Looks as if an early October release for the Blackberry Bold isn’t going to happen. Invitations have been sent for a very late October series of big city launch events which begin on October 15 in Chicago and wrap up in New York City on October 30 (early trick or treat anyone). Most product launches occur within a week or two of these unveilings - leading web site Crackberry.com to predict a November 2 launch. And in answer to RIM’s question “What Makes You Bold?” - take a look at RIM’s advertising photo of the woman scuba diving. Not only does she appear to have forgotten to snap up her BC (Buoyancy Compensator) but she has enough gauges dangling beneath her to ensure she’ll be snagging some of the sea bottom. Let’s hope she’s diving with a buddy.

Crackberry

The Treo Pro really needs to be a success for Palm. The company that was once a team of innovators has obviously been talking to the green movement, since for ages they seem to have just been recycling. The Treo 750 was good, but flawed when put up against the competition.

For a kick off there was still no WiFi, despite the move by other manufacturers to make it a regular feature in their high-end phones. GPS was notably absent too, and the design was all too similar to the Treo 650, which came out in 2004. Its chubby dimensions didn’t house an overly beefy battery either, which provided the first UMTS Treo with pretty poor battery life.

The new one though looks to change all that. The Treo Pro really is a big step up from the 750 in some areas, but falls over in one crucial place that the previous Treos excelled.

Note: Additional larger images in the gallery at the end of the review

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Update 8-22-08: MobileComputerMag pulled their video (at RIM’s request) due to concerns that the Bold was not running on Wi-Fi as the iPhone was - and therefore the browser speed comparison was not valid. The key issue appears to be that the Bold didn’t let them turn off cellular data in favor of Wi-Fi. Here’s an alternate video that still appears to show the Bold browser as only 1/2 as fast as the iPhone browser. We’ll update the video when they post further information. Our original post based on the old video: There’s a new video that compares the yet to be released Blackberry Bold’s web browser to the iPhone browser. Both phones were connected via Wi-Fi and the speed difference is an eye opener. This comparison doesn’t even take into consideration the much smaller Blackberry Bold screen which makes the browsing experience much less useful. I’ve long said that the mobile battle is going to be won or lost based on the mobile browser. As a matter of fact, here are my 10 reasons that I think RIM is doomed (written back in May when I swapped devices for an iPhone). Based on this comparison I continue to be very negative on RIM’s long term prospects and still consider Blackberry’s popularity as having peeked.

Citigroup Tests, Likes RiM’s “Bold” But No Game-Changer

According to an article in today’s Inquirer, Orange is announcing that they’ll take stock of the Blackberry Bold on August 14th and start selling the Blackberry Bold in the UK beginning on Saturday August 16th. According to the article, the Bold will be free on a 2 year contract and if all goes as planned will beat T-Mobile UK to market by a few weeks. The Bold is the widely anticipated next generation Blackberry device which will make use of the 3G data networks that cellular companies cannot wait to charge you more for.

Orange claims Bold first with Blackberry via ShinyShiny

T-Mobile in the UK is announcing the Blackberry Bold will ship for their customers in September 2008. This is one of the first carriers to officially announce availability of the newest high speed RIM device and is the first T-Mobile Blackberry® on 3G and Quad-band for use all over the world, including the Far East.

For additional high-speed network coverage, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone supports the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi® standards, meaning that T-Mobile customers can benefit from the world’s largest Wi-Fi network, with over 1,000 T-Mobile HotSpots in the UK and 27,000 worldwide. It is also the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world, including the Far East.

With this powerful new smartphone, users can talk on the phone while sending and receiving email or accessing the web, and the BlackBerry Bold also allows users to download Word, Excel or PowerPoint email attachments and edit them directly on the handset with the preinstalled DataViz® Documents to Go® software suite “ a great advantage for those working on the go. The BlackBerry Bold also comes with a 2 megapixel camera that supports video capture and a media player for taking entertainment on the go. It includes 1 GB of on-board storage memory, as well as a microSD/SDHC memory card slot for additional storage of music, video, pictures and office documents*.

The BlackBerry Bold will be available to all T-Mobile Business 1-Plan customers. The Business 1-Plan tariff enables companies to reap more value from their mobile communications investment by building a truly flexible allowance of voice, data, texts and international calls “ removing the complexity of surrounding costs by providing one simple plan tailored to meet the user’s mobile communication needs.

T-Mobile UK via ShinyShiny

BoyGeniusReport has a video demonstration of the browser in the soon to be released Blackberry Bold. Since so much content is now accessed via the web, a full featured web browser is no longer a “nice to have”. The recent success of the Apple iPhone and it’s Safari browser has pushed the bar ever higher. Users now expect a near desktop experience on their handhelds. This demonstration shows that the Blackberry Bold isn’t going to hit the canvas without a fight.

BlackBerry Bold Browser video demonstration

Hot on the heels of their tepid hands-on review of the Blackberry Bold, BoyGeniusReport has this to say about the release dates of the Blackberry Bold and Blackberry Thunder:

We’ve been told that the Bold might have been pushed back yet again. What’s the whispered launch month now? September for a lot of carriers. That’s not to say it couldn’t launch sooner on a couple carriers, but that’s what we were told. It looks like there are still some problems with the radio code that have to do with network roaming, searching, etc. The Bold software has not even gone GM3 yet, and with weekly builds still coming out, there’s nothing to be shipped at this point in time.

Now, what about the BlackBerry Thunder? We’ve held on to this information for a bit, but now that we’ve confirmed it with 2 independent sources, we’re ready to run with it. Here are the most confirmed Thunder dates: a huge marketing push in the U.S. starting in September, and device release in mid-October on Verizon.

Head over to BoyGeniusReport and read their Bold review and see if you share my concerns that this device may be in trouble before it even launches.

via: BGR

Engadget has a quick look at the just delayed Blackberry Bold. I’m rubbing my eyes as I review their screen shots of the Bold’s web browser. Wasn’t Blackberry slyly promising an improved web browser? Blackberry shareholders best be saying a silent prayer that this is a pre-release device because the screen shots that Engadget has of the Bold depict what appears to be an early 1990’s era WAP browser. There’s nothing wrong with WAP browsers - except that the iPhone made them childishly obsolete over a year ago. Is that flop sweat forming on the brow of the Blackberry development team? If Blackberry can’t hit their mark with a full featured html web browser you’re going to witness a gradual but steady decline in their market share. Update: Gizmodo posted a video they made of the Bold last night and Phonescoop has some good photos of the web browser in action that provide additional screenshots.

Link: Engadget

If Internet reports circulating this morning are true (and they usually are) the Blackberry Bold via AT&T is delayed until at least mid-August. Reportedly the problems are related to software (anyone want to bet on it being the browser) , battery life and overheating. The Blackberry Bold is an eagerly anticipated upgrade to the Blackberry line. The main new features to the Bold will be 3G data speeds. As of yet the biggest unanswered question is whether RIM will beef up the web browser to equal the quality offered by the iPhone. Several Blackberry Bold test units have leaked out and none of them have shown a significant improvement of anything in the browser. Remember that HTML email should be coming this weekend when RIM upgrades their BIS to v2.5 (you’ll need to have RIM OS 4.5 on your handheld).

Link: Blackberry Bold Delayed on AT&T Until At Least Mid-August

The new Blackberry flip phone from Research In Motion — aka Kickstart — gets put in a lineup with the Blackberry Bold. Neither phone has been released yet (they’re expected within the new few months - Bold with 3G speed on AT&T and Kickstart with EDGE speed on T-Mobile). This gives you a chance to compare the two devices and start making plans for your next Berry upgrade. Rumor has it the Kickstart is sporting the RIM OS v4.6, Wi-Fi and a 2 megapixel camera. My prediction? It’s all about the browser. From this point in any device that doesn’t have a browser than can match the iPhone’s desktop-like experience will be destined for the “we pay you to take it” bin. Even though I can’t wait to see these new Blackberry models - I’m very concerned that nobody has shown an improved browser running on any of them. All that keeps going through my head is “Lipstick on a pig“.

Link: Berryshack via Crackberry