Gather around, kids, because you’re in for the most special of treats! In lieu of unboxing our very own BlackBerry Storm, we though we’d leave it to the real pros: the British working class! Enjoy the best BlackBerry Storm unboxing video. Ever.

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Finally some good news for our friends from in the land of tea, top hats and posh accents: the BlackBerry Storm is out and available for purchase through retail channels. Free on all contract-based tariffs over £35 a month, the Storm is reportedly flying off the shelves of High Street shops. If you were one of the smart people who pre-ordered a Storm then there’s a good chance yours will arrive in time for you to show it off tonight at the clubs to anyone within sight. If you weren’t one of the people who had the foresight to pre-order the Storm then chalk this up as life lesson. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the past few months and don’t know much about the Storm then here’s the quickest synopsis on the net — it’s a 3G BlackBerry that has a 3.25″ touchscreen with SurePress, GPS, 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and you’ll soon see it everywhere, m’kay?

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Our buddies across the pond in the UK, awoke this morning to some great news. Vodafone, via an official press release, launched the Blackberry Storm and announced that it will be available on November 14th. Don’t get too excited as that launch date, nary a few hours old, may have already been pushed back to November 18th. Vodafone’s own Storm pre-order page has been updated to reflect the November 18th date and rumors bouncing around the Vodafone forums also suggest a delay. What is Vodafone doing to us? Adding to the whole Storm debacle is Verizon Wireless who also issued a press release on Thursday and said absolutely NOTHING new about its Blackberry Storm. No launch date, no pricing, just a rehash of how awesome the Storm is. Unbelievable. Is this turning into the world’s worst launch or what?

Read (Vodafone Press Release)
Read (Vodafone Pre-Order)
Read (Verizon Press Release)

If there’s one thing we can say about the Storm pricing Vodafone announced earlier today, it’s that the company definitely provides a nice wide range of options for customers with varied budgets. Don’t expect the same options stateside people, it’s just not our style. Our friends across the pond who pre-order the device online will be happy to know that said orders will be fulfilled on or around November 11. Woo! So let’s talk pricing:

• £300 (US $495): 12-month contract, starting at £40/month
• FREE: 18-month contract, starting at £40/month
• FREE: 24-month contract, starting at £35/month

Wow. Not bad at all considering these are launch prices for one of the most highly-anticipated phones of the year. A free Storm with a two-year contract at $58/month? We’ll take two, thanks. Also of note, customers who snag a Best for Talk or Best for Text plan will enjoy free unlimited internet and email along with a free six-month trial of Vodafone’s Find&Go satellite navigation service.

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HP added two new Windows Mobile handsets, the Data Messenger and Voice Messenger, to its enterprise messenger line of smartphones on Monday. The Data Messenger is a touchscreen slider while the Voice messenger is non-touchscreen candy bar with a Blackberry Pearl-style SureType keyboard. The two phones are business oriented and lack some of the high end features normally found on consumer-oriented phones. The touchscreen Data Messenger has a plain Jane touchscreen that is not multi-touch and does not support gestures. It also ships with an unmodified version of Windows Mobile Professional 6.1. No TouchWiz or TouchFlo-like interface for this baby. Both the Data Messenger and the Voice Messenger also have QVGA resolution screens which is fine for email and texting but not for multimedia or web browsing. HP does step out of box by dropping the traditional D-pad navigation and replacing it with an optical mouse pointer, similar to what is seen on many Samsung phones. They had to add something to the phone to give it just a smidgen of “coolness”. HP did not slack on connectivity either as both phones are quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (900/1900/2100 MHz). The Data Messenger and Voice Messenger are expected to retail for €499 ($665) and €399 ($532), respectively and are expected to launch in November on Vodafone. Hit the jump for the specs on each handset.

Read [iPaq Data Messenger]

Read [iPaq Voice Messenger]

HP iPaq Data Messenger:

• 2.8-inch QVGA Touchscreen display
• Side Slider QWERTY keyboard
• Windows Mobile Professional 6.1
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• Tri-band UMTS (900/1900/2100 MHz),HSDPA Category 8 (up to 7.2Mbps downlink) and HSUPA Category 5 (up to 2Mbps uplink),
• 128 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM
• 3.1 Megapixel autofocus camera with 5X digital zoom and LED flash
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• WLAN 802.11b/g, with WPA2 security
• Integrated GPS navigation (aGPS)
• microSD card expansion (up to 8Gb)

HP iPaq Voice Messenger:

• 2.4-inch non-touchscreen QVGA display
• Front-Facing Suretype Keyboard
• Windows Mobile Standard 6.1
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• Tri-band UMTS (900/1900/2100 MHz), HSDPA Category 8 (up to 7.2Mbps downlink) and HSUPA Category 5 (up to 2Mbps uplink),
• 128 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM
• 3.1 Megapixel autofocus camera with 5X digital zoom and LED flash
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• WLAN 802.11b/g, with WPA2 security
• Integrated GPS navigation (aGPS)
• microSD card expansion (up to 8GB)

Getting in a frenzy from all the press releases and new product images of the Storm? Settle down, RIM has a quick fix for ya. Head on over to RIM’s website and download yourself a copy of the new Blackberry Storm Simulator. Indulge yourself and give the touchcreen UI a thorough test run. Be warned the simulator uses that old silver-rimmed image of the Storm. Ugly! Looks aside, it is almost as good as holding it in your hand. Well, not really - we’re just trying to be nice and help through your extreme case of “I Want it Now” gadgetitis. For you Java code monkeys out there, you can also download the JDE 4.7 beta and start cracking on the latest and greatest touchscreen Blackberry application. What are you waiting for? Stop reading and start downloading!

Thanks to all who sent this in!

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Visitors to Vodafone’s Storm launch pages last night were greeted by some very interesting imagery. If seeing is believing, then apparently Vodafone just dropped the most jaw dropping handset imaginable - a touchscreen BlackBerry running Apple’s mobile OS X… And it’s already jailbroken! That’s right people, when Vodafone’s BlackBerry Storm pages first went up on the Vodafone site, all of the handset images included screen captures from a jailbroken iPhone. Seriously, we’re not joking. How could a mistake like this possibly happen? There are only a few scenarios we can come up with that would lead to a mistake of this magnitude. Perhaps the entire creative team at Vodafone went on a week-long bender to celebrate the impending arrival of the Storm and these pages were slapped together in the midst of it? Or maybe the team in charge of the website unanimously decided that they’ve had enough of working for the jolly red giant so they switched out the screen images at the last moment. Whatever the case might be, expect to see a fresh batch of listings on Vodafone’s careers page any minute now. Hit the jump for more shots of the AppleBerry iStorm.

[Thanks Robby]

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Fanboys, as hard as it is to resist saying something slick, we’ll leave the commentary for the last quote to you.

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After all of the cool Storm promo material we saw yesterday, Vodafone flicked the live switch on their “interactive” Storm website, allowing anyone who cares to read and see way less than what they already know about the soon to be announced phone - that is unless you aren’t a dork who regularly reads this website, in which case all of this new and exciting to you. The website runs over the main features of the phone in a very irritating way and has the feel of pathetically desperate press website from a startup rather than an interactive product page from two major companies. (Does anyone else think the background noise was ripped straight from Everyone Loves Hypnotoad?) Vodafone also released a totally gimp spec sheet. Thanks for nothing, Vodafone! We’ll you see you on the playground, at three O’CLOCK.

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Apologies in advance to everyone who is sick and bloody tired of all of the Storm coverage as of late, but something as highly anticipated as the Storm has to be covered, right? Leaked out today was the Vodafone Storm launch video and it’s easily one the hippest videos we’ve ever seen to launch a mobile phone. It covers all of the main features of the phone like it’s accurate typing, horizontal/vertical screen layout, 3.2 megapixel camera, preloaded IM and social network apps, HTML browwer, media player, and all of the other goodness that the BlackBerry brand bring to mind. The only bad thing about the video is the ending tag line of “Incredible Power In Your Hands.” We’re not even going to go there…

- BG: This video is fire. RIM, please don’t let Verizon muck up the U.S. version of it. Kthanks. Also anyone notice the BlackBerry Storm ads Verizon is running on BGR? No official announcement yet they have a whole ad campaign… funny.

[Via StormReviews]

“You’re invited to a secret presentation on the upcoming BlackBerry Storm. But just remember, we at RIM don’t care about company secrets any more, so you Italians in the audience should feel free to blatantly hold your camera phone above your head and film the entire thing.” Seriously, RIM, is this what you’re going to be like from now on? We all know that you have a touchscreen device in the 9500 and 9530 Storm, but you just have to make life difficult for all of us and make a half-assed attempt at keeping it secret, don’t you?  We’re speaking from the BGR team here, but when so much stuff about a phone leaks before there is a public press release, you have to start thinking the words “controlled” and “leak”. Anyway, the latest in a shamefully long parade of leaks is a video presentation given to an Italian audience. It’s pretty nicely done and gives great insight into how OS 4.7 will work on a touchscreen device. Hell, it made us want one.

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We’re working to completely confirm this info, but it does sound about right. Two of our sources have told us that Vodafone’s global launch date for the BlackBerry Storm is on November 9th. No telling if Verizon’s release date is the same, but we had heard November 7th for Verizon, so who knows. There are also rumblings about an October 9th Verizon/Vodafone/RIM press event in New York City. Hold on BlackBerry fans, you won’t even recognize the Bold in about a month…

Vodafone UK launched their Blackberry Storm website in a grand way today. Sign up for launch alerts and you automatically get registered to win one for free. Though there’s practically (read: none) no information on the actual product, it does refer to the handset as a BlackBerry 9500. But what does that mean for you? Well, the 9500 model has tri-band HSDPA. Plus, we all know where to grab those unlock codes from…

Thanks, Likeabite!

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Some purported screen shots of Vodafone-branded Blackberry Storm have emerged today. If you believe what you see is for real, then you may be a bit disappointed. The resolution on the screen is quite nice but the interface, well, looks just like a Blackberry. Should we be surprised by that? The calendar, email, and browser look incredibly text-based for a touchscreen device that promises to take the world by Storm. Where are all the pretty icons that we can tap on? Let’s hope these images are only a small sample and the rest of the UI is significantly better than what is shown. Otherwise, this is one Storm that may just go out to sea. Hit the jump for some more pictures.

Thanks, Matt!

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• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA/UMTS (2100/1900/850 MHz)
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• 1GB of memory, 192MB RAM
• 1400 mAhr battery. Standby time: 528 hours
• MicroUSB port
• MicroSD and MicroSDHC expandable up to 8GB
• 3.2 megapixel camera, flash, 2.5x digital zoom, auto focus, and image stabilization
• Video capture. Normal mode (480×320) and MMS mode (176×144)
• Assisted GPS - Enhanced version of GPS that performs at a faster speed

Thoughts? No Wi-Fi really sucks…

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In a scathing response to European Commissioner Viviane Reding’s report on the mobile industry in Europe, Vodafone claims 40M million users, most of them “poor” pay as you go customers, may have to cancel their mobile service if her proposed changes to call termination charges go into effect. Termination charges are the fees mobile operators charge each other (and land line companies) for connecting to their networks. Currently mobile operators in Europe charge each other an average of 8 cents per minute. Reding proposes a reduction of these fees to 1 to 2 cents per minute. A reduction in fees is usually perceived as a good thing except these fees account for 15 to 20% of an operators revenue. That’s a good chunk of change for the mobile operators and the loss of that guaranteed revenue source has them, (well, at least Vodafone) shaking in their boots and spouting forth rhetoric.

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While yesterday’s 2.0.1 firmware update for Apple’s iPhone seems to be providing users with an added level of stability and responsiveness, it looks like at least one subset of iPhone users has been left a bit less than satisfied. Some users that paid the requisite fee to have their Vodafone-branded handset unlocked for international roaming are finding that the 2.0.1 update is frying the unlock, rendering their phone useless without a Vodafone SIM. Some people have had luck with a full restore, but more than a few seem to be completely out of luck. Frustrated? We certainly would be, especially considering the considerable sum that the unlocking process commanded. We’re sure Vodafone / Apple will work this one out, but in the mean time we can add this to the list of iPhone related issues, failures, and glitches.

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We caused a little commotion when we posted the above shot last week. No it’s not a mock-up, dummy. But, there have been a flood of questions about the BlackBerry Thunder (remember, this is still a codename) so we’ll answer the most important ones for you. First off, yes there is a SIM card slot and it is under the battery of the device. Under the battery is also a microSD slot, so don’t expect it to rock a ton of internal memory out of the box. As far as release date is concerned, we’re still hearing Q3 of this year on Big Red. The cool part, though? It looks like the chip they are using supports almost everything. CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSPA. Any other questions? We’ll be here all day! Just drop a comment.

You all know the Thunder right? Well, looky looky who got a cookie. Yeah peoples, live shot of the BlackBerry Thunder right here. By just looking at the photo, we can see that almost every button on a traditional BlackBerry like the convenience keys are still there. Like we reported, there are only four physical buttons on the front and a large touch-screen. It is also coming to Verizon. Take a look at a larger shot after the jump and stay tuned for more information on it soon. Wow, we were almost spot on with our mock-up…

There’s been a flood of news over the past couple weeks regarding the iPhone and carrier partnerships. Almost every single major carrier across the globe has chimed in, telling us what markets they’re going to bring the iPhone to. It’s actually gotten to the point we’re we feel we should list the announced markets up to today. Remember asking your best friend to pickup 10 iPhones during his trip to the U.S.? No more, people. No more. Here’s the complete list as of 05/16/08:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Dominican Republic
• Egypt
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Ireland
• India
• Italy
• Jordan
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• Philippines
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• South Africa
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Various countries in Latin America

Who’s planning to buy an iPhone when it’s finally released in your country?

In an announcement on Vodafone’s media relations page earlier this morning, the mega carrier let the cat out of the bag that it would be bringing the iPhone to market in ten countries later this year. Vodafone stated that it has just finalized a deal with Apple, but makes no mention of exclusivity in its announcement. Interesting. Certainly if the deal granted exclusive distribution to the carrier, it would have been mentioned. Here’s the full announcement which includes all of the countries encompassed by the new deal. Make sure you have a warm cup of coffee at hand because this read might take a while.

Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

Right then. Short and to the point. "Later this year" would indicate that this deal covers the 3G iPhone in relevant markets and the lack of mention with regards to exclusivity would be right in line with what we’ve been hearing lately. Whatever the case, expect the net flurry of iPhone news to pick up pace - if that’s even possible - as we draw closer to D Day. What’s funny is that TIM in Italy put out a press release this morning saying they will indeed offer the iPhone. “Telecom Italia announced today it has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Italy later this year.” Go figure.

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• Radio - GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
• Bands - Quad-band GPRS/EDGE: 800/850/1800/1900MHz
• HSDPA: 850/1900/2100MHz (praise the lord!)
• Expandable memory - microSD
• Display - HVGA Color LCD (480×320)
• TrackBall Navigation
• Camera - 2MP (Boo!)
• Wi-Fi - a,b,g
• A-GPS
• Battery - 1500mAh
• High quality material, high-end finish
• Software - 4.6

So there you have it — full specs on the much-awaited BlackBerry 9000. Ah, the carriers! AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, and Vodafone are indeed the launch carriers with AT&T having a U.S. exclusive and being the first carrier to launch worldwide. What would we do without our carrier ninjas? First yesterday’s document and now this! Shout out to y’all, you know who you are!

Have you been waiting with bated breath for the results of the 700mh FCC spectrum auction? The dead silence is over. Reuters has announced that Verizon Wireless is the new owner of the 700mhz spectrum, also known as the "C" block. The company’s offer of $4.74 billion was accepted by the FCC, as the regulatory body moves to liquidate a large portion of the spectrum that has been used by analog television. With the upcoming move to all-digital broadcasting, the FCC had a bit of excess spectrum to get rid of. The auction has been hotly contested, and the Verizon win, which is actually a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone, ensures that the 2nd largest American carrier will have significant room to grow in the coming years.

[Thanks, Stonewall]

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We’re not exactly sure that this type of service will be the next craze in the search engine world, but it is interesting none the less. One of the new services that Vodafone is showing off at this year’s CeBIT is a new approach to mobile search called Otello; not to be confused with Shakespeare’s tragedy, although it certainly could meet Othello’s fate. The premise of the service is an image search, but not the kind we’re used to. Rather than search for images online, Otello calls for users to utilize an image in order to perform a search. For example, a user can search by sending an image of Brittany Spears to a specified number via MMS and in turn, Otello will return details about her latest hillbilly tirades. Unfortunately, a live demo at the show didn’t exactly go as planned when German Chancellor Angela Merkel attempted to perform a search. Apparently when the Chancellor sent her own image as a query, Otello returned a message that she was not recognized. Whoops! Vodafone will have another crack at it next week when readers of the German tabloid Blid will be able to send photos tied to specific articles in order to receive bonus content on their handsets.

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Who doesn’t love some roadmap action? A Symbian one at that! We told you we were pulling the wool off this whole Vodafone thing, and you can clearly see we’re serious. Check out the Symbian roadmap which extends all the way to Q4 of ‘08! There’s no mystery devices like on the Windows Mobile roadmap, but we can see the lifelines of the other devices we should help give us a heads up on when there will be new models. The Nokia E90 is set to be available until the end of Q3, the Nokia E65 should get faded out right before the Nokia Dora comes, and the Nokia E50 should already be gone. Little Nokia recap for you:

Nokia Dora

Nokia Liam

It was quite the day for Windows Mobile yesterday, wasn"t it? To visually show you how each device fits into Vodafone’s lineup, we’ve got the Windows Mobile roadmap for you right here to check out. Something interesting is the mention of a Windows Mobile "tablet" device with HSDPA around the middle of Q2. HTC Shift, anyone? There’s also a unknown HSDPA slider with Wi-Fi and GPS set to debut around the same time. 

Ever wanted to get a behind-the-scenes look at carrier’s sales figures? This is your chance, folks! Regarding enterprise sales, this is how it breaks down. The BlackBerry Pearl is tied with the BlackBerry 8700 for the #1 spot on Vodafone’s sales list. The BlackBerry Curve 8310 has an impressive 15% of the sales, and we’re guessing that since the 8700 and 8100 have been out for so long, they’re lower priced which should account for the Curve coming in behind them. After the Curve, it’s the BlackBerry 8800 with 12%, and the Nokia E50 (non camera version) with 7%. How do you like them apples? If you want to check it for yourself, you can check it after the jump!

We told you there are devices, as in plural, remember? The second exclusive Palm handset we’ve got the info on is codenamed the Palm Wanda. Think of it as a cross between the Palm Centro and the HTC Touch. No, like really, look at the backside on that thing! It looks to be a standard affair, running Windows 6.1, well, Standard. Hit that with a tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio (boo!) and some UMTS/HSDPA action, and you’ve got a Palm Wanda. A 2 megapixel camera, QWERTY keyboard, and GPS are also not left out of the equation. Vodafone said it themselves, this is the successor to the Treo 500v! You know we roll, after the jumpage!

Nope, we’re not talking about a tree here! It looks as if the HP Silver won’t be the only HP handset sporting some HSUPA action. You now have a pretty decent line, with the Standard version, and now the Professional one making the rounds. The HP Oak sports a nifty slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a traditional number pad on the front, in addition to integrated GPS and Wi-Fi. We’re not really judging here, but it looks like you might have some difficulty with that 1010mAh battery. Release date? Thought you’d never ask! September, guys. It’s a long way to go, and ₤260 couldn’t come soon enough. Whittle the HP Oak, so to speak, after the jump!

Ch-ch-check it out, y’all! The Nokia Dora in door numero uno! This bad beast is the successor to the Nokia E65. Improving on a bunch of missing features from the original version, you’ll now be able to enjoy things such as GPS and a 3.2 megapixel camera. You’ve also got a front-facing video call camera, Wi-Fi, a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio with UMTS/HSDPA (3G bands are not specified), and you got your standard Bluetooth. Last thing? How about a 320×320 display. Sound good? We’re all looking at a Q2 release, and you can expect to shell out ₤280 for it on Vodafone. As usual, the full goods are after the break!