Research in Motion reported third quarter results for the three months ended December 1, 2007. Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 was $1.67 billion, up 22% from $1.37 billion in the previous quarter and up 100% from $835.1 million in the same quarter of last year. Approximately 1.65 million BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter and over 3.9 million devices were shipped. The total BlackBerry subscriber account base at the end of the third quarter was approximately 12 million. The company expects to add 1.82 million accounts in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the iPhone has managed to outperform long-term competitors in the smartphone market, says a new study in the January 2008 issue of Consumer Reports.The magazine gives the Apple device an overall score of 64 versus 61 for RIM’s BlackBerry Curve, pointing primarily to Apple’s longer 8.25 hours of call time in testing versus the Curve’s 6.25 hours and its improvements in ease of use and synchronization with computers. The BlackBerry’s common advantage of its real-time “push” e-mail is beaten by Apple’s inclusion of a stronger e-mail client, the publication claims.

The iPhone shipped 1.119 million units in Apple’s fourth quarter, compared with 270,000 in the previous quarter when only two days worth of post-launch sales data were tracked.

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The BlackBerry 9000 series, fast becoming a ‘white unicorn’ in BlackBerry circles, has finally received some substantiated information. Well, it appears that we may first be underwhelmed prior to being overwhelmed with our pipe dreams of the “Perfect BlackBerry”.

The BlackBerry 9000 device (not series) has been confirmed with screen size of 480 x 320, although the physical dimensions are unknown at this time. Think of this device as the elder sibling to the BlackBerry 8320. Like it’s small screen counterpart, it will operate with a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio (850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz) and will feature 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi capabilities. This will be a full QWERTY device, as well.

The BlackBerry 9000 will feature the same general OS platform, although it will launch with version 4.3.2. Coincidentally, OS 4.3.2 will potentially be in the future roadmaps for all 8000 series devices, sans the 8700 family (although that may change).

To recap, Research In Motion will soon launch the BlackBerry 9000 handheld, which will feature a larger screen, a new OS update, most likely a new full QWERTY keyboard layout (which may or may not be a touch screen keyboard), but without HSDPA or UMTS capabilities. This could launch as soon as January and as late as April, although we’ve heard whispers it might even be officially announced by RIM today during their quarterly earnings report. Stay tuned!

[via Boy Genius Report]

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The dream of an automated house has never been more achievable, and thanks to DIY software like Cinemar’s Mainlobby, just about anyone can roll their own at a reasonable price. Of course, the more you can control with your home automation system the better. Now, in addition to being able to control lighting, security, home theater gear, thermostats, whole house audio and manage all your movies from a wall mounted touch screen, Mainlobby owners will soon be able to use their iPod Touch or iPhone as a remote. The key to making this work is Mainlobby’s built in web server and Safari’s extensive AJAX support — sorry Windows Mobile fans. Unfortunately, this is only a first look, but these examples will be included in future versions of MLServer. And considering the lead developer on the project plans to use it as his “primary handheld controller,” it should mean lots of future development. More pictures after the jump.

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Congratulations are in order for the Nokia N81 and N95 as it looks like they’ve given birth to a bouncing baby N96. Live photos of the forthcoming Nseries monster have finally surfaced, and it looks absolutely nothing like the last round of mock-ups. Seven live images of the leaked N96 can be found in a Flickr photoset, and here’s what we can tell by looking at them: the form factor is an N95-esque dual slider but the upper panel (where the N95’s media controls are located) appears to be blank. One can only assume that this panel is home to touch-sensitive media controls but this is not confirmed. The N96 sports the same navi scroll wheel as the N81 and is surrounded by dedicated media controls as well. The OS, by the way, is the upcoming S60 3rd edition FP2 (Symbian OS 9.5). The rear side of this sleek beauty packs a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics supported by a dual-LED flash. Surrounding the camera is a clever “kick stand” that props the N96 up for media viewing, etc. The guts-shot leaves the battery label just out of view but the logical guess would be the 1200mAh BL-6F. At the end of the day, the N96 looks like it will carry the Nseries moniker forward quite nicely, but we’ll have to wait for official details to know for sure.

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Palm’s latest quarterly results might have been pretty gloomy, with a loss of $9.6M on revenue of $349M and an expected drop in revenue to $310M next quarter, but according to CEO Ed Colligan, the ship is about to be righted. Speaking to analysts during the company’s financial results conference call, Colligan said that a combination of cost-cutting measures, a reduction in the number of devices in Palm’s lineup, and work on the next Palm OS would revive Palm’s flagging fortunes. Ed also said that there was “no acceptable excuse” for missing the launch of the Treo 755p on Verizon in Q4, and that Palm was “done” revising existing products — instead focusing on “breakthrough” devices and “revolutionary designs.” We can only hope he’s telling the truth — and of course, we’ve got some suggestions for him if he’s out of ideas.

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