26th April 2010: Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the new BlackBerry® PearlT 3G, the smallest BlackBerry® smartphone yet. Despite its impressively compact and elegant design, this stylish new handset is a powerful 3G BlackBerry smartphone with uncompromising performance and top-of-the-line features, including all the industry-leading BlackBerry® email, messaging and social networking capabilities that so many people love.
“The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unlike any other smartphone in the world and we expect a broad range of new and existing customers will be drawn to its powerful features and compact design,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “Considering the fast growing consumer interest in smartphones and the fact that more than three-quarters of the people in the global mobile phone market are still buying handsets with a traditional alphanumeric keypad, we think the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G addresses a substantial market opportunity. It allows consumers to upgrade their traditional mobile phone to a full-featured, easy-to-use and fashionable 3G BlackBerry smartphone that supports BlackBerry Messenger and many other apps while maintaining a handset design and layout that is familiar and comfortable.“
This week in Florida is the biggest BlackBerry show of the year – WES 2010. Although it is not confirmed what announcements we are going to get I am confident we will get a device as well as software previews. I would love to say I am going over to Florida to cover the show but sadly not. We will however endeavour to bring you all the best bits from WES 2010 here on tracyandmatt.co.uk
If you are a BlackBerry fanatic or developer and are thinking of attending WES in the future here are five good reasons to make the commitment:
- Get your hardest questions answered: Speak one-on-one with BlackBerry® experts from Research In Motion (RIM), join a hands-on lab, and attend targeted breakout sessions.
- Learn from your peers: Share insights, experiences, and challenges with like-minded people from across the globe.
- WES is a great value: More than 100 breakout sessions in four tracks, hands-on labs, keynote speakers, training, certification exams-these opportunities and more are all available at a great price.
- Supercharge your mobility strategy: Take home the strategies and techniques needed to meet your organization’s mobility objectives in 2010.
- The Solutions Showcase: Preview mobility products and services from carriers, ISVs, and solution integrators.
Sounds a bit too technical for me. I think I will stick with phone reviews for now!
Posted by: James
To be honest with you the ‘coming soon’ page on the Orange website is normally not very exciting but today is the opposite. As you can see in the screen shot they are soon to have the HTC Desire in black along with Samsungs S5620 Monte and S8500 Wave.
As we have already seen the HTC Desire it’s the Wave that I am looking forward to getting my hands on. I had a play with it at MWC back in February and the Super AMOLED screen is truly amazing. You wont believe how good it is until you see it for yourself. It’s great to see Orange picking up the S8500 Wave. I’m not sure which other carriers will also support it but I’m sure one or two others will if not all.
The Samsung S5620 Monte is more of a mainstream device and it looks like most UK carriers will more than likely sell it. In terms of where it site in the market it is not the best specced phone but it’s one of those ones that the youngsters will probably go for as its marketed as being a good social media device. I suppose it will take the place of Samsungs Jet which i reviewed last year.
Overall an interesting bunch of devices coming to Orange. We will have all three for review as soon as we can get our hands on them.
Posted by: James
Gdgt have listed an almost complete spec list for both the Kin1 and Kin2. The specs are quite high for the SideKick market that they are more than likely to be targeted at, well the inclusion of Exchange might jostle that idea. They should prove to be terrific phones for a pre-iPhone/Android era. Had they hit the street some time ago, even last year when the pictures first emerged they probably would have been raved about.
No pricing as yet but this will play the most instrumental if they devices are to have any degree of success. We would expect to see pricing before the end of the week.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a Freedom keyboard but it has been a long time since the last one. I’m putting a bit of an iPad slant on this unboxing video and will do with the review, mainly because I have the iPad at the moment but also because I know that a number of people may indeed be looking for a Bluetooth keyboard for their new gadget.
If you don’t have an iPad though, don’t turn off just yet, this Freedom Pro keyboard isn’t exclusively for the iPad. In fact, with SPP and HID Bluetooth modes the Freedom Pro keyboard should work with a huge variety of devices from Blackberry’s, Windows Mobile devices, Android and Symbian to Laptops and even the Playstation 3!
The Freedom Pro offers a full sized full-QWERTY layout in a relatively small folding package and although on-screen text entry has come a long way on many mobiles and some also have a physical keyboard too, there is no substitute for a proper keyboard when you have a lot to type. Just thinking of the iPad again for a moment, one of the things I dislike about the touchscreen QWERTY is that there’s only four rows of keys, no numeric keys on the top row where I think there would be room if they were just a little smaller. So for typing a lot of stuff a real keyboard will certainly help.
Google recently announced that their free turn-by-turn navigation on Google Maps will become available on other platforms aside from Android, and since that the iPhone already has Google Maps on-board, one would think that it will also be released on Apple’s dear little mobile phone. That’s what we thought too, but unfortunately, it won’t be happening. Google has gone on the record and stated that Google Maps Navigation will not be available on the iPhone in response to rumors that it has been confirmed for release on Apple’s top-selling device. Is this the first sign of Google’s desire to end support for the iPhone?
Only time will tell, but as far as the here and now is concerned, it’s confirmed that there won’t be free Google Maps Navigation available for iPhone users across the globe.
[Source]
As if there was any doubt as to the continuing success and growing popularity of the Android platform details of just how many titles have now been approved for sale through Android market have been made available by app tracking site AndroLib.
AndroLib states that there are over 50,000 apps available for Android (50,304 as I type this) and that this number is increasing at an almost exponential rate. Compare this figure to the one published just over 9 months ago when the market was said to be around 8,500 apps then that is a very rapid increase. If this growth rate continues then Android Market could overtake Apple’s App Store in mere months.
I’m sure that this success is due, in no small measure, to the relative ease with which and app will be approved for Android versus iPhone. Mind you I wonder if Steve Jobs telling everyone that Android is a good platform for pron might help?! 😛
Posted by: Matt
I’ve had my iPad for a few weeks now and one of the first things I wanted to sort out was an instant messaging client. Now there are lots of instant messaging apps for the iPhone and iPod from apps that are specific to one IM service, such as the Yahoo Messenger app, to those that support connection to multiple IM services.
However, there are not many instant messaging apps that are designed for the iPad yet. For example my previous favourite, Palringo, does not yet have an iPad version available and while the iPhone version will work on the iPad it’s limited to running in a small window on the iPad or virtually full screen using the pixel-doubling zoom function on the iPad, either way it’s not ideal.
With Best Buy opening its first store at Thurrock on Monday they are also launching the green tech selection.
New and exclusive green technology area in Best Buy stores will showcase energy saving products as well as electric cars, motorcycles, scooters and bicycles
Best Buy is re-defining consumer electronics retailing in the UK by today revealing its new area in-store dedicated to energy saving and green, energy efficient technology. This “GreenTech” area will showcase everything from energy management products to solar chargers and even electric vehicles – a first for any UK consumer electronics retailer.
Connect
Connect with us on the following social media platforms.