Research In Motion Co-CEO Jim Balsillie already confirmed that the company is working on a major update to the QNX-based operating system on the BlackBerry PlayBook, which we're likely to get a look at in two weeks at this year's BlackBerry DevCon. RIM's other Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis promised we'll also get a look at developer QNX BlackBerry SuperPhones at DevCon. What hasn't been made clear yet is exactly how RIM would approach the operating system branding now that we'll be looking at both a PlayBook OS and a QNX-based phone OS, which we're guessing will look mainly the same. We've been talking about the expected tablet update to date as BlackBerry Tablet OS v2.0 so far and well, we haven't really had a name yet for the phone version of that operating system. Until now.

We've now confirmed with multiple sources that RIM is set to unveil a new name for their QNX-based BlackBerry platform at BlackBerry DevCon this month. And the name is...BlackBerry X or BBX for short. 

Continue reading article

What a nice present to wake up to - a new video of the hopefully soon to be announced BlackBerry Pearl 9100. It's 4:45am as I'm typing this... I just woke up from a short winter's nap and am about to head to the airport to catch my flight to Vegas for CES 2010. The event officially kicks off tomorrow and in last night's Leaving for CES 2010 post I made note that maybe, just maybe RIM would announce the new BlackBerry Pearl this week. Could this be an omen then that it'll happen? The video was recorded fresh (it's blurry on the zoom-ins, but you can still tell the top post on the CrackBerry mobile site is from yesterday). I guess we'll know soon enough.

Hopefully RIM will announce the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 this week and will have some units on-hand at their booth for me to play with. If so, I'll be reporting back soon with a BlackBerry Pearl 9100 review (and some video that's in better focus!). Big thanks to our friend of CrackBerry for sending this in!

Looks like we have another showing of the BlackBerry 9650 Essex / Tour 2 in the CrackBerry forums.  This time, Matt_25 was able to grab these pics of the Sprint branded version (OS, no device logo) and post them for everyone to get a look at. Anytime we start seeing branded devices appear, such as we have with the Verizon and now Sprint versions you know that launch is nearing close.

For some, it may not be as close as we want it to be but that's the waiting game for CrackBerry addicts. If we had to take a guess on an official release for the Essex / Tour 2 we'd point it towards sometime in the New Year. We don't think it'll be here for the last minute holiday rush. Could be February or we wouldn't be surprised to see it even hit later, maybe in March. But again, that's just a guess. Two more shots after the jump, rest of the details can be found in the forums.

Continue reading article