T-Mobile has launched the much awaited 8820 today. I was just reading about it on phonemag.com. What is interesting is that the 8100 black and white version are out of stock. Maybe they are planning to add the 8120 series soon? Rumors have been abound…

You can pick up the 8820 currently from T-Mobile’s website for $349 after rebate. You should also be seeing it in stores soon. Businesses will like the lack of a camera on the phone. Until now their only option for a camera-less BlackBerry was the older 8700 series. 

While AT&T has had this device for months already T-Mobile is the only one with UMA. So now you can make UMA calls over WiFi with the new 8820. Finally a use for the WiFi on the device. Personally the only use for WiFi that I have found for other carriers is for international use of BlackBerry email without roaming charges.

Apple was being quite evil over the past few weeks. I guess they don’t have Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” mantra. They have been trying to push Safari as an “update” to any user who had iTunes installed. I guess Safari is now an update.

The crazy part is that if Microsoft tried doing such a thing people would be up in arms. I guess that is where Slashdot gets its fuel for its “Wrath Of The Apple Tribe” rant. I wonder if we have an Wrath Of The RIM Tribe?

The articles linked above are some pretty good reading. Just thought we would share…

While there is always the free BBweather, BBsync reminded me about another free application called WeatherEye to get your weather fix. The application is free but the downside is that it is ad supported so there will be cute little ads on the bottom of your weather.

Check out the screenshots below and above

The cool feature is that it changes the icon on your homescreen based on the current forecast. Pretty nifty! Personally I still recommend BBweather but WeatherEye is worth a mention. For some reason the short term forecast does not work only the long term. Also the long term forecast only lets you see 5 days unlike BBweather which lets you see up to 10.

You can pick up WeatherEye free OTA at this link.

A post by Robert Hamilton on the Google Mobile blog brought an old issue to mind. Robert describes how lowered latency brought people to use Google Mobile search more often.

First of all I have to describe what Latency is for most people. Latency is the time it takes between your device making a request and it getting a response. This is the reason it takes forever for you to download pages on your mobile device. This is because latency on most smartphones is 5–8 times higher than DSL and Cable internet. So even if you have the same speed connection it still feels slow.

Google decided to help with this problem by addressing latency on their end. They did this by minimizing requests and other optimizations. They also promoted their Google search plugin for BlackBerry which is a simple Google search box in an application. Nothing revolutionary compared to Beyond411.

The real approach to this has to be done by our cellphone carriers and manufacturers. For example EVDO was a big step forward bringing latency to around 200–300ms, HSDPA will bring it to about 100ms, & I think EVDO Rev A brought it to around 75–100. The problem is that compared to broadband internet with latency of ~40ms that we are used to. This is the reason I cannot wait for HSDPA to come to BlackBerrys near you.

I think that once carriers and handset manufacturers fix the latency difference between broadband and mobile broadband they will truly see an increase in mobile data usage.

(BTW that is a live Roadrunner pictured above.  I could not resist… Beep-Beep!)

I picked up this handy little application from BlackBerry Forums Australia. The Oanda FXConverter is a little OTA free program that converts currencies in real time. Once you have downloaded the program, it’s just a matter for dialing in the 2 different currencies and amounts you want to convert and the software does the rest.

There are 164 different currencies to choose from and the data is up-to-the-second update. There is even a rate information button that gives you the breakdown on what you should expect to pay when you are buying and selling currencies.

The link is : http://mobile.sweetcaesar.com/ . (Just type it into your browser on your BlackBerry and click) It is in Beta but I have yet to find any bugs with it and it is working well on my 8310 Curve. This is a very handy program for those that travel a lot or when you are purchasing goods from overseas via the internet and need to find out if that bargain really is a bargain…Oh, and talking about bargains… This application is Free…There’s no better deal than that…Enjoy…

OtterBox have just put out a press release regarding their range of cases for BlackBerry products. It is more or a ‘case study ‘ (pun intended) of feedback from a customer in the medical industry. I’m sure the OtterBox has been used before now in hospitals and medical institutions but in this case, the customer has taken the time to sit down and put pen to paper and write about her experience.

I still use mine every day in the construction industry and still have no issues with it. Sure, it doesn’t look as bright and shiny as when I first received it but it has not missed a beat and put up with everything I have thrown at it.

Anyway, If you want to read the full article just hit the JUMP…

Read the rest of this article

Remember that theme giveaway contest we have going on? We will be giving away two copies of the commercial Linux (Xubuntu) Theme. Check out the details at this link. Submissions end tonight.

Check out the details on the original post for more info. Don’t forget to leave a comment there to win!

Due to the level of interest in the Bplay Crossbar theme we mentioned we thought you would be interested in this latest update. Bplay has an update version of the Crossbar theme that has fixed the issues reported with WiFi 8820/8320 BlackBerrys and with cutoff dates on the 8100 series devices.

One of our contacts at Magmic just let me know that they have a fixed version available. If you have already purchased the theme you can receive the update by contacting support at www.bplay.com/support