Brazilian mobile phone operator Claro says it will to start selling BlackBerry handsets to individual consumers in retail locations on July 15.

That's after Claro launches the BlackBerry for corporate users in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro this week.

Claro will offer he BlackBerry 7290, BlackBerry 7100g and BlackBerry 8700g.

Claro, a unit of América Móvil, says it intends to serve corporate customers throughout Brazil.

A competitor, TIM began offering the BlackBerry 8700g to individual customers in May.

CNET is out with "Pick the right BlackBerry for you," a post offering a side-by-side comparison of six of the newest BlackBerry models.

The new posting offers summary reviews, editors and users ratings, pricing info and technical specs for the BlackBerry 7130c, BlackBerry 7130e, BlackBerry 7100i, BlackBerry 7105t, BlackBerry 8700g, and BlackBerry 8700c. There are also video demonstrations of the 7100g, 7100i, 8700c and 8700i.

Interesting: the side-by-side display of both the CNET editors and Users' ratings show the BlackBerry 7130c in the lead with an 8.3 "Excellent" rating from the editors and a "Spectacular" 9.0 rating from Users who offered their opinions on the device through the CNET site.

CNET.com has published a compilation of cell phone radiation levels, as cited by the FCC.

The levels are expressed in  SAR, or Specific Absorption Rate. SAR is a way of measuring the quantity of radio frequency energy that passes through the body.

If a cell phone has rate higher than 1.6 watts per kilogram, it won't pass FCC muster.

The  Motorola Slvr L6 barely makes the grade at 1.58, watts per kilogram, the worst ranking.

The best ranking is Audiovox PPC66001, with only 0.12 WPG.

The three rated BlackBerrys came out in the middle of the pack.

BlackBerry 7100g was rated at 0.86. The BlackBerry 7250 and BlackBerry 7750 each scored 1.27.

Howard Forums Member dmiller_40 has no hesitancy about admitting his lack of knowledge about what to do with the BlackBerry 7100g he has just received.

So non-hesitant that he started a thread called "I'm freaking Lost."

In the thread, he described how the BlackBerry he just bought second-hand has a full address book from the previous owner, and there also seem to be a "ton of applications" loaded that he doesn't need.

So he wonders whether to do a complete wipe- of the BlackBerry, that is :-)

Then very frequent HoFo poster (more than 3,600 posts) jase88 cuts to the chase.

Go into OPTIONS, SECURITY OPTIONS, GENERAL SETTINGS, click on the trackwheel and select 'wipe handheld'. "This will remove all personal settings and info from the previous owner," he says. "It will not wipe the operating system from the device.

"Odd that the previous owner neglected to do this themselves....," jase88 adds.

Boy, I'll say, is my two cents. Come to think of it I will raise my bid.

Make that four cents.

Time to pick up on our new BBHub daily feature called BlackBerry Support Document of the Day.

Every week, the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center lists their 25 most viewed documents for that week.

Every day, starting from #1, we've been identifying a document on this list.

As to be expected, there has been some shuffling in the rank order of viewed documents. Today we are up to (actually, "down to") item #7.

The current #7 is BlackBerry 7100g - Safety and Product Information Booklet.

 

Telmap Navigator is showing their BlackBerry solution at CeBit, a trade show that opened in Berlin, Germany today.

The offering feaures turn-by-turn navigation with map, text and voice instructions. 

The content specifically spotlights  "Points of Interest," restaurant reviews, hot spots, as well as hotel and theater listings. 

Telmap Navigator is compatible with all BlackBerry 7100 phones, as well as with BlackBerry8700.

 

 

Australia-based diversified telephnony services provider Optus and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion are introducing the BlackBerry 8700g in Australia.

No pricing info yet, but here's some precedent.  The three BlackBerry models Optus currently offers, and their price in Australian dollars are the BlackBerry 7100g, $659; the BlackBerry 7290, $789; and the BlackBerry 7730, for $899.

SingTel-owned Optus joins Vodafone Australia in introducing the 8700 series BlackBerry in that nation. Vodafone's model is the virtually identical BlackBerry 8700v.

Several security experts think that because of the increasing number of smartphone users as well as the comparative ease of spreading viruses across these platforms, that smartphone security will be tested this year.

Attacks on smartphones haven’t reached the critical mass needed but it will happen sooner rather than later,” antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky, tells Red Herring.

"Mobile phone attacks scale very well for fraud," Internet Security Systems chief technology officer Chris Rouland also tells the publication.

"Phone viruses are propagating quickly and they have only been gated by the fact that there are not enough smartphone users today," he told the magazine. 

Rouland added that because phone carriers would likely have to bear the $100-per-incident cost of cleaning infected handhelds, only a few hundred infected phones are enough to cause a problem. 

Yet network security executive Simon Klalaf disagrees. The Vernier Networks CEO tells Red Herring that the financial incentives that spur malware writers to develop viruses are not there for smartphones.

“Putting a worm on laptops where the objective is to steal financial or personal data is a bigger problem for everyone,” he tells Red Herring.

 

BlackBerry-enthusiast site BlackBerry Cool had these first, but I ain't above spreadin' the link love about GUI eye candy.

Like these pretty BlackBerry 7100 themes from Keith.

Keith didn't design these themes, but he is making them available for free. These theme screens aren't downloadable individually, but they can be downloaded as a grouped Zip file.

I like them is what I think.

What do you think?

Boris Boege of Skylab Mobile Systems writes to tell me that their GPS mapping tool "Spot for Blackberry" now supports all Bluetooth enabled Blackberry devices in combination with a Bluetooth GPS receiver.

Former versions were only compatible with BlackBerry 7520 and BlackBerry 7100i. Both of those models have an integrated GPS receiver.

Now, Spot for BlackBerry has been rev'd to support the BlackBerry 7100 Series, the BlackBerry 8700 Series as well as the BlackBerry 7250 and BlackBerry 7290.

"Spot for Blackberry" costs $49. A time limited demo version is available free for download.

Further information is available at: http://www.skylabmobilesystems.com/en/products/spot_bb.html

If you have a BlackBerry 7100, and want to create your own ringtones, you may wish to consider downloading and installing Millennium Studios' BlackBerry 7100 Series Ringtone Builder Package.

The Package includes:

• A digital video with ringtone creation instructions:
• A link to software that helps you convert sound files from the .wav or ,mp3 format to the BlackBerry format;
• 5 MB of hosting space on the Millennium Studio's ringtones web server, with uploading privileges for six months;
• 10 free ringtones, pre-configured for your BlackBerry and available on Millennium Studios' web server for you to download and install on your BlackBerry if you wish.

Total cost is $24.95, but Club Handango Members pay just $22.46.

Click the Read link below this post and you'll ring up Handango.com's BlackBerry 7100 Series Ringtone Builder Package page.

In Sri Lanka, Dialog Telekom has announced it is offering the BlackBerry 7100g and BlackBerry 7290. The introduction marks the debut of BlackBerry in Sri Lanka.

The largest cellular services provider in the South Asian island nation, Dialog Telekom is a subsidiary of the Telekom Malaysia Group.

"There is a growing demand for wireless connectivity from mobile professionals
in Sri Lanka," Dialog Telekom CEO Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya said in a prepared statement. "BlackBerry  redefined the market for wireless communications and we are proud to be able to bring this superior technology to Sri Lankan customers, providing them with the opportunity to stay connected and productive."

 

For $45.00, a Web-based service called GSM Phone Source will remotely unlock your Cingular BlackBerry 8700c, 7290, 7280 or 7100g.

After you pay thru the site, you submit your order.  When you submit your order, you should include the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number and model number for the Blackberry you are unlocking in the notes section.

You can get the IMEI number when you enter *#06# from your phones keypad. A 15-digit IMEI number  will display on your screen.

The service usually takes 24 hours to unlock your Blackberry, or other handset.

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion and Greek mobile operator Cosmote are introducing the BlackBerry 7290 and BlackBerry 7100g in (guess, where) Greece.

Cosmote will provide Blackberry in three service packages: Blackberry Enterprise Solution - Cosmote Basic is for access to company e-mail accounts, with a monthly fee and on a pay as you go basis; Blackberry Enterprise Solution - Cosmote Plus is for access to company e-mail accounts, with a monthly fee which includes 15MB per month; and Blackberry Internet Solution - Cosmote Professional is for data access to personal e-mail accounts, with a monthly fee which includes 10MB per month.

Yesterday, AT&T announced it would be offering a new ultrahigh-speed $49.99 a month DSL service package for small to medium size companies.

Currently sold as SBC Yahoo! DSL Expert Plus, the broadband service will offer businesses up to 6 megabytes of downstream connectivity per second, and up to 608 Kbps upstream per second.

For the time being, the DSL Expert Plus service will only be available in Connecticut, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, California, Nevada, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

Here's the BlackBerry angle: qualifying business customers who also sign up for a two-year Cingular Wireless will also receive as yet unspecified savings on the BlackBerry 7100g and BlackBerry 7290.
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