BlackBerry Storm YouTube Client

Google has released a YouTube client for the BlackBerry Storm, allowing users to get a YouTube experience catered specifically for their favorite touchscreen. Here’s what’s included:

* Browse millions of videos from your phone.
* Access your favorites, your own uploaded videos and your favorite channels.
* Share, rate, and comment on videos from your phone.
* Upload videos from your phone.
* Find the specific video you’re looking for by easily searching for it.
* Discover “Related” videos for each video you watch on your phone.

BlackBerry Storm TeleNav GPS Navigator

New BlackBerry Storm users looking for software can take heart, as TeleNav has put a late Christmas present in your stocking with TeleNav GPS Navigator for Verizon Wireless subscribers. Here’s a quick look at what users can expect from TeleNav GPS Navigator:

* Full-color 3D moving maps
* Voice and on-screen directions
* Speech recognition (optional for address entry)
* Traffic alerts with one-click rerouting and an on-screen ETA
* 10 million business listings
* Gas price listings
* Wi-Fi hotspot finder
* Pedestrian mode so you can use it while walking around town
* My TeleNav online preplanning

TeleNav is obviously up against the entrenched competition of Verizon Navigator on the BlackBerry Storm, so they’ve decided to sweeten the pot with a free 30-day trial. TeleNav GPS Navigator is regularly $9.99/month for unlimited use.

BlackBerry Storm OS 5.0 features leaked

The last batch of BlackBerry Enterprise 5.0 features that got leaked had a lot to do with the technical back-end, but we just got wind of a bunch more that end-users will be happy to hear about. 

Above all, these outline some of the big changes we’ll see on handheld software version 5.0. Right now we sit at 4.7 on the BlackBerry Storm, so it might not take long at all to segue into the new OS - maybe one or two updates. No word on a release date, but the Wireless Enterprise Symposium next April sounds like a good bet.

- Flag messages and set reminder times on your BlackBerry.

- View personal contact subfolders and edit contacts! Until now BES used to put all of your contacts into the Contacts application even if they were in different folders.

- You will be able to view and use contacts that are in public folders and copy them to your local contact list if you have permissions.

- You will have a file browser to access shared network locations to open, add, or save documents. You will be able to see document information from there such as file type, size, and date.

- Forward meeting invitations and calendar entries from your BlackBerry.

- Ability to add, delete, move, or rename personal folders.

- Ability to view personal distribution lists that you have in your Outlook contacts and send email to them.

RIM is working on a solution to make emails that come from your BlackBerry look exactly like they would if they came from Outlook.

A pretty solid list of improvements all around, and no doubt welcomed by the enterprise crowd. 

Just keep in mind that both the the server-side BES software and handheld software will both need to be installed in order to enjoy these new features.

BlackBerry Storm OS 4.7.0.83 (+ Video)

If your BlackBerry Storm is still misbehaving then you might want to treat it to another dose of leaked firmware. This time around it’s version 4.7.0.83.

Preliminary changes seem to suggest that the handset responds faster, with both applications loading and closing faster and the on-screen keyboard doing a better job of keeping up with typing. Browser rendering is also reportedly faster, with one user suggesting that some sites loaded in a third of the time they used to.

Other suggest that the accelerometer is faster (though some users report it’s actually slower than before in the home screen) but that now the Storm can sometimes miss clicks in the corners of the display. Of course, as an unofficial leak you try firmware 4.7.0.83 at your own risk; installing it could affect your handset’s warranty or even break it altogether.

Get the new BlackBerry Storm 9530 OS 4.7.0.83 here

OS 4.7.0.83 Running on the BlackBerry Storm 9530! on Vimeo.

BlackBerry Storm Available From Bell Mobility Online

A new shipment of BlackBerry Storms are coming in to Bell in the near future. If you’ve been waiting to snap one up since the initial flurry of activity on Bell (sold out in hours), you’ve got another chance now…

The BlackBerry Storm is available for purchase via the Bell website right now. They have ‘limited quantities’ available to ship immediately… so you might want to jump on this while they are still in-stock. You can get it for $249.95 on a 3-year contract with a minimum prerequesite $45 voice/data plan. Alternatively you can pick it up on no contract for $699.95.

If you intend on picking a BlackBerry Storm up from Bell via their website… good luck!

BlackBerry Storm Telus pricing information

Telus has come forth with the official pricing information for the BlackBerry Storm.

If you latch yourself onto a three-year service agreement that involves a voice, email and data plan of at least $40 a month, you will be given the privilege of buying the BlackBerry Storm for $249.99. This is a promotional price that will last until Christmas Day. After that, we’re not sure if the asking price will go up or down… or stay the same.

Included in that price is a free 8GB memory card that comes preloaded with music and videos by Stars, Broken Social Scene, The Stills, Constantines, Kevin Drew, Jason Collet and Brendan Canning.

If you’d prefer to get a shorter contract, Telus will sell you the BlackBerry Storm for $450 or $550 with a two-year or one-year contract instead. If you prefer to go sans service agreement altogether, the Storm will run you a cool $599.99. You’ll want to make up your mind soon if you want the Storm in time for the holidays, because they’ll surely be short on stock. The full rollout doesn’t even happen until January.

Related Article:
BlackBerry Storm Telus video review

BlackBerry Storm Telus Video Review

A video review of the BlackBerry Storm on the Telus network.

BlackBerry Storm Deals

BlackBerry Storm discount deals are back.

Verizon is now shipping orders by Wednesday, December 17, for BlackBerry Storms. A call to a Verizon store verified that they are still offering a $50 instant in-store rebate. It saves waiting time for the rebate, if you order the BlackBerry Storm in a Verizon Store.

Here are the best prices and deals we are seeing for the BlackBerry Storm:

The $149.99 deal for the BlackBerry Storm with new customers is back at Wirefly. It requires a a two-year contract for new Verizon customers only.

Let's Talk after entering in a zip code for availability shows a price of $124.99 for the BlackBerry Storm after $100 in rebates but it will be backorderd to ship on 12/20/2008. Please note you have to be a new Verizon customer, for this deal.

Related articles:
BlackBerry Storm at BestBuy

BlackBerry Storm Commercials Round-Up

In the US, Verizon commercials start off with a few features of the BlackBerry Storm and then pans out to the Verizon Network people in its commercials, selling the network.



In Canada, Telus is marketing the BlackBerry Storm as a "handy" device and also as great gift.





In the UK, the BlackBerry Storm commercials have a lot of rock music and make the BlackBerry Storm look very trendy and way cool. The BlackBerry Storm also appears to come with a very handsome man, while in the U.S. and Canada we don't get see the BlackBerry Storm user.

BlackBerry Storm vs. Treo 755p

How does the Treo 755p compare with the BlackBerry Storm?

How about a 9 to 4 win playing in a Treo-friendly 'park' like mytreo?

Pricing and Ordering (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)

At a price of $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year contract, the Storm is priced to be a direct competitor with the iPhone. Compared to Palm devices however, the Centro is half its price, and the 755p was $50 more. Since the Storm is still a more business-oriented device, we will be comparing it to the 755p.

In The Box (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)

Included in the box are: the device, battery, battery cover, travel charger with international adapter clips, USB cable, stereo 3.5mm headset, 8GB SanDisk microSDHC card installed in the device, and documentation. The Storm is a global device, so a Verizon SIM card (!) is also preinstalled. The 755p comes with similar accessories, including a home charger, USB cable, and stereo 2.5mm headset.

Hardware (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)

The Storm is a device of many firsts for RIM, and even for the industry. The Storm is the first BlackBerry device to feature a touchscreen, as well as not have a physical keyboard. It is also the first touchscreen device to have a “clickable” screen, which really sets it apart from other capacitive touchscreen devices (more on that later). The screen is 480×360 in landscape mode, compared to the 755p’s standard 320×320 square screen. The extra pixels and wide aspect ratio make a huge difference, especially when viewing multimedia or spreadsheets.

The plastics on the Storm are, unfortunately, a giant fingerprint magnet. Whether it’s the screen, buttons, or the camera lens area, fingerprints are bound to be found. It is nearly impossible not to get fingerprints on the device as the screen cannot be used with a stylus or fingernail. Dimension-wise, the Storm is a little bit wider than the 755p, but much thinner.

Camera (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)

This, unfortunately, is where poorly written software really shows up. The device isn’t particularly snappy to begin with (even with the latest software), but the camera is unbearably slow. It takes several seconds to take a picture, and during that time, all sorts of things can happen. The device could have moved, resulting in a blurry picture, or the subject could have moved outside of the picture. Nevertheless, if the device is held steady and the subject of the picture is still, you will get decent quality pictures. Colors are much better than the 755p, but each 3.2MP picture will take up about 600KB of memory.

Camcorder (Winner: Treo 755p)
The Storm records videos in 320×240 resolution, which is slightly lower than the 755p’s strange 352×288 size. Video quality is quite a bit better than the Treo, however, software issues made the video camera nearly unusable. It took me five tries to successfully record one video, and of course, moments that you would like to capture on video only happen once. Each of the first four times, the device would encounter an “unexpected error” while saving the video. The video was saved, but it would not play on the device or my laptop. The Storm would’ve won this section had the software been better, so the 755p wins this section for stability.

Screen (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)

There’s really not much to say about a 480×360 screen on a mobile device – it’s excellent for viewing multimedia and browsing the internet! The clickable screen is one of its best features. Touching the screen highlights items or scrolls, and to select, you need to press down on the screen until it clicks. RIM calls this SurePress, and it is much better than a regular touchscreen because it allows you greater precision. When typing, a letter does not show up until you press down on the screen, so it is possible to reposition your finger if the wrong key has been selected. Unfortunately, because of SurePress, the screen isn’t fixed in place and some wobbling may be noticed.

Keyboard (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)
Although physical keyboards are always easier and faster, the Storm’s on-screen is the best that I’ve used so far. The Storm offers three input methods – SureType and multi-tap in portrait mode, and QWERTY in landscape mode. SureType works surprisingly well, but for certain words such as try and yet, corrections may be needed. The QWERTY keyboard is well laid out and spacious. The Storm does feature copy and paste by touching a finger at the beginning of the selection, and another at the end, but it is imprecise and adjustment is not possible. This probably won’t be a deal breaker unless you frequently edit files and need to move chunks of text around, but typing large amounts of text on the Storm can be quite frustrating.

Software (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)
Without any third party software onto the device, the Storm is not as speedy as BlackBerries tend to be. There is a small delay when opening applications, and the transition effects bog the system down further. Simply put, the BlackBerry OS is good at what it’s designed to do, which would be email and calendar, but there are some features to be desired from the built-in applications.

Email and PIM (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)

BlackBerries are built for email and PIM, and the Storm is no exception. I didn’t extensively test out these apps as they are pretty much what you would expect from a BlackBerry. The contact list is a breeze to scroll through, and the calendar is very easy to use. The one thing that could be improved with the PIM apps would be the addition of some buttons, such as Compose New, Reply, Reply To All, or Forward in Messages and New or Delete buttons for PIM apps. The apps depend a little too much on the menu, which requires reaching over to the BlackBerry button.

Documents (Winner: Treo 755p)

The Storm is preloaded with Documents To Go, much like the 755p. However, the major difference is that the BlackBerry version of Documents To Go only supports opening files and has no support for Office 2007. You cannot create new files! If you want to create new files, you will have to upgrade to the premium version. The operating system has a built-in document reader that can only read Office 2007 files, but because all of my files are in Office 2007 format, I have no choice but to use that.

Browser (Winner: BlackBerry Storm)
The BlackBerry Browser in the Storm is much better than Blazer on a Palm OS device. By default, it loads mobile sites, but in the options menu, there is a setting to change the browser identification from BlackBerry to Internet Explorer or FireFox. In IE mode, it opened up mytreo.net’s front page in the mobile version, but article pages were shown in desktop mode. The page was rendered accurately, and after some zooming in, I did not have any difficulty reading my review of the Treo 755p.

Multimedia (Winner: Treo 755p)

The music and video player in the Storm are simple and easy to use. Maybe a little bit too simple. There are only four buttons available when playing a song, and they are Previous, Pause, Stop, and Next. Repeat and shuffle are hidden in the menu, and there is no progress slider or rewind/fast forward. Pocket Tunes in the Treo 755p is much more powerful, and depending on the skin you are using, can have a lot more options displayed on the screen. Playlists are a bit cumbersome to create on the Storm because only one song may be added at once, and songs from various folders are combined into one giant list.

Third Party Apps (Winner: Treo 755p)

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of applications available that support the Storm at the moment. I’m a big fan of WorldMate for Palm OS, and WorldMate Live for BlackBerry has a lot of features, including weather forecast, world clocks, flight schedules, and currency conversion. However, WorldMate Live only works in landscape mode. Google Maps is another application that supports the Storm (and in both orientations), and maps load quickly and are crisp and easy to read.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, the BlackBerry Storm is a great device. It is good at what it is designed to do, and BlackBerries are gradually becoming more and more multimedia-friendly. For everyday tasks like checking your email or calendar and browsing the internet, the Storm and its large screen cannot be beat. However, if you are one who needs to type a lot, a device with a physical keyboard will probably be a better choice. The advantage that Palm OS still has is the vast amounts of applications available, but BlackBerry developers are starting to catch up. The Treo does a bit of everything and fits my needs well, so I won’t be heading into BlackBerry territory anytime soon, but the Storm would make a great device for those of us who are getting a little tired of the dated Palm OS and are craving for something else.

Blackberry Storm: Top 5 YouTube Reviews

PC World bring us the five most popular, insightful and interesting BlackBerry Storm YouTube video reviews:

5. Kyle: This Is the Best Verizon Phone. Period.

Kyle (jameskm03) loves the Storm's new touch screen and its camera ("The 3.2-megapixel camera is MONEY!"), but he hates that the phone doesn't support Wi-Fi. This guy knows his stuff on the Blackberry and its operating system, and his review of the new smart phone is pleasantly (and impressively) insightful and balanced. As he says (twice), "I'm not gonna lie to you..."





4. College Boy: This Is Not an iPhone Killer

Here's the counterpoint to #5. Once this guy (mdscinto) finally gets rolling into his rant (just FF to about 1:15 in the video, where he starts hitting his stride), he touches on many of the major criticisms of the Storm that are now making the rounds among tech critics and Apple fanboys/girls: uncomfortable typing motion, slow OS, no Wi-Fi, etc., etc. So here he is on the dorm-room cam, making art not war...





3. "Gorgeous, Sexy, Amazing"

I've watched this video from "gotenkslovesme" about five times now--never mind that the video's oriented sideways for undisclosed reasons. Though this wee slip of a lass is no Walt Mossberg, I just can't get enough of her heavy Scottish brogue, especially when she says: "It's the first ever clickable touch screen..." Wow.




2. BlackBerry Storm vs. iPhone

This is the most-watched BlackBerry Storm review on YouTube right now, with 271,301 views (at this writing). The reviewer, Jon Rettinger (jon4lakers), pits the Storm side-by-side on a table top against the 3G iPhone to make his comparison more vivid. The matchup includes a download speed test (cool) that Verizon's EvDO network wins handily.




1. From a Bunker in the Suburbs

This young guy, "themacfan45", caught a lot of flak in comments on YouTube responding to his review of the BlackBerry Storm. But PC World has his back. Good review, my bespectacled friend, and keep 'em coming. Someday you may grow up to be a highly paid hot-shot tech journalist like me and David Pogue. Just lay off the cough syrup, okay? It might help with your delivery.

Blackberry Storm - iPhone typing speed test (Video)

Can't get enough videos of the BlackBerry Storm in action.
Here's a cool vid showing a typing speed test versus the iPhone.

BlackBerry Storm Shortage

BlackBerry Storm Shortage! eBay sellers are stating "SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE" and BlackBerry Storms are selling at around $400.00. A search on LetsTalk showed no listing at all for BlackBerry Storm, but lots of other BlackBerries. Wirefly's website shows, "Ships When Available." At Verizon's website the notice states, "Will Ship by December 16" Amazon.com offers free two-day shipping but also notes "usually ships in within 4-6 weeks."

Wireless and Mobile News called one of the busiest stores on the west coast and talked to a sales associate. If you were to walk into a Verizon store today, you can purchase a BlackBerry Storm, it will be shipped by December 16. As an added bonus instead of a mail-in rebate, you get an "instant" in-store $50 rebate. Everyday, Verizon employees get a ship date for the BlackBerry Storm. Verizon employees have not been informed when they will have BlackBerry Storms in stock.

Since BlackBerry Storms are available for those who order and wait, we would put this in the category of "back-ordered." By Webster's definition since they are available we can't classify the BlackBerry Storm as sold-out completely because they are not sold-out in "advance."

BlackBerry Storm Verizon firmware for Mac

Are you a BlackBerry Storm owner on Verizon and Apple Mac User?

You can download the 14MB update for you BlackBerry Storm now. It should take around 25 minutes.

Last Friday RIM released the Windows-Only RIM Desktop Manager for the BlackBerry Storm and reports have all been pretty positive regarding firmware 4.7.0.75 with many Storm owners saying that all the problems they faced when they first started using the handset are long gone.

BlackBerry Storm Theme for BlackBerry Bold and Pearl

Don't have a BlackBerry Storm yet?

No worries, you can get the Storm imitation theme for other versions of BlackBerry.

Storm Theme is available for 83xx, 88xx, 81xx and Bold BlackBerries.

Pimp your old BlackBerry at MobiHand.com

BlackBerry Storm at Best Buy

Best Buy has attached some pricing to the Verizon BlackBerry Storm at $199.99 with a 2-year agreement and activation plan. Savings up to $400.

In Canada, Best Buy wants to sell the Telus-branded BlackBerry Storm for $299.99 with a qualifying three-year contract, and also with an outright price for $649.99, which is actually a little lower than the going gray market price on eBay for the Vodafone or Verizon versions.

BlackBerry Storm Video Review (Video)

Yet another BlackBerry Storm video review in a two-part series.

BlackBerry Storm Dissected (Video)

How to dissect a BlackBerry Storm.
Video courtesy of cnn.cn.

BlackBerry Storm Verizon Update Officially Launched

Verizon started offering the 4.7.0.75 firmware update for BlackBerry Storm from the Desktop Manager. Click here for details: Verizon website

Verizon website notes: Approximate Update Time is 25 - 30 minutes (including device reset at the end of the process.)

The over-the-air update is expected to start at 9:30 pm PST tonight.

Before you do anything please be sure to read directions first and backup your data so that you don't loose anything.

Please note 4.7.0.75 doesn't solve all the BlackBerry Storm's bugs but helps with many of them. We reported that the next version will be even better.

BlackBerry Storm Vodafone

RIM and Vodafone have certainly missed out on the chance to be in the running as the next iPhone killer, if only because, despite the long lead-up, the phone feels like it was rushed to market.

The good stuff. A little late to the touchy-feely party it may be, but the Blackberry Storm is no me-too product because RIM has managed to put a new spin on capacitive touchscreens. It feels different. Not the feel of plastic against skin, but when you press it, there’s a much more tactile reaction from the SurePress touchscreen than you get with other phones - the whole screen moves.

This is because it floats a fraction of a millimetre above the phone’s sensor pad and gives a similar impression to clicking with a mouse. It’s disconcerting at first and feels like something might be loose, but with regular use the benefits become clear. The problem common to most of today’s touchscreens is the accidental activation of buttons as you try to scroll around the screen. That doesn’t happen with the Storm.

But while this is a welcome innovation, it has its drawbacks, most noticeably when you’re typing. There’s a choice of RIM’s own SureType and multi-tap keyboards in portrait mode, or a full Qwerty keyboard in landscape mode, but entering text feels slower than with standard BlackBerry keyboards because the screen requires a distinct click to register a keystroke. This is great for preventing accidental presses, but we found it frustrating to try to write this way.

Given that BlackBerry’s USP has always been the ease it brings to email on the move – not just sending and receiving but creating, with the range of keypads available - this is the first BlackBerry we’ve tried that has disappointed us. And, odd for such an email-centric devices, the @ symbol doesn’t appear on the keyboard – you’ll need to access it through the Symbols menu.

Cut and paste is reassuringly easy, though – just highlight a stretch of text by tapping your thumbs at each end and use the menu button to cut, copy, or paste it elsewhere. You can even paste into different documents. So it certainly beats the iPhone here.

Next to email, the other main BlackBerry selling point is browsing and here too the Storm starts well but ultimately falls down. There’s a fast-ish HSDPA 3G link on board, but no Wi-Fi, which is a serious omission shoudl you you want to access your company’s intranet, use hotspots, or even your home or office WLAN. No current HSDPA link is ever going to get close to proper broadband.

Speed issues aside, the browser’s actually very good for the most part. You can use full page or column mode, there’s the option to use your finger as a cursor and the on-board accelerometer will flip the screen to portrait or landscape as you choose. A quick tap on the screen will zoom into a column of text, iPhone-style, though you’ll need to use the zoom icon at the bottom of the screen to pull out again. If you’ve got good reception, it all adds up to an easy and intuitive browsing experience.

The 3.2-megapixel camera isn’t the current state of the art, but it holds up pretty well, so long as you’re not in a rush. It’s quick enough to get into - around three seconds after you press the shutter button on the side - but focusing and snapping takes about five seconds, way too long to catch the moment in many cases. There’s a 2x digital zoom and a reasonably effective flash, but not much in the way of post-snap editing tools.

The pictures themselves are decent enough if taken in good light, and the screen is sufficiently sharp and detailed to show them to good effect. Video recording is okay - the resolution's 320 x 240 - and displays reasonably well on the screen, with surprisingly crisp motion and realistic colours.

The Storm struggles a bit with fast movement, but overall it’s better than we’d expected. The music player does a good job too, though it took us a while to work out that the volume controls on the side double-up as forward and back nudges when you hold them down.

Incidentally, this phone goes LOUD, and sounds good and bassy through the supplied earphones, though for a more refined listen there’s a 3.5mm socket so you can add your cans of choice. There’s a graphic equaliser with a dozen presets, and while there’s only 1GB of memory on board, you can expand this by up to 16GB at a time with a Micro SD cards. However, one isn't provided as standard.

But clever and capable though it is, there are still a few problems with the general operation of the Storm. It’s slow, for one thing, and took ages to flip between menus. Now, when we say ages, we actually mean a couple of seconds, but that can seem like a very long time with mobile phones. Our test sample also seemed a bit buggy – we lost the keyboard at one point and were only able to get it back by removing the battery and restarting.

This also happened with another Storm sample that we’re aware of, which gives the impression it’s not an individual problem. The browser seized up and switched itself off a bit more often than we'd be comfortable with too. A replacement model ironed out some of the problems, but the frustration we felt at the lack of speed tended to cancel out any good feelings we had about the phone's many good features.

Worse, the Storm's battery life was quite shockingly poor, and we barely made it to three hours in our first day of use – that’s with maybe about 30 minutes' browsing, playing a few songs, and a dozen or so minutes of calls. As with all today’s smartphones, you can extend the battery’s life by reducing screen brightness and cutting back on background apps, but the Storm is still a long way from the top drawer.

Call quality was fine in our part of north London, as was the GPS when with Google Maps, which did what it does with its usual efficiency.

Vodafone has the UK exclusive on the Storm and it's offering the handset free with a £35-a-month airtime package. But you’ll be tied in to a two-year contract and you’re limited to 500MB of data transfers, which may be plenty for some users, but may not be if you’re planning to make full use of the Storm’s potential for downloading video. An extra 5GB of data per month will set you back £22.50.

There’s the suspicion that the Storm may have been rushed, despite the hype that’s been going on for months. Besides the slow OS - BlackBerry 4.7, since you ask - and feeble battery life, the ‘Application Center’ mart looks distinctly understocked compared to the app stores launched for the iPhone and the Android-packing T-Mobile G1. Still, it’s got specialist apps for Facebook, Flickr and YouTube along with a few instant messaging clients, though without the geek caché of the Mac and Android fanbase, it’s possible it may never achieve the variety those devices will be able to offer.

In trying to take on the iPhone at its own multimedia touchscreen game, RIM has alas come unstuck, to the extent that we think the company could well alienate its core users: business customers who’ve come to expect hassle-free email.

Related articles:
BlackBerry Storm Scratch Test Video
BlackBerry Storm Upgrade Available

BlackBerry Storm Scratch Test (Video)

If you are considering purchasing the BlackBerry Storm, no doubt you have given at least a little consideration as to the durability of the screen and wonder if it scratches easily.

This video should put those worries to bed.

A knife, also one of those prongs that restaurants poke their receipts on, and finally the all important key scratching test, and guess what, through it all and not a scratch in sight.

BlackBerry Storm Upgrade Available

A BlackBerry Storm update is downloadable now. The BlackBerry Storm update page has it and it's 26.4 megabytes and supposed to fix a lot of bugs.

The update works while the BlackBerry Storm is attached to your computer via a USB port, while running Internet Explorer 6 or higher. The website warns, "Until the update is complete, you will not be able to use your BlackBerry Storm. Should you unplug or cancel the update process before completion, your smartphone may be unusable and you may need to restart the update process to regain use of your device."

We believe this to be version 4.7.0.75, however, there appears to be some contention as to what version is available.

Please be aware if you are running a BlackBerry Storm with BlackBerry Enterprise Service or BlackBerry Professional Software you will not be able to complete the web-based upgrade, you will have to check with your IT department to see if they have the BES upgrade.

From the BlackBerry Storm video it looks like the update improves the accelerometer, it has excellent touch feedback, and the screen keyboard automatically adjusts to landscape and portrait. Verizon's insider document noted that the first update would fix volume problems when a call comes in, voice atcitvated dialing causing audio muting, and resets for no reason during multimedia applications.

BlackBerry Storm owners received this information in a email message yesterday:

Bundle An upgrade of BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.7 is available. This upgrade includes optimizations and enhancements approved by your wireless service provider.
Note: If your device is associated with an email account that uses a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, contact your administrator for more information about upgrading. is available for your device.

Goto BlackBerry - Update your Device Software to upgrade.

BlackBerry Storm seeing an "exceptional" response

RIM said today after reporting third quarter earnings that its new Bold and Storm smartphones are seeing an "exceptional" response:

Daily net subscriber account additions reached a record level on the day the BlackBerry Storm launched in the United States and RIM achieved a record number of weekly net subscriber account additions during the last week of the third quarter. The strong demand for new products has continued into Q4 and RIM is working closely with its partners to deliver sufficient product to take advantage of the growth opportunity in Q4 and beyond.

The touchscreen BlackBerry Storm is still backordered at Verizon Wireless. It'll be crucial for RIM to meet demand there in the next few weeks or it could lose potential buyers to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone -- which would be bad news for Verizon (VZ).

BlackBerry Storm Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts

The BlackBerry Storm user guide offers up lots of information on how navigation will work on the touch screen device. You'll also find details on the user interface.

The Storm user guide confirms one of my suspicions from those early impressions: The first touch screen BlackBerry will pack a new set of keyboard shortcuts slimmed down as they may be.

RIM and the carriers typically include a small BlackBerry Tips and Tricks flyer for that, and the Storm 9530 guide is no exception. However, the few details that the guide does include on keyboard shortcuts confirms that they'll be different than the ones available to users of current BlackBerry devices with physical keyboards.

To enable number lock while typing on the BlackBerry Storm's virtual keyboard, you simply hold the 123 key until a lock icon appears on that button. To turn number lock off, you hold the 123 again until the icon disappears. Similarly, to enable capital lock, you must hold the Shift key until another lock icon appears.

Currently, number lock can be enabled on BlackBerry devices with full QWERTY keyboards by clicking the ALT and Left Shift keys. Capital lock is turned on by clicking ALT and Right Shift. Devices with SureType keyboards, like the new BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Flip, have slightly different keyboard shortcuts. For example, Pearl users can turn on number lock by first holding the Shift key and then pressing ALT.

Another new Storm shortcut: you can hit the BlackBerry "Globe" key while in landscape typing mode to switch input languages. The BlackBerry Globe key itself is a new addition to RIM smartphones, and I'm betting it will be used in combination with a variety of keys for additional shortcuts, as well. BlackBerry devices running handheld OS v4.5 and earlier let you quickly change typing input language by clicking ALT and Enter simultaneously; however, the same key combination seems to lock the BlackBerry Bold, which runs handheld OS v4.6.

Blackberry Storm and the new mobile site

RIM has relaunched their mobile.blackberry.com site to make it more friendly on Blackberry screens.

The new site is designed to make it easier to interact with the menus and provides a healthy dose of Blackberry tips. Using it on a Blackberry Storm is much better than the old site.

The top of the page provides a quick way to ask questions about your Blackberry. The rest of the page is devoted to categorized links to different types of information such as news, shopping, etc. I find the page to be a bit compressed for the large screen of the Storm and links are too small at the standard resolution to tap accurately with a fingertip. It's a simple matter on the Storm to zoom in to alleviate that problem. It's great to see RIM evolving their web presence given the good browsing experience that newer Blackberries provide.

BlackBerry Storm OS 4.7.0.75

Above is a quick video which shows a much smoother running OS 4.7.0.75 for the Verizon BlackBerry Storm.

A solid jump forward from version 4.7.0.65 which shipped on the device.