We first saw a mock up of the BlackBerry London a couple months ago. London is the code-name for the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, which is expected to launch later this year. Now curiosity of CrackBerry, a new image of BlackBerry London has leaked out, and it appears to be right from an internal presentation. As you can see the latest version of London looks like a BlackBerry PlayBook and phone all-in-one. Some are even saying it looks a lot like the Android powered Motorola Droid X. There wasn’t too many details to go along with the slide, but rumors are pointing to powerful 1.5GHz dual core processors, powered by TI (for HSPA/LTE) and Qualcomm (for CDMA). Sadly it looks like we’ve got quiet the wait ahead of us before the BlackBerry 10 smartphones launch. With any luck a live hands-on photo will arrive sooner than later… Stay tuned.

Here is a very interesting BlackBerry 10 rumor for the day. According to Jefferies & Co.’s analyst, Peter Misek, RIM might be looking at licensing the BlackBerry 10 OS to smartphone manufactures such as Samsung or HTC. Here is what Misek had to say:

We think some of this has already been started with RIM likely agreeing to license Blackberry 10 to Samsung, HTC, and possibly others.This would help create a critical mass for the ecosystem and maintain RIM’s monthly service revenue; however, it puts more pressure on the hardware business in the short term. Longer term, it possibly gets people hooked on the RIM ecosystem and may in fact allow them to sell more BB 10 handsets (if they are able to create compelling handsets)

If true, this would certainly be an interesting decision for RIM, but is it enough to bring them back? That is the question. I just do not think that HTC, Samsung, or even LG could make a physical keyboard like RIM could.

[via TechnoBuffalo]

* Above is a mock of a Samsung Galaxy Glide with PlayBook OS.

You know I’m getting really sick of writing negative news surrounding RIM. BGR published a post earlier today that one of their sources at RIM says BlackBerry 10 is already a fail, and won’t be able to compete with compete with iOS and/or Android, at all. The post also goes on to say that RIM’s co-CEO lied during the Earnings Call last week, when talking about BlackBerry 10 smartphones and the reason why they won’t launch until mid-2012. According to Mike Lazaridis, RIM wouldn’t be launching them until the LTE chipsets are available. The source claims that RIM just doesn’t have a working BlackBerry 10 smartphone yet, and they need more time to get it right.

Here’s a paragraph from the BGR story (link):

Our source has communicated to us in no uncertain terms that the PlayBook 2.0 OS developers have been testing is a crystal clear window into the current state of BlackBerry 10 on smartphones. No email, no BlackBerry Messenger — it’s almost identical. “Email and PIM [is better] on an 8700 than it is on BlackBerry 10,” our contact said while talking to us about RIM’s failure to make the company’s new OS work with the network infrastructure RIM is known for.

Then only a couple hours later, RIM actually responded to CrackBerry’s inquiry about the story with this statement (link):

“RIM made a strategic decision to launch BlackBerry 10 devices with a new, LTE-based dual core chip set architecture. As explained on our earnings call, the broad engineering impact of this decision and certain other factors significantly influenced the anticipated timing for the BlackBerry 10 devices. The anonymous claim suggesting otherwise is inaccurate and uninformed. As RIM has previously explained, and as Mike Lazaridis reiterated on the earnings call, we will not launch BlackBerry 10 devices until we know they are ready and we believe this new chip set architecture is required to deliver the world class user experience that our customers will expect. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false. We appreciate the interest in our future platform and we will continue to work hard to deliver that platform as soon as possible. At the same time, we also remain very excited with the success of our recently launched BlackBerry 7 smartphones and we believe these products offer a very compelling choice for both new customers and the almost 75 million BlackBerry users around the world.” 

So what do you make of the news today? Do you believe that RIM is really sucking that bad, or is it just blown way out of proportion? If you would like to read another view of all this news, check out Luis over at BerryReview, he laid it all out quiet well.

During RIM’s earnings call yesterday, a big bomb was dropped when the two CEO’s announced that the first BlackBerry 10 (formally BBX) smartphone won’t launch until mid-2012. While we had always hoped for an early launch in the beginning of next year, RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said they are waiting for a certain chipset for their BB10 smartphone, that will allow LTE, efficiency and battery. It is rumored that RIM will launch 5 new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, but it looks like we’re all stuck with BlackBerry 7 smartphones until Mid-2012…

Now that the BBX name has come and gone we have to get use to typing BlackBerry 10. CrackBerry has gotten their hands on the first images of the BlackBerry code-named “Milan” which is a Torch-like BB10 smartphone. As you can see it’s a portrait slider smartphone, which closely resembles the Torch 9800/9810. The Milan also features a similar design to the London, which leaked out a couple weeks ago. It’s also rumored that the future BB10 smartphones will have a higher pixel density than the iPhone 4′s retina display, which could make for some stunning displays. Unfortuntely no news of actual specs for Milan has been posted as of yet. Now all we can hope for is an actual live shot of this handset. Stay tuned!

Oh RIM you need to smarten up. RIM has just announced via Twitter that the original BBX name, which was given for the next-generation platform, has been renamed to BlackBerry 10. Why you ask? Why 10? Well we aren’t sure. RIM had issues the BBX trademark from day one, and for some reason didn’t secure it before announcing the name to the public. RIM has announced at BlackBerry DevCon Asia that BBX will now be called BlackBerry 10. It will be very interesting to see where BlackBerry 8 and 9 come into play. If we had to guess OS 7.1 will become BlackBerry 8, and 9 hopefully will just get skipped. What are your thoughts on the name change? We’re not impressed here at BBSync.

Via N4BB

Remember that device we talked about a couple weeks ago called BlackBerry London? Well new rumors floating around the internet say that RIM might be looking to brand their first BBX superphone “Surfboard”. Of course these are just rumors, and we will have to take them with a huge grain of salt, until the official unveiling in 2012. What’s also interesting is that RIM has been in fact sitting on the Surfboard trademark since July 2010, Personally I thought there was rumors of RIM calling the PlayBook the Surfboard back in the day. I guess we will have to wait until sometime next year to find out what RIM has up their sleeves.

[via BlackBerry OS]

Could it be? Is this a BlackBerry BBX OS powered superphone? RIM’s new BBX operating system is set to be unveiled sometime next year, with their new Superphones being available publicly mid-2012. The Verge is reporting that this could in fact be the first live shots of a BBX smartphone, which will be powered by a TI OMAP dual-core processor clocked to 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 8.0 megapixel rear camera, and a 2.0 megapixel front-facing camera. This superphone is code-named “London” and is thinner than the iPhone 4, Sadly The Verge wasn’t able to confirm if the “London” was an actual running unit or simply a dummy device. BGR has also chimed in on the device saying it is in fact real, and that RIM has decided to scrap the long-rumored BlackBerry Colt in favor of the London, and they say we won’t see it until Q3 2012. Eek. More on that when we get it…

Usually when we see BlackBerry models leak online they have weird code-names like Knight or Onyx. However the FCC has just released documents for a BlackBerry model REA71UW. While this doesn’t mean much to us, we would guess its going to be the new BlackBerry Bold 9790. This device sports the correct 3G bands for AT&T, therefore it would only make sense that this would be the Bold 9790, which was rumored to launch later this month. I think it’s safe to say we will see an official announcement from RIM within the weeks. Stay tuned.

via Engadget

The BlackBerry 9980 (aka Knight) is one of the curious BlackBerry smartphones at the year. While many thought the device was a fake, it seems that it is real and it is coming very soon. The BlackBerry Knight is a collaboration with design inputs taken from Porsche. The BlackBerry 9980 is expected to be unveiled on October 27th in Dubai. Rumors indicate that this BlackBerry will not be available to the average consumer, and will be available exclusively for Porsche owners. I guess we will have to wait a few more days before we know the exact details of this interesting device.

[via N4BB]