Research In
Motion (RIM) has revealed some much expected information concerning their new
gadget the BlackBerry Storm, which promises to sweep users off their feet and
also make the iPhone lose face with customers.
The device,
with an almost all-touch interface, comes fitted with a big surprise button: its
own screen, which can itself be clicked in order to confirm an action.
The innovative
feature is called Click-Through technology, the phone’s screen being a
fifth button, adding to the BlackBerry’s traditional ones: the red one for
ending calls, the green one for access to the device’s functions and for
confirming making or taking a call, the one for accessing the menus and the return
button.
Verizon Wireless, the BlackBerry Storm’s carrier, has
informed that the 3G handset would be available in due time for the up-coming holiday
season, leaving both the price and a shipping date yet to be revealed.
Other features of RIM’s new product include support for assisted
and standard GPS, Bluetooth, a 3.2-megapixel camera with 2X digital zoom,
video-capture support, autoflash and autofocus and a MicroSD slot.
Moreover, it is said to support the carrier’s EV-DO Rev A
network, a wireless broadband service, along with other high-speed GSM networks
throughout the world.
As for its measurements, the new BlackBerry is both shorter
and thicker than Apple’s iPhone, with a 4.4 inches length and a 0.55 inch width. The gadget’s 360-by-480
resolution touch-screen measures 3.25
inches, which makes it 0.25 inch smaller than the iPhone’s
one.
Weighing approximately 5.5 ounces (about 0.8 ounce more than Apple’s
device), the BlackBerry Storm has quad-band EDGE, being capable of carrying radios
for both Verizon Wireless’ CDMA/EV-DO technology and for other networks’ GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
ones.
RIM’s phone also comes with an 8GB MicroSD card, a 3.5mm
headphone jack, an external microphone on the back of the device, which is said
to improve the quality of voice calls via the built-in noise reduction
technology, and an accelerometer.
Nevertheless, the Storm’s most exciting feature seems to be the
touch interface, where typing is concerned. The gadget offers users three software
keyboards: one for landscape mode, one for portrait mode and the phone’s
standard keyboard.
When in landscape orientation, a QWERTY software keyboard
enables users to input text, while in portrait mode, the latter can choose
between a standard keypad and the one resembling the keypad RIM’s BlackBerry Pearl
is fitted with (which consists of twenty keys that have one or two characters
on them).
BlackBerry further features visual voicemail, which is also called
Random Access Voicemail and allows
users to listen to their messages in the order they choose to, support
for corporate e-mails enabled by the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and instant
messaging tools.
Waterloo-headquartered Research In Motion is a Canadian wireless
device company, best known for their BlackBerry phones. Released in 2002, the
device supported internet faxing, web browsing and text messaging.
The number
of BlackBerry subscribers has been estimated at approximately 14 million
earlier this year.
