Finally! A GSM carrier in the United States has picked up OS 7.1 officially.  T-Mobile announced on Twitter that both devices get OS 7.1 today.  You can grab it for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Torch 9810.

Download for T-Mobile OS 7.1>>

T-Mobile USA has a new beta available in BlackBerry Beta Zone for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Torch 9810.  The OS version is 7.1.0.284 and includes features such as mobile hot spot, WiFi calling, BlackBerry Tag (NFC), and universal search web engine.  RIM had mentioned years ago they would start providing their beta OS builds for users to install on their own so it’s definitely nice to see T-Mobile USA hop on the wagon.  If only all US carriers would be included in these betas too!

Download from Beta Zone >>

Source: BerryReview

It’s a bit mysterious to know exactly what RIM and T-Mobile are up to here.  According to TmoNews who received the leaked invite image, the event will feature “sneak preview of Blackberry’s latest and upcoming technology.”  At the same time, we see a BlackBerry 7 logo on the invitation which throws us off a bit.  Will we be seeing more BlackBerry 7 devices or is this for BlackBerry 10 smartphones?!

An awesome sale is headed to T-Mobile!  TmoNews grabbed a screenshot showing that T-Mobile has a special offer coming on February 11th where new and current customers can get some popular smartphones free.  While browsing through the devices pictured, I noticed the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Curve 9360 are both listed.  So if you were looking for that upgrade soon, it might be worth waiting until February 11th, the Bold 9900 obviously being the better choice.

It looks like T-Mobile is officially rolling out OS 7.1.0.205 for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 now.  Previously we saw leaks for 7.1.0.205 and 7.1.0.190 and now the .205 got the official release.  This includes Mobile Hotspot and yes WiFi calling at at last, which is a key feature to T-Mobile smartphones and was missing since the device launched.  For now it looks to be an over the air update from your smartphone but it should show up on T-Mobile’s website soon.

Source: BerryReview

T-Mobile has sent out emails to BlackBerry users that a beta version of OS 7.1 is available in BlackBerry Beta Zone for customers to download.  It has already gone official for CDMA users, and currently in beta for GSM users for the time being.  If you have T-Mobile, head over to BlackBerry Beta Zone to download and let us know how it is.

Download OS from Beta Zone >>

Source: BerryReview

I guess this means goodbye to the T-Mobile BlackBerry Torch 9810.  T-Mobile has decided to pull the device after only being on the market for roughly 8 weeks. My curiosity had gotten the best of me so I went down to my local T-mobile store to find out what happened. Of course after being in the store for a few minutes I began to draw a conclusion on why the device was placed as EOL.

The cost of the BlackBerry Torch 9810 with a contract was 300$. That is more than most of the other smartphones that T-Mobile carries, and the same price of the very popular BlackBerry Bold 9900. After watching the employees in the store sell for a few minutes I noticed almost every single phone that was being recommended was an android device (most of these interactions were customers not knowing what phone to purchase and the sales representatives recommendation was an android device almost every time). With these factors it’s no wonder why the device is being EOL’ed at such a short self life.

 

Source: TmoNews

Just like we’ve seen with Verizon and AT&T, T-Mobile has joined the club and pushed itself its own category in BlackBerry App World for its customers.  This wasn’t overnight and apparently has been out for a few weeks now.  Most of the applications on the list are generic as many users have access to them.  Mobile Security is an app T-Mobile partnered up with Asurion for and that’s on the list as well.  Other apps include Flixster, OpenTable, Aces Jewel Hunt and more!  There doesn’t seem to be a category set on Sprint yet, but we’ll see if that happens.

Since the announcement of the acquisition of T-Mobile from AT&T, it’s been nothing but issues for the company to get settled.  The news is starting to roll out now, but it looks like AT&T has pulled out from the buyout now, more or so a mutual agreement with Deutsche Telekom as stated in a memo sent out to T-Mobile employees.  Here’s the full memo:

Today AT&T and Deutsche Telekom announced they have mutually decided to terminate their agreement for AT&T to acquire T-Mobile USA. This announcement effectively ends the acquisition process launched March 20, including the regulatory approvals process with the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. Additionally, with the termination of the agreement, T-Mobile will receive certain spectrum licenses and a 3G roaming agreement from AT&T, and AT&T will pay $3B to our parent company, Deutsche Telekom.

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Last week CarrierIQ was definitely among one of the bigger trending topics when it comes to the mobile industry.  CarrierIQ was claimed to be existent in all mobile devices where carriers would be able to snoop messages sent received for their customers.  BlackBerry smartphones were accused to have CarrierIQ software, but RIM suggested that they do not install any of that on their smartphones.

TmoNews published a document today showing that CarrierIQ software is installed on the BlackBerry Curve 9360, Bold 9900, and Torch 9810.  But T-Mobile claims it is not snooping on what you’re doing.  This is what’s mentioned in the document:

• Battery performance: If a customer’s device battery appears not to be holding a charge, T-Mobile can determine if the issue is the battery, charger or device
• Dropped calls: If a customer attempts to make a call and the call fails, T-Mobile can determine whether the cause was the handset or the network
• Application failures: If a customer uses an application, preinstalled or downloaded from a third-party marketplace, and the app fails, T-Mobile will be able to troubleshoot that app failure, which may be perceived by the customer to be the device freezing/crashing

Does the info drive you away from T-Mobile or not concern you at all as a customer?