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News From The Wire usually hits your Web browser every Thursday, but with Thanksgiving tomorrow we’re bumping it up a day. It’s all good, though. I doubt anything groundbreaking will happen between now and this evening, when it seems the news shuts off for a day while we carve turkeys and stuff our faces with pie. So let’s take this time to look at what’s happened during this week in BlackBerry.

Once again, the Curve is on top

People love the BlackBerry Curve. It was the first full QWERTY model mainly directed at consumers, and it seems they’ve taken to it. The device routinely sells better than other smartphones, and it was once again tops in the third quarter. Fueled by price drops and Verizon’s buy one, get one offer, the Curve sold better than any other smartphone in America, including the iPhone. Apple did take the next two slots, however, with the iPhone 3GS and then the iPhone 3G, which is available in refurbished form.

Taking slots two and three is impressive for Apple, but RIM followed by having the next two most popular devices, the Tour and the Storm. That puts the top five in RIM’s favor. This makes the US smartphone landscape clear. Apple and RIM dominate, and the others have a lot of catching up to do. Android has made a big push in the fourth quarter, but given the general uptick of sales in the fourth quarter I wonder if it’s good enough to crack the top five. We should find out sometime in February.

Next generation Pearl in the offing

Amid all the shiny new BlackBerry releases, we all knew a next generation Pearl would come eventually. Now we it’s coming soon. Salomondrin has pictures and a video of the new Pearl, code name Stratus, up on his website. It seems like this, the Essex/Tour2, and the touchscreen/QWERTY models will be next on the agenda.

Tip of the week: Use Beat the Traffic to better navigate your holiday travel route.

How concerned should you be about third party apps?

Where there is computer software, there will be hackers. Back in the old days on the PC this meant Trojan horse viruses, but hacker savvy has grown with the Internet. There are all kinds of ways to hurt another person, and the biggest issue these days is stealing personal information. To that end, Petery Werry writes about the perils of third party apps. It’s definitely worth the read. Over the past few months, I’ve given up looking for free applications on outside websites and stick mainly to App World and the BBGeeks Store.

Reviewing the BlackBerry Curve 8530

Verizon recently released the newest BlackBerry in their lineup, the Curve 8530. The device hasn’t gotten the hype of its cousins the Tour and the Bold 9700, but it’s still a quality device. It is the second Verizon device to feature Wi-Fi (the Storm 2 beat it out by almost a month) and the first to feature a trackpad. It does have it’s drawbacks — the 320×240 resolution just doesn’t look right after viewing 480×360 — but it does have some new features, like dedicated music buttons. Adam Zeis at CrackBerry has the full review.

He concludes that it’s a great starter device, and it’s tough to disagree. The Curve 8530 lacks many features of new generation BlackBerry devices, but it’s powerful enough to satisfy a BlackBerry user who hasn’t experienced those features. Older users who need only a basic device will also find this to satisfy their needs.

BlackBerry Twitter user?Then check out Seesmic for BlackBerry. I really liked it on the first spin, and it looks like they’re taking user feedback to make it even better.

Software ish

Just some software notes to round out your pre-holiday reading.

• Create custom email signatures with SmartSig. You can also create SMS signatures.
• BlackBerry Media Sync has been updated to version 3.0, which includes photo syncing.
• The eBay BlackBerry app is now available at App World. It’s in beta, so beware.
• Read the New York Times? Now you can on your BlackBerry.
• And don’t forget the Google App Connector, if you use multiple Google apps.

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