The Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog
Remember the BlackBerry Thunder? That’s what we used to call the BlackBerry Storm before we found out that it was going to be called the BlackBerry Storm. Well, it would appear that the BlackBerry Thunder has reemerged in Verizon’s system. Our guess is that someone at Verizon is just having a little fun with the place holder for the BlackBerry Storm 2.
[Via CrackBerry.com]
I don’t think this dude likes it…
So, it looks like the BlackBerry Storm, you know, the touchscreen BlackBerry from Verizon that we thought would be called the BlackBerry Thunder, is really trying to make that October 13th launch that we heard about a few weeks ago.
Engadget mobile has gotten there hands on a Verizon BlackBerry Storm Box template. We can only gather that if boxes for a new BlackBerry are starting to appear on the internet, live pictures of the devices they contain should be soon to follow.
A week ago we heard that the BlackBerry Thunder would be launching October 8th. Needless to say we were a bit skeptical, however, we are now hearing that the BlackBerry Thunder is possibly coming October 13th.
We are still a bit skeptical, but, we should point out the the BG, who is famous for being dead on with his BlackBerry release date leaks, is the one making the October 13th call on the BlackBerry Thunder which according to the product inventory screen cap below, is the BlackBerry 9530.
We’ve talked about Verizon’s Visual Voice Mail when we first heard that it was coming out. Well, for the LG Voyager Refresh, it is here.
Verizon Visual Voice Mail is kind of like that found on the iPhone and will be supported on the BlackBerry Thunder. It allows you to see who left you messages and listen to them in any order. It doesn’t, however, transcribe your voice mail messages and send them to you as emails. For that, I’ll be sticking with PhoneTag…
[Source]
Word on the street is that the Verizon BlackBerry Thunder will launch on October 8th. I am still not completely sold on a BlackBerry with only a touch screen, however, I am so getting one of these when they come out.
I have to say that I am fairly skeptical about the BlackBerry Thunder launching in less than two and a half months. Granted the BlackBerry Bold has been delayed a couple of times however, we’ve seen a lot of press about it and the Bold is prominent on the BlackBerry website. You don’t have to look too hard to find celebrities or even AT&T employees that already have the Bold.
I don’t believe that the BlackBerry Thunder, on the other hand, has even been officially announced. We don’t even know if the device will indeed be called the BlackBerry Thunder. I would be willing to bet that if October 8th is the date that the Thunder will launch we will starting seeing some big announcements coming out of Waterloo in the not too distant future…
Word on the street is that RIM has placed precidence on getting the BlackBerry Thunder launch ready over the the BlackBerry Bold.
BGR, who is usually dead on with BlackBerry release timeframes says that two independent sources have confirmed that RIM will have a huge BlackBerry Thunder Marketing Push in September and release the device in mid-October.
[Source]
Believe if or not , UK based Expansys has made the BlackBerry Thunder available for pre order over on their site. I am not quite sure how much sense this makes seeing how the BlackBerry Thunder hasn’t been officially announced, no date has been set for its release, and we have no idea how much it will cost. Other than BlackBerry 9500, we don’t even know what the device will officially be called.
I initially thought that Expansys was just taking email addresses and would notify you when the BlackBerry Thunder is actually available, however, they really are allowing you to pre order the device taking your credit card number and all.
I can’t imagine why anyone would actually make arrangements to pay for something that they don’t know how much it will cost or when it will be available, however, if you can think of a reason, Expansys is the stop for you.
[Source via CrackBerry.com]
Look what CrackBerry.com found over the weekend… Here are the first shots, that we are aware of, of the BlackBerry Thunder’s virtual keyboard.
We can only hope that RIM pretties these up a bit in future versions.
Even with all the good stuff that we have been hearing about the BlackBerry Thunder, todays update is not so positive.
According to BGR, who has a pretty good track record with these kind of things, not only the is the BlackBerry Thunder not even close to production ready and will be at least 4 or 5 months before it is, most people who have handled it “think that it is a joke”.
Thunder is in no way shape or form market-ready. The keyboard is incredibly annoying to type on, and the screen actually shows ripples even when pressed ever-so-lightly. There is an accelerometer in here, but it goes “bonkers” when the device is moved. In its current state, the UI blinks and lags when you try to scroll, and for every key press, you have to wait half a second until you get a response.
We can only hope that BGR’s source is way off base with this stuff, but, to be honest, they usually aren’t. The BlackBerry Thunder doesn’t have to be a reproduction of the iPhone, however, it can’t suck either. It sounds like RIM has a lot of work still yet to do.