In an interview at CES 2011, Mike Lazaridis confirmed plans to bring QNX to BlackBerry smartphones, or ‘super phones’. The new generation BlackBerry's will require dual-core processors in order to handle the QNX operating system. This is part of the grand 10 year plan that RIM has put together to stay competitive in the market. Mike went on to say:RIM's 10 year business model includes “the BlackBerry communications device, there’s the tablet, and there’s the super phone, the super smartphone.”

The future looks bright for RIM and we can't wait to see what is in store.

• Discuss this in the BlackBerry OS forums

BlackBerry has posted another promo video for the BlackBerry PlayBook on their youtube channel. This one emphasizes multi-tasking capabilities of the PlayBook.

• Discuss the Step It Up promo clip in the BlackBerry OS forums

According to RIM sources while LTE for BlackBerry phones is in the early stages of development, they will not be releasing any LTE capable smartphones until possibly late 2011. Rim claims that the LTE chips are currently too expensive and consume too much battery power for their liking. They also state that with the limited number of LTE networks in place that at this time it is not economically feasible for the company. What are your thoughts ? Is RIM falling behind further in the smartphone industry or are they just waiting for all the bugs to be worked out with LTE and for LTE to expand further in the consumer market ? Let us know what you think.

According to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, the BlackBerry PlayBook is delayed until May 2011 due to battery life issues. Wu's sources have said that the current battery on the PlayBook only lasts a few hours. Compared to the Samsung Galaxy at six hours and the iPad at ten hours, the PlayBook will be a tough sell. With a dual core processor and 1 Gb of ram, the PlayBook seems to require a larger battery to power it. Also, the QNX OS that the PlayBook runs on was initially designed for network equipment and automobiles, devices where battery life is not a huge consideration. Hopefully RIM can pull this off with minor adjustments to the design.
Update: Late last night, RIM released a statement denying these claims. Read the full story in the BlackBerryOS forums.

• Discuss the BlackBerry PlayBook in the BlackBerryOS forums

We’ve been hearing a little bit about the upcoming BlackBerry 8980 and today FCC posted pictures and a User's Manual of the upcoming device on their website. The BlackBerry 8980 will apparently only run on 2G and currently only supports OS 5. We sure hope RIM pushes out the OS 6 update pretty soon. Also, as we know the 8980 has been picked up by China Mobile so it will likely show up in China first.

• For more details on the BlackBerry 8980 check out our Forum

Laptop Magazine announced their reader’s choice for best smart phone today based on a poll they did beginning December 10th. Throughout the year, Laptop Magazine reviewed 39 smart phones and chose 8 of the best. The online magazine then asked their readers to choose the best of the best.

BlackBerry owners made up 35.9 percent of the vote. No surprise from what we’ve been hearing from Torch users. Now many BlackBerry users wish the device were available from other carriers besides AT&T.

The Torch beat back challenges over the last week from seven competitors, including surges from the T-Mobile myTouch 4G and the HTC Evo 4G from Sprint.

Following the Telus lead, Bell has announced the CDMA BlackBerry Style 9670 smartphone as part of their lineup. The Style brings the BlackBerry 6 operating system, a full QWERTY keyboard, and the clam shell design.

The BlackBerry Style is available starting today from Bell for $49.95 with three year contract or $399.95 devoid of one. The downside to the Style is that it operates on Bell’s older CDMA network, and not on the newer HSPA network.

Features are a 5.0 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, and is loaded with the shiny new BlackBerry 6 OS.

• See the BlackBerry Style on Bell's website
• Who is going to pick one up?

Back in October, news of the Blackberry 9570 Storm 3 release was rumored to be “imminent” after a supposed Best Buy catalog image appeared. Now it looks like the Blackberry 9570 Storm 3 may just hit the market within the next month or so, if you believe more rumors from buzzbizznews.

The phone will look and work similar to the current Blackberry Torch 9800. The screen will have a new HD retina display and will be large enough to watch movies sufficiently on. The phone will be less bulky to hold, using a thinner profile. Add to that a 1GHz processor, the Storm 3 should be fast and competent, complemented by a 3.7 inch capacitive HD screen and slide-out qwerty keyboard.

Other features are believed to include a 5-megapixel camera with flash, support for 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and up to 32GB of internal storage space via a microSD card.

Some sites are saying that top U.S. analysts believe the device will be released in the beginning of 2011.

Although RIM has yet to comment on the release date of the Storm 3, major retailers in the U.S. are purportedly advertising it. Hopefully, the wait is almost over!

buzzbizznews

Coming Soon for you Curve and Bold owners!

Operating System 5.0.0.1049 for the Curve 8520 & 8900, as well as the Bold 9000. Thanks to the report from BBR and @rr_yy, it seems that "...OS 5.0.0.1049 has been approved as a “certificated OS” for the Curve 8520, Curve 8900 and Bold 9000...."

Once released you can get them through our Download Center. So bookmark it today.

If your excited and want to express yourself, let us know in the forums!