Oh hi, HiPhone. Not much of a surprise to see you here, again. The latest masterpiece, the HiPhone F06-Slim, is a Frankenstein amalgamation of KIRF favorite iPhone and RIM's first foray into the world of touchscreen phones, albeit with a slightly smaller, 3.2-inch display. We're also looking at a 1.3 megapixel camera, FM radio, microSD support, GPRS, Bluetooth, dual SIM card slots, and "TV phone" capabilities, which we're taking to mean a mobile receiver of some sort. Looks like it forgot the refresh button on the bottom of the device, but with any luck, it left out SurePress as well. If you hang out with the kind of friends who respect a good knockoff, the price of raising your street cred is just a penny under $190 before shipping.

[Via PMP Today]

An incredible way to start the weekend, Storm owners: Verizon is finally pulling the trigger on a firmware update, which will be available to all comers starting on Sunday at 3PM Eastern time. If that's too much trouble, you'll alternatively be able to sit back, chill, and wait for the over-the-air version to hit, which should follow on at 10PM. Verizon tells us that it'll be releasing 4.7.0.148, as rumored -- just a tiny bump from the failed build 141 that had been rumored before that, but all told, far, far too long since the last official update was rolled out. We can only assume this has been tested better than a NASA launch at this point, so you're on notice, guys.

Think you'll have to wait until June 6th for all the Pre surprises to emerge? Think again. A breaking Reuters report has just dropped one of the biggest cellular bombshells of the year: Verizon Wireless, America's largest mobile operator, will soon be carrying Palm's Pre. Oh, that's not enough? No worries -- it'll also be selling a "new version of the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm," which is obviously the Storm 2 that we've been toying around with. The report makes clear that both phones would be cleared for shipment in around six months, which certainly jibes with whispers we've heard about Sprint's mighty short exclusivity period. The news came from the company's Lowell McAdam, the top executive for the venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone. To quote: "Over the next six months or so you will see devices like Palm Pre and a second generation Storm." First Sprint, then AT&T, and now Verizon? T-Mobile, where you at?

[Thanks, E]

Update: Seems Mr. McAdam continued on by noting that VZW would get the Palm Pre "and a cousin." Hmm, Eos, anyone?

In a scandalous, but not entirely shocking turn of events, RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis has declared from the stage of D7 in no uncertain terms that "SurePress is here to stay." The trouble is, there's no clarification of what he means by that, since the Storm 2 we've been toying with quite obviously lacks a click-screen mechanism. Our best shot-in-the-dark guess is that RIM has developed some alternative to a physical click that may or may not duplicate the functionality adequately, while hopefully removing some of the frustration experienced by the physical click of the Storm. What is clear is that apparently whatever face-saving technology that turns out to be, Mike and co. plan on calling it SurePress.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise, given the pervasiveness of recent leaks, but word has it that the clickscreen-free BlackBerry Storm 2 could be hitting shelves as early as June, and no later than July. Word comes from Mr. BlackBerryOS.com himself, who got word from an "insider" who has proved reliable in the past. She says the internal deadline for training tech support is end of month, and while such an early followup seems like a bit of a raw deal for original Storm buyers, it doesn't come as too much of a shock. Is it just us, or is this kind of shaping up into a "phone heavy" summer? Maybe it's just the sunstroke.

[Via Electronista]

Well, no need to wait around for the Storm 2 to right all of the BlackBerry Storm's wrongs, the Cool9500 is here to make it all better. Namely, the Cool9500 brings the all-important gold trim, something we always felt was a major shortcoming of RIM's first stab at this form factor. There's also an all-important TV tuner -- another wild misstep in the original. Sure, we'll miss SurePress and the usable software, but we'd say Cool9500 really hit RIM where it hurts with this impressive followup.

When we brought you those exclusive Storm 2 pics and details just a short while ago, we touched upon the "new approach to text entry," but unfortunately didn't have any details. However, lightning has struck again, and our source has gotten back to let us know that the Storm 2 does indeed have a stationary screen "just like the iPhone's," which lines up with what Boy Genius Report is hearing. That's right, it looks like RIM is axing its SurePress technology in favor of a more conventional touchscreen, though our tipster says the model he has may allow for some type of haptic feedback to be enabled. This should be great news for all you folks having dust-under-screen issues on your first-gen Storms, but obviously, we'll have to wait and see until this thing gets, you know, legit.

[Thanks, BBninja1389]

What's this we have here? A trusted source just hit us with a slew of beauty shots of the Storm 2 that leaked a little bit ago. Not much else to say at this point until we can get one in our hands -- the photos really speak for themselves. But seriously, what are you still doing here? Get over to the gallery and see all the tasty (and frankly, familiar) shots!

[Thanks, BBninja1389]

Gallery: Exclusive BlackBerry Storm 2 shots!

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We knew it was coming, and just like its relatives the Onyx and the Gemini, yet another unreleased model has managed to escape the confines of RIM's Waterloo headquarters. This time, however, it's the Storm 2, which we've heard has been internally codenamed "Oden." We've also caught wind that this model pictured is of the GSM flavor, and yes, it's indeed packing WiFi in addition to GPS according to one of our sources. As far as that rumored "new approach to text entry," it sounds like the keyboard has been tweaked but isn't a radical departure from the first generation. From the photos, it seems that RIM has advanced in the war on buttons and axed the bottom four in favor of some touch-sensitive controls. The real improvements, however, appear to be under the hood, as the whole device reportedly runs much faster and smoother than the current model. We can't confirm these specs, but with the Tour coming this summer, and the Storm 2 hopefully making an appearance before the holiday shopping season, looks like you Verizon BlackBerry fans might not have to be that jealous of your GSM brethren after all.

It's not like we're surprised to hear this, but RIM CEO Jim Balsillie just told Reuters that the company is hard at work on a successor to the BlackBerry Storm. According to Jim, the consumer market is "large and untapped," and the current Storm is a "huge success in terms of sales and adoption." Sure, sure -- it's hard to scoff at a million units sold, after all -- but with rumors of an entirely new approach to text entry flying around, we'd say there's a good chance the Storm 2 doesn't so much build on the Storm formula as start over entirely. Thoughts?

[Via PhoneScoop]

The handset might've been surpassed in functionality and looks by its Curve 8900 successor, but nothing's got an edge on the BlackBerry Curve 83XX series in smartphone sales. According to NPD, the handset overtook the erstwhile champ iPhone 3G in the category for the first quarter of 2009, while BlackBerry's own Storm and Pearl handsets took the third and fourth slots, with the T-Mobile G1 rounding out the ranks in fifth place. Overall the smartphone market has grown from 17 percent of handset sales in Q1 2008 to 23 percent in Q1 2009. Compared to the previous quarter, RIM's gained a whopping 15 percent share of the US market -- owning nearly half of the entire scene -- while Apple and Palm both dropped 10 percent as they prep for their heroic mid-year launches.

Reputable Dutch site Tweakers has Alain Segond von Banchet, RIM channel sales manager according to LinkedIn, stating that the BlackBerry Storm followup is scheduled to launch at the end of the year or at the beginning of next. In addition, he has the phone coming to KPN, not Vodafone who had the first generation Storm locked-up under an exclusive deal. Interestingly enough, Mr. Segond von Banchet says that the Storm 2 (not the final name) will "offer among other things a new manner to input text" -- among other things meaning WiFi, presumably, as we heard before. Keep in mind that channel sales managers do not typically represent a company to the press. Nevertheless, what he's saying does jibe with previous rumors and we have no doubt that RIM is working hard to avoid the universal disdain that greeted the Storm's mushy, push-button touchscreen input.

Update: Tweakers responded telling us that Mr. Segond von Banchet was speaking on the record for RIM because there was no one from marketing at the TeleVisie 2009 Expo yesterday.

Looks like you might be able to cross at least one bullet point off of your Storm 2 wishlist. According to unnamed source who SlashGear swears is the bee's knees, the successor to BlackBerry's touchscreen smartphone will add WiFi support for faster home / coffee shop web browsing. The informant hinted there's other surprises on the horizon but wouldn't give specifics, so for now you'll just have to keep dreaming about that SurePress touchscreen that doesn't slow down your texting. As for when we should expect the sequel, the report pointed to a release sometime in September on Verizon's network.

Apple's iPhone probably has too many remote apps for its own good, but Unify4Life is looking to provide RIM's BlackBerry Storm with just one -- the best one, in fact. The company's admittedly impressive AV Shadow software, which we happened to experience ourselves at CES, is reportedly coming soon to RIM's first ever touchscreen 'Berry. How soon? Try "later this week." If you're interested to know precisely what you're waiting for, give that play button above a push.