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Rogers and RIM have announced the availability of the affordable BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, and beginning November 4 customers will be able to grab one for just $49.99.  That’s right, Rogers has come in quite a bit lower than the $149 that T-Mobile customers in the US will have to pay. 

Of course, the Rogers branded Pearl Flip does have a few catches in order to get that low price.  Thankfully, the few catches will be easy to handle.  First off, customers must have a monthly service fee of at least $35, and second they must be willing to sign a three-year agreement.  All in all this sounds like pretty good news for Pearl Flip loving Rogers customers, it seems the only decision would be which color to get.  Initially the Pearl Flip will be available in black, and then a second option, pink, will be available in a few weeks.

Read [RIM]

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A recently surfaced image has shown off a new third color for the soon to be released BlackBerry Pearl Flip. Currently, we had seen and been expecting the Pearl Flip to be available in either black or red, but these recent images show it off in silver with a black face.

As of now we are unsure if the silver will be available with T-Mobile or even Rogers upon the initial release. The images come courtesy of a RIM press release that was written in Spanish, and sadly upon translation the release does not seem to offer any more than just the image. The release does not mention any specific colors and just lists the availability as a general sounding “through mobile operators around the world starting this fall.“ Quite possibly the silver will be reserved and used for another (non-North American) launch, but it would be nice to see it made available as an unlocked handset.

Read [MiBlackBerry] Via [CrackBerry]

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Typically an FCC posting means something a little more exciting, generally it comes as a product leak of some sort and it means that we are getting some good information. Well, not to disappoint you, but this latest FCC appearance is far from exciting. It comes in the form of the BlackBerry Peal Flip 8220, and well as it has already been officially announced, the listing does not offer anything new. Nonetheless we thought it would be nice to share the one diagram that made its way into the description.

Read [FCC]

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Thankfully we can now put all these rumors and leaks behind us as RIM has let loose with official announcement for their first flip phone, of course we are referring to the BlackBerry Pearl 8220. Yup, those rumors were correct, the Kickstart will officially be called the BlackBerry Pearl 8220.

Spec wise the BlackBerry Pearl 8220 will feature a 320 x 240 internal display, 128 x 160 external display, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, large SureType keypad, 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD/SDHC card slot. It will be running OS 4.6, have an HTML browser and an enhanced media player. Additionally the Pearl 8220 will be available in red or black.

Overall the rumors seem to have been pretty accurate with the specs, which means we do not really have much information that has not been mentioned so far. We were already expected it to be exclusive with T-Mobile so again no surprise with the carrier, however RIM or T-Mobile have not yet announced any pricing or a specific release date, simply stating that it will be available “this fall.“ I guess we will have to wait a bit longer for that information.

I suppose keeping the Pearl name makes sense, but personally I thought Kickstart had a really nice sound to it. Overall it looks like a nice improvement to the current candybar style Pearl, of course the one bug question remains is that pricing.

Keep reading to check out the full release…

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While we are still awaiting an official announcement for the upcoming BlackBerry Kickstart, it seems like the leaked images and screenshots are going to continue coming.

The latest series is a collection of screenshots from the Kickstart, which is running BlackBerry OS 4.6 and one thing is for sure, it looks like T-Mobile. The Kickstart will include BlackBerry Messenger, a new Clock application that has a very cool looking stopwatch and of course will be myFaves compatible.

As of now, the best information available still puts the Kickstart as being available sometime in October and retailing for $49.99. Of course one thing that we know for sure is that it will be exclusive with T-Mobile when launched. In the meantime continue reading to check out some more of the Kickstart screenshot images…

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Without any official announcement from RIM, the upcoming BlackBerry 8210 and 8220 have both been unveiled by online retailer Expansys. Of course, the 8210 and the 8220 are better know as the KickStart, which marks RIM’s first venture into the clamshell market.

Thanks to their online retail appearance we can confirm they will be featuring an internal 2.6-inch display with a 320 x 240 resolution and external 160 x 128 resolution display. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera with flash and video recording capability, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack and quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) support.

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It looks like nothing but good news for BlackBerry loving T-Mobile users as there are a few new options coming available shortly.

First up we will see an expansion of the current Pearl 8120 lineup. Not the most exciting of additions, but lets get them out of the way before we move on to the real goodies. The Pearl 8120’s features will remain the same, but it will also be available in Tahitian Green, Indigo and Light Blue in addition to the currently available Ruby, Gold and Titanium.

Now that the 8120’s are out of the way, we can also tell you that the Kickstart (or possibly the Pearl 8220) will be available sometime in late September or early October and although the pricing has yet to be officially confirmed, the rumored $49.99 is still holding.

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Well it looks like that Kickstart, you know RIM’s first venture into the clamshell market will not be coming after all. It seems that there is no Kickstart, at least by name that is, the handset is still the real deal, but according to these latest leaked promo images, we have been calling it by an incorrect name.

It turns out that the Kickstart will actually be the BlackBerry Pearl 8220. Strange, although it does make you wonder if the current candybar style of the Pearl will be going away. Personally I think RIM would have had a better intro with a new name, after all it is the first BlackBerry of its flippin kind. On another note, its always interesting to see the internal sales documents, because after all how else would we learn that the primary customers for the

Kickstart

Pearl 8220 would be “young urbanites,“ “multi-tasking women,“ and “mobile men,“ good stuff.

Lets just hope the early information about the fabled $49.99 price tag holds a little more accurate than the name information.

Via [BlackBerry Cool]

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So, we saw the hands-on review come in for RIM’s first venture into the clamshell market and things continue to seem to be pretty promising, that is assuming the price is close to the rumored $49. Now to add a little more tease, the team over at CrackBerry have released a nice (and thorough) 9-minute video of the Kickstart 8220 in action.

Of course caught in the action is the heart of the handset, the OS 4.6, but they also demonstrate some other goodies to include the web browsing, trackball, display, and the large SureType keyboard. Initially, I was not all that excited to see RIM venture into the clameshell style market, but after seeing this in action and shown next to the Pearl, all I can say is that the Pearl had better watch out, because the Kickstart looks very nice.

Continue on to check out the video…

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We have seen plenty of leaked images for the upcoming clamshell-styled BlackBerry Kickstart, so I guess seeing an early hands-on report surface should not be all that surprising.

The crew over at CrackBerry were able to get their hands on RIM’s first venture into the world of the clamshell, and while the BlackBerry Bold and Thunder may be stealing some of the recent spotlight, it seems the Kickstart is going to be a solid offering.

A few items to point out is that the display is big, and although not quite the same quality as what is found on the Bold it was noted as “looks good.“ The Kickstart 8220, as indicated by the number pattern will feature Wi-Fi, it also has the “next gen” SureType keyboard which was described as “massive” and easy to use, which sounds like it will be a nicer typing experience as compared to the Pearl.

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