BG’s Corner

Exclusive
October 15, 2009
by

Bell’s HSPA handset launch list leaks: BlackBerry 9700, iPhone 3GS, Samsung Omnia 2, more

By on October 15, 2009 at 10:40 AM.

Bell’s HSPA handset launch list leaks: BlackBerry 9700, iPhone 3GS, Samsung Omnia 2, more

bell-9700

We just got a heads up from one of our Northern connects that has to do with Bell, and let’s just say we think Bell subscribers are going to be thrilled with what we have to report. How does Bell’s entire lineup of devices for their HSPA network launch sound? We also grabbed pricing for y’all, too! The following prices are prices with 36 month contracts following by full retail pricing.

Thanks, J!

More →

49 Comments
Exclusive
October 13, 2009
by

Motorola Sholes / Droid live photos

By on October 13, 2009 at 12:39 PM.

Motorola Sholes / Droid live photos

moto-sholes-vzw3

We were sent in some snaps of the Motorola Sholes / Droid / Your face, and although they’re not full resolution, it’s still better than nothing, eh? We’ve been told from a separate source that the ROM on the phone is moving at break-neck speed with new builds almost daily. Maybe in time for that October 30th launch?

P.S. Do you think the Motorola Sholes will be a Verizon World Edition handset?

Thanks, Chuck!

More →

101 Comments
Exclusive
October 10, 2009
by

T-Mobile sending out BlackBerry 9700 event invites

By on October 10, 2009 at 11:22 AM.

T-Mobile sending out BlackBerry 9700 event invites

tmo-9700-invite

It seems as if those lovely now almost yearly launch parties are going to start happening pretty soon. T-Mobile has started sending out various invites to corporate customers (we’ve been sent two completely different-looking invites from two different connects) all describing a mythical new BlackBerry with Wi-Fi-enabled calling. Whatever could it be? The events we’re hearing about are on November 5th in NYC and we’ve been told that people attending will be taking home brand new BlackBerry 9700s. And they get breakfast, but no one cares about that.

UPDATE: We’ve been told the Los Angeles market launch event is on November 3rd.

Thanks FrankenBerry!

43 Comments
Exclusive
October 9, 2009
by

BlackBerry 9700 launching on Rogers October 26th?

By on October 9, 2009 at 5:01 PM.

BlackBerry 9700 launching on Rogers October 26th?

blackberry-9700-14

Uh oh. We’re slowly moving across the board here… First with a rumored T-Mobile launch date, now we have a Rogers one for you guys. One of our Northern connects just let us know that Rogers’ BlackBerry 9700 launch is currently pegged for October 26th. We don’t have pricing information, but imagine it will run around $299 with a three-year agreement. Not confirmed, of course, but hey, besides Christmas not much is.

43 Comments
Exclusive
October 8, 2009
by

T-Mobile BlackBerry 9700 launching November 11th?

By on October 8, 2009 at 4:09 PM.

T-Mobile BlackBerry 9700 launching November 11th?

bb-9700-tmo

Look, we’ll be completely upfront like we always are: this is not confirmed. Since that’s out of the way, one of our new connects (whom we have reason to trust) has informed us that T-Mobile USA is gearing up to launch the BlackBerry 9700 on November 11th. Engadget’s announcement dates make sense, as does this launch date. If it all pans out you’ll be hearing about the BlackBerry 9700 for AT&T and T-Mobile come October 21st, and on November 11th, you’ll be able to mosey on down to your local T-Mobile shop and actually buy one for yourself. Or you can wait until you win a whole heap of them from BGR. Huh? We didn’t say anything…

Thanks, Carlo!

53 Comments
Exclusive
October 7, 2009
by

Rogers to announce BlackBerry 8520 pricing and availiblity tomorrow, we start a day early

By on October 7, 2009 at 7:01 PM.

Rogers to announce BlackBerry 8520 pricing and availiblity tomorrow, we start a day early

rogers-bb-8520If we told you how many emails we get asking about BlackBerry 8520 availability and pricing for Canada, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t believe us. It so happens that one of our Canadian connects (ninja is so yesterday) just blessed us with more information on the Rogers BlackBerry 8520 than we know what to do with. As far as colors go, as we’ve seen, it will be available in black and violet color options. The built-in UMA support will enable the device to take advantage of Rogers’ TalkSpot service just like the T-Mobile variant in the United States does. Here’s a brief recap of device specs before we get into the really good stuff:

  • 512MHz CPU
  • 2 megapixel camera, fixed focus, no flash
  • 320×240 display
  • 256MB of RAM
  • 3.5mm headset jack
  • QWERTY keyboard
  • Trackpad
  • Wi-Fi with UMA
  • Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE

In terms of pricing and availability, the BlackBerry 8520 is available starting tomorrow, October 8th, for $99 on a three-year agreement with minimum combined service fees of $45/mo or more.

5 Comments
Exclusive
October 7, 2009
by

Sony VAIO X Series gets priced and spec’d

By on October 7, 2009 at 11:50 AM.

Sony VAIO X Series gets priced and spec’d

sony-vaio-x

Well, well, well. Look what we’ve just got our hands on… One of our Northern ninjas has hit us with full pricing and specifications for Sony’s VAIO X Series line of notebooks (these are meant for the Canadian market but give us a good ballpark). We’ve been told it will be announced sometime tomorrow, but hey, you know how we roll.

More →

27 Comments
Exclusive
October 6, 2009
by

HTC Hero hitting Verizon in November?

By on October 6, 2009 at 2:09 PM.

HTC Hero hitting Verizon in November?

verizon-htc-hero

We just got a tip that the phone pictured in Eric Schmidt’s hands is actually Verizon’s version of the HTC Hero and it will be called the HTC Hero (not confirmed). As you can see, there’s a couple hardware modifications and one big one is that the buttons below the screen are, as we’re told, not physical, but touch-sensitive buttons. Look for it to drop in November on Big Red.

UPDATE: We’ve doubled confirmed this — check for the HTC Hero (or a different name) in November on Verizon! P.S. We have been told “It’s awesome.”

117 Comments
Exclusive
October 5, 2009
by

AT&T to start selling HTC Tilt 2 starting October 8th

By on October 5, 2009 at 11:07 PM.

AT&T to start selling HTC Tilt 2 starting October 8th

att-tilt2-small

AT&T officially said sometime in the “coming weeks” as far as the Tilt 2 release date was concerned, but we’ve got that translated out for you — October 8th. Since we also got our hands on the internal training document (it’s dated October 2nd, so it’s very recent), we screencapped a couple slides for informational purposes. There are nice comparisons against the AT&T Pure as well as one on troubleshooting when the device crashes. Yeah.

More →

66 Comments
Exclusive
October 5, 2009
by

Unmarked BlackBerry handsets hit Best Buy systems, all due for Oct 25th release?

By on October 5, 2009 at 3:23 PM.

Unmarked BlackBerry handsets hit Best Buy systems, all due for Oct 25th release?

bestbuy-bb-small

Before you get too excited, sometimes Best Buy simply inputs incorrect dates into their systems when loading SKUs. What is incredibly interesting, besides the fact they’ve gone through the trouble to conceal these product names, is that in our leaked Holiday Playbook, Best Buy mentioned that October 25th would be a “key date for handsets entering our assortment.” Sounds pretty nice, right? We’ve been told the price range for the five handsets in here (full retail Best Buy pricing) is $249-$599. Five models though? We’d say BlackBerry 8520 in white, BlackBerry Storm 2, BlackBerry 9700, BlackBerry Bold in white, and maybe BlackBerry Curve 2 for Verizon, but this shows that all of them are for AT&T? Larger shot after the break!

Thanks, Jon!

UPDATE: As one of our commenters points out, SKU 65057 shows in AT&T’s systems as the Nokia 6350 and the 65050 shows as the Garmin Nuvifone.

More →

18 Comments
Exclusive
October 5, 2009
by

Motorola Droid / Sholes / Tao launching October 30th?

By on October 5, 2009 at 1:20 PM.

Motorola Droid / Sholes / Tao launching October 30th?

vzw-moto-calendar

Sorry, but we couldn’t help posting this… We’ve received a screenshot of a Verizon Wireless calendar that shows in addition to marketing and merchandising dates, a Motorola Sholes target date of October 30th. If you notice the HTC Imagio date on the calendar, it correctly depicts the proper launch day for the handset, leading us to believe this is pretty accurate and recent. Thoughts? Bigger shot after the jump.

Thanks, J Bird!

More →

50 Comments
Exclusive
October 5, 2009
by

Verizon Wireless, Sam’s Club, TARGET: gearing up to launch Motorola Droid, BlackBerry Storm 2, BlackBerry Curve 2, more

By on October 5, 2009 at 5:34 AM.

Verizon Wireless, Sam’s Club, TARGET: gearing up to launch Motorola Droid, BlackBerry Storm 2, BlackBerry Curve 2, more

verizon-sams-1-small

If you’ve been wondering whether the Motorola Droid (or Tao, or Sholes — whatever), BlackBerry Storm 2, BlackBerry Curve 2 or LG Chocolate Touch would be hitting Sam’s Club stores or even TARGET, you’re in luck. We just scored an internal document outlining merchandising, training, locations, and pretty much everything else you’d need to know. While Sam’s Club appears to be set up to carry the Motorola Android handset, TARGET seems to be left out. We won’t bore you with some of the more technical stuff, though. Here’s a shot of the Motorola Droid looking pretty fly in an all black everything outfit. There actually looks to possibly be a front-facing camera on the phone. It seems to corroborate our earlier report of some cool face recognition action, or it could just simply be the European variant. There’s placeholders for the LG Chocolate Touch, BlackBerry Storm 2 and Curve 2 in here, and we might have a little bit of copyright infringement on our hands, folks. That’s our BlackBerry Tour image nestled in between some other Verizon handsets. One more slide after the break.

Thanks, J Bird!

More →

18 Comments
Exclusive
October 4, 2009
by

Best Buy Mobile’s Holiday Playbook: Upcoming Android launches, BlackBerry devices, Nokia Booklet

By on October 4, 2009 at 8:09 AM.

Best Buy Mobile’s Holiday Playbook: Upcoming Android launches, BlackBerry devices, Nokia Booklet

bbm-playbook-1

We were lucky enough to get our hands on Best Buy Mobile’s entire Holiday Playbook and after combing through it, there’s a couple little nice nuggets of information. Really more confirmations than anything else, but hey, we aren’t ones to turn down info. Before we get to handsets specifically, it seems Best Buy has some pretty hard statistics on sales opportunities — check this out:

  • The average store sees over 64,000 customers during October and November
  • Out of those customers, only 1% receive an upgrade eligibility check on their accounts
  • Of the 1% who get upgrade checks, around 30% are actually eligible for upgrades
  • If stores increase the amount of customers checked to 2% from 1%, Best Buy Mobile would see an increase in revenue of around $20,000 for those two months, just off upgrading individuals
  • After customers upgrade their handsets at Best Buy Mobile, around 16% of them come back and make other purchases later

They’ve really got it locked down, huh? Smart, smart, smart. Hit the break for some other juicy information we gathered!

More →

36 Comments