Here's a couple of cool new little features that have been popping up in App World for OS 7 and 7.1 users: New Ringtones and Themes Sections. Although this may not be huge news, it is nice to see our beloved App World get more and more organized as time passes by.

The ironic part about this whole thing is only OS 7 users and above can see the new Theme section and up until recently, OS 7 weren't even able to have any themes available to them. So far it looks like they have a nice little catalog going so make sure you check out App World to see if both of these sections are there already for you!

This morning, we saw around the web how much Research In Motion really can't catch a break nowadays. The Inside BlackBerry Blog posted up an infograph detailing how the #BeBold tweets from New Year's Eve's Special had broken down. Unfortunately for RIM, people saw this as a possible marketing campaign in the making and the snowball began.

Headlines like "RIM: 'It's okay, we have super heroes,'" or "RIM Escapes to Fantasy World, Imagines Superheroes Will Save It... Literally" from some of the world's top tech blogs started to pour in. The ridicule was so overwhelming that it forced RIM to yet again answer "bloggers" by clarifying it was only an infograph for fun. The impression has stayed though. What was originally written will continue to permeate through people's minds regardless of what reasons are given after the fact.

The first image of the BlackBerry London, RIM's first BlackBerry 10 phone, has surfaced. This is a far cry from the earlier leaked photos that we saw last year. However, it does give us some real hope that the BlackBerry 10 devices are almost within reach. RIM has been giving us hints about this device for quite some time now, and if you look at the picture closely it may remind you of something else.

If you're thinking BlackBerry PlayBook then you're on the right track. Late last year when Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis was asked what the QNX-based phone would look like, he then held up a PlayBook, and said, "like this." The look is fresh, and steps away from RIM's traditional style devices that many have become use to. It is actually similar in nature to a Samsung or HTC device. It looks like it's out with the old and in with the new in the design department for this device.

We have been seeing quite a few BBM connected apps over the past few months, and many have been wondering when we would see some native apps like RIM's Facebook and Twitter become BBM connected. Well, it looks as though we may be seeing this feature pretty soon.

So if you were wondering when you would see these apps integrated within your BBM, wonder no more, because RIM is working on it. The days of boring status updates on BBM may be over.

Today RIM announced the availability BlackBerry® Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365. This new service allows organizations to expand their Microsoft mail services to the cloud and manage their BlackBerry deployments in the cloud.

One of the nice things about this service is that customers that are already subscribed to the Office 365 suite or standalone Exchange Online and works with BlackBerry smartphones on business or consumer data plans. The service is actually very robust and offers a comparable features that a typical BES server would have.

Having it cloud based makes it an affordable alternative for many organizations. In addition RIM's partnership with software giant Microsoft helps alleviate some of the nasty licensing that many organizations have to go through. Here is a brief statement taken from RIM's official press release:

Hello BBOS members and guests, it's time for our Recap for the week of 1/22 - 1/28, 2012. The links below are the "in a nutshell" of what happened in everything BlackBerry last week. Leave us a comment on what you thought was the most memorable moment of the BlackBerry Weekly Recap!

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[Mobile? Click Here for Video]

• Download TrafficAlert - Vancouver Beta via App World
• Download TrafficAlert - Toronto Edition via App World
• Discuss TrafficAlert in our Forums

• Continue Reading Our Jabra WAVE Accessory Review in our Forums
• Purchase Jabra WAVE via BBOS Store
• More Information on Jabra WAVE

• Download BlackBerry DevCon Europe 2012 Mobile Guide via App World
• Discuss BlackBerry DevCon Europe 2012 Mobile Guide in our Forums

UPDATE [11:58am]: It seems that our brothers from the north are also getting ready for the PlayBook OS 2.0 update on the 21st. Various Best Buy Canada and Future Shop locations have confirmed the February 21st launch date as well.

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Until dates for any type of product launch and/or software update are announced officially, they tend to usually be "target dates" instead of being set in stone. It seems this will also be the case with the PlayBook OS 2.0 release date. Representatives at multiple Best Buy locations across the U.S. and Canada are receiving word that the PlayBook OS 2.0 upgrade will be made available to the public on Tuesday, February 21st.

Originally, we had heard the date of Friday, February 17th as the possible launch date but instead it seems like this date may end up being an internal target date to get everything in place (servers ready and loaded; etc) for the launch on the 21st.

RIM obviously does not want anything to go wrong with this update as it is one of the most anticipated software updates in BlackBerry history. This is why they could be opting to go with the safe bet of launching OS 2.O on a Tuesday instead of a Friday in case anything does go wrong. Whatever the date may end up being, Research In Motion will be on time with a major software update release. Great way to start off 2012.

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• Sign Up For Access To NHLPA Players' Playbook
• Discuss NHLPA Players' Playbook in our Forums

Let's face it, smartphones just look a lot cooler is white. I'm not sure exactly what it is about white BlackBerrys specifically but they just make you say "wow!" RIM will continue to wow us when they bring out the Bold 9790 and Curve Touch 9380 in white as well during Q2 of 2012.

A couple of days ago,

When it rains, it pours. As part of the slides that were leaked this morning, we have learned more about two upcoming devices for 2012: The BlackBerry Curves 9220 and 9320. Both are in some ways downgrades of the current BlackBerry Curve 9350/60/70 lineup but this is done on purpose in order to meet the needs of emerging markets instead. The Curve 9220 will be an EDGE only phone (I always think great battery life) while the 9320 will have 3G connectivity. Areas in Latin America and Asia that do not have abundant 3G connectivity are RIM's primary targets with these new devices.


Specs for the Curve 9320:

• 2.44″ display
  
• 3.2MP camera
  
• 512MB RAM
  
• magnetometer
  
• accelerometer
  
• proximity sensors

Specs for Curve 9220:

What's new

Raised menu buttons. While both of these new Curves are certainly downgrades in terms of camera and radio bands, they do have a couple of things I like. They implement the raised menu keys that we were first introduced to us on the Storm.. err excuse me, Torch 9850/60. These buttons were later applied to the new Bold 9790 which drove many users (myself included) to nominate it as the ugliest Bold to date. I will say these buttons tend to fit the Curve series a lot better than the Bold due to the raised keyboard buttons so in my opinion, they look good.

Dedicated BBM convenience key. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this one quite yet. These new Curves are apparently equipped with a left convenience key, which many have sorely missed (I still don't understand why they got rid of it in the first place, but that's irrelevant). So everyone think "great idea!" right? Well here's the catch, it's labeled "BBM" and apparently it's intended for us to have quicker access to our beloved messaging app. For some this is all fine and dandy but I like to be able to customize my convenience keys. The question then becomes, will this key be customizable via the Options menu like the right key is, or since it's labeled, does RIM intend for us to use it only for BBM and not allow users to change it? We shall see.

With the new year comes expectations for every company on what they will be delivering to their customers in the near future. RIM is no exception to this unwritten rule. We know, for instance, that the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet OS 2.0 will be releasing in a couple of weeks, that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone will be dropping in late summer/early fall, and that we'd be seeing a new PlayBook and two new Curves as well.

Today, BGR has released actual evidence, in the form of official RIM slides, to support their BlackBerry road map article in which we learn a little bit more about what's new and reaffirm what we've already learned is in store for us this year: