Gizmodo Australia » pearl

Boost Mobile Offering The BlackBerry Pearl On Pre-Paid. Yep, The Pearl

Nick Broughall — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:30:12 +0000

Boost Mobile are trying to convert their younger user base into crackberry addicts by offering them the Pearl 8120 for just $299. Sure, it’s an older phone, but for $299 and 12 months unlimited Blackberry IM, email and browsing, it’s a pretty sweet deal for the teens and tweens out there who can’t afford an iPhone.

The phone will be available next month, and at the moment there aren’t too many details on pre-paid options for the phone. Still, worth keeping in mind if you have older kids, I guess…

[Boost Mobile]

Crazy John’s Offering Pink BlackBerry Pearl 8110 On $39 Plan

Nick Broughall — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:23:03 +0000

What’s notable about this offering from RIM and Crazy John’s isn’t the pink BlackBerry Pearl 8110. It’s the fact that you can sign up for a BlackBerry plan for under $40 a month. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily make it good value.

It’s not bad value as such – for $39 a month over 24 months you get the Pearl, plus $150 worth of “value”. But calls are charged at 47 cents per 30 seconds, with a 35 cent flagfall, which seems on the expensive side of things. On the upside though, you do get unlimited Blackberry email and Internet, so that kind of counters the high call rate argument.

Still, not many of you will be jumping on this offer anyway, seeing as how the phone is pink and all. Maybe your girlfriend, wife or teenage daughter, but you? Not so much…

[Crazy John's]

The Blackberry Pearl Teaches Consoles a Thing or Two

Mark Wilson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:15:00 +0000

Acidmods just can’t get enough of hacking up our console controllers, and now the company has replaced the Wiimote’s A button with a clicking trackball (a la Blackberry Pearl). The result is an easier way to scroll through webpages and certain menu systems, as you can see in this video:

However, this trackball was designed to work on more than just the Wii. Acidmods guarantees it for the PSP 300, PSP Slim, DS, Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers.

Unlike most mod demonstrations, Acidmods wants to sell you this actual product. They’re not taking orders yet, but they will traditionally sell you the necessary hardware or mod your controller for you at an additional cost. The first link at the end of this post isn’t up yet, but it should have purchasing information soon. [Shop via Acidmods and MaxConsole]

BlackBerry Pearl Flip Hitting Optus Later This Month

Nick Broughall — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:30:43 +0000

Chances are, you’re not going to get a BlackBerry Pearl Flip. If you read Gizmodo, you’re much more likely to already own a Bold or be holding out for the Storm. But you might be thinking of getting the Pearl Flip for your girlfriend, wife, mistress, daughter, or other non-blackberry using relation as an entry-level BB device. In which case, the news that the Pearl Flip is launching on Optus within the next week or so is probably worth listening to.

Of course, there are a couple of caveats you should consider before purchase though. Number one is that the phone is only 2.5G – there’s no super-fast mobile data speeds here. Technically the phone is EDGE capable, but seeing as how only Telstra has EDGE and the phone is only on Optus (for the moment), that doesn’t really help you. The second is that the phone is only available on a $79 business or consumer cap plan for $0 upfront (over 24 months). Which isn’t exactly the amount of money you want to be spending on an entry-level smartphone.

But in an attempt to sway your decision, Optus and RIM have created the Flip For It website to try and give you (or your BlackBerry n00b friend) the chance to “experience” the phone before purchase. But is it enough to sway you? Let us know in comments…

[Blackberry Pearl Flip]

Turn Your BlackBerry Curve or Pearl Into a Shiny Storm In One Easy Step

John Mahoney — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:20:00 +0000

That is, once you’ve put on the blinders necessary to peer only into the screen to enjoy this $US7 theme add-on, which ditched the Pearl/Curve’s rough quasi-future typography (thank God that has been changed) and icon set in favour of the Storm’s slick new UI. The icons even look like they’re being touch-clicked when you select them. Good to pass the time until the Storm drops sometime later next month. [BBThemes via Crackberry]

BlackBerry Pearl Flip Review

Matt Buchanan — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0000

If it hadn’t been leaked so damn much, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 would be something of a surprise. Not simply because it’s the first-ever clamshell BlackBerry, but the fact that RIM went in this direction at all, especially when you look at the rest of its new phones, with their clean, almost aerodynamic lines, and compare them to this beefy slab of a phone. Landing on T-Mobile today, the big-boned Pearl Flip is aimed at people graduating to their first smartphone, and it definitely has its own kind of charm.

RIM Opens Up About Blackberry Pearl Flip Phone

Gizmodo US Edition — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:11:52 +0000

RIM just got official with its BlackBerry Pearl Flip (aka the Kickstart). Still a kinda clumsy-looking piece, the Pearl Flip is just like the candybar Pearls, but you know, fliptastic, with an an external display for previewing incoming texts, emails and phone calls. Watch for it at T-Mobile soon.

RIM Introduces the First BlackBerry Flip Phone
New BlackBerry Pearl Flip Brings The Industry’s Leading Mobile Messaging Solution To Consumers Who Prefer Flip Phones

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM, TSX: RIM) today unveiled the BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8220 smartphone, the first BlackBerry® phone to come in the popular flip form factor.

The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip provides flip phone fans with all the power of a BlackBerry smartphone in a fun and familiar design. One quick flip of the handset opens up a world of possibilities with the industry’s leading mobile messaging solution and a wide range of impressive Internet and multimedia capabilities, all in one powerful yet approachable smartphone. You can send a message to your friends or family, make a call, browse the web, snap a picture, watch a video or listen to your favourite song. It’s all in your control with a simple flip.

The quad-band EDGE based BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone presents a sophisticated look with a sleek design and a chrome-finished frame surrounding its smooth, luminescent face. Packed with an abundance of powerful features, it weighs only 3.6 ounces and measures approximately 3.9″ x 1.9″ x 0.7″. Featuring two high-resolution, light-sensing colour displays, the external LCD makes it easy to preview incoming emails, text messages and phone calls without opening the handset, while the large, 240 x 320 internal LCD displays messages, videos and web pages with impressive detail and contrast.

“The popularity of BlackBerry smartphones has grown tremendously around the world and the introduction of this exciting new flip phone will help extend the reach of the BlackBerry platform even further,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry Pearl Flip is a full-featured smartphone with a unique and friendly design and it is a natural choice for flip phone users who want to start doing more with their phone than just talk.”

FIRST CLASS PHONE

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone is a top of the line mobile phone that flips open and cradles the face naturally and comfortably during phone calls. It delivers exceptional voice quality and includes many premium phone features, including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), support for mp3 ring tones, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing, call forwarding, voicemail attachment playback and enhanced background noise cancellation. It also features a speakerphone and Bluetooth® 2.0 for use with hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals such as a GPS receiver. The removable/rechargeable 900 mAhr battery provides four hours of talk time and over 14 days of standby time.

MESSAGING POWERHOUSE

Featuring a large SureType® QWERTY* keyboard that makes typing messages and dialing numbers fast and easy, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, like all BlackBerry smartphones, provides integrated access to the industry leading BlackBerry wireless services. Users are able to easily access up to 10 supported personal and work email accounts, send and receive text and instant messages, and connect on popular social networking sites with friends, family and co-workers. The DataViz® Documents to Go® software suite is also preloaded, allowing users to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip is supported on BlackBerry® Internet Service, BlackBerry® Unite!, BlackBerry® Professional Software and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, which provides tight integration with corporate email systems and the security and IT policy controls that enterprise customers require to confidently allow smartphones in their organization.

MULTIMEDIA TO GO

With an advanced media player for displaying pictures, listening to music and watching videos, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip is the perfect on-the-go entertainment centre. Videos play smoothly on the large internal display, playlists can be managed directly on the handset and there’s an equalizer with 11 preset filters – including “Lounge”, “Jazz” and “Hip Hop” – for customising audio ranges when using headphones or external speakers. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip works with the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application that makes it easy to sync iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone*** and it also features a conveniently accessible microSD/SDHC memory card slot that supports up to 16GB** for plenty of storage. High Speed USB 2.0 support allows files to be quickly transferred between a desktop computer and the smartphone and the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software includes Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry® to help users easily manage their music and video files. Roxio Photosuite® 9 LE is also included for creating photo albums and editing pictures.

FULL FEATURED FLIP

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip packs an impressive range of features into its compact design, including phone, email, messaging, organizer, browser and multimedia applications, and it can also support thousands of other mobile lifestyle and business applications. It features a 2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom and video recording**** to capture memories while on the move, and includes BlackBerry Maps to deliver maps and step-by-step driving directions quickly and easily. An enhanced HTML browser displays web pages beautifully in either “Column View” or “Page View” and different emulation settings allow users to choose between desktop-style HTML content and the mobile version of web pages. The browser also supports RTSP for watching online streaming video from sites like m.youtube.com. In addition, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone features built-in Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g) with support for UMA (unlicensed mobile access), extending wireless email and data coverage and supporting carrier enabled voice calls over home Wi-Fi networks, enterprise wireless deployments and Wi-Fi hotspots.

ACCESSORIES

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip comes with a variety of accessories including a stereo headset, travel charger and USB cable. Additional accessories for BlackBerry smartphones, including holsters and totes, charging pods, premium earphones, Bluetooth headsets and the BlackBerry® Remote Stereo Gateway are available through retail outlets or online at www.shopblackberry.com.

AVAILABILITY

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone will be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this fall. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip will be available in the United States exclusively from T-Mobile beginning this fall. Specific availability and pricing details will be announced at a later date.

For more information please visit www.BlackBerryPearl.com

T-Mobile USA customers can check out more details about this new flip phone and register to be notified when the BlackBerry Pearl Flip is available at www.BlackBerry.com/T-MobileBlackBerryPearlFlip

Media can access images and video of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone at http://rim.mediaseed.tv/

About Research In Motion (RIM)
Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications. RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to data. RIM’s portfolio of award-winning products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations around the world and
include the BlackBerry® wireless platform, the RIM Wireless Handheld™ product line, software development tools, radio-modems and software/hardware licensing agreements. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. RIM is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM). For more information, visit www.rim.com or www.blackberry.com.

* Keyboard also available in AZERTY and QWERTZ configurations to support different language groups.

** MicroSD/SDHC memory cards are available today in configurations of up to 8GB and the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 smartphone will support upcoming 16GB microSD/SDHC cards.

*** Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies.

**** Video recording requires microSD card, which may be sold separately.

[BlackBerry]

BlackBerry Pearl Gets Google Maps with Voice Search

Mark Wilson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:02:00 +0000

Google has just released a new version of their maps application that supports voice recognition search on the BlackBerry Pearl. That means Pearl users can load Google Maps, hold a side button, say “pizza, i said PIZZA…PEE ZZ UH” and have the application magically find tacos in your immediate vicinity. This upgrade doesn’t look to be automatic, so hit the link to have Google text message your phone for the “experimental” update. [Google Maps via Gear Diary]

Vodafone Cuts Its BlackBerry Pricing

Nick Broughall — Mon, 19 May 2008 05:15:31 +0000

If you were obsessing over Vodafone’s (and Optus’s) upcoming release of the iPhone, then you might try and extrapolate all kinds of hidden meanings from their decision to cut the cost of their BlackBerry data plans.

After all, the iPhone is likely to use even more data than a BlackBerry, and with the prices for data still quite expensive, you could argue that this is a move by Vodafone to try and test the waters for their iPhone release.

But we won’t do that. Instead, we’ll take it as it is. Vodafone have cut their BlackBerry data packages to start from $14.95 for 1.5MB of data (or approximately 500 emails) or $24.95 for unlimited data. Of course, when they say unlimited, they mean anything but. And you need to be on a $79 plan or a $49 plan to be eligible for those prices too.

They’re also giving away the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 for free on a $79 cap over 24 months.

This isn’t a bad deal, but it isn’t quite as good as 3’s Blackberry deal. Although in the case of 3, if you start downloading emails outside of their coverage zone… your wallet will say ouch. So weigh up what’s best for you before you make your choice…

[Vodafone]

BlackBerry Users Get XM Radio, Excuse to Take Phones Into Bathrooms For US$7.99 a Month

Jason Chen — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:44:47 +0000

I used to sleep through class by tuning my mobile’s FM radio to a classical station, sitting in the back, and putting a jacket over my face, so this XM Radio on BlackBerry is pretty spectacular news. All you need is a BlackBerry 8800, 8700, Pearl or Curve and US$7.99 a month. You’ll get 20 “exclusive” XM channels (list after the jump), and you can download the app here or text “XM” to 47201. Time for a nap. Since this uses the phone’s regular data connection, you hopefully won’t be forced to wear giant ridiculous looking headphones in order to get reception.

LAS VEGAS, April 1, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CTIA Booth #4544 —
XM (Nasdaq: XMSR), the nation’s leading provider of satellite radio with
more than 9 million subscribers, and QuickPlay Media, the leader in mobile
TV and video solutions, today announced that XM Radio Mobile has selected
QuickPlay’s OpenVideo(TM) as the first media management platform to make XM
Radio Mobile universally available on select BlackBerry(R) smartphones from
Research In Motion (RIM). The service, which can run across major U.S.
mobile service providers’ networks, enables consumers to get 20 exclusive
XM channels of commercial-free music and 24-hour comedy programming for
just $7.99 per month with an option for a complimentary 24-hour trial.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070313/XMLOGO )

The XM Radio Mobile offering provides BlackBerry smartphone users with
unlimited access to a wide selection of the most popular commercial-free
music channels, including XM’s 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s decade channels,
20on20 (Top 20 Hits), Ethel (New Alternative Rock), The City (Hip-Hop/R&B
Hits), XMU (Indie Rock), Watercolors (Easy Jazz) and Highway 16 (New
Country Hits). Customers can also listen to XM comedy channels, The Virus
(outrageous uncensored talk) and XM Comedy (uncensored comedy).

“Together with QuickPlay, XM Radio Mobile will provide BlackBerry users
with access to a compelling selection of XM’s acclaimed music and comedy
programming virtually anywhere they go,” said Vernon Irvin, EVP and Chief
Marketing Officer, XM Satellite Radio. “Today’s announcement reinforces
XM’s commitment to making our industry-leading content available to
consumers in ways that fit their lifestyles.”

All XM channels are easily accessed via a simple user interface with
graphical icons for content genres and channels. While listening to one XM
Radio Mobile channel, users can see the song title, artist and album, as
well as what’s currently playing on other XM Radio Mobile channels.
Subscribers can also multi-task as XM Radio Mobile can run in the
background while the user accesses other data applications on their
BlackBerry smartphone.

BlackBerry smartphones supported by the XM Mobile Radio service require
BlackBerry Device Software 4.2 or higher and include the BlackBerry(R) 8800
Series, BlackBerry(R) 8700 Series, BlackBerry(R) Pearl(TM) Series and
BlackBerry(R) Curve(TM) Series smartphones with a BlackBerry data plan on
major U.S. mobile carrier networks. The service, and a complimentary
24-hour trial, is available via a downloadable application that can be
easily accessed by visiting http://www.xmradio.com/bb from the BlackBerry
smartphone’s browser, or by texting “XM” to 47201 and clicking on the
download link provided. Subscribers can opt to have their purchase charged
to their credit card or where available billed directly to their service
provider.

“QuickPlay Media is thrilled to partner with XM, the leader in audio
entertainment, to offer BlackBerry smartphone users the ability to easily
discover and enjoy music and comedy from XM Radio Mobile, regardless of
which U.S. service provider they subscribe to,” said Wayne Purboo,
president and CEO, QuickPlay Media. “Additionally, we are proud to continue
to expand our portfolio of services for the BlackBerry platform, including
the first audio streaming service for BlackBerry, called QuickPlayer; and
the first free video streaming service for BlackBerry, called
VideoStreams.”

[PRNewswire]