“T-Mobile USA is now offering the BlackBerry Pearl in three more colors. This wireless carrier has also launched a new, inexpensive monthly plan just for all its BlackBerry models.Research In Motion’s first smartphone debuted last fall in a black casing, and T-Mobile added a white version early this year. This carrier has now added blue, red, and light gold options.The Pearl sells the same price — $150 with a qualifying service plan and mail-in rebate — no mater what color its casing.Of course, this is the original version of this smartphone, not the updated one that’s expected to hit the market this fall. In a related story, T-Mobile USA has introduced a new monthly wireless service plan for all its BlackBerry smartphones, not just the Pearl.BlackBerry users now have the option to pay $9.99 a month and get unlimited BlackBerry email service. A voice plan is also required, and this service only includes email, not SMS messages or web surfing.”For those customers initially drawn to the sleek look of the device, the new personal email service plan really lets them experience the BlackBerry Pearl’s easy-to-use email features at a compelling price,” said Leslie Grandy, Vice President of Product Development, T-Mobile USA” via brighthand.com
Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson team up on memory card standard
“Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Spansion Inc., STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments announced today that they support the creation of a far-ranging industry specification for removable memory cards and embedded memory solutions being standardized by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association (JEDEC), a leading open-standards organization in the semiconductor industry. JEDEC is well known for its expertise in the standardization of component technologies and solutions.The new specification, dubbed Universal Flash Storage (UFS), reflects the industry’s need for a universal memory solution that removes the need for adaptors to accommodate different removable memory card sizes. Widespread demand for higher densities and higher performance, plus the surging popularity of multimedia content, is accelerating the need for advanced memory solutions as removable card or embedded formats. UFS will provide a revolutionary leap towards supporting very low access times required for memories, as well as enabling high-speed access to large multimedia files, while reducing power-consumption in consumer electronic (CE) devices. The target performance level is expected to be a significant advancement beyond that of the varied flash cards popular today. Today, users experience a three-minute access time for a 90-minute (4 Gigabyte) high-definition movie; with the new standard, this would be reduced to a few seconds.Major applications such as mobile handsets, digital still cameras and other CE devices will benefit from the convenience of a universal open standard based specification that is intended to reduce the time-consuming process of enabling interoperability among the various types of removable and embedded memory solutions at the system level. UFS is planned to provide consumers in the future with the convenience of a unified removable memory card that can be shared among various mobile, portable and other CE devices without the need for any adaptors.The UFS standard is expected to be finalized in 2009.” via engadgetmobile.com