Device Arena

O2, a leading provider of mobile services to UK consumers and businesses, and Research In Motion (RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, today introduced the new BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8120 smartphone in the UK. In its small, stylish and elegant design, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 provides rich multimedia features together with all the popular functionality users have come to expect from the BlackBerry® wireless solution.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 comes complete with a 2 megapixel digital camera with a 5x zoom and video capture capability, an externally accessible microSD/SDHC slot and Wi-Fi® connectivity support. These new features, along with an enhanced visual interface, add to the renowned BlackBerry® smartphone experience for email, phone, messaging (SMS, IM, MMS), web browsing, multimedia, organiser and other mobile applications.

Sleek and Stylish With a New Blue Finish

Available in a sleek blue finish, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone from O2 maintains its ultra-stylish design, measuring only 107mm x 55mm x 14mm and weighing approximately 91g.

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Research In Motion announced the immediate availability of BlackBerry® Professional Software - a new wireless communications and collaboration solution that tightly integrates with the industry leading email servers and is specifically designed and priced to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. BlackBerry Professional Software is based on the core functionality of the best-in-class BlackBerry® Enterprise Server software used by governments and large organizations worldwide, but it is streamlined and tailored to meet the needs of smaller organizations with up to 30 wireless users. BlackBerry Professional Software is priced at $499 for 5 users.

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Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless company with the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, today introduced new e-mail and Web plans to accompany the new BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8130, which will be available online Nov. 3 and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Nov. 8. The new BlackBerry plans give consumers an economical way to balance work and play while staying connected on-the-go.

Customers who purchase a Verizon Wireless Nationwide voice plan can subscribe to the E-mail and Web for BlackBerry for an additional $29.99 per month. Nationwide Basic and Select plans begin at $39.99 per month for 450 minutes. Customers who choose a data-only plan pay $34.99 per month for unlimited e-mail and access to the Internet. The plans can be used with any Verizon Wireless BlackBerry and allow customers to access up to 10 POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts via BlackBerry® Internet Service.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8130 will be available online and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores, including those in Circuit City, for $249.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.

For more information on BlackBerry smartphones from Verizon Wireless, visit www.verizonwireless.com/blackberry. Business customers may contact a Verizon Wireless Business Sales Representative directly at 1-800-VZW-4-BIZ.

Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless company with the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, and Research In Motion (RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, today announced the Nov. 3 online availability of the BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8130 at www.verizonwireless.com. The BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8130 will be in Verizon Wireless Communications stores on Nov. 8. For the customer who wants to balance work and play, the world’s first CDMA-enabled BlackBerry Pearl gives Verizon Wireless customers wireless broadband connectivity to the office while enabling them to stay connected with family, friends and colleagues.

The new smartphone builds upon the highly acclaimed and iconic BlackBerry Pearl design with new features and functionality to provide customers with powerful communications, rich multimedia and support for high-speed EV-DO networks in a style that goes from day to evening in one slim and small package.

Available to Verizon Wireless customers in an exclusive silver color and backed by the power of the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 offers powerful communications with premium phone features, e-mail and messaging and more. With its built-in navigation capability, the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 can take customers wherever they want to go with mapping, audible turn-by-turn navigation and access to information on more than 14 million points of interest. In addition, the BlackBerry Pearl offers the following capabilities and features:

Wireless broadband (EV-DO) connectivity for high-speed data transfers, perfect for fast Web browsing and downloading large attachments

A sleek, compact design in an exclusive silver color finish; measures 4.2” x 2.0” x .55” and weighs only 3.4 oz

Open and view e-mail attachments with support for the most popular formats

Premium phone features including Voice Activated Dialing, speakerphone and noise and echo cancellation technology for clearer calls

2.0 megapixel camera, with flash and 5x zoom, able to record video

Video and picture messaging capable Built-in navigation to support the location-based application, VZ NavigatorSM, developed by Networks in Motion, with map data provided by Navteq

Advanced media player and enhanced desktop media manager software allowing a customer to easily manage music and pictures between their PC and the BlackBerry Pearl 8130

3.5 mm stereo headphone included in the box

Externally accessible microSD™/SDHC memory card slot for additional storage (up to 8 GB)

An enhanced user interface with new font-rendering technology that makes text easier to read and Web pages visually richer

Enhanced Web browser delivering a fast, rich browser experience and support for streaming video from sites like m.youtube.com (3GPP RTSP streaming protocol over EV-DO)

SureType® keyboard technology that makes typing and dialing fast and easy and includes a new word completion capability, easier editing of misspelled words, and built-in spell checker

Bluetooth® 2.0 in support of hands-free headsets, stereo headsets (Bluetooth stereo audio profile A2DP/AVRCP), car kits and other Bluetooth accessories

A removable and rechargeable battery, rated for up to 220 minutes of talk time and up to 216 hours of standby time

The BlackBerry Pearl 8130 will be available online and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores, including those in Circuit City, for $249.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. With the launch of the BlackBerry Pearl, Verizon Wireless is also introducing new Nationwide E-mail and Web for BlackBerry customers providing them with unlimited data for an additional $29.99 per month on top of a voice plan. Customers who choose a data only plan pay $34.99 per month. Both plans provide access up to 10 POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts via BlackBerry® Internet Service.

For more information on BlackBerry smartphones and to pre-order the BlackBerry Pearl 8130, visit www.verizonwireless.com. Business customers should contact a Verizon Wireless Business Sales Representative directly at 1-800-VZW-4-BIZ.

Pinstack Forums member cp6169 posted deets on the the new Sprint BlackBerry Power Vision Plan that will launch on November 4th. Like T-Mobile, Sprint is coming out with a cheaper BIS compared to it’s corporate BES Plans.

The Boy Genius Report

All you loyal Sprint-loving BlackBerry users will sure as hell be pleased as punch with this one! We’ve received a 100% confirmation on the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 launch for Sprint, and it’s November the 23rd. Yeah, that’s Black Friday, guys! We tried to give y’all the drop on this a while back, but now we’ve confirmed it. Also, a quick heads up — the color of the Pearl on Sprint is amethyst. Save those dollars, port those numbers, and mark 11/23 on your Sprint calendar!

The Boy Genius Report

Alcatel-Lucent and Research In Motion (RIM) announced that the companies have expanded their partnership with the signing of a strategic agreement for the distribution of BlackBerry® smartphones in China. The first smartphone offered to Chinese enterprise customers through this agreement will be the 8700 model.

The announcement coincides with the first shipment of smartphones to distribution networks in China and availability for Chinese enterprise customers in key markets is expected to begin later this year. Alcatel-Lucent achieved certification of the 8700 model for the Chinese market through partnership with TCL Communications, a major mobile device manufacturer in China that holds the Alcatel brand for mobile handsets. RIM and TCL Communications are showcasing BlackBerry smartphones at the PT EXPO COMM CHINA 2007 show in Beijing this week.

“This strategic partnership perfectly matches Alcatel-Lucent’s global presence and strength in the Chinese market with the global awareness and popularity of RIM’s BlackBerry brand,” said Frederic Rose, President of Alcatel Shanghai Bell and President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Asia Pacific activities. “This agreement strengthens the distribution frame agreement that Alcatel-Lucent and RIM signed last year covering Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia and now extends to China.”

“Following our launch of the BlackBerry service with China Mobile, we are very pleased to now enter this smartphone distribution agreement with Alcatel-Lucent and Alcatel Shanghai Bell. Our partnership with Alcatel-Lucent has been very productive in other regions and has been key in our progress to import smartphones into the Chinese market,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry platform offers robust and unmatched benefits for enterprise customers that wish to enhance mobile productivity and competitive advantage. We look forward to building on the early interest and momentum we are experiencing in China with both multinational and domestic corporations.”

RIM continues to expand its global distribution and the industry-leading BlackBerry solution is now available from over 300 carriers around the world.

RIM is planing to release Blackberry 9900, Blackberry 9300 (9310, 9320, 9330) and Blackberry 9100 (9110, 9120 , 9130) sometime.

How do we know that? Well, because someone somewhere heard the rumors that these devices are coming and told someone who posted it on the net.

And, also, Research in Motion just told us so themselves, by registering following domain names:
blackberry9900.com
blackberry9100.com
blackberry9110.com
blackberry9120.com
blackberry9130.com
blackberry9310.com
blackberry9320.com
blackberry9330.com

You don’t need to register a domain if you don’t plan to have a device, do you?

Quick Whois look-up shows that most of the domains with concrete model numbers have been registered in October. The series domains few months earlier.

And it looks like RIMM missed Blackberry9300.com domain, which for now is owned by a person with a bunch of other Blackberr9×00.com domains to his name as well.

Unwired View

Research In Motion (RIM) today launched Facebook® for BlackBerry® Smartphones, an exciting new BlackBerry software application that enables fast, streamlined and optimized mobile access to the popular Facebook social utility using a BlackBerry smartphone. The application leverages the push-based BlackBerry system architecture and Facebook Platform to create an unparalleled mobile experience for Facebook users.

Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research In Motion, will join Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook, to formally unveil and demonstrate the Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones application today at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment show in San Francisco. T-Mobile USA has been selected to be the first carrier to provide the new software application to its customers.

With the Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones application, Facebook users can wirelessly send and view messages, photos, pokes and Wall posts. The rich, native application goes beyond browser-based access, automatically pushing notifications to the user’s BlackBerry smartphone as friends and colleagues send notes, Wall posts or pokes. The application allows users to take a photo, upload it to the site with captions and tags; quickly and easily invite friends; manage events; manage photo albums; and manage their status while on the go.

“Facebook is one of the fastest growing web destinations among BlackBerry smartphone users and it has become an important element in the evolving fabric of personal communications,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “Facebook and RIM share a vision for enhanced mobile communications and social networking based on open, standards-based platforms and this has allowed us to produce a rich mobile application for Facebook users that leverages the push-based architecture, multimedia features and industry-leading usability of the BlackBerry solution.”

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We will start this article off by stating this is subject to change prior to public release, however, here’s your first look at BlackBerry Desktop Manager 4.3! We’ve not yet fully uncovered what it’s capable of, although we from first impressions, it doesn’t look like much more than a visual upgrade of the initial application view, as well as an updated version of Intellisync. Also bundled with this version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager is an update to Roxio Media Manager, now sporting some advanced encoding options and enhanced support for other video formats.

No word on a release date, but with the BlackBerry 8120 being recently launched with OS 4.3.0, we’d have to think that BlackBerry Desktop Manager 4.3 will follow at some point soon thereafter. Then again, we have yet to hear about the BlackBerry 8120 actually being available from any of the pre-launch and launch carriers in Europe (Telefonica/Spain, TIM/Italy and O2/UK), so who knows.

Rest of the shots, after the break!

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