June 29 - 9:30am EDT   Several major cellphone makers today agreed to support a European Union push for a universal charger standard. Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have signed a deal with the European Commission that will see micro USB become the default connector for powering cellphones in the continent. Chipset producers like NEC, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments have also agreed to the deal. [full story]

June 25 - 10:40am EDT   Research in Motion is potentially in trouble as discounts it has been counting on for its smartphones are about to end, according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Citing checks, he claims Verizon's popular buy one, get one (BOGO) promo for the BlackBerry Curve 8330 should end on Saturday the 27th and that it will effectively boost the price of a BlackBerry Storm as a result. Although less expensive than the original $199 launch price, the Storm will move to a fixed $149 price but won't qualify for a BOGO discount that took it down to $99, effectively giving buyers a free extra phone for the Storm's regular price. [full story]

June 18 - 4:40pm EDT   Research in Motion today reported results for its spring quarter that show the company's growth in smartphones cooling down. The company shipped 7.8 million BlackBerries between March and May, or exactly as many as it moved in winter. About 3.8 million of these, or just under half, were new BlackBerry subscribers instead of replacements. [full story]

June 18 - 12:00pm EDT   Demand for smartphones has reached an all-time high thanks to iPhones and the Palm Pre but is hurting the BlackBerry as a result, according to new data from ChangeWave. A mid-June study from the research group has 14.4 percent of those tracked looking to buy some kind of smartphone within the next 90 days, a record high and a large jump from 11.2 percent in March. Of these, a full 44 percent now plan to buy an iPhone compared to 30 percent just three months earlier. [full story]

June 17 - 12:40pm EDT   Research in Motion's Onyx smartphone has been revealed as the BlackBerry 9020, a new report claims. The phone's operating system is said to display the moniker in more recent updates, signifying a firm place within the RIM hierarchy. In particular it is thought that the 9020 will be a successor to the BlackBerry Bold, otherwise known as the 9000. It would also be just the third 9000-series BlackBerry, after the Storm. [full story]

June 16 - 7:20am EDT   Ending a degree of speculation, Research in Motion on Tuesday launched the BlackBerry Tour 9630. The smartphone is the first modern QWERTY keyboard device for CDMA networks and inherits the overall design of the Curve 8900, including its larger 2.44-inch 480x360 screen, but the keys of the Bold. It's also the second 3G world roaming phone for these networks in recent months and has both CDMA and EVDO Revision A for North American carriers but GSM and EDGE for the Americas as well as HSPA for European 3G services. [full story]

June 4 - 1:10pm EDT   Dash Navigation has been acquired, without fanfare, by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, according to GPS Business News. The site claims to have learned the information from a trusted source, who also comments that negotiations are essentially finished. Neither RIM nor Dash have spoken up to confirm or deny any talk of acquisition. [full story]

June 4 - 9:35am EDT   Verizon today at last made public its version of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230. The carrier's version of the clamshell comes only in silver but adds VZ Navigator for using the built-in GPS in addition to RIM's built-in BlackBerry Maps. It also supports Verizon's Visual Voice Mail app for out-of-order messages. [full story]

June 3 - 2:20pm EDT   RIM's BlackBerry Tour is now known to be headed to Canada and has had its specifications confirmed through a late leak. Now due for Bell, a brochure for the smartphone obtained by BGR has both CDMA and EVDO for the carrier's own network but also quad-band GSM and EDGE for basic use in the US; in a conscious decision to limit 3G roaming in the US, though, it would have just 2,100MHz HSPA and so would only support 3G on European networks like Vodafone's. [full story]

May 29 - 3:45pm EDT   Verizon on Friday said it would deliver a key firmware update for the BlackBerry Storm. The 4.7.0.148 patch should be available through RIM's update site at 9AM Eastern on Sunday, May 31st and as an over-the-air download for the phone itself at 4PM the same day. Verizon is vague on details of the fix beyond improving the "overall user experience" but is believed to fix important bugs, including one which would blank the screen or freeze during incoming calls. [full story]

May 28 - 4:10pm EDT   Palm at the D7 event today confirmed that the Pre and likely other webOS phones will sync with Apple software. Running a live demo on stage, Palm's Paul Cousino showed the Pre being recognized in iTunes as a "device" that could sync all but FairPlay-protected music as though it were an iPod. The feature works on both Macs and Windows PCs; on Macs, it can also pull photos from iPhoto and sync those through iTunes. [full story]

May 26 - 7:30am EDT   After an early opening for some areas, Nokia today formally launched the Ovi Store worldwide. Accessible both through the web and through a downloadable app, the service is Nokia's own contender against the iPhone's App Store and puts both third-party apps, N-Gage games, podcasts and videos in a central location. It's primarily intended for Symbian S60 phones such as the 5800 XpressMusic as well as most recent Eseries and Nseries smartphones, including the imminent N97. [full story]

May 24 - 11:00pm EDT   A sweeping set of leaks tonight revealed many of AT&T's planned phone updates for the year, including its first-ever Android phone. The HTC Lancaster (pictured at top) pictured by Engadget should be a variant of the touchscreen Magic with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, AT&T-native 3G, a 3-megapixel camera and GPS. Importantly, it will also be treated as a flagship device: the carrier intends to have a six-month exclusive on the Lancaster before T-Mobile or other US carriers can use it. A launch is tentatively slated for August 3rd. [full story]

May 22 - 4:35pm EDT   Wireless provider Cellular South on Friday is the latest to offer the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 smartphone to its lineup of handsets. The provider will offer the handset in pink and black, which has the same specs as other Flip 8230s, including a 2-megapixel camera, 240x320 pixel LCD internal display in addition to an external display, and a SureType QWERTY keyboard. [full story]

May 21 - 2:10pm EDT   A second leak has today confirmed many details for RIM's sequel to the BlackBerry Storm. Following an earlier slip that confirmed its existence, Engadget vouches that the phone drops the problematic click-down touchscreen in favor of a straightforward model that behaves like the iPhone's, including the feel of its surface and its scrolling. It also continues to have dual-mode CDMA and GSM for roaming outside of Verizon's network. [full story]