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Feeling overloaded with BlackBerry news and rumors? We know the feeling. We hear new things almost every day, and it can be tough to keep up with it all. that’s why we’re bringing you BlackBerry News from the Wire every Thursday.

We’ll catch you up on everything ‘Berry that happened over the course of the week. Not only that, but we’ll rank ‘em by importance, so you can more easily skim the items and read the ones of most significance. If you only have time to read one article, for instance, you might want to head down to our 5-star section. It’s All the BlackBerry News Fit to Geek.

RIM starting to talk up Application Center
Just prior to the announcement of the BlackBerry Storm, we learned that RIM would open an Application Center to go with the device, slated for sometime around March 2009. That appears to be on track, and co-CEO Jim Balsillie talked up the app center at a recent convention. He spoke of a “radical and dramatic enhancing set of opportunities” in the music industry. Yes, there were talks of the iPhone, though Balsillie said that the Storm is “not a competitor of the iPhone.” Sorry, not buying that one. It looks like PayPal will be the exclusive checkout method for the app store. While I’m a PayPal fan, I can’t say that everyone else will feel the same.

BlackBerry Storm 9520 in the wild
There’s been talk of a GSM-only Storm 9520 headed for Rogers, among other international carriers, in the coming months. For the first time, we caught a glimpse of the device. There’s really nothing special there except the Rogers branding, but it’s still significant in that it’s the first time we’re seeing it. Check out the link to see the grainy picture. Hopefully Rogers can roll this out within the next few months.

BlackBerry Pearl 8230 flip headed for Telus
The dudes at BlackBerry Sync have a scoop: the BlackBerry Pearl flip is coming to CDMA Appropriately dubbed the 8230, we’re likely to see the device sometime in mid-February. The details are scarce, as they usually are when a rumor breaks. Anyone think Verizon will pick this up, or will it be a Sprint thing?

Mr. President, your BlackBerry
Have we finally reached a resolution in the case of the Presidential BlackBerry? It appears so. While many reports leading up to Tuesday’s inauguration indicated that President Barack Obama would not be able to keep his beloved device, that might not be the case. Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic reports that Obama will indeed keep the Berry. Apparently, the NSA “added to a standard blackberry a super-encryption package…. and Obama WILL be able to use it … still for routine and personal messages.” There’s been no official comment, though Obama was pictured with his device after inauguration. Can’t tell if that’s actually a BlackBerry, though.

Hate the iPhone, hate the BlackBerry
On Tuesday, Boy Genius Report talked about 10 things they hate about the iPhone. It was a neat post, considering they’re generally iPhone fans. Among their complaints are custom notifications, copy and paste, no unified inbox, and the inability to forward text messages. Then, on Wednesday, they posted 10 things they hate about the BlackBerry. They include the inability to program your own shortcut keys, horrible APIs, and a load bar on email attachments. Overall, I think the iPhone list is a bit more damning.

Details on the Pearl from Fido
To kick things off, it looks like Fido aims to launch the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 on February 4. That’s not far off, so as you might guess, there are some additional details. First, the device. It’ll cost you $400 with no contract, $350 on a two-year contract, and $25 on a three-year contract. Holy crap-moley. If you want it contract-free, just buy an unlocked one from eBay. It’ll be cheaper. As far as plans, it will be $15 for unlimited personal email and IM, $25 for 500 MB of data, $30 for 1 GB of data, and $60 for 3 GB of data. I’m in America, so I’m biased, but I really have to wonder what kind of demand Fido is creating with these prices.

Visual voicemail coming for the Bold
As you might know, we’re big fans of visual voicemail here at BBGeeks. So it comes with a bit of excitement that we link you to BGR’s look at visual voicemail for the Bold. It looks like a quality system. It doesn’t appear to offer transcriptions, but that could be a premium add-on at some point.

HTC knows who does trackballs the best
The BlackBerry trackball rocks. Yes, there have been some complaints about it (::cough:: Gary Krakow ::cough::). Even so, it’s easy to clean and easier to replace. As it turns out, the GI uses the same trackball as the 9000, 8100, 8300, and 8800 series BlackBerry devices. Awesome. I’m a big fan of the G1. good to know they’re borrowing some of the best from the BlackBerry.

Skype for BlackBerry in 2009. We’ve been waiting a while for this, and it appears the folks at Skype are ready to give us a BlackBerry application this year.

New York Times Crosswords on your BlackBerry. The guys at Bplay have made this available for all carriers. It’s quite the time-waster.

Check out the BOLT browser for BlackBerry. I took it for a spin early this week, and continue to use it. It’s got some bugs, but hey, its’ in beta.

Turn your BlackBerry radio back on. When your battery gets real low, your device automatically shuts off its cellular radio. I’ve noticed that when I charge back up, the radio doesn’t automatically turn back on. Here’s how.

How to sell your BlackBerry on eBay. A step by step guide to making a few bucks off your old device.

Text messages on your desktop. Some new software allows you to connect your computer and BlackBerry via Bluetooth for the purpose of viewing your text messages on your desktop. It makes answering them a whole ton easier.

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