With RIM’s first HSPA (the BlackBerry Bold’s flavour of 3G) device now available internationally, and so many worries about coverage arising, it’s time to take a look at some subscriber numbers. Last year, 11 million cell phones were running on the 3G technology, but now we’re looking at 50 million handsets cruising on HSPA networks. That substantial increase is supported by 191 service providers and over 740 devices.
“These figures highlight the global success of Mobile Broadband and the fact that we are continuing to see greater and greater economies of scale,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. “This is driving down the cost of devices and equipment and enabling more and more users across the world to enjoy easy access to media-rich services anywhere at anytime.”
This gives us a lot of hope for better connectivity on the BlackBerry Bold and future 3G devices, but by the looks of the BlackBerry Javelin and BlackBerry Kickstart, the 9000 may be the only HSPA BlackBerry until the BlackBerry Thunder in mid-October.
(via cellular-news)
What, you think we didn’t have one before today? While we’re still not sure when you’ll be able to walk into a Rogers store to actually buy the shiny new device like Simon did, today still marks the official launch of the BlackBerry Bold on Rogers. In honor of this special day, we’ve decided to post our exhaustive review, if only to whet your appetites.
And boy, has this day been a long time coming: three years in development, three months since its official announcement at WES 2008, and three times the hype of any other BlackBerry release. The first in RIM’s next generation lineup of smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold has been labeled everything from an enterprise company’s desperate push into the prosumer space to a true iPhone killer. Most of the BlackBerry faithful are just hoping that it turns out to be a worthy merger and evolution of the BlackBerry 8800 and Curve device lines. This review will settle the debate.
Be forewarned, our review of the BlackBerry Bold is fairly large. However, we’ve broken the review down into specific sections for quick and convenient access to the information you seek. Make sure to post a comment to let us know if there’s anything we’ve missed, anything else you want to know about, and whether or not you feel RIM’s new flagship device meets the hype.
Enough talk! Behold, the BlackBerry Bold.
Read the rest of The Ultimate BlackBerry Bold Review
Back in 1991, the National Association of Broadcasters attempted to lobby the FCC against pay-to-use news services over cellular networks, which would have been bad news for BlackBerry if it had gone through.
The NAB said that the cellular operators are misusing their spectrum. “Cellular spectrum should be reserved for the two-way communication for which it is designed,” said the NAB. “One-way transmission of news, sports, weather and traffic would be a misuse of this spectrum and a needless duplication of broadcast services.”
Yep, the NAB didn’t want any data services sent over cell networks, which would include that handy push e-mail we all know and love today. Too bad for them that one didn’t pan out, eh? Think they would have smartened up over the last decade? Guess again. They’re still combating the use of wireless white space by Google, Dell Microsoft and others for data services for fear of its interference with existing broadcasting in the spectrum - essentially the same premise as back in ‘91. Good luck with that one, guys.
Thanks Josep!
(BNET via Saschameinrath)
A new BlackBerry theme came out today for the Pearl, Curve and 8800-series which will tickle pink any nostalgic gamers out there. Every icon is an animated spite from a certain game involving certain Italian plumbers stomping on certain turtles attempting to rescue a certain princess. While “Classic Video Game Theme” might be a thinly-veiled attempt to evade IP lawyers, it’s still a slick looking theme. As far as I’m concerned, it’s only a matter of time before Nintendo’s legal banhammer comes down on this one, so pick it up while you can!
Zen style
Today style
Icon style
Samsung is preparing to launch its latest Windows Mobile phone, the SGH-i740. The i740 will be running WinMo 6.1 and will come loaded with a 3 megapixel camera, 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen with VibeTonz haptics feedback, built-in GPS receiver, FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and a microSD expansion slot.
The device is likely to launch in developing countries because it lacks WiFi and 3G meaning it will be less competitive in NA and Europe. We will keep you posted on release dates and pricing when it becomes available.
[Via IntoMobile]
As a lifelong member of the BlackBerry Nation, I often take for granted the value of my BlackBerry as a business and personal aid. However, I’m sure there are many true believers out there that are not fortunate enough to work for a ‘wireless’ company, and have to make do with a typewriter and an abacus. If that’s the case, you must tell your company about the Smartphone Challenge.
A joint initiative between The Phone Store, RIM, Rackspace Hosting and Sprint, the Smartphone Challenge is an opportunity for companies to get their feet wet with smartphones before making any financial commitments. Here’s the deal: your company gets a 10-day free trial with five Sprint BlackBerrys, full Exchange and BES hosting, and a bunch of free software and other goodies to sweeten the deal. The Phone Store will also host a launch party and training session to make sure everyone is aquainted with their new mobile friends. After the trial period is up, you can either choose to give the devices back or keep them.
Amazingly, the Smartphone Challenge has a 100% success rate. You’ll be hearing more from us about these guys — we always love giving exposure to the true soldiers of the BlackBerry Nation. Until then, check out another picture of the Smartphone Challenge goodie chest, as well as the full press release.
Click here to learn more about the Smartphone Challenge
“He was made bit by bit, piece by piece. The undying monster. The triumphant climax of Frankenstein’s genius.”
If you live in one of the seriously unfortunate countries with no iPhone 3G, you could think about unlocking it. If you do unlock it, you might want to try a solution that doesn’t involve Frankenstein style soldering. The above picture is from a Vietnamese site that claims it can unlock the phone with their brutal hack job. Is this phone even safe to put near your face?
[Via SlashPhone]
We’re pretty excited about the potential of Android here at QuicklyBored. I’m not even sure if it’s going to be the open source OS that everyone expects it to be, for some reason I have a sinking feeling it’s going to fall short of expectations. That being said, it is a Google product and Google products have been nothing short of amazing so far.
T-Mobile will be kicking off the Android season with the HTC Dream which comes for $150USD, a very decent price for a touch screen smartphone. If this is the beginning of what will be a long line of affordable smartphones with a user friendly operating system, we could see Android taking a serious chunk of the market away from Symbian, Windows Mobile and the latest player Apple.
What are your thoughts?
Will Android be able to wrestle some worldwide market share from the behemoth that is Symbian?
Will it find a niche within the WinMo saturated smartphone market?
Will it woo users away from Apple with their slick touch screen user interface?
Or will they crumble under the above power houses?
[Via SmartPhoneThoughts]
We have a new sidebar addition: our Best Of category that will be constantly updating as the site expands into greatness. Take a moment to read through the titles and join in on some of the discussions going on. For example, there was some heated talk on the following:
Bell and Telus to charge for incoming SMS
Theories and debate surrounding the iPhone 3G’s poor reception
Walt Mossberg is not a Samsung Instict fan
As a long-time gamer, and a fan of Sagat’s freakish tallness, I’m happy to tell you guys about Street Fighter II: Championship Edition for BlackBerry. All of the bosses are playable, including M. Bison, Vega, and Balrog. I’d be interested in seeing how the controls work, considering how much easier doing a quarter-circle turn would be on a trackball rather than D-pad. Head on over to Handango to pick up Street Fighter II for $9.99.
[Via BlackBerry Cool]