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

by Ronen Halevy – via berryreview.com -

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.

BlackBerry Handheld Software v4.6.0.477 (EastAsia)
Package Version: 4.6.0.477
Consisting of:

• Applications: 4.6.0.282
• Software Platform: 4.0.0.235
• File name: 9000jEastAsia_PBr4.6.0_rel477_PL4.0.0.235_A4.6.0.282_CSL_Limited_customers.exe
• File size: 97.68MB

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.

By Kevin Michaluk  via crackberry.com – While at WES we had the chance to speak with some reps from Multiplied Media and they described to us some of the new features coming to their already-great application, Poynt. A few weeks later, the time has now come where we can put some of these new features to use!

Poynt has been updated and now includes WhitePages integration which allows you to do reverse phone number look ups as well as reverse address look ups. More features are still on their way to Poynt, but in the meantime you can grab version 1.3.1.29 from BlackBerry App World or direct from your BlackBerry’s web browser.

• Download The Latest Version Of Poynt From Your Device Browser >>