RIM announced today its latest BlackBerry 9000, also known as the BlackBerry Bold. Due to its black color enclosed in a chrome border, it’s hard not to notice the similarity between it and the iPhone.

The BlackBerry Bold is not putting up a fight without being well-prepared. It has 3.5G HSDPA support, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, 480×320 resolution screen (twice the resolution of the most recent BlackBerry Curve), physical QWERTY keyboard, trackball located under the screen, full-featured desktop-style web browser, 2MP camera with video recording capabilities, built-in camera flash, and 5x digital zoom. Definitely a worthy competitor to the iphone.

Unfortunately for RIM, the BlackBerry Bold has yet to have an official launch date. The iPhone will be upgraded with new features very soon, and we don’t know how shiny the Bold would look by then.

Apple has signed deals with four major telecommunication companies in four countries to help the company surpass its iPhone sales goal of 10 million units by the end of 2008.

Singapore’s SingTel, India’s Bharti Airtel, Phillipines’ Globe Telecom, and Australia’s Optus, will begin carrying the iPhone “later this year.” A specific date has yet to be announced.

And it is safe to assume that the model would be a new 3G-enabled one, since 3G is the industry standard for this part of the world.

Good news for you patient ones still waiting for its official launch. Bad news for my soon-to-be-unexclusive iPhone.

In response to Apple announcing the iPhone being launched in Canada, the SmashOurStuff team assassinated an iPhone on the main stage (just prior to the 420 countdown) at the Toronto Freedom Festival/Global Marijuana March.

The fans were so hyped that somebody actually threw their iPod onto the stage to be destroyed as well!

To stay loyal to the Apple gods means you have to live with the non-removable batteries on your iPods and iPhones. Bringing the USB cable along with you everywhere is good if you expect to have computer access to get some charge from its USB port, but not too helpful if you are out, let’s say, on a safari. In that case, the RichardSolo Smart Backup Battery is an indispensable accessory.

Features

• Made for iPod licensed 30-pin connector
• Compatible with iPod touch and all other iPod devices except for the iPod shuffle
• Gives you up to double the battery time
• Small and lightweight for pocket, purse or briefcase
• High-quality aluminum case virtually scratch-proof
• Snaps on to iPod instantly — no bulky cable
• Begins to charge your Apple device immediately
• Battery pack includes both AC adapter [110-240V] wall charger and USB retractable charging cable
• USB retractable cable connects Smart Backup Battery directly to computer’s USB port or AC wall adapter for convenient charging
• Charge the Smart Backup Battery and iPod together [the iPod will charge first and then the backup battery — the next morning both are completely charged]
• Lithium-ion technology does not develop “memory” so you can charge often
• Smart, automatic on/off charging technology protects the battery from overcharging
• Advanced circuitry keeps battery cool to touch
• Blue, green, red LEDs indicate charging status
• 90-day warranty from RichardSolo.com

Test Results

From a fully charged RichardSolo battery, it took about 1hr 18min to finish transferring all its power to the iPhone. Not too shabby in my opinion, as its compact size allows you to plug it in and put your gadget aside. And the charge brought the iPhone from about 5% of battery life to about 60%. Not as much as advertised, but useful enough.

Conclusion

So now, I have more battery life on my iPhone than before, allowing me to watch more YouTube videos and surf the internet for longer hours. I find it particularly useful for watching videos, as we tend to forget about the battery life as our eyeballs get glued to the videos, and you may run into the problem of a flat iPhone/iPod unintentionally. With the battery, you get an emergency reservoir of power to tap into.

For sale online at US$49.95.

iPhone Bluetooth Headset
Bluetooth headset. How can we ever live without one? It keeps your hands free for PSP’ing, blogging, putting on make-up, or even picking your nose. It offers 5.5 hours of talk time and up to 72 hours of standby time with its built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

The headset comes with a iPhone Dual Dock and an iPhone Bluetooth Travel Cable.

Price: $129

Apple USB Power Adapter
Charge your iPhone even without a computer with this USB Power Adapter. This is already included in the iPhone package. It comes with an Apple Dock Connector to USB Cable.

Price: $29

iPhone Dock
Docks are great. They allow you to put your phone in an upright position to easily glance at who called or sms’ed. They allow you to simply slot your phone in instead of fumbling with cables. The iPhone Dock also has built-in powered speakers for playing the tunes on your iPhone.

Price: $49

Apple Dock Connector to USB Cable
For connecting your iPhone to your computer or through a Dock. One is included in iPhone’s package.

Price $19

iPhone Dual Dock
Also included in the iPhone Bluetooth Headset, the iPhone Dual Dock allows you to charge both your iPhone and your Bluetooth Headset at the same time. Another difference between this and the iPhone Dock is that this one does not has built-in powered speakers.

Price: $49

iPhone Universal Dock Adapter 3-Pack
Do you have products that make use of iPod’s Universal Dock system? If so, you may want some of these to allow them to work with your iPhone too.

Price: $9

iPhone Stereo Headset
Just like our favorite iPod headphones, but with a mic. It allows you to answer and end calls, and control basic music functions. It is already included in the iPhone package.

Price: $29.

iPhone Bluetooth Travel Cable
Instead of using the iPhone Dual Dock, this is another way to charge your iPhone and your Bluetooth Headset both at the same time.

Price: $29

iPhone TTY Adapter
TTY stands for Text Telephone. It is a technology that allows the hearing or speech impaired to communicate through telephone by texting. The iPhone TTY Adapter lets you plug your iPhone to any TTY devices.

Price: $19

With the iPhone just one day away, all you Apple fanboys must be really excited. And thanks to Gizmodo, here is a big list of what features the iPhone has:

• Built-in iPod with Video playback
• Intelligent predictive typing
• Multi-touch interface (fast)
• Great scratch resistant screen (easily cleaned with your sleeve)
• Tilt sensors that lock the screen when up to your face, but unlocks it when you lower it to type numbers
• Screen that’s visible in direct sunlight
• Software upgrades over time
• Decent voice quality
• Call and song control from its headphones
• Viewing Word, Excel and PDF documents
• Free live traffic in Google Maps
• Turn by turn directions that simulate a GPS (need to tell the phone when you’re turning)
• Dedicated volume control and mute switch
• Microsoft Exchange support if your IT staff enables a setting on the server
• Push email via Yahoo Mail
• Syncing via Outlook calendar and contacts through iTunes (works even on Vista with the latest Outlook)
• Ability to play with other applications while you talk
• Good battery life
• A “real” browser
• Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, EarthLink, and various other email support
• Visual voicemail (support for rewinding, fast forwarding like a song)
• YouTube support
• Decent 2-megapixel camera
• It’s thin
• Lots of eye candy
• Conference call with up to 5 people
• Built-in speakers if you don’t want to use headphones
• Quicktime support in Safari
• Activating the phone requires iTunes and internet access
• A speakerphone

And here are the features confirmed by Apple that will not make it into the phone:

• Support for all iPod accessories—doesn’t support all car adapters for playing back, only charging
• An easy way to transfer phone numbers, via AT&T, from an existing phone
• Copy and paste support
• MP3/iTunes music ringtones
• Built-in game support
• Flash support anywhere (including browser)
• Instant Messaging
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Video recording
• Voice recognition or voice dialing
• Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP support)
• One-size-fits-all headset jack (May have to buy an adapter for certain headphones)
• 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)
• A hardware keyboard
• GPS
• Removable battery
• Expandable Storage
• Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE)
• BlackBerry support
• Flash or zoom on the camera
• Windows Media support

No MP3 ringtone support kinda sucks. But other than that, everything just looks so sweet!

Let the countdown begin…

Some of you might be thinking, “does that mean iPhone can run Flash?” Well the answer is no. YouTube is currently converting its videos to H.264. By June 29, which is iPhone’s launch date, over 10,000 of YouTube’s videos will be available in H.264 format, ready to be watched on your spanking new iPhone. And by fall, most, if not all, of YouTube’s videos will be H.264-ready.

As for Apple TV users, a free software update is already available now using Apple TV’s built-in software update feature.

It’s finally here. Watch the WWDC 2007 Video Stream.

Leopard

• New Menubar
• New 3D Dock
• Stacks – keeps your desktop clean
• Consistent window look
• Prominent active window
• New Finder with Quick Look, Sidebar, and Cover Flow View
• Leopard is 64-bit
• Ships with Boot Camp
• New iChat
• Time Machine – search back in time for lost files, backups entire hard drive automatically
• WebClip – Easy way to create your own Dasboard widgets
• Spaces – Multiple desktops

Safari

• New Safari 3 Public Beta
• Windows version now available
• Many new features such as SnapBack, Private Browsing, and blazing performance

iPhone

• Full support for Web 2.0 and AJAX
• No iPhone SDK