IRAN Technology PC NET

Fresh details and this rather fetching official render of the upcoming BlackBerry Bold 9700 (aka the BlackBerry Onyx) have emerged, courtesy of CIO.  Prematurely distributed by T-Mobile USA, they confirm that the Bold 9700 will pack both 3G and WiFi, together with support for UMA VoIP.

“The BlackBerry ‘Onyx’ sports a premium experience and design with a high-gloss black finish and leather grain detail on the back. Boasting features such as high-speed 3G Web browsing, Wi-Fi calling, visual voicemail and support for corporate and personal e-mail options, the ‘Onyx’ will satisfy all your on-the-go needs. Also the phone comes preloaded with mobile applications from BlackBerry App World, including Amazon MP3 store for quick and easy music downloads and TeleNav GPS Navigator for turn-by-turn directions.” T-Mobile USA

The Amazon MP3 store app being preloaded suggests that RIM and the online retailer have done a similar deal to Palm and the Pre, making on-device downloads of music far more straightforward.  It’s unclear whether this app is different to the one currently available to download separately for BlackBerry devices.

CIO snapped through a T-Mobile embargo to release the image and details, the official break date of which was early November.  The carrier suggest they’ll have the BlackBerry Bold 9700 on the market before the end of the year, so it looks like there’s a roughly 1.5 month window in which it’ll hit shelves.  No idea of pricing, but this is a top-end smartphone so figure in the $200 region with a new contract.

looks like Unkie Walt accidentally programmed his calendar to publish a combined preview of the Motorola CLIQ and the BlackBerry Storm 2 a little earlier than everyone else. Nothing particularly insightful on the CLIQ, but Mossy says RIM’s latest is a big improvement over the original Storm — mostly because of the revamped touchscreen, which provides “faster, smoother typing.” Yep, that’s pretty much what we were expecting. Walt’s also high on the inclusion of WiFi and the portrait-mode keyboard, but ain’t nothing gonna make that BlackBerry browser any good, and the big guy says the touch interface still feels tacked to the rapidly-aging BlackBerry OS. So Walt — now that you’ve confirmed RIM and Verizon’s big holiday launch, what can you tell us about pricing and availability? “Likely to appear in November at around $200,” you say? Thanks, buddy. You’re always so dependable. Video that we took of a broken Storm 2 prototype in May after the break, tons of pics in the gallery