I finally had my meeting with RIM officials today, and they also announced that there was at least one carrier for their new 6170 device -- Rogers AT&T Wireless in Canada.
The new device is available now for Rogers' customers, and will cost about $750 (Canadian), which equates to about $500 U.S.
In addition, I learned that the new device has a swappable battery, so users can buy a spare battery for long trips and swap it out if the battery runs out. This is important, as the BlackBerry handhelds that run off the GSM/GPRS networks have sapped battery life a lot faster than the Mobitex network. With an extra battery, users might be able to go as long on two batteries as they do with the one battery, and get the bonus of being able to make phone calls.
Speaking of phone calls, the integrated speaker/microphone on the device will let users hold the device up to their ear as if it was a regular cell phone. Earlier versions only had the integrated headset jack (the new ones still have it), so if you wanted to use the device as a cell phone you had to dig out your headset, etc.
No official word on availability of the new device in the U.S., but best guesses would be sometime next year.
I also saw a picture (and held in my hand) the new device from Nextel that merges the BlackBerry platform with Nextel's DirectConnect feature (the walkie-talkie button is on the top of the device). Overall the device is a bit smaller than a traditional BlackBerry (the screen seems smaller too), and it looks more like a phone than a BlackBerry (although not too much, as the embedded keyboard is still on it. No official word on that one also, but I would expect to hear something by the end of the year.
Back to Cool ToolsPost a comment
