8910
Latest
Research In Motion enters Chinese retail channel with BlackBerry 8910 Curve
Remember the mysterious BlackBerry 8910 Curve that showed up briefly back in January? Well, forget that -- this is the real 8910 here. RIM was at China yesterday to launch this familiar-looking device -- OK, it's actually just a 8900 sans WiFi, but it's also the first BlackBerry that'll be sold through Chinese retail channels -- carried by Digital China -- instead of just enterprise contracts. Nothing fresh from the rest of the specs: 2.4-inch 480 x 360 screen, quadband GPRS, 512MHz processor, 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, and microSD expansion of up to 32GB. Press release and a couple more pics after the break, if you still care.
Unannounced BlackBerry Curve 8910 took CES refuge at Case-Mate's booth?
RIM has an interesting reputation in the trade show world: it rarely makes any announcements of interest or consequence during events, but if you look hard enough, you still might just find something juicy. Last year's CES, for example, briefly saw a Curve 8900 mysteriously running AT&T-branded firmware, which we now know foretold a release several months later. This year's shindig in Vegas proved to be a little less bombastic -- or so we thought, anyway, until a dude cleaning out his camera's memory card noticed that Case-Mate (of all companies) allegedly had an unannounced Curve 8910 chilling in its booth. It's pretty common for manufacturers to give valued accessory partners some prototypes ahead of time to make sure there are plenty of add-ons available by the time a device is released, they just don't usually... you know, put those prototypes out at a booth for everyone to enjoy. We actually stopped by Case-Mate this year and didn't catch the 8910, but we don't know how long it was actually out -- and besides, telling the difference between this and a Bold 9700 takes a Mike Lazaridis-like understanding for the subtle differences in RIM's industrial design. Next year, though, be on notice, guys: we'll be scanning your kiosks with a fine-tooth comb.
BlackBerry Curve 8910 getting its FCC on
Alright, look, RIM: it's no longer alright to be selling GSM smartphones in the year 2010 without HSPA. Seriously, it's not cool -- but a new filing in the FCC today from the folks in Waterloo shows the back of a phone that looks a whole lot like a new Curve to us. Indeed, Phone Scoop astutely notes that device's ID matches a previous Bluetooth SIG filing for the phone, and if you turn your attention over to the accompanying SAR report, you see that it's rolling deep (or rolling shallow, rather) with EDGE alone. This all lines up nicely with the recent rumors of a Curve 8910 in the works that has its trackball replaced with one of those newfangled optical pads, and while it's possible this filing is for a Euro-spec unit that only runs 3G on bands the FCC doesn't concern itself with, the more likely explanation is that RIM wants to keep drawing the line in the sand between the Curve and Bold ranges by dropping 3G in one and not in the other. Now that they've got an approval under their belt, we reckon it won't be long before we see this get official somewhere -- T-Mobile, care to comment?
BlackBerry Curve 8910 in the wild?
If you thought RIM had completely run out of ways to mildly remix its existing portrait QWERTY formula, think again -- the transition from trackball to optical pad has opened up a whole new world of exciting opportunities, and it looks like the venerable Curve 8900 might be the next model to get the refresh. BerryReview appears to have scored a shot of the alleged 8910 in its most natural environment -- a desk calendar -- preserving the Curve series' typical broken-up keyboard style (as opposed to the connected keys you see in the Bold line). Otherwise we don't really know much, but naturally, the new model is said to be running BlackBerry OS 5.0 under the hood (in other words, it'll look pretty much like every other BlackBerry you've used in recent memory). More on this puppy as we get it. Update: Unwired View points out that there's a Bluetooth SIG certification for an 8910, so this is all lining up pretty nicely, isn't it?
