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!
We’re pleased to tell you that, as of today, New York Times Crosswords is now available for all BlackBerry gamers. The game is subscription based, costing you a measly $2.99 per month to have access to daily puzzles from The New York Times. I wonder if David Pogue has it on his BlackBerry?
Are you sick and tired of charging your brand new BlackBerry Storm or BlackBerry Curve 8900’s battery every day just because you want to surf the mobile web, listen to some music and use BlackBerry Maps (oh, and answer an email or two)? Don’t get mad, get a Seidio Extended Life BlackBerry Battery!
Seidio’s new 1600mAh BlackBerry Battery adds up to 15% more capacity than your original Storm/Curve 8900 battery, giving you that necessary extra bit of juice to get through the day, and relegating your original battery to the ‘use in case of emergency’ pile.
Seidio is selling their 1600mAh Extended Life battery for the reasonable price of $44.95. You can find links to your device below.
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!
Didiom announced today the expansion of its mobile media service public beta to include the BlackBerry Pearl today (the beta also supports the BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry 88xx series). Didiom allows BlackBerry users to access their home computer’s iTunes library remotely and buy over 1.5 million high-quality MP3 songs while on the go. Didiom is unique in that it utilizes a bartering system, allowing users to name their own price for MP3 songs and download them to their BlackBerry or PC. In addition, throughout the beta period Didiom is implementing a cash bonus program to reward prepaid users who purchase MP3 songs.
I downloaded Didiom, which requires you to use both a client on your computer (PC only for now) and my BlackBerry Curve 8330 running OS 4.5. While I was able to listen to the songs available from their library, I couldn’t get my DRM-free iTunes music to stream (Didiom has a DRM-free licensing deal with EPM). While this may not be a big deal for most users, about 99% of my music is DRM-free, meaning the service doesn’t really work for me. Anyone else have more luck?
When he wasn’t gambling, drinking, or twitter live-blogging, BlackBerry Cool contributer Nan Palmero was roaming around Las Vegas with a camera to bring you the goods from CES 2009. One of his first stops was at the Zeemote booth, a BlackBerry Cool 15 presenter and all around cool company that makes a sweet bluetooth controller for smartphone gaming. While the Zeemote JS1 controller is only out in Europe and Mexico right now, you can expect it to launch in Canada and the U.S. in a few months.
Multiplied has announced today that their latest version of Poynt comes equipped with support for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. You can download the latest version of Poynt at the link below. Go nuts!
Mumbai, India – Airtel and Research In Motion today announced the launch of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone in India. Priced at Rs.21990 the smartphone is now available at Airtel authorized channels nationally.
“The BlackBerry Pearl Flip is a powerful, compact smartphone equipped to deliver a wide range of applications,” said Mr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Mobile Services, Airtel. “This continues to reinforce our commitment to enhance and deliver the best communication experience to our users with the latest BlackBerry smartphones from Airtel.”
The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone harnesses the power of the BlackBerry platform and packs a wide range of useful features into a sleek flip design. Its spacious keyboard allows easy typing and dialing and the flip design opens to a large, vibrant internal display and provides the satisfying finality of ending a call by closing the phone. Customers will also appreciate the smartphone’s external display for previewing calendar reminders, email, text messages and phone calls at a glance.
You might remember us last talking about Poynt during the 
