BlackBerry Bold 9780 review

It’s no surprise that the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is the next logical evolutionary step, rather than a complete makeover that will propel it into the same league as the iPhone and Android. RIM has a loyal core of customers whose bond with the brand goes beyond the obvious business benefits. And devices like the Bold 9780 are certainly part of that bond. From a geek’s perspective, a new generation of gadgets should emerge to a new generation of users. Radical, rebellious, with no sense of history and no respect for authorities. In the world of business, every new generation of gadgets has to make generations of users feel at home.

There’s no moral dilemma for BlackBerry in this. They know trying to introduce new features and UI tweaks with each new generation involves substantial risk for some of the changes to backfire. But they haven’t given up on the Torch and the Storm, have they? Though it’s obviously much easier to stick to a tested recipe and only add stuff that’s been proved to work.

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RIM wages war on Apple

RIM has waged war on Apple after Steve Jobs criticised the firm at Apple’s earnings announcement on Monday (18 October). Jobs had said that devices such as RIM’s PlayBook tablet are ‘dead on arrival’ because, at seven-inches, they are smaller in size than Apple’s iPad. RIM CEO Jim Balsillie has hit back at Jobs, saying customers are ‘tired’ of Apple’s controlling strategy.

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Sprint Announces BlackBerry Style 9670

Sprint and Research in Motion on Monday announced the BlackBerry Style 9670, a rare flip smartphone which will become the second BlackBerry 6 phone when it debuts on Halloween.

The Style looks like a slightly chubby flip phone, with a 320-by-240 screen on the outside. Open it up, and you get a bigger 2.7-inch 360-by-400 screen, a full keyboard, a trackpad, and the BlackBerry 6 interface.

BlackBerry 6 offers better Web browsing, more multimedia options, and a fresher user interface than previous BlackBerry OSes. So far it's only available on AT&T's BlackBerry Torch, although RIM has said it's coming to the BlackBerry 9650, 9700, Pearl 3G, and the latest Curve models.

BlackBerry 6 works as well with a trackpad as it does on the BlackBerry Torch's touch screen, said RIM vice president of product management David Smith.

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