in North America, the pricing scheme may seem a little unfamiliar. For example, pricing falls into three categories based upon the length of contract (1 year, 18 months, 2 years) with device cost ranging from free (!) to £500 based upon your monthly payment.
You can see the full pricing information at the link below (it’s just to long and varied to easily reproduce). I hope one day North American carriers will introduce a similar pricing scheme. Variety is the spice of life!
UPDATE 1: Bad news folks. The latest news from Telus is that the BlackBerry Storm won’t launch until December 8th. This puts the Bell November 21st date into question as well, simply because Telus is expected to launch first.
UPDATE 2: The Vodafone BlackBerry Storm has been officially announced, and will launch on November 14th for business customers in the UK. Expect the average consumer to get it around the 18th.
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.
Keep hitting this page for the latest in BlackBerry Storm launch information!
We’ll isn’t this a kick in the pants. We received an email today from Rogers corporate putting a stake in the heart of our hopes that the BlackBerry Storm would be on Big Red by New Years. Here’s the email:
Hi Douglas,
Regarding the ‘Storm’ posting…
Apologies for any confusion, our customer service representative made an error on our holiday device lineup. While we won’t divulge the holiday lineup in advance, I can confirm it will not include the BlackBerry Storm.
While it is a little weird that the service rep was pretty clear on the upcoming availability of the BlackBerry Storm, we’ll chalk this up to confusion + excitement = rumor fail. I guess we should have been a little more careful and titled the post ‘Confirmed: Rogers employees think the BlackBerry Storm is coming for Christmas’. Sorry to get your hopes up.
However, Rogers subscribers shouldn’t completely lose heart. Kevin over at CrackBerry did some digging into the story, and seems reasonably optimistic that Rogers could see a Storm-like touchscreen BlackBerry sometime in the future:
Over the past couple of months I have, like others, heard some “chatter” that a touchscreen BlackBerry would hopefully be coming to Rogers (which most assumed would be a version of the Storm). Now whether this device would actually come to Rogers in the form of the Storm 9500, or a slightly different version (perhaps supporting HSDPA, and who knows, maybe even carrying different branding and sporting a slightly different look than the Storm…), I have yet to see concrete proof of. From what I can tell, Rogers was looking to put the Storm on the roadmap, dropped it, and is probably now looking again/working hard to get a touchscreen BB out in the hopefully near future (and if they’re not, they should!!).
The final conclusion here is pretty simple: regardless of whether or not Rogers will eventually release a touchscreen BlackBerry, everyone agrees it would be a good idea. Get to it, Rogers!
It’s a pretty slow news day today, which allows us with another opportunity for some BlackBerry news catchup. Earlier this week, Vodafone Australia posted a pre-order page for the BlackBerry Storm. Although there is no release date or pricing information, registering will place you in Vodafone’s priority queuing (a credit check is required). Click the link below to register!
