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Viettel, Alcatel-Lucent and RIM bring BlackBerry solution to Vietnam
It's a good week internationally for BlackBerry lovers. First we hear that South Korea finally has unbridled access and its own Bold to toy with, and now we're hearing a similar story for the people of Vietnam. Viettel (a mobile operator in the country), Alcatel-Lucent and RIM have all joined hands to make it happen, with "it" being the launch of BlackBerry wireless service. Speaking of launch, prospective buyers can look forward to wrapping their palms around the Pearl 8100, BlackBerry 8700 or the Curve 8320 initially, though we wouldn't be surprised to see even more flavors roll out soon. There's no talk of price just yet, but feel free to phone up your nearest Viettel shop and see what's up.[Image courtesy of thugian]
BlackBerrys (real ones) come to China
Despite the perceived risk of entering a market that is one of the hottest in the world for both mobile phone use and IP infringement, RIM's finally taking the big leap of faith into mainland China, according to Interfax. The report cites TCL Communications, the firm manufacturing RIM's devices in China, as saying that they've secured an exclusive agreement with China Mobile -- with 10,000 units secured so far, no less -- to sell the somewhat outdated 8700 (not pictured) as the "Alcatel BlackBerry 8700." Interestingly, China Mobile has offered BlackBerry services for quite some time, but has targeted them squarely at folks bringing in BlackBerrys from elsewhere; the actual hardware has never officially launched on the carrier. If the report all pans out, expect to see the 8700s in China Mobile's retail channels by the end of the month.[Via mocoNews]
LG VX8700 unboxed
Our parcel carrier has been a busy bunch the past few days and today will be no different -- the LG VX8700 for Verizon Wireless arrived at our doorsteps today. We decided to take a few pictures of the unboxing process and share our initial impressions of The Network's latest toy. Put simply, the phone is beautiful and pictures do it no justice. It has a great, solid feel to it, has a snazzy 2 megapixel shooter, and a horizontal OLED outside display that performs better than we expected. LG decided to throw in EV-DO for data and expandable memory via microSD. Be on the lookout for the full review! LG VX8700 unboxed
BlackBerry worldphone coming to Sprint
It looks like the long-rumored GSM / CDMA hybrid variant of the BlackBerry 8700 series might find itself a home on Sprint later this year. We didn't see it in the alleged 1H '07 product pipeline earlier today, but a tipster noticed a document describing Sprint's marketing partnership with the Super Bowl floating all willy-nilly on the official Super Bowl XLI site -- and lo and behold, it reveals that a "global BlackBerry" is waiting in the wings featuring EV-DO, GSM, and a GPS receiver, to boot. Granted, we don't know that this will be an 8700-based product, but we can say with some certainty that there are hybrid 8700s kicking around, so it's a logical move. Don't get us wrong, we're pulling for an 8800 here, but we're trying our best to stay realistic until we see something a little more solid than an ominous silhouette on Super Bowl paraphernalia. [Warning: PDF link][Thanks, Brandon]
Pulse for BlackBerry cuts the tethering cable
Sure, tethering 8700s to Macs is a neat trick -- but how about cutting the cable entirely? "Pulse" by Brain Murmurs aims to do exactly that, trading that pesky USB cable for the more convenient Bluetooth connection (and yeah, it's Mac compatible, to boot). Pearl users might have no concept of what we're talking about (on account of RIM's latest goodness coming with DUN in the box) but Pulse should be big news for 7130, 7290, and 8700 owners looking for a moderately less conspicuous way to pipe hot data from their phones into their PCs. Be sure to give us the down-low in comments if you get the chance to give this a whirl, eh?
Sprint's BlackBerry 8703e with a stub antenna?
Last time we checked, RIM's 8700 series BlackBerrys were sleek little devices without an external antenna anywhere to be found. We're at a loss, then, to explain this little gem unearthed by a reader on a page detailing Sprint's BlackBerry 8703e and 7130e which clearly shows the former bearing a big, obtrusive, unappealing stub jutting from the top left. We smell a conspiracy -- what's the deal here? Are there two versions of the Sprint 8703e floating around? If so, is the antenna for GPS reception? If not, what prompted some graphics dude / dudette to graft the stub onto the press imagery? We have a sneaking suspicion some clowns at Sprint are snickering at us right now, watching us get all worked up over this. Can't breathe, hyperventilating... excuse us while we go grab a paper bag.[Thanks, Jeremy]
Bounty makes Mac-BlackBerry tethering a reality
It seems almost criminal that Mac users have been thus far denied the basic human right to tether the immensely popular BlackBerry 8700 series devices to their Macbooks, but thanks to a little elbow grease, determination, and nearly $700 in cold, hard cash, the world's wrongs have been righted. An intrepid character by the name of Daniel Pasco has claimed the bounty offered by Alex King, challenging folks to come up with a solution for using an 8700 as a Mac OS X compatible modem. So far, Mr. Pasco's solution has apparently been verified with the 8700g on T-Mobile and the 8703e on Verizon and Sprint, though we imagine Cingular's would work just the same. In the short term, it looks like the rough cut of the software will be available only to people that had contributed to the reward, but the solution will hopefully find its way into the public domain down the road.[Via TUAW]
Sprint next to get BlackBerry 8703e
Hot on the heels of Verizon's launch (ring any bells?), Sprint will be the next to add a CDMA variant of the BlackBerry 8700 series device to its portfolio. The handset drops on October 1 for $350 with a two-year agreement, matching Verizon's offering to the letter. With EV-DO, Bluetooth 2.0, integrated GPS, and as much push email as your poor thumbs can handle, the 8703e brings it strong -- which it has to, considering the amount of play one of its GSM cousins has been getting lately.[Via MobileBurn]
NTT DoCoMo to get 3G-enabled BlackBerry 8707h
Making good on its commitment to bring some of that thumb-killing, Canadian love to Japanese shores, NTT DoCoMo has announced the BlackBerry 8707h this week. Those familiar with other 8707 variants won't find any surprises here -- you basically get a classic 8700 with a little 3G thrown in to sweeten the deal. Perhaps more importantly for NTT DoCoMo customers, however, the 8707h is a global phone (as its label clearly indicates) with quad-band GSM on board. Look for it to grace NTT DoCoMo's B2B shelves starting September 26.[Via PinStack]
BlackBerry 8703e screen caps outed; no GSM?
Far be it from us to suggest a screen shot of unknown origin conclusively proves that GSM won't be found on Verizon's 8703e, but the four little letters there on the display -- "CDMA," as opposed to, say, "CDMA/GSM" -- certainly have us thinking that the handset may yet be less world-friendly than we'd hoped. 'Course, we'll reserve our final ruling until this thing hits the streets, but hopefully these caps give our QWERTY-loving friends a little more fodder to chew on while they wait.[Thanks, Brad]
Verizon 8703e in the flesh
If you'd closed your eyes and thought really hard about what a Verizon-branded BlackBerry 8700 might look like, we're guessing you would've come up with something like this. Granted, it looks like we didn't get a launch today, but the wait should be measured in weeks at worst, days at best -- so we're hoping this eye candy is enough to hold everyone over in the meanwhile whilst you get ready to eBay your 7130e.[Thanks, Gary C.]
Verizon releasing 8700 with GSM support?
Verizon's done it before, so we've no reason to doubt Roc a fella's scoop that their upcoming 8700 variant will be rocking GSM plus EDGE on the 900 and 1800 bands to help out customers traveling abroad. Without 850 or 1900, the GSM support is useless in the States, but of course you've got that CDMA / EV-DO radio kicking in when you're on American soil. Look for this thing to drop very shortly, with both the 21st (today) and the 28th being thrown out as possible release dates.[Thanks, Roc a fella]
RIM rolls out UMTS BlackBerry 8707g
Yes, it's a repackaged 8707v -- which is in turn a repackaged 8700 series with UMTS thrown in -- but let's face it, UMTS BlackBerrys still aren't the easiest devices to come by. We don't know where all this 8707g variant will be launching, but an early customer will be Austraila's Optus, which intends to drop the device Down Under in the next few days. Besides the quad-band GSM and UMTS 2100 radios, the device includes the usual 320 x 240 display, Bluetooth, 64MB of ROM, and 16MB of RAM. What, no camera?[Via PinStack]
BlackBerry 8703e on Verizon this month?
Late to the party, perhaps; but late is almost always better than never in the phone game, and word on the street has the 8703e variant of RIM's 8700 series finally finding its way to Verizon on the 28th of this very month. Normally, we'd pass on this kind of hearsay, but roc a fella's track record speaks for itself, so Verizon customers may want to start their thumb strengthening regimen immediately.[Thanks, Gary]
Precious metals infect Pharrell's BlackBerry 8700
Look, do what you want with your hard-earned dollars, we say -- just don't come running to us when you leave your six-figure phone on the bus. That there is hip-hop's Pharrell Williams, doing his best not to show any signs of discomfort while struggling to hold up his 18-karat gold BlackBerry 8700. We have to believe that thing weighs a proverbial ton if it's anything close to solid, and to pick a device as utilitarian as the friggin' BlackBerry 8700 to pimp out seems a bit off to us. At any rate, if RIM had anything to do with this monstrosity's manufacture, at least it probably put a decent dent into their legal bills.
Blackberry's 8700g with EDGE available on T-Mobile
It was bound to happen sooner or later, and now the Blackberry 8700 smartphone is finally available to push email-loving members of the T-Mob, as the 8700g. As far as the features go, well, you should all know them quite well by now, as Cingular has had this model since late last year: quad-band GSM with EDGE data, a 312MHz Intel processor, QVGA color display, Java, and Bluetooth 2.0, plus the standard suite of RIM-supplied applications. Getting your Crackberry fix from the big "T" will cost you $300 with a contract (after $100 in rebates).[Thanks, Phil G]
