BlackBerry Bold 9780 Now Available, Nothing to Set It Apart From Currently Available BlackBerries

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 is now officially available on T-Mobile’s network. The Bold 9780 is T-Mobile’s newest and best BlackBerry device, although there aren’t many changes in terms of design. The BlackBerry Bold 9780 features a 2.44 inch display with a resolution of 480x360, a full QWERTY keyboard, the same one that has been on BlackBerrys for ages, aGPS, WiFi 802.11g with UMA, HSDPA 3G connectivity, and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash, and video recording. In terms of storage the Bold 9780 features 256 MB of internal storage, which is expandable to up to 32 GB via a microSD card slot, a 2 GB microSD card is also included in the box. The BlackBerry Bold 9780 also features Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a microUSB port. Performance is expected to be pretty good with a 624 MHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. The new BlackBerry Bold 9780 also features RIM’s new BlackBerry OS 6. As for battery life, the Bold 9780 comes with a 1500 mAh battery that will give you up to 528 hours of standby time on 2G networks and up to 408 hours on 3G networks and up to 6 hours of talk time on both 2G and 3G networks. Overall, there aren’t any features that distinguish the BlackBerry Bold 9780 from any other BlackBerries that are currently available, but it is still a great addition to T-Mobile’s product line. Press release below.


RIM Introduces the New BlackBerry Bold 9780 Smartphone

WATERLOO, ONTARIO, Oct 27, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) 
Research In Motion (RIM today introduced the BlackBerry(R) Bold(TM) 9780 smartphone - the newest addition to the BlackBerry Bold series of smartphones. Featuring a premium and iconic design with an incredibly easy-to-use keyboard and optical trackpad, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is elegantly styled and packed with advanced communications and multimedia features. It is also the first BlackBerry Bold smartphone to come with the new BlackBerry(R) 6 operating system.

"We are very excited to introduce the BlackBerry Bold 9780 featuring the new BlackBerry 6 operating system," said Carlo Chiarello, Vice President, Product Management at Research In Motion. "This new model builds on the highly refined mobile experience that BlackBerry Bold users already know and love and delivers a wide range of enhancements including a rich new user interface, a fast and powerful WebKit-based browser, broadly improved communications and multimedia capabilities, an incredibly useful Universal Search feature and a high quality 5MP camera."

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 is a compact and stylish smartphone that offers a compelling blend of features, performance and design. It supports 3G networks around the world, includes Wi-Fi(R) with support for carrier supported Wi-Fi calling (UMA where available) and GPS for location-based applications and geo-tagging. It comes with a 5 MP camera with a full complement of high-end features including continuous auto focus, scene modes, image stabilization, flash and video recording. The BlackBerry Bold 9780 also includes 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB of additional storage.

BlackBerry 6 is a new operating system that retains the familiar and trusted features that distinguish the BlackBerry brand while delivering a fresh, approachable and engaging experience that's powerful and easy to use. It integrates a new and rich WebKit-based browser that renders HTML web pages quickly and beautifully for a great browsing experience. The browser offers fluid navigation using the handset's optical trackpad, includes tabs for accessing multiple sites simultaneously and provides a zoom feature that can intelligently auto-wrap text in a column while maintaining the placement of a page's key elements for easier viewing.

Additional features of BlackBerry 6 include expanded messaging capabilities with intuitive features to simplify the management of social networking and RSS feeds (Social Feeds), and integrated access to BBM(TM) (BlackBerry(R) Messenger), Facebook(R), Twitter(TM), MySpace(TM) and various instant messaging applications on the BlackBerry Bold 9780 smartphone. Its enhanced multimedia experience rivals the best in the industry and includes a dedicated YouTube app. It also features redesigned Music and Pictures applications and a new universal search feature that allows users to more effectively search for content on the smartphone as well as extend their search to the Internet or to discover applications on BlackBerry(R) App World(TM).

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 smartphone will be available from various carriers around the world beginning in November. For more information, please visit www.blackberry.com/bold.

BlackBerry PlayBook Getting a 64 GB Version and A Huge 5,300 mAh Battery

You probably already know most of the specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook from our previous post, but some new specifications have just been revealed. Aside from the 16 and 32 GB versions that were previously reported there will also be a 64 GB version of the BlackBerry PlayBook. Another amazing feature that has just been announced is that the PlayBook will feature a 5,300 mAh battery, which is amazing for a laptop, let alone a tablet. We imagine that this will give the PlayBook over a day of battery life. This will probably give the BlackBerry PlayBook a huge advantage over competitors like the iPad. There is still no information about pricing or a release date, though. Aside from these new specifications there is also a video of the tablet in action below.

RIM Introduces The New BlackBerry PlayBook, Looks Promising

RIM has just introduced the BlackBerry PlayBook, the long awaited BlackBerry Tablet. Most of the specifications of the PlayBook have been revieled but RIM hasn't given much pricing or availability information. Now, for the part you've all been waiting for, the specifications. The BlackBerry PlayBook features a 7 inch 1024x600 capacitive multitouch touchscreen display, a dual core 1 GHz CPU, which is extremely fast, 1 GB of RAM, a 3 megapixel front-facing camera, and a 5 megapixel rear camera. Video conferencing will also be available on the PlayBook, and it should be great with a 7 inch screen and a 3 megapixel camera. The BlackBerry PlayBook also features 802.11n WiFi , Bluetooth 2.1, a micro USB port, and reported storage capacities of 16 GB and 32 GB. The storage capacities still haven't been confirmed yet, but they probably will be soon. The PlayBook will also support full 1080p HD video playback, which isn't really surprising with the dual-core 1GHz CPU. In terms of size the PlayBook is pretty small and light, at just 5.1x7.6 inches and just 0.4 inches thick. The PlayBook also weighs just 0.9 pounds. The OS on the BlackBerry PlayBook is a totally new one, created by RIM's recently aquired QNX, who created the OS, called the BlackBerry Tablet OS. The OS is reported to support Flash 10.1 and Adobe AIR applications. Multitasking will also be supported. RIM has also described the device as the first professional tablet. There is no word on an exact release date or pricing but RIM has said that the BlackBerry PlayBook will be available sometime in early 2011. RIM has also said that they intend to offer 3G and 4G models in the future, but no further details have been released about those versions. As of right now, The BlackBerry PlayBook sounds pretty promising, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Below is the full press release, a video of the BlackBerry PlayBook in action, and some more images.

BlackBerry PlayBook Preview

Press Release

"New Professional-Grade Tablet Delivers Unmatched Power and Web Performance

San Francisco, CA – BlackBerry DEVCON 2010 - Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today redefined the possibilities for mobile computing with the unveiling of its new professional-grade BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry® Tablet OS.

Perfect for either large organizations or an “army of one”, the BlackBerry PlayBook is designed to give users what they want, including uncompromised web browsing, true multitasking and high performance multimedia, while also providing advanced security features, out-of-the-box enterprise support and a breakthrough development platform for IT departments and developers. The incredibly powerful and innovative BlackBerry PlayBook is truly a game-changing product in the growing tablet marketplace.

“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world's most robust and flexible operating systems,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia.”

The Tablet You'll Want to Take Everywhere
This beautifully designed and incredibly powerful tablet is ultra portable, ultra thin and super convenient for both work and play. Measuring less than half an inch thick and weighing less than a pound, the BlackBerry PlayBook features a vivid 7” high resolution display that looks and feels great in your hand. With such a unique mix of utility, performance and portability, you’ll want to take it everywhere.

The New Benchmark in Tablet Performance
At its heart, the BlackBerry PlayBook is a multitasking powerhouse. Its groundbreaking performance is jointly fueled by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS which supports true symmetric multiprocessing. Together, the abundant processing power and highly sophisticated OS enable the BlackBerry PlayBook to provide users with true multitasking and a highly-responsive and fluid touch screen experience for apps and content services.

Uncompromised Web BrowsingWith support for Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, Adobe® Mobile AIR® and HTML-5, the BlackBerry PlayBook provides customers with an uncompromised, high-fidelity web experience and offers them the ability to enjoy all of the sites, games and media on the web. For more than a decade, the mobile industry has worked to bridge the gap between the “real web” and mobile devices through various apps and technologies and, in fact, a significant number of mobile apps today still simply serve as a proxy for web content that already exists on the web. The BlackBerry PlayBook closes that gap and brings the real, full web experience to mobile users while also opening new and more exciting opportunities for developers and content publishers.

High Performance Multimedia
The BlackBerry PlayBook features premium multimedia features to support high-quality mobile experiences. It includes dual HD cameras for video capture and video conferencing that can both record HD video at the same time, and an HDMI-out port for presenting one's creations on external displays. The BlackBerry PlayBook also offers rich stereo sound and a media player that rivals the best in the industry. 

BlackBerry IntegrationFor those BlackBerry PlayBook users who carry a BlackBerry smartphone*, it will also be possible to pair their tablet and smartphone using a secure Bluetooth® connection. This means they can opt to use the larger tablet display to seamlessly and securely view any of the email, BBM™, calendar, tasks, documents and other content that resides on (or is accessible through) their smartphone. They can also use their tablet and smartphone interchangeably without worrying about syncing or duplicating data. This secure integration of BlackBerry tablets and smartphones is a particularly useful feature for those business users who want to leave their laptop behind.

Enterprise Ready 
Thanks to the seamless and secure Bluetooth pairing experience and the highly secure underlying OS architecture, the BlackBerry PlayBook is enterprise ready and compatible (out-of-the-box) with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. When connected over Bluetooth, the smartphone content is viewable on the tablet, but the content actually remains stored on the BlackBerry smartphone and is only temporarily cached on the tablet (and subject to IT policy controls). With this approach to information security, IT departments can deploy the BlackBerry PlayBook to employees out-of-the-box without worrying about all the security and manageability issues that arise when corporate data is stored on yet another device.

QNX Neutrino Reliability 
The BlackBerry Tablet OS is built upon the QNX® Neutrino® microkernel architecture, one of the most reliable, secure and robust operating system architectures in the world. Neutrino has been field hardened for years and is being used to support mission-critical applications in everything from planes, trains and automobiles to medical equipment and the largest core routers that run the Internet.  The new BlackBerry Tablet OS leverages and builds upon the many proven strengths of this QNX Neutrino architecture to support a professional grade tablet experience and to redefine the possibilities for mobile computing.

An OS Built for Developers The Neutrino based microkernel architecture in the BlackBerry Tablet OS delivers exceptional performance, high scalability, Common Criteria EAL 4+ security, and support for industry standard tools that are already familiar to hundreds of thousands of developers.  The OS is fully POSIX compliant enabling easy portability of C-based code, supports Open GL for 2D and 3D graphics intensive applications like gaming, and will run applications built in Adobe Mobile AIR as well as the new BlackBerry® WebWorks™ app platform announced today (which will allow apps to be written to run on BlackBerry PlayBook tablets as well as BlackBerry smartphones with BlackBerry® 6). The BlackBerry Tablet OS will also support Java enabling developers to easily bring their existing BlackBerry 6 Java applications to the BlackBerry Tablet OS environment.

Key features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook include:

• 7” LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording 
• Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
• HDMI video output
• Wi-Fi - 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
• Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
• Ultra thin and portable:
o Measures 5.1”x7.6”x0.4” (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
o Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
• Additional features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook will be shared on or before the date this product is launched in retail outlets.
• RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

Availability
The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to be available in retail outlets and other channels in the United States in early 2011 with rollouts in other international markets beginning in (calendar) Q2.

RIM will begin working with developers and select corporate customers next month to begin development and early testing efforts.

The BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK is planned for release in the coming weeks and developers can register for early access at www.blackberry.com/developers/tabletos.

For more information, visit www.blackberry.com/playbook."

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