Sprint BlackBerry Bold 9930 & Torch 9850 Launch August 21st!

We knew they were coming but now it is official. Sprint has confirmed for us that the BlackBerry Bold 9930 and the BlackBerry Torch 9850 will be launching on Sunday, August 21st. The 9930 will be selling for $249.99 with a 2 year contract and the release mentions NFC being enabled. The 9850 on the other hand will cost $149.99 after a $50 mail in rebate.

Here is how Sprint describes the phones:

BlackBerry Bold 9930

BlackBerry Bold 9930 boasts the thinnest design and widest QWERTY on a BlackBerry smartphone for $249.99 (excluding taxes) with a new line or eligible upgrade and two-year service agreement. At just 10.5mm thick, the BlackBerry Bold 9930 smartphone is the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone ever. It features a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen display, the widest QWERTY keyboard available on a BlackBerry smartphone and a trackpad for easy navigation. BlackBerry Bold 9930 also offers Near Field Communications (NFC) support for a secure exchange of information between NFC-enabled devices over a very short distance.

BlackBerry Torch 9850

BlackBerry Torch9850, the first all-touch BlackBerry smartphone for Sprint customers, will cost $149.99 (excluding taxes) with a new line or eligible upgrade and two-year service agreement, after $50 mail-in rebate via reward card. The sleek BlackBerry Torch 9850 smartphone features a spectacular, new 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen display, the largest ever on a BlackBerry smartphone, and trackpad for easy navigation.

Both Smartphones feature Liquid Graphics™ technology, a key new feature powered by BlackBerry 7 to deliver incredibly fast, smooth performance and a highly responsive touchscreen experience. They also offer 1.2GHz processors, 5MP cameras and are World Phone capable.

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RIM Confirms BlackBerry Curve 9380 & 9790 with UAProf Docs

One of the things I have always loved about RIM is their super secret (not!) way of leaking device model numbers and specs with UAProf documents. The latest finds by BBNews.pl spotted UAProf documents for the Curve 9380 and what will probably be the Bold 9790. Both of the devices have had quite a few rumors about them and even some leaked pictures but now this more or less confirms the device model numbers.

Check out the UAProf Docs below:

BlackBerry 9380

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Free BlackBerry Management Center for Small Business Now Available

 

We have been keeping all of you up to date on the progress of RIM’s BlackBerry Management Center solution for awhile now. The solution is quite promising for small businesses and even families with multiple BlackBerrys. It lets you centralize the management of all of the BIS email accounts along with managing their BlackBerry Protect settings. In other words it is sort of a cloud BES with a lite subset of features that is totally free as a service.

RIM is clearly trying to help small businesses manage multiple BlackBerrys and protect from the security implications caused by a lost device. RIM let us know about Gartners estimate of $2500 per lost device a bit back and that cost is not going down. To sum it all up BlackBerry Management Center is just one of the ways that RIM is making an effort to help small businesses manage, secure and protect their BlackBerry devices and information.

Features include:

• Wirelessly back up BlackBerry smartphones automatically on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to aid in the recovery of lost business-related content stored on the handset
• Protect content on an employee’s lost or stolen BlackBerry smartphone by remotely locking it and, if necessary, wiping the contents, including the microSD card
• Locate a lost BlackBerry smartphone by remotely locking it, initiating a loud ring, and displaying a message on the Home screen
• Easily restore the settings and content on a new or replacement device

You can check out the service and read more about it at the link or press release below:
http://www.blackberry.com/managementcenter

RIM Announces BlackBerry Management Center for Small Business

Free Online Service Helps Small Businesses Centrally Manage and Protect BlackBerry Smartphones in the Cloud

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced BlackBerry® Management Center – a free online service* for small businesses to centrally manage company- or employee-owned BlackBerry® smartphones in the cloud and protect business-related content stored on the handsets. The service is designed for businesses with up to 100 BlackBerry smartphones that access email services from an Internet service provider (ISP) or web-based email services like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo!.

“We are pleased to introduce RIM’s latest cloud service designed specifically for small businesses,” said Alan Panezic, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Management Center is a free service and an effective way to manage and support employees’ BlackBerry smartphones in the cloud.”

BlackBerry Management Center makes it easy to manage company- or employee-owned smartphones in the cloud, and helps to minimize risk from lost or stolen handsets to keep business moving forward. Small businesses can use the service to:

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BlackBerry Bold 9930 Now Available on Verizon’s Website!

I just hit publish on the post about the Verizon BlackBerry Bold 9930 rumors and Jim let me know that the device is now available! You can now pick up the BlackBerry Bold 9930 on the Verizon Wireless website for $249. It requires a 2 year activation for that pricing. Another thing worth noting is that it makes no mention of the NFC radio built in which is odd. If you don’t want to sign a contract you can pick up the device for $509.99.

Check it out on Verizon’s website at this link

The real irony is that the BlackBerry Bold 9930 product page tells you to “Forge ahead with the BlackBerry Bold 9650 smartphone.” I guess Verizon needs to fix their typos…

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BlackBerry virtual keyboard - best in the business

The virtual keyboard on the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the best virtual keyboard in the smartphone market. There I said it; though I also said in on our last CrackBerry Podcast, too. I'm a firm believer in the fact that I can use the virtual keyboard better and faster than the physical one on my Torch. Yet whenever I mention that fact to others, I get such a look of incredulity that I feel I need to back away very, very slowly. Even polls here on CrackBerry.com show that I'm in the minority.

Now when I first got my BlackBerry Torch, I admit that it was not an easy thing to learn to type on the screen. My fingers were constantly typing the letter slightly to the left (or the right) of the one I wanted. I was constantly pressing the backspace key in an effort to correct my typing on that horrible keyboard.

Then I started doing an odd thing; I began to trust the keyboard. Instead of backspacing and fixing every mistake as it happened, I just kept typing. Over time, either the keyboard began to understand me or I became to understand it. Nowadays, I sometimes think the keyboard knows what I'm trying to type better than I do.

Perhaps some of this animosity and ill-will towards the virtual keyboard comes from using those on other platforms, like iOS and Android. In this author's humble opinion, the BlackBerry keyboard is nothing like them. Added to whatever magic makes the keyboard understand what my fat fingers type is the standard CrackBerry keyboard goodness. Autocorrect and word substitution are not limited to just the physical keyboard, after all.

There are no websites devoted to mocking the poor word substitutions of the BlackBerry keyboard. And that's for a reason. BlackBerry smartphones are designed to be first and foremost tools of communication. At the heart of that communication is the BlackBerry keyboard. Your name doesn't become synonymous with communication and your devices won't be used by millions in government, business, and law enforcement if you have a crappy keyboard. And be it physical or virtual, that keyboard is still the best in the business.

Página de Configuración BIS operadores Telefonía

Revisando el Foro de la web y debido a un problema que me surgió ayer, se me ha ocurrido la idea de dejaros un listado con todas las páginas web del acceso a la configuración BIS de los principales operadores de telefonía móvil que están dando servicio BlackBerry en España.

Y seguro que algunos preguntareis y esto para que es, pues todos los que sois usuarios de BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) debéis entrar en esta web para poder configuraros vuestras cuentas de correo electrónico en el terminal y así poder enviar y recibir e-mails.

Esta misma página del operador es la que se accede a través del dispositivo móvil normalmente desde la carpeta configuración (para versiones 4.x,5.x) y desde el icono configuración y después cuentas de correo electrónico para OS 6.

Así que, sin más dilación aquí os dejamos las más importantes:

Si me he dejado alguno podéis utilizar el link universal (por llamarlo de alguna forma) y basta con cambiar solo en nombre del operador

https://bis.eu.blackberry.com/html?brand=nombre_operador

Por ejemplo si estuviéramos en Orange en UK pues tendríamos este link:

https://bis.eu.blackberry.com/html?brand=orangeuk

Recordar que este link es solo valido para los operadores de Europa

Para Estados unidos debéis utilizar este otro link:

https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=nombre_operador

Por ejemplo si tienes Sprint:

https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=sprint

Esto es todo, una vez más esperamos que os sea de utilidad.

BlackBerry PlayBook disponible con Orange y Yoigo

Pues silenciosamente ha hecho acto de aparición la tableta BlackBerry PlayBook en los catálogos de Orange y Yoigo, antes estaba solo disponible con Vodafone para empresas y autónomos. Nos enteramos gracias la aviso de @victorendrino , que comenta y envía una foto de lo que ha visto en un catálogo de The Phone House de Ofertas de verano.

Los precios van asociados a la contratación de una tarifa de datos, Internet Para Llevar IPL25 o IPL8 en el caso de Yoigo y la Internet Everywhere IE39 o IE 23 en el caso de Orange. Aunque creo que dichos contratos son para todo el público, no como sucede con Vodafone que su oferta se centró exclusivamente para autónomos y empresas.