Video Preview of the new Blackberry Torch

Research in Motion and AT&T announced the latest Blackberry on Tuesday, the Torch 9800. It's the first Blackberry smartphone to include both a touch screen display and a slide out QWERTY keyboard. It  has a 3.2 inch 360 by 480 capacative touch screen, a 5 megapixel camera, an optical track, wifi and gps. RIM said that it should get 5 and half hours of talk time on GSM. The phone will go on sale on August 12 for $200 US dollars with a new two year contract with AT&T.


The new phone will also be the first RIM device to run the Blackberry 6 mobile OS. The new OS includes a Webkit-based browser, the same browser on the Apple iPhone. One feature that the RIM co-ceo touted was the OS's ability to do what's called universal search.

It's something called universal search and it's something that really defines this product. We just open it up and start typing on that keyboard. And it searching your Blackberry, it searches feeds, it searches your email, whatever you're looking for. If you're looking for a new setting, just type settings. If you're looking for email just type email. If you're looking for an email from a certain person just type their name. And it presents your results as icon at the top and you just touch the one you're looking for. Universal search is hardly a new idea though. When Palm's webOS debuted in January 2009 it also included a universal search function.

With the debut of the Torch and Blackberry 6 OS, RIM is trying to push back against its major competitors like the iPhone and Android phones, but whether the tactic will be a success still remains to be seen.