iOS 4.3.3 rumored to be coming within next two weeks with fix for location tracking issue

Apple promised last week that it would address the iPhone tracking issue in a software update in the "next few weeks," and BGR is now reporting that the update is coming within the next two weeks, or "possibly sooner." What's more, the site says that it's actually been sent an early version of the iOS update, and that it does indeed no longer back up the location database to iTunes -- the size of the database is also said to be reduced, and it's apparently deleted altogether when Location Services are turned off. Somewhat notably, BGR says that the update includes some further battery life improvements as well, although it also notes that it hasn't actually tried it out just yet -- it is promising additional details, though.

Samsung stylish slider SGH-T249 to hit in Canada

With a simple, timeless design, the T249 is an affordable, user-friendly, and all-around intuitive phone you can rely on when you need it. With multiple texting options (including picture messaging), a 1.3 MP camera, an MP3 player, games, web browsing and Bluetooth capabilities, this stylish slider phone has everything you need to stay in touch with your closest friends and family

Stylish slider design

With a stylish, yet easy-to-use vertical slider design and a simple, intuitive interface, the T249 is down-to-earth both inside and out. And with picture and ringer caller ID, you’ll see exactly who’s calling straight away.

Multiple messaging capabilities

Whether you want to drop a quick note to a friend or let your family know where you are, the easy to use T9 text messaging system lets you stay in touch with those dearest to you – quickly and easily. And with photo messaging, you can share precious moments with your friends and family right away.

1.3 MP Camera with 4x digital zoom

With a 1.3MP on board, you’ll never miss the chance to capture a special moment. And with 4x digital zoom, you can get even closer to the action.

Preloaded Games

T249 turns free time into fun time because it comes with a selection of games you can play anywhere. You can also download from a selection of arcade classics, casino favourites, puzzle games and more.

Web-enabled

Bring the Web along – in your pocket or bag. Web2go lets you surf the Net, catch breaking news, see sports scores, check the weather forecast, and more on the go.

Looks Like Old BlackBerry Handsets Wont Get BlackBerry OS 7

If you’re rockin’ a BlackBerry Torch, Tour, Bold 2 — or really, anything older than the just—announced Bold 9900 and Bold 9300 — we hope you’re nice and comfortable with BlackBerry OS 6. If we’re catching RIM’s drift here at BlackBerry World correctly, that’s where you’re staying.

From what we’re hearing from RIM, only the 9900, 9300, and any devices released thereafter will tote the brand new OS 7. While such things occasionally change with time (be it through a reversal on the company’s part, or clever finagling by the hacker crowds), anyone looking to heed to OS 7′s siren songs might be looking at an upgrade. You know what time it is.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 hands-on

So we finally got our dirty little hands on RIM's new BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone here at BlackBerry World 2011. It's basically the old Bold but with a capacitive touchscreen and updated innards including a 1.2 GHz CPU, 768 MB of RAM, a GPU , HSPA+, and NFC support. From a design perspective it mixes BlackBerry's traditional formula with iPhone 4-like materials (that familiar stainless steel rim). It certainly looks premium and feels lovely in the hand, and the keyboard is typical BlackBerry -- which is to say fantastic. The screen is beautiful too, perfect to showcase that new BlackBerry 7 OS. Still, we can't help but think that we're looking at the device RIM should have shipped last summer instead of the Torch. We'll have a hands on video up soon but for now take a peek at our gallery below.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 hands-on

RIM Introduces New BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Smartphones

RIM Introduces New BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Smartphones

Research In Motion today unveiled two new BlackBerry Bold smartphones. The high-performance BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature a stunning and iconic design that integrates an incredibly easy-to-use BlackBerry keyboard with a brilliant, high resolution, capacitive touch screen. These exceptional smartphones are built on a new, performance-driven platform powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system and designed to deliver the ultimate in communications, multimedia and productivity for users around the world. 

“The new BlackBerry Bold smartphones and BlackBerry 7 OS are inspired by millions of customers around the world who want the ultimate combination of performance, functionality and style,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “These fully-loaded and beautifully crafted smartphones offer a highly refined user experience with blazingly fast performance, a brilliant touch screen and an outstanding typing experience.”

Thin, Sleek, Iconic Design

Distinguished by an iconic design and the industry’s best keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature the premium materials and finishes that characterize the BlackBerry Bold line. Both models have a lustrous exterior with a brushed stainless steel frame and a high-gloss glass-weave backplate. They are also the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet, at only 10.5mm. The quality materials and optimized design of the new BlackBerry Bold smartphones are instantly evident when held in the hand.

Performance-Driven

These BlackBerry Bold smartphones are built on a new performance-driven platform featuring a 1.2 GHz processor, Liquid Graphics touch screen, and support for high speed 4G/HSPA+ wide area wireless networks.

The Liquid Graphics touch screen, a key new feature powered by BlackBerry 7, delivers fast, smooth performance for highly responsive touch-based navigation, web browsing, pictures, video and graphics intensive games*. Offering up to 60 frames-per-second performance with instant UI action/response, Liquid Graphics gives customers a visually rich and immersive experience that’s responsive to the touch. In addition, the smartphones feature brilliant displays with an eye-popping 287 dpi to deliver crisp, stunning visuals.

The new platform also provides support for 4G networks; the 9900 supports HSPA+ connectivity, and the 9930 supports CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and HSPA+ global roaming on GSM/UMTS networks.

NFC

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones include built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that will enable many rich and exciting experiences. Through NFC, users will be able to, for example, pair the BlackBerry Bold to an accessory or read information such as a web link from smart tags by simply tapping their BlackBerry Bold to an NFC tag (eg. Smart Poster).

Augmented Reality

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature a built-in compass (magnetometer) to support location-based services and augmented reality. APIs will allow third party developers to take advantage of the new functionality within their applications. The new smartphones will also include Wikitude, the leader in mobile augmented reality, which overlays contextual information on what the user sees through the smartphone’s camera viewfinder.

HD Video

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones support up to 720p HD video recording and playback. Users can easily share their videos directly from the smartphone or sync videos, as well as music and photos, to their computer using Media Sync in the BlackBerry Desktop Software.

BlackBerry 7

The BlackBerry 7 OS is designed to power the new performance-driven BlackBerry Bold platform. It provides an easier and faster user experience with improved browsing, voice-activated searches, the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, as well as additional personal and productivity apps out of the box.

The BlackBerry Browser has been significantly enhanced in BlackBerry 7. In addition to the general performance gains of Liquid Graphics, which helps deliver faster rendering and seamless panning and zooming, the BlackBerry 7 browser includes a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript compiler to improve the load time speed of web pages. The new browser also includes support for additional HTML5 elements, such as HTML5 Video.

Building upon the Universal Search feature introduced in BlackBerry 6, BlackBerry 7 expands the capability to include voice-activated search. This new capability makes it even easier and more convenient to search for content on the smartphone or web.

BlackBerry 7 also integrates BlackBerry Balance, which separates personal content from corporate content on the smartphone, giving users the freedom and flexibility to use the handset for personal email, Facebook, Twitter, multimedia, games and other apps while satisfying the very real need for corporate data to be highly secure and manageable. BlackBerry Balance works in conjunction with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.3, which provides a number of unique IT policy controls such as wiping only corporate data from the handset or blocking work related content and apps from being copied or forwarded to personal contacts.

With BlackBerry 7 on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, users will also get the full version of Docs To Go with all “premium” features enabled out-of-the-box so that users can easily work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the smartphone. Docs To Go also includes a native PDF viewer.

Availability

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are expected to be available from carriers around the world beginning this summer.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Specifications

• 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, approximately 130 g

• 2.8″ capacitive touch screen display – VGA (640×480), 287 dpi resolution

• Ultra-easy QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad

• 1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM

• 8 GB on-board memory, plus microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB cards

• NFC technology

• 5.0 MP camera, supports 720p HD video recording

• Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), Digital Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity Sensor

• Built-in GPS / aGPS

• Dual-Band Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz

• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR support

• Wireless Network support:

o 9900: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE

o 9930: Dual-Band CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A, Dual-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE

• 1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery

• BlackBerry 7 OS

RIM Announces BlackBerry OS 7, Hits This Summer On The Bold Touch

RIM just pulled the virtual sheet back on OS 7. The user experience is familiar but RIM promises a system that’s both faster and better suited for managing a personal and professional life with a new feature called Balance. OS 7 packs voice activated searches and a retooled browser to better handle JIT JavaScript and HTML5 video. It seem RIM is most proud of Balance, which “presents a unified view of work and personal content…while keeping the content separate and secure.” Sounds a bit Nokia to me. Expect OS 7 first on the just-announce BlackBerry Bold Touch.

Super AMOLED Not Coming to Samsung Tablets Yet

If you are a fan of Samsung devices and have been hoping that Samsung would deliver their Super AMOLED display to their tablet devices it appears that you have a long wait ahead before seeing a Sammy tablet sporting a Super AMOLED.

According to an article over on Slash Gear by way of Korean site Ddaily, Samsung have shelved plans to bring Super AMOLED displays to their tablets, with a Samsung executive being quoted as saying…” the company now has no plans to use its Super AMOLED or Super AMOLED Plus in any imminent slates, likely due to delays at the 5.5-Gen production line.”

Apparently a new Samsung plant was expected to be up and running this year to produce 7-inch and up AMOLED panels for Samsung tablets, but component delay due to the Japan disaster have caused a delay.

So there you have it, for the foreseeable future anyway, you won’t be seeing a Super AMOLED tablet coming out of the Samsung camp.

HP's Veer gets AT&T logo, two-tone exterior

We suspected HP's diminutive webOS 2.2 smartphone might be on its way to AT&T, and now a handful of leaked photographs rocking a panda-like color scheme have further confirmed our suspicions. As you can see from the image above, the little guy's working the carrier's logo in the upper left-hand corner of its 2.6-inch display. The photos of HP's smallest webOS smartphone first appeared over at Pocketnow on Friday, just days before the Veer's May 2nd launch party is scheduled to pop off in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, we still don't know exactly when the Snapdragon-packing device will be available for purchase, or how much it will cost when it lands, but we're hoping to have more on that after tomorrow's alleged event. Until then, you can always live vicariously through our hands-on with this little multi-tasking wonder. Now, isn't that just precious?