We know a lot of you are very excited for the upcoming new Bold 9900/9930 (depending on of if your on AT&T/T-Mobile or Sprint/Verizon), but sadly ever since it was first announced in April RIM hasn’t said anything more such as when exactly we can expect it or some of the other rumored new BlackBerrys (like the new Torch, Curve or Storm). Well, looking at this latest tweet from BlackBerry we’ll hopefully have some of those answers soon. Like tomorrow soon.

The tweet, which you see above, is from the official BlackBerry Twitter account and teases some new info coming tomorrow on BlackBerry OS 7 devices (like that Bold Touch and new Torch, Curve and Storm!). And seeing as we already know a lot about OS 7 since it was announced back in April with the Bold Touch, hopefully these new “deets” will include some info on when exactly some of the new BlackBerrys will be in stores and for how much.

So BlackBerry fans stay tuned– it looks like the info you’ve all been waiting for will finally be revealed soon. And make sure to check back here tomorrow for whatever it is BlackBerry has to share.

So Verizon users– you’ve got an upgrade coming up sometime over the next couple of months and while you like some of the phones already out there, you really wanna know what Verizon’s got planned during the next few weeks or months so you don’t go out and buy something only to really regret it a week later. We’re here to help. While not all of these are confirmed to be coming to Verizon (some are just our best guesses based on rumors we’ve been hearing), here are 5 phones that are said to be on their way to Verizon that if you have an upgrade should be really excited for.

Samsung Droid Charge

This is something you’ll be seeing a lot of from Verizon this year: very powerful 4G LTE phones. And the Droid Charge is definitely on this list. While it’s pretty pricey at $300 with 2 year contract and $30 a month unlimited data plan, it’s still pretty powerful as Verizon’s second 4G phone with specs like a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus screen, 8 megapixel back camera and 1.3 megapixel front camera for higher quality video chat, Android 2.2 with Swype keyboard and Mobile Hotspot and 1 GHZ processor. 

Whether this is worth going with over Verizon’s first and cheaper 4G phone, the HTC ThunderBolt, remains to be seen, but you should be able to try both out for yourself at your local Verizon store once it finally goes on sale (which should be any day now once Verizon fully fixes a recent problem that completely shut down its 4G network two days ago).

LG Revolution

This is the 3rd of Verizon’s 4G phones announced back at CES in January, and like the ThunderBolt and Droid Charge, this is equally incredible. Rumors have this coming anytime between next month and June and like the ThunderBolt and Droid Charge, this will pack a 1 GHZ processor, 4.3 inch Super LCD screen (like Samsung’s Super AMOLED this screen will also make everything on it look great), Android 2.2 (though hopefully with the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread by the time it comes out), 5 megapixel back camera with a second front one for video chat, and 16 GB of built-in memory (upgradeable through microSD to 32 GB).

We saw a non-final version of the Revolution briefly at CTIA last month, and while we couldn’t see how fast this is on 4G, the actual design of the phone felt great in our hands, the screen was sharp and apps were very quick to load. With the rumored price of this to be cheaper than the Droid Charge (a still pretty expensive $250 compared to the Droid Charge’s $300), this looks to give it and the HTC ThunderBolt a run for the best 4G Verizon phone so far.

Motorola Droid X^2

The new Droid X^2 (pic from PocketNow.com)

Verizon’s new Droid Incredible 2 isn’t the only new powerful 3G phone Verizon’s releasing this spring. Also expected to make an appearance between now and the summer is the next generation of another Droid, the Droid X^2 (meaning Droid X squared, like when you square something in math).

Unlike the Incredible 2 however, the big changes here look to take place under the hood. The same thin design and 8 megapixel camera with flash are all still here, as is the massive 4.3 inch screen which gets an upgrade to look much nicer, clearer and sharper. The biggest upgrade said to be coming here though is in speed, and this new Droid X^2 looks to be one of the fastest phones out there. Packing a 1.2 GHZ Dual Core processor and probably a RAM upgrade to 768 MB or 1 GB expect everything you do on here to be extremely fast no matter what it is (like watching HD video, playing games, texting, updating your Facebook or doing all at that and more at once!).

We still don’t yet know exact price (which if we had to guess would be under $200), release date and if this will be running the latest and greatest Android for phones, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but hopefully all this will be announced soon.

Oh, and if you were wondering about the 4G Motorola Droid Bionic, that’s been delayed until the summer as Motorola has decided to change/upgrade the specs there to make it a much better phone. More on that as we get it.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

How can we have an upcoming Verizon phone post without any mention of the PlayStation Phone? As was announced in February, Verizon is going to be getting the Xperia Play this Spring though as to when exactly that will happen we’re not exactly sure. After everything we saw of it in our first look back at CTIA, if you’re looking for a great gaming phone this will be perfect for you. It’s fast, sleek and games play great. Seeing as it’s almost May we should see this pretty soon hopefully at around $200.

BlackBerry Monaco/Touch/Storm 3

Verizon is also expected to be adding one of the new much more touch-focused BlackBerry’s sometime over the next couple of months, with one of the first of those new BlackBerrys said to be the all touch BlackBerry Monaco/Touch/Storm 3 (clearly the name is still very much a rumor).

This new all touch BlackBerry, which we covered under that major BlackBerry leak in January, looks to be a top of the line BlackBerry and much better than Verizon’s first 2 Storms. And with specs like a clear, sharp, high-res 3.7 inch screen, fast 1.2 GHZ processor and the latest BlackBerry OS 6.1, this should make for a very solid BlackBerry.

More info on this hopefully will be revealed next week at BlackBerry World (which starts on Tuesday, May 3rd).

Wrap Up

The latest rumor of what the iPhone 5 might look like, as you can see now with a much thinner design, larger screen and new home button (pic from This Is My Next)

So there you have it– some very awesome upcoming phones that should be coming to a Verizon in the next few weeks and months. Of course, as with AT&T, we’re sure Verizon has a whole lot more planned up its sleeve (I mean, that new 4G network is still be rolled out all across the US and they are also said to be getting the iPhone 5 the same time AT&T does whenever it comes out later this year) and we’ll of course keep you updated on whatever awesome new news they announce.

But we wanna know: any of these new phones for you or do you just plan to wait until the iPhone 5 or more powerful 4G phones like the re-designed, more powerful Droid Bionic come out whenever that is before you make a decision? Sound off in the comments.

If you’re looking for a new BlackBerry then you probably are gonna want to hold off buying that Bold/Curve/Torch for at least the next couple of weeks as it looks like there are some pretty incredible updates on the way. We already covered the rumored major updates to the Curve, Torch, Storm and Bold that BGR leaked back in January, and today YouTube user BBLeaks has come out with some leaked videos of their own on what to expect in this new, next generation Bold Touch– and put simply, it looks sick.

The design of the new BlackBerry Bold Touch

Take everything you love in the current Bold design (such as that awesome keyboard and design with trackpad in case you don’t want to use the touchscreen), throw in a solid multitouch screen in place of the current non-touch one above the keyboard (read: not slide-up like the Torch), and add a new, updated version of BlackBerry OS 6.1 along with a faster processor and yeah, we’re probably looking at the best BlackBerry yet! As we can see from these leaked YouTube vids– which show everything from pinch to zoom, to the new icons, to making a call to putting in a SIM card (for the AT&T/T-Mobile versions we assume unless this will also be a “world phone” like Sprint and Verizon’s latest Bold 9650, which is definitely a possibility)– design wise this really does look like the perfect BlackBerry.

Of course this BlackBerry Bold Touch isn’t yet confirmed by RIM, but with their big BlackBerry World conference just under a month away (it kicks off May 3rd) we expect it to be real soon.

All the leaked videos after the break.

Could this be true? BBM on an iPhone?

File this one under the most awesome and incredible rumor we’ve ever heard. According to BGR, who is pretty much dead-on when it comes to BlackBerry news (they were the ones who first leaked the Storm three years ago and more recently BlackBerry’s upcoming 2011 lineup), both Android and the iPhone (and it’s iOS) may soon get one of the greatest BlackBerry features on their devices– official BlackBerry Messenger. Yes, BBM is said to be on its way for Android and iPhone.

BGR’s sources didn’t reveal an exact date for when all this would go down, though according to the leak it did appear that at least the Android version would be at least announced this year (our guess would be at BlackBerry’s big BlackBerry World conference in May, but again that’s just our guess) with iPhone/iOS support after that. The BGR leak also goes on to mention how this would be more of a “BBM-lite” and while you would be able to BBM with anyone on a BlackBerry, the Android and iPhone versions might be lacking certain features like sending pics, and videos. For that full BBM experience you’d need to get an actual BlackBerry.

A lot of you are probably thinking right about now “the only reason I’d get a BlackBerry is for BBM, why would I go with it now if I can just get it on iPhone and Android?” Well, as we said above and as BGR alludes to in his post, this would be a great way for BlackBerry to begin to pull people back away from the ever-growing iPhone and Android platforms by teasing them with the BBM  and BlackBerry experience, with the only way to get that full experience being switching to a BlackBerry (and if there’s an additional fee to use BBM on iPhone/Android then people who love the service may be even more eager to switch over and get full BBM and save money).

Seeing as one of the most frequent questions we get here at TeensTalkTech is about BBM and BlackBerry here’s the million dollar question– how important is BBM to you and are you willing to still go with that “BBM-lite” (again, text only no pic or video sharing) on an iPhone/Android phone or would you still go with the traditional BlackBerry and BBM when you go for your next new phone? Sound off in the comments.

Pic– which is fake and Photoshopped– from OmniTechNews.net

We know, a lot of you want a new BlackBerry. You want to BBM your friends who all seem to have one. Thing is, you look at a phone like an iPhone, Droid or Windows Phone 7  and really want something, well, faster, with a cool OS, a lot of apps, and that is well,  more 2011. If this describes your dream BlackBerry, then listen up, as thanks to BGR a whole bunch of info on four (count’em FOUR!) new BlackBerrys– major updates to the Bold, Curve, Storm and Torch lines– have come out and they look incredible!

Now before we get to the new BlackBerrys, I wanna stress that for now this is all just rumors, with nothing here official or guaranteed.

BlackBerry Dakota

This looks to be the next generation of the Bold 9700 (the 9700 on AT&T, 9780 on T-Mobile and 9650 on Verizon and Sprint) line. Think of it as the top of the new BlackBerrys, with the same look of the older, original Bold 9000 (which while much wider than the Bold 9700, it brings back that awesome, huge keyboard!). Throw in specs like:

• BlackBerry OS 6.1– Though what updates are here we don’t yet know.
• Tri-band 3G with the ability to share that 3G with WiFi by turning your BlackBerry into a mobile hotspot– Think support for possibly both AT&T and/or T-Mobile 3G (and we’d expect this to be coming for both AT&T and T-Mobile).
• 2.8 inch TOUCHscreen– with a promisingly awesome 640×480 resolution, so everything– text, pix, videos, web– looks incredible on it. And while it’s a touchscreen (which some of you might not love), it’s not a slider like the Torch and still has the trackpad and other normal BlackBerry buttons right below the screen so you can use it just like any other BlackBerry.
• WiFi with support for wireless N and GPS
• 4 GB of built-in storage with microSD card slot and seperate 768 MB of RAM– One of the big problems with the latest BlackBerrys was their low amounts of RAM, the stuff needed to make your phone fast when doing things like multitasking. This Bold looks to make that problem a thing of the past.
• 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording and flash

as well as some really crazy tech like NFC (which first was seen in the Nexus S and could potentially turn your phone into your credit card) and a magnometer (which we have no idea what this could be for even after looking this up on Wikipedia. If you have any guesses let us know in the comments) and this is some BlackBerry.  Yeah, we can’t wait to hear more about this and we’ll of course keep you updated once we do.

BlackBerry Curve

The next-gen of the popular BlackBerry Curve line. While not as powerful as the above next-gen Bold, this guy is definitely pretty sick in its own right and if these pix are real, will actually look ridiculous as well (remember, everything here is just a rumor. Nothing has yet been confirmed by RIM)! With specs like BlackBerry OS 6.1, Tri-Band UMTS (AT&T and/or T-Mobile 3G), an 800 MHZ processor with 512 MB of RAM (for speed), NFC (like the above new Bold), 5 megapixel camera with flash,  WiFi with support for wireless N and GPS, and this looks like a great successor to the Curve 3G.

BlackBerry Torch 2

The first BlackBerry Torch, while it had a lot of potential, really didn’t live up to its hype in real life. Fortunately, RIM it looks like its going to give this another shot, and hopefully the second time is the charm.

One of the biggest problems with the first Torch was its speed, or lack there of. That shouldn’t be a problem here– with the Torch 2 packing a much more powerful 1.2 GHZ processor as well as 512 MB of RAM. Throw in support for T-Mobile and/or AT&T 4G HSPA (yes, 4G), and the seemingly more common 2011 BlackBerry features like a 5 megapixel camera with flash, 8 GB of built-in storage, BlackBerry OS 6.1, NFC, WiFi N and GPS, and a higher res 640×480 3.2 inch touchscreen (also a very welcome improvement from the much lower 480×360 resolution on the older Torch’s screen) and you’ve got yet another really solid BlackBerry here.

BlackBerry Storm 3

The fourth and final of the big BlackBerry leaks brings us back to one of the biggest disappointments in BlackBerry history, the Storm. Of course, this new Storm wants to change all of that, and like the above BlackBerrys, it definitely looks like it has the potential to do so. Gone are the annoying SurePress click touchscreen, cheap feeling hardware and all the other bad that accompanied the first two Storms, instead replaced with the above awesome looking design, 1.2 GHZ processor and an incredible for a BlackBerry 800×480 screen (the highest yet to ship on a BlackBerry– though obviously standard for any current high-end phone from HTC, Motorola, Samsung or Apple).

Of course, this BlackBerry isn’t expected until Q3 of this year (July-September time), and will likely have to do battle with some incredible new Android, webOS, Windows Phone 7 phones and most probably an iPhone 5 (if previous years are any indication)– so let’s hope RIM brings this out soon.

So there you have it BlackBerry fans, some very exciting new BlackBerrys to look forward to BBMing on in the new year. And if you’re curious for when we’ll possibly see these guys become official, let’s hope that with a whole bunch of big cell phone trade shows coming up (Mobile World Congress next month, CTIA in March– think CES just specifically devoted to cell phones and mobile) we should a lot hear more on all of this real soon. But wow, 2011 is off to one heck of a start for cell phones.

And make sure to check out BGR for the even more info on these new BlackBerrys, including even more pix and specs.

One of the growing must-haves for any teen going back to school is a new cell phone– and for more and more teens that cell phone is a smartphone like an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry.

A couple of weeks ago, AT&T and RIM (the makers of the BlackBerry) released the next generation of the BlackBerry platform, the touchscreen slider BlackBerry Torch with the all new BlackBerry 6 OS. So, if you’re going back to school and on AT&T, is this new BlackBerry better than other phones like the Samsung Captivate and iPhone 4? Does BlackBerry 6 have enough to keep the BlackBerry in the game with iOS, Android, webOS and the upcoming Windows Phone 7? For all those answers and more, read on for our full teen review!

As we did with the intro post on the Torch, we’re gonna break this review down into two parts– hardware and software.

Hardware

If we had to describe the Torch on a hardware level it’d be this– good, but not good enough for a 2010 flagship phone.

Plain and simple, the design of the Torch is great– perfect size screen, thin yet sturdy casing, and that expected, awesome BlackBerry keyboard we’ve seen on so many devices through the years. It just feels right when you’re holding it, both in your hand and in your pocket. And just to really focus on the keyboard as a lot of people are worried that it won’t be as good as older BBs like Tour’s or Bold 9700′s– don’t worry, it really is just as good. I’ve been typing on an iPhone screen the last 3 years and there was really no “learning curve” from when I first picked up the phone. Texting and BBM-ing from this keyboard are just perfect.

And while we love the design and appreciate the removal of the annoying SurePress screen on the other touchscreen BlackBerry– Verizon’s BlackBerry Storm series– we really wish RIM up’ed the screen resolution to be on the same level as the iPhone 4, HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid X, and Galaxy S (Samsung’s Epic 4G on Sprint, Captivate on AT&T and Vibrant on T-Mobile) phones. While the Torch’s screen is definitely usable, there is a noticeable difference of a lower quality when you switch from looking at one of the aforementioned phones to this.  Considering that there is a lot of talk about Apple adding iPhone 4-like Retina Displays to the iPod Touch soon, we believe a lot of people will be noticing this difference a lot more.

Another major downer on the Torch is it’s lag. In our tests we noticed a lot of freezing and general slowness. Whether we were in an app, in a message or the browser, or just trying to switch from BBM to Facebook, the Torch just didn’t seem capable of handling the load. Like the screen, a big reason for this could be the much underpowered processor on the Torch– a pathetic 624 MHz compared to the Droid X, EVO, iPhone 4 and Galaxy S phones 1 GHZ processors (a major and very noticeable difference in speed). For a flagship phone, this is yet another disappointment, and honestly, when you’re trying to position this as “the best BlackBerry ever” and an “evolution of the smartphone”, it needs to be able to keep up with the best everyone else offers.

The camera on the Torch was pretty good, and while it wasn’t iPhone 4 or EVO 4G-esq (particularly with video, which looked decent at best but nowhere near the great quality on those other phones); it did take some pretty solid shots that should be more than enough for capturing some fun at a party or at a game. Here are a couple of comparison shots we took between the iPhone 4 and Torch at a Yankee game last week, the Torch pix on the top, iPhone 4 pix on the bottom (click on pix for bigger shots).

Call quality on the phone (for the times when you actually use your phone as well, a phone) was pretty solid, with us hearing who we called clearly and vice versa. Speakerphone however, was like the screen– definitely usable but not the greatest, with calls sounding really distorted when on a high volume. Oh, and for some reason the Torch kept giving me an EDGE signal at the Yankee game while my iPhone 4 was giving me 4-5 bars of 3G. Data on the Torch during this time was still good with Facebook checks and BBMs going through fine, but when loading up our site and ESPN, the iPhone was noticeably faster.

Now that hardware is out-of-the-way, let’s move on to the next big piece of this phone– software, mainly BlackBerry 6 OS.

BlackBerry 6 OS

Like the hardware, the new BlackBerry 6 OS provides a mixed bag. It kind of is a minor jump instead of a complete re-do like Windows Phone 7, and that in it of itself is both a good and bad thing. If you’re used to a BlackBerry then you’ll feel right at home when you pick up a BlackBerry 6 OS device. Menus, layouts, folders– it really is the exact same as BlackBerrys’ of the past. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing– a lot of people interested in the Torch already are used to the BlackBerry and not having to learn something radically new is always nice. Plus when you add in some new features like that much improved web browser (which is finally good! Pages now load like you’d expect on an iPhone or Android and is not at all like the horrible browser seen on older BBs. Though this browser is not always as smooth as those others, but hey, one major improvement at a time!), the “new” OS really is not that bad for current BB users. We also really like the new Social Feed, which lets you easily organize your Facebook, IM (such as AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger), Twitter and RSS feeds (to automatically download the latest headlines from your favorite websites straight to your phone) into one easy to use and easy to manage place. You even can update your statuses on many of them at once (like what we’ve seen on Microsoft’s now dead KIN). Oh, and BrickBreaker with a touchscreen is a lot more fun.

All that said, not everything was so great with the new OS. For one, the onscreen keyboards were pretty bad. Be it in portrait or the wider landscape, thank goodness there is a slide out physical keyboard. The keys on both are way too close and the little letter overlay (where the letter you press gets highlighted above your finger) was really hard to read make it hard to make out what key you pressed. We also constantly found ourselves accidentally pressing the send key during texts and BBM’s before we were done (the onscreen send key looks just like any regular key on the keyboard with no significant differentiation in design or layout beyond an icon with a green outline instead of a letter). We also ran into a lot of trouble running apps off the BlackBerry App World, and many of the apps we tried out didn’t even work properly as they need to be specially redesigned for the new touchscreen (and though we were able to use the trackpad in these apps, for a GPS or photo app you really would love to pinch and zoom).

Again, with all the basic “must haves” like BBM, great messaging and a solid browser down, BlackBerry 6 OS should be fine for most current BB users—we just see too many other flaws for it to be on the same level as Android and iPhone.

Wrap Up

Well, if you’re on AT&T and looking for a back-to-school smartphone is this the phone for you? Considering your options, including getting a Captivate or iPhone 4 for the same price, we’d really recommend looking at those over this. Remember, this is a 2 year contract you’re signing up for, and if we’re seeing a lot of lag and problems today, who knows how it will keep up a year and a half from now. For current BlackBerry owners who are used to the OS or those who like/need the BBM and great texting without a  big App Store or high-res screen, you should be more than happy with this.

The Torch isn’t a bad phone, and I really see it as the best BlackBerry yet. However, if this is RIM’s way to fight off the rise of iPhone and Android, I’m not too excited for the future of the iconic brand. The Torch and BlackBerry 6 OS do a good job at narrowing the gap with the iPhone and Android (mainly with the much improved browser), but it still is underneath it all just the same old BlackBerry we’ve seen before.

The BlackBerry Torch is available now for $199 with a new 2 year contract and $15 or $25 a month data plan from AT&T.

Well, BlackBerry users– what do you think, is this your next phone?

Remember that BlackBerry Slider from a few months back? You know, the one that looked like a mix between a Palm Pre, BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Bold? Well, it’s real and is the new flagship phone from BlackBerry launching next week (August 12th) with the all new BlackBerry 6 OS on AT&T. So what’s in it and does it have the potential to match up with the EVO 4Gs, iPhone 4s and Droid Xs of the world? Read on for all the info.

Since there is a lot going on here, we’re gonna break this into two parts– the phone and the new BlackBerry 6 OS. First, the phone.

The Phone

We knew a while back when those rumored shots began leaking that BlackBerry was looking to make a big splash to try to keep up with the rapidly growing iPhone/iOS and Android– and it looks like from here they’ve succeeded. Here the specs:

• BlackBerry 6 OS– Which offers a whole slew of new improvements over the ever so old BlackBerry 5 OS that’s been on BlackBerrys for the last few years. But we’ll get to more on this in a bit….

• Sleek design with 3.2 inch multi-touch screen and slide out QWERTY keyboard– As we said in the intro, a mixture of the Pre, Storm and Bold– and this is a very good thing. At around the size of Bold 9700 (read: the perfect size of not too big, not too small and very easy to fit in a jeans pocket) and packing that same awesome 9700 keyboard and trackpad (why this is needed with a touchscreen we’re not sure), the Torch definitely is a looker. And while the screen– which is not only smaller but much lower resolution than that of the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S, EVO 4G and Droid X– may be a slight downer by today’s super-smartphone standards set by the incredible 3.5 inch iPhone and amazing 4.3 inch Droid X and EVO 4G screens, at least you can relax knowing that at least it’s not a SurePress screen like the Storm’s and is a “normal” one as you’d expect on any other touchscreen phone (meaning now you can just tap the screen to do something, not have to click it in. All I can say to this is that it’s about time).
• AT&T 3G with WiFi N and GPS– Yes, this is another AT&T exclusive for now. Oh, and like those other new smartphones, the Torch also can connect to the latest and fastest WiFi N networks.

• 5 megapixel camera with flash, autofocus and video recording– Another downer here– for some reason video recording is not HD like on the also 5 megapixel iPhone 4, instead you can only record in VGA (or the quality of video that phones from a 3 years ago took in).
• 3.5 mm headphone jack and 4 GB of built-in memory with another 4 GB on microSD card– This should be great for those looking to take advantage of the much updated media functions in BlackBerry 6 OS (which we’ll also get to in a second). You can also swap the microSD card out for one with up to 32 GB of storage for a total of 36 GB.

But the hardware is just one part of this very promising phone. Now let’s move on to the other big part software.

BlackBerry 6 OS

As we’ve seen from Android, iOS, webOS and the soon to be released Windows Phone 7– a phone is nothing without some really great software, and RIM looks to have made some great improvements in this department as well. And we’re talking really big improvements, such as:

• New web browser– It’s no secret that the old BlackBerry browser just flat-out stunk. It was horrendous in every way– slow, pages didn’t load right (and when they did they looked horrible)– just really, really bad stuff. Now in BlackBerry 6, RIM has put in a whole new web browser running the same WebKit tech found on the iOS, Android, and webOS browsers. In short, what once stunk is now finally really good (RIM actually called this phone the Torch after a company they bought a little while back called Torch that specialized in making WebKit browsers). And yes, there is pinch-to-zoom here.

• Improved home screen and menus– Everything from notifications to app layouts have been redone here, and they look really great. Notifications are really easy to access with all you have to do is tap on that new BBM, email, or other new message and a menu will drop down (just like with the Android notification bar), and there you can see all the latest messages and more. Apps also now are categorized in a “pages” type way as seen on Android and iOS (just here apps are in categories), and you can either flick between some of those categories (like media, messaging, etc.) on the home screen or tap and pull up the full list of apps. All in all, some more very nice and promising improvements.
• Updated Media Player with wireless Media Sync– You’d think we’d already have seen this on the iPhone… but seriously this is truly an awesome feature. Whether you use iTunes or Windows Media Player, the Torch and BlackBerry 6 can allow you to sync your latest music and videos wirelessly from your computer to your phone over your home WiFi network. All this plus improved media controls (like a Cover Flow-esq way of going through albums) has the makings for a much nicer media experience.

• Social Feeds– Think of how Palm or the KIN took all your social networks– Twitter, Facebook, MySpace– and put made them a core part of the OS and you get an idea of what RIM added here. The new Social Feeds basically takes those three social networks and throws in support for AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger, and of course BBM and allow you to not only view them all in one place, but to update them all at once. Between this and the new media features, it’s pretty clear that RIM is really going for more than the normal business user here.

On top of that you get a new Universal Search feature like that on iOS which allows you to easily search not just all the content on your phone but the web as well, and standard BlackBerry staples like BBM, great email and messaging, and the App World. For a full video recap of all the new BlackBerry 6 features, check out this video:

Now for those BlackBerry users wondering if your device will get some of these new upgrades, unless you got a Bold 9700, Bold 9650, or Pearl 9100 (the new Pearl with 3G that’s yet to come to the US) you look to right now be out of look with no guarantee of an upgrade being on your horizon.

The new Torch with BlackBerry 6 OS will be coming out next Thursday, August 12th, for $199.99 with a new 2 year contract and data plan on AT&T, and you can sign up for an email alert when it becomes available from AT&T’s site here.

So AT&T users– which phone would you rather get to head back to school with– iPhone 4, BlackBerry Torch or Samsung Captivate? Let us know in the comments.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably heard that Apple has released a new iPhone and that this new iPhone has been having some problems with keeping a signal when you hold it in your left hand. Of course, any new iPhone– and particularly any new iPhone problems– brings out the rumors of Apple finally adding another carrier to their cell phone world, with most of the rumors focusing on a particular carrier that’s red and rhymes with Shmerizon.

Yes, the Verizon iPhone rumors are alive and hotter than ever; with many top, well-respected publications (like the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg) chiming in by saying that a Verizon iPhone is on the way– and really soon.

So what are these rumors and what do we think of them? Read on for the full scoop.

Ok, so here are some of the latest rumors followed by our thoughts on where they make sense, and where they don’t.

The Rumor

According to Bloomberg (a highly respected and credible news organization), Apple will announce a new Verizon iPhone in January of next year. Now this follows up on a Wall Street Journal report a few months back, in March, saying that Apple will begin producing a CDMA iPhone in September (CDMA is the tech Verizon uses in their cell phones– it is less popular internationally then the tech AT&T uses called GSM). This goes along with a new report surfacing today from the Boy Genius Report saying that Apple has a fully functional iPhone ready to be used on Verizon, and all that is left to be done is to finish working out a deal with Verizon (something that is much easier said than done. If you remember, Apple initially offered Verizon the first crack at the iPhone back in 2007, but it couldn’t make a deal work so Apple went to AT&T/Cingular instead).

Why it makes sense

AT&T’s problems: It’s no secret that AT&T has had a lot of trouble with the iPhone and with delivering good service– particularly in highly populated, high-profile areas like NYC and San Francisco.  AT&T’s reputation (and to an extent by association, Apple’s) has been tarnished so bad that if you ask anyone, that’s right, ANYONE, about AT&T’s coverage  you’ll more often than not here an “it stinks” (even if in that particular place it’s pretty good). It would make sense for this reason alone for Apple to make a Verizon iPhone (or an iPhone for any other US carrier) ASAP.

The Smartphone War: But that isn’t the only reason it makes sense for Apple. Apple is now officially in what may very well turn out to be the biggest tech battle in decades — the fight for mobile phone supremacy. This “battle” includes major companies and players like HP (formerly Palm), Microsoft, RIM (aka BlackBerry) and of course, Google. To put it simply– the amount of money on the line for the top winners (or should we say survivors? And it can be more than one…) here is worth more than you could possibly even imagine — enough to make LeBron’s billionaire aspirations seem like he’s only got a couple of bucks. Yes, we’re talking many billions and probably trillions once all is said and done. And the fight’s already in full force — look at how quickly smartphone OS’s are being updated and new phones being released– a new iPhone and iOS every year, multiple new versions of Android with new phones like the Nexus One, Droid X and EVO 4G, and new OS’s like Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry 6 and webOS — it’s crazy.

The more carriers Apple gets on the more phones it can sell. The more phones it can sell, the better the chance of it coming out of this fight in a top spot.

4G: Another reason this could all make sense is 4G. It’s also no secret that the iPhone sucks in a ton of data (which is one of the reasons why AT&T has been struggling so much. No carrier was ready for the mobile revolution the iPhone brought and the millions of data hungry apps and users that came to AT&T because of it), and having 4G will make the iPhone not only much better for us users, but for the carriers too. Verizon plans to launch their 4G network in the coming months, with plans to cover over 100 million people by the end of this year alone. Verizon’s 4G is also going to be based on the more popular LTE standard (as opposed to Sprint’s WiMax tech), that AT&T and many carriers around the world plan to use– meaning Apple only needs one iPhone to sell on all the networks (which Apple would want as it wouldn’t then have to make multiple different iPhones for different carriers). The fact that you can also have LTE, GSM and CDMA in one device means that not only will this work in 4G areas when available, but on Verizon’s 3G network when it’s not (GSM/CDMA combo devices have been sold for years now — just look at any BlackBerry Storm, Tour or Bold 9650).

Perfect timing: Oh, and an announcement in January also makes perfect sense as that is when Apple tends to make its new major product announcements (see the MacBook Air, first iPhone, and this year’s announcement of the iPad as proof).

These are all very good and highly plausible reasons for why all you Verizon iPhone hopefuls out there should have faith.

Why it doesn’t

This rumor has been going on FOREVER: The rumors of the iPhone coming to Verizon have been going on FOREVER. Seriously, ever since the first iPhone was announced people have been saying the iPhone was coming to Verizon in the next year. Be it 2008, 2009, or this year, 2010. Pretty much all those years (and rumors) have come and gone, and while it might still happen in 2010 that Apple announces the Verizon iPhone, there was just as much blind faith and hope in the past with no results.

(Pic via internetnews.com)

Verizon and Apple Can’t Agree: If you think greed isn’t playing a role in why Apple hasn’t released a Verizon iPhone yet, you’re kidding yourself. Apple has what they want in a deal, and Verizon has what they want. This disagreement over terms is the reason why Verizon didn’t get the iPhone first in 2007, and it could very well be the reason why they don’t yet have one today.

The iPad– AT&T’s offering of 3G without a contract for the iPad WiFi+3G was a big sacrifice on its end. Carriers hate uncertainty and love when they can lock you into a 2 year deal. It could very well be possible that Apple negotiated an exclusivity extension for the iPhone with AT&T if they gave in a little bit here (though that rumored extension could only have been through this year, and a Verizon iPhone in 2011 could very well still be possible).

The worst timing– To release (or even announce) a new iPhone on Verizon in January right after many people went out and bought new ones as holiday gifts will surely cause a lot of uproar and bad PR, which is reason in it of itself to wait until June of next year or an announcement later this year (such as September).

(Pic from ESPN)

Talk is cheap, just look at the LeBron James  free agency– The biggest reason in all of this, is well, it’s all just talk and speculation. Anyone can makeup a rumor, particularly on a highly discussed topic like this, say it came from a “source” and soon see it spread on blogs and across the internet like wildfire. The perfect example of this is all the talk on where LeBron might sign.

I’m a die-hard New Jersey Nets fan, and in the past week leading up to the start of free agency you could have found a column in a respectable paper or website saying that a “source close to LeBron” said he’s going to sign with your team. Seriously, look at your local sports paper or ESPN– if you’re in New Jersey you open up the Bergen Record and see an article quoting a source “close to LeBron” saying that a  “he’s coming to the Nets.” Miami? You’ve got the talk that’s everything’s all set for LeBron, Chris Bosh, and D-Wade to team up in South Beach. Chicago? “Done deal” that he and Bosh are joining with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Everyone wants to know where LeBron will go, so these sites (to no fault of their own — presuming they received the intel from what they consider reliable sources) are going to run the stories and try to gain some national attention, even if all they are running truly are just rumors.

Just like LeBron with his free agency– Apple, AT&T and Verizon have said nothing on the topic of a Verizon iPhone; leading us all on to wishfully think of something that currently is no more than just pure rumor and speculation.

In the end, we’re all just gonna have to wait and keep those wishful hopes of a Verizon iPhone alive. I personally wish Apple and Verizon say something on the topic soon just so we can finally put all this talk to rest.

What do you think– do you believe these rumors are true and the iPhone is coming to Verizon real soon? If so, when you think Apple and Verizon will announce it? You think there’s a better shot of the iPhone going to a carrier like T-Mobile, which uses the same tech as AT&T right now, before it goes to Verizon? Where do you think LeBron and other star free agents will end up (I know, not a tech question here, but heck, why not)? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Wow, in summer already shaping up to be awesome for buying new phones with the releases of the EVO 4G and new iPhone, we can now possibly add to that list a new BlackBerry– that really cool touchscreen slider BlackBerry Bold 9800 we first saw a couple of months earlier.

The pix are much clearer than the ones we’ve seen in the past, and show off a couple of pretty big things, such as BlackBerry OS 6 (see above pic), the latest major update providing, among other things, a real web browser, improved media player (with its own version of Cover Flow), as well as a true multi-touch OS. Its worth noting here that the phone is also said to just be using a “normal” multi-touch screen and not the SurePress touchscreen seen on the Storm line.

The pic below is shot of the phone booting up to an AT&T screen, implying as Boy Genius Report claims, that AT&T is slated to get this monster new phone this summer!

RIM is still keeping quiet and hasn’t confirmed (or even said) anything about this phone so for the time being it’s still a rumor, but don’t worry– we’ll make sure to keep you up to date as we learn more.

Pix from TheBerryFix (here and here), and The Cellular Guru.

Is this the BlackBerry Slider?

BlackBerry fans out there- brace yourself. What we’re about to tell you is pretty HUGE news. Like seriously HUGE.

As you can see in the pic above, pix are leaking out all over the web of this– a BlackBerry that isn’t just touchscreen and isn’t just a regular BlackBerry with a full QWERTY keyboard– BUT BOTH, in a sleek-looking slider design.

Unfortunately, all that we have to go on is the pix (thanks to a site called BBLeaks)– which look to feature a touchscreen (though no SurePress as with the Storm), the new trackpad, and of course that awesome slide out full QWERTY keyboard. All in a design that doesn’t look to be much thicker than a Curve.

The BlackBerry Slider– closed and with the Curve

Ok, now for what some of the rumors on what else could be in this mysterious device. According to Boy Genius Report, this phone will run BlackBerry OS 6.0 (today’s BlackBerrys like the Bold 9700 are on 5.0, hopefully this new OS begins to separate itself from the same old BlackBerry OS we’ve been seeing for years), as well as pack WiFi capability with wireless N, for getting onto the latest and greatest WiFi networks out there. The device is also expected to use GSM/HSPA, the tech for networks like AT&T and T-Mobile, unlike the Storm, which is a Verizon exclusive (though that does not necessarily confirm nor deny the phone, or a version of it, to any of the networks). Additionally, according to CrackBerry, the Slider will also be a part of the Bold line– not the Storm.

This is clearly in the very early stages of rumors (yes, just to make sure it’s all loud and clear– this is still a rumor), but a rumor that looks to be absolutely awesome and one were hoping RIM makes official ASAP. What you think– would you buy a BlackBerry if it was a slider like this, or do you prefer your BlackBerrys to remain the same in terms of design? Share your thoughts in the comments.