The little-know BlackBerry Curve 8980 has been revealed by the FCC today. We saw the device a while back with China Mobile branding, but haven’t heard much since then. The Curve 8980 resembles the Bold 9700 from head to toe with the exception of the Curve 8900 keyboard. It sports a 3.2MP camera, quad-band GSM antenna, Wifi b/g/n and looks to be running OS 5. The device has yet to pop up on the radar for any carriers as of yet and with no official announcement it is still unknown if it will land on any North American carriers at this point. What do you think? Would you pick up a non-3G 8980 if it was made available? Sound off in the comments!
Having seen BIS 3.2 released to APAC and EMEA users already, many folks in North America should now be waking up to find that their BlackBerry Internet Services has now been updated as well. Reports from all major carriers indicate that the update went as planned and the new options are now available. Those options include:
Google Calendar Sync – The option to sync your Gmail calendar with your BlackBerry calendar
Automatic Login Enhancement – Username and Password in order to access the BlackBerry Internet Service no longer required when on your BlackBerry
Show and Hide Password Option – Subscribers can choose to show or hide the passwords for all email addresses that need to be validated by clicking the Show password or Hide password options.
New Password Criteria – Newly created passwords for BlackBerry Internet Service accounts and BlackBerry email addresses must meet new criteria.
Must include 8 to 16 characters
Must include at least one letter and one number
Cannot include the word “password”
Cannot include the user name of the BlackBerry Internet Service account or BlackBerry email address that the password is associated with
Some long awaited additions there. Have at it folks and let us know how the calendar sync is working out for you all should you opt to use it. Word is it works with Google Apps as well which is a plus.
As expected, BlackBerry Internet Service 3.2 started rolling out recently, giving BIS customers the option to sync up the Google Calendar items with their BlackBerry native calendars. Unfortunately, that rollout started in the EMEA regions, and may not hit North American shores until October 16, according to rumours.
There are a couple of other features in the BIS 3.2 update, but Google Calendar sync really steals the show, much like the previous BIS upgrades that revolved around syncing cloud data from Windows Live and Yahoo! Carriers being able to initiate BlackBerry Protect actions in BIS 3.2 is a nice touch from the customer service end of things, but that would depend on users having the app installed on their handsets; maybe it’ll be rolled out to customers at the same time. The app is currently listed as coming soon, if you’re interested in getting e-mail notifications for when it’s ready to go.
BerryCN.com, a Chinese web site, shows pictures of the BlackBerry 8980 with the “China Mobile” stamp. Evidently, previous rumors were true and China Mobile got this phone. It is in the testing phase right now. The 8980 will be an EDGE phone only, EDGE or perhaps Evolved-EDGE. It’s unclear whether or not the North American – European Market will see it.
The Blackberry 8980 code name “Atlas” specs are not super impressive but just fine for the Curve line. Also unknown at the moment is if the phone will be compatible with OS 6 as it only comes with 256 MB flash/ 256 MB SDR Ram. The general consensus is…probably not, but that could change as RIM has not revealed what phones, if any, will be able to handle the upgrade.
Night Hawk Computers Blackberry Alliance 