Isaiah's Tech

It looks like the BlackBerry Essex aka the Tour2 9650 could actually turn out to be the Bold 9650. This is actually confirmed by these new casing photos of the said smartphone. The bad news is that we still don't know when this handset will launch, but apparently it'll be a CDMA phone. It should hit Verizon if it's a CDMA phone though.

Update: According to CrackBerry, the updated photo is below. Their site has a couple more photos.

[CrackBerry]

Another sighting of the BlackBerry Tour2 9650. Who would've guessed. This time it's been spotted in the CellBrite systems. There's really not much left to say here, but a launch on Verizon or Sprint could be imminent.

[CrackBerry]

We're hearing that a new BlackBerry Tour will be launching on Sprint in the USA in 2010. This BB will have WiFi support, so it could very well be the BlackBerry Essex which is essentially the Tour with an optical trackpad and WiFi. It's unconfirmed at the time, so we're just going to have to wait and see what all the buzz is about.

[CrackBerry]

RIM looks like they're working on the BlackBerry Essex and the BlackBerry Dakota - formerly known as the Magnum. We already know that the BlackBerry Essex is essentially a CDMA Tour with WiFi, but we're also seeing that it will also sport an optical trackpad. Other improvements are said to be an improved camera, and it could be launching in early 2010.

The Dakota, on the other hand, looks like it will have a full QWERTY keypad and a touchscreen display / optical trackpad as well - the almighty touchscreen Bold. This would definitely be pretty sweet. To make things a bit more surprising, RIM looks like they'll be implementing a liquid camera lens into this BlackBerry, which I know nothing about. If you want to know about the liquid lens just check it out here.

That's all we have for now, so just wait around.

[CrackBerry]

We've heard about the Essex and the Curve 8530, but what's the Striker 9100? Well, first off, the BlackBerry Essex is basically the Tour with WiFi, a trackpad, and has another feature that we will apparently love. The BlackBerry Curve 8530 is just a CDMA version of the BlackBerry Curve 8520, it's headed to Verizon in the near future. The BlackBerry Striker 9100 appears to be a slimmer BlackBerry Bold 9700 that has 3G connectivity and an optical trackpad. We still don't know when any of these smartphones will launch.

In related news, a source has mentioned that RIM is working on getting out 16 new smartphones in 2010!

[Unwired View]

Thank you RIM! According to the latest rumour, RIM will be launching the BlackBerry Essex, which will basically be the BlackBerry Tour with a new trackpad (optical?) and WiFi capabilities. There's nothing much else to say here, but we're hoping that this rumour comes true. The sexiest BlackBerry could get even sexier soon.

[Mobile Syrup, Engadget]