Previously before DevCon which took place last week, I chatted with other BlackBerry enthusiasts on how BBM would work on the BlackBerry PlayBook.  I certainly don’t want to have two separate BBM lists (I’m sure many of you don’t either), and for that reason we came to the conclusion that it would all work flawlessly through BlackBerry ID.  According to a rumor from BGR, RIM is having issues with multi-device BBM at the moment which is resulting in OS 2.0 to launch mid-February.

It’s pretty disappointing to hear that especially since RIM promised it would be launched by the end of DevCon.  Instead we’ve been given a developer build of 2.0, missing core features that have been long waited for.  What are your thoughts?

A tipster from Boost Mobile let us know that the company has decided to get rid of the BlackBerry Style 9670, already.  With that said, it’s obvious that the device is not doing well at all.  Sprint did away with it at first then later passed it along to their prepaid division Boost which obviously did poorly.

As of now, retail locations are still carrying the device and it seems to be available online still.  Perhaps we’ll see them get rid of whatever stock is around and that’ll be the end of it.

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I was at the AT&T store over the weekend and managed to chat a bit with a BlackBerry representative in the store handing out marketing promos and such for the brand.  We discussed PlayBook quite a bit and features we’re dying to see surface (native PIM apps, etc.).  I mentioned the BlackBerry Bold 9900, and he said they’re getting ready to launch it on AT&T "next week" with no exact date mentioned.  So there really is no solid here other than a BlackBerry rep saying it is coming up.  We already know AT&T announced it was coming soon on Twitter over the weekend which led me to believe this guy was being a bit accurate and wasn’t far from reality.  I must say I’m looking forward to the 9900 as the 9810 doesn’t cut it for us former Bold users.

 

According to N4BB who heard a tip from a RIM NFC engineer, the company was asked by T-Mobile to specifically block out NFC capability via vendor ID.  This means that no matter what OS you install on your T-Mobile 9900, you won’t get NFC to work.

Surely the service isn’t usable at the moment, but in time RIM and other app developers have plans to take advantage of the feature. Bothered or does it really not matter to you?

It looks like BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry App World are due for some small updates tomorrow according to a tip BerryReview received from a source.  If all is correct, BBM will be updating to v6.0.1 and BlackBerry App World to v3.0.1.  For App World, we’ll be seeing general performance enhancements but no new features included.  The BBM update will be getting Social Platform API changes and also general performance enhancements but no actual new features either.

As always, let us know if any of the updates pop up for you.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is one of the best devices RIM pushed out this year.  By popular demand it sold out at various carriers including T-Mobile and Sprint.  The form factor of it is too good for RIM to move on from in future devices I think.  So that brings us to the latest rumor that RIM is currently working on a refresh for the BlackBerry Bold 9900.

It’s still unknown what revisions will be made here, but the tip says it’s currently being worked on and that’s it.  It would be interesting to see if this “refresh” launches for AT&T.  Hopefully it has more, rather than less bundled up.  AT&T already said they don’t want NFC, so I’m hoping RIM doesn’t do away with the chip when it launches allegedly in November.  Maybe this “refresh” is for QNX OS? What are your thoughts?

Source: N4BB

This one came out of no where and comes as a huge shocker if it’s true.  As far as we know, AT&T holds the BlackBerry Torch 9800 and newly released 9810 exclusively in the United States.  I guess we were mistaken as to how long the “exclusive” terms were for.  That’s only assuming this is true.  From what it looks to be is a roadmap from T-Mobile showing upcoming future devices, one of which is the Torch 9810.  In the screenshot it’s codenamed the BlackBerry “Dumoine.”  I don’t know about you, but the screenshot looks legit to me.  Who’s up for a Torch from T-Mobile?

Earlier today we showed you BlackBerry Messenger on Android screenshots which appeared to be fake only because of the stock screenshots that were used.  Now we’re seeing it again, this time with clearer photos and it just makes everything confusing all over again.

TechnoBuffalo suggest these are real and the images came from a RIM employee who has stated the following:

I work for RIM and I was shown the latest version of bbm for android. I ran the app on the blackberry android dev phone.( The dev phone feels very cheap and unstable and the front four buttons have just been stuck on. I don’t believe this phone will ever be released to the public.) The latest version certainly looks better than the previous version.

Just to clarify for the leaks earier this week, the “Nicole” account in the previous photos is the default account for BBM Testing.

There’s an explanation for the screenshots in the second paragraph about Nicole, but that seems way too fishy to me.  Sounds like a cover up of some false rumors if you ask me.  The screenshots are exactly identical to the stock images RIM used in their post in the past.  RIM has denied Android support for BBM already, so this leaves us at a mystery.  More screenshots after the jump!

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Yesterday TechRadar received some screenshots of what looks to be BlackBerry Messenger on Android OS.  RIM had already declared that they had no plan on bringing BlackBerry Messenger to other platforms, and honestly would be quite silly if they did.  They are also aware that the screenshots might be fake, but we definitely believe they are 100%.  The screenshot seen comes from a BlackBerry Developer’s Blog post.  I must say they did a decent job getting the screenshot onto the device, but I think the phonies need to try harder.

We already knew that QNX BlackBerry smartphones would be floating around BlackBerry DevCon this year for us to check out.  Last year RIM’s big DevCon announcement was the BlackBerry PlayBook and this year should be QNX on BlackBerry smartphones.  CrackBerry put out a rumored tip today suggesting that the QNX OS for BlackBerry smartphones is to be called BlackBerry X or BBX.  OSX obviously wouldn’t work since Apple has that pretty locked down.  RIM is expected to announce the new OS at DevCon, as I can’t imagine we’ll be seeing QNX smartphones out in the wild at the event without RIM officially announcing them.  Let’s just hope the devices aren’t displayed behind glass like the PlayBook last year.