Here’s a video making the rounds that shows three upcoming phones - HTC Coke, LG Lotus (LX600) and the Blackberry Thunder (aka 9500). This is the first video I’ve seen of the touch screen Blackberry and it confirms earlier reports that the touch implementation is challenged in at least two ways. First, the screen operates by a lot of tough pushing. Secondly the scrolling appears to require more effort and not the smooth finger movements that competitors use. Most impressive is the phone’s implementation of screen rotation. The Blackberry Thunder can be rotated 360 around and the screen will rotate fully to any position that the phone is held. This model is rumored for an appearance on Verizon at some unknown future time in the fourth quarter of 2008.

via Engadget and Crackberry

Ever heard the saying “Those that can - DO, those that can’t - CONSULT?” (apologies to Consultants everywhere). Today I propose a better phrase. Those that can - ship - those that can’t - RENDER. We’re presented with yet another set of rendered (aka photoshopped aka artist renditions of a non-shipping product made to introduce hope that the shipping product will work as well as the photos look) images of what is said to be the upcoming Verizon Blackberry Thunder. While these photos tell us absolutely nothing about stability, features, OS version, memory included or download speed - they sure do look purrrty don’t they?

Blackberry Thunder Touch Screen Images

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

BlackberrySync has some advance pictures of the Blackberry Thunder and its media player. According to the site, the Thunder will run a carrier music store (it’s a carrier music store ever better than iTunes?) to allow users to purchase songs. The display on the Thunder will reportedly sport a glass surface just like the iPhone (surprised?). And the media player will reportedly feature a portrait media player…you guessed it…just like the iPhone. Hit the jump for another photo showing a very iPhone like media player. The most important question is when the Thunder launches - will there be developers excited to develop for this platform or will most be in the midst of expanding their iPhone offerings?

Blackberrysync
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BoyGeniusReport has what appear to be the first photos of the upcoming touchscreen Blackberry (aka Blackberry Thunder). While there is no clue given as to what the OS will be like (we’d have to assume that it will use a slightly modified version of the standard Blackberry OS), the photos appear at a most appropriate time for causing the maximum FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) for anyone thinking of jumping ship from the Blackberry in favor of Apple’s iPhone. As you know Apple is widely expected to unveil their more corporate friendly version of the iPhone which is rumored to include both 3G data speeds and Microsoft Exchange integration. I’m still predicting that unless Blackberry comes out with a killer browser (and I don’t mean slapping Opera into their OS as either an integration or add-on) that you should expect a steady decline in Blackberry sales .

Link: Boy Genius Report - Blackberry Thunder live shot, damn we’re good!