Posted on August 15, 2007, at 10:57 AM .
Hooboy, it does exist. It’s been a long, hard waiting period for Verizon customers who wanted some sweet, CDMA BlackBerry Pearl goodness. According to these snatched images from the Boy Genius, it looks like RIM has delivered in a big way, with none other than the BlackBerry 8130 — which looks a lot like the BlackBerry Pearl 2. We’re talking 3.5 mm headset jack, 2 Mpx camera, and MicroSD support (is it external? Why no MicroSDHC?), all rapped up in a neat 1xEVDO package. Although, without the rumored Wi-Fi and 3.2Mpx camera in the Komet, you might call it the BlackBerry Pearl 1.5.
Verizon customers (and maybe Sprint too?) are set to receive the device sometime in November, 3 months after the GSM Pearl 2′s launch (makes perfect sense). So tell us guys, does it look like it was worth the wait?
Check out another picture after the jump.
Posted on August 3, 2007, at 12:52 PM .
Leave it to Boy Genius to drop a little bit of BlackBerry rumor to hold us over on a lazy Friday in the dog days of summer. According to his “very friendly RIM informants”, and supporting what we’ve thought all along, the Comet BlackBerry Pearl 2 will be arriving by the second week of September in a variety of colours… to AT&T first. That’s right, T-Mobile just got punk’d (although they apparently will still be getting the Pearl 2 eventually). Here’s a question: what does this mean for the rumored CDMA Pearl 2 for Verizon?
BG was also able to confirm that the much rumored Papa Bear is in fact the BlackBerry 8310, which is disappointing news to those who were hoping that the big bear would have both GPS and Wi-Fi. According to BG’s sources, the reason for no Wi-Fi is the fact that RIM can’t cram both Wi-Fi and GPS into such a small case design. This kind of makes sense; the Pap Bear never had a device number attached to it like the other devices in the “Bear” family — one would assume it would have been called the 8330 if RIM had been able to get the job done.
Hey BG, did you leak this news because RIM didn’t send you the BlackBerry Summer Survival Kit? Revenge is a dish best served by Internet informants, I guess.
Posted on August 1, 2007, at 8:57 AM .
Obviously, take this with the grain of salt that all rumors deserve, but over the past year we’ve come to trust Boy Genius when he drops a date in our laps (even while he’s smacking us around like the BlackBerry-happy punks that we are). The straight word coming from an AT&T insider is that the BlackBerry 8820, with all it’s Wi-Fi and MicroSDHC goodness, will launch on North America’s largest GSM carrier by August 13th or 14th.
Considering that we haven’t heard a peep from AT&T enterprise users about a soft-launch, it seems like we got it half right last time. Oh well, that’s what we get for being BG wannabes. The biggest question now, however, is how quickly can we get our informant friend to send us an unlocked 8820 for use on Rogers?
Posted on July 23, 2007, at 9:58 AM .
Poor Boy Genius. The guy has so many sources on the inside that sometimes their “hot tips” conflict with each other. Take the impending release of the BlackBerry 8820 (mmm, sweet Wi-Fi goodness) on AT&T, for instance. One BG devotee claims that AT&T will be launching the 8820 as early as this week, for $299 on a 2 year plan. The launch will coincide with a “phase out” of the already passé BlackBerry 8800. Others, citing “internal AT&T training documents”, are claiming that AT&T will have exclusivity on the BlackBerry 8820 (sorry, T-Mobile), but not until August.
With RIM’s official press release failing to offer a firm date, it’s no wonder there’s so much confusion. For our money, it’s most likely that AT&T is soft-launching the BlackBerry 8820 this week for enterprise customers (a common carrier tactic), with a full consumer rollout to hit in August. Only time will tell, however. Keep your ear to the ground, BG, but do your best to filter out the noise.
Posted on July 9, 2007, at 5:17 PM .
In a recent feature by the Toronto Star, RIM’s Co-CEO Jim Balsillie offered commentary on Apple’s relationship with AT&T regarding the iPhone. His comments have sparked some debate across the Internets, most notably on the Boy Genius Report, where several staff members (including the BG himself, of course) have taken different stances on what Jim Dog’s words mean.
The quote in question refers to the surprising (to some) amount of control Apple featured over the iPhone’s launch: for example, a lack of AT&T branding on the device, and activation via iTunes rather than through AT&T. Here’s what Balsillie had to say:
“It’s a dangerous strategy,” says Balsillie. “It’s a tremendous amount of control. And the more control of the platform that goes out of the carrier, the more they shift into a commodity pipe.”
Find out what we think after the jump.
Posted on June 12, 2007, at 11:17 AM .
Those crazy cats at the Morning Paper, who also broke news on the Palm Gandolf, are now bringing word of a CDMA Motorola Q9h, which has only recently been seen on the GSM side of the fence. Dubbed the Motorola “Nelson” (which should ring bells to anyone who knew the Q9h as “Norman”), the device should be rocking WM6, 2.0 Mpx camera, miniSD expansion, Bluetooh, EV-DO and “ultra thin” stylings.
Sprint’s rumored as the featured carrier, but nothing is as yet confirmed (does anything ever get confirmed anymore?). All we know is that our boy the BG is raving over the Q9h, so we’ll keep tabs on this BlackBerry competitor.
