Disqus
A clever tester has spotted the installation file for the Visual Voicemail app for the upcoming (but unannounced) BlackBerry 9650 Tour, also known as the Essex. If you’re quick, you can nab it now before it gets taken down, though unless you’re some leet haxxzor who can look around in the code and find something useful, odds are you won’t be able to do much with it.
The BlackBerry 9650 will essentially be an updated Tour, including a trackpad and Wi-Fi, and though it hasn’t been officially announced, it’s only pseudo-secret. Sprint’s CEO acknowledged it openly, and pictures of the device have been making the rounds for some time now. BlackBerry’s official Facebook page even said the new Tour was coming soon. As far as specifications are concerned, we can expect that they’ll largely be identical to the existing Tour: 3.2 megapixel camera, 256 MB of memory, GPS, HVGA display, and the usual BlackBerry amenities.
It’s a good thing that the Tour is getting updated with a trackpad, because the old one had a terrible record with trackball failures, and the lack of Wi-Fi put a real crimper on my enjoyment of the original phone. We don’t have any fresh information on an actual launch date, but it seems like things are reaching a critical mass, at both RIM and the carriers (Sprint and Verizon).
[RT @mikerlawson via BerryScoop, pic]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
