Succinctly, it's the new BlackBerry to buy if you're on T-Mobile or AT&T. Doubly so on T-Mo, since it's their first 3G BlackBerry.

It's not very much like the original Bold at all, which was the Escalade of BlackBerrys: big, obnoxious, but seriously comfortable to drive because it gave you tons of room to spread your legs (err, thumbs). If you're used to that, at first the 9700—which is even smaller and lighter than the Tour on Sprint and Verizon—feels like you've been shoved inside of a clown car because the keyboard and screen, while retaining the same shape and resolution, respectively, have been shrink-rayed. (Update: Actually, the resolution's been bumped up 40 pixels, to 480x360, from 480x320.)

But, then you realize you're not typing any slower, or less precisely. The 9700's keyboard isn't as flat out comfortable as the original Bold—purely a matter of physics—but it's a minor marvel of ergonomics that RIM has recession-sized the keyboard this effectively. They're simply brilliant at building keyboards. The screen has the same resolution as the Bold's, but in a smaller size, meaning it has a higher pixel density. Despite that extra clarity, I felt a bit constrained by it, especially browsing the web.

It's the second BlackBerry to ditch all-too-easily-slain-by-lint trackball for an optical trackpad, and the first that's not built for Walmart. You'll miss the trackball for about 15 seconds. Like I said before, the trackpad's 90 percent as good as the ball. You might miss the physical feedback, and it sometimes doesn't totally accurately interpret a diagonal swipe that you know wouldn't be a problem with the ball but it's good enough, and by far the most accurate and responsive trackpad I've used on a phone.

It's running BlackBerry OS 5.0 which isn't tons different than the OS that shipped on the original Bold or Curve 8900, but it's definitely springier and it has a few brushstrokes of added polish here and there. One place you notice is the browser—while not as fast as the iPhone 3GS or Android, it has some extra zip to it, and it even sped past the Storm 2 loading pages, despite racing on T-Mobile's 3G network vs. Verizon's.

Note: In the gallery, the T-Mobile one is the Bold 9700, the AT&T phone is the original Bold.

Basically, barring any major bugs that pop up over the next couple of days, this is the BlackBerry you probably wanna bug your corporate overlords to handcuff to your pants if you're on AT&T or T-Mobile, since it'll slide into them easier than any BlackBerry yet. I just hope you enjoy the feel of faux leather. [BlackBerry]

We knew it was coming, so this is just some concrete confirmation. The RIM rep told me it'll be out on the 18th only online and in "select stores," which look restricted to LA and Phoenix, for some reason. One more shot:

So... if you have a Bold with the visual voicemail icon on it, simply call up AT&T and ask a rep to activate the feature. Voila.

This completely free trick has been confirmed by the folks over at BGR, so have at it, or wait until the new OS arrives Tuesday. [BGR]

• The four big carriers, the four best smartphone platforms, the best information you're going to get on the subject anywhere: Smartphone Buyer's Guide: The Best of the Best

• Got a few smartphones already in mind? We probably reviewed them:
Palm Pre (WebOS)
iPhone 3GS
BlackBerry Bold
BlackBerry Storm
T-Mobile G1 (Android)
T-Mobile myTouch 3G (Android)
Samsung Omnia (WinMo)
Note: There's no Nokia Symbian smartphone on this list because at the moment in the US, there's no handset we feel confident to recommend.

• Since surfing the web is one of the biggest reasons to choose a smartphone—and one of the biggest differentiators between smartphones—it's worth it to glance over the Mobile Browser Battlemodo, and its little sister, the Windows Mobile Browser Battlemodo.

• If you've already whittled it down to Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3GS, check out our roundup of reviews and news stories for each: Pre vs. 3GS: How To Make the Right Decision. Or you could just skip to this sweet flowchart.

• OK, OK, so you're set on that durned iPhone, but which one? The $99 3G? Or $199 step-up 3GS? $100 is a lot to think about (even if it amounts to less than two months of actual service): 3GS vs 3G Feature Chart Comparison

Here's the alleged spec list:

* GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
* GPS
* Camera
* Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
* QWERTY keyboard
* 480×360 resolution screen

BGR is going with the codename Driftwood (another, similarly-spec'd handset in the aforementioned leak), thinks the handset is the first of the 96xx series, and claims knowledge that it'll ship with an optical trackpad, a la the Curve 8520. But trackpad and name hypotheses aside, we've got something exciting here: a handset with the compact profile of a later Curve, but the hardware capabilities and fantastic keyboard of the Bold.

Mildly convincing speculation pegs release at September on T-Mo, but don't get too hopey until a little more evidence mounts up. [Crackberry, BGR]

What you would like it to say about you: I am an important person with an MBA. I make more than you. I have more worth than you. I participate in urgent things that need to be taken care of five minutes ago. People need to get ahold of me ALL THE TIME, even on the toilet.

What it really says about you: You're an adult with attention deficit disorder. You'd rather be emailing with your co-workers—who you don't even like—than spending time with your family.

How you use it: "Yes, I'll have the veal with the...one sec. Hello? Yes, this is he. Yeah. Uh huh. That's not a valid excuse. That's not a valid excuse, Rick. Rick, just do it. Get it done by 7am tomorrow, Rick. Christ, now I need to email David and the partners. Damn it, hurry up and send! This thing is a piece of shit."

Other people who use this phone:

We'd known it as the Pluto, but now it's been given a traditional RIM numeric identification as the 99xx series. It's got just about the same form factor as the Bold, including the QWERTY keyboard, but with one notable addition and one notable feature missing: It's got a touchscreen in place of the trackball.

This blurry shot shows a Rogers-branded 99xx (a major Canadian carrier), and the 3G device is allegedly due for a late 3rd quarter release up north. "Late 3rd quarter release" is code for "don't bank on this until the 4th quarter", but we're excited nonetheless. We'll continue with updates as we get more info. [CrackBerry]

As mentioned in the previous article, this update is featured in the AT&T 4.6.0.219 OS install, but an official roll out date has not been determined. However, BGR is hearing that it might come sooner than we might think...for some customers at least. Hit the link for more images. [BGR]

Before 2007, using the internet on your phone would make you want to kill yourself, if you were dumb enough to believe the crap splattered across that tiny screen even was the "internet." But the combination of increased bandwidth and better mobile software means that more phones really are promising to deliver the real internet, in living color. We tested eight different browsers, and while some put smiles on our faces, others proved that rendering HTML correctly is a far cry from actually giving you an awesome web experience. And what about 3G vs. Wi-Fi? Everything the carriers have told you is a lie. This is the true state of mobile web.

Before we give you the rundown of each of the most prevalent mobile browsers, here's how they all stacked up in a timed test of how fast (and how well) they could render websites, chosen for their diversity and particular challenges:

CHART KEY: Number value is time for complete page load in seconds; page rendering is rated from "Fail" to "Excellent" for each; and the color (red, yellow, green) indicates overall performance taking into account both speed and rendering accuracy: Green = good overall, Red = fail overall.

This second chart runs through the same procedure with all of the phones that had Wi-Fi options:

It's a pretty daunting pile of numbers, so let's break it down into standard prose, rating each browser as we go:
Android
A fast, smart mobile browser based on WebKit. It tackles most sites with (almost) unrivaled grace and speed. Panning and zooming could be smoother and more responsive, but with a ton of options for getting around a page—various touch methods and the trackball—few sites will be challenging to zip around. The only thing we really miss is multitouch for zoom. Buttons just aren't a very elegant or precise solution, and while the whole-page magnifying glass technique is nice, we'd love something a bit more refined. Overall though, we're happy campers on Android's browser. Grade: B+

BlackBerry Bold
Leaps and bounds ahead of the browser BlackBerry users have put up with for years, it renders most pages correctly, even if scripts give it a conniption fit (hence its long load times for Wikipedia and the WSJ). It uses the standard "click to zoom" metaphor, which works well enough, though getting around a page with the trackball can be kind of a work out for you thumb. The Column View, which squeezes a whole page into a single column, is fairly convenient and makes it easier to get around wider pages, even if it doesn't work equally as well on every site (nice on Wikipedia, ugly on Giz). Hopefully they fix the script performance in the Storm, which is using an updated version of the Bold's browser. We humbly suggest they ditch their home-baked browser for one based on WebKit, which would help out there. Grade: B-/C+

iPhone
What can we say? It's still got the best mobile browser around. It crushes basically everything but Android's browser—which is also based on WebKit—in speed and outclasses its still classy brother-from-another-mother (and everyone else) with the ease and elegance of its multitouch zooming. Some pages still give it fits, and it's missing Flash support, but it really does deliver an unrivaled mobile web experience. We love it, but make no mistake we're eagerly waiting for something better. (Mobile Firefox? Is it you?) Grade: A-

Nokia E71 Symbian S60
Hey look, another web browser with WebKit guts! It doesn't perform quite as well as Android's or iPhone's iteration where speed or render accuracy are concerned (can any Symbian nuts explain why?), but it does a serviceable job. The big thing it has going for it is Flash Lite 3 support, though performance there is kinda assy and memory intensive. Navigation is tougher with the E71's d-pad than with a trackball, but the whole page magnifying approach makes it easy enough to get around (too bad you have to dig through a menu or two to get to it). Not bad, but short of excellent. Grade: B-

Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile
Jesus Christ. This is a joke, right Microsoft? Hahaha. No really, this is the worst smartphone browser on the planet. It couldn't render its way out of an ASCII-art paper bag. It totally screwed up every single test page, except for Wikipedia, which it only mostly screwed up. Good luck navigating a page if you're granted the miraculous occurrence of it being rendered in a state that's usable. Grade: F-

Opera Mobile on Windows Mobile
Microsoft's own intentions notwithstanding, you can use the internet on a Windows Mobile phone. You just need Opera Mobile. It's kind of hobbled by Windows Mobile's assy performance, but it usually gets the job done. Not as quickly or always as accurately as its WebKit rivals, but it's definitely usable. Interestingly, it benefits more from the extra bandwidth offered by Wi-Fi than the WebKit browsers do. Menu-based zoom is annoying and imprecise. Touch-based panning worked okay, though a little laggy. We mostly navigated with the Samsung Epix's optical cursor, which worked pretty well, somewhere in between a d-pad and a trackball. Grade: C

Sprint Instinct
Holy CRAP. This is not the painfully lousy browser the Instinct shipped with not by a long shot. The original was slow and fairly feeble, even if it was the head of its (dumbphone) class. The new 1.1 browser really is a life-changing upgrade. It suffers in the chart because it's much slower than most other browsers, and zooming is still clumsy, but once the page loads, it's much smoother to pan and actually move around. I got a bit annoyed that it lied about pageload time, hanging at the last 2 percent of the status bar for half the load, but it usually gets things right. This is the best non-smartphone browser you can get. Grade: C+

LG Dare
Like the Instinct, the Dare proves you can actually get a usable browsing experience on a feature phone. It's a little nimbler at loading pages than its Korean blood rival, but the reason it ultimately posts lower marks than the Instinct is that it buckles way more easily under a moderate to heavy pageload, turning it into an unresponsive picture of the website you were trying to look at. Still, it renders most pages fairly accurately, and we like the sliding zoom scroll bar, at least in theory, since it seems like an intuitive way to deal with the zoom issue. Unfortunately, it works more like a glorified pair of buttons. (Note: I don't think the speed was actually a piddly 300 Kbps—I think it just had a problem dealing with DSL Reports' mobile speedtest, even though it's text-based for the dumbest of phones.) Grade: C

Methodology
We tested every browser only using the full—not mobile—versions of selected sites, over 3G and, whenever possible, Wi-Fi. All scripts were turned on, and the cache was cleared before each round of testing. We took the average of a series of five sequential speedtests to give us an idea of the bandwidth we're dealing with, and timed how long it took to completely load a site according to each browser's progress bar. We assessed whether or not it rendered the page correctly, on a scale ranging from "excellent" to "good" (a couple things out of place) to "utter fail" (I've seen prettier train wrecks).

A few additional issues to note: Internet Explorer would not work on Wi-Fi. Opera yes, our Skyfire install, yes, Internet Exploder, no. (Samsung suggested it might be because of Opera.) We didn't pursue the matter because of how IE did in the 3G tests: A page that looks like a pile of blended dog poo is going to look like that no matter how much faster it loads. Sprint's updated Instinct and Verizon's Dare, which we included as best-of-class examples of feature phones, don't have Wi-Fi capabilities. We left out Opera Mini and Skyfire, since they both leave most of the hard work to servers which essentially spit out a kind of image file—besides, we don't think this kind of internet-by-proxy browser will be around for much longer.

The Big Gulp
Remember our mantra it's code that counts? It's true for mobile internet too. An awesome browser can make up for a mediocre network, but a terrible browser delivers a crappy experience no matter how great the network is. It's all about the browser. As it stands, WebKit is clearly the best thing going, but even then, software implementation matters, or Nokia would deliver as good a performance as Android and iPhone. Proving the point, it's striking how little Wi-Fi actually boosted speed beyond 3G—hell, WebKit browsers on 3G slid past some of the others that were running on Wi-Fi.

Another thing to note is that the zoom metaphor is a tricky thing to nail. Buttons are too brutish, the magnifying glass is imprecise. Multitouch seems to be the best way to handle zooming in and out in a way that's intuitive and precise. Hopefully we'll see other developers start to use multitouch interfaces in touchscreen phones (*cough*ANDROID!*cough*).

As much as this blow-by-blow battlemodo shows you all the problems we encountered, the big picture is that really, mobile web is pretty dandy right now, and getting dandier. It could be more reliable, faster, maybe a little more versatile, but for the most part, yes, you can access the internet on your phone. Compared to just two years ago, that's really saying something. We can't wait to see what it'll look like in two years. Maybe Internet Exploder will actually work. Nah, that's a little too sci-fi.

The hardware is exactly the same, so here we're sticking to evaluating what has or could have changed in its AT&Tification process—networking and software tweaks. Taken out of context of our earlier Bold review, what's below will actually sound kinda bad. It's not—the Bold is an awesome (if massive) piece of hardware with an amazing screen and keyboard. It's got a pretty, easy to use OS that really elevates the BlackBerry experience, though the media functions could stand to be beefier and more intuitive. The battery life is incredible for a 3G device—a day of heavy use is no problem. In short, it's the best BlackBerry you can buy.

Network
Since RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis told us when we checked out the Storm that AT&T certification was behind the hold up, let's start with the network. The Bold's 3G is vastly more reliable than the iPhone 3G, even after the latter's otherwise magical 2.1 update. Anywhere in New York City that the iPhone would seizure into EDGE, the Bold held on to 3G with an iron grip (this is more of an iPhone issue than a Bold one, but for people looking at both for whom network reliability is an issue, the Bold easily outperforms it). In short, we never saw any network issues with the Bold—the connection was steadfast.

One issue, however, is that you cannot manually select EDGE, to save for battery life or for any other reason. Wi-Fi could also be kind of finicky—it simply wouldn't connect sometimes, even though 10 million other devices sat pretty happily on my wireless network. Rebooting the router got it to hook up, but that's unacceptable.

Browser(s)
While I didn't fully consider before how asinine it was that the Bold has essentially separate browsers for Wi-Fi (hotspot browser) and 3G (internet browser) that you have to manually configure, it really, really bothered me this time around. Especially because connecting to a Wi-Fi network isn't as deliciously pie-easy as it should be. There needs to be one browser that does Wi-Fi and 3G, totally seamlessly. The current setup is unnecessarily confusing and aggravating.

Update: So apparently, the Internet Browser should actually jump to a saved Wi-Fi profile automatically—you shouldn't need to use the Hotspot browser. After some finagling, I did get the internet browser to jump onto Wi-Fi automatically most of the time, though if you use AT&T's MediaNet browser (which only uses cell service) and then switch right to Internet Browser, it'll only use cell as well. My issues could possibly be related to the fact the Bold had issues with my Wi-Fi network from the start (even though a brigade of other phones and devices sit on it just fine).

Okay, so even with the Bold's 3G network advantage over the iPhone—or hell, even when they're on the same playing field on Wi-Fi—the Bold's browser(s) just can't keep up with Mobile Safari. (And I made sure not to repeat the mistakes we saw in the last showdown.) The Bold's browser is exceptionally competent, with few pages rendered inaccurately—notably, National Geographic—but it still chokes hard on script-heavy pages that Safari otherwise breezes through (like the full version of Giz, or National Geographic). From what I can tell, the dire serious Javascript issues some people ran into appear to have been fixed—the Bold still doesn't like scripts, and runs them slowly, but I never had it crap out on me, using either the Internet browser or the hotspot browser.

One weird problem I ran into though, and I'm not sure what caused it, is that at one point, neither the internet nor hotspot browser would work—they would finish requesting a page, then after they started loading it, they would simply stop, displaying blank white pages. The only way to resolve the problem was to pop out of the battery and hard reset the phone that way. I haven't been able to repeat it, but given that browser issues were likely the other half of the Bold's epic delay, it's worth noting in case someone else sees this happen.

All that said, it's the best BlackBerry browser around ('til the Storm, anyway, which Lazaridis confirmed will have a newer, even betterer browser than the Bold) that's highly usable will make most people extremely happy, even if it still can't quite step to mobile Safari.

Apps
All of the usual BlackBerry apps, like BrickBreaker and ones for editing Office docs are there, with one notable exception—BlackBerry Maps has been entirely dropkicked off the phone in favor of AT&T's standard Telenav-powered navigation app, even though it appeared on the non-AT&T Bold I reviewed earlier. And yeah, you gotta pay for it after the free trial expires, so Google Maps is your best free option.

I more seriously considered the app situation for the Bold this time around, since it's now clear how critical the app situation is for a smartphone. So, while the BlackBerry dev scene is gravy, from a user standpoint, the app experience is frustrating compared to the iPhone or G1. BlackBerry's entirely browser-based solution is subpar and slow in comparison to the streamlined find, grab and install experience of a bona fide app store. On both the BlackBerry app site and AT&T's Mall, navigation and searching is unintuitive and time-consuming since you have to wait for every page to load in full. Also, some apps just aren't available for the 4.6 OS yet, according to the BlackBerry site (most notably, AIM). There are apps for BlackBerry, great ones, there just needs to be a better way to get them, so the BlackBerry Storefront can't come soon enough.

Conclusion
Like I said, taken out of context of the earlier Bold review, this doesn't sound so excellent. But really, the Bold is a great phone. AT&T just didn't improve it much, and it needs a few tune-ups in user friendliness: Most importantly, a single browser that better switching handles Wi-Fi and 3G, and an app store, since those are the two things people will be using the most outside of email (the internet and apps). A decent desktop media manager wouldn't hurt either. But it's still the best BlackBerry you can buy. For now, anyway.

AT&T BLACKBERRY CUSTOMERS TO RECEIVE FREE ACCESS

TO NATION’S LARGEST WI-FI NETWORK

DALLAS, Oct. 30, 2008 —There are now 17,000 more reasons for smart shoppers to buy a smartphone from AT&T. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced it will begin offering free AT&T Wi-FiSM service to current and new customers of select smartphones, including the new BlackBerry® BoldTM, available Nov. 4. AT&T has the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network, with more than 17,000 hot spots including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and thousands of other locations.

AT&T is offering the free Wi-Fi service to customers with unlimited data plans. In addition to the BlackBerry Bold, the BlackBerry® PearlTM 8120 and the BlackBerry® 8820 will follow later this year, and AT&T plans to make the offer available to more mobile devices in the future. Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available at www.attwifi.com.

“AT&T is committed to providing its customers with the best connectivity at the best value,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer of AT&T’s mobility business unit. “We have the industry’s leading lineup of smartphones, along with the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network. It only makes sense for us to bring these unique capabilities together for our customers.”

Free Wi-Fi access is also available with all AT&T small business broadband plans, AT&T
High Speed Internet plans and with qualified AT&T LaptopConnect plans. For customers without an AT&T broadband or smartphone plan, Wi-Fi subscriptions are available for $19.99 a month, providing worldwide access to both AT&T and partner locations.

AT&T iPHONE CUSTOMERS TO RECEIVE FREE ACCESS

TO NATION’S LARGEST WI-FI NETWORK

DALLAS, Oct. 30, 2008 —There are now 17,000 more reasons for smart shoppers to buy a smartphone from AT&T. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced it will begin offering free AT&T Wi-FiSM service to current and new iPhone 3G and iPhone customers. AT&T has the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network, with more than 17,000 hot spots including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and thousands of other locations.

AT&T plans to make the offer available to more mobile devices in the future. Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available at www.attwifi.com.

“AT&T is committed to providing its customers with the best connectivity at the best value,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer of AT&T’s mobility business unit. “We have the industry’s leading lineup of smartphones, along with the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network. It only makes sense for us to bring these unique capabilities together for our customers.”

Free Wi-Fi access is also available with all AT&T small business broadband plans, AT&T
High Speed Internet plans and with qualified AT&T LaptopConnect plans. For customers without an AT&T broadband or smartphone plan, Wi-Fi subscriptions are available for $19.99 a month, providing worldwide access to both AT&T and partner locations.

[AT&T]

In their earnings call this morning, AT&T confirmed that the BlackBerry Bold will be available in stores on Tuesday, November 4. Whatever delays were holding things up have apparently been resolved, as was hinted last week by some AT&T network-specific details beginning to pop up on unlocked phones. Price is "as low as" $299, which includes a mail-in rebate and a two-year contract. Full release details after the jump. Update: And more on pricing and the mail-in rebates.

The mail-in rebate is for $100, and if you're not down with a 2-year agreement, the Bold will run $375 with a 1-year contract (and the same $100 mail-in rebate), and $550 with no contract.

AT&T CUSTOMERS TO ENTER A ‘BOLD’ NEW WIRELESS WORLD

Breakthrough BlackBerry Smartphone Is Coming to Nation’s Fastest
3G Network; Arrives in Stores Nov. 4

DALLAS, Texas, and WATERLOO, Ontario, Oct. 22, 2008 — AT&T customers will be entering a bold new wireless world with the launch of the BlackBerry® BoldTM, a breakthrough 3G BlackBerry® smartphone that operates on the nation’s fastest 3G network and is the first to support HSDPA networks around the world, including in Japan and Korea. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Research In Motion (Nasdaq:RIMM; TSX:RIM) announced today that the highly anticipated BlackBerry Bold smartphone will be available in the United States for as low as $299.991 on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in AT&T retail stores nationwide, through www.att.com and select national retailers, as well as through AT&T’s business-to-business sales teams.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone, which is being introduced in the United States only for AT&T customers, can be used in the most countries abroad, including more than 60 with 3G networks. AT&T is the world’s leading provider of BlackBerry services.

Bold Design

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s design and performance live up to its name. The elegant smartphone features a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome-finished frame and stylish, leatherette backplate with a stunning half-VGA (480 x 320 at 217 ppi) color display for eye-popping visuals and a newly designed full QWERTY keyboard for exceptionally fast and easy typing. On the inside, the BlackBerry Bold features built-in GPS and Wi-Fi®, a powerful new 624 MHz mobile processor that provides impressive performance, more storage memory than ever before — 1 GB on board and up to 16 GB via its microSD/SDHC expansion slot — and a rich set of multimedia capabilities, including an advanced media player for music, videos and photos and a 2 megapixel camera with built-in flash, zoom and video recording, as well as an optimized Web-browsing experience with desktop-style depiction.

“The BlackBerry Bold is the best BlackBerry smartphone ever, backed by the nation’s fastest 3G network and the hands-down best international coverage of any carrier,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive officer of AT&T Mobility. “The BlackBerry Bold is the complete package, providing customers with an absolutely outstanding mobile experience whether doing e-mail, browsing the Web, viewing streaming video or simply making a phone call. And it is being introduced in the U.S. only from AT&T.”

Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO at Research In Motion, said: “The development of the BlackBerry Bold smartphone was an ambitious undertaking, and we focused intensely on the things that are most important to mobile customers when developing this best-in-class smartphone for HSDPA networks around the world. The BlackBerry Bold exudes quality in everything from its stunning display sharpness and incredible keyboard to its premium phone performance and sophisticated software applications. It provides an extraordinary mobile communications and multimedia experience, and we are very proud to introduce this breakthrough smartphone in the United States together with AT&T.”

AT&T Services

In addition to the renowned BlackBerry productivity applications — including phone, e-mail, messaging, organizer and browser — the BlackBerry Bold from AT&T will boast such AT&T services as:

· Simultaneous Voice and Data Capabilities — When connected to AT&T's 3G network, customers can conduct a phone conversation and at the same time check e-mail, browse the Web or use another data application, including when tethered to a notebook computer.

· AT&T Navigator Global Edition — Powered by TeleNav, the only GPS-based service available from a U.S. wireless carrier to provide international navigation capabilities. AT&T customers can get spoken or text-based turn-by-turn directions with automatic missed turn rerouting and a local business finder service in 20 countries.

· Seamless Wi-Fi — Allows AT&T customers who turn on the BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s Wi-Fi feature — 802.11 a/b/g — to connect automatically to home or campus networks. AT&T customers also will be able to access more than 17,000 AT&T hot spots nationwide, including nearly 7,000 participating Starbucks locations plus thousands more restaurants, airports, hotels and other convenient locations across the U.S.

· CV — CV (Cellular Video) from AT&T gives viewers access to thousands of video clips — news, sports, weather, entertainment and more — directly on a BlackBerry Bold smartphone via streaming video.

· AT&T Mobile Music Services — An industry leader in mobile music, AT&T boasts the largest catalog of offerings available today, giving customers mobile access to enjoy XM Radio Mobile™, song identification through MusicID, music videos through MobiTV and over-the-air access to the extensive music databases of Napster Mobile® and eMusic® — just to name a few.

AT&T Navigator, CV, AT&T Mobile Music services and more than 90,000 additional choices are available through AT&T MEdia Mall directly from the BlackBerry Bold or online.

E-mail and More

Like all BlackBerry smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold gives users the industry’s leading mobile messaging solution. It works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, which enables advanced security and IT administration within IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novel® GroupWise® environments, as well as BlackBerry® Professional Software for small businesses. It also works with BlackBerry® Internet Service, which gives users push-based access to as many as 10 supported work or personal e-mail accounts. Customers can also download and edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using the preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go® software suite. Beyond e-mail, the BlackBerry Bold will support a wide range of business and lifestyle applications.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone includes Bluetooth® 2.0, which provides support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals. The included BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software comes with Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry, which includes new features that make it easier to organize multimedia content as well as manage music, videos and recorded Voice Notes between a computer and the smartphone. It also optimizes video files for smooth full-screen playback on the BlackBerry Bold smartphone's large display with support for full-screen and widescreen formats.

Roxio Photosuite 9 LE is included, allowing customers to easily enhance pictures and create photo albums on their computer. In addition, the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application allows customers to sync their iTunes® digital musical collections2 with the handset. The BlackBerry Bold also boasts a new acoustic design for enhanced phone listening quality and clarity and numerous premium phone features, including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD).

AT&T Backed

Backing the BlackBerry Bold smartphone will be AT&T’s 3G BroadbandConnect network, which currently is available in more than 320 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. and, by year-end, AT&T expects to offer the service in nearly 350 leading U.S. markets. In addition to 3G connectivity, the BlackBerry Bold is also designed to connect seamlessly with AT&T’s nationwide3 EDGE network, which is available in more than 13,000 cities and towns and along some 40,000 miles of major highways.

RIM's track record at launching stuff on time can be horrible, so we might not actually hear about these in May. But when we met with RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis to check out the Storm, he said that they had looked at doing a touchscreen with a slide-out keyboard, but it made the phone too fat. A Bold-like phone with touchscreen, though, would obviously solve the fatass problem, and the Bold's giant screen would give you a fair bit of real estate to poke your greasy finger around. And a Storm in a fully baked GSM flavor at some point just seems like duh—Verizon can't have all the love forever. [BGR]