Fido is a carrier in Canada known to carry basic BlackBerry smartphones including the Curve 8520, 9300 and Pearl 8100.  Based on the BlackBerry OS builds available at the official BlackBerry OS download site, it appears that the BlackBerry Bold 9790 is also listed.  The Bold 9790 is not so much a basic device, so it’s definitely a good thing to see Fido pick up.  The OS is 7.0.0.528, so it is not the latest 7.1 build we expected.  No release date or pricing has been announced for the device, but at least we know that it’s on the way!

Source: MobileSyrup, BlackBerry

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 is expected to launch any day now, leaning more towards a February 21st launch date since that’s what the rumor suggests.  However, Best Buy Canada is already advertising OS 2.0 for the BlackBerry PlayBook in this week’s flyer.  As seen in the flyer it says “BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Coming Soon.”  Again, it’s just another hint at the OS releasing shortly.  Obviously some companies are advertising it a bit early to get their customers pumped up.

Source: MobileSyrup

Carriers in the United States are very much familiar with Visual Voicemail.  Several carriers support the feature, while some do not.  In Canada, the very popular Rogers Wireless will start offering Visual Voicemail Plus starting next month (February) for BlackBerry users, except the Bold 9700 and Torch 9800.  To access, it will be available in an application called Visual Voicemail Plus, which I’m guessing is going to get pushed to BlackBerry smartphones with a home screen link or may require a manual download.

Visual voicemail for Rogers customers is expected to cost the same as non-visual voicemail is currently.  Once again, we’ll be expecting to see it in February.

 

Source: Technapedia, CrackBerry

Last night it was discovered that BBM Canada was attempting to bring Research In Motion to court over the “BBM” trademark which the company is using.  Today RIM responds to the accusations with this official statement:

“Since its launch in July 2005, BlackBerry Messenger has become a tremendously popular social networking service. In 2010, RIM started to formally adopt the BBM acronym, which had, at that point, already been organically coined and widely used by BlackBerry Messenger customers as a natural abbreviation of the BlackBerry Messenger name. The services associated with RIM’s BBM offering clearly do not overlap with BBM Canada’s services and the two marks are therefore eligible to co-exist under Canadian trademark law. The two companies are in different industries and have never been competitors in any area. We believe that BBM Canada is attempting to obtain trademark protection for the BBM acronym that is well beyond the narrow range of the services it provides and well beyond the scope of rights afforded by Canadian trademark law. RIM has therefore asked the Court to dismiss the application and award costs to RIM. Further, for clarity, RIM’s application to register BBM as a trademark with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is pending and we are confident that a registration will eventually issue. The inference by BBM Canada that CIPO has refused RIM’s BBM trademark application is quite frankly very misleading.”

So there it is! RIM has a pending application to register “BBM” as a trademark at the moment.  Nice to see RIM put their foot down on this one, rather than eat the bullet and have to change a name of their product as we saw with BlackBerry 10.

Fido in Canada is known to carry BlackBerry smartphones way later after the device launches from the manufacturer.  This time around we’re surprised to see that the company has stepped up their game and launched the BlackBerry Curve 9360.  Ok so it’s a basic lower end BlackBerry smartphone, but is still a great device and carries a feature some other OS 7 devices don’t- NFC.  The BlackBerry Curve 9360 gets OS 7 preloaded, 800MHz, 5MP camera, 480 x 360 screen resolution with 3G and WiFi capability.  Fido is selling the device for only $30 on a 3 year contract.

BlackBerry Curve 9360 from Fido >>

Source: MobileSyrup

Rogers Wireless in Canada just released the all new BlackBerry Bold 9790.  As far as pricing goes, you can get it as low as $99 on a 3-year contract, $349 on a 2-year contract, $399 on a 1-year contract, and $449 with no strings attached.  You can order yours online now, not sure about in store but if you drop by a Rogers store, let us know!

BlackBerry Bold 9790 from Rogers >>

It looks like Rogers is getting the BlackBerry Bold 9790.  The device should be making its way to various carriers in no time!  MobileSyrup got a leaked document showing the full pricing of the BlackBerry Bold 9790 Rogers.  The pricing is as follows:

• 3-year contract: $99.99 (with a $45/monthly voice and data plan)
• 2-year contract: $349.99
• 1-year contract: $399.99
• No-contract: $449.99

With the BlackBerry Bold 9900 available, does the 9790 appeal to your interest at all? Some prefer the 9790 form factor over the larger 9900 device, but specs play a big role as well.

The BlackBerry Bold 9790 had its first launch in Indonesia, leaving the rest of the world hanging for a little bit until other carriers got the opportunity to pick it up and offer to its customers.  Now we’re seeing Virgin Mobile Canada is up for picking up the Bold 9790.  It’s a good sign since we can assume it will be branching off to other carriers as well.  It would have been a shame to see the 9790 go through the same exclusive as the Torch 9800 did in the United States last year with AT&T.  The BlackBerry Bold 9790 gets a 1GHz processor, 3G connectivity, NFC chip built-in, and a 5MP camera.  It’s not the best under the hood but falls somewhere in the middle.  Pricing hasn’t been confirmed yet, but MobileSyrup who got the leaked photo suggests it will be between $450 and $480.

The BlackBerry Curve 9380 has made its way to Telus in an official launch yesterday.  Folks in the region can expect to pay $49 on a 3 year, $269 on a 2 year, $319 on a 1 year, and $369 outright with no contract.  The Curve 9380 is the first touchscreen device in the Curve family.  It brings out basic specs, but far better than Curves we’ve seen in the past.  You get 800MHz, 480 x 360 screen resolution, NFC, and a 5MP camera.  Click the link below to check out more on the device at Telus.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 at Telus >>

Bell is expected to pick up the recently announced BlackBerry Bold 9790 on December 2nd. So far we’ve seen nothing but Canadian carriers picking this device up, which seems to be the trend lately anyway.  A quick recap on the specs, the Bold 9790 is touchscreen with full QWERTY keyboard, has a 2.4 inch display, OS 7, 5MP camera with autofocus, NFC, and more.  There’s no word on pricing that Bell will offer for the new device but details will surface soon as we get closer to the launch date.

Source: MobileSyrup