RIM's First Touch Device, the BlackBerry Storm, Emerges

posted Oct 7, 2008, 11:00 PM by Eric M. Zeman
updated Oct 8, 2008, 8:43 AM

Today Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion announced the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's first touch-screen device. The Storm has dual-band CDMA radios for use on Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A 3G network in the U.S., as well as quad-band GSM/EDGE and HSPA 2100MHz for 3G coverage when roaming in Europe. It supports multiple Bluetooth profiles, including stereo playback, but it lacks Wi-Fi. The 3.26-inch display is touch sensitive and measures 480 x 360 pixels. The Storm has a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and auto-focus, and it will record video for MMS and at half-VGA resolutions. The BlackBerry OS has been optimized for the touch screen, and includes a full QWERTY software keyboard when used in landscape mode and a SureType keyboard when held in the portrait orientation. The entire screen itself is a large button, and provides tactile feedback as you type. It has both standard GPS and a-GPS, and will include BlackBerry Maps and supports turn-by-turn directions. The Storm has a 3.5mm headset jack and media player for music and video, it also has a full HTML browser. It has 1GB of on-board memory and comes with an 8GB memory card. The Storm also harnesses the power of standard BlackBerry productivity applications such as email, Microsoft Docs viewing and editing, and messaging features. It will be preloaded with a mobile Facebook application. The device is being launched in conjunction with Vodafone, and will be available in the U.S., Europe and Australia in November.

more info at Verizon Wireless »

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