Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry
The only way to open this editorial is to admit something I've been rather shy about on the pages of Engadget: I've been an avid BlackBerry fan and user for about six years now. I mean a real addict -- the kind who wakes up each morning looking for a blinking red LED, the kind who's refused to give up push email and BlackBerry Messenger in favor of more powerful, polished, and progressive mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, and webOS
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: admit-something, black, blackberry 6, curve, d: dive into mobile, making-the-leap, operating, verizon, webos
BlackBerry Curve 8980 shows up in FCC, offers some glam shots
Despite the more recent releases of the Curve 8500 series and the Curve 3G , RIM has never really offered up a true successor to the venerable Curve 8900 -- a device some would argue remains the prettiest that Waterloo has ever manufactured. Indeed, with the QVGA display and meager cam on the 3G, there's a pretty magnificent gap between it and the business-class Bold 9700 / 9780...
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: approval, business, curve, curve 8980, engadget, Filing, model, recent-releases, res, result, rim, venerable, waterloo
AT&T welcoming BlackBerry Curve 3G and Pearl 3G to the fold later this year
RIM products tend to have ultra-predictable launch cycles -- when Waterloo announces a new BlackBerry, odds are pretty great that your carrier's going to pick it up at some point, no matter what carrier that may be. So it goes with the Curve 3G and Pearl 3G ; neither product is new, of course, but they're new to AT&T, which has just revealed that it'll be getting both this year.
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: berry-curve, BlackBerry, curve, entry, holidays, launch, press, the-third-party
Sprint gets a BlackBerry Curve 3G of its own, going for $50 on contract
Unless you're a huge fan of Sprint's Everything plan, it looks as if Verizon's BlackBerry Curve 3G is the one to get -- unless you enjoy spending $20 more (on contract) for the same thing on Sprint, that is. Just hours after Big Red announced that the 9330 would soon be coming its way, in flies Sprint to play copycat
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: black, BlackBerry, curve, curve 3g, curve3g, dedicated-media, enjoy-spending, entry, result, rim, two-megapixel, verizon
BlackBerry Curve 3G launching on Verizon for $30
We would've never figured on Verizon carrying over the " Curve 3G " name from this phone's GSM counterpart, considering all of its older Curve models have already had EV-DO -- but branding consistency trumps logic in this case, we suppose. Given what we know about the GSM model, you can probably guess the specs: 2 megapixel cam and BlackBerry OS 5 with upgradeability to 6 are both in the cards, though interestingly, Verizon's official specs just list 802.11b/g for WiFi -- there's no mention of 802.11n, which the current Curve 3G has under the hood. Regardless, perhaps the best feature is the price: $29.99 on contract after a $100 rebate, making it one of the most affordable brand new smartphones on the market -- assuming BlackBerry OS is your cup of tea, of course
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: BlackBerry, cards, curve, guess-the-specs, Logic, models, phone, trumps, verizon
Prepaid Droid, BlackBerry and Palm phones coming to Verizon? (update: box spotting)
We'd heard a few rumors of some new prepaid offerings from Verizon recently, but it now looks like the carrier could really be about to expand things in a big way -- at least if some purportedly authentic leaked documents are any indication. Apparently received by Android Does from a helpful tipster, the documents list a whole new lineup of prepaid phones, including a slew of BlackBerrys, the Palm Pre and Pixi Plus, and just about every Android-based phone Verizon offers (including all of the Droids and even the yet-to-be released Samsung Fascinate -- again listed for September 9th ).
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: BlackBerry, curve, droid, droid2, droidx, entry, handful, leak, offerings, palm, phones, pre, prepaid-droid, samsung, samsungfascinate
BlackBerry Curve 9330′s marriage with Sprint seemingly leaked by RIM
When RIM crafts a CDMA BlackBerry, you can bet -- well, usually bet -- that it's destined for both Sprint and Verizon, since there aren't many other carrier partners anywhere in the world where Waterloo can recoup the R&D costs. We've already heard plenty of rumors that Verizon's signed up to get it in the coming months, and now we've got information from none other than RIM itself that Sprint has its eyes on the 8530 successor, too. A knowledge base article on RIM's site (which has now been pulled, of course) referred to a "Sprint BlackBerry Curve 9330 smartphone," which pretty much says it all -- we suppose it's possible that the article's author was just preparing for the possibility that Sprint would be getting it, but we think the more likely scenario is that it was official info that went up a tad early
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: 9330, 9330-smartphone, berry-curve, black, BlackBerry, curve, curve 9330, curve9330, likely-scenario, mobile, partners, possibility, result, sprint-black
Cricket starts offering Android-powered Zio for $230
As we discovered back at its CTIA intro earlier this year, Kyocera's (and Sanyo's) Zio isn't the neatest Android phone you've ever seen -- nor the most technically impressive -- but at $230 without a contract after $20 discount, it's pretty hard to argue that you're not getting what you pay for. Regional carrier Cricket had been promising the Zio for some time, and now it's here, just the latest in the company's newfound push into the smartphone space -- a space it's traditionally avoided in the past -- with the recent launch of the Curve 8530 (for the same price as the Zio, coincidentally). Trackballs are officially pass
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: budget, Carrier, cricket, cricket wireless, curve, launch, leap wireless, leapwireless, mobile, starts-offering, trackballs, zio
Right on time: Verizon phasing out Pre Plus, Storm2, Curve 8530, others?
Judging from some documents we've received, Big Red is looking to clear out a lot of inventory right about now -- presumably to make room for some upcoming models, some of which we've already heard about through the grapevine. Specifically, the Pre Plus along with the BlackBerry Storm2 and Curve 8530 are apparently marked "Phase Out"; in the case of the Pre Plus, we know Verizon's site has had it marked out of stock for a little while now , while rumors of a Storm3 and Curve 9330 have been floating around for some time. Also on the chopping block are a couple netbooks, a USB modem, and the MiFi , a device we've heard would be replaced with the ZTE-sourced, dual-mode Fivespot in the near future.
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: chopping, curve, dual, mobile, phasing-out-pre, preplus, result, storm 2, storm2, upcoming-models, usb, verizon
Samsung Craft to be MetroPCS’ first LTE handset, Dallas-Ft. Worth added as a launch market
When we think "craft," we think of airplanes, boats, and perhaps the occasional needlepoint project -- but all kidding aside, we've definitely heard worst names than "Craft" for a major phone launch, so we've got nothing to complain about here. Regional carrier MetroPCS has announced on its latest earnings call that its first LTE phone -- the FCC-approved R900 from Samsung -- will come to market as the Craft at a price in the same range as its current smartphone lineup which includes the Code for $250 and the BlackBerry Curve 8530 for $280. These guys are still on target to launch in Vegas this year , but it now looks like they'll be adding Dallas-Ft.
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: BlackBerry, curve, dallas, dallas ft. worth, entry, fcc, lte, metropcs, needlepoint, project, range-as-its, result, the-occasional, timeline, worth