BlackBerry has not had many good news these past months. Mixed reviews of their phones and of course the massive service outages hurt the images of the once rising star in the smartphone business. We still remember the time when the question was – BlackBerry or iPhone.

Now they have teamed up with Porsche Design and present the P’9981. The phone comes with a stainless steel front and leather back, while resembling slightly the 9900. Clearly a premium version of the phone and while we do like and appreciate the design, we are not sure this will be enough.

It looks like the BlackBerry Porsche P’9981 smartphone will be released before the end of the year at Porsche Design Stores.

With the BlackBerry 7 operating system, RIM will be releasing 5 new BlackBerry smartphones. All in all the release includes two new Bold smartphones and three new Torch smartphones.

The Bold 9900 and 9930 are the thinnest phones to ever come from RIM and next to the new operating system, also come in a new and improved look. The phone combines both a full keyboard and a touch screen display. The Torch 9800 and 9810 phones sport a large touchscreen display and a full slide-out keyboard. Furthermore the Torch 9850 and 9860 comes without slide-out keyboard and come with the largest BlackBerry display to date.

The new operating system is not only much faster, but comes with improvements on all ends, including a much better browsing experience. As much as we love the iPhone, we still miss the keyboard every once in a while and these new BlackBerry smartphones at least seem worth testing out.

Take a further look at the phones after the jump.

This week BlackBerry has announced two new smartphones – the BlackBerry Bold ‘Touch’ 9900 and 9930. Essentially the only different between the two phones is the connectivity, with the 9930 being the international GSM counterpart. Aside from being the thinnest smartphone from BlackBerry to date and made with a stainless steel frame, the Bold Touch features both a full keyboard and a touch screen, as well as the new BlackBerry OS 7 platform.

Release dates and pricing have not been revealed yet, but both phones are expected to drop this summer.

Full specs and a further look after the jump.

Today RIM unveiled the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the first serious competition for the iPad. Check the video below for a preview!

Read the press release after the click for full details.

Monocle has teamed up with BlackBerry to produce a limited run of Bold 9700 handsets. The smartphone comes pre-loaded with Monocle’s 25/25 travel guides to the best business cities and resorts in the world, exclusive Monocle wallpapers and includes a custom leather strap. The Monocle BlackBerry also comes boxed with a 16GB card as well as the standard battery, charging pod, world charger, media player headset, USB and gift packaging. Only 100 pieces were produced and will be available from December 10th at Monocle.

More looks at the Monocle x BlackBerry 9700 after the click.

To promote their new Exclusif Cognac, Courvoisier is going out this spring to present on a US tour an exclusive clothing line designed by LRG. Furthermore they customized some limited edition gadgets, including the Blackberry, iPhone and iPod. Via Notcot.
Have a look at all gadgets in the line-up after the jump.