Aside from that, the handsets packed with RIM’s slimmest Curve design ever, GPS and Wi-Fi support, and 5-megapixel cameras. Here’s what RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis have to said, “These new models will build on the incredible success of the BlackBerry Curve line and further expand the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones in our history.” He also added, “The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones are absolutely stunning and offer a significant performance upgrade with an unmatched mobile social experience for the millions of feature phone users in the market as well as our existing Curve customers.” The devices will launch this month in Canada follow by other regions markets in the beginning of next month.

Press Release:

RIM Introduces New BlackBerry Curve Smartphones

Sleek, fast and easy-to-use smartphones feature next-generation BlackBerry 7 OS and deliver smooth social experiences wherever you go

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced three new BlackBerry® smartphones featuring the BlackBerry® 7 Operating System (OS). The all-new BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350, BlackBerry® Curve™ 9360 and BlackBerry Curve™ 9370 smartphone are exciting additions to the popular BlackBerry Curve series.

These new models are designed to address a large and important segment of the global mobile phone market where customers are looking to upgrade their existing feature phone or existing BlackBerry Curve with an affordable, easy-to-use, full-featured and socially-connected smartphone.

“These new models will build on the incredible success of the BlackBerry Curve line and further expand the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones in our history,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones are absolutely stunning and offer a significant performance upgrade with an unmatched mobile social experience for the millions of feature phone users in the market as well as our existing Curve customers.”

Everything You Need
The new BlackBerry Curve smartphones are slim, stylish and simply beautiful. They are ergonomically designed with a comfortable and iconic keyboard for fast, accurate typing and an optical trackpad for easy, one-handed navigation. GPS and Wi-Fi® support are also included, as well as a 5MP camera with flash and video recording so that memories can be captured and instantly shared on social networks. The microSD/SDHC slot supports up to 32 GB memory cards for additional media storage.

In addition to supporting the new BlackBerry 7 OS, the new BlackBerry Curve smartphones feature a range of powerful hardware enhancements including upgraded processors, displays and memory, and built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that is enabling many exciting capabilities, including the ability to pair accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.

Next-Generation BlackBerry 7 OS
BlackBerry 7 introduces a next generation BlackBerry browser which combines the dramatically improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine with the hardware enhancements in the new BlackBerry Curve smartphones to deliver a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience. Additional enhancements to this next generation BlackBerry browser have also enabled smoother navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences.

BlackBerry 7 OS also includes a number of other pre-loaded applications and integrated functionality for increased productivity and collaboration right out of the box. The Premium version of Documents To Go is included free of charge, offering users powerful document editing features as well as a native PDF document viewer. BlackBerry® Protect is also pre-loaded*, offering customers the peace of mind that personal data can be backed up and secured in the cloud. With BlackBerry Protect, users can locate their misplaced BlackBerry smartphone using GPS or remotely turn up the ringer for an audible notification if their handset is close-by. BlackBerry® Balance (announced May 2, 2011) is integrated in BlackBerry 7, allowing users to enjoy the full BlackBerry smartphone experience for both work and personal purposes without compromising the IT department’s need for advanced security and IT controls. The popular universal search capability has also been enhanced with support for voice-activated search, so users can now simply speak to begin searching their device and the web for information.

Best In Class Communications and Social Experiences
The next generation BlackBerry Curve smartphones deliver the world’s best mobile communications and social experiences with a highly refined and integrated suite of phone, email, messaging and social apps to keep users connected and productive throughout the day.

The latest release of BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger) is pre-loaded and now extends the real time BBM experience to a range of other apps, such as Foursquare, allowing users to easily interact with each other from within the ‘BBM connected’ app (see separate announcement on July 28, 2011).

The updated Social Feeds (2.0) app has been extended to capture updates from media, podcasts, and favorites all in one consolidated view. The new Facebook® for BlackBerry smartphones (2.0) app introduces features like Facebook chat and BBM integration that makes it easier for users to connect with their Facebook friends in real time utilizing push notifications. Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones also delivers a deeply integrated experience including use of real time push notifications and Social Feeds integration.

Availability
The BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 smartphones are expected to be available from carriers in Canada this month and from other carriers around the world beginning in September. Availability dates and pricing for specific devices from specific carriers will be announced in conjunction with RIM’s partners.

[via BGR]

The free smartphones are the Droid Incredible, LG Ally, and LG Vortex from Verizon. While AT&T is offering the HTC Aria or the Sony Xperia Mobile Phone which comes in black and silver color. Following by, the LG Optimus S, Sanyo Zio, and the Blackberry Curve offered by Sprint. Lastly, T-Mobile will offer the LG Optimus T in burgundy and titanium. All of them are available for a new contract or upgrade with two years contract. There will be free smartphone that they offered every Friday during this holiday shopping season.

[via SlashGear]

This Friday Best Buy is starting off the Free Phone Fridays promotion with the four different phones which are Samsung Fascinate (Verizon), BlackBerry Curve (Sprint), HTC Aria (AT&T), Samsung Gravity 3 (T-Mobile). Fortunately, each week Best Buy will have at least one high-end and most-wanted smart phone. A great deal for those who wants high-ends phone.

“We are seeing an amazing amount of curiosity and demand for mobile phones right now, especially smart phones, and we want to give consumers another reason to visit Best Buy Mobile in October,” said Scott Anderson, the head of merchandising for Best Buy Mobile. “While we already offer a number of free mobile phone options for our customers every day of the year, launching ‘Free Phone Fridays’ with a great smart phone like the Samsung Fascinate shows that Best Buy Mobile is serious and committed to bringing the best mobile technology and best deals to our customers.”

[via AndroidCommunity]

Many are questioning about the Curve 3G existence but isn’t this just the same case as iPhone 3G? Surely, iPhone know that they will have to release iPhone 4G sooner or later but they still push the iPhone 3G because they sure know that the device is popular enough to attract many customers attention. This is just the same case, the Curve is pretty popular device. Many BlackBerry users are interested in this device no matter what people said.

[via BGR]

“The majority of people in the worldwide mobile phone market have yet to buy their first smartphone and the BlackBerry Curve 3G is designed to provide an extremely attractive and accessible choice that will help convince many of them to make the leap,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The new BlackBerry Curve 3G is a perfect choice for happily busy people who are looking for a user-friendly 3G smartphone to help them make the most of their day and to stay connected with their friends, family and co-workers.”

The BlackBerry Curve 3G ships with BlackBerry 5 and is BlackBerry 6 ready. BlackBerry 6 is a new operating system for BlackBerry smartphones that was announced last week. BlackBerry 6 is expected to be available for the BlackBerry Curve 3G, subject to carrier certifications, in the coming months.

The new BlackBerry Curve 3G smartphone (model 9300) will be available from various carriers and distribution partners around the world beginning in August.

Sure, this could be some old marketing being used, and the actual device that launches may indeed have the optical trackpad, but we’ll go ahead and say it: we doubt it. Specifications wise, the 8910 launching for CM is looking very similar to the original Curve 8900. It will run BlackBerry OS 5, has a 3.2MP camera on the back, but there’s no WiFi. Additionally, it apparently features something called Evolved-EDGE, which is apparently designed to squeeze as much speed as technologically possible from a 2G connection.

We’re not saying that this is the device you should run to China to grab up, but at least it’s not absolutely terrible, either. Then again, we don’t imagine that this is going to fly off the shelves. There’s no word on pricing or availability it seems, but we’re sure that that will come sooner than later.

[via BerryTimes]

Like, for example, why on Earth is the 9300 only getting 256MB of on board memory? Newer BlackBerry devices are getting 512MB, and considering the 9300 is rumored to come out in several months from now, we’re hoping this changes between now and then. Additionally, why’s this one only showing BlackBerry OS 5, when other leaked devices like the 9800 and 9670 are running OS 6 already? We’re thinking that perhaps these pictures were taken awhile ago, and they’re just now beginning to make their online appearance. Either that, or the device is still well into its testing phase, and none of these things we just mentioned are finalized in any way shape or form.

In any event, the 9300 is the obvious next step in the Curve line-up of devices. It features the optical trackpad, and it’s definitely going to ship with WiFi b/g/n, as well as 3G for whatever carrier it launches on. Much like CrackBerry (who received the images in their tip line today), we believe the 9300 is going to be the GSM variant, while the 9330 will probably be the CDMA-based models released some time later this year. No word on pricing, or any kind of availability, but hopefully that will fall into place here soon.

[via CrackBerry]

Key features:

• full QWERTY keyboard and touch-sensitive trackpad for reliable, responsive typing and navigation
• 256 MB flash memory and 528 MHz next generation processor for enhanced performance
• Supports voice-activated dialing and Bluetooth® (version 2.1), with support for hands-free headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals
• 3G-enabled (EV-DO)
• Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• GPS with support for location-based applications, including geotagging pictures and Verizon Wireless’ VZ Navigator(SM) service
• 2.0 megapixel digital camera with zoom and video recording
• microSD/SDHC memory card slot

Other than the usual BlackBerry emailing features, the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 also comes with a 2 megapixel camera, built in bluetooth, WiFi, microSDHC card slot and 256MB built in memory. For those business users who love music, the 8520 curve’s 3.5 mm headphone jack and music player shortcut keys on top will let you enjoy the music listening easily.

BlackBerry Curve 8520 specifications:

• Size: 109 x 60 x 13.90 mm
• Weight: 106 g
• Memory: 256 MB internal flash memory
• Expandable Memory Hot swappable micro SD
• Battery: 1150 mAh removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell
• Battery Life: 4.5 hours talk and 17 days standby time12
• Navigation Trackpad – Located on front face of device,
• Display: 320 x 240 pixel color display, transmissive TFT LCD, supports over 65,536 colors 2.46″
• Camera: 2 megapixel camera
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g enabled
• Bluetooth Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Micro USB port
• Network Quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS networks
• Quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz EDGE networks

[via slashgear]

check out more photos at next page

The BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone is availablefor as low as $149.99 with a two-year service agreement.

[via BGR]