Cingular is about ready to pop yet another smartphone (kinda) any day now, as these photos from Boy Genius have surfaced showing a Cingular-branded Blackberry Pearl. Cingular, in its wisdom, has made it ugly as hell and is calling it the 8100. Whatever. The specs are about the same, though Cingular is adding support for its Push-To-Talk service. The PTT should actually be showing up in many of Cingy’s smartphones, so listen for more of it soon. No date for release yet, but you Crackberry-heads have waited this long, a little bit more won’t hurt. The Boy Genius Report [via Engadget Mobile] → Read More
Smartphones Now is a special group of features by CrunchGear writers on the latest smartphones available – or soon to be available – in the US. In this installment, we review the T-Mobile Pearl. The BlackBerry Pearl is for the ladies. It’s slim, sexy, and cool. That’s not to say that boys might like it, but the Pearl, like the Sidekick 3, is designed to break down barriers and include folks who might not think they need a smartphone into the CrackBerry fold. Like the SK3, it’s a fully-featured smartphone masquerading as a cool and stylish toy. Read the rest of this entry » → Read More
. The coveted BlackBerry is going to be distributed early next year via Cingular, according to a press luncheon the wireless giant held today. It will retain the same feature set the current T-Mobile version does, but Cingular will be adding Push To Talk (PTT) functionality. Personally, we find PTT rather annoying, but, like Ben Affleck, it has it’s fans and we can’t figure it out. Pricing should be coda with T-Mo, and when asked why it was taking so long, Cingular said it’s because they like testing “rigorously.” They also mentioned a new 3G smartphone without specifics, and that they’re in love with Windows Mobile. Whatevs! Cingular to get Blackberry Pearl [C|Net] → Read More
BlackBerry Pearl owners are lucky, lucky people indeedy. The Pearl is a great combination of form and function. There is, however, one problem raining on their SureType parade: the trackball at the center of the face of the phone silences the ringer, even if moved very slightly. So if you’re getting a call, and reach into your Levi’s to pull the Pearl out, you’re going to mute the ringer. Now this isn’t a serious problem most of the time, but if you’re on a bus or otherwise moving, chances are good that that trackball is moving with you. this means you might miss calls altogether, which could pose a problem. As the Pearl is still a very new smartphone, look for an update from T-Mobile or RIM soonish. It should be a simple software fix, but in the meantime, it’s something to consider when planning your Pearly purchase Ringer doesn’t work in your pocket! [Pinstack BlackBerry Forums] → Read More
We like T-Mobile. They’re friendly, and they’ve been making great strides lately in coming to equity with Cingular in the cool-phones arena. Today, they’ve taken another step by adding the BlackBerry Pearl to their website as “available now”. They’ve been taking preorders for awhile, and started selling in-store, but this is the first time you can order one from their site in-stock and have it shipped overnight. We’ve been crunching the Pearl here for awhile now, and we like it. It’s a small, slim smartphone with a 1.3 Megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and RIM’s push email solution. It uses the familiar SureType hybrid keypad, so migration for current CrackBerry addicts should be painless. It’s good to see T-Mobile dropping something early. We feel like it’s our birthday or something. BlackBerry Pearl [T-Mobile] → Read More
I got to see the Pearl firsthand last night and I was pleased. This is probably the first BlackBerry that someone with some sense of fashion would consider using. Rather than looking like a lump of blue putty with a keyboard, the pearl is an ultra-slim, ultra-light smartphone that happens to use RIMs email client. No QWERTY keyboard on this bad boy – just a SureType numeric keypad with a little squirrel ball a la the Sidekick 3. We’re going to have a full hands-on next week, but until then rest assured that if you’ve never wanted a BlackBerry and feel you have to get one, the Pearl is definitely something to consider. It’s currently $199 at T-Mobile. → Read More
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