Entertainment

Despite the BlackBerry Storm's strong business credentials, it also provides opportunities to pass the time with games, music and video, among many options.

Soon, it will also be easier to increase the range of applications on the Storm. RIM plans to launch a BlackBerry Application Center and BlackBerry Application Storefront in March, so that users can download more applications like Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones, which is already available. The Storm also comes with Flickr Photo Uploader for BlackBerry smartphones.

The broad range of applications available for the iPhone at Apple's App Store is a major attraction for smart phone users who want fun and unique options on their phones, so the BlackBerry Storm's ability to challenge the iPhone in this area will depend largely on whether the BlackBerry storefront succeeds.

With Verizon's VCAST Music with Rhapsody, Storm users have access to more than 5 million high-quality audio tracks and can subscribe to the service to transfer the songs to other devices. VCAST Video allows users to download or stream video clips of news, sports and entertainment.

With the BlackBerry Media Sync application, users can load files on the Storm from their iTunes libraries. The PDA supports MPEG4 H.263, MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile, H.264 and WMV video formats. The phone supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA and WMA ProPlus audio formats.

The Storm comes has integrated GPS, but users have to subscribe to Verizon's VZ Navigator for spoken turn–by–turn directions and other services. Two games come loaded on the Storm from Verizon: BrickBreaker and Word Mole.

Internet

The Storm runs on Verizon's EV-DO Rev A. high-speed broadband network for faster data downloads up to 3.1 Mbps and uploads up to 1.8 Mbps, about six times faster than on non-EV-DO networks.

One way users will soon be able to access the BlackBerry Application Storefront is by using the BlackBerry Browser. The full HTML browser works in portrait or landscape views, and users can navigate websites with the touch screen interface by swiping their fingers to scroll and pan, and double tapping to zoom in.

With a subscription to a Verizon BroadbandAccess plan, the Storm can function as a wireless modem for a laptop computer. The Storm does not have integrated Wi-Fi.

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