The Blackberry Storm is now the most popular and eagerly anticipated handset in the UK so we decided to compile a list of the Top 10 Offers for those of you interested in getting your hands on the BlackBerry Storm.

The official UK retail partners are Phones4U & Dial-a-Phone (click to view their full lists of offers).

The Top 3 Deals:

1. £35 per month, Free handset, 600 minutes, unlimited texts from Dial-a-Phone
2. £40 per month, 600 minutes, 3000 texts, free 8GB memory card, free handset from Phones4U (18 or 24 month contract).
3. £40 per month, 600 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited internet & email, free handset Dial-a-Phone

If you spot any better deals please post in the comments.

The Blackberry storm is already set to the the top selling handset of the month and will rival the iPhone as a business handset. Lots of business users already love their Blackberries so switching to the Storm will be a better option than the iPhone for them.

Features of the Blackberry Storm can be seen below:

• 3.25″ Touchscreen (480 x 360)
• Accelorometer
• Visual Qwerty keyboard
• 3.2 Megapixel Camera
• Integrated GPS with A-GPS functionality
• 1GB Onboard memory with MicroSD support
• 624 MHz Processor
• 3G
• EDGE
• Built in Handsfree
• Bluetooth
• 3.5mm Stereo Headphone Jack
• Mini-Usb connectivity

Sources:
Blackberry Storm Review
Blackberry Storm Announced

The Blackberry Storm isn’t even in the shops yet (although you can order online and buy it at Phones4U stores on Friday) and yet it’s already overtaken the iPhone, Nokia N96 and the Google Phone as the most popular handset people are searching for online.

I captured the data below from our companies Hitwise account to illustrate the growth in search traffic for the Blackberry Storm. Click for the full size image.

The big question is - can the Blackberry Storm maintain this level of interest for the next 6 months or longer like the iPhone has?

As rumoured last week we now have confirmation that the Blackberry Storm will be in the shops on Friday.

You can also pre-order from tomorrow on the Phones4u Blackberry Storm page or via Vodafone.

The Blackberry storm is already set to the the top selling handset of the month and will rival the iPhone as a business handset. Lots of business users already love their Blackberries so switching to the Storm will be a better option than the iPhone for them.

Features of the Blackberry Storm can be seen below:

• 3.25″ Touchscreen (480 x 360)
• Accelorometer
• Visual Qwerty keyboard
• 3.2 Megapixel Camera
• Integrated GPS with A-GPS functionality
• 1GB Onboard memory with MicroSD support
• 624 MHz Processor
• 3G
• EDGE
• Built in Handsfree
• Bluetooth
• 3.5mm Stereo Headphone Jack
• Mini-Usb connectivity

Image via Dialaphone.

According to recent reports the Blackberry Storm will be coming to the UK on 7th November. Widely anticipated as the best Blackberry phone of the last year we are looking forward to doing a full test of the handset.

Retailers in the UK are getting pages up in preparation and Vodafone are already promoting the device with TV and online advertising campaigns.

Features of the Blackberry Storm can be seen below:

• 3.25″ Touchscreen (480 x 360)
• Accelorometer
• Visual Qwerty keyboard
• 3.2 Megapixel Camera
• Integrated GPS with A-GPS functionality
• 1GB Onboard memory with MicroSD support
• 624 MHz Processor
• 3G
• EDGE
• Built in Handsfree
• Bluetooth
• 3.5mm Stereo Headphone Jack
• Mini-Usb connectivity

Resources:
Blackberry Storm Review
Blackberry Storm product page
Blackberry Storm Announced

BlackBerry Pearl has actually gone a long way in positioning their formerly business centric handset much closer to their customers. Although the cell phone requires a monthly subscription with BlackBerry black end support it is however more to appeal the customers through its excellent value added features. The latest version of T-mobile is much like the previous AT&T model but is does not support its HotSpot@Home service but is lets you make calls through a wireless network which is much convenient. This means that you are also not restricted to web browsing with its excellent EDGE speed. This new BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is designed with several other improvements that include a much clear 2 megapixel camera that offers video recording competence and a better web browser that makes it a perfect upgrade over the original Pearl.

Design

In addition to its gray paint and drab job the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is much identically like the AT&T model with pretty matching dimensions. The compact size of the cell phone continues to be the main draws for the device. The 2.25 inch display features auto light sensing technology which means that it would automatically adjust the backlight according to the surrounding environment. Below the display there is SureType keyboard including navigation range of end and talk keys with back button, the trackball and the blackberry menu shortcut. There is a headphone jack, microSD expansion slot, USB port and a customizable convenience key which by default launches voice dialing at the left of the cell phone.

Features

The new BlackBerry Pearl 8120 have been designed on the success of their original BlackBerry Pearl by including a number of excellent features specially the integrated Wi-Fi. This smartphone would easily support 802.11a/b/g supports as it also includes enterprise security feature. There are also the VPN, WPA and WEP settings. With the addition of Wi-Fi has particularly proved much of its success as it offers you an alternative connection for web browsing. This feature which is coupled with the enhanced web browser of Pearl 8120 would make a smoother and better mobile internet browsing experience.

The cell phone being a quad-band world phone it offers you excellent calling features like speakerphone, speed dial, voice-activated dialing, conference calling, smart dialing and multimedia and text messing. This smart phone is also equipped wit the latest spell check features that monitors the errors in memos and email and not text messages. There is also an attachment viewer which would open all the popular file formats. If you are among the instant messaging fans then you will be impressed to know that the Pearl 8120 also includes popular instant messaging clients like Google talk, yahoo and AIM.

The cell phone also comes with a number of entertainment options. Firstly the in built media player would let you enjoy your favorite music in most of the popular formats. It includes functions like playlist creation, search function, repeat, shuffle and a full screen playback for your videos. The expansion slot of the cell phone can accept nearly 8 GB cards.

According to certain respected industry sources the mobile phone giant Nokia might be about to launch a bid for RIM, manufacturers of the Blackberry range of handsets.

The EETimes is a respected publication not often seen reporting rumours unless they have some good evidence.

With Nokia battling to keep ahead of rivals in the competitive smartphone and high end markets the acquisition of RIM would be a good move for the Finnish company.

Nokia are hoping that the N95 will be a good candidate to stand up against the iPhone, now confirmed for launch on June 29th.

Via Boy Genius

Every week experts from WDSGlobal will answer your questions about anything to do with mobile phones, mobile email, video and data plans. If you have a question to ask please either ask in the comments below or email us at datadoctor@mad4mobilephones.com

1) I have been trying to send an MMS from my mobile phone to friends, but I’ve been receiving an error message, just as the progress indicator on the screen suggested that my message had almost been sent. However, this only happens with some contacts on my phone - and not others. Do you know why this is happening, and what can I do to resolve the problem?

There are only a couple of simple reasons why this might be happening repeatedly, and it will only take a few moments to resolve.

The first thing to do is to take a look at each of the telephone numbers in question, and ensure that an 11 digit number is present under the contact’s name. Also, remove any out-of-place characters that should not be present before the telephone number (-, . , {}) and check that the 11 digits have not been accidentally separated with any spaces.

These characters may have entered the telephone number by either human error, or more commonly when synching the phone with your personal address book on your PC. Often, the format of a telephone number can be slightly altered by your PC (when synching) without you even being aware of it.

2) I have just started using a Blackberry, and I cannot work out how to wirelessly synch my Blackberry over the Internet with the calendar on my PC. What do I have to do to get things working?

If you bought your Blackberry device privately, you will not be able to connect wirelessly to your PC to synchronise your calendar, as you will need a Blackberry Enterprise server in order to connect to your account. Until RIM releases a similar service for the home user, your only option will be to continue using the cables that were supplied with your device to synch applications.

3) What are the differences between HSDPA and current connectivity methods like UMTS and EDGE?

HSDPA is the newest of the 3G (third generation) methods of connecting to the internet whilst out and about. Current speeds are around 2mb per second although in theory speeds of 14mb per second are possible.

As this is quite a new standard the service has already been rolled out across the UK networks, as well as the majority of Europe and Asia. This has not been widely advertised as there are only limited devices that currently support the standard. Networks have not been to keen to push the service, possibly due to the slow take-up of 3G and the fact that lots of customers still only use their devices for calls and texts.

Devices that currently support the service include: Palm’s Treo 750, Nokia’s N95, Motorola’s RAZR MAXX and RAZR XX, HTC Tytn and P3600 and NEC’s N902iX

4) I have N73 with lifeblog - Can you explain what this is and what I can do with it?

Lifeblog is a program for Nokia phones that is similar to other solutions such as Yahoo go.

It allows the synchronisation of Contacts, Calendar, Notes and Text messages with your desktop computer.

It also allows you to edit the contents of the phone from your computer; save the best pictures you have taken, have a text message conversation using a full size keyboard, copy your voice recordings and videos and place them on your computer.

Lifeblog can be downloaded from the nokia.com web site and once installed on a compatible Nokia phone and your computer, allows you to create and manage a journal of your recent events.

A well known venture capitalist is claiming to have insider details on
the Google Phone this week.

Simeon Simeonov of Polaris Venture Partners has reported that the
rumoured Google Phone will be Blackberry like and run C++ as well as
offering VOIP.

Simeonov commented:

We first class=boldcopy>reported about the Google Phone in January when
photos were leaked showing an iPhone style touchscreen device.

The phone is apparently going to be a collaboration between Google
and Samsung and is codenamed the “Switch”. Features are likely to
include mobile versions of Google Maps and Gmail as well as an easy to
access search interface.

Google apparently has over 100 employees working on the Google Phone
and has acquired several companies that would help it build a mobile
device.

Quote from News.com:

alt="Google Phone" title="Google Phone">

Via class=boldcopy target="_blank">News.com

According to a recent poll by holiday company Thomson holiday makers are carrying more than £1,500 worth of gadgets to the beach.

Its not just the technophiles — most people are carrying expensive mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, BlackBerry email phones and games consoles in their beach bags nowadays.

These items are now engrained in our lives and most people would not consider travelling without them. Thanks to recent EU pressure using your mobile phone abroad has never been cheaper and we are sure to see a rise in the number of phones actually being used abroad. According to the survey 83 per cent of people would take their mobile phones on holiday.