It seems like those prayers are about to get answered, because here is the BlackBerry Pearl 9100. Also known as the BlackBerry Striker or the BlackBerry Status, this seems to be the newest phone in the Pearl lineup, but it won’t have the trackball from which the original Pearl derived its namesake.

In place of the trackball is the new trackpad that seems to be infiltrating the rest of the BlackBerry line. The features on this RIM prototype are said to include 3G connectivity, BlackBerry OS 5.0, integrated Wi-F, BlackBerry 9700-like styling, and the characteristic SureType keyboard.

Seeing how we already have the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230, should we be expecting a flipping variant on the Pearl 9100 at some point in the near future? How about a vertical slider like the Palm Pre?

There was a video, but it has since been removed from YouTube.

Source: Salomondrin.net

How can you rectify this situation? Well, let’s turn our attention over to jvalal of Instructables for a more contemporary take. He took the all-black power mat induction charger and modified it to fit inside a wooden board. It may look like a cutting board for your vegetables, but it’s just as functional as the regular power mat.

It’s not like it was the easiest of processes, of course. Jvalal removed the “electronic guts” from the power mat charger and then manually mounted them on the underside of a gutted out piece of wood. But that wasn’t the hardest part.

The hardest part was making the wood surface thin enough that devices placed on top would get a positive lock on the charging coils below. Cut it too thin and you’d poke a hole in the wood instead, effectively nullifying its clean appearance.

Watch the video below and then hit up the original post for step-by-step directions.

Source: Lifehacker

It’s not like the Camangi WebStation is entirely new, since it’s been making its rounds in the rumor mills for a few months, but now we’re starting to get a look at the real thing. This is a 7-inch tablet, so you get a big touchscreen and a virtual on-screen keyboard.

The device gets loaded up with the Google Android 1.5 treatment and the 7-inch glass touchscreen display has a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Other features include integrated 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, GPS, microSD slot, 2-megapixel camera, secondary VGA webcam, and a USB port that could be used to add 3G connectivity.

There’s word on the street that the Camangi WebStation will be ready for a retail release next month and they’re shooting for a $400 price point. That seems more than reasonable, considering that you’d spend about the same on a smartphone or netbook.

Source: Gizmodo

There have been way more pre-orders for the device than Barnes & Noble anticipated, so the company is not able to keep up with the demand. We originally heard that it would be ready late this month or early next month. The release date then got pushed to December 11. And now it seems that you may have to take a Tickle-Me-Elmo approach if you want one within the current calendar year.

Barnes & Noble has announced that it has sold out of its initial supply of devices and the next shipment won’t be ready until the week of January 4, 2010 at the earliest. People who have already placed pre-orders should (hopefully) get one in time for the holidays, but the rest of us are out of luck.

This may sound like a “good problem to have” for the folks at B&N, but it’s even better news for Amazon. If buyers can’t get their hands on the Nook, they’ll shift their gaze over to the Kindle instead. An Amazon rep has gone on the record saying that the latest gen Kindle, released in October, is “in stock and available for immediate shipment today.”

Source: NYT

This new operating system will presumably be installed on a variety of portable devices, like MIDs and netbooks, giving a lighter weight approach to computing than Windows XP or Windows 7. You can tell that it’s very much cloud-based too, since all the email is routed through Gmail and so on.

For Chrome OS, Google is focusing on speed, simplicity, and security. The goal is to have it be “blazingly fast, basically instant-on.” It should take seven seconds to the log-in screen and another three to log into your application. The Chrome browser will be even faster on Chrome OS, because it will effectively act as the portal to everything else.

That’s because there will be no native applications for Chrome OS. Instead, every application is a web application. All of the data is in the cloud, so Google can update these apps, like Google Docs, without touching your computer at all. The same can be said about security updates and so on, just like the current Chrome browser experience.

This seems to offer some major advantages over conventional operating systems, but it does mean that you need to be connected to the Internet to do almost anything. Then again, you probably don’t do much when you’re not connected anyhow.

Check out the video below for an explanation of Chrome OS straight from the Google horse’s mouth.

Source: TC

An exact date has not been provided as of yet, but it has been announced that Virgin Mobile Canada will be launching the Apple iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS some time in 2010. This makes sense, I suppose, since Virgin Mobile Canada is owned by Bell. The selection of phones for the former has since largely mirrored that of the latter.

The device prices from Virgin will be the same as what you’d get from any of the other major Canadian carriers. The basic 8GB iPhone 3G will be $99, the 16GB iPhone 3GS will be $199, and the range-topping 32GB iPhone 3GS will be $299. These are all with three-year contracts, of course.

We can probably expect some special “iPhone voice and data plans” to accompany the launch, but no further details were given in this area. Virgin will be a little late to the party, but at least it’s getting an invitation.

I wonder what will happen when we are inevitably treated to the next-generation iPhone in summer 2010. Based on the release schedule of the first three iterations, Apple will have new hotness for us in June. Will Virgin get it at the same time as Bell?

Source: iPhoneInCanada

From what I can gather, the two brands will continue to operate semi-independently, but a number of redundant jobs are being removed. More specifically, the Alltel office in Little Rock is getting some major slashing. Verizon has cut an unspecified number of corporate positions at that office.

The Alltel people getting the pink slip would be coming from departments like finance, legal, and marketing. This is becuase Verizon already has their own people doing that kind of thing. So, what becomes of these poor laid off (fired?) individuals?

All is not lost. It’s not like Verizon is going to boot these people onto the street without a place to go. Instead, Verizon is offering them entry-level positions in the call center. Right, because handling all the legal things for Alltel pays exactly the same as listening to Verizon customer complaints, right?

More importantly, what will become of poor Chad?

Source: BGR

The good folks at Colorware have now announced that you can order just the parts for the BlackBerry Curve 8900. This way, you don’t have to buy a brand new device from them and you don’t have to send your phone over to them either. Instead, you’ll get a package in the mail with your custom housing.

The bad news, as you can imagine, is that you’re going to be responsible for the installation process and any mistakes you make along the way will be utterly in your hands. They’ll give you instructions, presumably, but if you’ve never replaced housing before, you may be looking at a mild headache or three.

Oh and if you’re hoping to save some money with the parts-only service from Colorware, you should still prepare yourself for a fairly substantial financial hit. Pricing for parts-only still starts at $159. Presumably, this parts-only option will be extended to some other phones in the near future.

Source: Crackberry

It was just a concept when we first heard about the Quirky Split Stick USB Drive earlier this year, but now the dual-wielding memory device has hit production and it is available for sale through the Quirky website for $24.99.

What’s the Deal with Quirky?

For those of you who are not as familiar with the Quirky business model, the idea is that an original designer proposes a product on the Quirky site and then solicits feedback from the community in how this product idea can be improved. This feedback can hit up the physical design, technical specifications, and any other of the finer details. Anyone who contributes positively to the creative process can then earn a portion of the profits to come.

Opening up the package for the Quirky Split Stick, we see the list of contributors. All of these people will be sharing 30% of the revenue generated through the sale of the product and this money is split up according to their level of influence. The original guy, Marc Zech, gets the biggest share, receiving almost three bucks on every sale.

This makes for a very interesting collaborative effort, because everyone involved wants the product to do well. And that’s where we find ourselves with the Quirky Split Stick.

Two Separate Drives, One Device

Unlike just about every USB flash drive on the market, the Split Stick is actually comprised of two separate drives. There is a slider in the center that you can push to either side, exposing the USB connector to each of the 4GB drives. The idea is that you can separate your work stuff from your home stuff… or whatever other separation you desire.

In addition to the home/work design that you see here, the Split Stick is also available with love/hate, plus/minus, look/lock, and dots/solid dots. You can also choose from black, pink or orange. You’ll also notice that the design of the slider mechanism has changed from the original concept and I think this “raised” switch is much more effective.

You’ll also be glad to hear that the Quirky community decided on a metallic body rather than a cheap plastic one. This helps to make for a nice, solid feel to the drive. The slider mechanism seems to be quite robust too; it’s not that flimsy at all.

Performance Testing

Running the “home” USB flash drive through HD Tune, I got the results shown here. The first 60% of the drive seems to sustain a reasonable read speed of about 18MB/sec, but this suddenly drops off to about 8MB/sec.

Thinking that this was an anomaly, I ran the same test on the “work” side of the flash drive and got very similar results. This can be a major hurdle for performance junkies, because the 17.7MB/sec maximum read speed isn’t even near the top of the heap. It’s worse yet that the speed gets cut in half about two-thirds of the way through.

For the real-world test, I tried dumping a 700MB video file onto the drive (write speed) and then I tried copying it back out (read speed) onto my computer’s hard drive. The write test took approximately 181 seconds, representing a speed of about 3.9MB/sec. The read speed took about 43 seconds, which works out to about 16.3MB/sec. That’s a huge discrepancy and it’s one that you should keep in mind if you are considering this drive.

Conclusion

So, is the Split Stick worth your consideration? The physical separation of your work and home lives seems like a good idea, but you could really achieve the same thing by having one larger drive with two folders in it. Nonetheless, this is an interesting idea.

From a value proposition, the 4GB x 2 Quirky Split Stick is $24.99 (it was $19.99 during the pre-order period). If you were to shop for a similar-sized 8GB drive, you could find something by SanDisk or Kingston for about $20. In this way, the Quirky offering isn’t really more expensive by comparison.

Unfortunately, the performance left much to be desired. The write speed was disappointing and the sudden drop in read speed at the 60% mark is disconcerting too. If Quirky decided to switch memory providers, they could have a great product on their hands.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

The XPERIA X10 is a Google Android phone, through and through, but the Sony Ericsson Nexus user interface is meant to integrate a number of different services into a more user-friendly experience. It also makes the menu navigation a heck of a lot prettier.

The signature Nexus app is Sony Ericsson Timescape. This grabs information from your different social networks, like Twitter and Facebook, and integrates them all together into one place. It also organizes this information around timelines, hence it’s name.

Another major app for Nexus is called MediaScape. You can think of this as your go-to app for anything related to multimedia. It’ll flip you through your photos, bust out your tunes, and play back your videos. The camera software comes with facial recognition and tagging too.

At some point, Sony Ericsson plans to expand the Nexus UI beyond “just” Android smartphones, possibly implementing it in non-smartphones too. Time will tell.

Source: Gizmodo