While the launch of the BlackBerry Storm2 on Verizon is widely expected to take place on October 28th and the Bold 9700 is so close we can almost taste it, owners of current generation BlackBerry smartphones  — the Pearl Flip 8220/8230, Curve 8330/8350i/8900, Bold 9000, Storm 9500/9530 and Tour 9630 — should be pleased to note that RIM is all set for the launch OS 5.0. Specific dates aren’t easily pinned down as it more or less depends on the device one has and the carrier one is with, but thanks to our connects we know, for example, that Verizon will be dropping for the OS 5.0 for the Storm 9530 tomorrow evening with a fall back date set for Monday. Those that don’t have Desktop Manager set up on either their PC or Mac might want to get everything ready ahead of time as it looks for the most part that OTA software updates will not be made available

Entry #20 - Getting Away With CrackBerry Love | View All Contest Video Submissions > > [ youtube video link for mobile viewing ] * keep in mind we’re not announcing the ten finalists in any particular order - 6 more to come! * While the third finalist we announced in our I Love My BlackBerry video contest was a 9m13s long BlackBerry tale, our fourth finalist’s video is short, but sweet. All of our judges got a real kick out of Jeff Jenson’s CrackBerry Love video submission

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, Verizon Wireless, EDGE, EV-DO, HSDPA, UMTS, CDMA, BlackBerry OS Say you’re North America’s largest wireless carrier — how do you go about burying a product you’re about to carry that you secretly wish didn’t exist? One creative option would be to opt out of announcing it when its manufacturer does, then quietly launch it on the same day that you’re announcing the phone you’re calling the “must-have device of the year.” Tricky, eh? Yeah, sure enough, by all appearances it seems that Verizon doesn’t plan on celebrating the arrival of the Storm2 with the same fanfare it gave the Storm, despite the fact that the new device directly addresses the biggest complaints dogging the original model.

Google Maps is the best BlackBerry mapping solution I’ve found and it just got a whole lot cooler. The Layers function will overlay different information sets on the the current map few. For instance, you can overlay a location-aware Wikipedia screen.

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, ATT, T-Mobile, Vodafone, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS, BlackBerry OS Our dear colleagues over at Engadget German have had a chance to play with RIM’s just-announced BlackBerry Bold 9700 today, and every indication we’ve gotten is that this thing is a perfect — if not extremely conservative — successor to the first-generation Bold. Interface and network speed are both praised (both the 9700 and the Bold before it feature a 624MHz core, so there’s some magic going on here) and the microSD card is now hot-swappable, meaning that you’ve got a theoretically limitless supply of storage space if you happen to be carrying around a pocketful of 16GB cards

If you’re reading this and somehow don’t know what the I Love My CrackBerry Video Contest is all about, do yourself a favor and click the image above to jump to the contest page for full overview and details right now! For everybody else, this is a friendly reminder that we’re nearing the end of our video contest entry period. You have until Midnight PST tonight to get your I Love My BlackBerry videos up on youtube and send us the link . Great prizes are up for grabs, like a new Macbook (in honor of Desktop Manager for Mac being released!), a BlackBerry Bold 9700, a BlackBerry Storm2, Schlage Home LiNK system (thanks Schlage!) and more.

Oh look, yet another BlackBerry has shown up on a carriers website before its existence has been officially acknowledged. This time the honor falls upon T-Mobile Germany and the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Listed without a price but as available in November, T-Mobile is positioning the 9700 as the “Bold the size of a Curve,” something easily confirmed by on quick glance at the accompanying spec sheet.

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, Verizon Wireless, BlackBerry OS The New York Times has a lengthy piece on RIM’s and Verizon’s failed attempt to upset the iPhone’s dominance with the BlackBerry Storm launch.

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, Vodafone We’re not sure where this intel is coming from exactly, but The Guardian is flatly stating that RIM will be teaming up with Vodafone this week to officially announce the Storm 2, which — barring unforeseen circumstances, of course — would make it the first carrier to do so. The phone will apparently be offered starting on a

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, Verizon Wireless, Accessories Silicone skins for the Storm 2 are starting to find their way into shipments destined to Best Buy stores around the country, another solid signal that RIM’s second touchscreen effort is hitting retail sooner rather than later. What we found amusing about this first batch is that the packaging seems conflicted about what to call the thing — 9550, Storm II (as opposed to Storm2 or Storm 2, interestingly), and even the phone’s codename Odin all make appearances front and center