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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.

SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry in beta
Back at CTIA we talked to the guys from Sling Media about the SlingBox for BlackBerry. We even had them record a video demo. We heard this would be available sometime in the fourth quarter, but you know how these things get delayed. Well, it appears that yes, it will be available in the fourth quarter — the very end of the fourth quarter. Sling Media has announced that SlingPlayer for BlackBerry will go into public beta on December 30. You’ll need OS 4.5 running on a Bold, Curve 8320/8900, or the Pearl 8120/8220. So that means us CDMA folks are SOL. They recommend 3G or WiFi. As we learned in our demo, EDGE just doesn’t cut it.

Nextel launches BlackBerry Curve 83501
This caused a bit of hoopla over the past few weeks. We got strong word back in November that Nextel would release the Curve 8350i on December 1. Everything sounded like it was on track. Then the date came and went. Nothing. We got tons of comments on our post about it because, well, people weren’t too happy about not having the phone on the expected date. Thankfully, that saga is behind us. Nextel has launched the long-awaited iDEN Curve. We pretty much know the score with this one: WiFi, 2.0 megapixel camera, OS 4.6. You can nab it for $249.99 with a two-year agreement. If you make that an Everything Plan, PRO Pack, or Data Premier, the price drops to $149.99. The guys from BlackBerry Cool give their first impressions.

BlackBerry Application Suite running on Windows Mobile
Love your BlackBerry OS but want a sleeker phone? I can’t say I blame you. I love my BlackBerry and all, but there are just so many cool devices hitting the market, including a ton from HTC. There is now video evidence that you can run the BlackBerry Application Suite on Windows Mobile devices. I’m not sure exactly how it works, but it looks rather impressive. It has most Berry features, including Messenger, email with attachments, BES and BIS support, etc. There are some drawbacks, of course, like not being able to access the device GPS. Still, it sounds like a cool way to use the familiar BlackBerry OS with a cool HTC device.

Five BlackBerry Storm video reviews
In the age of Web 2.0, video reviews trump text ones. With a hyped device like the BlackBerry Storm, there are bound to be hundreds of users demoing the phone and giving their impressions. The folks at ITworld have compiled the top five YouTube user reviews of the Storm. Some are positive, some are negative, some are from blind Apple fans. Still, with all five you can probably get a balanced view of the Storm. Enjoy.

AT&T launches Curve 8320
This doesn’t go up with the fiver-starrers because it’s not a new device. The BlackBerry Curve 8320 has been around for quite a while, making its debut on T-Mobile last year to much fanfare. Now AT&T has released the device. It features WiFi, which is the big perk, considering the number of AT&T hotspots across the country (said to be over 20,000 after a recent acquisition). It’s available on AT&T’s website for $149.99 with a two-year service agreement, though it won’t be available in retail outlets until January at the earliest.

Looking for work? RIM is hiring
It’s not often these days you hear that someone is hiring. Yet, RIM has said that they’re looking to hire 1,250 new people for their product development and R&D departments. Sounds like the company is looking to expand and catch up with competitor Nokia. RIM says they work with a “fraction of the workforce” of the world’s No. 1 handset manufacturer.

RIM launches BlackBerry.mobi
If you’re looking for official updates from RIM and can’t see the normal BlackBerry.com site well on your browser, you can now head over to BlackBerry.mobi. It should fit in any BlackBerry browser.

Side-by-side pictures of the Storm and the 8900
There’s nothing like a pretty picture gallery, and that’s just what the folks at IntoMobile provide. They’re juxtaposing the BlackBerrys Storm and Curve 8900. They bring it from all angles. It’s definitely worth a look.

Replacing your BlackBerry trackball. Because sometimes the thing gets too gunked up to forge ahead.

How to delete a contact from your call history. Sneaky, sneaky. Still, this can come in handy in a number of situations.

Wikipedia becomes mobile-friendly. Apparently, this is nothing new. But it seemed like something new during the week.

Mobile search: Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN. Which mobile search platform outperforms the rest?

How to activate GPS on your BlackBerry. If you’re set to 911 only, you’re missing out on a lot of location-based features.

Export and edit your contacts list in Excel. Because it’s a huge pain to add multiple contacts on your device.

Using your BlackBerry as a stopwatch. I kinda wish this came built-in.

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