Man, Kevin’s got some gall getting shots of the unreleased BlackBerry Gemini right at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, RIM’s biggest show of the year. I half expect kevlar-clad PR people to be kicking down his door, flashbangs in hand. Despite ho-hum specs (EDGE-only, 2 megapixel camera sans flash, 320 x 240 display, Wi-Fi), the BlackBerry 8520 certainly sports a lot of design departures for RIM: more rounded corners, new indicator LED, top-mounted music controls, and of course the trackball replacement. Calling it “optical” might be a bit of a misnomer, but the bottom line is that it’s a touch-sensitive pad that might turn your usual habits on its head. Apparently the Gemini will be geared for the lower-end, so expect some competitive pricing when it’s released. When will we see it? Probably not here at WES, but it sure would be nice, wouldn’t it? From what I’ve been hearing, we won’t see the BlackBerry 9630, which, although I wasn’t hugely stoked about it, will be a major downer for CDMA subscribers who had their eye on it. We’ll have to wait to see what tomorrow’s keynote reveals.
[via CB]