by Todd Haselton - via blog.laptopmag.com —-As much as we love the BlackBerry Bold’s blazing performance and sharp display, many find that device a bit too bulky. At the same time, the Curve 8330 for Sprint and Verizon now looks old and tired compared to the sleeker (but 3G-lacking) Curve 8900 on AT&T and T-Mobile. The Tour combines (almost) everything we love about the Curve 8900 and Bold in one easy-to-carry device. Expect it to hit Sprint and Verizon Wireless in the coming weeks for $199 (after rebates).
As befits its name, the Tour boasts 3G data connectivity for both stateside (EV-DO Rev. A) and abroad (3G UMTS/HSPA). That world roaming capability will be a key selling point for business travelers. However, we would have liked for RIM to add Wi-Fi to the mix, too. Intrigued? More details and specs after the jump.
The Tour sports a classy black face with chrome “frets” that separate the rows on the keyboard. At 4.4 x 2.4 x .5 inches, the phone is a hair longer than the Curve 8900, but just as thick and wide. It also has a 2.4- inch 480 x 360-pixel display, which is smaller than the 2.6-inch Bold’s display, but with an even higher resolution. Everything from Web pages and photos to the icons in RIM’s latest operating system should really pop on this screen.
Like all recent BlackBerry phones, the Tour sports a 3.5mm headphone jack. That means it will easily double as a portable media player, whether you rock out to your own tunes or download apps like Pandora or Slacker Radio. BlackBerry Media Sync software is compatible with iTunes and Windows Media Player (for unprotected content). You also get a 3.2-MP camera with flash.
Other features include integrated GPS, a full HTML Web browser, and RIM’s trademark push e-mail experience, compelete with DataViz Documents to Go for viewing attachments the way they were meant to be seen. We also like that the Tour has a speedy 528-MHz processor, so you should be able to multitask with ease. (The Curve 8900 runs at 512-MHz and the Bold at 624-MHz.)
Although $199 is nothing to sneeze at, the Tour could be the best BlackBerry of the year. At least on paper, it offers a great combination of style, typing comfort, and speedy data performance. Stay tuned for a full review.
Feature List:
3.2 MP camera with flash, variable zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording*
Full HTML web browser, including support for streaming audio and video (RTSP)
Advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for the Bluetooth® Stereo Audio Profile (A2DP/AVCRP)
256MB Flash memory
Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, supporting cards of up to 16 GB today and expected to support next generation 32GB cards when available
Built-in GPS with support for geotagging, BlackBerry® Maps and other location based applications and services
BlackBerry® Media Sync allows customers to quickly and easily synch music from iTunes® and Windows Media Player with the smartphone **
Premium phone features including voice activated dialing, enhanced background noise cancellation, a low-distortion speakerphone, and Bluetooth (2.0) support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals
Preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go®, allowing users to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset
Easy mobile access to Facebook®, MySpace and Flickr®, as well as popular instant messaging services including BlackBerry® Messenger, Yahoo!® IM, AIM®, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger™
Support for BlackBerry App World™, featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones. Categories include travel, productivity, entertainment, games, social networking & sharing, news & weather, and more
BlackBerry® Internet Service allows access to up to 10 supported personal and corporate email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts
BlackBerry® Enterprise Server provides advanced security and IT administration features within IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novell® GroupWise® environments.
Removable and rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery for 5 hours of talk time and 14 days of standby time
If you need to get longer battery life from your BlackBerry Storm we have a couple of great ideas which will help.
Longer Battery Life On The BlackBerry Storm Part One - Disable GPS
The GPS is always on by default on the BlackBerry Storm, which means that the GPS service is always draining battery life.
Check if GPS is on by looking below the signal indicators for a circle with two crossed lines, as shown in the image on the right - if there are some waves pointing to the right then the GPS is on.
To turn GPS off:
Click ‘Options’ in the Manage Connections Menu
Click ‘Advanced Options’
Click ‘GPS’
In the GPS menu change the second item to ‘E999/911 Only’ which will only activate the GPS in case of Emergency
Set the third GPS menu item box to ‘Disabled’
Save the settings and go to the main screen
GPS is a battery demanding feature - turning it off should extend battery life a fair bit.
Longer Battery Life On The BlackBerry Storm Part Two - Use An Extended Battery
The Storm comes with a 1400mAh battery as standard, but Seidio have recently announced a 1600mAh battery.
According to the specification the 1400mAh battery provides 360 hours of standby time. Based on this figure the Seido battery should yield 411.4 hours of standby time - that’s an additional 51 hours of standby time or to put it another way 15% more than with the 1400mAh battery. - via storm-reviews.co.uk
Joey spotted this latest update from CLS Hong Kong. They have just officially released OS 4.6.0.282 for the Bold which is the latest I have seen anywhere. So get on downloading. This release has both English and East Asian language support.
NOTE: Don’t forget to delete the vendor.xml file located in c:program files>common files>research in motion>apploader to install it on a different carriers device
via mobilephonereviews.org - Blackberry is a big player in the Smartphone world and have a very good line up of these phones, like Blackberry Storm and Blackberry Bold, to name a few. The older versions like the Curve and Pearl also gained enough popularity. Blackberry is now believed to gearing up to release three new mobile phones shortly. The names are yet not confirmed, though the code names are out. At present they are code named Onyx, Driftwood and Magnum. Blackberry Onyx Liscio Bluetooth Mobile Phone will feature triband GSM, PCS 1900 and DCS 1800. It would come with a 1.1” OLED screen with a resolution of 96 x 96 pixels and would support 65k colours.
This mobile phone is a very compact one measuring (H)90 x (W)35 x (D)17.8mm and weighs 60 grams. Its battery is expected to provide 200 hours of standby time and 3 hours of talk time. It would come loaded with a memory of 128MB with support for microSD cards up to 1GB.
Blackberry Onyx Liscio 3G Mobile Phone comes with a futuristic design, with a different looking keypad with the numbers 2, 5 and 8 separated from the rest of the numbers. These keys also serve another purpose – they double up as dedicated music buttons. One look at the handset and you might mistake it for a futuristic remote control.
This mobile phone will come equipped with a MP3 player with equalizer and Bluetooth A2DP technology. It will have built-in FM radio too. It is expected to come with GPRS, EDGE, 3G and WiFi. The news of these three new additions from Blackberry have generated a lot of attention and people are waiting with bated breath for the release of the trio. If you are a ardent fan of innovation and uniqueness in your mobile phones, then you can probably try out this Blackberry Onyx Liscio Black Mobile Phone.
Message:
I combined your list with some from PDA Prophet, others from the BBUsers egroup mail list, and a few of my own:
ALT key = has half moon on top of it. left side of keyboard below the A.
CAP key = bottom right key (AKA SHIFT key)
In General
———–
1) Hold the ALT key while you roll the thumb-wheel to scroll horizontally in any field where you can enter or view text.
2) Hold the ALT key while you roll the thumb-wheel to scroll through a field to view options.
3) Hold the CAP key while you roll the thumb-wheel to select multiple items in a list.
4) Type the first letter of an item in an options list or menu to jump directly to that item.
5) Type the first letters of a name or the initials separated by a space to find a contact in the Address Book screen.
6) Press C to compose a new message from the home screen or within Messages
7) Rearrange the ribbon: In the Home screen (ribbon), hold the ALT key and click the thumb-wheel to bring up a menu. You can then select Move Icon, Hide Icon, or Show All. If you hide an icon, to show it again click Show all and it will appear with an X over it, bring up the menu on it and uncheck hide icon.
The Blackberry display can be backlit to allow reading messages in the dark. To get the light to come on, hit the backlight button usually in the lower right of the keyboard. Hopefully you have a backlit keyboard as well so you can type in the dark.
9) Turning the radio off and back on when coverage is spotty and you’ve lost signal seems to help. Also going into network and selecting register now will help. And if you have a phone/combo BB then on some you can go into network and select Scan for networks. then select the network you are on, for example T-mobile, then save. After doing this the radio will reset and you may receive a register message and a new service book, which you can accept from the service book menu in options.
10) Password protect your BB. To set a password, go to the Options menu to the Security item. Set the desired timeout (I use 15 minutes) and enable/set a password. In conjunction with this, you should also go to the Options menu to the Owner item, and enter your name, phone number, etc. When the password protection kicks in, this is what is displayed on the screen.
11) After five incorrect attempts at typing in your password, the password starts echoing (figuring you really need all the help you can get). After ten attempts, it performs a lobotomy on itself and almost all data is cleared. The Memo database, however, is retained and visible.
12) To support more than one signature. Wipe out your auto-signature in the Redirector of the Desktop Software and just use ‘AutoText’ to configure alternate sigs.
In the Message List
——————-
(Some of these work in tasks, memos, and appointments also)
Sorting:
1) ALT-i: show only incoming mail
2) ALT-o: show only outgoing mail (messages you have sent - i.e. checkmark icon)
3) ALT-p: show phone log messages
4) ALT-s: show SMS messages
5) ALT-v: show VoiceMail messages
Navigating:
1) t: go to top of message listing
2) b: go to end/bottom of message listing
3) backspace: close message listing and return to home screen (ribbon)
4) spacebar: pagedown
5) cap + spacebar: pageup
Deleting multiple messages at once:
1) Highlight a date (i.e. Fri, Oct 05,2001) in the message list, hit the thumb-wheel and select delete prior. All messages prior to that date will be deleted.
2) Hold down the CAP key and use the thumb-wheel to scroll up or down to select messages. Click the thumb-wheel and select ‘Delete Messages’. Combine this with a sorting tip to make it even more useful (i.e. To delete the last 5 messages that you have sent (checkmarks), press ‘ALT’ then the letter ‘o’ (for outgoing) this will show all of your sent messages, then per this tip scroll down and select the last five.
While In A Message
—————— Navigating:
1) enter or spacebar: scroll down a page/screen at a time
2) ALT-enter or spacebar: scroll back a page/screen at a time
3) b: scroll to end of page
4) t: scroll to top of page
5) u: jump to closest unread message
6) n: jump to next message
7) p: jump to previous message
backspace: close message and return to message listing
Reply-to/Forward: 1) r: reply to or answer this message
2) f: forward this message
Select Text (OS v2.1+):
1) Press the CAP key and then scroll the thumb-wheel to select. If you release the CAP key and scroll the thumb-wheel you will select entire lines. Press the CAP key again at any time to start selecting by character again.
2) Hold down ALT key + CLICK the thumb-wheel (click it don’t hold it down), release the thumb-wheel and then use it to scroll whole lines. You can press and hold the ALT key at anytime to start selecting by character again.
3) Click scroll wheel and select SELECT from the menu. scroll wheel to select entire line. click scroll wheel again and select copy.
With either method, click the thumb-wheel and select ‘Cut Selection’ or ‘Copy Selection’… to paste, open a new message or whatever, click the thumb-wheel, and then select ‘Paste Selection’.
Composing Message
—————–
1) Press and hold a letter to capitalize it (with Key Rate enabled).
2) Press the SPACE key twice to insert a period and capitalize the next letter.
3) Press the SPACE key to insert the “@” and “.” characters in an Email field. Backspace and type again to over-ride this like you would with AutoText.
4) Press and hold a letter key and roll the thumb-wheel to scroll through international/accent characters, equation symbols and other marks.
Calendar (from Agenda screen)
——–
1) Press T to go to “Today” in the Calendar screen.
2) Press G to go to a specific date in the Calendar screen.
3) The default date range for Calendar synchronization in Desktop Manager may not suit most people. While configuring the Calendar synchronization, click the Advanced button and specify the desired range.
Battery
——-
1) The largest draw on battery life is the transmitter, so if you are transmitting a lot, you can expect reduced battery life. And the backlight.
2) Being in fringe or no coverage areas will eat up your battery as it attempts to transmit. If you’re in an area that is out of range, turn your BB’s radio off manually or use Options / Auto On Off to conserve battery life.
Geek Tips
———
1) Rather than looking at the bars, you can change the display of the ’signal strength’ to read in real numbers. While at the home screen (ribbon), hold down the half moon ALT key while you type NMLL. The bars should change to read numbers. For the ’signal strength’, if you are in the 100 area (that means -100 dBm), you will be transmitting at maximum power (2 Watts), and since coverage is hit and miss at this weak a signal, you may end up transmitting many times before the packets make it through. This might help explain any poorer than normal battery life. I consider anything at -90 to -50 excellent.
2) To get the bars back: While at the home screen (ribbon), hold down the half moon ALT key while you type NMLL again.
3) Hold down the half moon ALT key -AND- the CAP key at the same time, then the letter ‘h’. This brings up the “Help Me!” screen that lists version, app version, pin, imei, uptime, signal strength, batterylevel, file free, and file total.
4) Hold down the half moon ALT while you type LGLG. This brings up the event log where you can clear events (frees some memory) or view them or copy the contents to mail to someone.
Slacker has announced the release of an update to the Slacker Radio Mobile App for BlackBerry. Version 2, 2.0.2 actually, is now available and it includes a variety of bug fixes and enhancements. Highlights include faster performance / app response and much (MUCH) shorter gaps between songs.Users will now experience near instant skipping while streaming (results may vary based on connection quality). There are many bug fixes in the latest version the major changes outlined below.
The major enhancement of the application update is that we have optimized the application to perform faster and remove many of the “Gaps” when skipping or transitioning songs. When a song first starts, there’s alot of activity going on, but after 10-15 seconds you should get near instant skips (Depending on your connection speed).
You can get the new version by navigating to www.slacker.com on your BlackBerry. To upgrade to the new version, please start by uninstalling the current version by going to Options > Advanced Options > Applications on your BlackBerry phone. Then find the Slacker Application, highlight it and press the BB Menu button and choose Delete. Once completed restart your device and grab the latest version from Slacker. - via cellphonehits.net
So, you’ve gotten yourself a brand new BlackBerry Storm. You’ve updated to the latest leaked OS and have figured out how to type on the touch screen that you actually have to click an not just touch. You like your BlackBerry Storm and plan on sticking with it. The one thing bugging you about your BlackBerry Storm, however, is why the virtual keyboard on some BlackBerry applications is permanent.
Often times when you are running an older BlackBerry application on your BlackBerry Storm you may notice a blue border around the main application window and the SureType virtual keyboard won’t go away no matter what you do. This is because your application is running with compatability mode enabled. The blue boarder and the keyboard significantly decrease the size of the application window and it makes navigating and selecting fields or buttons very difficult.
Fortunately, you can disable compatibility mode by going to options >> advanced options >> highlight the application that you want to disable compatibility mode on >> hit the menu button (the one with logo) >> select disable compatibility mode. Once you disable compatibility mode, restart your application. the blue border and the persistent virtual SureType keyboard should be gone. You may be able to use the application in landscape mode as well.
Why RIM choose not to have compatibilty mode disabled as the default is beyond me. I have yet to see an application react adversely when compatibility mode is turned off. Developers can, using the latest development tools, chose to have this feature turned off automatically when their applications install, but, that does nothing for all the apps that have already been developed. - via rimarkable.com
…using any printer in sight. HP kick-starts Printing 2.0, where the printer itself becomes agnostic. Vishnu Anand spoke to Sridhar Sood, Principal, Office of IPG CTO - HP, London via Halo Telepresence
Untether the printer from the Operating System, and imagine it as a Web service operation, where your BlackBerry comes armed with a print button and ’seeks’ the nearest printer, having geo-located where you are currently stationed.
In a typical use case, HP’s CloudPrint allows you to be at a shopping mall, an airport terminal, or any public location that is likely to have a ‘critical mass of printers’.
You receive an e-mail, shoot a picture from your phone camera, or just feel like printing out some random text message while waiting for your delayed flight. Your BlackBerry (which will soon be equipped with a ‘Print’ menu option), will geo-tag your location using GPS, and links up to HP’s repository of registered printers that are being used by a retail outlet, a cyber café, or even a copier shop in the vicinity.
Alternatively, you can enter your detailed location (Eg: Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 2, Departure Security holding), and the HP application embedded on the BlackBerry identifies the printer closest to you, gives you directions on how to identify it, and lets you give a ‘print’ command.
And since HP’s CloudPrint initiative is aimed at creating a social printing ecosystem, the printers in the repository do not necessarily have to be HP printers.
At the back-end, HP creates a Cloud Print operation layer that sits between the Network layer and the wireless (device) layer. When a search query for a printer is generated by the device user, the Cloud print layer pulls out the query from the device layer, communicates it through the network layer, in order to access its repository of registered printers. Having found the relevant ones (one or many), it returns the response to the device, using the network layer. HP promises this operation cycle to last anything between 6 to 12 seconds.
The obvious challenge, of course, is to populate the repository with a ‘critical mass of printers’ worldwide. To begin with, HP is planning to start with small corporate environments, before putting in place a mechanism where cyber café owners, for instance, can register themselves with HP to have their printers under the Cloud print umbrella. The monetary transaction would be limited to the Blackberry user and the owner of the printer, while HP hopes to rope in advertisers to fuel the operation.
“We at HP hope that CloudPrint will give a meaning to the concept of Social Printing. It would also go a step further and bring people closer. Imagine a scenario where you happen to visit a distant place of worship, shoot a picture and choose to print it on your home printer many thousand miles away, that your grandmother can see. This is the broad aim of social printing,” said Sridhar Sood, principal, Office of IPG CTO - HP, London.
“A more realistic example would be a simple scenario where you visit your branch office in a different city and need to print out a document. The printers in the office are not registered with your laptop/handheld and invariably you need to email the document to an email ID of another employee and take a print out. CloudPrint begins at this level”, he explained.
Sridhar explained that the starting point for HP would be to target corporate networks of this nature and have the printers registered, before expanding the ecosystem and spreading outside corporate walls.
“Beyond this, the growth will be driven by individuals – users, service providers, printer owners, whoever they might be – and that will be the birth of Printing 2.0,” he said. - via blackberry-news.newslib.com
Mr. Ed: Good morning Wilbur, where did you get that awesome new BlackBerry case?
Wilbur: Oh, this case? This thing is a piece of garbage! Wait until you see which case I have coming next week.
Mr. Ed: But, Wilbur, how do you get all this cases when you spend all day talking to me?
Wilbur: Golly Gee Ed, haven’t you heard? Amazon just released their first ever BlackBerry application! Now I can buy you the new saddle you have been asking for.
Mr. Ed: Can I borrow your BlackBerry for a little while, Wilbur?
Wilbur: No, because I already bought you your own. Just make sure you download the new Amazon application before you forget to buy my birthday present next week.
Mr. Ed: Wilbur, your the best. Where do I get the Amazon BlackBerry application?
Wilbur: Ed, I have to do everything for you don’t I? There are two ways you can get it, from your new BlackBerry at www.amazon.com/bb or gallop to here.
As much as we love the BlackBerry Bold’s blazing performance and sharp display, many find that device a bit too bulky. At the same time, the Curve 8330 for Sprint and Verizon now looks old and tired compared to the sleeker (but 3G-lacking) Curve 8900 on AT&T and T-Mobile. The Tour combines (almost) everything we love about the Curve 8900 and Bold in one easy-to-carry device. Expect it to hit Sprint and Verizon Wireless in the coming weeks for $199 (after rebates).
Check if GPS is on by looking below the signal indicators for a circle with two crossed lines, as shown in the image on the right - if there are some waves pointing to the right then the GPS is on.
The Storm comes with a 1400mAh battery as standard, but Seidio have recently announced a 
via mobilephonereviews.org - Blackberry is a big player in the Smartphone world and have a very good line up of these phones, like Blackberry Storm and Blackberry Bold, to name a few. The older versions like the Curve and Pearl also gained enough popularity. Blackberry is now believed to gearing up to release three new mobile phones shortly. The names are yet not confirmed, though the code names are out. At present they are code named Onyx, Driftwood and Magnum. Blackberry Onyx Liscio Bluetooth Mobile Phone will feature triband GSM, PCS 1900 and DCS 1800. It would come with a 1.1” OLED screen with a resolution of 96 x 96 pixels and would support 65k colours.
The Blackberry display can be backlit to allow reading messages in the dark. To get the light to come on, hit the backlight button usually in the lower right of the keyboard. Hopefully you have a backlit keyboard as well so you can type in the dark.
Overheard a few hours ago near Mr. Ed’s stable…
