RIM BlackBerry Bold 9780 Review

Following up after the impressive Bold 9700, which was released around this time last year, its successor in the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9780 surely has its work cut out for itself. Now that BlackBerry OS 6 is starting to become more prevalent amongst RIM's lineup, it'll be interesting to see how it all will play out on a handset that's regarded as the bread and butter style of RIM's portfolio. Instead of finding itself at the upper end of the pricing spectrum, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 for T-Mobile is priced aggressively at $129.99 with a 2-year contract. 

Five Best Mobile Instant Messaging Applications

You could spend an absurd amount every mont for an unlimited text messaging plan, or you could use a mobile IM app and message phones and desktops for free. Here's a look at the five most popular mobile instant messaging applications.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite mobile instant messaging client. We tallied up the votes, and now we're back to highlight the top five contenders.

RIM CEO: Smartphone App Craze Will "Pass Real Quick"

One could argue the pros and cons of the mobile application model. If you look at numbers, it would seem that developers and end-users all agree that mobile apps are a great thing. Developers keep churning them out, and end-users keep buying them. Mobile apps are great because they give the user a custom experience that the web couldn't otherwise offer. But then again, a lot of mobile apps are redunant versions of what can be found at certain mobile-friendly websites. 

Millennial: iOS And Android Tie For Smartphone Impression Share In October

Mobile ad network Millennial Media is releasing its monthly data on mobile devices and OS marketshare for October today. Millennial, whose ads reach 63 million of a total of 77 million mobile web users in the U.S., or 81% of the U.S. mobile web; is reporting that Android is now tied with iOS as the largest Smartphone OS on the network, with an 8% increase month-over-month and 37% impression share. Apples iOS also took a 37% impression share, and dropped from a 49% impression share in September. RIM followed Android ad iOS for a 20% impression share in October.

Android ad requests grew 65% month-over-month, and since January, Android has grown 2182%. In contrast Apple requests only increased 12% month-over-month and since January, Apple requests have increased 32%. RIM ad requests grew 43% month-over-month. The iPad saw the biggest growth, with requests rising 112% month-over-month.

RIM Intensifies War Of Words With Apple

Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie has attacked rival hardware maker Apple, claiming that the company's upcoming Playbook tablet PC is three to four times faster than the iPad.

Balsillie's comments were made during the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, where he promoted the Playbook as well as launching a verbal assault on Apple and Steve Jobs.

The company compared the Playbook with the iPad by performing several tasks, including web browsing and video playback. RIM also showed a video in which both the tablet devices were run side-by-side to judge browsing speeds.

BlackBerry PlayBook Vs iPad: Web Browsing Experience

Almost two months after it was announced, RIM has posted a video comparing the web browsing experience on its upcoming 7-inch tablet – the BlackBerry PlayBook with the current bestseller, the Apple iPad.

The latter, as you might be already aware would be its primary rival when RIM starts selling the PlayBook. Of course, BlackBerry would also have to fend off the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and not to mention, the Notion Ink Adam, which seems to have made some progress and is nearing a launch.

The three minute video shows a RIM Engineer perform some tests to show the web browsing experience on both the devices.

BlackBerry PlayBook first hands-on! (video)

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie actually declined to show off the his company's tablet today on the Web 2.0 Summit stage, but in private he was more than kind, treating us to a nice long glimpse at the BlackBerry PlayBook in a quaint hotel hallway. 

RIM Preparing Small BlackBerry Slider?

Research in Motion is developing an entry-level BlackBerry slider that is said to be "much smaller" thanAT&T's Torch 9800, according to BlackBerry Leaks. The site reports that this information comes from the same tipster who correctly leaked the initial overview of a device that would eventually become the Pearl 9105. This individual apparently goes on to say that the handset (mockup pictured above) will be cheaper for carriers than the Bold 9700, which isn't really saying much at all considering that model is currently top-of-the-line on both T-Mobile and AT&T. 

AT&T cuts BlackBerry Torch price in half; now $99.99

AT&T has slashed the price of its flagship BlackBerry smartphone in half. The BlackBerry Torch, which became available in August 2010, is RIM’s first smartphone to feature both a touchscreen and a physical QWERTY keypad. It was also the first BlackBerry to launch with RIM’s new OS, BlackBerry 6.

What’s Kik Messenger All About?

If you’ve heard about the Kik messaging app, or as some would call it, “the new BBM”, you probably sat at the cool-kid lunch-table at school. Kik, a multi-platform messaging app designed to do one thing — communicate instantly and effortlessly with buddies — has absolutely exploded over the last few weeks. Originally on track to launch an innovative (and pretty cool) music-sharing, remote-controllable service, Kik soon found themselves creating a messaging app with some of their existing technology while the music service firmed up behind the scenes. After a pretty poor original launch (I tried Kik back then and the beta was definitely a beta — I uninstalled it soon after it was first installed), Kik stripped away almost everything until they ended up with one of the quickest and most reliable messaging apps around.

iPhone 4 Least Likely to Fail, Most Likely to Fall

Apple's iPhone 4 is both the least likely smartphone to malfunction during its first year, while at the same time being more prone than other models to accidental damage, according to a study by third-party warranty provider SquareTrade. The company used data from a reported 50,000 cellphone sample, relying on customer claims to establish the likelihood of failure: products that were serviced through other channels are therefore not represented in the results. Moreover, the report divides the phones into six groups that may not be appropriate for comparison; the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS are put up against a basket of Android handsets from both HTC and Motorola as well as all of RIM's BlackBerry offerings and a catch all category which includes selections from Samsung, LG, Palm, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, and other lower-tier manufacturers.

Gartner: Android Share Jumps To 25.5 Percent, Now Second Most Popular OS Worldwide

Gartner’s third quarter smartphone data is out today and it looks like Android is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. According to the latest report, Android accounted for 25.5 percent of worldwide smartphone sales, making it the No. 2 operating system, rising from a 3.5 percent marketshare in the same quarter in 2009. Apple’s iOS, on the other hand, dropped from last year, from 17.1 percent in 2009 to 16.6 percent in 2010. Symbian took the top spot with 36.6 percent of sales share.

BlackBerry PlayBook to cost 'under' $500

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie finally gave us a crucial bit of information about the BlackBerry Playbook this morning: price, or at least a threshold. According to a Korean interview, Balsillie said that RIM's 7-inch tablet will be "very competitively priced" with Bloomberg quoting the man saying that it will be "under" $500 when it hits North America in the first quarter of 2011, expanding globally in Q2. A price that should at least match the 9.7-inch WiFi-only iPad (16GB) and undercut the 7-inch 3G Galaxy Tab which goes on sale on Verizon tomorrow for $599.99. Thing is, by the time Q1 rolls around we're going to be looking at many, many more viable tablet alternatives including a likely Apple refresh.

via Engadget

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Pure White unboxing

You thought we’d let the Great White Hype go without an unboxing? Nope! We have RIM’s flagship BlackBerry device — the Torch 9800 — donned in almost all white armor, and while you would think we wouldn’t have any feedback for just a color change, we do. Here is the deal… our opinion of the white iteration of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is — obviously — subjective, but… to our eyes it does look incredibly clean. If only the entire handset were white, we’d be in love. RIM kept the main frame of the device in soft touch black and this includes the camera lens cover on the rear of the handset. It breaks up the aesthetics of the device and we’d have loved if “Pure White” meant purely white. One huge, glaring problem with the all white Torch that we can’t seem to move past? When using the device in dark lighting conditions, the backlit buttons are blurry. This seems to be because of there being no “backing” on the underside of the keyboards keys. It’s hard to explain, but it is ridiculously, mind-blowingly annoying, and is actually preventing us from switching to the lust-worthy BlackBerry 9800 Arctic Winter edition. Don’t just listen to us break it down for you textually, though, we have our unboxing photos all ready to go in our BlackBerry Torch 9800 Pure White gallery below!

BlackBerry Torch now available in red and white at an AT&T store near you

You’ve read our Torch review and you’ve decided to take the plunge, huh? Well, you might be happy to know that AT&T is now finally offering the Blackberry Torch in two additional colors: Sunset Red and Pure White. The phones are live on AT&T’s website and can be picked up for $499 without a contract and $99 when you sign up to a two-year agreement. If a color other than black is your cup of tea, jump on over to AT&T’s website to get your order on. Just remember the white after Labor Day rule, ok?

Read

via BGR

How RIM’s PlayBook Could Have Succeeded

Editor’s note: Guest author Jon Evans is a novelist, journalist, and software engineer.

Oh, Research In Motion. You never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

RIM was born in my home town, at my alma mater, so it’s depressing watching their empirerot and crumble before the Android / iPhone onslaught. I had high hopes for their new tablet, a potential game-changer—but alas, they’ve hamstrung it before it’s even been released. Here’s what they should have done with it:

1) Embrace Android (phones)

RIM proudly announced that while their PlayBook can’t connect to cell networks, it can tether to a compatible BlackBerry via Bluetooth. They might as well have installed a ”For BlackBerry Owners Only” startup screen. Way to pre-alienate most of the market, guys.

RIM addresses Dell’s plan to ditch BlackBerry

In an interview published Friday, Dell CFO Brian Gladden stated that the company would be ditching its cache of approximately 25,000 BlackBerry handsets and replacing them with Dell smartphones. The news comes ahead of Dell’s Venue Pro launch, which is scheduled to take place later this month in the U.S. Following Gladden’s comments that Dell would likely save 25% on communication costs by dumping BlackBerry smartphones and servers, RIM has issued a response. “We find it highly unlikely that they will actually save any money with this move and far more likely they were looking for a little free publicity,” RIM’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing Mark Guibert told Dow Jones Newswires in an email. The company’s response is short and to the point, though it doesn’t really address the fact that BlackBerry devices often require more expensive data plans than other smartphones. Businesses that use BlackBerry handsets also incur additional costs associated with BlackBerry Enterprise Servers.

Read

via BGR

comScore: Android Continues To Close In On Apple, RIM

comScore has released its monthly smartphone mobile report today and like last month’s data,Android is continuing its assault on Apple and RIM’s share of users. The data, which measured smartphone usage from June until September of this year, showed that 58.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during period, up 15 percent from the preceding three month period ending in June. comScore says that the Android platform now reaches more than 1 in 5 U.S. smartphone subscribers.

BlackBerry OS 6 for BlackBerry Bold 9700 leaks

We normally don’t cover BlackBerry operating system leaks, but we figured we’d make an exception. Why? Well, since we showed the world BlackBerry 6 on our 9700, people have been begging, emailing, and stalking us for it. The OS that just leaked is newer than the one we have been running on our Bold, and we have not yet downloaded and installed it, but this time, you can let us know what you think of it, and we’ll be the ones on the sidelines waiting. Sound good?

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via BGR

BlackBerry Bold 9780 gets official, November release globally

Just minutes ago, Research In Motion finally made the BlackBerry Bold 9780 official. You can pick up RIM’s “boldest BlackBerry” starting in November, like had been rumored. It will launch globally next month and we’d bet that every carrier that offers the Bold 9700 will carry the refreshed model.  The specifications are just as had been reported: same basic handset as the Bold 9700, 512MB RAM, 5-megapixel and BlackBerry OS 6 are the upgrades. We’ve been using a 9780 for a couple months and we definitely think the added RAM coupled with RIM’s latest operating system works well, but we can’t notice many differences from our 9700 running BlackBerry OS 6.