Given the love that BlackBerrys get from the suit and tie set, chances are that more than a few of you are frothing at the mouth at the very thought of laying hands on the as-yet-unannounced BlackBerry 9000 [1] and its built-in BlackBerry OS 4.x. Well, somebody out there has one in their pocket as we speak: two BlackBerry 9000 units appeared on eBay a few days ago, only to disappear after a few hours (it's unclear whether the auctions ended or if eBay pulled the listings at RIM's insistence). Regardless, the photos in the auction looked quite legit and the units pictured are nearly identical to those seen in previous "spy shots." According to the auction listing, the 9000 will feature 3G (HSDPA), EDGE, WiFi and Bluetooth. The Boy Genius Report goes one further, claiming that A-GPS will also be thrown into the mix, along with a microSD card slot and a 2-megapixel camera. That's a lot of wireless radios for a BlackBerry, so it's not surprising to hear that the device is currently experiencing some battery life issues. Pending the resolution of those problems, RIM should have this one out the door by July or August.
For more on the BlackBerry 9000:
- see this Engadget article [2]
- and this Boy Genius Report article [3]