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Fresh off our video review of the BlackBerry Storm we were sent this lovely image of an in-store advertisement for the upcoming Bell launch of the Storm. It is nothing special but to date their has been no Bell advertising of RIM’s first touchscreen.

The poster only says it should ask the Bell representative for more details, no dates or anything. From what we hear the launch will either be December 12th or 15th with outright pricing to be around $700. In addition, the Bell employees will be wearing a lanyard with a picture of the Storm.

In the meantime you can watch the promo video by RIM & Bell here on the BlackBerry Storm.

More info soon.

BCE announced today they do not expect to meet a December 11th deadline for its privatization buyout by the Ontarioi Teacher’s Pension Plan. In a statement Bell said ” the company has received a preliminary view from KPMG that, based on current market conditions, its analysis to date and the amount of indebtedness involved in the LBO (Leveraged Buy-Out) financing , it does not expect to be in a position to  deliver on the scheduled effective date of BCE’s privatization, December 11, 2008, an opinion that BCE would meet the solvency tests as defined in the definitive agreement, as amended. The receipt at the effective time of a positive solvency opinion is a condition to the closing of the transaction.” More here

Tivo officially launched a beta version of its mobile website at m.tivo.com. If you own a Series2 or Series3 box you can now search programming content from any mobile browser by titles, actor name, director name, category or keywords.

Some updates regarding a few rumours about Rogers and Fido. BGR reports the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (aka Javelin) will be launching January 2009 with Rogers for $149.99 on a 3-year contract. In addition, a pink BlackBerry Bold (?) is on the horizon.

Fido seems to be hopping on the BlackBerry bus and will be offering the BlackBerry Pearl 8120, target launch date is for the second week of December. This will be available in Oyster Pinkand Grey. In Q1 2009 Fido will be launching the BlackBerry 8220 Pearl Flip for around $50 on a 2-year contract.

7Eleven (Speak Out Wireless) is set to release a new cost effective phone to its line-up. The classic Nokia 1680 will be available for $89 and this comes wtih 20 minutes of startup time. With all Speak Out phones they come with  free Voice Mail, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Three-Way Calling. The Nokia 1680 comes with a colour screen, FM Radio and VGA Camera. More here

Pricing for the Bell BlackBerry Storm has found its way online via Bell Dealer Baka Wireless. Looks like we’re going see the prices come in somewhere around 3-year contract for $479.95, 2-year for $529.95, 1-year contract for $629.95 and the 30-day holiday price at a low cost $699.95. 

The BlackBerry Storm 9530 will be released very soon from TELUS. The first touchscreeen by RIM is an incredible starting point and while playing around with this beast we found it incredibly easy to use.

In our first review we took a general overview of the device – everything from the 3.25 inch HGVA display (480×360), the cut and paste features, the 3.2 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus)… all the way to the fast browser and dominant media features. This certainly has it all, plus the assurance of its e-mail backed by BlackBerry.

The keyboard can either be used portrait (20 key SureType keyboard which I’m not a fan of), or landscape with its full QWERTY keyboard. The touchscreen features are well designed as you actually have to click the letters or numbers you want so it still feels like the BlackBerry with physical keys. . I actually like this feature compared to other touchscreen devices as you will not hit a key by accident. The cut and paste feature is simple to you by simply highlighting the areas you want and with a couple clicks you are into typing your message. Other cool additions are when you hold your finger over a message it searches your inbox for similar messages and groups them together.

The weight is at 155 grams and feels good in the hand. It comes with 1 GB internal memory and can pack in another 8 GB which TELUS is throwing in when they officially launch.

The browser is a full HTML browser and we tested our site and a heavier site (CNN.com) and the speed was impressive and showed the pages as if they would on your computer at home/work. All you have to do to zoom in is click the screen, or use the magnifying glass shortcut on the menu bar.

There is only one key are that I saw that was questionable: Since you have to physically tap the screen continually it will be interesting to see how long until the mechanism gives. Also, if you are putting this in your pockets all the time I’m positive dust will gather between the keys and make them unresponsive at times.  This of course is too early to tell.

Overall, in our first review there is not much that we can say needs improving. The speed was good, accelerometer was responsive, music was loud (comes with a 3.5 mm headphone jack), the pictures were good quality and the device as a whole was solid.

We’ll follow-up with our second review shortly. Enjoy the video:

Toronto-based Viigo has partnered with Cellular South and has made it possible for their customers who have a BlackBerry, HTC Touch and Motorola Q9 to access real-time news, weather, sports, travel, stock market results, entertainment, blogs and more from over 5,000 websites for free. More here at Viigo

We think having a touchscreen display of 3.5 inches is cool. Well, check out the video below and see what Samsung is up to.

At the FDP International Show in Japan Samsung showcased an early prototype of a full colour flexible OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display for your cellphone… they’ve created a flip phone of sorts that opens like a book and essentially doubles your screen size. Plans are to make this commercial sometime, rumours are within 3 years.

Watch the video here:

Now that winter season is upon us you will most likely need to check the forecast on a regular basis. The Weather Network have enhanced their WeatherEye app for the iPhone (and iPod touch). The app now reports short-term and long-term weather forecasts and weather warnings for over 5,000 Canadian cities.