Soon to be available around the world beginning November, for example AT&T, T-Mobile and Bell Canada, T-Mobile will sell the new BlackBerry Bold 9700 for $199.99 with a 2 yrs service contract.

Key features of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone include:

• Size: 4.29″ x 2.36″ x 0.56″ (109 mm x 60 mm x 14.1 mm) 
• Weight: 4.3 oz (122 grams)
• 2.44” display (480 x 360 resolution at 245 ppi)
• touch-sensitive trackpad
• Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• 3.2 MP camera with variable zoom, autofocus, flash and video recording
• Built-in GPS
• 3.5 mm stereo headset jack
• microSD/SDHD memory card slot
• 256 MB of Flash memory
• Bluetooth (2.1)
• Removable, rechargeable 1500 mAhr battery that provides approximately 6 hours of talk time and 17 days of standby time in 3G mode

[via slashgear]

“There has been a great pent up demand for the BlackBerry solution among our customers in Denmark and we are happy to announce our cooperation with RIM. The launch will take place today in parallel with our name change from Sonofon and Cybercity to Telenor. We see the launch of the BlackBerry solution as a great way of celebrating this occasion. Furthermore, we expect this offering to underscore and extend our commitment to the Nordic market as we now provide the BlackBerry solution in Sweden, Norway and Denmark,” says Henrik Skov, Vice President sales, Telenor.

At launch, Telenor will offer the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Pearl 8110 smartphones.

Despite the fact the Bold received positive reviews when it launched, but

consumers have reported unexplained crashes, poor reception and irregular dropping of calls. Return rates are understood to be well above average for similar devices.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s support for tri-band HSDPA and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) networks and its next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor. This device also features a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, built-in flash and 5x digital zoom.

Based on TmoNews Forum, the roadmap table offers some interesting details such as the touchscreen Bold 9900 (codename “Pluto”) with a standard Bold QWERTY keyboard and the unconfirmed slider Storm with a slide-out keyboard, possibly 3G and Wi-Fi.

The list also mentions the new BlackBerry Curve 9220 (previously reported “Magnum” codename), the 3G/HSPA version of the 8900 and, along with Bold 9900, will be possibly announced  at 2009 WES.

[via 3Gweek]

“Election Day is all about choice, and the addition today of the BlackBerry Bold to AT&T’s industry-leading roster of smartphones gives AT&T customers yet another fantastic choice through which they can have a superior experience in accessing e-mail, making a phone call, browsing the Web or performing myriad other data functions,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of Devices for AT&T’s wireless operation. “Quite simply, the BlackBerry Bold is the best BlackBerry smartphone ever, and it’s available from the world’s leading provider of BlackBerry services only to AT&T customers here in the U.S.”

The BlackBerry Bold comes pre-loaded with several popular applications including AT&T Navigator, CV (Cellular Video), YELLOWPAGES.COM Mobile and selections from AT&T Mobile Music service – XM Radio Mobile and MusicID. AT&T also provides customers with tens of thousands of uses for their BlackBerry Bold smartphone through content available in the AT&T MEdia Mall and from third-party partner sites.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone features a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome-finished frame and a half-VGA (480 x 320 at 217 ppi) color display and a newly designed full QWERTY keyboard. On the inside, a powerful new 624 megahertz (MHz) mobile processor that provides impressive performance, more storage memory than ever before – 1 gigabyte (GB) on board and up to 16 GB via its microSD/SDHC expansion slot – and a rich set of multimedia capabilities, including a media player for music, videos and photos and a 2 megapixel camera with built-in flash, zoom and video recording, as well as an optimized Web-browsing experience with desktop-style depiction.

SlashGear has done an unboxing, hands-on and a review on the new BlackBerry Bold for AT&T, check them out if you are getting one!

AT&T informed us that BlackBerry access to the WiFi hotspots would begin with the BlackBerry Bold, which is set to be available on Tuesday, November 4th. Shortly following that, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 and BlackBerry 8820 will also gain free WiFi access. AT&T would not comment on the possibility of free WiFi service being extended to its other smartphones, such as the AT&T Tilt.

[via MobileBurn]

AT&T is offering the free Wi-Fi service to customers with unlimited data plans. In addition to the BlackBerry Bold, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 and the BlackBerry 8820 will follow later this year, and AT&T plans to make the offer available to more mobile devices in the future. Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available at www.attwifi.com.

Free Wi-Fi access is also available with all AT&T small business broadband plans, AT&T
U-verseSM High Speed Internet plans and with qualified AT&T LaptopConnect plans. For customers without an AT&T broadband or smartphone plan, Wi-Fi subscriptions are available for $19.99 a month

via [slashgear]

The Bold is RIM’s first BlackBerry to include support for the 3G/High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) air interface standard and the first to include a full QWERTY keyboard. Along with the faster network connection, the Bold’s performance is boosted by sheer processing power via the addition of an updated 624MHz Marvell-based processor and an improved Blackberry Operating System (OS) 4.6 platform.

via [slashgear]

Visitors can sign up for a free Next2Friends members account at www.Next2Friends.com, download the application to their BlackBerry Bold and begin broadcasting immediately. Videos are automatically filed in the member’s personal video library where they can be easily shared with friends or embedded in other social networking profiles, websites and blogs.