It's hard to overstate how important the BlackBerry Storm is to RIM and Verizon. It's RIM's bold effort to fend off the iPhone and Verizon's best hope for a star handset that draws people in, or at least keeps them from bailing. The Storm's major innovation is what RIM calls SurePress—the entire touchscreen is fat, honkin' button—which has been paired with a redesigned, finger-friendly BlackBerry OS. We've already showed you a lot of what the fuss is all about, but now that we've spent some quality, uninterrupted time with the Storm, here's why we think it falls short of its promise.

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Though the omission of two all-but-standard smartphone features from BlackBerry's Storm is disappointing, it isn't totally inexplicable. BGR has confirmed through a "really top-level" Verizon source that the crippling was — surprise! — carried out at the behest of the wireless company. Few wireless providers are innocent of phone neutering, but this blatant promotion of their data service and the added network anchor that the lack of tri-band HSDPA adds protect interests that, well, don't really need much protecting. Even with Wi-Fi, who the hell is going to buy a Storm without a data plan? Stop baiting us, Verizon. We like you. [BGR]

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So indicates this internal VZW email sent that BGR has gotten a hold of. Word is verizonwireless.com/storm will launch some time today (right now it's a 404), with official word of the first touchscreen Blackberry from RIM, which should be getting a November 1 release. That gibes with what we've been hearing, so hopefully the wait will soon be over for the official ThunderStorm. [BGR]

The BlackBerry Storm / Thunder, which should be coming to Verizon sometime in November for US$199, has finally been caught on video! At roughly 2:55, BREW Ninja whips out the touchscreen-y smartphone and shows off some of its apparently underwhelming (to him, at least) features--an accelerometer, a screen that functions as a button, and an ugly-as-sin on-screen keyboard. [BREW Ninja via Crackberry]

If you have been wondering when you will finally be able to get your hands on the BlackBerry Storm / Thunder, sources at BGR claim that it has just gone into technical acceptance and it has been delayed internally while the kinks are worked out. All-in-all we are looking at around 6-8 weeks here to get everything wrapped up, which should put a release sometime in November. This information is not a guarantee, but I'm sure they are dedicated to shipping before Christmas no matter what the circumstances. [BGR]

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So after much to-ing and fro-ing, it looks like BlackBerry Storms are BlackBerry Thunders ("...and violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I" as a schoolyard song used to go.) The same device will bear two names: Storm for Verizon, Thunder for others like Rogers and Vodafone. It seems like there'll be an 8GB microSD card along with the phone, which has a 3.5mm headset jack, and pre-installed SIM card, though the box suggests there's no Wi-Fi. [Engadgetmobile via BoyGeniusReport]

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