Samsung Galaxy S II coming to US in September

Samsung's flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S II, is now available in the U.S. from AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

You won't be getting the exact same phone from all three vendors, however. Most of the basics are identical: a 1.2 GHz Exynos CPU, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and 16 GB of storage.

AT&T and T-Mobile will call the device Galaxy S II, while Sprint will be calling it Epic 4G Touch.
To increase the confusion, AT&T's model will have a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen and a smaller, 1650 mAh battery, while T-Mobile and Sprint's version will feature a 1800 mAh battery better suited to power the bigger, 4.52-inch screen.

Finally, Sprint's version of the device will have WiMax, while T-Mobile and AT&T versions will sport HSPA+, which makes all three 4G devices - depending on your definition of the term.

As far as availability goes, Sprint will be selling the device for $199.99 beginning September 16; AT&T says their version will hit the shelves "in the coming weeks", while T-Mobile's variant will become available "this fall".

Samsung unveils 3 smartphones Wave 3, Wave M & Wave Y

Samsung Electronics unveiled three smartphone models that run on its own operating system, as it seeks to expand market share in the low-end segment and diversify its lineups heavily focused on Google's Android software.

The Wave series models backed by Samsung's proprietary system "bada" reflects the South Korean firm's shift in strategy from being a pure hardware manufacturer to become more software-focused.

It is also aimed at pulling together Samsung's different products of smartphones, televisions, printers and computers under its own software platform and online application store Samsung Apps.

Samsung unveiled Wave 3 with a 4-inch AMOLED screen and a 5 megapixel camera, as well as cheaper Wave M and Wave Y. The Wave M will have Samsung's first instant messaging tool ChatON installed and entry-level Wave Y with 3.2-inch display will go on sale in October.

The three models add to 7 Wave series lineups Samsung introduced since first bada-based product went on sale in May 2010.

Samsung, whose flagship Android-based Galaxy S models helped it become the world's No.2 smartphone maker in the second quarter, is now focusing on emerging markets with cheaper phones costing $200 or below.

Last week Samsung unveiled four new mid-to-low end models running on Android to defend its market share, as Apple, which has long stuck to the higher end of a booming mobile device arena, is set to launch a lower-cost version of the iPhone 4 soon.

The Wave series will allow access to Samsung Apps, which has around 13,000 applications.

The number is dwarfed by more than 100,000 applications available in Android market and over 300,000 apps from Apple's App Store.

Apple gives Tim Cook 1 million shares

Apple has given Tim Cook 1 million shares of restricted stock as he takes over as reins of the company from Steve Jobs. At current prices, the stock package is worth more than $383 million.

Cook assumed CEO duties this week when Jobs stepped aside after 14 years, saying he was no longer able to do the job.

Cook won't immediately have access to the stock. Half of the award vests over five years, and the other half five years after that. So the full value won't be known for years.

But it has the potential to be even more rewarding if certain expectations of Apple Inc. come true.

Some analysts forecast Apple's stock, which closed Friday at $383.58, could hit $500 or more per share within the next year.

Samsung to launch Mobile Instant Messaging tool, ChatON

Samsung Electronics Co said it would launch a mobile instant messaging tool in its latest push to attract more consumers to its handsets and challenge rivals such as Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

The new service, called ChatON, will be available from October and preinstalled in Samsung's feature phones as well as smartphones running on its own bada operating system and Google's Android software, it said.

With the move, Samsung enters an already crowded mobile messaging market, which telecoms carriers fear will hit revenue from profitable text messaging services.

Apple plans to roll out iMessage, enabling the millions of iPhone and iPad users to send messages to one another over the Internet at no cost, and RIM aims to leverage the popularity of its BlackBerry Messenger with a new music service.

Samsung's messaging tool will work across all major smartphone platforms including iPhone and BlackBerry and will allow users to send text, images, and hand-written notes, as well as chat in groups and share video clips.

It plans to expand the offering to all Android-based smartphones and tablets, and it will also be available for download to consumers using rival Android, iPhone and BlackBerry models.

Samsung to bring LTE versions of Galaxy S II & Galaxy Tab 8.9

Ahead of the IFA trade show, taking place in Berlin from 2 to 7 September 2011, Samsung has announced LTE variants of Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 8.9. The new versions of these devices will have fast wireless data transfer capability, with download speeds up to 100 Mbps.

The Android 2.3-based Galaxy S II LTE will have a humongous 4.5'' Super AMOLED screen and an 8 megapixel camera.

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE will be one of the most portable tablets around, being 8.6 mm thin and weighing about 455 g. Both devices will feature a 1.5GHz dual core processor.

The price and availability for both devices is yet unknown.

Sprint to sell iPhone in October

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Sprint Nextel Corp., the country's third-largest cellphone company, will start selling the iPhone in mid-October.

The newspaper said the wireless company will get to sell both the new iPhone 5 and the current model, the iPhone 4. The iPhone 5 will launch at the same time that AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless get it.

Apple Inc. normally launches a new iPhone model in June or July, but this year's launch has been delayed for unknown reasons. Apple watchers had expected the new phone to arrive in September, but speculation has recently shifted toward October.

Sprint, headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., has been turning around its ailing operations through improvements in customer care, but its inability to sell the iPhone has hampered its recovery. In the three months ending in June, it lost 101,000 subscribers from contract-based plans, while Verizon and AT&T, already larger, added subscribers. Contract-based plans are the most lucrative for wireless carriers.

AT&T was the exclusive U.S. carrier for the phone for three and half years, until Apple allowed Verizon to start selling one in February.

Nokia unveils cheapest mobile phones

Nokia has unveiled two cheap cellphone models inspired by consumer needs in Africa, aiming to strengthen its position against low-cost Asian rivals. Nokia shares have roughly halved this year as the company struggled to keep up with the pace of smartphone development while also losing ground at the cheaper end of the market to Asian brands such as ZTE and G'Five.

The Nokia 101, which comes with slots for two different SIM cards, will be available this quarter for about 25 euros ($35.22), excluding taxes and subsidies, while the Nokia 100 will be available next quarter for about 20 euros.

Nokia's first dual-SIM model reached the market only last quarter, enabling smaller rivals to benefit from growing demand for such models which are increasingly popular in countries such as India, the world's second-biggest and fastest-growing market for mobile phones.

The latest models mark the fifth duo-Sim models for Nokia in the last three months and were inspired by the needs of consumers in countries such as Kenya, where mobile phone penetration is more than 50 percent.

Executives at the firm told a media launch in the Kenyan capital that Africa, with its 1 billion people who are mostly young, is a key strategic area.

Mary McDowell, executive vice president for mobile phones, said Nokia's cheap models would help it sidestep any risks from economic problems, as consumers increasingly rely on their mobile phones to grow their businesses.

McDowell expressed confidence in the firm's product strategy, saying Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility was a cause for optimism.

"The Google Motorola announcement really validates our strategy to go with the windows phone as the smart phone platform," she said, adding that Nokia's S40 phones, designed to take on cheaper smart phones, were key to the strategy.

RIM unveils BBM Music service

Of late, there’s been a bit of chatter about it, and now Research In Motion (RIM) has confirmed details of what it’s calling its “music sharing and discovery service.”

Called BBM Music (BlackBerry Messenger Music), the cloud-based music service will cost users $4.99 a month and enable subscribers to share songs through the BlackBerry instant messaging service.

Details of BBM Music were released yesterday in a statement issued by the Ontario-based company. Users can choose from millions of songs from leading record companies such as Universal, Sony Music, Warner and EMI.

The statement explains that should you sign up, you’ll be able to build a personal music profile with 50 of your top tracks. When your BBM friends sign up, they can join your BBM Music Community. Up to 50 tracks from your personal profile are then shared with members of your community. The more friends in your community, the bigger your music collection becomes, as their favorites are available for you to listen to at any time.

Users can easily discover music that their BBM Music friends are listening to and can also comment on their friends’ songs and playlists.

“Enjoy a truly social community-based music experience,” the statement implores.

A closed beta trial of the BBM Music service begins Thursday in Canada, the US and the UK.

RIM is planning for the new service to be commercially available to BlackBerry users later this year for a monthly subscription of US$4.99, in the following countries: Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the UK and the US.

Steve Jobs resigning as Apple CEO, to be replaced by Tim Cook

Steve Jobs, the mind behind the iPhone, iPad and other devices that turned Apple Inc. into one of the world's most powerful companies, resigned as CEO, saying he can no longer handle the job but will continue to play a role in leading the company.

The move appears to be the result of an unspecified medical condition for which he took an indefinite leave from his post in January. Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, has been named CEO.

In a letter addressed to Apple's board and the "Apple community," Jobs said he "always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

The company said Jobs gave the board his resignation Wednesday and suggested Cook be named the company's new leader. Apple said Jobs was elected board chairman and Cook is becoming a member of its board.

Jobs' health has long been a concern for Apple investors who see him as an industry oracle who seems to know what consumers want long before they do.

Jeff Gamet, managing editor of The Mac Observer online news site focused on Apple, said Jobs' departure has more sentimental than practical significance, and that he has been telegraphing the change for several years.

Earlier this month Apple became the most valuable company in America, briefly surpassing Exxon Mobil. At the market close Wednesday its market value was $349 billion, just behind Exxon Mobil's $358 billion.

Jobs' hits seemed to grow bigger as the years went on: After the colorful iMac computer and the now-ubiquitous iPod, the iPhone redefined the category of smart phones and the iPad all but created the market for tablet computers.

His own aura seemed part of the attraction. On stage at trade shows and company events in his uniform of jeans, sneakers and black mock-turtlenecks, he'd entrance audiences with new devices, new colors, new software features, building up to a grand finale he'd predictably preface by saying, "One more thing."

Jobs (56), shepherded Apple from a two-man startup to Silicon Valley darling when the Apple II, the first computer for regular people to really catch on, sent IBM Corp. and others scrambling to get their own PCs to market.

After Apple suffered a slump in the mid-1980s, he was forced out of the company. He was CEO at Next, another computer company, and Pixar, the computer-animation company that produced "Toy Story" on his watch, during the 10 years before he returned.

Apple was foundering before he returned, having lost $900 million in 1996 as Microsoft Windows-based PCs dominated the computer market. The company's fortunes began to turn around with its first new product under his direction, the iMac, which launched in 1998 and sold about 2 million in its first 12 months.

Apple's popularity grew in the U.S. throughout the 2000s as the ever-sleeker line of iPods introduced many lifelong Windows users to their first Apple gadget. Apple created another sensation in 2007 with the iPhone, the stark-looking but powerful smart phone that quickly dominated the industry.

The iPad was introduced less than a year and a half ago but has already sold nearly 29 million units as it inspired myriad rivals in a tablet computer market that scarcely existed before Apple stepped in.

As Jobs was praised for his vision, concerns about his health persisted. The January leave was Jobs' third medical leave over several years. He had previously survived pancreatic cancer and received a liver transplant.

China Telecom in talks with Apple on iPhone

China Telecom Corp Ltd, the smallest of the country's three telecommunications carriers, is still in talks with Apple Inc to carry its iPhone, targeting growth in high-end users.

China Telecom, which competes with China Mobile Ltd and China Unicom, would only increase handset subsidies if it started selling iPhones to draw more users to use its network, Chairman Wang Xiaochu said.

China Unicom is the only carrier selling the popular iPhone in China, the world's largest mobile phone market, although the two other operators have been aggressively negotiating with Apple to be next.

China Telecom, which has increased capital expenditure to 50 billion yuan this year from 43 billion yuan last year, sees its overall ARPU (average rate per user) trending lower in the second half of this year.

"For voice, we will track our competitors on pricing, but we'll try to maintain our pricing for data. That's because our 3G development is better, so larger data traffic will help raise our ARPU," Wang said.

Its views are largely in line with China Mobile, which said last week that its ARPU would continue to fall for the rest of the year.

China Telecom executives said during the news conference that 3G ARPU for 3G services was slightly above 80 yuan in the first half after introducing the service in the second half of last year.

RIM brings New BlackBerry Curve - 9350, 9360, 9370

RIM has announced the availability of the new, refreshed BlackBerry Curve, which sports a thin, 0.43 inch frame and BlackBerry 7 functionality under the hood.

It has a 2.44 inch, 480x360 pixel screen, an 800 MHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and VGA video recording functionality. It also sports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and the fabled NFC which is slowly turning into a standard for new smartphones.

The device comes in three version numbers - 9350, 9360 and 9370 - with the difference being connectivity: the 9350 is CDMA-only, 9360 supports GSM and UMTS while 9370 supports both GSM and CDMA.

The new BlackBerry Curve will be available from carriers in Canada this month and from other carriers around the world starting September.

Apple suppliers making cheaper 8GB iPhone

Asian suppliers to Apple Inc have begun manufacturing a lower-priced version of its hot-selling iPhone 4 with a smaller 8 gigabyte flash drive.

According to some unidentified sources, the flash drive for the 8GB iPhone 4 is being manufactured by a Korean company. Apple currently sources its flash drives from Japan's Toshiba and South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

The existing iPhone 4 was first launched in June 2010 with 16 GB and 32 GB versions, with a white version added to the lineup in April. The 8GB version is expected to launch within weeks.
Some analysts said the cheaper 8GB iPhone 4 could help Apple boost sales in emerging markets.

The Launch of iPhone 5:
In addition to the launch of the smaller iPhone 4, Apple is targeting an end-September launch for the next-generation iPhone 5.

The new iPhone, which some call the iPhone 4S because of its largely identical appearance to the existing iPhone 4, is expected to have a bigger touch screen, better antenna and an 8-megapixel camera.

The iPhone 5's two manufacturers have been told to prepare production capacity for up to 45 million units altogether. The phone will be made by Hon Hai and Pegatron.

Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones in the second quarter versus an expected 17 million to 18 million, and is increasingly looking to Asia to boost future earnings.

Asia-Pacific - which accounts for about one-fifth of its total revenue - and Greater China in particular, helped Apple's revenue surge 82 percent to $28.6 billion in April-June.

Apple to launch iPad 3 in early 2012

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Apple is planning to begin trial production of a next generation iPad in October with an eye to an early 2012 launch.

The newspaper said Apple is working with component suppliers and its assembler in Asia on the iPad 3 and has ordered key components such as display panels and chips.

It said the next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution 2048-by-1536 pixel display compared with the 1024-by-768 display on the iPad 2.

The Journal quoted one unidentified component supplier to Apple as saying that the company has placed orders for parts for about 1.5 million iPad 3s in the fourth quarter.

Apple sources parts for the iPad around Asia and assembles the tablet computer at Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

Google's Motorola deal to boost Android Ecosystem

Since Google announced its plans to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, analysts, stockholders and developers have been discussing the implications, and the talk hasn't slowed. Speculation has included the winners and losers in the deal; a closed Android operating system; and how the deal ultimately helps Microsoft.

While many analysts point to Moto's patent portfolio, Tina Teng, a senior wireless analyst at IHS, suggested Motorola's product-development capabilities may have made it an attractive target for Google.

"Motorola has been closely following Google Android's operating-system release schedule. Whenever Google releases a new version of Android, Motorola almost immediately has a device ready with the latest revision of the software, reflecting the company's prodigious product-development capabilities," Teng said.

Beyond Smartphones:
Teng noted how Google previously has used new HTC and Samsung products to demonstrate the latest capabilities of the Android operating system. The HTC MyTouch and Samsung Nexus S served to show off the operating systems' capabilities so other OEMs could follow the example. If the Federal Trade Commission approves the acquisition, Motorola will become the company to set the example.

"Motorola can serve as Google's product R&D department as Android spreads into new markets," Teng added. "Motorola has engineering expertise in a wide range of products where Android will be used, including set-top boxes and televisions. The addition of Motorola's engineering and intellectual property will accelerate Android's time-to-market in these areas and potentially revitalize the Google TV business, which so far has met with little success."

Indeed, Google CEO Larry Page hinted at possibilities beyond smartphones in his blog posting. Specifically, he noted how Motorola is a market leader in the home-devices and video-solutions businesses.

"With the transition to Internet Protocol, we are excited to work together with Motorola and the industry to support our partners and cooperate with them to accelerate innovation in this space," Page said.

May Boost A Stronger Ecosystem:
According to Strategy Analytics, more than 70 percent of consumers agreed that mobile apps would be extremely important when purchasing their next handset. With the Motorola acquisition, the firm said, Google can now rival Apple's ecosystem.

Strategy Analytics' premise is that Apple built the iOS ecosystem on the strength of hardware and software releases that work together. Apple's development paradigm led to innovative apps and a platform that focuses more on experience than technical specifications. Although Google has innovated consistently with the Android platform, the firm noted, it has failed to effectively tie software upgrades to new hardware that developers could leverage to create new apps.

While other factors certainly played a critical role in the selection of Motorola as an acquisition target, Strategy Analytics said Google will be able to leverage the purchase of Motorola to address three critical flaws with Android: A subpar ecosystem for consumers and developers, APIs that are not specifically focused on improving usability, and fragmentation.

"Providing developers with an environment in which they can succeed will be critical to building long-term support - support which is essential to consumer interest," said Josh Martin, director of apps research at Strategy Analytics. "If handled correctly, the acquisition of Motorola could help Google make Android into a platform that offers unrivaled revenue opportunities."

Google to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 bn

Google shook up the mobile phone industry with the announcement it is buying US smartphone maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in cash in a bid to extend the reach of its Android platform.

The surprise move gives Google a strong patent portfolio to defend Android against lawsuits from rivals such as iPhone and iPad maker Apple and turns an Internet company known for its software into a hardware manufacturer.

Analysts said the acquisition also has major implications for handset makers such as Taiwan's HTC, South Korea's Samsung and others who are using Android to power their mobile devices.
Google and Motorola Mobility said the Internet titan will buy Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share.

Google and Motorola Mobility said their boards of directors have unanimously approved the deal - Google's largest acquisition ever, dwarfing its $3.1 billion purchase of online advertising firm DoubleClick.

Under the agreement, Motorola Mobility will remain an Android licensee and Google will run the unit, which employs 19,000 people and reported a net loss of $56 million last quarter, as a separate business.

Besides smartphones, Motorola Mobility is a leading maker of TV set-top boxes and analysts said the acquisition could see Google make a renewed push for Google TV, which merges online content with traditional TV programming.

Motorola Mobility also makes an Android-powered tablet computer, the Xoom, and Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said Google has "shaken up the tablet market in a big way."
"Google no longer has to depend on third parties to deliver their vision to compete with the iPad," he said.

"Suddenly you have Google, already a serious platform player, becoming a serious integrated vendor from end-to-end for everything from phones to tablets to television sets," Gartenberg said.

Google chief executive Larry Page said Google and Motorola Mobility "will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers."

He said the deal will help protect Android against patent lawsuits targeting the open-source mobile operating system which Google provides to smartphone and tablet makers for free.

"Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies," he said.

Google bid earlier this year for 6,000 patents held by bankrupt Canadian firm Nortel but lost out to a consortium made up of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Blackberry maker Research in Motion and Japan's Sony.

WP7 Mango coming on Sept 1, to compete with iPhone and Android phones

With all of the iPhone rumors swarming around lately, the reports suggest that the Mango update to WP7 will come out on September 1. Just a couple of weeks ago we heard from Microsoft that the OS was ready for phones, and it was only a matter of time before we would see it in the wild.

There is still no word on exactly if new hardware will be coming out on September 1 along with the updated software. When WP7 was first launched it was launched on several phones and carriers all at once. This time it is unknown if that will happen this year too. The current generation of WP7 devices will start getting over the air updates on September 1, but everything else is still up in the air.

The Mango update to WP7 is supposed to address most of the main areas of concern with the current product, and add some features on top of those improvements.

Google is bumping up the Ice Cream Sandwich launch to October to compete with Apple’s still unannounced iPhone; now with Microsoft launching Mango around the same time it will create a perfect storm of cell phone choices. The key features of both iOS 5 and Mango have already been highlighted so the only real wild card operating system wise will be Ice Cream Sandwich. On the hardware side of things it is pretty much anyone’s guess to how most of the new phones will look or function.

RIM launches new BlackBerry Torch smart phones

Research In Motion has unveiled two new and powerful versions of its touchscreen BlackBerry Torch, including an all-touch model, as it seeks to regain ground lost to Apple and Google.

The new phones, along with an upgrade to its Bold model shown earlier, are part of what the Canadian company called the biggest global launch in its history as it seeks to claw back North American market share from Apple's iPhone and a slew of devices running on Google's Android software.

The refreshed lineup is designed to buy RIM time until it introduces a radically new software package for its smartphones next year.

RIM is slashing 2,000 jobs from its global workforce to reduce costs and streamline operations after posting a fall in profit and a dismal earnings outlook in its last quarterly report.

The three touchscreen phones, running on the new BlackBerry OS 7, boast improved screen displays and pack a 1.2 GHz processor from Qualcomm, the most powerful ever for a BlackBerry phone. They also have a dedicated graphics processor that should make video and gaming sharper and more responsive.

The browser is 40 percent faster than the original Torch, RIM's last major phone launch, which hit shelves almost a year ago.

All three devices will be launched by carriers around the world by the end of August, RIM said. The slider Torch will be exclusive to AT&T in the United States, the carrier said.

The all-touch Torch is RIM's first attempt at the popular style since two versions of its Storm model failed to excite.

Researchers discover How to Steal Credit Card Data using Square

Researchers attending the Black Hat security conference have demonstrated two ways in which Square - a mobile gadget that enables Android, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users to accept credit card payments - can be hacked to steal credit card data, with very little technical hardware required and "no technical skills at all."

Adam Laurie and Zac Franken, directors of Aperture Labs, discovered that due to a lack of encryption in the current Square app and free dongle for swiping cards, the mobile payment system can be used to steal credit card information, without even having the physical credit card.

Square works by converting credit card data into an audio file that is then transmitted to the credit card issuer for authorization.

In order to bypass the need to swipe a card, Laurie wrote a simple program - in less than 100 lines of code - that enables him and Franken to feed magnetic strip data from stolen cards into a microphone and convert that data into an audio file. Once that file is played into the Square device via a $10 stereo cable, the data is sent directly to the Square app for processing.

Laurie and Franken's hack proves that the Square app cannot distinguish between a true swipe on the dongle and an audio file fed to the app without swiping. In theory, the team could buy stolen credit card data in underground online markets and start up a practically skill-free criminal shop.

The duo was also able to pull money from a Visa gift card that is not officially allowed to be "cashed out."

Square is due for an update and Franken noted that he heard the company is planning to release new dongles that encrypt credit card data.

BlackBerry Smartphones trying to keep up with Apple iPhone and Google Android

BlackBerry, whose handheld smartphones revolutionized the way business people stay in touch with the world, has unveiled a new line of phones - just days after it announced 2,000 job cuts, revamped top management, and saw its stock hit a five-year low.

The new models, with touch screens, slide-out keyboards and a faster, more versatile operating system, were designed to appeal to BlackBerry's core audience of business users, while keeping up with increasingly some stiff competition: Apple's iPhone and phones that run on Google's Android operating system.

Research In Motion, the Canadian company that sells BlackBerrys, is profitable and its sales are rising - but it still has a tremendous problem. Apple and Android are eating its lunch. Smart phone consumers who expect the Web at their fingertips have turned away from Blackberry toward its more Internet-friendly counterparts.

Now some analysts see RIM as a has-been, a company that gave the world constant access to email on the go, but couldn't turn it into mass-market dominance.

"They were very late to make a major transition. They made great phones that focus around email, but not around the Internet. And that's where Apple and Android are way ahead of them," said Alkesh Shah, an analyst at Evercore Partners in New York.

The new RIM lineup includes three versions of the BlackBerry Torch (models 9810, 9850 and 9860), a multimedia handheld whose large touch screen makes it look much like an iPhone with extra buttons. Updated versions of the BlackBerry Bold - models 9900 and 9930 - take a more down-the-middle approach, combining a new touch screen with the kind of keyboard that had millions of users trying to type messages as they raced through airports or walked down the street.

The company is hardly about to go under. Most companies and government agencies still issue BlackBerrys, not iPhones, to their employees for business use. And BlackBerrys are still wildly popular in other parts of the world - much more popular than Apple in the Middle East and parts of Asia and Europe.

The company promises a new operating system next year, called QNX, designed to compete directly with Apple, Google, and other companies such as Motorola and Samsung. That'll be crunch time for BlackBerry.

RIM reveals 3 new BlackBerry touch phones

BlackBerry maker, RIM has revealed more about its BlackBerry 7 OS and given us a good look at the first three phones that will run on the new operating system: the BlackBerry Bold 9900, the BlackBerry Torch 9810, and the BlackBerry Torch 9850. The phones are using a new interface modeled after RIM’s BlackBerry Tablet OS, which RIM hopes will help it better compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones.

BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930:
The Bold 9900 was unveiled back in May. Following the traditional design of the Bold line, the 9900 has a 2.8-inch 640×480 (VGA) screen with a full QWERTY keyboard in tow. The device has a 1.2GHz processor, 8GB of onboard storage and a MicroSD card slot if you want more. The rear camera is 5MP (no front camera) and it can record 720p video. We also know from the unveiling that the phone will include a NFC chip, which means it could be used as a wireless credit card, assuming RIM has a plan to utilize this technology on a broad scale. The phone will support 3G on Sprint and AT&T.

BlackBerry Torch 9810:
Following the Torch, which came with BB OS6 last year, the Torch 9810 has a 3.2-inch “high resolution” touchscreen, a 5MP rear camera with autofocus and “HD” video recording, and a vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. RIM has improved the processing speed of the new Torch, up from 600MHz to 1.2GHz, likely responding to complaints that the last one was rather sluggish.

BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860
The Torch 9850 is the first decent looking fully-touch phone from RIM. The phone has a 3.7-inch screen, which is the largest of any BlackBerry smartphone, but relatively small compared to the 4.3-inch Android phones that dominate the market. The phone comes with Liquid Graphics technology, which supposedly means that the screen will be more responsive, a 1.2GHz processor, and 4GB of internal storage with a MicroSD slot if you need it. Like the other models, it will have a 5MP rear camera with autofocus, but doesn’t appear to have a front-facing camera.
BlackBerry 7 OS:
RIM claims that BlackBerry 7 will redefine the platform, offering much better web browsing and 40 percent better performance than BlackBerry 6 smartphones. However, it doesn’t, however, mention if the phone will utilize gestures in the fluid and intuitive way that the BlackBerry PlayBook does.

Apple delays iPhone 5 to October release

Apple is delaying the release of the iPhone 5 to October, according to people familiar with the matter, as the next-generation device suffers another in a series of setbacks.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company, which had scheduled a September launch, is pushing it back a month.
Reports initially alleged AT&T had blacked out employee vacations - typical during high-volume releases - during the last two weeks of September. But new sources say the information is inaccurate.
"I don't know why AT&T's calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it's not for an iPhone launch," said a source, indicating October would be more appropriate.
Previous supply-chain sources suggested the new iPhone will feature a faster A5 chip, similar to the iPad 2, run on both GSM/CDMA networks, and offer a higher-resolution 8-megapixel camera.