Honestly, haven’t we had enough already? Giz, you don’t want it with the kid, I promise. I never said it was delayed, ever. I said it had major issues as any device four to five months out should! Never, ever, did I mention a delay of any sort. Instead, I actually repeated my previous scoop saying it’s on track for the same time frame we reported before. Please take a minute and re-read yesterday’s post again before complicating things and putting words in our mouths. You’re wrong. And you’re wrong about the name, too. Thunder is the codename. Bigger shot after the jump…

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Yeah, we’ve heard it all before. “How many different ways can you present a phone on video?” “No, it’s not copying the iPhone commercials and video walkthroughs.” “You’re an Apple fanboy!” Blah, blah, blah. But we’re sure we’re not the only ones a bit surprised to see RIM offering a video sneak peak at the BlackBerry Bold. As nice as that is, there are a couple things that really get under our skin. First off, RIM has never done this before. They’re trying to get the consumer market and be hip, and we get that. It’s just that the Bold isn’t really a consumer device. It’s more targeted at corporate users with its high price. So why bother? They may be scared that small and medium sized business users are going to switch over to the new iPhone — which could be partly true. You know, seeing as how no one in the U.S. will be able to buy the friggin’ thing until mid-August. But our real big issue with the video is (stop comparing it to the iPhone, damn it!) that it’s fake! It’s all a render! Nothing on that video is real except for the person’s hands over a green screen. And that’s still questionable. The OS and device are all computer-generated; every single thing you see in that video is not real. Does that not bother anyone? Web browser? Fake. Email? Fake? Phone call? Fake. Home screen? Fake. Come on, RIM. You’re better than that. You’re resorting to fake phone demos now? Mmm.

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Al Gore has been spotted in the VIP area at the WWDC keynote address. Logical conclusion: the rumored solar power for the new iPhone must be confirmed. Ok, so we’re probably completely full of it, but we have heard that Mr. Gore won’t go within 30 feet of anything that doesn’t draw its juice from a renewable energy source. Any bets on whether Gore will be invited up on stage to participate?

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As we delve further into an age where more and more content is obtained and consumed digitally, Time Warner Cable seems to be doing everything it can to stifle progress. Residents of Beaumont, Texas are in for a treat later this week when Time Warner goes live with a new pilot for its cable internet customers. Under this pilot, cable internet customers will be limited to a measly 40 GB of traffic each month. The cost of service in Beaumont will still be $54.90 during this trial period, which by the way amounts to an astonishing $1.37 per gigabyte. The assumption of course is that internet subscribers who also choose VoIP or VOD services will see the 40 GB limitation lifted while the rest are left without an option to even pay an additional fee for more bandwidth. Heavy users such as those who embrace set top box offerings like Apple TV and Vudu are essentially given three choices in this scenario; Buy additional Time Warner services, stop using the internet as you have become accustomed or stop embracing these advancements in internet technology altogether. Do you currently consume all of your media via digital downloads? Buy a DVD. Do you enjoy the convenience and simplicity of online backup services such as Carbonite and Mozy? Buy an external hard drive. Time Warner Cable can’t single handedly reverse the exponential technology curve that the internet has bolstered, but it sure looks like they’re going to try.

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We’re back with another episode of BGR Radio! This time we link up with fellow tech-fiend Just Blaze at Baseline Studios in New York. We did this around 3AM on Thursday morning, so forgive us if we’re not 100% on the ball. Well, what do we cover in this episode? Everything! We hit on the BlackBerry KickStart, a new exclusive look at a new RIM BlackBerry, Logic and Pro Tools, T-Mobile’s new Sidekicks and 3G network, and a whole lot else! Listen to it below on BGR, or subscribe to it in iTunes. Part two will be up here shortly.

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I’m all for corporate spin, but for them to have the audacity to even hint there are no power issues is an insult to all people with an IQ of, let’s say, over 70. Let me preface this by saying I have had an extremely early prototype of every single BlackBerry device since the Pearl 8100, and have never, not ever, not once, had battery life issues. Not even with the buggiest of beta software and not final hardware. The reason the BlackBerry 9000 has power issues is because of the new 624MHz Intel processor RIM is using along with the 3G chip. I may sound like a broken record here (do they make those anymore?) but using an archaic operating system and dressing it up ain’t gonna help. Putting lip stick on a pig does not make it a pretty girl last time I checked. There are most certainly major power issues with the BlackBerry 9000, hence the delays in the devices release. Which leads me to…

Oh, Fortune. You may remember this little article that was posted about a month ago, you know, the one where we said the BlackBerry 9000 was delayed until July or August? Yes, the very same information you just regurgitated while incorrectly reporting on the BlackBerry 9000’s model and codename. But it’s all good, our readers know who said it first, we just expect a little more from you…

So, why exactly am I bitching? BG, why so agitated? Well, I work hard to deliver all the information I do to our readers and anyone who finds it interesting. Do I care about not getting links? Negatory. Do I care that my exclusive information was republished without my permission into a "new" story a month later? Yes. What if Fortune had their own sources and simply posted what they were told? Then they’re not doing a very good job. Are they that starved for stories that they’re publishing an article a month after it was first broken? That would be like CNN running Election Day coverage a month after MSNBC. Glad I don’t work there…

Am I a complete jerkface for posting this? Am I short on sleep and patience and long on dislike of all things unoriginal and recycled? Do you completely agree with me? Sound off. I want to know your thoughts.

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Ooooooooh Comcast. If there’s one person whose service you probably shouldn’t terminate without cause and who you shouldn’t made idle threats against, it’s probably Dave Winer. You know, the guy who invented blogging? Yesterday, Winer posted at length with regards to a recent ordeal with Comcast. To paraphrase, Comcast identified Winer as a customer using excessive bandwidth. They attempted to call him one time at an old number that had been disconnected and were unable to reach him. They subsequently shut his internet service down. No additional attempts to contact him, no letters and no formal warnings of any kind. Terminated. Apparently Winer had violated a secret rule of some kind and when he finally did get in touch with Comcast to inquire as to why he lost connectivity… Let’s just say it didn’t go well:

I was quickly connected to a man who told me I had been deliberately disconnected because they had tried to call me and I didn’t pick up… Then he threatened me. He told me I was in the top 1/10th of 1 percent of all their Internet users and that if I didn’t immediately stop using so much bandwidth they would suspend my service for 12 months. I asked if I could get this in writing, he said no. I asked how much bandwidth would be acceptable, he wouldn’t say. I told him this wasn’t much of a threat if they weren’t willing to put it in writing, and I wasn’t intimidated. I also told him I was a blogger and would be writing it up. He didn’t care.

Fantastic. In related news, Comcast doesn’t just hate its customers, it hates their privacy as well. This morning Dave Zatz wrote about an interesting episode he recently had with Comcast. About a week ago Dave contacted Comcast in an attempt to recover his comcast.net credentials. Despite providing the Comcast representative with his account number, phone number and partial social security number, the result of a lengthy online chat was not a retrieval of the information he was looking for. Instead, the Comcast rep reset the account password of someone who had been at his address prior to his moving in, and gave Dave the new password. Again, fantastic. A word of warning to Comcast customers: Your service can be terminated at any time without warning or a proper explanation, and your private information is not secure. It might be time to explore other options…

[Via Zatz Not Funny!]

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As a whole, CTIA today was a bit on the disappointing side. Sure there were a few exciting things debuted, most or all of which we’ve already told you about, of course. We were particularly disappointed with Motorola however, and not for the reason we expected to be. As we showed you in our post earlier today, Motorola brought some interesting devices to CTIA. The ROKR E8 for example is a sweet device that we were planning a new dedicated in-depth post on. The Z9 and V950 are nice handsets that we certainly would’ve explored a bit further as well. As we touched upon in the post linked above however, we were greeted with less than open arms at the Moto booth. No, we weren’t behind any gags and we certainly weren’t bothering anyone. We were simply there to cover the show.

Here’s where Moto’s got it all wrong: leaks are good. Big companies know this and they often embrace leaks rather than hold a chip on their collective shoulders. Hell, some even leak info themselves to generate buzz. Motorola seems to take the opposite stance with regards to leaks. What they seemingly fail to realize is that leaks are really the only press that Moto gets in the blogosphere that isn’t negative. We were greeted at the Moto booth by a smiling "booth girl" who chatted us up for a bit, and then it was all down hill. We couldn’t get a single rep to talk to us for more than a few seconds. Averted eyes, walk-aways… Do we have contagious leprosy?

There was some silver lining, though. Before we were asked to "go take some pictures of the outside of the booth" (say what?) while snapping a shot of the V950, a funny conversation was overheard:

Moto Rep: This [ROKR E8] is one of our newer phones that we’re really excited about

Random Attendee: "Yeah, I think I saw that thing last year on Boy Genius Report. Is that really new?"

That’s right Moto. You’re going to run into BGR readers everywhere you go, and with our numbers at an all time high, don’t count on us going anywhere anytime soon. Don’t embrace us either; keep thinking that blogosphere love doesn’t matter. That really seems to be working out pretty well for you. It should be mentioned by the way, that we were greeted at every other booth we visited with excitement and an eagerness to show us the latest and greatest that each company had to offer. Companies big and small know us well and love us for the attention that we bring them of course. And why wouldn’t they? Sure we might throw out a jab here and there but companies know that news is news, good and bad. We wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t report on Motorola’s plummeting stock prices or the fact that the Motorola mobile division had to be split off from the rest of Moto’s business to prevent a fire sale. So Motorola, you just keep on flopping around like the fish out of water that you’ve become; it’s obviously apparent that you don’t know what the heck is going on, not even internally. Here at BGR, we’ll continue to inform and entertain our millions of readers as best we can, and reserve our coverage for companies we think might still be around in a year or two…

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Sure, as far as the business of browsing is concerned Apple and Mozilla are competitors, but Mozilla CEO John Lilly makes a good point here. Apple’s attempts to sneak Safari for PC past unsuspecting updaters this past week is hardly the first time Apple has used tactics that some might consider to be less than friendly to get its software onto a computer. An excerpt for a recent entry on Lilly’s blog:

Apple has made it incredibly easy—the default, even—for users to install ride along software that they didn’t ask for, and maybe didn’t want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices… It’s wrong because it undermines the trust that we’re all trying to build with users. Because it means that an update isn’t just an update, but is maybe something more. Because it ultimately undermines the safety of users on the Web by eroding that relationship. It’s a bad practice and should stop.

The statement comes of course, as a response to the news this past week that Apple was pushing Safari on PC users through the Apple Software Update application. The problem? Safari is included as an update to be installed even on PCs where it had not been previously installed. By nature, isn’t an "update" a newer version or an addition to existing software? Shady indeed. Apple is well aware that "click Next until it goes away" has essentially become the way of the walk and is apparently banking on that practice to get Safari onto PCs. Hey at least they’re not bundling it with iTunes… yet.

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The FCC is likely one of the most transparently corrupt government entities in this country. What’s worse, they can be bought cheap. Preferential treatment and approval fast-tracking as a result of underhanded dealings continued financial support is just another day at the office for the FCC. Likewise, companies posing a potential threat to FCC supporters are consistently forced to undergo needlessly drawn out proceedings before progress is likely ultimately stunted. Supporters on the other hand, sit back and relax as their dealings skate on through to approval. To think that mergers between Exxon and Mobil or Chevron and Texaco took less examination then the still-in-limbo XM-Sirius merger is simply atrocious. Despite the fact that Sirius and XM combine to make up less than 5% of the radio market, they still pose a big enough threat to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to warrant string pulling. As the FCC puppets continue to dance, people like Jim Cramer are finally getting fed up enough to point some fingers. The outspoken analyst recently outed several Congressmen in opposition of the satellite radio merger for having taken radio lobby "contributions" in past cycles. Still, the cycle continues.

Comcast, another company apparently not lining enough pockets showing enough support for the right Congressmen, has delivered on its promise to sue the FCC. The issue at hand is the FCC’s recent ruling that no provider of pay television services can own more than 30% of the market. Imagine that; a law that prevents companies from being successful wink wink. Comcast suit aside, we wonder of course whether the recent entrance of various FCC-pet telcos into the TV game had any influence on this decision. We further wonder what would happen if one of said telcos began to approach the 30% mark. Comcast’s David Cohen sums it up well:

"The FCC action in this case is perplexing from the same commission that approved the largest telecommunications deal in history with the AT&T merger as well as two other Bell company mega-mergers in the past three years. As these FCC decisions have strengthened the hands of our Bell competitors, it is unthinkable that the government would constrain the ability of cable companies like Comcast to compete with these colossal companies."

To put it bluntly, the FCC has become a shining example of a gross misuse of government. It is a drain on American tax dollars and a parody of our system. Government deliberation-wise, it was easier for America to invade Iraq than it is for XM to merge with Sirius…

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Here at BGR headquarters, we love wireless industry analysts, especially those in the financial sector. Ray Sharma, of GMP Securites, LTD. has recently published his analysis of upcoming BlackBerry devices from Research In Motion, dubbed the Touchscreen 1.0 and Pearl 2.0. The label given to the latter device, one with a rotatable keyboard, should give the impression that GMP Securities, LTD. hired Mr. Sharma to deliver shock value rather than substance. As we all know, the Pearl Two-Dot-Oh was launched months ago with the BlackBerry 8130 (CDMA) and BlackBerry 8120 (EDGE with Wi-Fi) and the upcoming BlackBerry 8110 (EDGE with GPS). This report crowned the reference patents as the upcoming 9000 series devices and has since been reported on various online sources as the the extensions of the BlackBerry bloodline, much to the dismay of many online viewers and BlackBerry-related websites and forums. A little background on Research In Motion and filings with various organizations, if you will. When RIM caught wind of their FCC filings, usually published weeks or months before devices launches, were one of the primary sources of online pre-launch leaks, they started requesting supression of images, manuals, etc. from the FCC until 1-2 months after the initial release of that shiny new BlackBerry. A smart move in their aggressive effort to maintain as much control over information and leaks as possible, especially the official variety. Needless to say, that ongoing effort from RIM to supress information is one reason why some of our last couple reports on the BlackBerry 9000 are sourced from one-hundred percent official information although carrying very little visual evidence that our readers are so accustomed to receiving. There’s no need to tip the hand that feeds, right?

Back to the subject at hand, though - Ray Sharma. It appears that in Mr. Sharma’s effort to write an article on the upcoming BlackBerry series and more likely to make a nominal splash in the news for his company, he apparently forgot to look at the filing dates for the patents he referenced. These patents for a rotatable keyboard design and a reconfigurable swivel / retractable keyboard design were filed for by Research In Motion in 2003 and 2005, respectively. We’ll preface the following statement with the disclaimer that we could be wrong in our semi-educated assumptions, but does anyone really think that RIM would launch a next-gen device in the year 2008 based on a keyboard design made in 2003? Keep in mind the advancements and strides made in technology and design, as well as the top-shelf bar set by Apple with their innovative iPhone design…

For poops and giggles, on the USPTO website, we see that the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 series design was filed for in February 2006, just over six months prior to the device launch. It was not published for our viewing until September 2007, exactly one year after the launch of the device on T-Mobile. The BlackBerry Curve 8300 series has yet to show up on the USPTO website. But we suppose the core design for such a supposed revolutionary device as a possible BlackBerry "Touchscreen 1.0" (LOL, sorry just had to) device could have potentially been officially leaked 4.5 years ago, right?

We think you’ll see USPTO patent filings for the BlackBerry Curve 8300 series in mid-2008 and the BlackBerry 9000 series sometime in late 2008 or 2009, potentially six years after the Sharma-dubbed "Pearl 2.0" patent was filed.

Read Ray Sharma’s analysis

Read BlackBerry Touchscreen 1.0, per Ray Sharma

Read BlackBerry 9100, aka Pearl 2.0, per Ray Sharma

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OK, seriously, stop. Stop rehashing old news which we exclusively broke and had the whole internet in a tizzy from. You’re not saying much that hasn’t been heard. In fact, you are a little misguided. Why? We heard Research In Motion is working on a touch screen device. That doesn’t mean the BlackBerry 9000 will feature a touch screen. In fact, I would guess that it will NOT feature a touch screen on launch. It is fairly obvious the BlackBerry 9000 will be a series, just as there was the 5000 series, the 6000 series, the 7000 series, and more recently the 8000 series (very creative, eh?). If you think RIM ís going to do away with a physical keyboard, which is their bread and butter, you’re crazy. We’re looking at devices that will feature the legendary standard QWERTY/QWERTZ devices (yes, we included Germany with that reference), the absolute technological breakthrough of SureType, and possibly a device in the family that will include a touch screen. Insider scoop? So your guesstimate on release time frame might be the only thing original you said, although even that was gathered from internet blogs, such as ours.

Technology insiders and analysts are humorous to say the least. They have been replaced with the likes of internet blogs run by teenagers and forums that feature all enthusiasts. For the likes of Carmi Levy, whomever he is, to come out as an authoritive figure on the subject and re-hash dated information that will likely never see a launch (at least in 2008), we find it humorous. There’s a big difference between publishing information on a blog website that circulates news and insider information - sometimes rumored information from inside the walls of Canada’s most popular and rich company that may be years away from birth - versus someone who’s supposedly an industry analyst that is reporting matter-of-fact information to a reputable industry news website.

Carmi, we can’t wait for that Curve with Wi-Fi to be released, either. That’s some serious clairvoyant abilities you have.

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Look at the picture, guys. That’s the face of the new Sidekick LX. And T-Mobz? You’ve honestly just lost all respect from us. Seriously, what in the hell were you thinking? Do you think this is "cool", "fresh", or "hot"? Apparently you do, and that’s the big problem — it’s not! No one identifies with Master P or Lil’ Romeo anymore. No one is going to buy a Sidekick because Master P and Lil’ Romeo made a horrible song which is nothing more than a mockery of product placement. McDonalds tried to do something like this a while ago. They were offering $1-$5 for every spin an artist got on radio if their song had McDonalds in it. Guess what? They didn’t have to even shell out a dollar. Why? Because this was a blatant, uncreative attempt at product placement and it back fired. We’re starting to think your grasping at straws. In the whole world, you couldn’t find a better ambassador for your product? You went from Dwayne Wade to Na-na-na-na. Consumers aren’t stupid, in fact, they’re anything from it. You’re going to have to try a lot harder than this to make a substantial impact in what you’re trying to achieve. There’s a tasteful way to present something like this, and you failed. Miserably. AT&T is killing you left and right, your 3G network is nowhere to be found, and your phones are less than stellar. We really love you T-Mobz, you were our favorite for a while, but you really disappointed us with this. Check out the song below, and music video and lyrics after the jump.

UPDATE: OK, T-Mobz. While some of what we said is true (you really need to work on the phones and network side of things), we might have been a little harsh. Additionally, we received word from T-Mobile directly that Master P and Lil’ Romeo are not endorsing T-Mobile products, and they had no hand in the creation of the "Sidekick" song on their new album. At this point, we’re waiting for Master P and his team to get back to us with some official quotes and an interview but, we thought we’d update you now. A T-Mobile spokesperson told us that "the posting about T-Mobile’s relationship with Master P and Lil Romeo endorsing Sidekick devices is inaccurate. T-Mobile does not have a promotional or financial deal with Master P, Lil Romeo, the Miller Boyz or Take A Stand Records. While we appreciate their enthusiasm for Sidekick devices, T-Mobile was not a partner in the development of this song." Without hearing from the Miller Boyz directly yet, can we take guesses why they’d make a song and video with such blatent product placement and endorsements in it? They wanted to get the attention of T-Mobile to secure a deal, if we had to guess. Or did they actually get a check and T-Mobile realized it was an awful idea? What makes it even more odd, is that MTV and over 15 entertainment sites have a "press release" from Master P and Lil’ Romeo about this new "endorsement". We’ll update you guys when we hear back from Percy. In the meantime, the "Sidekick" music video clip and "press release" from Master P and Lil’ Romeo is below, along with song lyric excerpts from the song.

 "Tmail me, my Sidekick, you got one? Flip it up!"

"Hit me on the Sidekick, rollin’ with a fly chick, I ain’t even trippin’ wody, that’s just my sidekick."

"I do it for the trappers, I do it for the dope boys, Sidekick ringin’"

"Halle Berry in the Sidekick, you know I keep a fly chick, I could make it rain, T-Mobile phone in the pocket. Got a pearl white one like my boy D-Wade. I ain’t trippin’ on the haters ‘cuz I’m already paid."

"This thing on my hip? Yeah, it’s called a Sidekick, CHYEA!, it’s more than a phone, it compliment the wrist."

"D-Wade iced out shinin’ like a lighthouse"

"We ain’t got to speak, let your hands do the talkin’ mami, tmail the info to the after party"

"FLIP IT UP, FLIP IT UP, FLIP IT IP, FLIP IT UP, FLIP IT UP, FLIP IT UP"

"Entrepreneur/rapper Master P. (Percy Miller), and his son Romeo have teamed up with T-Mobile to promote the new Sidekick LX. The campaign reportedly was created in an effort to show that the Sidekick is still one of the most popular and preferred "smartphones" in the urban communities.

"Everywhere I go I take my Sidekick with me: school, the movie set, out on the road," said Romeo. "It allows me to run my business and keep in touch with my friends. Texting is still the leading way of communication for us youth. I need my Sidekick like I need my Rap Snacks! I gotta have ‘em!"

“The Sidekick is the most important device for running my ventures,” said Master P. “I can’t always talk on the phone, but I can shoot off a quick text to close the deal when I need to.”

The father and son team "The Miller Boyz" have also created a song about the phone for their upcoming album "Hip-Hop History" entitled "Sidekick", which is due out September 4th, 2007 on Take A Stand Records. The album will be the first profanity-free street record available through the label."

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What is the most hyped-up consumer device to ever launch? If you said the i-mate JAQ, you’re wrong. It’s the Apple iPhone, and it has taken the general public by storm. People who would normally never ever consider buying an Apple product have went out and bought one (believe me, I conned 6 non-Apple users to buy one alone!), and everyone we talk to is still extaticly happy about their purchase. Sure there are some features we’d like to see added, and some things we’d like to see updated or changed, but for the most part, we’re still lovin’ it! The list below is something we threw together based on our personal experiences and obviously they may vary from person to person. Check them out below!

• Pictures emailed from the phone directly are automatically re-sized to 640×480. There is no way of changing this. The only way to get the full picture off the device is connect it to a computer. Even sending to "Web Gallery" still only sends the 640×480 version. Then again, all that does is email the picture…
• You can not delete individual call records in the call log.
• You can not "search" for a contact in your contact list. You must manually scroll through them, or use the A-Z characters on the right side to skip through. This is a pain if you’re oh-so-popular like us and have thousands of contacts.
• Speakerphone volume is practically unusable, yet when using the iPod, sound is much louder and completely audible.
• Email application has no "mark all read", you can’t delete multiple emails at once and Yahoo push is very unreliable.
• Email seems to be never stored locally if you will, besides the inbox. When sending a large email on EDGE, and you check the outbox, the iPhone has to connect to even see the contents in the outbox. Same thing for sent mail folder — definitely annoying. On top of that, there isn’t a search feature, and we also don’t get that preview pane that was shown when the iPhone was announced at MacWorld. Would have been killer!
• You can not send a text message to more than one recipient at a time, you can’t forward text messages, you don’t get a character count, and there are absolutely no configurable options for SMS.
•  The default system sounds, and even ringer volumes are almost inaudible. We had to copy the system sounds, amplify the audio to the point it was almost clipping, then reload them back on the phone, just so we wouldn’t miss an Email, SMS, or phone call.
• The camera shutter button is a little awkward. We would have loved it if it was almost transparent in the middle of the screen, or made use of a physical button on the side some how. We’ve come this close to dropping the phone while trying to take a flick! In addition, there are no options in the camera. Just take a picture, or view your camera roll.
• We really miss Microsoft Exchange compatibility. No, IMAP doesn’t count, guys!
• We’ve been through many, many units, and find it’s a crap shoot to get the "perfect" device. Some have glaring dead pixels, some of them have sub-par speakers (yes, even lower than God himself should allow), some have horrible battery life, and some devices have faulty screens. In addition, there is a huge debate rolling across the Internets on what screen is better. For anyone who doesn’t know, there are currently two types of screens on the iPhone: 5-series, and 7-series. The 7-series seem to be less bright, but has more contrast, yet has these very annoying dots in a checkerboard pattern if you look close enough. We prefer the 5-series screens. Also, we’ve found that 5-series screens will vary between each other, and the same for the 7-series.

Again, we’re not bashing the iPhone. With all the differences in production units, we still have to say that this is the greatest designed and constructed phone to ever hit the market. It is rock solid in terms of build quality. For the most part, most of these "shortcomings" if you will, aren’t even big deals for us. Also, almost 99% of what we listed can be fixed with a software update. Apple has bypassed the carrier, rolling out software updates at their leisure, and hopefully they’ll continue. I mean, come on…there have been two updates already! That’s unheard of, and we applaud Apple for having a direct distribution method to the consumer. We love the iPhone, and our initial impressions still hold true: if you are not completely focused on having a perfect email device (a BlackBerry, primarily), we say go with the iPhone. It makes using a phone pleasurable, and to tell you the truth, even after two months we still can’t put our iPhones down! If we missed something or you think we’re blatantly wrong somewhere, let us know. We want to hear how you all are liking or hating the device, and what you’d like changed or added!

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At least you guys are smart. I am personally thrilled that you no longer make visitors enter a ZIP code before checking out the latest phones and devices on your website. Every carrier needs to follow suit! It just slows you down, and is unecessary. Give us a break. We love lusting after those brand new mobile phones late at night. Scratch that, we get ‘em before any of you launch. Just please don’t give us the "pricing and availability" varies by location bit, OK’s? AT&T we love you!

AT&T: No ZIP code.

T-Mobile: No ZIP code.

Sprint: ZIP code required.

Verizon Wireless: ZIP code required.

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It was recently reported by BlackBerry Cool that the BlackBerry 8820, when released by AT&T, will have it’s GPS features neutered. They said it was being influenced by AT&T’s deal with Apple for the iPhone and even stating that T-Mobile’s launch of the BlackBerry 8820 (the same device, mind you) would be better. There has since been a follow-up story which says, due to outrage expressed by the collective online BlackBerry community, GPS will no longer be disabled.

To clear up some of the confusion, this is NOT a new limitation to BlackBerry devices on AT&T. This started with the BlackBerry 8800, the first GPS-enabled BlackBerry device for GSM carriers, months before the release of the Apple iPhone. This is simply a software-enabled limitation very similar to locked themes that are bundled with all flavors of the BlackBerry device software packages. This is not a hardware/firmware-based limitation, as is the case with Verizon’s actual neutering of GPS functions on their devices (all of which have the GPS chipset on-board, mind you). Hit the jump for the whole run down!

Here’s a run-down of more well-known software and carrier-based restrictions found within the BlackBerry installation files:

BlackBerry.alx - Carrier themes (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Bell, Rogers, Vodafone, etc)
Platform.alx - Push-To-Talk (AT&T)
LBS.alx - BlackBerry Maps, GPS (AT&T, Orange)
Phone.alx - TTY (T-Mobile US)

From the LBS.alx device software installation file for the BlackBerry 8820:
  <!– For 8800 series, hide the icon for Docomo (220), AT&T (102), Vodafone Germany (124), Vodafone Austria (137) and all Orange properties, including Amena (Orange Spain - 175). –>
  <fileset SystemSize="normal" Colour="True" Java="1.0" _vendorID="~220|102|124|137|119|162|142|183|147|217|175" series="8800">
   <files>
        net_rim_bb_lbs_ribbon.cod
   </files>
  </fileset>

What does all of that mean?

- The comments between the <!– –> tags pretty much spells it out. For certain carriers, including AT&T, the ICON for BlackBerry Maps is hidden. The actual BlackBerry Maps application is installed to the device.

- The XML tag attribute labeled _vendorID denotes various carrier identification numbers (as defined by RIM). The tilde trailing the open quotation for this attribute denotes an exclusion. For clarification, in the event that it’s not clearly stated above in the comment, AT&T’s Vendor ID is 102. The XML tag attribute labled series denotes what BlackBerry series is being affected by this particular restriction - in this case, the 8800 series, which includes the 8800, 8820 and 8830 (more on this later, for the naysayers).

So basically what this particular XML entry instructs the BlackBerry Application Loader (found in Desktop Manager, for those not familiar with the terminology) to do is load the net_rim_bb_lbs_ribbon.cod module (the BlackBerry Maps icon) to all BlackBerry 8800, BlackBerry 8820, and BlackBerry 8830 devices except those with the Vendor ID number of those listed.

To further this little technical exploratory, to view your device’s Vendor ID, from the home screen, press and hold ALT+CAP+H. This will display a screen entitled Help Me! (fitting for this article). The Vendor ID will be displayed atop this list; my AT&T-branded Curve showing a 102 value.

Going back to the series="8800" attribute and value, you can typically view the Device.xml file to discover more information on the devices and their XML-linked attributes, which are part of the source for these ALX installation restrictions.  With that said, for the BlackBerry 8820, the information has been placed at the top of the Platform.alx file. Listed below is the content of this, which clearly shows the series being listed as the 8800 family.

        <osfiles>
                <os radio="GPRS-WLAN" series="8800" Colour="True" Theme="Normal" JVMLevel="1.0" VoiceNotes="True" pttApp="True" Memory="Large" KeyboardType="Qwerty" Sound="Tunes8700g" SystemSize="normal" Bluetooth="True" MMS="True" GPS="True" ThemeSupport="Enhanced" VAD="True" JPN_Input="False">GPRS/rim8820g.sfi</os>
        </osfiles>

This is hardly a limitation or a restriction, but rather a strategic means for AT&T and TeleNav to gather $10 in additional monthly service fees from unwitting customers. TeleNav is worth the subscription, but some customers would prefer to go the free route (BlackBerry Maps, Google Maps). The BlackBerry 8820 has never been hardware-restricted for GPS services nor was it restricted to the use of TeleNav only.

We aren’t hearing the Germans on Vodafone or the French and British on Orange or the Japanese on DoCoMo complaining about the same restriction, nor did we ever hear a peep about this SAME issue when AT&T first launched the BlackBerry 8800 six months ago. I hope this clears up the non-issue that has become a whirlwind of misinformation and misunderstanding surrounding the release of the BlackBerry 8820 and it’s GPS capabilities.

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Seriously. We couldn’t have made this one up…it’s that bad. German company Trekstor has just dropped a new DAP. Spec wise, this thing can certainly hold its own, sporting 2GB or 4GB of internal storage, a built in FM tuner, mini-USB jack , and a pretty sweet design aesthetic. It even comes bundled with a set of Sennheiser ear phones. Not too shabby, right? Sure, but we haven’t gotten to the best/worst part. What happens when a German company is faced with the need to name and market a new, youth oriented digital audio player? How do they set themselves apart from the masses? Call it the i.Beat. Blaxx. That’s what. We find it hard to believe that any corporation, German, Latvian, Ugandan, Russian, whatever, could be stupid enough to knowingly pull a move like this…but by the same token, we’re equally flummoxed that a company could unknowingly pull a move like this.  We smell an angry Al Sharpton, several late night talk show debates, and an apology in the air. Or are we taking this the totally wrong way? Don’t take our mock convo the wrong way either, mmkay?

UPDATE: Trekstor has done the right move, and renamed the DAP just, "Blaxx." A little better, right?

Black male: Yo, what’s poppin my ninja?

White male: Hi, Gene.

Black Male: Ain’t nothin’. Aww man damn, is that the new iPod that you can like, you know, touch, and check out YouTube on? Aww damn! I could be chillin’ at the Subways, and be like all up on that, checkin’ out that dumb girl from South Carolina, son.

White Male: Uh, no. It’s this totally new digital audio player. It’s actually really cool, and pretty exciting. You get all of the features you’ve come to expect in a mobile MP3 player, in a small. light, and affordable package.

Black Male: Word, B.

White Male: Yeps!

Black Male: What’s it called, kid.

White Male: Lowers his voice, and tries to mumble, "i.Beat Blaxx"

Black Male: "Say what? Oh hell no you did not just…"

We’ll check up on White Male in the hospital a little later on in the week…

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Peter and crew, we couldn’t have said it any better ourselves…Palm needs to innovate, or completely close up shop and get out.

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During a friendly debate between The Boy Genius and myself the other night, the oddity that was the deal between AT&T and Apple (and all of the potential power that was given to the manufacturer) was one of the major topics of conversation. It was surmised (by me) that AT&T is being treated like a little <explicative> by Cupertino-based Apple, Inc. This would pertain to, among other things, the fixed pricing of the iPhone and the inadequate stock of devices found at AT&T stores. We all heard about how many AT&T stores depleted their stock of iPhones within minutes of re-opening the stores but there was nary a report of any Apple stores selling out on iFriday, despite rumored sales numbers in the thousands per store.

Well, it doesn’t seem like I’m the only one who thinks that the deal between AT&T and Apple may signal troubled waters ahead for the consumer and corporate customers of carriers. Research In Motion Co-CEO Jim Balsillie mirrors these sentiments, albeit a bit more professionally, by stating: "It’s a tremendous amount of control. And the more control of the platform that goes out of the carrier, the more they shift into a commodity pipe."

Well Said, Jimbo.

BG and Josh’s responses below.

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Fueled by the impromptu revelation of the impending release of the BlackBerry Pearl on T-Mobile’s network back in early September 2006, we started to see a a decent appearance of a shift in strategy in that Research In Motion was starting to listen to certain rather outspoken critics and took an interest in spending a buck on advertising their already beyond-popular product. The website for the BlackBerry Pearl, www.blackberrypearl.com, received a rather sleek website design, to go along with the rather sleek device design. Following shortly after, much to the surprise of most, we received a complete redesign of the Research In Motion customer portal website, www.blackberry.com, as well as a Pearl-ish design for the BlackBerry 8800 website. There have also been targeted advertising attempts in printed publications, such as meathead and gearhead magazines, Maxim and Wired. Now we find ourselves in in May of 2007 and Research In Motion has once again surprised the masses with a giant-for-them leap into the murky unchartered waters of hype advertising.

Amid an early mistaken slip-up on a URL redirect, one which would have otherwise caught us completely off-guard but rather resulted in a slightly less than under whelming press release and website launch, the BlackBerry Curve ("The BlackBerry Formerly Known as 8300") may very well mark the beginning of a new era for this traditionally tight-lipped company. With the release of the 8800, we had a 9-day wait period between the official announcement and the official launch of the device (on AT&T), while the Pearl received a luxurious 5-day hype period (released on T-Mobile). With the BlackBerry Curve, the announcement was made a full three weeks ahead of a North American carrier’s planned launch of the device (AT&T is rumored to be in three weeks; Rogers has announced a June launch), although O2 is reportedly set to release the device on May 8, the first day of the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, RIM’s annual event in Orlando, Florida.

Just a few weeks ago, HTC, manufacturer of more than 80% of all Windows Mobile devices, announced their plans to release Windows Mobile 6.0 updates for some of their newer, more popular devices. Apple drummed up a lot of hype a few months back with their presentation of the jaw-dropping iPhone, which has even seen some more headlines in the last couple days hinting and confirming next month’s launch for Apple’s soon-to-be flagship product line. It’s obvious that RIM has been feeling some heat, both from the market critics and their own customers, both large organizations and individual users. Does these changes in their advertising efforts reflect upon RIM’s attempts to remain on top in the wireless messaging industry, or does it truly represent a change in philosophy and strategy from the Waterloo-based company? These next few months won’t decide the fate of Research In Motion by any stretch of the imagination, but it will provide an undertow immensely more forceful than that experienced with the frivolous actions by NTP just one year ago.

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I’m sure a few of you have seen a couple things unfold in the past day or so surrounding one of the most popular stories on Digg being deleted - and even the submitting Digger having his user account banned. If you bother to take a look at the Digg homepage now, you’ll most likely see that the top stories are actually related or exactly the same as the story that was originally removed.  In fact, the number one story right now is "Digg Banned me for Typing a Number!". The original submitter was CJ, who details his account of what happened on his own site here. What we’re seeing is a backlash from the users of one of the most popular, if not THE most popular "user-driven social content websites" in the World. In addition, Digg’s current Top 10 is filled to the brim with users voting on HD-DVD stories which have the very key that was removed in the original Digg article.

UPDATE: Looks like Digg and Kevin Rose have caved into the tremendous amount of pressure from it’s users. He has in fact created this story, which has the HD DVD key in it. It’s also currently the #1 story on Digg with over 23,000 "Diggs"…

In fact, Digg has the following to say about itself, "Digg is a user driven social content website. Ok, so what the heck does that mean? Well, everything on Digg is submitted by our community (that would be you). After you submit content, other people read your submission and Digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of visitors to see." Well, not really guys. Not if you have a team of moderators that run around deleting stories that you personally don’t like or are being paid by a company that you want to keep a rosey relationship with. Just like the HD DVD Group who sponsored your DiggNation vidcast, and now coincidentially the story that got deleted was about the HD DVD key being hacked and broadcasted to the entire world to see. "Administrators have also apparently begun deleting stories criticizing their actions, and also banned numerous members – according to angry statements posted by Digg users on the site and elsewhere." You posted on your blog that, "We’ve been notified by the owners of this intellectual property that they believe the posting of the encryption key infringes their intellectual property rights. In order to respect these rights and to comply with the law, we have removed postings of the key that have been brought to our attention", yet there are countless other stories with the code still on the homepage. This is not by any means the first time something like this has happened, and is quite ridiculous. Jason Calacanis had some great points about some of the sneaky, and shameful ways of Digg. He actually details their scam on his blog in detail. There is no trace to who "buried" stories meaning who voted it down. Except the problem with this is, unlike the positive voting scheme, there’s no name attached to whoever "buried" a story leaving it open for moderators, and anyone else with the right access to completely hide any story that they felt necessary. There is abolsutely no accountability, and really isn’t what we’d like to call an "open" social network. Another excellent Calacanis point, you can’t comment on Digg’s own blog. "Hello!??!!? How can you be for social media and audience empowerment and not let folks have a discussion on your blog?!" Horrible way to gain a visitors trust and honestly, from a marketing point of view, one of the stupidest things to do, especially not admitting to it, and coming clean with everything. I don’t really give a crap about Digg, I personally never liked the site and couldn’t care less if people voted or "Dugg" stories we published. Afterall you are just reaching your same target audience anyway when your story appears on Digg. I do however make a point to be as upfront with you as possible, and if wrong, correct the problem in question immediately. We will be removing all "Digg This!" type buttons and anything relating to Digg in the following day or so. I’m actually adding a "Scrape This" button to our RSS feeds now. Do I expect the world to follow? No, but personally this is the move I feel we should make.

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Yes, I know it’s already been posted a few times that T-Mobile will start taking orders, processing and shipping the BlackBerry 8800 to it’s customers tomorrow morning. This will relate to those announcements, but I will veer to left…slightly.

At my previous company, one of my last meetings involved sales and technical representatives from T-Mobile visiting and making some presentations in our board room concerning T-Mobile’s future technology implementations and offerings, as well as some less-than-thought-provoking discussions surrounding future device releases.

To cover the technology deployments: T-Mobile@Home, the UMA/GAN offering, is right around the corner, with late-stage beta testing going live in recent weeks in Houston, Atlanta, New York, and various other major cities around the nation. T-Mobile’s UMTS network infrastructure is in place as of the end of April and they are currently waiting on the private and government sectors to release the frequencies purchased in last year’s auctions to go live with the service.

Needless to say, one of the more interesting statements made during that meeting was the reflection of why T-Mobile doesn’t get swept away in the exclusivity train that seems to have direct routes running daily through Atlanta, GA and Basking Ridge, NJ. It was said that they let the other carriers operate as the guinea pigs for the device manufacturers in order to have the bugs worked out in time for a launch to their own customers. I can understand this business strategy, but it’d be nice if they actually believed what they told their customers, right?

Oh, I suppose I should stop writing and show something I happened to stumble upon, right?

It appears the BlackBerry 8800 from T-Mobile will ship with OS package 4.2.1.111, just slightly newer than that of AT&T/Cingular’s current OS package 4.2.1.109 release. You can download it here, if you’d like. Rogers has recently launched their 8800 device with OS package 4.2.1.138 and Cingular is readying the OS package 4.2.1.139 for release to the masses.

Ahh, the joys of playing catch-up while not having a ’guinea pig’ iron-on plastered on your pink-collared white t-shirt. I wish the marketing responses during these sort of meetings were in line with the undesireable approach in paying exclusivity fees for device launches rather than taking the angle of allowing the "bugs to be worked out".

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It should come as no suprise that OQO had contacted me shortly after the "Problems in OQO land" post went up, which wasn’t really my intent. The great thing about them is that they made the effort to try and make things right and resolve the issues. The current units that have shipped to customers recently don’t show signs of these problems and that’s a good thing. The best thing would have been to contact the potential customers with the known issues, but this will definitely do. I got quite a few emails after the post went live, and a lot of people who had ordered OQO 02’s had no issues, but a couple of them did have the scratches, and a few had the connection issues.

I relayed the concern from San Francisco about these problems and everyone is appreciative of the attention they are giving it. OQO has informed me that customer service is now aware of the problems a few of us are experiencing and should be equipped to handle it. In addition we also went into the shipping delays and they reported that production has been ramped up and anyone who hasn’t received a unit will soon. So thank you OQO for doing the right thing, not because of my site, but because you looked out for the consumers and are resolving the issues. As always thanks to Dynamism who actually got the first phone call from OQO and immediately let me know of their concern, and interest in fixing this. I just hope they don’t ask for Just Blaze’s prototype back, because they might have to fly down to New York and pry it out of his fingers at Baseline…May the OQO be with you.

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Let me start this one by saying I’m a huge fan of the Logitech Harmony line of universal remotes. Having used everything from a simple remote from Radio Shack to a $20,000 Crestron unit I can’t express enough how much I like this damn thing! It’s a nice mid-range remote to put in your living room, TV room, bedroom, etc. All the macros are programmed online, you simply put in your component model #’s into the software, tell it what input your TV needs to be on, your receiver needs to be on and click update. It then programs the remote and you simply press "Watch DVD" or "Watch PVR" and the remote will send out all the necessary commands to make sure your components are on the right inputs and working. Having trouble? Press help and a great help guide will pop-up and make sure your straight! Click on for the full pictorial!

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So I have been spending some quality time looking into the ins and outs of this new PS3 contraption and I have to say that one of nicest things is the complete freedom to choose which headset I want to use as a communicator.  Yup that’s right, you can use ANY Bluetooth headset you want with the console.  All you have to do is put your earpiece in pairing mode, then head over to the settings bar and choose accessory setup.  You pair the 2 just like you would with any cell phone and earpiece, bam! Your off to trash talking bliss.  I had no trouble pairing my Moto H700 with the console. I even had a couple trash talking sessions in Resistance: Fall of Man.  Mmm, 40 player shoot-outs….

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I managed to get my hands on a retail version of the HTC P4350 and it doesn’t live up to the hype and expectations. It kills it. We have a hot one on our hands people! From the build quality to the customizations this thing rocks! HTC has included the little app that lets you tap the X to finally close programs instead of needing a 3rd party program. They also added a caps lock light, and a function light so when your caps lock is on, a blue light turns on above the keyboard. Genius, Boy Genius. The slide out keyboard is now on a spring so it makes it a lot easier to flip that QWERTY out to shoot an email, or browse a web page. The device itself is super speedy, and is small. Really small. It has a rubberized finish, think of this as a cross between the HTC S620 and the HTC TyTN. All in all, I am really impressed. Shoutout to my man Stan at E-Gadget Depot for hooking me up (the first one to have these in the US!). Click on for the unboxing ritual.

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A friend of mine from Engadget put me on to this great website. It’s called GSM Phone Source and they specialize in unlocking a ton of data devices including BlackBerry. They are very well known in the BlackBerry world as the unlock solution. The whole service is extremely easy, all you do is send over your IMEI # and you get back an email that contains your freedom. Most of the time you get the unlock code much faster than the quoted turn around time. GSM Phone Source definitely has a bookmark in my browser! Shoutout to Adam for all his help.

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I always said this would be a place for the latest and greatest news and scoops about technology, and how it plays a role into our lifestyles. Staying on that point, and making this site more personal I wanted to share a great service that I and pretty much everyone I know uses for email, yes Just Blaze uses it too! Its called Lanlogic, and if you haven’t heard of them they are one of the best. From hosted Microsoft Exchange 2003, to a hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server, to GoodLink, to a full dedicated server for a company of 10,000 users they do it all. Starting at $9.95/month for a hosted Exchange account they definitely deliver a powerful punch for a single individual or even a large corporation. Some of their clients include the Academy Awards, Emmys, Grammy Winners, multiple stars of TV, and the big screen. So there you have it, I use it, and so should you. Real People. Real Service.

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