Well folks, here we are in sunny Orlando, Florida. It’s the time of the year again for WES, otherwise known as the Wireless Enterprise Symposium. For those of you who don’t know what WES is, think of it as the biggest gathering of Blackberry Crack addicts from around the world; they all show up for this.

Just in case any of you were sleeping under a rock yesterday, the Blackberry 9000 series, aka the “Bold” was finally officially announced. What do you think, do we finally have an all in one Blackberry? Lets see:

624mhz processor
1gb of internal memory
HSDPA/EDGE with an EVDO sister right around the corner.
GPS
WiFi A,B,G

Man I hope so, but what will the battery life be like, only time will tell of course. What’s next, an all in one Palm Treo? We can only wish, right?

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Image: Crackberry.com

Web site Crackberry.com continues dissecting the pre-release/beta Blackberry 9000 they scored from an eBay auction earlier this week. This device has been deemed “drool worthy” for it’s 3G connection, improved 480 x 320 HVDA color LCD and advance peek at the new operating system (OS version 4.6.0.22 (67) is on their early release device). They have a short video that demonstrates the browser playing Youtube video, other than that the web browser seems largely unchanged. It’s unclear whether this is the final version web browser. From what I’ve read nearly all the improvements to the Blackberry 9000 have been cosmetic or LCD screen improvements. Not a glimpse of any HTML email capabilities, and comments from the reviewer about this being an “evolutionary OS” and “mainly visual” OS improvements - lead me to wonder if this Blackberry 9000 might be considered “lipstick on a pig” by users hoping for more?

Link: Crackberry.com - Blackberry 9000 Smartphone Review - Part III - OS4.6
Link: Great YouTube Video Created By CrackBerry.com - Live Demo of Blackberry 9000

Verizon Wireless today announced availability of their Navigator Version 4 with spoken turn by turn directions to more than 14 million local businesses and attractions in the United States. Features include: Traffic integration for 75 cities with routing that is calculated using both historical and real-time traffic flow. There’s also a historical traffic view so you can see whether the route you’re navigating is historically hampered by heavy traffic during your travel time. This updated version includes weather reports and a way to search for the lowest gas prices. Pricing is $9.99 per month or use it for a 24 hour period for $2.99. Blackberry users (Blackberry Pearl 8130 and Blackberry 8330 are supported) pay $9.99 per month for access.

Link: Verizon Wireless Navigator Version 4 Overview

Photo via BGR

Behold the newly leaked photographs of what can only be a prototype for a future clamshell Blackberry smartphone. There’s no information about what’s under the hood with this Berry, code named “Kickstart”. While certainly RIM is praying this model will continue their lucky sales streak, there are several things on my wish list for this phone. Will RIM introduce improvements to the Kickstart or is this a page from Motorola’s failed playbook of “release the Razr in umpteen colors and variations”. There are 6 things that will have to happen before I’ll spend money on this flip phone. Want to know what they are? Keep reading.

via: BGR

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Don’t you hate that new customers get the best discounts on new phones? Here’s a way to get some money for your old phone when you trade it in for a Blackberry. Blackberry Smartphones eligible for purchase in the United States include the Curve as well as 88xx series. You can trade in a wide variety of phones and PDAS. For example the Palm 755P in excellent condition fetches a trade-in value of $125 when purchasing the new Blackberry 8330. If you’ve been thinking of buying a Blackberry, and would like to trade in your old phone/PDA - check out the Blackberry Tradeup site. Interesting that since these rebates are for the purchase of your old phone, the trade-up can be combined with any carrier incentive.

Link: Blackberry Trade Up Program
Link: Frequently Asked Questions about the Trade Up Program

The long awaited Sprint Blackberry 8330 seems destined to miss the predicted April launch window, allowing Alltel to capture the “first US CMDA Curve” crown. The phone is going to be available at Best Buy (which has all Blackberry devices on sale during May 2008) for $199 (price drops to $179 with a rate plan of $59 or higher). Tip: Sprint’s $99 Simply Everything Plan is great for Blackberry - unlimited text, data, voice - and FREE Blackberry Internet Service. That’s right - no additional fee for Blackberry BIS service under the plan. (Note to corporate users - BES service IS an additional fee - Note to everyone else - Sprint does NOT yet support picture mail on the Blackberry devices, they’ve indicated it is on the drawing board).

Link: Best Buy Blackberry Sale Circular
Link: Sprint Simply Everything - $99 Plan

This morning, as I’m reading news that the 3G Blackberry may be delayed so as not to collide with the 3G iPhone launch, I became convinced that Blackberry’s lengthy run atop the food chain of corporate mobile devices is ending. Why would I think that? Here’s 5 reasons that Blackberry device usage will peak in 2008 never to return to these heights again

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If you’re a paid user of the popular Rememberthemilk to-do and task management site, you may want to pick up their new Milksync for Blackberry. This link supports two way Blackberry synchronization of your Rememberthemilk data to tasks, scheduled synchronization, as well as the ability to sync all of your data or only portions. You’ll need to have version 4.2 or later of the Blackberry OS. More info about exactly what is synched:

The following task properties will synchronize between BlackBerry’s built-in Tasks application and Remember The Milk, using MilkSync (i.e., any changes made to these properties will be reflected both on the device and in RTM): task name, status, priority, due date, recurrence, notes, and category (known as list name in RTM).

Please note: RTM only supports “Not Started” and “Completed” statuses, so if a task on the BlackBerry has a different status (e.g., “In Progress”), this status will not sync to RTM. Also, BlackBerry only has 3 priority levels, whereas RTM has 4 (so both priority “2″ and “no priority” will show as “normal priority” in BlackBerry).

Link: Remember The Milk: MilkSync for Blackberry

The folks at Alltel may just beat both Sprint and Verizon to market with the first US Blackberry CDMA Cuve with included video recording capabilities (Telus have already released a similar model to the Canada market). Prior to this release only certain Blackberry Pearl - 81xx - models have sported video recorders - and only when operating under OS v4.3.2. Scheduled for release on May 1, 2008, the phone is now available for pre-order by customers within Alltel’s primary service areas of - Albuquerque, NM, Charlotte, NC, Cleveland, OH, Grand Rapids, MI, Greensboro/Winston-Salem, NC, Little Rock, Ark, Norfolk, VA, Oklahoma City, OK, Phoenix, AZ, Raleigh/Durham, NC, Shreveport, LA or Tampa, FL. Here’s hoping that Sprint and Verizon follow suit and offer Bluetooth Headsets and car chargers at no cost with future offerings as well!

Link: Alltel Blackberry Curve Pre-Order Page (No activation promo through 4/24/08)

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Will it launch in April or won’t it? After missing the rumored April 20 launch date, the next best guess for a release date of the long awaited Sprint Blackberry Curve is April 27. The message boards at Sprintusers.com have been lighting up with conflicting reports that the device is alternately delayed into June and shipping this month. Some eagle eyed users have noted that select Sprint stores are already displaying advertising materials for the long awaited Curve. Sprint has indicated to some sites that they expect the phone to ship in April, and since most Sprint products get pushed out on a Sunday, that leaves April 27 as the best guess release date.

Link: SprintUsers.com - Curve Discussion Forums