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Mobile RIM

Blackberry Dakota Features And Picture Revealed

Boy Genius Report has some interesting scoop that gives us details about the next generation Blackberry device. Called Blackberry Dakota, this will be a Blackberry OS 6.1 based phone that will come equipped with a number of powerful features. The phone is expected to carry a 2.8″ 640×480 capacitive display, a 5-Megapixel camera with HD video recording, flash and image stabilization, 4GB storage along with 768MB RAM.

There are a lot of additional features like a microUSB port, magnetometer, accelerometer, proximity sensor and support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G mobile hotspot. In case you are wondering what this new smartphone from Research In Motion will look like, here is a leaked snapshot as published on BGR

Blackberry Dakota

If these leaked specifications are true, then we should be seeing a device that is considerably better than the latest release. Do you like Blackberry Dakota? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Categories
RIM Software and Apps

Build Apps For Blackberry Tablet OS – Win A Free PlayBook

Research in Motion is undeniably late to the tablet game. But that doesn’t mean that the company does not have enough armor to fight its rivals. One critical advantage seems to be its incredibly easy app development procedure. The Blackberry Tablet OS SDK supports a number of technologies like Adobe AIR, Flash and HTML that developers who already have applications in these technologies can easily port them over to the new platform.

RIM has also released a PlayBook simulator for Windows, Mac and Linux which means developers on all these platforms can build and test applications that they may submit to the Blackberry App World for inclusion. And that comes with a reward. RIM has announced that developers who get their apps for Blackberry Tablet OS submitted and approved to the App World before the launch of the tablet in North America will win a free PlayBook.

You can check out the complete terms and conditions for the offer on the Blackberry website here.

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Mobile RIM

New Blackberry Desktop Manager Available For Download

A new version of the Blackberry Desktop Manager has now been posted online and is now available for download. This latest release, version 6.0.1.13 may not be the official release, but gives all the early birds an opportunity to look into all the new updates that is now available with the software. Some major enhancements provided with the new BDM include

  • Microsoft Outlook & Exchange 2010 64-bit are now supported
  • Administrator silent install
  • Organizer sync improved
  • Wi-Fi sync streaming now supported for over SSL (BlackBerry 6)

Do note that this is a beta version and could carry bugs. Also, there is apparently no support for Macs as yet. So if you are not one of the Windows people, you may have to hold on for some more time. Otherwise, click here to go ahead and download this latest version of Blackberry Desktop Manager.

Categories
Mobile Software and Apps

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 For Blackberry, Windows Phone, Symbian & MeeGo Announced

Apple may hate it and make it sound like this is the worst thing to have happened to the smartphone platform. But that hasn’t stopped Adobe Flash Player from becoming one of the most popular applications on the Android platform with close to 50,000 users having rated it 4.5 out of 5.

Following this success, Adobe Flash Player seems to be headed to the rest of the smartphone platforms. At the Adobe MAX developer conference, the company has announced that the popular multimedia player will be available for Blackberry OS, WebOS 2.0, LiMo, MeeGo, Symbian OS and future versions of Windows Phone moving forward. There is simply no word on when this support will be made available. But at least, this is one battle that Apple has to fight alone. Adobe Flash, it appears, is not making way for HTML5 anytime soon.

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Gadgets RIM

RIM BlackPad Release Next Week – No Blackberry OS?

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece of article that claims that Research In Motion could be unveiling its upcoming tablet computer – known as BlackPad to some and Surf Book to others – as early as next week. The newspaper’s sources have claimed that the actual launch could happen in the fourth quarter of this year; a no-brainer considering that the quarter begins in just over a week from now.

What’s interesting is that RIM could actually do away with the Blackberry OS on the tablet computer and could instead go with a completely revamped operating system built by QNX. QNX is a maker of operating system software that is used in a wide array of industries and the company was acquired by RIM not so long ago. Indications are that Waterloo could move towards incorporating this new OS – touted to be a worthy competitor to iOS and Android – on the upcoming Blackberry handsets as well.

As of now, the company has not given any hint about the upcoming release. Let’s wait for an announcement then.

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Mobile RIM

Does Your Blackberry Torch Drop BIS Connection When Leaving Wi-Fi?

No? Then you must be one very lucky soul. Several hundreds of users on Blackberry forums have been complaining for quite a while now about an issue with loss in connectivity to BIS when they leave a Wi-Fi network. To quote a user who’s facing the issue,

“I’ve been without BIS for over 3 hours now since i’ve left my house this morning.  It happens everyday and is getting worse.  Sometimes I lose it for 5 minutes, but 3 hours is ridiculous!  I’m still connected to 3G.  I can talk on the phone and I can use the browser for internet.  But i can’t get my work emails and my apps don’t work.  I tried resending my service books…nothing.  I turned on and off all my services on the phone…nothing.  I run the connection diagnostics and it says Blackberry Registration: No.  I updated to the latest leak .161 and that didn’t help.  This is so frustrating!!!!”

The issue is with a lot of Blackberry Torch 9800 handsets and so simply exchanging your handset for a new device will not help. Now while AT&T and RIM have apparently acknowledged the issue, there is still no official resolution on offer.

But from what users have noticed, the issue appears to be specific to those users who have upgraded from an older 9700 handset to the new 9800 Torch. The bug is apparently a compatibility issue between Blackberry OS 5 and OS 6.

Fix

If you are facing a similar issue, one workaround will be to initiate a master reset. Even if you are doing this, remember that while you restore your content, DO NOT restore any permissions and instead only copy your text and email messages. The idea is basically to set up your Wi-Fi networks anew and not import them from your older device.

It appears to be working for some users. Do try it out and let us know in the comments about your experience.

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Mobile RIM

Hot Deals! Price Of Blackberry Torch Now Just $99

Looks like the planetary positions for Research In Motion have all gone awry. Nothing seems to be going their way and if the recent announcement from Amazon is any indication, their latest gadget is not selling all that well. Amazon has announced that Blackberry Torch – the new slider phone that comes installed with the exciting Blackberry OS 6 can now be got for half the earlier price – at $99. That’s a $100 drop from the earlier price of $199.

Of course, you will still have to sign up for a two year contract with AT&T and Ma Bell is still selling it at the orginal price in her stores, but now with Amazon blinking, expect the prices to come down elsewhere as well.

We have already reviewed the features of this unit and also have got some pretty nice accessories for you. Now if you will only head over to Amazon and get hold of the Torch.

Categories
Mobile RIM

BlackBerry Curve 9300 Features T-Mobile Logo

Yet another Blackberry device is making news of late and after its visit to the FCC last week, we pretty much know what this device holds. The new Blackberry Curve 9300 has pretty standard technical specifications. This includes a 256MB RAM, another 256MB ROM, a processor that runs at 624MHz, a QVGA display that renders content at 320×480 pixels and also comes equipped with a 2-Megapixel camera though that includes no flash.

Regarding the platform, this is no Blackberry OS 6 device and don’t hope for an upgrade to come anytime in the near term. However, most interestingly, pictures of the new Blackberry Curve 9300 that have been leaked to the wild shows a prominent T-Mobile logo on the bottom which at least confirms the carrier that this device will come locked with.

Unfortunately though, no mention has been made about the launch date in the American market. Keep checking back.

Categories
Mobile RIM

Rumored Blackberry Storm 3 Review Of Tech Specs

Ok, admittedly, these are neither official technical specifications or is revealed via a highly credible source. This is just a presentation slide that someone appears to have to stealthily captured on camera to leak it to Engadget. Photoshopping is another possibility.

So what does the slide say? Well, if the revelations are true, then Blackberry Storm 3 will just be modestly improved version of Blackberry Storm 2. Firstly, the RAM will be doubled from 256MB to 512MB. Also, the camera will now come with a 5-Megapixel sensor. The user interface will receive a revamp with the new Blackberry 6 OS. Additionally, the device will carry a webkit browser and be supported by Wi-Fi 802.11n. An interesting addition though is a 3G mobile hotspot service that is quite anticipated.

Besides that, we do not have a lot of other information. Blackberry Storm 3, as you can see from the leaked slide below, is launching during one of those “…ember” months. September anyone?

RIM Blackberry Storm 3

Categories
Mobile RIM

Blackberry Storm3 To Launch In August

Research In Motion has traditionally launched its Storm series of Blackberry in October. However, that could change this year. According to a report published by the financial research firm, Collins Stewart. The market research firm has suggested that customers may expect to see the new Blackberry Storm3 launch as early as August of this year. We had earlier reported that Storm 3 might launch in Q3/Q4 of this year.

One of the significant reasons for the advancement in launch dates is to counter Apple. The Cupertino based tech giant recently launched the iPhone 4 and an August launch is seen as a way to get customers who may be looking at a Blackberry alternative enough reason to wait and purchase a Storm3.

That reasoning is of course fallacious in some ways. The latest speculation is from a third party report and not an official word from RIM – something that the company might have done if it were actually looking for customers to wait for a couple of months to go for a new Blackberry.

There has been a lot of positive press about Blackberry Storm3 of late. The device is expected to come with a revamped version of SurePress – a tactile feedback technology that has also been available in the earlier versions of Blackberry Storm. Also, the Blackberry OS 6.0 device is expected to be targeted at gamers and multimedia consumers. We had earlier reported that RIM is in talks with Electronic Arts to bring a mobile version of The Sims to Blackberry Storm3.