RIM Trots Out Most Powerful Bold Lineup Yet

 

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones also include a 5 megapixel camera and a built-in compass to support location-based services and augmented reality, which like NFC is a highly-hyped technology that has yet to live up to its promise.

Augmented reality apps overlay contextual information atop real world camera footage. RIM is integrating one of the leaders in the space in Wikitude, an augmented reality browser, into the phones.  

Andrew Bocking, RIM's vice president of handheld software product management, said new APIs will allow third party developers write augmented reality apps.

Underpinng all of these features is Blackberry 7, an OS that appeared to be an incremental upgrade to Blackberry 6 in a hands-on test here.

However, when it is finished, Blackberry 7 should sport a browser that is 1.6 times faster than its predecessor and will enable voice-activated searches, Docs To Go to let workers work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files from the smartphone.

Blackberry 7 also includes a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript compiler to improve the load time speed of Web pages and support for HTML5 Video.

BlackBerry 7 also integrates BlackBerry Balance, which separates personal content such as Facebook, Twitter and games from corporate content such as Exchange e-mail on the Bold 9900 and 9930.

EWEEK will show off the Bold 9900's physical characteristics, including a brushed stainless steel frame and glass-weave backplate, in a slideshow later today.