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From: benhorseman10/8/2008 4:23:45 AM
of 87634
 
RIM announces the BlackBerry Storm - still no bloody release date ...
Tech Digest, UK - 24 minutes ago
The handset has been in development between Vodafone and RIM since last summer but still Qualcomm had to hurry the design of the chips inside, ...

http://www.techdigest.tv/2008/10/blackberry_stor.html

BlackBerry Storm 9530
A Perfect Storm of Features

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2331979,00.asp

The touch screen isn't the only innovation here. There's a lot going on under the hood, too. This is the first phone we've seen with dual-mic noise cancellation, a feature borrowed from Bluetooth headsets that improves voice transmission quality by measuring and then canceling outside noise using a microphone on the back of the handset. Visual voice mail, first introduced by Verizon on its LG Voyager, will appear on the Storm as well. And the speakerphone is very loud—I had the opportunity to try it.

SLIDESHOW (23)

Slideshow | All Shots

The Storm runs a new version of the BlackBerry OS, version 4.7, to support the touch features. It's got all of the typical BlackBerry applications, including e-mail, the music player, the contacts book, and the Web browser, but with touch interfaces. OS 4.7 also has all of the new features found on the BlackBerry Bold's OS 4.6, including built-in Microsoft Office document editing and support for HTML e-mail. But it improves the browser's JavaScript support as well, dramatically speeding up load times for pages with scripts.

The Web browser's user interface is particularly interesting. You can toggle between "pan" and "cursor" modes for dragging versus selecting, and double-tap to zoom in on pages. When you're in cursor mode, the cursor actually floats above your finger so your finger doesn't hide it. This could be fun to use, but it could also complicate things we need to use it more to make a full assessment.

The new OS version won't kill most third-party apps, Lazaridis said. While RIM will release a new SDK with the Storm, most existing apps will continue to run. As an answer to Apple's App Store, Verizon will launch the "VZ App Zone" with the Storm. Verizon will also load V CAST Video and the ESPN MVP sports application onto Storm phones.

For music playback, there's a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and support for stereo Bluetooth. You can store your MP3, AAC, or WMA music on a microSD card or in the 1GB of internal memory. I saw the Storm play a full-screen, 150-kilobit-per-second, 30-frame-per-second MPEG4 video smoothly; it supports H.263, H.264, and WMV encoding. This is the first BlackBerry to work with Verizon's V CAST Music for Rhapsody, which lets the Storm sync with Rhapsody accounts on PCs. Like all of RIM's current phones, the Storm will also come with BlackBerry Media Sync PC software, which reformats videos on your computer for the device and syncs unprotected iTunes playlists.

For photos, you get a 3.2MP camera with autofocus, flash, and video recording capabilities. The GPS radio is open to both Verizon's own VZ Navigator and third-party applications such as BlackBerry Maps and Google Maps. According to the phone's spec sheet, you can use it as a high-speed modem for your laptop, too.

The Storm is the first EV-DO Rev A high-speed device from RIM, and the first phone we've seen with a new Qualcomm chipset that supports EV-DO Rev A, high-speed HSDPA on the foreign 2,100-MHz band, and quad-band global EDGE. The Storm's ARM11 applications processor runs at 500 MHz.

The handset will come with a Vodafone SIM card so that the phone can be used on Vodafone's networks outside the United States. But Verizon will also unlock the SIM card slot on request, so owners can use other networks if they like. The phone is compatible with networks in 208 countries, including Japan. According to RIM, the Storm will offer up to 6 hours of talk time on its 1,400-mAh battery.

Given that Verizon now offers all of its phones with month-to-month contracts, and the Storm features quad-band EDGE, this means the phone could theoretically be unlocked to work on AT&T, T-Mobile, or Rogers in Canada. We'll have to investigate that possibility.

The Storm will be exclusive to Verizon in the U.S. and to Vodafone abroad right now, but "there will also be a Canadian carrier," Verizon CMO Mike Lanman said. Verizon and the unnamed Canadian carrier will get the EV-DO/HSDPA version of the phone, while Vodafone will receive an HSDPA-only model without CDMA support.

The BlackBerry Storm 9530 should hit shelves by the end of the year. Pricing has not yet been announced. We will post a full lab-tested review as soon as we get our hands on a handset.
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