Tag: Research In Motion

Blackberry London – QNX based Berry – Leaked dummy

Oh dummy its just a dummy, QNX based Blackberry “london” just showed up on the inter webs and it does look like there is a future of the mobile smartphone company after all (the device is only a dummy). The device purportedly thinner yet taller than the iPhone 4/4s will feature a nice set of specs. The Verge ( proud owners of the story) were also informed that the device will feature a 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage. An 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing one with a release set for June 2012.

Time to upgrade my Berry to London, well in 6 months anyway!

[The Verge]

November 15, 2011
RIM wants Indian Devs to Make BB Apps

RIM is working hard to capture the Indian App developers to get them interested in building apps for RIM very own Blackberry platform.

We see huge opportunity in mobile application development. BlackBerry App World currently has 26,000-odd registered developers from India, against 5,000 two years ago, with the applications numbering over 40,000.

– Annie Mathew

RIM also has an Apple-esque revenue share model where the profit is shared 70:30. So if you have a dev brewing up in you, now is the time to filter it out.

RIM is also pushing for NFC and its development in the country, which would make it a boon for enterprise customers.

November 14, 2011
Research in Motion announces BBX the future of Blackberry OS (PR)

The war on speculation is over already, RIM acquisition of QNX is finally paid off as the company announces their new Mobile operating system the BBX. BBX will be based on QNX, the current operating system found on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. But, like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating systems, BBX will be one operating system across devices.

BBX will also bring along the long-promised ability to run Android apps on BlackBerry devices. It will also run native BBX apps, apps developed using Adobe’s AIR software and HTML5 apps.

But while RIM made the next BlackBerry operating system official, the company offered up few details on the new software outside of how developers will be able to build for it. RIM hasn’t yet said when the first BBX smartphones will arrive.

[toggle title_open=”Press Release” title_closed=”Press Release” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

RIM Unveils BlackBerry BBX-Combines the Best of BlackBerry and QNX to Provide a Next Generation Platform for BlackBerry Smartphones and Tablets

Additional announcements and highlights from BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 include: – BlackBerry WebWorks and HTML5 apps compatible with current BlackBerry smartphones and tablets will run on future BBX-based devices – Native SDK for BlackBerry PlayBook goes gold; released for general availability – SDK for Adobe AIR Now Supports Adobe AIR 3.0 – BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Developer Beta now available, includes BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, Oct 18, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 – At BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011, Research In Motion today unveiled BlackBerry BBX, its next generation mobile platform that takes the best of the BlackBerry platform and the best of the QNX platform to connect people, devices, content and services.

In addition, RIM announced a series of developer tool updates, including WebWorks for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, the Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook and a developer beta of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 with support for running Android applications. RIM also provided direction for developers on how to best develop and monetize their BlackBerry applications for today and for the future.

“With nearly 5 million BlackBerry apps downloaded daily, our customers have made BlackBerry one of the most profitable platforms for developers,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM. “At DevCon today, we’re giving developers the tools they need to build richer applications and we’re providing direction on how to best develop their smartphone and tablet apps as the BlackBerry and QNX platforms converge into our next generation BBX platform.”

BlackBerry BBX

BBX is the next generation platform for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets. It combines the best of BlackBerry and the best of QNX and is designed from the ground up to enable the powerful real-time mobile experiences that distinguish BlackBerry products and services.

The BBX platform will include BBX-OS, and will support BlackBerry cloud services and development environments for both HTML5 and native developers. BBX will also support applications developed using any of the tools available today for the BlackBerry PlayBook – including Native SDK, Adobe AIR/Flash and WebWorks/HTML5, as well as the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps – on future BBX-based tablets and smartphones.

BBX will also include the new BlackBerry Cascades UI Framework for advanced graphics (shown for the first time today), and bring “Super App” capabilities to enable many advanced capabilities including deep integration between apps, always-on Push services, the BBM(TM) Social Platform, and much more.

BlackBerry WebWorks

Developers who want to support both existing smartphones (running BlackBerry 6 and BlackBerry 7 OS) and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets can monetize apps on both platforms today with BlackBerry WebWorks, which supports apps built on HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. The latest release, BlackBerry WebWorks SDK 2.2 (supporting both smartphones and tablets), is now available and includes updates for the new PlayBook OS SDK, PlayBook Simulator and more.

The BlackBerry WebWorks APIs are supported by the Ripple Emulator, a standalone, high-fidelity browser-like emulation tool that allows developers to test and debug their applications on multiple platforms and devices without having to compile or launch simulators. Starting today the Ripple Emulator is available in beta and can also be downloaded from RIM’s WebWorks Developer site at: http://developer.blackberry.com/html5 .

Native SDK – Content Rich, Fast and Smooth Running Applications

RIM also announced today the immediate availability of the Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook (1.0 gold release). The Native SDK allows developers to build high-performance, multi-threaded, native C/C++ applications and enables developers to create advanced 2D and 3D games and other apps with access to OpenGL ES 2.0 and Open AL, as well as device specific APIs. Applications developed with the Native SDK will run today on the BlackBerry PlayBook and will be forwardly compatible on BBX-based tablets and smartphones.

The Native SDK includes support for C/C++ POSIX library and compliance, device events like gesture swipes and touch screen inputs, access to code management systems using industry standard Eclipse CDT (C/C++ Development Tools) and advanced debug and analysis tools. QNX Momentics Tool Suite, an Eclipse-based integrated development environment, is included. It provides memory profiling, application debugging, and memory usage statistics to help developers debug sophisticated programs, including hardware accelerated OpenGL applications.

The Native SDK makes the development and porting of game applications to the BlackBerry PlayBook an extremely attractive proposition for developers. Well known game publishers, developers and major game engine companies have already started to bring their game titles and applications to the platform.

Scoreloop, the largest and fastest growing cross-platform social gaming ecosystem on mobile, is now available in beta for the Native SDK through BlackBerry(R) Beta Zone. The Scoreloop SDK provides everything a developer needs to easily integrate social capabilities into their native PlayBook applications and includes support for Leaderboards, Game Challenges, Awards & Achievements, and Player Profiles. Scoreloop’s fully customizable and cross-platform technology empowers developers to add as many or as few features as they want, from a simple leader-board to more extensive player achievements. It makes mobile games more social and profitable.

BlackBerry Cascades – Create Visually Stunning Interfaces

RIM today showcased BlackBerry Cascades, a rich user interface framework coming to a future release of the Native SDK. Cascades unleashes a new breed of design centric mobile applications and provides developers with an exceptional feature set for creating visually stunning interfaces with custom layouts, animations, effects and 3D graphics. These features, combined with a strong set of built-in core user interface components, will make it easy to build beautiful native applications with innovative user interfaces for the current BlackBerry PlayBook and future BBX-based tablets and smartphones. Cascades is scheduled to be made available in beta later this fall.

Adobe AIR 3.0 Support

Adobe Flash enables developers to produce visually stunning, highly functional applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook that can integrate with the underlying OS and will be supported on future BBX-based tablets and smartphones.

The BlackBerry PlayBook now supports the recently announced Adobe AIR 3.0 runtime. Among the supported features are Encrypted Local Store that gives developers the ability to use the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to encrypt and securely store sensitive information on the device, as well as store passwords, keys or credit card information safely within the app; StageText that allows developers to take advantage of native text controls and the native interaction behaviors of those controls; Multitouch and Gestures built into applications to provide great usability; and more.

PlayBook OS 2.0 – Developer Beta

RIM introduced today the Developer Beta version of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. The Developer Beta includes the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps and the BlackBerry Plug-In for Android Development Tools (ADT), allowing developers to quickly and easily bring Android applications to BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.

The BlackBerry Plug-In for ADT (an Eclipse plug-in) extends a developer’s existing Eclipse Android development environment to support the PlayBook, and includes the BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator for developers to test and debug their apps before submitting them to BlackBerry App World(TM). Developers can also test and debug their apps on a PlayBook running the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 – Developer Beta.

Android developers can also repackage Android apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook online by using the BlackBerry Packager for Android Apps. The web tool guides developers through a step-by-step process, allowing them to test their apps for compatibility with the PlayBook, and repackage and sign their apps for submission to BlackBerry App World, all without downloading any tools.

BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps and the associated tools allow Android developers to easily expand their market to include BlackBerry PlayBook users, and hence increase their apps’ market potential.

The BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 – Developer Beta also supports Adobe Air 3.0 and Adobe Flash 11, as well as WebGL, a new web technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser without installing additional software. Developers will be able to generate rich, interactive 3D graphics within their BlackBerry WebWorks application.

For more information about the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 – Developer Beta and BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps and associated tools, visit For more information about the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 – Developer Beta and BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps and associated tools, visit: https://bdsc.webapps.blackberry.com/android/bpaa/ .

Increased Developer Productivity with Open Source Libraries on the BlackBerry PlayBook OS

RIM also announced the BlackBerry Open Source Initiative to port popular Open Source libraries to the BlackBerry PlayBook platform. Libraries already available include physics engines like Bullet Physics and Box2DX, scripting languages like Lua, multimedia libraries like OpenAL and SDL, gaming frameworks like Cocos2DX and general-purpose libraries like Boost and Qt. Also available under an Open Source license are a range of code samples that developers can use to get started quickly, as well as GamePlay, a new 3D native gaming framework.

RIM will continue to expand its involvement in the Open Source community to help increase developer productivity on the BlackBerry platforms. For more details on RIM’s Open Source activities, visit http://blackberry.github.com .

[/toggle]

October 20, 2011
Did you suffer from the Blackberry Outage? RIM will give you 12 free Paid Apps! (PR)
Following the major outages for Blackberry services in the past week, RIM will offer free premium apps to its consumer. These apps include
- SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
- Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
- N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
- Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
- Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
- Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
- DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
- iSpeech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
- Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
- Nobex Radio™ Premium – Nobex
- Shazam Encore – Shazam
- Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo (Almost SIRI)
Good move from CEO Lazaridis, to prevent users from jumping the boat for iOS or Android.

[toggle title_open=”Press Release” title_closed=”Press Release” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Research In Motion Offers Free Premium Apps to Customers Following Service Interruptions

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced today that a selection of premium apps worth a total value of more than US $100 will be offered free of charge to subscribers as an expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions. The apps will be made available to customers over the coming weeks on BlackBerry® App World™ and will continue to be available until December 31, 2011.*

“Our global network supports the communications needs of more than 70 million customers,” said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. “We truly appreciate and value our relationship with our customers. We’ve worked hard to earn their trust over the past 12 years, and we’re committed to providing the high standard of reliability they expect, today and in the future.”

The complete selection of premium apps will become available to download at BlackBerry App World over a period of four weeks beginning Wednesday, October 19th. The selections over this period will include the following (with more to come):

SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
iSpeech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
Nobex Radio™ Premium – Nobex
Shazam Encore – Shazam
Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo

RIM’s enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free Technical Support. Current customers will be offered a complimentary one month extension of their existing Technical Support contract, and customers who do not currently have a Technical Support contract will be offered a one month trial of RIM’s BlackBerry Technical Support Services – Enhanced Support, free of charge. Additional details about the program and information about how to register will be available at www.blackberry.com/enterpriseoffer.

“We are grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers for their patience,” added Lazaridis. “We have apologized to our customers and we will work tirelessly to restore their confidence. We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again.

* Please note that the availability of this offer will depend on the type of device, operating system version, access to BlackBerry App World and local conditions and/or restrictions.[/toggle]
October 17, 2011
Mike Lazaridis apologizes for BlackBerry outage on Video

RIM founder and CEO Mike Lazaridis takes out time and apologizes for the service outages for Blackberry services this week. In a video address published today, Lazaridis acknowledged that RIM services were out of functionality due to server losses this week, but assured that his company is working hard to remedy the situation.

We’ve let many of you down, event though services are approaching normal levels across Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, but could not give an estimate as to when RIM may see full global recovery. It’s too soon to say that this issue is fully resolved”

The above video was released just hours before news came out that the services were fully restored across the world.

October 14, 2011
Still Facing Blackberry Issues ? RIM says they are working on it!

Its day two of shortages for Blackberry users thanks to European Server crashes. The Blackberry service users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are facing major service outages limiting their devices to do only what they were intended to do , make calls. Are you facing any outages ?

RIM SAYS :

Media statement – October 11
Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

October 11, 2011
Blackberry Issues? Blame the RIM server in Europe

Did you face multiple blackberry connectivity problems in the past 24 hours? You are not alone. The Blackberry server crash caused millions of BB users to loose their data and emails. Its bad enough for RIM in the past 2 quarters, failures and outages such as these would encourage another million to switch to the apparent device of the time.

The services seems to be restored as of now.

October 11, 2011

Blackberry Torch 9860 Unboxing and Quick Review Video

A quick unboxing and hands on review of the new Blackberry Torch 9860. The device is a far distance away from the original touchscreen Storm devices from Blackberry. Check out the Tech Specs followed by hands on images and a complete unboxing and mini review extravaganza.

Price	Rs. 28,490
Frequency	Tri-band 3G HSDPA UMTS networks: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz or 2100/1700/900 MHz Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
Phone Style	Touch screen bar
OS	BlackBerry OS 7
Thickness	11.5 mm
Length	120 mm
Width	62 mm
Weight	135 g
Built-in Memory	768 MB RAM memory; 4 GB eMMC
Additional Memory	Up to 32GB
High-speed Data	HSDPA, HSUPA, WLAN, EDGE
Connectivity	Bluetooth, USB,Wi-Fi
Screen Size	3.7-inches Transmissive TFT LCD with 800×480 pixels
Secondary Screen Size	N/A
Screen Colours	TBC
Camera	Yes
Camera Resolution	5 MP, autofocus
Flash	Yes
Ringtones	Yes
Music Player	Yes
Music Formats	MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player
Radio	TBC
Speaker	Yes
Internet	Yes
Browser	HTML
Games	Yes
Battery	Standard battery, Li-Ion 1230 mAh

Video

iG Tech

October 4, 2011

BBM music now available to Blackberry Users looking for cloud love

A new service for Blackberry Messenger services has now been officially announced after being tossed around in the rumor mill for the past weeks. BBM Music is a new cloud based music streaming service for Blackberry owners. For $5 per month, users may keep up to 50 songs in their personal library. A social component allows you to add BBM Music friends, which gives you access to their current 50 songs, and up to 25 songs per month can be swapped out for new ones, and your current library can be stored locally on the handset.

A launch of several music based services has happened over the months, it seemed only logical that RIM jumps the bandwagon.

[toggle title_open=”Collapse” title_closed=”Press Release” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

RIM Announces BBM Music – A New Social Music Sharing and Discovery Service

New Cloud-Based Music Service Makes Music a Social Experience

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) today announced BBM Music, a new BBM (BlackBerry® Messenger) service for socially connected music fans.

BBM Music is an easy-to-use cloud-based service that enables social and viral music discovery by allowing users to build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared amongst their BBM Music friends. The size of the music library continues to grow as new friends join the community and each user can select music from a catalog with millions of songs from leading music companies – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI.

“More than 45 million customers already love the social communication benefits delivered through BBM and we are thrilled to be extending the experience into a uniquely social and interactive music service,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “We have partnered with leading music companies to provide a „full track? music sharing and discovery experience that will provide users with quality music on demand and allow them to connect with friends on a whole new level.”

Key features of BBM Music include:
– Music made social – BBM Music is a cloud-based, social music service that allows you to share and discover music with your friends, creating a continually evolving music library:
– Build a personal music profile with 50 of your favorite songs. You can refresh your profile by swapping out up to 25 songs each month.
– Invite your BBM friends to subscribe to BBM Music and to join your BBM Music Community.
– With each friend that is added to BBM Music, you grow your music collection since the songs from the profile of each BBM Music friend are available to you at any time.
– Up to 50 tracks from your personal profile are shared with your BBM Music Community, and each member of your community shares up to 50 songs from their profile with you.
– Enjoy a truly social community-based music experience – the more friends who join your community, the more songs you can listen to.
– Easily discover music that your BBM Music friends are listening to, and comment on your friends? songs and playlists.
– You can create multiple playlists from music in your profile as well as all of your friends? profiles, and with one click you can shuffle the entire collection of music from your BBM Music Community. You can even see which friend contributed each song while it plays.
– Within your BBM Music app, you also see a visual timeline that shows the recent updates of all users within your community. It gives you a chronological view of community updates, including who added new friends, which songs were added or removed, which playlists were created and what comments were made by your BBM Music friends.
– Listen to Full Tracks – BBM Music subscribers can listen to full tracks from their friends? profiles – not just previews.
– Offline Listening – Music can be saved to smartphones for offline listening, allowing users to access songs even when they don?t have wireless coverage.
– Topping the Charts – Keep track of how many friends are listening to your tracks.

“A major component of online music continues to be about community, and the ability to discover new artists and music through word of mouth,” stated Rob Wells, President of Global Digital Business for Universal Music Group. “BBM Music dynamically and elegantly integrates the excitement of this social music discovery process with a high quality music service, enabling tens of millions of BlackBerry users to experience new music and to share those experiences with their friends virtually anywhere and at anytime.”

“We are pleased to be partnering with Research In Motion on their BBM Music service. RIM and its large base of BlackBerry Messenger users represent an exciting platform for expanding the reach of commercial digital music around the world,” stated Thomas Hesse, President, Global Digital Business, U.S. Sales and Corporate Strategy, Sony Music Entertainment. “The combination of a premium music solution and instant messaging will enable viral music discovery and emphasize the social power of digital music. It also offers an effective way of serving younger consumers by integrating music into the fabric of an important hub of their digital activity.”

“A dynamic social music experience is a powerful way for our artists to connect with fans and also for fans to discover music by interacting with each other,” said Michael Nash, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy & Business Development, Warner Music Group. “Addressing more than 45 million BlackBerry Messenger users with a service tailor-made for its mobile community, BBM Music has the opportunity to reach a broad and engaged audience.”

“We are very excited to work with Research In Motion to bring our artists? music to BBM?s huge and very loyal user base,” said Mark Piibe, Executive Vice President of Global Business Development at EMI Music. “BBM Music?s unique social discovery experience offers fans a great new way to discover music, share their favorite tracks with their friends and build a stronger connection with the artists they love.”

“The widespread adoption of mobile devices provides the perfect foundation for consuming and sharing music. Brands that want to deliver a unique interactive experience must create services that are mobile, social, and contextual,” said Maribel Lopez Principal at Lopez Research and Constellation Research Group.

A closed (limited) beta trial of the BBM Music service is starting today in Canada, the United States and the UK. The BBM Music service is expected to be commercially available to customers later this year for a monthly subscription of $4.99 USD* in Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States.

[/toggle]

August 25, 2011
In Other News the Blackberry 9360 Apollo is Leaked

OneMobileRing got a hands-on with the Curve 9360 looks like an update to the existing curve lineup with the obvious addition of OS7. The trackpad seems to have a backlit setting / or is it a chrome bezel?

Either way looks like RIM is in for a major overhaul in its 9 Mobile phone Releases this year.

August 4, 2011
Blackberry Bold 9900 / Bold touch will launch in UK, With Three in August
Thanks to a upcoming phone map from Mobile Services provider in UK – Three- Looks like the Bold 9900 will launch in August after all. This is the best Bold to have been announced since the Bold 9000 according to the Company.

Specs include
- 2.8 inch capacitive screen 640 x 480 pixels
- BlackBerry OS (7)
- 1200 MHz Processor
- 768 MB Ram
- 5 megapixels Camera
- 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm Size
[Three UK]
June 17, 2011
BlackBerry Curve ‘Apollo’ gets Leaked on Video
RIM has got an exciting lineup of phones coming this year. The Curve “Apollo” however, may not be the very ‘exciting’ category. The still-unannounced smartphone popped up on Tinh te, with a Vietnamese tech showcasing the phone, it is practically impossible to understand a word he is saying (Hindi being native and all)

The new Curve :
- 11mm thick
- 800Mhz Marvell Tavor CPU MG-1 processor
- 480 x 360 screen.
May 31, 2011
Blackberry Bold 9900 / 9930 Launched – Bold Touch now Official (PR)
The Blackberry Bold Touch ( Bold 9900 GSM and Bold 9930 CDMA + GSM capable) has been in the News for a long time now – rumors – images and even videos.

The New Smartphone/s will run the newly launched BB OS 7 . Specs are now confirmed as below:
- 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor
- 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen
- 287dpi pixel density
- 5 MP Camera
- 8GB of internal storage
- MicroSD Compatibility
- NFC
- 10.5mm The Thinnest Handset in BB Stable
- HSPA+
- 9930 has a dual-band CDMA and quad-band GSM Chip
- 802.11a/b/g/n
- Bluetooth 2.1
Press Release

RIM Introduces New BlackBerry Bold Smartphones

New BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Smartphones are the Thinnest and Most Powerful BlackBerry Smartphones yet, Featuring the Renowned BlackBerry Keyboard Together with a Brilliant Touch Screen and the New BlackBerry 7 OS

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today unveiled two new BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphones. The high-performance BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature a stunning and iconic design that integrates an incredibly easy-to-use BlackBerry keyboard with a brilliant, high resolution, capacitive touch screen. These exceptional smartphones are built on a new, performance-driven platform powered by the BlackBerry® 7 operating system and designed to deliver the ultimate in communications, multimedia and productivity for users around the world.

“The new BlackBerry Bold smartphones and BlackBerry 7 OS are inspired by millions of customers around the world who want the ultimate combination of performance, functionality and style,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “These fully-loaded and beautifully crafted smartphones offer a highly refined user experience with blazingly fast performance, a brilliant touch screen and an outstanding typing experience.”

Thin, Sleek, Iconic Design Distinguished by an iconic design and the industry’s best keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature the premium materials and finishes that characterize the BlackBerry Bold line. Both models have a lustrous exterior with a brushed stainless steel frame and a high-gloss glass-weave backplate. They are also the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet, at only 10.5mm. The quality materials and optimized design of the new BlackBerry Bold smartphones are instantly evident when held in the hand.

Performance-Driven These BlackBerry Bold smartphones are built on a new performance-driven platform featuring a 1.2 GHz processor, Liquid Graphics™ touch screen, and support for high speed 4G/HSPA+ wide area wireless networks.

The Liquid Graphics touch screen, a key new feature powered by BlackBerry 7, delivers fast, smooth performance for highly responsive touch-based navigation, web browsing, pictures, video and graphics intensive games*. Offering up to 60 frames-per-second performance with instant UI action/response, Liquid Graphics gives customers a visually rich and immersive experience that’s responsive to the touch. In addition, the smartphones feature brilliant displays with an eye-popping 287 dpi to deliver crisp, stunning visuals.

The new platform also provides support for 4G networks; the 9900 supports HSPA+ connectivity, and the 9930 supports CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and HSPA+ global roaming on GSM/UMTS networks.

NFC The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones include built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that will enable many rich and exciting experiences. Through NFC, users will be able to, for example, pair the BlackBerry Bold to an accessory or read information such as a web link from smart tags by simply tapping their BlackBerry Bold to an NFC tag (eg. Smart Poster).

Augmented Reality The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature a built-in compass (magnetometer) to support location-based services and augmented reality. APIs will allow third party developers to take advantage of the new functionality within their applications. The new smartphones will also include Wikitude, the leader in mobile augmented reality, which overlays contextual information on what the user sees through the smartphone’s camera viewfinder.

HD Video The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones support up to 720p HD video recording and playback. Users can easily share their videos directly from the smartphone or sync videos, as well as music and photos, to their computer using Media Sync in the BlackBerry® Desktop Software.

BlackBerry 7 The BlackBerry 7 OS is designed to power the new performance-driven BlackBerry Bold platform. It provides an easier and faster user experience with improved browsing, voice-activated searches, the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, as well as additional personal and productivity apps out of the box.

The BlackBerry Browser has been significantly enhanced in BlackBerry 7. In addition to the general performance gains of Liquid Graphics, which helps deliver faster rendering and seamless panning and zooming, the BlackBerry 7 browser includes a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript compiler to improve the load time speed of web pages. The new browser also includes support for additional HTML5 elements, such as HTML5 Video.

Building upon the Universal Search feature introduced in BlackBerry 6, BlackBerry 7 expands the capability to include voice-activated search. This new capability makes it even easier and more convenient to search for content on the smartphone or web.

BlackBerry 7 also integrates BlackBerry® Balance™, which separates personal content from corporate content on the smartphone, giving users the freedom and flexibility to use the handset for personal email, Facebook®, Twitter®, multimedia, games and other apps while satisfying the very real need for corporate data to be highly secure and manageable. BlackBerry Balance works in conjunction with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0.3, which provides a number of unique IT policy controls such as wiping only corporate data from the handset or blocking work related content and apps from being copied or forwarded to personal contacts.

With BlackBerry 7 on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, users will also get the full version of Docs To Go® with all “premium” features enabled out-of-the-box so that users can easily work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the smartphone. Docs To Go also includes a native PDF viewer.

Availability The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are expected to be available from carriers around the world beginning this summer.

For additional information please visit www.blackberry.com/touchbold

APPENDIX

BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Specifications

• 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, approximately 130 g • 2.8″ capacitive touch screen display – VGA (640×480), 287 dpi resolution • Ultra-easy QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad • 1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM • 8 GB on-board memory, plus microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB cards • NFC technology • 5.0 MP camera, supports 720p HD video recording • Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), Digital Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity Sensor • Built-in GPS / aGPS • Dual-Band Wi-Fi® – 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz • Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support • Wireless Network support: o 9900: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE o 9930: Dual-Band CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A, Dual-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE • 1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery • BlackBerry 7 OS

###

* Features OpenGL 2.0 support for developers.
May 2, 2011
iG Exclusive : Blackberry Playbook Coming to India in May : Priced

The Wait is finally over. We have exclusive news that the Blackberry Playbook is coming to India in the First week of May. Exact Dates are still unknown, But, we are trying to dig deeper into the Tablet haven and get more juicy details on the upcoming Tablet from the super popular RIM-Blackberry India Mobile Division.

We also have information that the tablet will launch at a price of INR 24999/- and will work with all existing Blackberry Devices that run OS 6 and above. At launch the device will only be able to access emails and content via the tether with mobile option. Later on RIM plans to unlock the untether functionality of the device to work as a stand alone tablet.

RIM announced that its tablet PC BlackBerry PlayBook, which runs on a 1 GHz dual-core processor and sports 1 GB of RAM, will be commercially available from April 19, 2011 in USA and Canada at a price of $499 (Rs 22,455). The 7-inch tablet PC runs on a proprietary OS by RIM and supports Android 2.3 apps and Java apps.

Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion said, “The upcoming addition of BlackBerry Java and Android apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook on BlackBerry App World will provide our users with an even greater choice of apps and will also showcase the versatility of the platform.”

RIM plans to launch two App Markets so users can run the 25,000 BlackBerry Java apps and 200,000 Android apps that can be downloaded off the App World.

More information when available.

March 31, 2011