Yesterday we saw announced on Facebook that the BlackBerry Torch 9810 was headed to AT&T on August 21st.  No pricing was attached until later on when AT&T themselves came out on Facebook and made the announcement which RIM did for them earlier.  In the post we see an extremely low price of $49.99 for the device with a 2 year contract.  That’s the cheapest BlackBerry we’ve seen at launch in a very long time.  What a steal.

Source: BerryReview

UPDATE:  We got the word that this update included a fix for Facebook connection when uploading your scrapbooks.  That’s it!

Scrapbook for BlackBerry PlayBook officially launched back at BlackBerry World this year.  It’s a fun app which allows you to make scrapbooks (hence the name) with photo collages adding text bubbles and funny images to them.  Last time around we saw Scrapbook update to v1.1.0.4, and today it’s bumped up slightly to version 1.1.05.  I don’t really notice anything new in the application as of now and didn’t really experience any problems with the previous version so I’ll assume this one goes out to bug fixes.  If you spot anything new give us a holler in the comments.

Scrapbook for BlackBerry PlayBook >>

I don’t see any point to launching the device lacking features it will gain later on.  According to this leaked screenshot from T-Mobile, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is launching without WiFi calling capability.  So no UMA love whatsoever.  It does specifically say that the feature will not be present at launch, so one assumes it will come along eventually, perhaps through an OS update.  T-Mobile users – do you rely on the UMA feature, or could you do without it when upgrading to the BlackBerry Bold 9900?

It looks like RIM has updated their BlackBerry Travel app to v 1.1.45.99. The change log shows that it has added support for additional countries including Austria, Brazil, Germany, and Italy.

So if you are in those countries you can take advantage of BlackBerry Travel. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this app here is a brief description of what it does. BlackBerry Travel makes it easy to plan, book, manage, and share your travel plans and destinations; as well as help find hotels, and flight schedules all from your BlackBerry. BlackBerry ravel will also push notifications to you in case your travel plans-like your flight schedule-change.  One really cool feature is the ability to share travel plans with contacts on LinkedIn.

Now what would be great to see if they make this an application that can connect with BBM.

You can pick BlackBerry Travel here

Earlier today we got the word that Bell would be launching the BlackBerry Curve 9360 on August 29th.  Now we’re seeing that T-Mobile is in line to get the device as well as soon as September 14th.  Two leaked screenshots have surfaced, one showing the Curve 9360 launching in September, and the other as seen above showing a September 14th launch date.  I guess this is the next device RIM is set to announce.  No pricing is available just yet either.

TmoNews

For months we’ve been excited to see an NFC enabled BlackBerry launch officially, but there really hasn’t been a huge need for the technology as it’s still too early.  Some BlackBerry Bold 9900 units come without NFC.  From AT&T, we learned that they are keeping the chip inside, but will have a software lock on it.  Perhaps we’ll see them do “thorough testing” like they did with Bridge for the BlackBerry PlayBook.  Any way, this is what RIM has to say about NFC:

“RIM believes that NFC is an exciting technology that will enable many new capabilities, and we are aligning with our partners in supporting the overall NFC ecosystem by investing in NFC in our products. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 series are the first to be NFC ready and we are working closely with carrier partners on their roll out plans for NFC.”

Kind of generic, but basically it’s carriers not wanting to get in on NFC just yet.  If it bothers you so much, you can pick up an international model with it built it.  But I’m sure many won’t care since NFC is too new to be essential in any life techie aspects.

Source: IntoMobile

With no official announcement from RIM on the device, the BlackBerry Curve 9360 is expected to launch officially on August 29th.  From what we’ve seen so far, the BlackBerry Curve 9360 comes equipped with NFC, something the Bold 9900 has and every other OS 7 device in the lineup lacks.  Also mobile hotspot was spotted on it as well, but RIM hasn’t come out of the closet on this feature for any of these new devices yet.  The Curve 9360 is intended to be a basic OS 7 device sporting 480 x 360 resolution as we have already on previous OS 6 devices, 2.44 inch screen, 800MHz rather than the 1.2GHz we see in the Bold 9900 and new Torch family, the standard 5MP camera, and of course OS 7 right out the box.  Bell is expected to launch the device on August 29th.  Is anyone interested in this one over any other?

Source: MobileSyrup

 

Now here’s a different method of making new BBM friends.  Imagine going out to the bar, and someone scans your shirt to get you on BBM rather than approaching you to talk.  Pretty crazy idea, and hopefully that’s not what socializing will evolve to.  BBMShirts.com provides shirts customized with your BBM barcode so anyone can walk up to you and scan it.  Warning, this is not a good idea for those who are constantly changing BlackBerry devices like myself.  There’s two different designs – one that just shows your BBM pin barcode and the other with your BBM pin barcode in a chat bubble that says “PING Me Baby” like the hit song.  Check them out and maybe you’ll want one for yourself.

BBM Shirts >>

Angry Farm for BlackBerry has updated to version 1.1.26 earlier today.  The update includes 80 new levels making it amount to 200 levels in total.  Also, the OS 7 devices are now supported which includes the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930, Torch 9810, and Torch 9850/9860.  I’m curious to see how smooth the game runs on OS 7 devices since it was quite sluggish on “yesterday’s” BlackBerry smartphones.  Anyone who has a OS 7 device, let us know it runs for you.

Angry Farm for BlackBerry >>

I bet most are still wondering what the deal is with the BlackBerry Bold 9900.  AT&T is scheduled to launch the BlackBerry Torch 9810 on August 21st according to a Facebook post AT&T put out earlier today.  Still nothing on the AT&T page for the Torch 9810, but a Facebook announcement is just as good right? AT&T promised the Torch 9810 in August with the Bold 9900 and Torch 9860 coming soon so it’s no surprise that we’re seeing the device launching solo.  Just would be nice to see since every other carrier has Bold 9900/9930 launch dates.

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