blackberry storm

Breaking
June 16, 2011
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RIM reports Q1 earnings: misses analyst estimates, Q2 outlook misses, layoffs coming

By on June 16, 2011 at 4:32 PM.

RIM reports Q1 earnings: misses analyst estimates, Q2 outlook misses, layoffs coming

Research In Motion on Thursday reported earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2012. After cutting its first-quarter outlook at the end of April, RIM’s May quarter came in below analyst estimates. First quarter revenue came in at $4.9 billion versus the Street’s estimate of $5.5 billion, and device shipments totalled 13.2 million versus expectations of 13.5 million. Net income for the quarter was $695 million, down from $769 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Earnings per share in the first quarter beat estimates by a penny at $1.33. RIM’s revenue for the quarter breaks down as 78% hardware, 20% service, and 2% software and other revenue. In the second quarter, RIM trimmed its outlook to $4.2-$4.5 billion in revenue, significantly under the Street’s consensus of $5.46 billion. RIM’s second-quarter EPS forecast is just $0.75-$1.05 versus $1.40 consensus. For the full year, RIM cut its EPS outlook from $7.50 to between $5.25 and $6 per share. “Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start,” RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in a statement. “The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter.” RIM also said it would soon begin a “program to streamline operations” that will involve job cuts. Shares of RIM stock opened down 15% in after-hours trading. RIM’s full press release follows below. More →

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mobile
May 28, 2011
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BlackBerry Monaco, Monza could be branded ‘Volt’

By on May 28, 2011 at 12:01 AM.

BlackBerry Monaco, Monza could be branded ‘Volt’

We knew right when we exclusively revealed the BlackBerry Monaco and Monza back in January that the devices would likely shed the “Storm” moniker, and now it’s looking even more likely. BlackBerry enthusiast blog N4BB cites multiple sources in suggesting that RIM may have finally landed on a new brand for the full touchscreen smartphone it is preparing to launch later this year: “Volt.” The report is unsure at best however, suggesting that RIM might instead choose to slap the Torch brand on the Monaco 9850 and Monza 9860. We took a hands-on look at the BlackBerry Monaco/Monza — which features a 3.7-inch touchscreen, a 1.2GHz processor, a 5-megapixel camera and NFC — back in March. More →

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Software
July 16, 2009
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Verizon and Slacker make sweet music together on your BlackBerry Storm

By on July 16, 2009 at 5:37 PM.

Verizon and Slacker make sweet music together on your BlackBerry Storm

If you own a BlackBerry and haven’t yet heard of Slacker, you clearly haven’t been paying attention. The spunky Internet radio provider is making headlines again today and VZW-branded Storm owners should take note — Big Red has announced a new deal to get Slacker on your handset whether you like it or not. But why wouldn’t you like it? Slacker streams custom genre or artist-based stations directly to your handset, computer or Slacker portable device and keeps things fresh with a library of over 4 million songs. A free version of the service plays an occasional ad and only allows users to skip up to five songs per hour, while a paid subscription option removes both annoyances and adds a few more features. Over the next few days the app will be pushed out to VZW Storms OTA and unlike prior versions, the app will give users the option to purchase tracks they hear through the V CAST music store. Ahh, it all makes sense now. Congrats to the Slacker folks on a pretty huge coup and congrats to Big Red for adding even more functionality and value to its Storm.

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Software
April 14, 2009
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Pandora Radio now available for the BlackBerry Storm

By on April 14, 2009 at 12:32 PM.

Pandora Radio now available for the BlackBerry Storm

You won’t see it on the dedicated BlackBerry page just yet but rest assured, Pandora has launched the highly anticipated BlackBerry Storm version of its mobile streaming application. When we told you about initial BlackBerry availablility last month, there were two main caveats: 1) No T-Mo. 2) No Storm. Resourceful as our readers are, it was quickly discovered that the whole no T-Mobile thing could be circumvented pretty easily. The lack of a Storm-compatible build however, would prove to be a slightly tougher nut to crack (obviously). No matter, as Pandora unveiled an official Storm build via its Twitter feed last night. Enough talk — time to get streaming. Hit http://www.pandora.com from your Storm’s browser or look for it in App World to get your hands on Pandora Radio and let us now how it goes.

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Exclusive
October 18, 2008
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Rogers 2009 BlackBerry lineup

By on October 18, 2008 at 9:01 AM.

Rogers 2009 BlackBerry lineup

Here’s what we got so far for you… Rogers is coming back into the mix in 2009 with a pretty impressive lineup of BlackBerry handsets. This isn’t by all means a definitive list, (read: possibly more devices, etc.) but it should whet your appetite a little bit. Without further ado, as told to us by one of those world-famous RIM ninjas, we have:

That’s a special little present each quarter for you. We were going to ask which one would you get out of that list, but we know you guys will just grab every single one of them you sick, sick freaks.

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General
October 7, 2008
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BlackBerry Storm official press images and specs!

By on October 7, 2008 at 11:49 PM.

BlackBerry Storm official press images and specs!

What’s an embargo? We’ve never heard that word before… Here’s your first look at what all the other sites will soon start reporting on — official BlackBerry Storm press images and spec sheet! Here’s the official specs for the Verizon unit which we already knew:

  • 128MB of RAM, 1GB built-in memory
  • 1400mAh battery with 15 days standby (yeah right) and 5.5 hours of talk time
  • Dual-band 800/1900MHz CDMA/EV-DO Rev A
  • Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 2100MHz HSDPA

More images, spec sheet and joint Verizon, Vodafone, and RIM press release after the jumpage! All they say is a release next month. Anyone notice that there isn’t tri-band HSDPA at all?

More →

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BG's Corner
October 7, 2008
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Thanks!

By on October 7, 2008 at 12:26 AM.

Thanks!

Just wanted to give everyone an update on the mess over the weekend and even into today… As I post this our Rackspace servers will probably crash and burn, but oh well. Here are some of the events that played out over the past couple days and why your favorite blogger’s favorite blog site was pretty much non-existent. We were hit hard from a stunning amount of traffic with the Amazon Kindle 2 post. That was completely expected, and ever since our last server issues, we’ve added another server and currently use Akamai as a CDN to help spread out the server load. That helped for a bit, but as soon as we published information on the Storm, all hell broke loose. We’ve been doing around 95Mbps at the switch in traffic on and off since Friday night, and apparently as good as a setup as we have wasn’t enough.

We’re in the process of adding an additional server and load balancer, so if you see us go down for a little bit in the early AM (ET), you’ll know why. We’ve been growing every month and the combination of regular readers coupled with the Slashdots, Engadgets, Gizmodos, and other sites certainly brought in more visitors than we could handle. We’ve hit over 7,000,000 page views in the last month, our highest ever, and what better time to upgrade our hardware? We’re upgrading everything (and believe me, we’re paying out the ass for it) and all should be well in short time. Thanks for sticking with us, guys, and thanks for the support. We’ll be working overtime to make sure we come through with more hotness. Except hopefully next time, we don’t blow Rackspace’s data center out…

29 Comments
Rumor
September 19, 2008
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Man gets paid $20 to use Blackberry Storm, Verizon shooting Storm commercial

By on September 19, 2008 at 2:16 PM.

Man gets paid $20 to use Blackberry Storm, Verizon shooting Storm commercial

What would you do if you saw a filming crew from Verizon Wireless in the food court of your local mall? Well, if you were like one of our readers, you would mosey on over to get a closer look, get invited to play with the new Blackberry Storm, and then get paid $20 for your time while you watched them film a BlackBerry Storm commercial! That’s right, some cold cash in exchange for some thumb typing. With all the buzz this phone has generated, VZW could have used this opportunity to make some money, not pay out some money. How many of you would shell out $20 to get 10 minutes one-on-one with this new phone? Yeah, we thought so.

Thanks, Bob!

50 Comments
Opinions
September 16, 2008
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BlackBerry Storm: we’ve been had

By on September 16, 2008 at 10:46 PM.

BlackBerry Storm: we’ve been had

I’ll keep this short, but as most of you that are following the BlackBerry Storm developments over the past couple days know, Verizon has “introduced” the BlackBerry Storm internally. They even published a coming soon page complete with Storm image. The page was then removed today, coincidentally after every major site that mattered had linked to it and posted. Does anyone not see the scam being played out before our eyes? Introduction “internally” and then removing the coming soon page? No press release, no official announcement… am I the only one who’s seeing the bigger picture?

UPDATE: Here’s the link for the actual video hosted on Verizon’s site. Thanks, guys!

UPDATE 2: Storm page is back uppppppz.

109 Comments
Exclusive
September 4, 2008
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BlackBerry Storm goes into TA (technical acceptance) at Verizon, delayed 3-4 weeks

By on September 4, 2008 at 1:44 PM.

BlackBerry Storm goes into TA (technical acceptance) at Verizon, delayed 3-4 weeks

Here’s our latest info on the BlackBerry Storm and the fate of the device on Verizon’s network: it just went into technical acceptance at Verizon which usually takes around 3-4 weeks, and the device has been delayed internally by around 3-4 weeks while they work out the kinks (read: buggy and unresponsive) and polish it up. That puts us around a mid-November launch on Verizon. We’ve double confirmed that information, so it should be pretty accurate. Additionally, we heard from someone else that they’ve increased the marketing budget for the BlackBerry Storm just to give AT&T a little kick in the nuts for delaying the Bold so much. That’s not confirmed, still probably a little true, plus we got a chuckle out of that anyway.

221 Comments
General
August 27, 2008
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BlackBerry Storm 9530 is BlackBerry Thunder, BlackBerry Thunder is BlackBerry Storm, for realz

By on August 27, 2008 at 10:09 PM.

BlackBerry Storm 9530 is BlackBerry Thunder, BlackBerry Thunder is BlackBerry Storm, for realz

That was a nice roller-coaster ride, no? Our main man Chris Zigz over at Engadget Mobile scored actual BlackBerry Storm packaging renders, and well, the BlackBerry Storm doesn’t look to bringing that much rain. If we read the box correctly, it seems as if there is an 8GB microSD card pre-installed (totally weak in our opinion), a 3.5mm headset jack, pre-installed SIM card, and no Wi-Fi. It is indeed a global phone, as stated on the box, our original scoop, and the SIM card bit (duh!), but other intricate details are unavailable at this time. Oh yeah, the name! Here is the break down on that: the BlackBerry Storm is for Verizon, and the BlackBerry Thunder is the name for the device on other carriers such a Rogers and Vodafone. Wait, Rogers? So much for that huge exclusivity. We guess RIM realized they’d only have a limited run with Verizon being the sole carrier in North America, and we’re not so sure about having different names for the same device. It’s one thing to have different model numbers for the slightest variations (read: wack), but for the same device? Oh well. We’re still holding true to our rumored mid-September marketing blitz and mid-October release date on Verizon Wireless.

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