Verizon Shares Release Plans for BlackBerry Torch 9850

Sprint added RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9850 to its lineup late last month, but the smartphone has been taking it's good, sweet time to show up at Verizon. We've seen the 9850 depicted in leaked Verizon promotional material, but haven't been privy to just when the carrier might introduce the model itself. Today our questions have been answered, with Verizon announcing the Torch 9850's arrival to its lineup beginning September 8.

Starting this Thursday, you'll be able to place an order for the 9850 online through Verizon's site. It will be another week, until September 15, that the smartphone will also be available for sale in brick-and-mortar Verizon stores.

Unlike Sprint, with its 9850 fetching about $150 on-contract, Verizon subscribers will have to pony-up a little more to get their hands on the phone, thanks to sticker price of around $200 with service agreement. That's unfortunate, but the price doesn't seem that unreasonable when comparing the hardware – with a 1.2GHz processor, 3.7-inch WVGA screen, and 720p-video-capable camera – against that of some of the Android smartphones Verizon currently carries.

Motorola Lets Loose Droid 2 Global Gingerbread Update

Motorola kicked-off September by finally releasing an official Gingerbread update for last year's Droid 2. This was some much-needed good news, following a summer of missteps when it came to getting the promised Gingerbread updates out to many older members of the Droid clan. With the Droid 2 taken care of, it only seemed logical that we would see the Droid 2 Global soon tapped to get an update of its own. Less than a week later, Motorola has now announced that distribution of the D2G's Gingerbread has begun.

So far, there are no indications that we could be looking at a repeat of June's false start, when Verizon looked ready to start sending a D2G Gingerbread update out at any moment, only for Motorola to step up and announce that no such release was imminent. Since then, it seems like Motorola's largely worked out whatever issues it was having with Verizon and update approval, and things have been going more smoothly.

As per usual, the update is scheduled for distribution in stages; no word on how long it might take to reach everyone. In the meantime, you can check out the release notes up on Verizon's support page for the phone, detailing what you can expect post-update.

Samsung Nexus Prime UAProf Lists WVGA Resolution

Samsung has already basically confirmed its involvement in the development of the Google Nexus Prime -- the Ice Cream Sandwich-powered successor to the Nexus S -- and now the device's user agent profile has surfaced. The big news here, besides the fact that the name for GT-I9250's UAProf is nexusprime.xml, is the rather surprising (and perhaps disappointing) listing of a 480x800 WVGA resolution.

Now, it's certainly possible that Samsung falsified the information here, under the assumption that this document would be made public; after all, the MMS Max Image Resolution, which is usually the same as the main camera's resolution, is listed at just 1200x1600 -- and we can be fairly certain that Prime will be able to capture images greater than two megapixels.

We've seen HTC begin to omit nearly all identifying information from its pre-release device UAProfs, so it would not be out of the question for Samsung to do the same. And with the rumor mill putting Prime at 720p -- the same as next-generation handsets like the Motorola Droid HD and HTC Vigor -- we seriously doubt that Google's next flagship could feature anything less than a qHD display. 

New HTC Holiday Pics Show Blazing AT&T LTE Speeds

From the first time we heard about the HTCHoliday for AT&T and its rumored specs, it was clear we were looking at one darn capable smartphone. Between a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a big 4.5-inch qHD display, it looked like it would have the hardware to easily stand on its own. Then came the icing on the cake: that the Holiday would be destined for operation on AT&T's fledgling LTE network. Some new pics of the phoneshow it in some of the clearest imagery yet, and we get an idea of just what speeds will be possible on AT&T LTE.

Thankfully, this Holiday is in much better condition then the damaged model that popped up for sale online last month. Though it's nice enough to see the screen all pristine and un-shattered, it's what on it that we're interested in. Besides showing the phone's data connection to AT&T's LTE network, we also get a look at the results of a speed test that show some blistering performance: nearly 30Mbps down, faster than many home broadband connections. Upload speeds are no slouch, either, at around 6.5Mbps, but we can't help but wonder how both those numbers will hold up to the strains on the network as it fills with users.

We're still not sure just when the Holiday will arrive, but it will likely be sometime in Q4. There's also an international version of the phone we're keeping an eye out for, which should hit the scene as the HTC Raider. 

 

BlackBerry App World 3.0 Leaves Beta

About a month ago, RIM released the new version 3.0 of App World for BlackBerry smartphones to the BlackBerry Beta Zone. As users checked out the pre-release version of the app store, we wondered when the final build of 3.0 might leave beta and become accessible to all. A rumor suggested that RIM might make its move on August 22, but that date came and went with AppWorld remaining in the Beta Zone. Then finally, earlier this morning word broke that the official release of App World 3.0 would be happening today, and sure enough, the app has since been released to the public.

If you haven't been following the development of App World 3.0, you can look forward to a UI redesign and the addition of new social networking tools; those let you share the apps you've discovered with friends via the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Even if you're stuck finding new apps on your own, the new presentation of app categories is designed to make your task just a bit easier.

Let us know what you think of the new App World 3.0 after you give it a spin for a bit. Are the changes worthwhile, or are you wishing it had some big new feature like some past releases?