RIM’s BlackBerry Onyx 9020 could be the second handset from the company to feature an optical trackpad instead of the usual trackball. While previous leaked shots of pre-release Onyx hardware have shown the smartphone with a trackball, according to the latest news from CrackBerry’s trusted sources the final production version will definitely get the trackpad.
Sprint and Verizon may be keeping relatively quiet about the BlackBerry Tour 9630’s functionality, but unsurprisingly RIM themselves are pretty keen to get the news out there about exactly what their new “world phone” can do. The smartphone is primarily intended to use CDMA EVDO Rev.A connectivity, but it also packs UMTS/HSPA 2100MHz support and quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE for use when abroad.
Elsewhere there’s a 480 x 340 resolution display, 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and image stabilization, and 256MB of onboard storage with a microSD card to augment that. The Tour 9630 also has GPS with support for photo geotagging.
Video overview after the cut
Verizon isn’t letting Sprint have all the BlackBerry Tour fun, and while there’s no official press release as yet the smartphone has shown up on the carrier’s site. Tipped for a Verizon launch back in May, when the smartphone was spotted in the carrier’s inventory system, there’s no sign of a specific release date.
After months of leaks regarding the handset, Sprint has announced that they will be offering the BlackBerry Tour. Packed with EVDO Rev.A and 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, the Tour also has 2100MHz UMTS/HSPA and quadband GSM for international roaming use; it’s expected to arrive “later this summer” in the US.
It looks, judging by these images, like someone has been faxing something they shouldn’t have, but when the leak is a detailed spec-sheet for the BlackBerry Tour 9630 we won’t quibble over it coming on thermal paper. According to MobileSyrup’s source, the Tour 9630 will arrive on Canadian carrier Bell in mid-July, bringing with it an HVGA 480 x 360 display, 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera with flash, quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 2100MHz UMTS/HSPA and 800/1900MHz EVDO Rev.A.
RIM’s BlackBerry Storm 2 may not have been confirmed by the company themselves yet, but that hasn’t stopped the handset showing up in the wild more than once. Now Engadget have had an opportunity to spend more than a few flighty seconds with the touchscreen follow-up; turns out, RIM have listened to criticism and dumped SurePress, replacing it with a more standard capacitive touchscreen.
Video hands-on after the cut
His co-CEO at RIM, Mike Lazaridis, may have described the company’s BlackBerry smartphones as “netbooks … just smaller“, but according to Jim Balsillie we shouldn’t expect to see anything more traditionally netbook-shaped bearing the BlackBerry logo. While industry rivals such as Nokia are tipped to be looking to netbooks as the next wave of cellular-enabled devices, Balsillie says RIM are focusing on devices “you can hold up to your ear and clip onto your belt.”
The BlackBerry Tour 9630 has made an appearance in Verizon’s internal inventory systems, although according to the tipster the smartphones themselves are not yet in stock. Expected to go on sale as of July 13th, the BlackBerry Tour is believed to sit underneath the BlackBerry Bold in terms of range position, with a price tag of $199 with a two-year contract
As for specifications, RIM are yet to make anything official but the Tour 9630 is believed to be a cross between their Curve and Bold handsets. It will have EVDO Rev.A connectivity, together with quadband GSM for global roaming, a 480 x 320 display and a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording capabilities.
Live images of an upcoming BlackBerry smartphone have leaked, believed to be the BlackBerry Onyx first tipped back in April. Full specifications for the handset are unknown, but it’s believed to be a 3G device which will slot into AT&T’s line-up.
RIM are preparing a number of new Bluetooth accessories, including a new headset codenamed “Alpha 1″, an in-car handsfree kit and, possibly, a Bluetooth watch and video-capable remote gateway. BlackBerry accessories VP Antoine Boucher sat down with the BGR at WES to discuss his department’s latest wares, and they couldn’t help but notice that he was wearing a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth watch; after some prompting, Boucher admitted that his team had modified the timepiece to display BlackBerry alerts.
These included alerts when new emails, BlackBerry Messenger messages, texts, IMs, tweets and Facebook messages are received. When pressed on whether RIM was developing their own Bluetooth watch, the VP would only say that his team “are exploring many accessories that would surprise people.”
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