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The launch of OS 5.0 appears to be nearing, so you might be wondering if your device is eligible for an upgrade. RIM won’t release the OS for every device, but it will offer upgrades for all of its latest generation handsets, plus one older model — and for that one I’m grateful. After the jump, a list of the eligible devices, plus a hint of when we can expect OS 5.0 to become officially available.

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In the contest of the greatest all-time time-waster, it’s a toss-up between Wikipedia and YouTube. Wikipedia has the advantage of seemingly infinite links, allowing you to hop among subjects for hours on end. YouTube provides cheap, free entertainment that doesn’t involve that whole reading thing. Via BlackBerry Rocks we learn about the official BlackBerry YouTube channel. It’s full of how-to videos, which is great if you have the dual need of wasting time and fixing your BlackBerry. Of course, it’s just a rip-off of the BBGeeks YouTube channel, which was set up nearly three years ago. Y’know, just saying…

If the success of Netflix has proven anything, it’s that people still want to rent movies. Sure, there are some out there who want to own their media, but some of us just want to kick back and enjoy a movie without having to fork over the purchase price. Even with Netflix, customers have to subscribe. What if you just want to rent a movie every once in a while? Blockbuster isn’t doing too great, and in any case if you want to rent from there you have to make at rip. Pay per use rentals is an inevitability, and thanks to mSpot, it’s coming to your BlackBerry. They’ve introduced Mobile Movies for many platforms, and thankfully the Berry is on there. Now you can pay for single rentals and watch them anywhere.

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It’s the headline we’ve all been waiting for. Caught this on Berry Review, and they found it in the BlackBerry Connection Newsletter (lots of good stuff in there). In talking about the Enhanced Gmail plugin, they dropped the bomb: “two-way synchronization is expected to be implemented in the near future.” With the two-way sync and the enhanced plugin running, the debate between the Gmail plugin and IMAP/POP retrieval. I encourage woo-hoos in the comments.

We’ve known for a while that RIM has been working on a new version of the BlackBerry Operating System. Early impressions were not that glowing — not that it’s bad, but just that it’s not that much of an upgrade over the current iterations. Now you can be your own judge, though I would not recommend it. The files leaked onto the BlackBerryOS message board, in its complete, unsanctioned entirety. If you were so inclined, you could head over there and install it on your device. However, BBGeeks does not recommend you install this software. It’s not an official release, so it could be buggy and cause your device to malfunction. Plus, as they note on the message board, it’s a pain to downgrade to your original OS. Thankfully for the curious, someone else loaded it up on his own BlackBerry.

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Update: It looks like RIM hasn’t fully released this yet. Why they would tell everyone that it will be available Tuesday night and then not make it available I don’t know. But they did.

In case you hadn’t heard, RIM has been preparing a social networking service for a good while now. It was invite-only, as many test runs are, but as of a few hours ago, it’s live to the public, so regular schmoes like you and me can join the cool kids’ club. The outlet, as described through words and screen shots, is more of a hub than a social network, though there are plenty of networking opportunities. The focus, though, will be on tips & tricks and applications. Hmmm…sounds kind of like the focus of a certain site I know…

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Well here’s a welcome change. We’re so used to hearing the word “delayed” that it sometimes feels like nothing gets done on schedule. We could be seeing a couple of BlackBerry models, though, before we anticipated. First up is the Storm. No, it doesn’t sound like it’s coming out any earlier — November 1 is the current favorite — but we should hear some news on it sometime today. A Verizon internal email makes it seem like big news, probably the device announcement, is coming. Clearly, we’ll update this further as the information becomes available. It should prove an exciting day for the world of BlackBerry Geekdom.

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To kick off the morning we’ve got a couple of items on new RIM devices. First up is the BlackBerry Pearl 8220. We knew the announcement was coming, so when this press release came over the wires a little after midnight, it came as no surprise. At this point, we pretty much know the specs, so I won’t rehash things here. As expected, this be an exclusive for T-Mobile. It’ll hit this fall, hopefully sometime in October. We all know that the ugly five-letter word could rear its head, though.

Next up is a short video review of none other than the BlackBerry Storm. We’ll get to that one after the jump.

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Good news for BlackBerry users on AT&T. No, the Bold hasn’t been announced yet. Strangely enough, this involves an announcement of an older model heading to Ma Bell. Boy Genius Report tells us that the Curve 8320 — y’know, the one with WiFi on T-Mobile — will be hitting the nation’s largest carrier at the end of the month. This comes with free logins at AT&T’s 17,000 nationwide WiFi hotspots, including those at Starbucks. I’m assuming the same deal will be available for the Bold. Further, it will come with OS 4.5, which we’ll get to discussing in just one second.

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The kind fellers at Boy Genius Report have scored again. This time, it’s a roadmap of Sprint’s device releases through the rest of the year and into 2009. Of interest to us: the BlackBerry 8350i. It’s in the Curve family, given the model number, and it’s set to drop in the fourth quarter of this year. I wonder how this will play out if Sprint ends up selling the iDEN network, as has been rumored. Anyway, the Nextel 8350i will features WiFi (woo hoo!), GPS, and an optional 2 megapixel camera. Spec sheet, courtesy of BGR, after the jump.

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