OK CrackBerry Nation. This is it. Today is my birthday... I just hit the big THREE TWO... and this year, instead of me getting a birthday present I wanted to give an awesome gift to one of our readers. The present? My slightly used but never abused $2,000 Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry. It's exclusive. It's expensive. It's hawt. Heck, it even won an award this past weekend for 2012 Smartphone of the Year. 

We gave everybody three ways to enter in the Win CrackBerry Kevin's Porsche Design BlackBerry Contest - you could either leave a comment to that blog post, follow @crackberrykevin on twitter, or follow +Kevin Michaluk on Google Plus. The lucky winner was chosen at random from over 5,000 comments, 29,000 twitter followers and over 4,000 people on Google Plus. So that's it... Let's get to it...

And the Winner of CrackBerry Kevin's Porsche Design BlackBerry is....

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3 Ways To Win: Leave a comment to this post or follow @crackberrykevin on twitter and add +Kevin Michaluk to your circles on Google+. Do all three for three chances to win!

* Update - May 15th, 2012: OK folks, this is it. Today is the final day to get entered to win my Porsche Design BlackBerry! If you're not in on the contest yet, what are you waiting for?! I'll be announcing the winner here tomorrow on CrackBerry! *

Original Post - April 27th, 2012: As the world's #1 BlackBerry Fanboy, I take pride in always having the latest and greatest BlackBerry. So when the $2,000 Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry went on sale in North America, I just had to have it. The P'9981 is an exclusive (and expensive!) smartphone that gets a *lot* of attention thanks to its distinct styling and limited availability. As I mentioned in my P'9981 Review, you kind of feel like a celebrity just owning one.

And as much I enjoy using the P'9981 and being a member of the newly-formed Club P'9981 owners group, I've decided it's time to pay my P'9981 forward to a lucky member of the CrackBerry community. As was pointed out to me in an email I received from a reader earlier this week, the Fearless Leader of CrackBerry Nation should rock a BB more representative of the 99% of CrackBerry Nation, not the < 1%. I couldn't agree more. So I'm back on my white Bold 9900 and my P'9981 is up for grabs! 

How to Win Kevin's P'9981: So this is it... your chance to win my slightly used but not abused Porsche Design BlackBerry. And because this contest prize is so awesome, I'm going to give you three ways and three chances to win:

• Chance #1 - Leave a single comment to this post (tell me why you want my P'9981!)
• Chance #2 - Follow me on twitter: @crackberrykevin
• Chance #3 - Add me to your circles on Google+: +Kevin Michaluk

That's it. Do any of the above and you're entered. This contest is open worldwide. Contest ends May 15th at Midnight PST. The winner will be announced May 16th (my birthday!). Best of luck! And let's hope OS 7.1 is available for the P'9981 by the time you get my P'9981! :)

If you so happen to be the proud owner of a Porsche Design P'9981, you'll be pleased to know that OS 7.1 is now available for download. More specifically, OS 7.1.0.342 is available via BlackBerry Desktop Software or via direct download through the Mobily BlackBerry download page. We've seen it appear previously on the P'9981 but it did take a while to fully roll out. Don't have a Porsche Design P'9981? No worries. Check out our P'9981 contest where you can win one for yourself courtesy of Kevin! Thanks, HK Low!

Download OS 7.1.0.342 for the Porsche Design P'9981
Check our more in the CrackBerry Forums 

Since posting our Porsche Design BlackBerry Review I've received more than a few emails from other owners out there asking if there is an official P'9981 owners club to join. The request makes sense. Considering the phone costs $2,000 and is still badly in need of an OS update to 7.1, you'd think there should be a forum where owners can privately count down the days until its released (of course you can do this publicly in our P'9981 forum, but your posts will likely be answered by 9900 owners saying you should have bought a Bold instead... lol).

Answering to the demand, today I setup Club P'9981 - CrackBerry's Official Porsche Design BlackBerry Owners Club. Taking advantage of the social groups functionality in our CrackBerry forums, this is an invite only club for owners of the P'9981 and proof of P'9981 ownership will be required:

To join Club P'9981, you must be a member of CrackBerry and provide proof of P'9981 ownership.

To do this, please take a photo of the P'9981 ownership card that came in the box with your P'9981 (this card contains your device pin beginning with 2AA) and email it to sitesupport@crackberry.com. Please make the subject of the email "P'9981 Owners Club" and in the email be sure to let us know your CrackBerry username.

From there, you will receive your private invite to this group via the CrackBerry forums.

It's as simple as that. And if you get lost, just remember the domain clubp9981.com and you'll end up back here and find your way in. As for what happens in Club P'9981... well, you'll just have to buy a P'9981, become a member and find out. But it's a little like Vegas. What happens in Club P'9981, stays in Club P'9981. :)

Visit Club P'9881 - the Porsche Design BlackBerry Owners Club (invite only)
Join and Create other Social Groups in CrackBerry's Forums (members only)

"With a price tag of $2,000, the exclusive Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry is a Bold 9900 in an expensive new skin. It is not a better BlackBerry than the 9900, but if you have the cash and want to stand out, it is definitely the BlackBerry for you."

Design: A collaboration between Porsche Design and BlackBerry. You'll either love the look or hate it. Tends to get a better reaction in real life than from photos.	Feel: The unibody stainless steel frame gives the P'9981 some heft and a sturdy feel that makes it seem more like a luxury item than just another electronic device.
Performance: It's a Bold 9900 through and through. The 1.2 GHz processor delivers snappy performance and the keyboard is great for messaging.	Quality: As you would expect from a phone that costs $2,000, the quality of the hardware is top notch. RIM didn't hold back on the use of rich materials.

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It appears as though Kanye West got ahold of the fact that not only does CrackBerry Kevin have a Porsche Designed P9981, but Miss CrackBerry has one as well. In an attempt to dethrone them from being the most awesome BlackBerry-carrying couple around, Kanye went ahead and purchased a P'9981 for his good friends Jay-Z and Beyonce. While recently out in London, Kanye apparently sent his driver over to Harrods to grab a pair of these high-end devices for his pals as a nice surprise.

It's nice to see the P'9981 landing in the hands of more users even if it's mostly celebs) and maybe this will inspire the Ferrari PlayBook to become a reality! :-)

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Source: The Sun 

Following up the teaser photo I posted of my new Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry, I responded to the requests of CrackBerry Nation and followed it up today with an official unboxing of this expensive and exclusive BlackBerry. And since this is a BlackBerry that's going to set back would be purchasers ~ $2k, I extended the unboxing video to also include a walk through of the device and some of my initial review impressions.

I'll follow up soon with my full review, but honestly, this isn't a phone that really requires a review. Seriously. With a price tag this high, buying the P'9981 isn't about features or specs or how it stacks up in value against other devices on the market. This phone is about emotion. It's about desire. And of course, it's about showing the world you can afford to spend $2,000 on a phone.

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Talk about a wicked week of awesomeness for this BlackBerry Addict. First we get BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. Then I get the Google + App for BlackBerry I've been waiting for (Add Me to Your Circles!) and then the good 'ole DHL man dropped off the phone my heart has been desiring for a while now... the Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone by BlackBerry. Talk about CrackBerry Heaven!

It's been a crazy busy week for me, so now I'm off to play with these new gadgets so I can hit ya back up here next week with some CrackBerry Kevin styled in-depth reviews. Stay tuned!

PS. If you happen to own a P'9981 and want to be CrackBerry famous, send us in a photo of you and your P'9981 to editorial@crackberry.com!

The Porsche Designed BlackBerry P9981 is no secret, it is for sale in Dubai, we have gone hands-on with it, and we don't even want to know the things our very own CrackBerry Kevin would do to get one for himself. We have seen the outside of the device plenty but what we have yet to see was what it was packing on the inside, and a recent filing to the FCC was able to show us just that. While it sure isn't anything like an iFixIt teardown it does still show us what exactly is running in the device -- spoiler, not much different than what you would expect -- but we all know the nerd in you is loving this. Be sure to hit the links below for more images, and the full FCC filing.

Source: FCC; via: Wireless Goodness

If you're a Bold 9900/9930 user and are a bit jealous of the P'9981 theme or icons, fear not. Both the custom theme as well as the icon files have been extracted from the Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981. Personally I'm not a fan of the "custom" look of this theme, but I know some may be longing for a new look for their Bold 9900 or 9930. Now keep in mind these won't work on any devices aside from the 9900 and 9930, and as of now they only run on OS 7 (not 7.1). So with that in mind, hit the link below to download the theme or the icons (if you want to create a theme of your own) and get your Porsche on.

Download the BlackBerry P'9981 Theme
Download the BlackBerry P'9981 Icons

Source: N4BB

The Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 smartphone was announced two months ago with a question mark for a release date. It looks like some high-end smartphone seekers may have a happy holiday now as the BlackBerry P'9981 is set to be released in the luxury department store Harrods and will be exclusive to the UK (at least for now). The device rings in a price tag of £1,275 (approx. $1998 USD) which sticks to the $2,000 sticker price that was originally specualted. The P'9981 is sporting a 1.2GHz processor, touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, 5MP and much more. Harrods is expected to have the device by the end of December.

So will you be picking up a P'9981? Think it's the hottest phone yet or not worth your time? Sound off in the comments!

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Source: T3

When leaked photos of the P'9981 first surfaced in September, most CrackBerry fans, myself included, didn't know what to think. With a look that is divergent from any other BlackBerry Smartphone to date, we couldn't help but question if it was an actual Research In Motion design, a prototype, or somebody's elaborate customization.

We soon figured out it was in fact a BlackBerry device, going by the codename "Knight," and the unique design was the result of a collaboration between RIM and Porsche Design. Fast forwarding to October 27th, RIM officially unveiled Knight in Dubai as the Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry.

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Just a bit more love for the BlackBerry Porsche 9981 this morning as we have a shiny new product video from RIM. Here we get a much better look at the new device that will be landing in Porsche Design retail stores later this year. It is a very sweet looking device, but it looks like the CrackBerry Nation is split down the middle on this one. Some thing it looks great while others just can't stand it. So check out the video above to get a closer look and see if it changes your opinion one way or the other.

After the release of the BlackBerry P9981 today, tbreak managed to get a quick hands on video with the new device. It's good to finally see it live where we can actually get a good all around look at it up close. The BlackBerry P9981 features a stainless steel front, leather back and custom Porsche themed OS. I'm still not totally sure how I feel about this one, but I know many of you would love to get your hands on one. Check out the full hands on video above, then drop a comment below with your thoughts.

Source: tbreak

All those images we saw over the last few weeks of the rumored BlackBerry Knight have turned out to be more than rumors after all. As we suspected of the RIM event in Dubai, the new Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 has been unveiled. The device is sporting a radical new look that breaks apart from the standard BlackBerry design we're used to. With a stainless steel front, leather back and 1.2GHz processor, the P9981 is a new breed and definitely an eye catcher. The operating system is built on the new BlackBerry 7 OS, however it features custom Porsche Design icons as well as the Porsche font all around. The P'9981 also features an exclusive PIN that will start with 2AA which is pretty awesome. The device is said to be landing in Porsche Design stores before the end of the year and is rumored to retail for $2,000. Hopefully we'll be able to get our hands on one soon and get some more info, so definitely stay tuned! See more at the link below and keep reading for the full press release. 

Check out more on the BlackBerry P'9981

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