AT&T took some time this morning to announce the BlackBerry Curve 8520 is coming soon. The Curve 8520 is the entry level BlackBerry, featuring optical trackpad, Wi-Fi, GPS, along with dedicated music keys, and a 2.0 megapixel camera, without flash. The Curve 8520 is expected to launch in the “coming weeks” for $99.99 with two year term. Keep an eye on AT&T’s website for availability. Skip on over for the full press release from AT&T…

Press Release:

New BlackBerry Curve 8520 Joins AT&T Smartphone Lineup

AT&T’s Great-Value Smartphone Features Global Access, Slick Design, Robust Capability, Trackpad, Media Keys for Easy Access to Music and Entertainment, Preloaded Facebook and Myspace

Dallas, Texas, November 16, 2009

AT&T*, the choice for twice as many smartphone customers than any other carrier and the first U.S. carrier to offer BlackBerry^® service, announced today it will introduce the best value in its BlackBerry smartphone portfolio with the addition of the BlackBerry^®Curve™ 8520 from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX:RIM).The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a stylish, easy-to-use, compact smartphone offering the best value for consumer and business customers looking for BlackBerry service. The smartphone features a full QWERTY keyboard and touch-sensitive trackpad for easy typing and navigation, built-in Wi-Fi^® and an advanced media player, plus dedicated media keys, smoothly integrated along the top of the handset, for a convenient way to control music and videos. The handset also provides global connectivity via phone, email, text, IM, picture messaging and social networking, with Facebook^®and My Space applications preloaded.

The sleek, new device houses a high-resolution 320×240 display a 512 MHz processor, 256 MB of Flash memory, and a 2 megapixel camera equipped with video recording.

“AT&T was the first choice for BlackBerry in the U.S. and we continue to expand our offering of BlackBerry products to suit the different needs of business and personal users,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “The BlackBerry Curve 8520 offers the best value by combining the essential features of a BlackBerry smartphone with access to AT&T’s network, which includes best coverage worldwide, as well as the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network.”

AT&T users of the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 can enjoy access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network with more than 20,000 U.S. hotspots — including approximately 7,000 Starbucks locations. As with all other Wi-Fi enabled BlackBerry smartphones from AT&T, BlackBerry Curve 8520 users with a qualifying data plan, which includes all consumer BlackBerry unlimited data plans, get seamless and unlimited access to these domestic hotspots at no additional cost. When traveling outside the U.S., BlackBerry Curve 8520 users can enjoy the best coverage worldwide with wireless voice coverage in more than 215 countries and wireless data coverage in more than 185 countries.

Mobile users will enjoy great battery life, simultaneous voice and data capabilities when using Wi-Fi, and the ability to access up to 10 corporate and personal email accounts whether they are corporate or personal accounts. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 also affords users the ability to edit Microsoft^® Word, Excel^® and PowerPoint^® files with DataViz^®Documents to Go^®suite.

“The new BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a great choice for first-time smartphone users and offers easy-to-use messaging, social networking and multimedia features with a full-QWERTY keyboard that makes typing fast and comfortable,” said Carlo Chiarello, vice president, product management, Research In Motion.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone will be available in the coming weeks for $99.99 after mail-in rebate. (Pay $199.99 and receive $100 AT&T Promotion Card. 2-year agreement on a min. $69.99 plan required.) AT&T smartphones require the purchase of a monthly data plan. Other monthly charges apply. See below.^†

For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.

† AT&T Wireless imposes: a Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge of up to $1.25 to help defray costs incurred in complying with obligations and charges imposed by State and Federal telecom regulations; State and Federal Universal Service charges; and surcharges for government assessments on AT&T. These fees are not taxes or government-required charges.

¹ Smartphone customer satisfaction claim based on independent survey data from Nielsen² Coverage not available in all areas. Other terms and conditions apply.³ Video recording requires microSD memory card, sold separately.⁴ International roaming: Special credit & tenure restrictions & add’l charges may apply. Calling to & from certain countries may be blocked & change without notice. See wireless.att.com/learn/international/ for updated countries, rates, charges & full terms & conditions. International Dialing: Airtime or roaming charges are in addition to long distance charges. International Roaming: Requires compatible device. Avail, quality of coverage & svcs while roaming are not guaranteed.⁵ Nation’s largest Wi-fi network based on non-municipal company and owned and operated hotspots and an 802.11 b/g enabled device.⁶ AT&T Promotion Card: Price before AT&T Promotion Card & with 2 year contract is $199.99. Allow 60 days for fulfillment. Card valid for 120 days wherever major credit cards accepted. May be used to pay wireless bill. Not redeemable for cash and cannot be used at ATMs or gas pumps. Some restrictions and other charges apply. See terms at store or at att.com/wirelessrebate. You must be customer for 30 consecutive days to receive Promotion Card. Offer expires Dec. 25, 2009. Sales tax calculated based on price of unactivated equipment.Limited-time offer. Other conditions and restrictions apply. See contract and rate plan brochure for details. Subscriber must live and have a mailing address within AT&T’s owned wireless network coverage area. Up to $36 activation fee applies. Equipment price and availability may vary by market and may not be available from independent retailers. Early Termination Fee: None if cancelled in the first 30 days but up to $35 restocking fee may apply to equipment returns; thereafter up to $175. Some agents impose additional fees. Unlimited voice services: Unlimited voice services are provided primarily for live dialog between two individuals. No additional discounts are available with unlimited plan. Offnet Usage: If customer’s minutes of use (including unlimited services) on other carrier’s networks (“offnet usage”) during any two consecutive months, or customer’s data use during any month, exceeds customer’s offnet usage allowance, AT&T may at its option terminate customer’s service, deny customer’s continued use of other carriers’ coverage, or change customer’s plan to one imposing usage charges for offnet usage. Customer’s offnet usage allowance is equal to the lesser of 750 minutes or 40% of the Anytime minutes included with the plan (data offnet usage allowance is the lesser of 24 MB or 20% of the KB included with customer’s plan).

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest 3G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet and voice services. AT&T offers the best wireless coverage worldwide, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verseSM and AT&T | DIRECTVSM brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T’s Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations are known for their leadership in directory publishing and advertising sales. In 2009, AT&T again ranked No. 1 in the telecommunications industry on FORTUNE® magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATTNews. Find us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ATT to discover more about our consumer and wireless services or at www.facebook.com/ATTSmallBiz to discover more about our small business services.

© 2009 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. 3G service not available in all areas. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. RIM assumes no obligations or liability and makes no representation, warranty, endorsement or guarantee in relation to any aspect of any third party products or services. Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

[via CrackBerry]

Looks like AT&T may be getting ready to launch a white colored BlackBerry Curve 8900 soon. This is the first we’ve heard or seen of a White 8900, but it would only make sense. A new tip received over at BGR shows the White 8900 in an AT&T advertisement. The tipster didn’t have any release dates, or pricing, but I’m sure we can except it to launch soon. So question for you the readers… What do you think of the new White BlackBerry models? First the Bold, now the Curve.

New pictures have surfaced over at CB Forums of the un-announced BlackBerry Onyx/Bold/9700. Here is some fresh pictures that show off the 9700’s beautiful body with leather battery door, Bold branding, and trackpad. According to the ninja who leaked the pictures the device is in field training at AT&T, meaning it could launch almost anytime. If you want to head over and check out the discussion at CrackBerry Forums click here.

One of Boy Genius’ trusty ninjas has provided details about a couple upcoming devices for AT&T, one of them being the un-annonced BlackBerry 9700. Apparently this device could hit AT&T almost anytime, and is un-officially officially confirmed. Boy Genius doesn’t have a whole lot of details at this time, but its now believed the BlackBerry 9700 is in fact the Onyx, and should launch of Bold 9700. Details are still very sketchy right now, but we hope to get more really soon. So for now sit back and wait…

The Research and Consulting firm, IDC, listed the top-selling smartphone models in the US. It lists vendor sales to carriers and channels as well. So far it’s going on preliminary data. The actual numbers won’t be available till the end of the month. So let’s see what the firm says so far.

No 10 is the HTC Touch from Sprint, Nextel, and Verizon Wireless.

No 9 is the HTC Touch Pro from Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and others.

No 8 is the Palm Pre from Sprint.

No 7 is the T-Mobile G1 by HTC from T-Mobile USA.

No 6 is the Research In Motion BlackBerry Storm from Verizon Wireless.

No 5 is the Research In Motion BlackBerry Bold from AT&T.

No 4 is the Apple iPhone 3G (both versions) from AT&T.

No 3 is the Research In Motion BlackBerry Pearl (all 81xx series, excluding the Flip) from AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and others.

No 2 is the Apple iPhone 3GS (both versions) from AT&T.

No 1 is the Research In Motion BlackBerry Curve (83xx series and 8900) from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and others.

So what does that say? Research In Motion rules the smartphone world, and the BlackBerry Curve is still holding the number one position. I’m not surprised, though I’m very curious to see how the numbers change with the BlackBerry Tour 9630 entering the smartphone scene. I really like the Tour, it’s been very reliable, and I’m curious to see if it will rise to the top or come pretty close.

Anyone have any thoughts to share?

[via: FierceWireless]

I somehow missed this story on the weekend. Boy Genius is reporting that the BlackBerry Storm 2 will be modeled 9550, and will be heading towards Verizon, Vodafone, Bell and Telus. The new Storm 2 is said to bring RIM’s next generation “SurePress” touchscreen with CDMA/Rev. A radio, Quad-band GSM, HSDPA, plus Wi-Fi, GPS, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. It’s going to be a feature packed device sporting OS 5.0 and a high resolution 360×480 display. But wait there’s more! Boy Genius is reporting that the North American GSM model (9520) will be part of the Storm 2 family, and make its way to AT&T and Rogers with a 3G radio. Both models (9550 and 9520) should be heading across the World later this year.

Specs on the Storm 2 “9550″:

• CDMA 1xRTT/EVDO Rev. A
• Quad-band GSM/EDGE
• Single-band UMTS/HSDPA (2100MHz only)
• Wi-Fi b,g
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• 360�480 resolution capacitive screen
• OS 5.0

What do you think? Will you try out the Storm 2, after the mixed reviews on the orginal Storm?

Engadget got a hold of supposedly a leaked presentation showing off some upcoming BlackBerry devices. This presentation shows the highly rumored BlackBerry Magnum, Onyx, Pearl 3G and Gemini are all heading to AT&T this year. Now I’m not to sure if these slides are official or not. If AT&T did make these they should really look at how to properly type BlackBerry (not Blackberry). You can check out the slides below and here is a recap of the specs:

• BlackBerry Magnum: Full QWERTY keyboard with touchscreen, Optical trackpad, 3G UMTS, HSDPA, Quadband GSM, Wi-Fi, GPS and HVGA display.
• BlackBerry Oynx: 3G UMTS, HSDPA, Quadband GSM, HVGA Display with 480×360 resolution, trackball navigation, 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, GPS and Wi-Fi.
• BlackBerry Pearl “Next Generation 3G Model”: 3G, UMTS, HSDPA, Quadband GSM, Suretype keyboard, trackball navigation and aGPS. No sign of Wi-Fi…
• BlackBerry Gemini: Quadband GSM, QWERTY keyboard, Trackball (?) navigation, 2.0 megapixel camera with no flash, and media keys.

[Source]

Gosh it seems like forever (October 08′) since we first saw Gizmodo’s photo of an AT&T branded Curve 8900. Tons of rumors later AT&T officially announced the release of the new Curve. According to them it will launch this Friday (May 22nd) for $199 with two year term. Keep your eyes peeled to AT&T’s website for the official launch. Any AT&T customers out there finally happy to be getting a piece of the “Javelin” action??

[via Engadget]

BGR just got word from his ninjas that AT&T will finally be releasing the long awaited BlackBerry Curve 8900 this June! This is good news for anyone waiting to replace their Curve, however lets forget about the Curve 8900 and hope for a Gemini varriant. Any who no word on pricing yet for the Curve 8900 but the tipster says it should be available this June. Stay tuned for more info…

Any AT&T’ers out there waiting for the Curve 8900??