*UPDATE* Everyone that has replied to my email should be getting their Slacker account upgraded within a week.

Big thanks to Slacker Inc and to everyone who participated in this giveaway.

Here are the winners of 1 free month of Slacker Radio Plus:

• Joe
• RayG
• coldcc
• Ray
• Omie
• Phil
• David
• Adam

Congrats! Winners should expect an email from me shortly to confirm their Slacker account email address.

Some highlights from the press release:

• Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that the new BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 smartphone, the thinnest and lightest full-QWERTY BlackBerry® smartphone to date, is available in Hong Kong.
• With an expansive multimedia feature-set, as well as advanced phone, email, messaging, organizer and web browser applications, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone makes it incredibly easy to connect with family, friends and co-workers, surf the net, take and view pictures, record* and watch video and listen to music.
• The BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone will be available from 3 Hong Kong, China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited (PEOPLES), CSL and SmarTone-Vodafone from mid February. For more information on pricing and detailed service plans, please contact the respective carriers.

Read the full press release after the jump.

CONTINUE READING »

By Judy Mottl:

Research in Motion (RIM) is moving to retain its already dominant hold on the enterprise mobility market, readying a new version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server that promises to reduce IT costs and labor.

RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) plans the new BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 (BES) to ship during second quarter with a host of new management capabilities. Those include over-the-air device activation, downtime scheduling and simpler role administration, according to a presentation detailing the launch. RIM spokespeople were not available to comment further on the release by press time.

RIM’s news comes at a time when the BlackBerry maker is feeling the effects of slowing IT spending. The company said yesterday that it’s business customers are holding off on upgrades — a fact that it expects to negatively impact its next quarterly results.

But as corporate layoffs and budget slashing — especially within RIM’s large customer base of financial companies — is impacting tech spending, enterprises are looking for more cost-efficient tools and technologies.

Read more @ InternetNews.com

Engadget was able to get a leaked flyer showing the white Verizon BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230.

The last device on the flyer, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230, is the CDMA version of Flip 8220, and is expected to come with a nice range of features similar to those of the GSM variant. Among the specs of the handset we should see Wi-Fi support, EDGE data and a 2-megapixel camera. Details on availability or price haven’t been unveiled here either.

With the Bold, Storm and now the Curve 8900 available, who is still going to get the Pearl Flip 8230? I guess it depends on the kind of form factor you prefer.

|Engadget via Softpedia|

Ketanitem created two new themes for the BlackBerry Curve 8900.

The first one is a new style called “J theme” and the second is a “reverse L” theme. They look pretty good!

Download OTA:

• J theme (8900)
• Reverse L theme (8900)

I haven’t had a BIS connection for about an hour. Apparently it isn’t just happening to me though. A few others let me know through Twitter that they are also experiencing data outages ranging from lack of BBM, no email reconciliation, and no internet browsing.

Here is what I found over at DataOutages.com:

From: BlackBerry Network Notifications [mailto:notifications at blackberry.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 2:27 PM
To: [email address]
Subject: BB113722 (New) S3 Severity Incident for BlackBerry PIN to PIN
service for subscribers of *The Americas Network (MULT)

Impact: BlackBerry subscribers may experience delays in receiving PIN
messages and may receive an “x” when sending PIN messages. [0744]

Ticket Number: BB113722

Incident Window Start Date and Time: 12 February 2009 13:26:24 (EST).
Duration: Ongoing

The BlackBerry Support team is working toward resolution as quickly as
possible. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your
patience during this time.

EST = GMT – 5 hours
EDT = GMT – 4 hours
AEST = GMT + 10 hours

International issue,happening only in the americas at this point.

Even though it says it is a pin to pin issue it could still be related. I get emails from time to time but my BBM is super slow and web browsing is dead.

Anyone else having issues?

Poynt is now available as a free download for the BlackBerry Storm.

Features:

• Cellsite locates – Cellsite locates allow Poynt to quickly access a user’s general location while awaiting a GPS lock.
• GPS – the GPS functionality has been optimized to provide faster accurate locates. Poynt for the BlackBerry Storm smartphone also provides GPS access to users on the Verizon network.
• Enhanced User Interface – Poynt’s UI was developed specifically for the BlackBerry Storm to provide users with a true touch-screen experience.
• Mapping Integration – Poynt is fully integrated with both BlackBerry® Maps and Google Maps, with turn-by-turn directions provided through Google Maps.
• Address Book Integration – Users can add frequently accessed listings to their BlackBerry® Address Book, providing convenience for future lookups.
• Share Search Results – Integration with BlackBerry® Email allows users to easily share listings with friends and colleagues.
• Movie Module – Users can plan their night at the movies by seeing what is playing  near them, watching trailers, viewing showtimes, reading reviews, cast and  synopsis, and purchasing tickets.
• Theater Details – Users can get information on seating layouts, wheelchair  accessibility and number of screens.
• Add to Calendar Option – Users have the ability to add movie search results to their BlackBerry® Calendar by date and showtime, as well as invite friends to join them. Ticket purchase links are also included.

Talk about fully loaded. According to BlackBerry News, this version of Poynt is a rebuild which will be ported to other devices within the next few weeks.

• Download OTA: http://m.mypoynt.com/
• Info: http://mypoynt.com/index.cfm

Before today I couldn’t find a single theme for my BlackBerry Curve 8900…now I can’t keep up with them!

Themes4BB has a bunch of new themes for both the BlackBerry Storm and Curve 8900.

Here are a few:

• Bluewood Crossbar (8900)
• Pattern Today+ (8900)

• Scarface Bottom dock (Storm)
• Superman Bottom dock (Storm)

Awesome themes! Keep rolling them out theme devs .

Just wanted to remind everyone that navigating through the BlackBerry Rocks! site is pretty easy.

You can search for posts by BlackBerry model and by carrier, or just look through the category pages.

All posts are put into specific categories so it is easy to find what you are looking for. If you are looking for games you would check out Apps & Games, or for themes Themes & Wallpapers, and so on.

If you want to find something quickly you can search for it with the search box in the sidebar to the right. You can also subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter.

Suggestions are welcome and can be sent to me through the contact form. If you are a company that is interested in advertising on BlackBerry Rocks! you can check out the advertising page.

Some awesome themes have been popping up all day today for both the BlackBerry Storm and the BlackBerry Curve 8900. Here are a few more for the Curve 8900 from PimpMyBerry.

• iPrecision Today+
• Tiny Precision (download link coming soon)