Click to View

For months, rumor had it Research In Motion's (RIM) next-generation BlackBerry - the 9000 series - would feature an advanced touch screen, a la the iPhone and HTC touch. Hence, the collective groans of the whole Internet rumor mill when it was discovered that upcoming BlackBerrys would not sport touch input a few weeks ago.

The BGR is now reporting all is not lost. While the upcoming BlackBerry won't have a touch screen, it will feature support for 3G UTMS and 3.5G HSPDA cellulular-wireless data networking for operators that use GSM technology—such as AT&T in the U.S. and the majority of wireless carriers worldwide.

Today's top-of-the-line BlackBerry models with a full QWERTY thumb-keyboard, the Curves, tops out at 2.5 EDGE technology. UTMS/HSPDA will provide a considerable boost in performance for BlackBerry users when they’re accessing e-mail or the Web, for example.

Another significant discovery is that RIM is working on a major update, to version 5.0, of its BlackBerry operating system. BRG predicts the BlackBerry 9000 series will initially ship with BlackBerry OS 4.3—either later this quarter or during the next one—but RIM will provide a platform upgrade to 5.0 before the close of 2008.

No word on what new features and improvements 5.0 may bring to the table, however.

Rumored additional specifications and features of the BlackBerry 9000 series include 480 x 320 pixel resolution color display, 1GB of storage, a 624MHz processor, GPS, and Wi-Fi.

RIM may upgrade the camera to 3.2 megapixels from today's model's 2 megapixel type. The keyboard is rumored to be much improved as well.