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A recently surfaced BlackBerry roadmap has just shown its face for Rogers. While this has not been officially confirmed yet, the projected dates are however believable and seem to fit in well with the prior rumors.

First up, it looks like Rogers is on track to offer their customers the BlackBerry Bold before AT&T here in the US. However it looks like the earlier projected date of July 25 is only partially true. It looks that the phone will be available to dealers on that date, with it hitting the regular retail market just a few days later on July 29.

The next two, both of which should be exciting is the newly announced flip-styled KickStart, which is expected to be available in September, however no specific date has been announced, or even rumored aside from mid-to-late September. And finally the Javelin is expected sometime during late November or early December, in other words it will be there in time for the holidays.

Via [CrackBerry]

Aside from the obvious upcoming release of the iPhone 3G, it looks like AT&T customers will have a good remainder of the year device wise. Based on a recently leaked 2008 roadmap there is a nice selection of phones that will soon be available.

It looks like the upcoming 3rd quarter is going to be dedicated to the BlackBerry with an anticipated release of the Curve 8320 with Wi-Fi and the Bold. In addition it looks like the updated BlackBerry OS will also be released during Q3, which will put the 8820, Pearl 8120, Curve and Curve 8310 up to version 4.5.

Then for those who are not quite as excited by the BlackBerry, it looks like Q4 will be the time for you, of course its almost like a flip with the 4th quarter focusing a little more on Windows Mobile 6.1 goodness. Expected to be released is the Pantech Duo, Samsung Blackjack 3, AT&T Tilt 2 and also a still unknown handset from Samsung. Of course that unknown handset is rumored to be the Samsung Omnia. The four handsets that are on track for the fourth quarter release are all going to be running Windows Mobile 6.1.

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The BlackBerry Bold is having it’s trouble with a US release date, AT&T has been rumored to have pushed it’s launch into August, but it is right on track with our Canadian neighbors. Rogers has announced that the Bold will be available on July 25.

It looks like those “by-invitation-only” launch parties were indeed the path that was needed to see the official release. However, before we get excited, Rogers has not yet announced any pricing, lets just hope it is fair and we do not see another revolt.

Via [CrackBerry]

The highly anticipated BlackBerry Bold may be on track in Canada, however it seem to be having issues and will be delayed for while here in the US. The new date of it’s release is sometime in August, and although according to BGR this has been confirmed by “two high-level sources,” it is has not been officially confirmed from AT&T at this time.

AT&T and the manufacturer of Blackberry, RIM, are reported to be having problems with the software, battery life and overheating problems. It looks like AT&T and RIM have disappointed a lot of people recently, and now with this, people are just going to be more and more annoyed. Hopefully they can get these problems sorted out soon and maybe it could be launched earlier than August. Stay tuned for more information on this as it becomes available.

Via [BGR]

While Rogers has still not officially stated when consumers will be able to purchase a BlackBerry Bold, they have officially announced a series of “by-invitation-only” launch party dates. One would begin to assume that the handset would be available following those events, but we also know what happens when we assume, so we are going to sit back and wait until Rogers is kind enough to make a new announcement.

The special events are taking place across Canada and run from July 8 and end on July 17. The first event is in Toronto on July 8, then Montreal a day later, with about a week in between they pick up on July 15 in Calgary and finish up in Vancouver on July 17.

While we here in the US are still awaiting more information from AT&T, at least Canadian Rogers users have something, albeit little to look forward to as far as a potential release date.

Via [CrackBerry]

The BlackBerry Kickstart is what is aiming to be a highly anticipated BlackBerry, for some they are anxious to use one, and for some its just a curiosity factor as this will be RIM’s first venture into the world of flip-style phones.

One thing that is for sure is that, at least up until now, there has not been any shortage of live sightings of the Kickstart, and the latest leaked images even show off some comparison shots with not one, but two Bolds. Sadly while the comparison shot is decent, the rest are in the typical leaked image fashion—blurry. We do however also get a pretty good glimpse of the front exterior display, which in this case shows of a nice looking “analog” clock. Personally the Kickstart is a little taller than I expected.

As far as the specs, so far we have learned that it will feature a 240 x 320 internal display, a 160 x 128 external display, a 2-megapixel camera, a SureType keyboard, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and has quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support. It will also be running OS 4.6 and not the previously rumored 5.0. Keep reading to check out a few more images…

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AT&T has recently added the BlackBerry Bold in all its glory to their website. While tons of AT&T (and other carrier) customers have been focusing on nothing more than the iPhone 3G lately, both RIM and AT&T have also been getting ready to launch the BlackBerry Bold 9000.

The Bold will feature a 480 x 320 resolution display, have GPRS / EDGE / UMTS / HSDPA support, built-in Wi-Fi, built-in GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, 128MB of flash memory and will be powered by a 624MHz processor.

The Bold will also include 1GB of internal storage as well as a memory card slot that is accessible from the side, as opposed to hidden under the battery like other BlackBerry models.

The more I see the Bold featured, the more I consider moving back to the BlackBerry platform. While a specific launch date has not been released yet, one can only hope it lands close to the iPhone 3G, I for one would like to see some real competition.

Product [AT&T]

It seems that John Mayer may have some more connections than just with Apple, it looks like he is also in good with RIM as well. If you remember back in January he was lucky enough to get his hands on a MacBook Air before they were available to us regular folks, now its the recently announced and still unreleased BlackBerry Bold.

Showing off the Bold on his site, he also gives a nice little statement about how the word “geek” is dead and goes on to mention that the Bold “has blazing fast 3G and twice the screen resolution, and the fonts look like something out of the New York Times.” I guess, if nothing else it at least has the geek seal of approval from John Mayer. This almost makes me wish I had stuck with those guitar lessons when I was a kid, maybe I could also be getting cool tech toys before anyone else.

Read [John Mayer]

While we have already seen the BlackBerry Bold announced as a soon-to-be AT&T and Rogers handset, up till now we just knew that the Bold would be available “beginning this summer.” It seems the answer to the release date as well as some other interesting tidbits have just been leaked.

While the Rogers release date is still unclear, we can tell you that AT&T will make it available in July for $300. However, in a little more interesting news it seems that the Bold is also headed for T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint just a few months later. They are all set to offer up the Bold beginning in September. Verizon and Sprint customers will have to shell out the same $300 as AT&T customers, however T-Mobile seems to be a slight bit higher coming in at $350.

Of course, these have not been confirmed by any of the carriers, so these dates and prices are still subject to change. Lets at least hope that the T-Mobile price drops just a little, otherwise that seems quite unfair.

Read [InfoSync] Via [EngadgetMobile]

For those who are caught between choosing an iPhone because of its musical features particularly its tie up with the iTunes music store and the BlackBerry Bold’s productivity features which are not supported by the iPhone, a new application might actually make them forget about the iPhone and get a BlackBerry Bold instead.

RIM is said to be developing a new application called the BlackBerry Media Sync that would allow synchronization of purchased music from iTunes to the BlackBerry Bold. This means that Bold users would have the luxury of listening to their iTunes purchased music via the BlackBerry’s excellent internal stereo speakers. You don’t usually get this kind of experience with the iPhone’s speakers.

Of course one must also take into consideration the upcoming 3G iPhone which just around the corner, when considering whether to get the BlackBerry Bold which is about to have the same iTunes synch features, or to wait up for the 3G iPhone or even contend with the current iPhone models for both their mobile application and mobile entertainment needs.

Read [CNET]