BBM for iOS and Android launching this Friday?

BlackBerry has been in the press a lot today and for all the right reasons. For one, they've finally announced the much-leaked BlackBerry Z30; though no official price points or release dates have been given. But, that's not the most important news to talk about at the water cooler: as per CrackBerry, we finally have a purported launch date for the cross-platform version of BBM.

This Friday September 20th, 2013 is apparently d-day - how casually convenient. This means, for all of you who have pre-ordered the new iPhone 5s, you can launch iOS7 and reload all those lost friends from BBM past. Below is the unofficial rollout schedule sent over to CB:

- Friday, Sept 20th, 7am EST: Android version published on Google Play
- Friday, Sept 20th, 7am EST: BBM.com goes live
- Friday, Sept 20th, 7am EST: CRM messages sent out to pre-registrants
- Friday, Sept 20th, 7am EST: Follow-up CRM message sent after App Store deployment
- Saturday, Sept 21st: BBM on iOS becomes available 12:01am EST in local time zones

Of course, until it actually happens, this could just be a sick joke. In fairness, it does align with BlackBerry's original 'before end of summer' promise..... Fall begins Friday at midnight.

Stay tuned.

BlackBerry starts airing 'BBM for All' TV Ad

With its launch imminent, BlackBerry has begun airing TV ads to promote their famed instant messaging app BlackBerry Messenger going cross-platform (iOS and Android). Although it isn't much more than a splash screen with a URL directing viewers to the BBM.com domain, it's a sign of good things to come - especially considering back in May at BlackBerry Live, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins promised an "end of summer" release.

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Nokia Lumia 1020 "coming soon" to TELUS

While most OEM's are pushing the boundaries of screen size and processing power in their devices, Nokia is sticking to their guns and pushing the boundaries on the amount of megapixels they can pack into their smartphone cameras; this time around it's 41 to be exact. And while Nokia did recently announce that this anticipated device would be coming to Canada by way of TELUS and Rogers, not much else was known in regards to pricing or release date.

The Lumia 1020 packs a 4.5-inch 1280×768 LCD display, 1.5Ghz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus processor, 41MP PureView camera with Xenon Flash, LTE connectivity, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, 1.2MP front-facing camera and a 2,000mAh battery.

While, sorry to tease, we still don't have anything in regards to said pricing or release date, we do know that the device is indeed coming soon (as per the screenshot taken from TELUS' website directly). 

Stay tuned for more

via MobileSyrup

Rogers lights up LTE in Five new Canadian cities

In wake of the Apple iPhone 5s/5c announcement yesterday, the one we covered live, Rogers has officially flipped the switch on for LTE in five new Canadian cities:

- Courtney Comox in British Columbia

-       Lethbridge, Okotoks and Strathmore in Alberta

-       Wolfville in Nova Scotia.

This means blazing fast (up to 150Mbps) mobile browsing and downloads! Learn more about Rogers' LTE network and if your city is covered here