Well, sort of - Walmart Online aka LetsTalk are ‘giving away’ RIM’s Blackberry Bold unit along with the usual two year AT&T shackle. Without shackle it’ll set you back a whopping US$700, so is two years worth of AT&T service worth seven hundred smackers? If so you just may want to head on over to Walmart. Just in case you missed it here are the specs on the Bold again before you do

* GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
* Wi-Fi connectivity
* GPS
* 480 x 320 res LCD display
* 5 hours talktime
* 13 days standby
* 1 GB of onboard memory (expandable)
* 624 MHz CPU
* 128 MB flash memory
* Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
* 2 Mp camera (still and video)

We can’t find an update on the 3G reception problems we noted previously, so we’re assuming it’s all good now because if the problems still existed we’d definitely be hearing a lot more about them! As to whether it’s the iPhone killer RIM are hoping for the jury are still out. To be honest it looks just a bit under-specced to compete seriously with the iPhone but then again the Bold is free!

Source: LetsTalk

The snazzy looking Blackberry Curve 8830 is now available with a two year plan over at Verizon with a price tag of US$220 after a $100 online discount. Accordingly to the spiel

The BlackBerry® Curve 8330 smartphone delivers on the BlackBerry promise with no compromises. BlackBerry push technology is designed to deliver emails to your smartphone as they arrive so you read and respond to them.

Ooooo! Here’s some more bits and pieces on the latest offering from the world of RIM.

* Dual–band 800/1900 Mhz
* 96 MB memory
* BlackBerry® 4.3 Desktop Software
* 2.5 inch 320×240 res display
* BroadbandAccess connect capable
* Mobile IM for BlackBerry
* 2.0 MP Camera
* Media Player
* Bluetooth® Wireless Technology
* microSD memory expansion slot (up to 8GB)
* 107.1 x 62.1 x 16.1 mm
* 119g
* Battery - 260 minutes of talk time or up to 264 hours on standby

Personally I’m not too excited by the Curve, it’s offering nothing special from the guys at RIM whilst shackling you to Verizon. The SMT 5700 over at AT&T offers similar bells and whistles yet boasts a smaller price tag. RIM’s school report reads ‘Must try harder’.

It looks as if Blackberry users are experiencing a major outage at the moment. Reports on Blackberry forums indicate that the email service is non operational. The outage appears to have affected more than one carrier so the finger of suspicion is pointed directly at RIM.

This will be the second time this year that Blackberry users have experienced a major outage with users offline for over a day back in April. At the time RIM promised to ‘improve its network’ to ensure the network would remain intact during catastrophes. However this doesn’t appear to have been the case.

Other reports indicate that the problem is confined to email receipt and web browsing and as yet there is no word from either RIM or an affected carrier.

Good luck to all the Blackberry users out there!

Source: Electronista

Having been labelled as ‘unbelievably arrogant’ by European operators, rumour now has it that Apple have influenced AT&T, their iPhone carrier in the US, to downgrade the functionality of the ‘rival’ Blackberry 8820. The downgrade would limit the GPS functionality of the 8820 to the subscription only service TeleNav and with the iPhone boasting the Google Maps functionality the belief is the iPhone would appear ’superior’ and more appealing to the consumer.

As pointed out on several blogs the iPhone and 8820 are aimed at different market sectors, yet AT&T seem oblivious to this fact in promoting the iPhone over its other products.

Of course this is all rumour and there is no indication that Apple have asked AT&T to impose the downgrade of the 8820, but given Apple’s ‘arrogant’ labelling by some European carriers, it would be no surprise if this move was Apple instigated.

Personally, I’m neither a big Blackberry fan nor iPhone zealot, but the real concern here is that AT&T or Apple are forcing their will on RIM. Ultimately the loser in this is YOU not RIM, these kind of corporate moves directly affect the consumer through lack of choice and inflated prices. It is this kind of corporate greed that is repulsive and abhorrent in my opinion, the downside of capitalism no less - anyone else want to weigh in with their thoughts?

Source: BlackBerry Cool