Google's translation engine ain't exactly perfect, but it seems to get at the edges of facts in a de internet.com article posted today that implies the BlackBerry 8800 will be unveiled February 12 and released sometime in March.

I just love the way Google translates this stuff. It has a rhythmic, almost high-tech pidgin English ring to it.

But you don't want me to talk about the translation. You want me to write about what the translation says.

OK, then, as linked from BlackBerryForums, it reads as such:

Blackberry manufacturer the Research in Motion (RIM) continues to renew his product range. The newest equipment with the type name 8800 is reported euro in March on the German market to come, "on Sunday" (coming expenditure) with reference to persons trusted with the procedures. The newest version of the mobile phone with mobile E-Mail receipt, particularly liked with managers, will be available with T-mobile as well as Vodafone.

Observers expect that the Canadians will present new mobile phone of the public for the first time on the portable radio fair 3GSM in Barcelona in the middle of February. The prices might be with contract below 300 euro, it are said.

As the trade journal continues to write, the successor of the popular Blackberry 8700 receives a larger display and for the first time also with a government inspection department chip for navigation is equipped. The beginner supports the GPRS standard, however not UMTS. The Design with the Blackberry typical editing keyboard equipped 8800 orients itself at the Blackberry Pearl. The equipment held in black completely had brought RIM in the past summer on the market.

Hmm, RIM is a "he."

"Persons trusted with the procedures"- sounds cooler and a vague bit more conspiratorial than "sources say," right?

I've been trying to make sense of the invitation BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has been sending out to journalists to attend an "exclusive BlackBerry press event" in London September 6.

As first reported on Unstrung, the invite specifies "an exciting development with BlackBerry."

My first reaction is one of cynicism from a career of having received these announcements. I have yet to receive an invite for a "ho-hum development." At least one that would own up to being hum-drum.

So what could it be?

Everyone seems to think this will be the place and the time that T-Mobile's flavor of the camera-capable, BlackBerry 8100 Pearl will be announced. Since the invite is for an event in London, then maybe we should spell the word "flavour."

Yes, that would be one scenario, but I would not put it past RIM for this to be a Vodafone announcement- and not necessarly the 8100.

Why? Well, with documentation pointing to a U.S. Pearl launch in mid-September (and as late as September 28), I am not entirely convinced that the U.K. announcement will scoop North America by more than a week. That's not the way RIM has done things in the past.

But of course, RIM has not had a CameraBerry in the past, either.

Verdict? Given this is taking place in London- where Vodafone is based- This could be a Vodafone announcement, and not necessarily an 8100 either.

More scuttlebutt about the BlackBerry 8100:

Unlike all other BlackBerry models to date, there won't be any carrier-specific letter labeling on this new camera-ready 8100 series.

By "carrier-labeling," I mean no more BlackBerry (model number) "c" for Cingular, "t" for T-Mobile, "g" for Verizon, "v" for Vodafone, "r" for Rogers, etc.

We hear this decision has been made to cut down on market confusion, as well as to reduce expenses incurred by re-plating physically identical devices.

Makes sense to us.

What do you think?

In a confirmation of something just about everyone has known as fact, Vodafone Australia and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion have announced the launching of the BlackBerry 8707v and the BlackBerry 7130v.

Obligatory partner happy talk:

"The launch of the two new BlackBerry handsets reinforces over-arching vision of delivering true mobility to Australian businesses and their employees, Vodafone Australia Business Markets general manager Edward Goff said.

Goff actually did add something newsworthy: broadband-modem enabling dashboard software in the BlackBerry 8707v will launch in September.

Actually, we knew that as well.

Australian site mobilised (jingoistic American spell checker always catches those British Commonwealth "s" for "z", mate) offers a of the $699 AU (that'd be $53.50 U.S.)Vodafone BlackBerry 7130v.

Most of the review is a rundown of the specs, as opposed to an assessment of the functionality indicated by these specs.

But I am able to glean at least some opinion from the last graf of this review.

The unbylined reviewer does not think the BlackBerry 7130v is "the prettiest," but he/she/they seems pretty juiced about the exceptional battery performance (432 hours of standby time), push email, instant messaging support and GPRS capabilities.

TechWeb technology news site writer K.C. Jones is "watching the speed" (dated Grateful Dead reference) in which some highly rated Intranets have tweaked their sites for BlackBerry optimization.

Jones draws as reference usabilty gurus Nielsen Norman Group's just-released "Intranet Deisgn Annual 2006: The Year's Ten Best Intranets."

"Judges fund that many winners share common strategies," Jones writes, "such as mobile access with Intranets optimized for the BlackBerry, multimedia systems making use of video to increase productivity, and special brand names for Intranets."

U.S. winners include Capital One, IBM, Merrill Linch and Staples. Of the ten winners, two coincidentally happen to be telecom providers with BlackBerry offerings: U.K.s Vodafone and O2.

"O2 has a special mobile edition of its intranet that's optimized for the BlackBerry and strips the homepage down to a few of its most useful links," Jakob Nielsen writes in the report.

Vodafone Italia and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion introduced the BlackBerry 7130v in (you only get one guess where) Italy today.

As with the other BlackBerry 7130 models, the BlackBerry 7130v has 64 MB of flash memory and light sensing technology that sets screen and keyboard lighting levels based on the surrounding environment.

Vodafone Italia announced their rollout of the BlackBerry 8707v today.

The BlackBerry 8707v will operate on Vodafone Italy's UMTS network, which covers some 70% of Italy's population.

As with other 87xx series devices, this one has 64 MB flash memory and supports attachment viewing of popular file formats including JPEG, BMP, TIFF, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect and Adobe PDF. Its high resolution QVGA (320x240) LCD display can show more than 65,000 colors and it incorporates intelligent light sensing technology automatically that adjusts the display and keyboard brightness to optimize visibility in outdoor, indoor and dark environments.

OK, let us run what Vodafone Italia's 807v promo announcement thru Babelfish:

"BlackBerry 8707v allows you to manage the e-mail in mobility, to receive the email in real time, to visualize encloses to it to you in all forms to you more diffuse, to sinncronizzare the contacts with those of your PC and automatically to modernize to appointments and reunions of your agenda, with the offered velocita one from the UMTS."

"Sinncronizzare the contacts."- sounds great rolling off the tongue.

Vodafone Spain and BlackBerry have just announced they are launching the BlackBerry 7130v to individual and corporate users in Spain.

The companies said they are positioning the device as one which is ideal for those users who prefer a slim handset with wireless functionality.

"A key factor for success in juggling both a career and a busy personal life is the ability to access information when you need it," RIM's vice president and managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa Charmaine Eggberry said in a statement.

I love it: BlackBerry-Eggberry...

"The BlackBerry 7130v keeps users connected to the people and information they need to make better and faster decisions on the move," Eggberry added. "The BlackBerry 7130v also delivers these advantages in a sleek mobile phone design making it ideal for people looking to replace their older mobile phone."

If you are an existing or prospective Vodafone subscriber, and have either just bought or are thinking about buying a BlackBerry 7130v, you'll be interested to know that the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center has just posted a Getting Started Guide for the 7130v.

As with all GSGs, this one has a cover shot of the handset, with arrows pointing to the features.

If you agree that you can't tell a Getting Started Guide from the cover, well, then, the Table of Contents will tell you the knowledge that awaits within:

Knowledge is power...

Three new entrants today for the Vodafone BackBerry 8707v.

Rather than write three posts, we'll combine them into one.

OK, let's call the roll:

Hong Kong- SmarTone-Vodafone.  That's their new ad on the right.

Netherlands- Vodafone Libertel N.V.

and

Luxembourg- LUXGSM, the 400,000-subscriber mobile unit of P&TLuxembourg.

Vodafone Spain has just launched the BlackBerry 8707v in that nation.

Or maybe not.

Not just yet, anyway.

I'm not going to do what everyone else is doing, which is just to link to the usual boilerplate "we're excited.." press release Research In Motion often puts out for carrier product launches.

Instead, I will point out that although the BlackBerry 8707v is listed in the BlackBerry section of the Vodafone Spain site, the listing does not contain a clickable link. Nor is the 8707v displayed in the main BlackBerry information area.

Previous experience with this dichotomy tells me that this state of affairs will last just a few days. So I would expect the BlackBerry 8707 to be for sale on the Vodafone Spain site within days. A week at most.

The BlackBerry 7130v has just been posted on the BlackBerry U.K. site.

So new, this Vodafone-tailored  model has not even made it to the sales pages of the BlackBerry site purchase page that links to Vodafone purchase pages for Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. That should change later this week.

Specs:

Size: 11.5cm x 5.6cm x 1.8cm
Weight:  Approximately 120g
Battery Life: Up to 18 days (432 hours) standby and 4 hours talktime
Memory: 64 MB Flash memory, 16 MB SRAM. 
Processor: 312Mhz Intel XScale processor.
Supported Networks: Quad-band support on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks;
Accessories Included: Holster, USB cable, Universal travel charger.

We'll get the word on pricing when the device goes up on the purchasing pages.

BlackBerry-oriented site Pinstack.com has managed to get ahold of several photos from the recent Vodafone BlackBerry 8707v launch party in Frankfurt, Germany.

Because some of these photos show theme screens in actual use, rather than set up for display at a photographer's studio, they are more informative than photos you might find on the Vodafone or BlackBerry site. Admittedly, the lighting conditions for enthusiast-supplied (rather than vendor-supplied) art is less than perfect, but there's that sense of realism, you know.

I selected the most relevant photo of the 8707v I could find from this Pinstack post, and am passing it along here.

No, that's not a ghost.

Not exactly what you would call "high-res," but BlackBerry Cool was first with a link to a YouTube video of Jim Balsillie's Monday's keynote introducing the world's first-ever UMTS BlackBerry 8707v to Germany.

The Research In Motion co-CEO gives Vodafone their props, and talked up the device as an ideal solution for enterprises tat feel the need to "re-engineer their processes."

Jim added that because of Vodafone's leadership worldwide, that's an overarching reason he showed up to officially debut the new 8707v.

Research In Motion and Vodafone officially announced the BlackBerry 8707v in Germany today. Device should go on sale shortly.

I am traveling, but wanted to let you know about it anyway.

More deets tonight when I get home.