Link - Blackberry Helmet

The Blackberry 8330, nicknamed Niagra, was originally scheduled to be released tomorrow, May 9th. So Verizon customers can rejoice as it has been made available a day or 2 before :]

Here are some specs:
- 2 megapixel camera with video capture
- microSD card slot
- Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo
- MP3 player
- Ability to watch VCAST TV.

The current price is set to $269.99. This is after signing a 2-year contract w/ Verizon and a mail-in rebate.

I bought my Blackberry Pearl about 2 years ago, right after my old Tmobile Samsung ‘died’ on me. Funny thing is, 2 days after I bought the pearl, it turns out the contacts for the battery were dirty so the phone wouldn’t start up. I cleaned it up and… what do you know! It worked!

But like many of us Crackberry Addicts, it took just 2 days to get me hooked. There was no way I could go from instant email access (and Gmail access!), checking the weather, looking up the current price of oil and gold, and the beloved roller ball, back to my Samsung which looked like it used to be cool… in the late 90’s.

I have come to the realization that I love my Blackberry and will probably never own any other type of phone ever again (especially if RIM decides to produce some touch screen units…)

So what say you? Do you LOVE or HATE your Blackberry?

Technology that we all sort of knew existed, is being implemented by Google. The ability to tell you where you are, based on your cell phone location (NOT via GPS). It works by approximating your location based on your cell phone signal and distance from nearby cellphone towers.

“Unlike the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) technology Google uses the exchange of signals between the phone and nearby mobile phone towers to estimate the phone’s location.

It will work on more handsets and use less battery power than GPS, and work indoors. But it has a much lower degree of accuracy: GPS can pinpoint down to 10 metres or less, Google warns of a margin of error of 400 metres to five kilometres.”
- TheAge.com

Get Google Maps with My Location Feature here:
http://mobile.google.com/gmm

As Apple steps up the game in the world of electronics with their recently introduced iPhone and iTouch (touch screen iPod), many others have adopted this technology for their upcoming handheld lineups. It is rumored that RIM will be releasing its first touch screen Blackberry device sometime in 2008.

With more and more business being done ‘on the go’ these days, will this touch screen upgrade help its Blackberry users? Or will it just be an ‘extra’ feature while emailing remains its key feature?

If you have issues with your BlackBerry Pearl or any other Blackberry for that matter, make sure to call your Carrier’s tech support.

I have T-Mobile and even though I did NOT Opt into the insurance on the phone, my Blackberry Pearl itself was covered under a one year manufacturer warranty. I spoke w/ the Rep for about 10 min, she had he do some tests and reset my phone and my problems were still not fixed so I had 2 choices.

Pay $9.99 for regular 5-7day shipping OR
Pay $14.99 for 2-3day shipping.

Not a bad deal when I didn’t have phone insurance :]

The most common problems I have seen are:

- Roll ball stops working when you scroll in certain directions
- Camera not working
- The little silver clip in the back that holds the battery cover pops out.

So, make sure you call your carrier if you have issues. Even if you didn’t opt in for extra insurance, you may still be covered!

Click the Thumbnails for Larger View

It’s about time the Blackberry adopted Wifi :]

This is the first WiFi capable Blackberry RIM has ever produced and will be available via AT&T later this year. Is it me, or does it seem AT&T is getting all the good smart phones lately?

RIM announced last month that its BlackBerry subscriber accounts grew by about 1.2 million during the first quarter for a total of 9.2 million.

source: http://cbc/ca

The end of August will spell the beginning of the ‘Crackberry’ epidemic in China as the first set of phones are to be released for the first time. 8700g Handsets will be making their debut with approximately 5,000 orders for these phones are already queued.

This is a great move by RIM who has been trying to get their foot in the door for quite some time now.

They will be directly competing with China’s own inhouse telecom company, China United Telecommunications Corp, which introduced their own “RedBerry” push email service last year.

The 8700g is said to retail for approximately CDN$700 (US$661).

“RIMM blew past analyst expectations for the first-quarter and, more critically, told the Street that it would perform just as impressively in the second-quarter. The company, which makes the BlackBerry, said that, for the quarter ended June 2, it earned $223.2 million, or $1.17 per share, versus $128.8 million, or 67 cents per share, from a similar period last year. Adjusted net income, excluding a $5.3 million stock option expense, totaled $228.5 million, or $1.20 per share.

Just as impressively, RIMM predicts solid future financial performance. The company forecasts second-quarter earnings between $1.37 and $1.49 per share, or 45 to 49 cents per share on a post-split basis. The company is also looking for second-quarter sales that wll be between $1.30 billion and $1.37 billion. Analysts are predicting second-quarter earnings of $1.12 per share on sales of $1.11 billion.”

Courtey of Forbes.com