The warm temperatures in Chicago earlier this month belied the truism that the earth is getting warmer.

A BlackBerry Pearl-using BBHub reader took advantage of that relatively calm day to take a photo of the Chicago skyline from the vantage point of a nearby park.

You're looking at the photo now.

Dusk in New York City, the city that never sleeps.

BBHub reader and BlackBerry Pearl user Austin comes out, and finds a suitable vantage point to take a pic of the Empire State Building.

BBHub lead blogger Russ (that's me) receives this photo from Austin and posts it here.

Travelin' today and tomorrow so service here might be a little on the light side.

Keeping the traveling theme intact, thinking of how cool it would be to be in Europe right now.

In a place like Barcelona, where BBHub reader administrador took out his BlackBerry Pearl 8100 and captured this photo of one of Spanish architect Gaudi's builings from Barcelona: Casa Mila, la Pedrera.

Intricately constructed buildings like this have many visual points of reference. It is up to the photographer- and the camera to render these accurately.

I think the 1.3 megapixel camera in administrador's Pearl did just that.

For a couple of days now, Robb at RIMarkable has been running a think piece entitled, "Why Verizon has been able to get by releasing new BlackBerry devices a year after other carriers and why that time has to come to an end."

After reading his post, I have been lurking, monitoring reader comments as well.

The way I take it, Research In Motion feels less pressure from Verizon for BlackBerrys with the newest and snazziest features (like camera and video playback) because so much of Verizon's user base is corporate. And that corporate user base is conservative, wanting their BlackBerrys only for email and related tasks.

Also, a big part of the story here is that Verizon is a non-GSM carrier, and that newer functionalities work better on GSM.

Robb, however, thinks that Pearl-type features will eventually become so pervasive in business computing that any carrier that does not demand similar functionalities in at least some of their BlackBerry brands will be left behind.

I'm not as sure as Robb. So let me turn this over to you BlackBerry enterprise users. Do you feel energized enough about, say, BlackBerry multimedia functionality to ask your IT or rep to start leaning on Verizon to lean on RIM- to get a thoroughly modern BlackBerry in the channels?

I'm not big on skateboarders on the sidewalk. They get in my way, hey hey.

But put 'em in skateparks and it is fun to watch 'em rip.

Sometimes the very act of them rippin' makes a fun photograph.

And if you have a Pearl, such as BBHub reader iswise "wisely" (baa boom ba bing) had with him a couple weeks back, well, why not.

Great timing iswise. And dude you really captured the concentration in your friend's eyes.

If I tried this- even back when I was his age- torn cartilage city.

Worse torn cartilage than I actually had.

Back on Thursday, Flickr Member Likelihood of Confusion (hey LoC, confusion ain't likely- it's inevitable) stood atop New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal garage and trained his BlackBerry Pearl on 42nd Street, in the vicinity of Times Square one block east.

If Likelihood of Confusion were to take that pix now, he'd obviously find a street full of folks about to do that New Year's Eve countdown thingee. Some of whom took Port Authority buses to get to this very place.

Hey, notice that bright light at upper left? Reflection? Beacon? Searchlight? Meteor?

On MusclesUK's Flickr Photostream (link below) we get this photo of an aquarium where something interesting is going on.

Fish seems to be stumped by stump.

Considering this fish has probably swam by the stump numerous times, this fish seems ready to repeat the same mistake.

(Blogger to self-you've fallen in love with you know who numerous times, and yet you keep on repeating the same mistake. So who the xxx are you to cop a superior attitude to this fish)?

But at least this fish makes mistakes that we can point to. Especially when it is shot via a BlackBerry Pearl.

Here.

Yo fish, uh, hello? It's a stump.

Yesterday, Christmas Day, Flickr user pandadustt had as yet-unopened Christmas presents.

Then, her black cat posed for her in a most appropriate spot for the day.

It was then that pandadustt maneuvered her Cingular BlackBerry Pearl into position.

But cats, you know, they ain't supermodels. So the big question of the moment was, will the cat stay still long enough for pandadustt to take her pix?

Props to you pandadustt. Your cat is chill.

I've been counting down the ten most-read BBHub posts of 2006.

According to our server logs, #6 was "IT'S OFFICIAL! BlackBerry Media Player software, BerryCast to be showcased next month !!"

Posted on April 27, this post foretold then then-imminent release of the Sona Mobile BlackBerry Media Player.

The utility was officially unveiled at the BlackBerry Enterprise Summit in Orlando May 16-18.

Click the Read link underneath this post, and read the news, as it was new then.

A new thread on the Yahoo! BlackBerry Users Group called "Pearl question about music" contains a basic discussion about the best way to get music on your BlackBerry Pearl.

"How do I put a song on my Pearl," asks Larry Daly. "I have tried media manager but its not working."

RkKeller replies that he has done so, and then asks Larry what he sees when he tries to.

"I start Desktop Manager then click Windows Media Player and it opens in its own window," Larry replies, "but how do I get music from left side of media manager to right?"

"You select the songs then click the arrow in the middle of the screen," RkKeller adds. "One puts it in and the other arrow takes it off."

Fellow Yhoo! BlackBerry Users Group Member Austin adds his own advice.

"Just drop and drag the files or copy them into your music folder on your microSD card," Austin says. "Copying them is the fastest and beat way I think. You have to have a microSD card or it won't work. You're limited to the size of media files you can put on your BB's memory

The Reuters news service has announced that Reuters video content is available via the BlackBerry Pearl and other smarphones.

The free service, which can be accessed from a Pearl browser at mobile.reuters.com, does not require a pre-purchased video package from a carrier.

"Adding video to our mobile site offers users a one-stop shop for all things Reuters on their mobile phones," noted Reuters Media general manager Stephen Smyth.

Video ads will be added to the service early next year. Please, Reuters, make these ads unobtrusive.

Had to get in that reference about the Kingston trio- great folk group some of you may have heard oldies by.

In this case there's "no doubt" we are talking about Gwen Stefani, her apparently BlackBerry-wielding hubbin, (Pearl, looks like )the great Gavin Rossdale (former member of Bush, now Institute), and the charming results of one particularly successful night of passion, one Mr. Kingston Rossdale.

Kingston Trio indeed. Well, at least it wasn't a Kingston "Treo," if ya know what I mean.

OK getting over the top here. Blogger files this post, retreats from the PC, gets off his butt and goes shopping.

A Pearl-owning BBHub reader, whose name he'd rather us not use, felt the urge to go to the furthest reaches of his backyard and then gaze out at the adjacent lake.

Then he took out his BlackBerry Pearl and took a shot that kind of blows me away.

Why? The mood. The universality- not tied to any specific place with recognizable landmarks.

Come take a look.

Yes I know that:

Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter" was about city scenes, not rural scenes, but I still think the descriptor applies.

Yes, I also know that:

Technically winter has not yet arrived, but we're just a few days away. Won't you please grant me a few days of poetic license?

You can store up to 8 feature films on a 1 Gb memorycard, or 15 hours of other video content.

BBHub reader hyku went out and bought a Cingular BlackBerry Pearl today.

Then, after posting eight photos of the device on his Flickr photostream (linked below), he dropped me a note to let me know you are there.

Now I am letting you know they are here.

Let's look.

Another angle of the box, which as you will see, hyku is set to open.

Open. Check.

The Cingular Pearl, out of the box and front and center.

Out with the old (7290), and in with the smaller, sleeker new.

There's a reason why they call it a "handheld."

Close-up of the screen. Where most of the action is.

And finally, here's to "watching your back," Cingular BlackBerry Pearl!