I see a ton of people posting and asking in forums “why can’t a bold 9000 run os 6.0?” and it’s a very good question. I’ll be the first to say I’ve looked too. I think rim is making some big mistakes by not making another modern bold 9000.

The keyboard and screen size were perfect.

The original bold has the same processor as the 9700 and even the torch! In fact the only reason an old bold can’t run os 6.0 is the fact that it only has 128mb ram. The bold 9700 can run os 6.0 but it’s buggy and not ideal because it only has 256mb ram.

The two official os 6.0 devices are the 9780 and the 9800 and they both have 512mb on board memory.

We all wish the old bold could be modernized with better battery life, an upgraded browser and a bit higher resolution but at this moment it’s not in the cards.

However the bold 9780 is the next best thing.

Blackberry Operating System 6.0

Sorry for the delays in writing, we’ve had a new member to the family scheduled to arrive for a while now, but he/she’s 6 days overdue so I’m going to just jump right into the most exciting topic on the Blackberry calendar.

At the WES 2010 speech, CEO Mike Lazaridis revealed the launch of Blackberry OS 6.0, but he didn’t reveal too much about their new operating system. A few leaks and some videos indicate some quite shocking news, though.

Things like:

* Unified search (search built into every app blackberry wide)
* Youtube support
* More menu animations, more transparency
* Wifi UBS support with geo-coding and zip code stuff
* Bar code scanning features
* trackpad gestures
* Camera and focus features
* Social media features
* Tabbed browsing similar to Safari

courtesy of Mobiclue.com

There’s a video on Youtube as well:

Can we expect Blackberry OS 6.0 on older devices like the Bold 9000?

I think the short answer is no, although there’s no official information out, it sounds like the aim of many of the features contained in the new operating system are aimed at touch screens and trackpads. Perhaps even only trackpads… It’s been reported in many places and in many forums that The Bold 9700, Blackberry 9550, Blackberry Storm2 and other phones WILL get the upgrade and it’s an exciting time again to be a Blackberry fan, what’s not exciting is the timing…

Blackberry should have had operating system 6.0 out long ago, and operating system 5.0 wasn’t much of a feature upgrade but more of a neccesary basic overhaul. If the new operating system performs as well as the video’s show and indicate, we could be in for a VERY exciting time. However, I’m still not overly impressed with the OS entirely. It still seems much of the same. No dramatic changes. It’s still just enough for me to wait a few more months before considering Android.

More Blackberry OS 6.0 Rumors…

Apparently some are reporting that The Bold 9700 will not be running the full version of OS 6.0 as it requires 512MB RAM and the Bold 9700 only has 256MB…  RIM has said that Operating system 6.0 should be here in Q3 of 2010. It’s sad that iPhone OS 4.0 with multi-tasking will be out before the Blackberry flagship operating system that’s trying to carry the Blackberry good name into 2010 on shaky ground with Android and iPhone devices catching up super fast into the business world. The iPhone already supports a ton of enterprise level features and networking features and security options that once made the Blackberry so Famous. There’s still plenty a Blackberry can do that an iPhone can’t, but there’s a gaining list of what an iPhone offers, that Blackberry doesn’t… Namely in it’s web browsing experience and software availability.

The web browser uses the new WebKit features which of course may require other hardware and processing power that we’re not quite sure yet the Bold 9000 or Bold 9700 will have. Stay tuned as I will try and keep everyone up to date on this news. It’s very exciting and not that far away.

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Update… Several reports are out now showcasing the Bold 9700 running OS 6.0 pretty well. I admit I have not tried OS 6.0 on a Bold 9700, I have tried it on the 9780 (Which is essentially the same phone but with a 5mp camera and twice the ram), and I think it would be hard to bare without the extra ram….

I mentioned in a previous post recently that it’s now proven it’s *NOT* Possible to run OS 6.0 on a 9000 only due to RAM on board. Everything else on the phone would technically support it just fine. Sad, I know. We all wish they’d release a bold 9000 with 0s 6.0 because that thing was a killer beast to type on.

Nah, seriously that headline was just a joke spun from that famous college kid video getting pulled away as the cops “Taze” him. I’m not knocking this product, not for 20 seconds. It’s probably one of the most best kept secrets (and it shouldn’t be!) of the online community. If they sent me one of these tomorrow, I would document the whole process of use and how powerful this thing is and probably write a post titled 47 ways to get the most out of your Tazzle.

This brilliant device is truly remarkable. Just as it says on there, view, print and send. I’m pretty sure this works via Bluetooth, but regardless… How many times have you fumbled to find your uplink cable? I know I have…

How many times have you been out and about and don’t feel like carrying that big bulky USB cable around? This thing would easily hide in your wallet or somewhere and any time any place you can pop it out and send pictures, documents or emails or anything to a PC. You really gotta check this out for yourself to see all the benefits of the Tazzle product.

Tazzling Saves Time!
Get the Tazzle IT USB-Key!

I had no idea that services like this existed, but it sure is comforting to know that they do…
Check out their home page by clicking on the banner on the right there…They have a picture of a Bold 9000 on a stretcher that looks like it was made in the 1960s haha.

Whether you dropped your Blackberry into a toilet, a water fountain or some dish water – Or you drove over it with your car, stepped on it or some other tragedy – these guys can get your data back…

Why is that so critically important? In today’s day and age, It’s too easy to break a smartphone and loose everything. Paid for applications, precious pictures of your little ones, or videos of your friend doing something worthy of future blackmail that you just can’t afford to loose! (Grin).

Regardless, what’s most impressive about this Californian company is their “can’t recover it, money back guarantee”. These guys got started in the business reverse-engineering other pda and cell phone type devices so there’s little doubt they can’t recover yours should you require it.

They currently don’t’ have a Bold 9700 Option, but I’d recommend using the Bold 9000 option as it has the same internals, processor and memory and would really be a similar process to recover in a smaller case.

If you do end up requiring their service, email me and let me know how it goes and how smooth the process is, I’d love to update this post with more information.

UPDATE: Just spoke with Tim Goggin @ Recoverymysmartphone.com and they DO service the Bold 9700 and even the Tour2 Essex 9650 (same technology essentially as the original tour but with better camera & trackpad instead of trackball).

Don’t hesitate to work with these guys… My first hand experience with data recovery outfits always winds up with a costly bill. These folks are simply not the case… You can expect to pay up to $1000 for detailed and engineer level data recovery, so being under $200 is impressive.

(GET My Broken, Water Damaged, Cracked, Distroyed Cell Phone Data Recovered – Click Here)

Bplay – Magmic – World Series Of Poker

Probably one of the best Texas Hold’em style games available for blackberry, and made by Magmic it’s not surprising the graphics are probably the best your going to get on this one. The game play is unreal and this one won’t slow your unit down.

World Series of Poker: Hold’em Legend

Ace’s Texas Hold’Em No Limit -

Thought of as one of the hardest games to master, this game has reasonable graphics, but that’s not really where it shines. It has many more deep level options and settings that can be adjusted, learning opponents that get harder and harder and bluff and do real human emotional trigs as well. Worth checking out, but definitely not as pretty as Magmic’s Poker Game.

This game also wins in the statistics department, there’s much detail of hands played, hands won, folds, raises, tournament wins, etc. For the price, it’s the most affordable poker game for the blackberry available on the market at the moment.

Aces Texas Hold’em Download

Hard Rock Casino Collection Poker

Graphics galore, I swear the collection doesn’t get any better with intense graphics, but this one takes out the human element entirely. They’ve got a poker game that’s really emulating the VLT or Video lottery terminals you see everywhere. Yes, video poker sounds boring, but when you combine that with amazing graphics for blackjack, and realistic roulette you have yourself a package that’s really under priced. For $9.95 you get poker, blackjack, roulette and slots with extreme detail… beat that anywhere with this level of quality, it’s hard to do.

Hard Rock Casino Collection Download

The E-mobile Live Aquarium is certainly a sight to be seen, and can easily rival anything Bplay’s got going on for their saltwater app. This is a must see… Like having your own fish tank right on the screen. Impressive and shocking color and animation with no slow down. Breathtaking graphics… Any Bold user who loves to show off will really like this one.

These guys also make these too:

e-Mobile Live Deep Sea

e-Mobile Live Windmill

e-Mobile Live Spring

e-Mobile Live Waterfall

e-Mobile Live Seashore

e-Mobile Live Halloween

e-Mobile Live Night Sky

e-Mobile Live Sky

e-Mobile Live Lake

e-Mobile Live Snow

e-Mobile Live Bird

e-Mobile Live Butterfly

e-Mobile Live City

e-Mobile Live Stream

Download E-Mobile Fish Tank Today!

If you are, I’ve got an amazing theme software to show you! Don’t worry, I’m not knocking blackberry addicts in this post… This is more of a here you go!

The home screen even with the 18 icon home screen is probably not supporting enough instant updates and constant action to help you with the feeding frenzy of contacts and information flowing to your berry each day, is it?

Think about it…

• MSN Messenger
• Blackberry Messenger
• Skype
• SMS
• 4 different email addresses
• Gmail
• RSS Feed updates
• Yahoo messenger

If you wanna keep tabs on absolutely everything that might update, or that you might miss… You have to check this out. I’m trying to tone down my constantly checking blackberry self… It’s not good with social interaction and such and people get really upset by it… But this at least prevents digging thru your BBerry for all your apps which may be buried somewhere deep in that long list of icons when they could be on the home screen.

This is available for the Bold 9000 but I would imagine this would work fine on the Bold 9700 as well. It’s a little stroke of genius to have all that available to you in such a simple, elegant design.

Download Executive Speed Theme Now

Easily argued as one of the best games to play with a trackpad.. Bejeweled gives some kind of strange and sickly twisted rush when casually flicking the track pad from right to left as you complete a series of 3 shapes. Not only does it flow so nice and sweetly, but it’s a great way to pass the time and won’t leave you frustrated and upset at yourself due to the lack of control that a non-trackball device can sometimes leave you.

I genuinely believe that Bejeweled may very well be the best Bold 9700 game on the market at the moment. It’s one of the few worth paying for. The arcade modes, the advanced levels and the graphics even look better on the Bold 9700 version than on the iPhone version. (iPhone version pictured to the right..).

Download Bejeweled for the Bold 9700 Today!

They have the OTA option there too via SMS to most carriers.

A few weeks ago, I was looking for games to review and was kind of sad to see any descent graphics on the games for the Bold 9700. With a higher resolution screen like this one, games would look brilliant. Video does, after all. That led me to do a series of searches on Google for “Bold 9700 graphics chip..” etc. I of course did read about the whole curve got OpenGL and Bold’s didn’t.. yadda yadda. But that got me thinking… What capabilities DO these things have?

First off, the Bold 9000 and Bold 9700 contain the exact same processor. Let me give you a bit of background on the XScale microprocessor. Marvell currently own’s the design although Intel sold it to them in June of 2006 so it’s still safe to call it an Intel PXA930 as that’s what it really is. It’s the 5th generation of the ARM processor that is so famous in so many windows mobile devices running at 624Mhz – it’s a pretty snappy cpu.

PXA930 was code named Bulverde, and has several interesting features available such as Wireless Speedstep (system can downclock the cpu to save power), Wireless MMX - allowing multimedia, Also has SSE and can act as 16 extra 65bit registers that can be treated as an array of 32-bit words, or four 16-bit halfwords. Additional peripherals are also available such as USB host interface, and camera interface.

Intel announced a successor to the PXA930 in 2005 called the Monahan but it died quickly. At 1.25ghz there was only a 25% increase in horsepower overall. The blackberry bold 9000 and 9700 processor itself is actually based off a processor from 2004. Now nearing 5 years old it’s still surprising what a processor like this can do.

This is the test board for the PXA930. Just from looking at it, you can see the processor’s actually capable of handling a 640×480 LCD, compact flash port, PCMCIA (which you see on older laptops), serial port, audio in and out, usb host port, usb client, sim card, ps2, ethernet port (that’d be nice!), IDE interface, SD port, GPS, touch panel etc…. This is no weak unit.

When the Bold 9700 “Aka Onyx” was announced, it was supposed to be a completely different phone – but I think with the re-use of the PXA930 and some obvious other internals, including the battery, it just made more sense to call it the Bold 2. Yes, sure smaller, faster (OS improvements not hardware improvements), more ram (256MB vs 128MB) and higher resolution screen and camera. But the core structure of the phone itself hasn’t changed. Phonewreck has a complete diagram showing the complete block diagram of how this chip is used and what services are attached to it.

… At least from Bell Mobility! Great job, Bell! At least this is a clear sign that it will be released for other carriers.

As reported from BerryReview, CrackBerry,  Phone’s Review and other sites out there. I mentioned before that I was hoping for Os 5.0 to bring battery improvements to the Bold 9000. There’s no guarantee though so we’ll just have to see how it goes.

This was also one of the reasons I stated that it made sense to buy a Bold 9700 over a Bold 9000 for “futureproof” reasons. However, i’m not sure that’s a big deal now that they’re both officially going to support the latest OS, it’s going to be more of a question of what you like better and if you’re ok with a shortened battery life and lower quality camera.

P.S. – For newbies, yes you can still do the upgrade if you’re not a Bell Mobility customer. Yes, it’s the exact same hardware.