It’s getting closer and closer to the final release of the Blackberry Storm 2, and the most recent rumors are saying a release date of October 21st. See below for a screenshot from the Verizon blog. The bold is rumored to be released during this time too.

Using a smartphone? Facebook has recently released a new version of their mobile site, http://x.facebook.com. It’s specifically optimized for smartphone users, and seems to work even better than RIM’s app.

Finally, RIM decides to update their native instant message application. You can even send and receive pictures with the newest update to the app. Features listed below:

• Enhanced SMS -Allows for a conversational chat-like user experience with a single contact list for the most personal mobile-to-mobile communications
• Avatars -Users can choose a picture from the BlackBerry Smartphone gallery and save it as their personal avatar, which will be seen by their contacts. They can also view other avatars in the contact list and zoom in on the avatars of contacts participating in a conversation by selecting “View participants.”
• Large Media File Transfer -Users can send/receive large file transfers up to 6 megabytes for pictures, files and audio.
• Enhanced Group Functionality -Allows for the ability to update, share & communicate with a subset community.
• Bar-code Identity -A user can add a contact to the BlackBerry Messenger contact list by displaying a 2-dimensional bar code that invitees can capture with their device cameras.
• Reliable Contact Backup and Restore -Contacts are backed-up on a server and do not require the need for BlackBerry® Desktop Manager.

RIM has just made a press release detailing their new SDK specifically for blackberry widgets. This has been in the works for awhile, so it’s exciting to finally see it. Check out the press release:

A BlackBerry Widget uses the BlackBerry® Browser engine to render an application’s user interface using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Developers are able to use existing web content to create BlackBerry Widgets and extend the capabilities of their web applications using BlackBerry Widget APIs.

Using the new BlackBerry Widget APIs, developers can, for example, create seamless interaction between a widget and the BlackBerry email and calendar applications, create widgets with the ability to view or edit files and documents stored on the smartphone, access location-based services or the media player, and more. Developers can also take advantage of RIM’s unique push technology, enabling dynamic widgets that can run in the background and provide proactive alerts to users in a timely manner.

“BlackBerry Widgets open up a world of opportunities for developers to build and bring to market web applications for BlackBerry smartphones that offer advanced, integrated functionality and an always-on user experience,” said Alan Brenner, senior vice president, BlackBerry platforms at RIM. “We are very excited by the prospects of this new widget development platform which combines the ease of development of standard web languages with the rich functionality of Java development.”

This really expands the possibilities for app developers, so it will be exciting to see what widgets pop up in the weeks to come.

RIM recently announced it’s new native twitter app to be released in mid november. Although it’s exciting that the new app will be developed by RIM, and should integrate much more flawlessly, it’s a shame that twitter has basically gone down the shithole.