Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of the BlackBerry, and Rogers Wireless are pleased to announce the launching of the BlackBerry 8520 Curve. The all new BlackBerry Curve features:
•Trackpad–The first Blackberry with an optical trackpad, the Curve 8520 makes navigation easy
•Dedicated external media keys -access your multimedia easily and instantly
•Social Networking –If you prefer Facebook®, Flickr, Twitter or love them all, the Curve 8520 will keep you connected to all your social networks
•2.0 MP camera with video capture
•Large, Colorful Screen –Your life on-the-go –the way it was meant to be seen
•Out of the Box Mac Computer Support –Make the Mac connection
•Built-in Wi-Fi(Supports TalkSpot™)
•World Phone –Quad Band EDGE with Stereo Bluetooth™
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is launching at the following price points:
3 year: $99.99 (voice and data)
3 year: $349.99
2 year: $399.99
1 year: $399.99
no term: $449.99
The Rocket Hub is basically a combination WiFi Router/HSPA Modem. I appears to be the Ericsson W35:
From reading the webpage it has Tri-band HSPA, 802.11b/g (no N), ethernet ports, a RJ11 jack (a phone jack) and a USB port. While there is a battery it’s only for the telephone jack. So you’ll have to plug it into an AC source to really use it. So while it’s portable it’s not really meant to be mobile.
Service starts at $35 a month, no word on the details of the plan or how much the hardware will cost.
Here’s my DLNA demo. If you don’t know what DLNA stands for check it out.
If you don’t feel like watching I use a Nokia N85 and Samsung Omnia to take some pictures. Then I get a DLNA enabled TV to grab photos from them without using a computer, TV out cables or memory card reader. The only thing connected to the TV is a network cable and power cable. The TV is a LCD LED edge lit Samsung UN55B8000 TV.
I just noticed that Nokia Canada is bringing the N86. I use a S60 powered N85 sometimes and I really like it. The N86 8MP has the N85’s OLED display plus it ups the processor speed from 369Mhz to 434Mhz (same as the N97) and the camera resolution from 5 to 8 megapixels. Nokia isn’t saying which carrier will have the N86…
The N86 comes in HSPA 850/1900/2100 and 900/1900/2100 varients so it’s safe to say the N86 won’t be available on Globalive. That leaves either Rogers, Bell or Telus.
Also coming are the Nokia 6350, 2730 and 6750.
The 6350 is a S40 powered clamshell phone with 3G.
The 2730 is a S40 5th edition fp 1 candybar phone with 3G, a 3.5mm AV jack (so it has TV out?), and 3G. It’s got Quad band GSM with dual band 3G (850/1900) so it will either be on Rogers, Bell or Telus.
Finally the 6750 is a S40 6th edition powered clamshell phone with 850/1900/2100 3G. Again that frequency support suggests either Rogers, Bell or Telus.
I recently had a chance to meet with Anthony Lacavera. Anthony is the CEO of Globalive, the company behind Wind Mobile, Canada’s newest mobile phone service provider. Check my interview out.
While Anthony wouldn’t really discuss their upcoming phone lineup I have some observations. First off Anthony is completely dependent on his Blackberry. He’s one of those guys who’s ‘berry spends more time in his hand than in his pocket (he’s a spiffy dresser so I don’t think he has a holster). I would be somewhat surprised if Wind didn’t launch with a Blackberry – probably the 9700 in their lineup. Secondly call it a hunch but I have a feeling the Galaxy – AKA the i7500, Samsung’s first Android with with an incredible AMOLED screen will also be there at launch.
Starting Oct 5th new Rogers customers along with existing ones who migrate to new billing plans will get call forwarding, call manager and WhoCalled included with thier plans.
Instead of a $6.95 SAF customers will now see something called ‘Government Regulatory Recovery Fee’ . It varies based on the government fees where customers live. Apparently this isn’t really a new fee – Rogers is saying they’re just being more transparent about it now.
Rogers is saying that your total bill will remain about the same after these changes.
Here’s the Omnia 2. It’s a HSPA, WinMo 6.5 powered phone with a 800Mhz processor, 16GB of built in RAM. There’s a 5 megapixel camera on the back, Samsung’s TouchWiz 2.0 UI and the most amazing 3.7 WVGA AMOLED display.
To be honest during the video I wasn’t paying very close attention because I was drooling all over the AMOLED display. It’s going to be hard to look at my non OLED display phones after this and not feel a little disappointed.
Besides the AMOLED display I was pretty impressed with TouchWiz 2.0. Samsung’s done a pretty impressive job customizing WinMo. I’m not quite as pleased that the navpad is replaced with this cube button. I’m sure it’s cool after first but I’m also sure everyone will find it kind of pointless. The lack of a stylus slow is also a disappointment.
The 800Mhz processor’s speed is very noticeable, particularly when compared with the Omnia i910’s (the previous one with a 400×240 display) 612Mhz processor.
Anyways it’s been a while since I’ve been this impressed with a WinMo device. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these again.
Here’s the Samsung Galaxy. It’s their first Android powered phone. If you’re familiar with Android here’s very quick low down:
It’s a very generic Android implimentation (it’s cupcake) – It’s their first Android device so there’s no Samsung customization. I’m sure the next version will be more customized.
The 2 distinguishing features are it’s AMOLED display – it’s incredible. It also has a 5 megapixel camera on the back.
Here’s the Samsung Reclaim. With a name like reclaim you’d expect it to be made from recycled bottles or something like that. In fact the reclaim is made from bio plastic – it’s made from corn as opposed to plastic made from petroleum.
Anyways a more appropriate name for the Reclaim would be the ‘Samsung Easy to Reclaim’. Apparently 80% of the Reclaim can be recycled and some places can recycle up to 96% of it.
Bio plastic is nice thing but it doesn’t feel as solid as the plastic on Samsung’s other phones. Still, I wouldn’t say it feels really chintzy, it kind of reminds me of the Palm Pre’s plastic.
Feature-wise the Reclaim is similar to the Samsung Vice but in a different form factor. You get a feature phone QWERTY device with a 2 megapixel camera, memory card slot, etc. While Bell’s carrier interface looks okay it’s still a carrier interface – that’s generally a bad thing. For example the music player has no background play, if you want to listen to music while you check your messages you’re out of luck.
Here’s the Motorola’s first Android powered phone the CLIQ with MOTOBLUR. It has slide out QWERTY keyboard, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, 3.1″ 320×480 touch-screen display, 5 megapixel auto focus camera with video capture and playback at 24 frames per second, 3.5mm headset jack, a music player with Amazon MP3 and a 2GB SDHC included in the box. IT has support for Google apps, Exchange support and AIM, Live Messenger and Yahoo IM.
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