Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

About a month ago Blackberry unveiled it’s latest phone that would be the first out with the new Blackberry 6 OS. Now we didn’t touch on it at the time but we’re letting you know now due to the fact it’s now got a release date and price for this country and it’s going to be later than Blackberry initially suggested (surprise, surprise).

AS said earlier it’s the first Blackberry release to have it’s all new Blackberry 6 OS. The 3.2” 480x360 touchscreen has a slide out QWERTY keyboard and will also sport 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage which can be expanded via MicroSD. There will be Bluetooth connectivity alongside WiFi b/g/n and it will also pack a 5MP camera with flash. Now although the specs aren’t mind-blowing, the phone’s OS should be a big enough draw to it, especially for all the Blackberry fans out there.

Initially Blackberry said it would be weeks after the US release it would reach our shores, sadly it’s now going to be late October. Our friends expansys have the phone up on their website now to pre-order but at a whopping £569.99 it seems quite pricey. Play.com also have the phone listed too, but they’re asking for a much more reasonable £499.99 SIM-free.

7Digital will be the default music app for Blackberry users thanks to a deal signed up between the two companies. 7 Digital which recently had 50% of it bought by HMV offers 100% DRM-free downloads and has a rather extensive library.

The price war between 7Digital and iTunes has started already with 7Digital cutting the price of singles to 77c a track, to iTunes 99c per track. As per usual though the UK wont benefit from it as  both companies still sell tracks to us at 79p.

Coming first to the Curve 8900, the Bold and the Storm it will come head to head with iTunes and Nokia’s “Comes with Music”. Over the next few weeks/months it will be added to more of its phones.

7Digital’s music is encoded at 320kbps, larger than your average mp3 but obviously a better quality than what iTunes offers to you. It also has a good little tool called “Wi-Fi Auto-Sync”. When the phone is connected to your mobile network, it downloads lower audio quality versions of tracks, then upgrades that to full quality when your phone's in range of a faster wi-fi connection. Clever eh?

CrackBerry Nation have managed to acquire some images of the up and coming Blackberry Storm 2.

Looking at the photos, you can see it shares its physical appearance with the original BlackBerry Storm.

Specific information about the Storm 2 is a little scarce however Slashgear reported that it will include Wi-Fi.

More images after the jump.

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BGR are reporting that the 3 new handsets from BlackBerry have been confirmed. However at the moment it is only the codenames that are confirmed and the release details are not fully confirmed.

BlackBerry Onyx:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
• QWERTY keyboard
• 480×360 resolution screen
• Confirmed carriers: AT&T

BlackBerry Driftwood:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi with UMA
• QWERTY keyboard

BlackBerry Magnum:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
• QWERTY keyboard
• 480×360 resolution screen
• Confirmed carriers: AT&T

Blackberry have released a pretty cool video for the Blackberry storm. The only problem I can see here is that when Apple made the Mac vs PC ads they kinda had a point, whereas I think it is generally regarded that the iPhone is much better than the Storm.

Oh well, it is a good advert anyway!

Apparently Orange UK is going to be the first carrier in Europe to launch a BlackBerry device on a Pay As You Go service.

It will be an exclusive indigo colour that will sell for £145. There is no word on how the pricing will work as data access is quite an important aspect of BlackBerry's and the current Orange PAYG plans don't include data (apart from Dolphin where you get free access to Facebook). BGR stated the monthly fee is £5/month though I am unsure if they mean minimum top up or if that's the fee for data per month.

The PAYG Blackberry page can be found here

Truphone is a free piece of VOIP software that has been available on S60 phones and the iPhone for some time now.

Truphone have now launched a BlackBeryy version of this popular VOIP client allowing users to make free or very cheap phone calls with no roaming charges

Instead of requiring the user to remember what to do, Truphone Anywhere simply asks whether he/she wants to make a Truphone call whenever an international number is dialled. The user simply accepts, and Truphone connects the call. This reduces international call rates to as little as £0.03/$0.06 per minute.

The Blackberry application can be downloaded here

Press release after jump.

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