Gizmogs

Egad, we haven't mentioned the BlackBerry Storm yet. In case you've been on Mars, the Storm is RIMM's long-awaited just-released entry into the touch-screen phone market, available only with Verizon.

This will be is a shock to BlackBerry devotees, but the Storm is the first BlackBerry without a real keyboard. Instead, like the iPhone, its keyboard is virtual--only the Storm has a technical twist that is supposed to give you something like a real keyboard tactical experience.

From the Times' story about Obama surrendering his BlackBerry:

For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the United States is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.

The article explains that Obama has to give up his BlackBerry and laptop due to restrictions from the Presidential Records Act. To which I say...huh? The President won't use email because it could be subpoenaed?

With all this waiting and hoping for AT&T and RIM to get their act together and finally launch the long-awaited BlackBerry 9000 Bold in the US, we’re glad to hear that internal AT&T documents hint at a Bold launch date (pun intended?) on October 27.

You know what they say - “No guts, no glory.” Or was it “don’t hate the playa, hate the game?”

Whatever the appropriate saying might be, there’s no denying that a hot new handset isn’t officially inaugurated into the mobile world without a proper hardware tear-down. The BlackBerry 8220 Pearl, the first BlackBerry flip-phone, is not exception. What you see here is the meticulous dissection of RIM’s first clamshell handset.

More BlackBerry Storm Goodness

Vodafone and Verizon have been revving their motors to get the first touchscreen BlackBerry out the door, and this video from a presentation just goes to show that the BlackBerry Storm is ready for primetime. The presentation was done in Italy, marking one more spot in Europe that Vodafone will be offering the BlackBerry 9500. What do you guys think? Overhyped, or a solid contender to the iPhone?

[via IlTrillo]

Welcome to the inaugural IntoMobile podcast, dubbed appropriately “The Signal”.

We know that a CDMA only touchscreen BlackBerry is coming to North America. The BlackBerry Storm is rumored to hit Verizon anytime between the end of next month and mid November. A Bell BlackBerry Storm is rumored to hit bill towards the end of Q4.

We also know that a GSM variant of the BlackBerry Storm (or Thunder) is coming to Vodafone over in the UK, however, we haven’t heard any plans about the GSM touchscreen BlackBerry showing up in RIM’s biggest market.

All the doom and gloom surrounding the US economy’s downward spiral into recession apparently isn’t enough to stifle the US smartphone market. While the rest of the US suffers from weak consumer spending, the smartphone market is a veritable “shining star” of hope.

For the January to July 2008 period, NPD Group reports that overall handset sales were down. Consumers bought fewer mobile phones overall, and spent less per cellphone than in the same period the year before. But, that didn’t stop the smartphone segment from making some serious headway in the US.

So, it looks like the BlackBerry Storm, you know, the touchscreen BlackBerry from Verizon that we thought would be called the BlackBerry Thunder, is really trying to make that October 13th launch that we heard about a few weeks ago.

Engadget mobile has gotten there hands on a Verizon BlackBerry Storm Box template. We can only gather that if boxes for a new BlackBerry are starting to appear on the internet, live pictures of the devices they contain should be soon to follow.

Moscow, Russia and Waterloo, ON. - The VimpelCom Group (NYSE: VIP) (Beeline brand) and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced the launch of the BlackBerry® 8800 smartphone for corporate Beeline subscribers in Russia.

“The BlackBerry 8800, featuring a stylish design and full QWERTY keyboard with English-Russian support, is a highly anticipated smartphone for our enterprise customers. Beeline is pleased to expand the range of BlackBerry smartphones in response to the needs of Russian business users,” said Kent McNeley, Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer of VimpelCom.