FreshPhoneNews.com

And finally the new 1.1.0.11 version of the BlackBerry App World is here. The rumored update had promised the ability to download and run apps from extendable memory, since BlackBerry devices are sadly anorexic when it comes to internal memory. Sadly the new App World has killed all such rumors in cold blood. What the new version will let you do is archive the app. Yes, archive. These archives can be stored internally or on a memory card so that, in the event the user wishes to reinstall an app again, he or she can do so quickly and easily. A couple of annoying bugs (small bugs) have been fixed, there’s also faster icon loading, available memory display and a separation between top free and top paid apps.

via

Ok, so the four major carriers in the United States have all dished out smartphones your way. Which do you chose? What we’d like to give you hear is a simple cost analysis, based on how low a price you effectively have to pay to own a smartphone on any one of the big four. Most websites generally do a comparison based on the contract price of the handset plus the price of an unlimited plan. Not everyone turns to unlimited plans, and if you’ve got the bucks for an unlimited plan, it certainly means that a decision based on the ‘cheapest’ plan will work just as well for you. It’s just practical, savvy smartphone users maybe onto certain features, techno-geeks will probably jump at the highest level of specifications and if you’re dad is the monopoly guy what the hell do you care what anything costs. But for average Joe who thinks it’s about time he owned a smartphone, here’s how much you’ll have to pay to get your foot into the door.

T-Mobile G1:

Handset: $149.99

Monthly cost [UPDATED]: $29.99 voice plan (300 minutes, unlimited weekends), $24.99 T-Mobile G1 Unlimited Web (unlimited Web/email/data)

$54.98/month — $1,319.52 over 2 years + $149.99 for the phone

Total: $1,469.51 (excludes SMS/MMS, starting at $5/month)

Sprint, Palm Pre:

Handset: $199.99 (after $100 rebate)

Activation fee: $36

Monthly cost [UPDATED]: $69.99 Everything Data Plan (450 minutes, unlimited nights/weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited Web/email/data, unlimited SMS/MMS, unlimited GPS navigation)

$69.99/month — $1,679.76 over 2 years + $235.99 for the phone plus activation (after $100 mail-in rebate)

Total: $1,915.75 (after $100 mail-in rebate)

Verizon Wireless, BlackBerry Storm:

Handset: $149.99

Activation fee: $35

Monthly cost: $39.99 voice plan (450 minutes, unlimited nights/weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile), $29.99 Email and Web for BlackBerry (BIS, Web)

$69.98/month — $1,679.52 over 2 years (excluding SMS/MMS) + $184.99 for the phone plus activation

Total: $1,864.51 (excludes SMS/MMS, starting at $5/month)

AT&T, Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB:

Handset : $199

Activation fee: $36

Monthly cost: $39.99 Nation 450 w/Rollover (450 minutes, 5000 night/weekend minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile), $30 Data Plan for iPhone (unlimited Web/email/data)

$69.99/month — $1,679.76 over 2 years + $235 for the phone plus activation

Total: $1,914.76 (excludes SMS/MMS, starting at $5/month)

So the final decision still depends on what you want most. All four carriers offer similar plans that target both the high-end and low-end of the market. But these prices also come with deductions like fewer minutes or some other perk. And if you think you can just walk into the retail store of any carrier and expect advise in your best interest, think again, those reps are hired to sell, not stop sales. Even a blogger can just give you information, but the final decision is yours. What do you absolutely need and want in your smartphone, and can you afford it. These are the minimum bucks you’re expected to fork over.

Been itching to grab a BlackBerry Storm? Amid all this Pre and iPhone 3G war of the worlds, if you’ve been looking for something solid and sensible to grab well Best Buy Mobile has it for you. By ‘You’ I mean you who are Best Buy Reward Zone members. If you’re one then you have a pretty good reason for doing a lap around your computer table because Best Buy will be offering two sweet deals to all its Reward Zone members. The offer is valid through June 14 to the 20^th and you must be signed up before or by the 13^th of the same month or you end up paying the $99.99 price tag like everyone else.

The two deals offered by Best Buy are:

• Premier Silver members are eligible for a FREE Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm (with 2-year new activation)
• All Reward Zone members can get a Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm for $49.99 (with 2-year new activation)

Enjoy!

While we love our BlackBerrys, and they are the greatly reliable smartphones, the do suffer from one ailment; lame web browser. The built in web browser on the ‘Berry is good only for WAP sites and it’s slower than most sloths. This is why you’ll be finding a huge number of ‘Berry users turning to third party browsers such as the Opera Mini and Bolt to get the desired web action. But of course no web browser is as fierce as the Skyfire browser that WinMo and S60 users have. And now finally the BlackBerry crowd will have some Skyfire love. so far the process is in its alpha stages, with some BlackBerry users being offered the opportunity to alpha test the Skyfire browser on their BlackBerry. Testing will begin shortly with Bold users and then be expanded to those with a Curve, Pearl and 8830. Some of you lucky people out there will be running around with Flash, Quicktime and Silverlight-capable BlackBerrys. There isn’t any mention of Skyfire alpha testing for the Storm though, sad. Here’s the email Skyfire sent out;

Hello,

You sent us an email asking about Skyfire for the BlackBerry.  We are looking for early Alpha testers to help us develop Skyfire for BlackBerry. If you like to be the first on the block, and on the bleeding edge (bugs!), please sign up and give us a steady stream of feedback so together we can make browsing on the BlackBerry the best it can be.

To participate, you will need:

1.      BlackBerry Bold, Curve, Pearl or 8830  (Note: we are kick starting the alpha with the Bold)

2.      Live in the US

3.      Participate under NDA

4.      Post your feedback and experience in our User Forum

5.      Be capable and willing to install new alpha releases as we publish them

If you’d like to participate, please send an email to [redacted] and tell us

1.      Preferred email address

2.      Cellular carrier

3.      BlackBerry model

4.      BlackBerry phone number (to send you links to download)

We’ll send you the NDA and details about the program.

Thanks,

Skyfire Support

Slash Gear reported a while ago that the Storm was in for an upgrade; the next Storm that Verizon Wireless would be launching would be a Wi-Fi version. Well it seems they were dead on, and not only this, RIM has also come up with a new touchscreen that is allegedly supposed to make typing pure joy. RIM is calling the new touchscreen technology TruePress (um…yeah, really creative). So the BlackBerry Storm 2 will have Wi-Fi, new touchscreen technology and, if RIM is really as smart as they say they are; a 5 megapixel camera.

via

News for Storm users, Google just announced a few days ago that Google Maps on the Verizon BlackBerry Storm will now use GPS for My Location. That’s right, you lot now get to use Google Maps tailored to utilize the built in GPS of the Storm. Just point your browser here and get the latest version of Google Maps. The new version reportedly adds to accuracy in both My Location as well as Latitude. Sad part of this news, this is only for the Storm, even if you have an internal GPS like the BlackBerry 8130, you still won’t be getting GPS love on My Location.

While RIM didn’t bring anything resoundingly new to the MWC, the MWC era left RIM with something to smile about. The Global Mobile Awards at Barcelona dubbed RIM’s ‘SurePress’ screen (yeah the one on the Storm) as the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough. Umm….exactly why is a mystery to many. The SurePress screen has not exactly gotten the wao from Storm users, maybe because all the other flaws of the handset were too glaring or maybe because the screen simply wasn’t a capacitive keypad. Also, the SurePress slows down the handset and typing emails takes longer. An award worthy attribute? I think not. Sure the concept is nice, but RIM needs to build practicality into it. And while corporate big boys need a gold star on their homework just like everybody else, how about something that makes a little sense to the user of their devices?

Here’s the word from Global Mobile Awards.

Here’s another bit of goodness from Verizon, in fact, it’s more than a bit; it’s a great big chunk. How’d you like to buy a BlackBerry and get another one for free? Well Verizon is offering you the chance to do just that. And yes, in addition to the Samsung Alias and Palm Centro, you get the BlackBerry Storm in that offering as well. This is what is known as a BOGO Buy One Get One (free) sale. Here are the terms and conditions;

1.      The promotion runs from tomorrow, February 6th, until March 31st.

2.      Buy any BlackBerry Verizon offers and get another one for free (equal or lesser value).

3.      There is no mail in debit card necessary when purchasing the Storm, for the Curve 8330 and 8830, you’ll still get a $70 debit card back from the purchase of the first device.

4.      Each device requires a two-year activation with corresponding data plan (BlackBerry data plan).

Pretty sane terms and conditions. Now here are the pricing details;

1.      BlackBerry Storm, $199.99, no debit card on either first or second Storm

2.      BlackBerry Curve 8330, $79.99 after a $70 debit card (after Valentine’s Day, it jumps to $99.99)

3.      BlackBerry 8830 Global, $99.99 after $70 debit card

4.      BlackBerry Pearl 8130, $19.99 after $100 debit card

5.      Palm Centro, $49.99 after a $70 debit card

6.      Samsung Alias, $49.99 after a $50 debit card

Oh yeah and the folks at BGR also found the release date for the BlackBerry Storm OS update on Verizon; March 31^st.

Contrary to all the blogosphere anticipated, Bell has officially announced the BlackBerry Storm. It’s a close release following that made by Telus. Bell has made the Storm available across Canada at stores as well as online. If you live in a rural area, your best option is to order online.

Now for pricing, Bell is offering the Storm for a 3 year contract at $249.99 paired with a minimum per month of $45 worth of voice and data. FYI, that’s $5 more than Telus is charging, great marketing move.

You shouldn’t be expecting huge stock levels at the stores. Bell is currently pitching the Storm to new customers and mailing $50 rebate coupons to its old customers for a January purchase of the Storm. There isn’t any word on when reasonable stock levels will finally be held by either Telus or Bell. In anycase, if you want a Storm before Christmas Canada, now you got your options.

Well for those of you who had their hearts set on getting a BlackBerry Storm out of Bell, there is sad news. Despite the fact that there was a resounding rumor about Bell launching the Storm on December 15, it now seems that the company has postponed the launch. The officials at Bell still say the Storm will be available for Christmas but the fact is that managers are being ordered to suggest to clients on the Storm wait list alternatives. And this is what’s getting everyone’s ears all pricked up. Here’s a little something that adds spice, the guys at BGR have picked up this little bit;

We are being told to take down all promotional P.O.P. (point of purchase displays) for the Storm and are being advised to expect a delay in Storm shipments. They did not say how much of a delay but managers are being advised to start making up sales through the current Bell line up for the Christmas season as we may not see the storm till after the Christmas rush. (Which if the last few years are any indication we usually consider the first 2 weeks of January apart of the Christmas/New Year rush)

We are also being told to stop taking names for “waiting lists” and that in the near future we may need to start contacting these current “wait list” clients to offer them new solutions.

Another word on the block is that Telus may be delaying the launch of the Storm as well. Now considering that Telus had been advertising the Storm for over a month, would this be wise? And why do these two companies want to delay shipping of the Storm? It could be that the OS still need further tweaking, but since the upgrades are available and all over the place, it’s not likely. No, this is probably a number of units manufactured are embarrassingly less the number of units demanded. Verizon still hasn’t met all of its pre-orders for the Storm. So now are Bell and maybe Telus trying not to offend users by having a short supply? That really maybe the case.