It’s been more than a year and a half since my BlackBerry’s pearl conked out and I’ve already weathered through 3 phones. I had the unit sent back to RIM last year as this is apparently the only solution to servicing the unit. I was warned that it would take at least 6 months. It’s been much more than that. Not that I’m really complaining. I think it’s owed to the fact that I easily found a replacement unit. Nonetheless I’d like to get your insights on the matter: how long did it take to service your BlackBerry? Do tell me where you’re from as this really does affect the time table of service.

[image courtesy of author]

A central storage for applications for the BlackBerry? Yes, we have it. The BlackBerry App World is a mobile application which you can download into your BlackBerry, thus allowing you the power of being able to download any application in their virtual store. This is basically RIM’s answer to the iPhone iTunes store synchronization — from desktop conduit to on the fly downloads.

If you’re reading this from a phone, you can go directly to this link to download the application.

The BlackBerry Storm is RIM’s first touch screen BlackBerry. This has been a long time coming and with the stability of the BlackBerry’s operating system with the semi-recent release of a crackoad of berries, we’re glad to see that a good touch screen device has arrived in time for the holidays. So now that we have the Berry, we’re curious with the pricing.

To quote from CrackBerry, there are four Perfect Choice plans available:

* Under the Perfect Choice Access 100 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €109.99 and will cost €49.99 a month as part of a bundle that will include 100 minutes, 100 texts, 1GB of BlackBerry email, mobile TV and 10 full-track music downloads.
* Under the Perfect Choice Access 200 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €64.99 and will cost €64.99 a month as part of a bundle that will include 200 minutes, 200 texts, 1GB of BlackBerry email, mobile TV and 10 full-track music downloads.
* Under the Perfect Choice Access 400 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €69.99 and will cost €84.99 a month as part of a bundle that will include 400 minutes, 400 texts, 1GB of BlackBerry email, mobile TV and 10 full-track music downloads.
* And under the Perfect Choice Access 600 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €49.99 and will cost €99.99 a month as part of a bundle that will include 600 minutes, 600 texts, 1GB of BlackBerry email, mobile TV and 10 full-track music downloads.

[photo c/o SFGate]

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 is perhaps on the most anticipated BlackBerry devices in the market. It will be available come Q4 of 2008 exclusively with AT&T.

OK let’s get these specs out of the way, mmkay:

GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
Integrated Wi-Fi and GPS
Half-VGA (480×320 resolution) color LCD screen
Up to 5 hours GSM talk time, up to 13 days standby
Side-loading memory slot
1GB of on-board memory storage
624 MHz processor and 128 MB flash memory
Bluetooth® 2.0 capability with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits, and other Bluetooth peripherals

This is one of those proof of concepts from RIM. I can almost hear the engineers say “OK we’ve come up with several of these BlackBerries for 2008 and we need to leave the year with a bang — so here it is - more of the same with slight tweaks here and there - how BOLD, how BEAUTIFUL!.”

This is how you make phones! Let’s not stray away from over the top designs and weird features. Sticking to what works, with a touch of elegance is by itself, Bold.

Word’s out in the geekvine that John McCain was quoted to use the BlackBerry, but not for emails. Now I know we shouldn’t judge a guy by his mobile phone, but not using the BlackBerry for email is sorta like well … my gosh. There’s just so much analogy up for grabs.

McCain’s admission in a July 11 New York Times interview that: “I use the BlackBerry, but I don’t e-mail. I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail.” A statement proving the boneheaded joke of the McCain staffer to be particulary boneheaded considering the purported inventor of the Blackberry does not use the device to accomplish what it was invented to do: send emails.[Geek.com]

This quote was published in an article where McCain’s economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin stated one of those “if a butterfly flaps its wings on the other side of the world, will it cause a storm back here” lines saying that inevitably, McCain was responsible for the BlackBerry’s creation because of … economics.

[insert crickets chirping]

The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 was unveiled recently. Other than being the first BlackBerry to sport a clamshell design, the new 8220 Flip still pretty much has the same features of previous Pearl models including the SureType QWERTY hybrid. This move was, in my opinion, an aesthetic preserver as the new Flip phone would look fugly if it were wider (full QWERTY). The 8220 comes with a 2.0MP camera and connectivity options has included WiFi onto the roster, so it does make a better impression on the original BlackBerry Pearl.

Why a flip design? More importantly, why only now? Because they can.

SK Telecom has just opened its doors to selling RIM’s BlackBerry. This is a rather aggressive move for the Canadian company to push their products in Asia - risky too. South Korea is home to LG and Samsung, that also manufacture mobile handsets, but not necessarily BlackBerry enabled devices:

Up to now, Research in Motion has not been allowed to sell BlackBerry phones in South Korea because of laws that give a competitive edge to domestic companies, such as Samsung and LG Electronics. Those two companies have a combined 80% control of the South Korean market. [source]

Whatever happened to Laissez Faire? Well, as generally a Western concept, the “free market” doesn’t apply to home grown businesses that have foreign challengers. It’s true for several developing countries in Asia, especially back in the 50’s.

You probably saw it over the weekend if you haven’t had the chance to watch television all week. The new BlackBerry ad follows the traditional marketing spiel of having everything you do in life integrated in your pocket - whether it be work, play, or … see the spiel is so engraved, all that differs really are the graphics and execution.

The ad isn’t bad. It isn’t remarkable either. But finally, BlackBerry gets in the game with their own non-telco sponsored advertisments. Are they 5 years too late into the game? No. They’re one of the first, at least in my observation, that have used Web 2 references and services in their campaign such as the light suggestion that you can login to Facebook.

Watch the video (really high quality stuff here — kidding).

You know, I’ve been reviewing gadgets for the past 5 years - it may be considered a long time for some, but highly unlikely to reach veteran review status soon. The thing with reviewing devices is that one tends to get stuck in the game of tech specs where the premise of “mine is bigger than yours” seems to win out (thus proving that the worldwide tech scene may just really be a man’s world). However, technical specs doesn’t seem to be the way the game is played anymore. In the same way that the smaller Japanese cars have a great following compared to your huge Fords, sometimes, form factor and the smaller, almost insignificant details DO matter.

Perhaps the best example of this would be the RAZR line of phones from Motorola. In terms of user interface and durability, I’ve heard many a complaint with this particular model (ironically, the other phone models from the same brand are A-OK). And yet it still seems to be one of the fast selling phones in last year’s market. It’s all about the form factor for a significant market share.

I guess all I wanted to say was that I’ll never laugh again when a company introduces a new sub product like this Pink BlackBerry Pearl, where there really is nothing new about the phone sans the color scheme, which mind you is quite killer.

A few days ago I released a survey on your cellphone wish list for the holidays. As of today, December 13 2007 we have had 60 votes divided among 8 phones. The Apple iPhone is ranked at number one followed by - now this is a surprise - a three way tie with the Nokia N82, Sony Ericsson P990i, and the BlackBerry Pearl. We also have significant votes for the HTC Touch. Interesting to note are the phones with the three way tie - these are all enterprise phones for the more “mature” consumer.

Does that say something about this blog’s readers? Hehe. I’ll be reporting the poll update regularly till the holiday comes and see if there are changes. Vote away!